Monday, October 2, 1944. The end of the Warsaw Rebellion.

With Soviet troops across the Vistula not crossing the river, something often regarded as intentional, the Germans prevailed in defeating the Warsaw Uprising.  200,000 Poles were killed in the battle, most of them civilians, and central Warsaw destroyed.  Between 2,000 and 17,000 German troops were killed in the battle.  Around 15,000 Polish underground and Polish Home Army troops were killed. 15,000 went into captivity.

There's good reason to believe that Stalin saw the Poles and the Germans fighting in the city to his overall benefit.  It killed a lot of Germans, and it killed non communist Poles.

The Battle of Aachen commenced with an American offensive.

The Battle of the Scheldt commenced.

Pack train of 2nd Indian Mule Co., Royal Indian Service Corps, which helped supply British 1st Div. 2 October, 1944. Near Crespino, Italy.

Japanese resistance on Peleliu's Mount Amiangal was defeated.

Lucian Truscott appeared on the cover of Life Magazine.

Cpl. Charles A. Klein, 1929 45th Street, Pennsauken, New Jersey, seals his soldiers' ballet. 2 October, 1944. 6th Armored Division.

The first French regiment of Paris, France, recently organized and put in uniform, passes in review. 2 October, 1944.

 Execution of a French traitor who acted as a spy for the Germans and received 2000 Francs ($40.00) for his services. Traitor is tied to post as firing squad gets ready. 2 October, 1944.

Last edition:

Sunday, October 1, 1944. Battle of Tornio starts.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Adolf Hitler, Army, Battle of Tornio, British Army, China Burma India Theater, Commandos, Greek Army, Italy, July 20 Plot, Lapland War, Red Cross, Southeast Asia, World War Two

Thursday, September 28, 1944. The Belgrade Offensive and a last telegraph.

Soviet, Yugoslav Partisan, and Bulgarian forces, the latter now in league with the USSR, began the Belgrade Offensive.

Polish Home Army General Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski sent a last telegraph requesting help from the Red Army command for the fighters at Warsaw.  He received no reply.

Churchill announced the formation of a Jewish Brigade.

The US lands on Negesbus and Kongaruru near Peleliu.

Last edition:

Wednesday, September 27, 1944. The Battle of Metz commences.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Australian Navy, Battle of Metz, boats and ships, Christianity, Finnish Army, George S. Patton, Personalities, Protestant, Sweden, U.S. Air Force, World War Two

Wednesday, September 6, 1944. Closing in and winding down. . .

Fighting in the rain, Pfc. Lowell Holt, West Des Moines, Iowa, a member of the 5th Armored Division, takes cover behind a truck as he gets set to draw a bead on a German sniper across the street.

The French captured Chalon-sur-Saône.  The Poles liberated Ypres.  The British took Ghent, Courtrai and Armentieres. The Canadians reached the English Channel north of Calais, south of Boulogne. The U.S. Army crossed the Meuse River south of Namur.

Results of the 113th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron encountering a German convoy in Court - St. Etienne, Belgium, 

The Soviet Tartu Offensive concluded with a Red Army victory.  The Red Army reached the Yugoslavian border.

The United Kingdom ended compulsory training for the Home Guard and relaxed blackout restrictions.  The US announced that it planned on demobilizing 1,000,000 following the defeat of Germany.

The moves made sense in context, but in the American case it was over optimistic.  The war with Japan was about to reach its bloodiest stages and it would soon be determined that the manpower needed to take the home islands would be massive.  Moreover, the US would soon find that it had a deficit of infantry in Europe.

Prince Jan Franciszek Czartoryski, a Polish noble and a Dominican friar, was shot by the Germans during the Warsaw Uprising.

Ted T. Tanouye died of his wounds.  He'd receive the Medal of Honor.

Technical Sergeant Ted T. Tanouye distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism in action on 7 July 1944, near Molino A Ventoabbto, Italy. Technical Sergeant Tanouye led his platoon in an attack to capture the crest of a strategically important hill that afforded little cover. Observing an enemy machine gun crew placing its gun in position to his left front, Technical Sergeant Tanouye crept forward a few yards and opened fire on the position, killing or wounding three and causing two others to disperse. Immediately, an enemy machine pistol opened fire on him. He returned the fire and killed or wounded three more enemy soldiers. While advancing forward, Technical Sergeant Tanouye was subjected to grenade bursts, which severely wounded his left arm. Sighting an enemy-held trench, he raked the position with fire from his submachine gun and wounded several of the enemy. Running out of ammunition, he crawled 20 yards to obtain several clips from a comrade on his left flank. Next, sighting an enemy machine pistol that had pinned down his men, Technical Sergeant Tanouye crawled forward a few yards and threw a hand grenade into the position, silencing the pistol. He then located another enemy machine gun firing down the slope of the hill, opened fire on it, and silenced that position. Drawing fire from a machine pistol nest located above him, he opened fire on it and wounded three of its occupants. Finally taking his objective, Technical Sergeant Tanouye organized a defensive position on the reverse slope of the hill before accepting first aid treatment and evacuation. Technical Sergeant Tanouye's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit on him, his unit, and the United States Army.

Lest it create some confusion, the rank of Technical Sergeant later became Sergeant First Class, with the same insignia.  A Technician Fourth Grade wore an insignia with three chevrons and a T.

The U.S. Navy's Task Force 38 hit all of the Palau Islands.

Last edition:

Tuesday, September 5, 1944. The USSR declares war on Bulgaria.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Battle of Turda Romania, boats and ships, Bulgaria, Eastern Front, France, German Kriegsmarine, Italy, New York, Ontario, Radio, Slovakia, SOE, Soviet Navy, Sweden, The Holocaust, USSR, World War Two

Saturday, September 2, 1944. Finland calls it quits.

This was the 5th anniversary of the start of the Second World War in Europe.

This means, fwiw, that a fair number of combatants had been in their early to mid teen years when the war started, and were now fighting in it.

Finnish Prime Minister Antii Hackzell announced that Finland was breaking diplomatic relations with Germany and demanded that all German troops leave the country.  Fighting concluded two days later.

Finland had lost about 63,000 men in what it termed the Continuation War, over twice as many men as it had lost in the much briefer Winter War.  In the war to regain territory lost during the first war it regained what it had lost, but would lose it again.  Fought as a separate war, the Finns had ceased advancing once they took what they'd lost.

On the same day, two Soviet defectors crash landed a Yak 9 inside of Finnish lines.

At this point, Italy had switched sides, as had Romania and Bulgaria was begging the Soviets to honor its neutrality. Hungary was trying to get out of the war. As noted below, the British had entered Belgium.  The Germans should have realized they were doomed.

Lt. Jr. Gr George Bush, later President of the United States, found his aircraft badly damaged after completing a bombing run over Chichijima and ordered the crew of this TBM Avenger to bail out.  Only one other man made it out of the plane, and his parachute didn't open, making Bush the only survivor.

He'd be at sea for four hours before being rescued by he USS Finback, with which he'd remain for the rest of the month.

FWIW, the President at the time, Franklin Roosevelt, had never been in the service, but he had been Assistant Secretary of the Navy.  The next one, Truman, had been an artillery captain during World War One.  Eisenhower of course was in the service in 1944.  Kennedy was in the Navy in 1944.  So was Nixon, and Ford.  Carter did not serve in World War Two, but was an Annapolis graduate.  Reagan served in World War Two, but not in a combat role. Then Bush.  Clinton was the first to break the trend.

Konstantin Muraviev became Prime Ministers of a now desperate Bulgaria.

The First Canadian Army took Saint-Valery-en-Caux and reached the Somme.

The FFI executed six French young men they found guilty of treason in Grenoble.

The British 21st Army Group entered Belgium.

German troops murdered 450 Poles at Lipniak-Majorat, Poland in reprisal for actions by the Home Army.

The U-394 was sunk by the Royal Navy off of Jan Mayen.

Last edition:

Friday, September 1, 1944. Lone Tree Hill

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Battle of Lone Tree Hill, boats and ships, Bulgaria, Canadian Army, Canadian Navy, Dieppe France, New Guinea, Red Army, Romania, World War Two

Tuesday, August 29, 1944. Marching in Paris, crossing the Foglia, the Slovaks rebell.

15,000 U.S. troops of the 28th Infantry division marched down the Champs Elysees in Paris.

The Battle of Marseille ended in an Allied victory.

The British 8th Army crossed the Foglia.

The Slovak National Uprising began.

At the time, with Romania having changed sides, the Red Army actually in East Prussia, and Hungary attempting to get out of the war, it looked as if the collapse of Germany was eminent.

It should be noted that the Warsaw Uprising was still going on.

The Jassy–Kishinev Offensive, Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive and Šiauliai Offensive all ended in Soviet victories.  The Red Army took the Black Sea port of Constanta and the Romanian city of Buzau.

The Soviets rejected the Bulgarian proclamation of neutrality.

The British government proclaimed the Polish Home Army was a de jure belligerent force.  The US also did.

Operation Goodwood, the Royal Navy effort to sink the Tirptiz, concluded as a failure.

Dumbarton Oaks concluded.

Last edition:

Monday, August 28, 1944. Hungarians reconsider.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, British Broadcasting Corporation, France, Hungary, Indonesia, Lithuania, Operation Dragoon, Operation Overlord, Personalities, Southeast Asia, The Holocaust

Monday, August 1, 1944. The Warsaw Uprising Starts.

The Polish uprising commenced in Warsaw.  A massive uprising, and part of a series of the same, it was the most tragic of the group. The Red Army, which was already on the outskirts of the city, and which had been advancing, ground to a halt and allowed the insurrection to go on for 63 days.

Polish fighter with German MP3008, a rarely scene German copy of the British Sten gun.

The US prevailed on Tinian.

The Philadelphia Transit Strike of 1944 began.

British scientists announced that DDT was an effective insecticide.

Manuel L. Quezon, age 65, died and Sergio Osmeña thereupon became the 4th President of the Philippines.

The film Wilson, about the 28th President, which is nearly a piece of hagiography, was released.

Lasts edition:

Monday, July 31, 1944. Cobra concludes.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, German Wehrmacht, Normandy, Operation Cobra, Operation Overlord, Red Army, Warsaw Poland, World War Two

Thursday, July 27, 1944. Eastern advances.

The Lwów Uprising ended in Polish victory.  The combatants would shortly be arrested by the Soviets, with the 1st Ukrainian Front entering that day.  It also took Stanislav.

Identity document from occupied Bialystok District.

The Belostock Offensive ended in Soviet victory.  The Bialystok District had been a notable region of Polish Jewish settlements before the war.  The Germans had by and large murdered the Jewish population there by this day.  Film fans may recognize the name as that of the producer portrayed by Zero Mostel in Mel Brook's comedy, The Producers.

The Red Army took Daugavpils in the north, and Siauliai.

The 8th Corps of the 1st Army broke through at Lessy and Periers.

The jet fighter the Gloster Meteor entered active service with No. 616 Squadron RAF.  It would be the only jet aircraft to see active service during the war for the Allies.

The Soviet submarine V-1, formerly the HMS Sunfish, was sunk by the RAF when it dove upon the airplane arriving, rather than fire a recognition signal.

Nimitz, MacArthur and Roosevelt were still meeting.

Last edition:

Wednesday, July 26, 1944. Cobra advances.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Armor, Battle of Narva Bridgehead, boats and ships, Chester Nimitz, Continuation War, Douglas MacArthur, Franklin Roosevelt, New Guinea, Normandy, Operation Cobra, Prisoners of War, World War Two

Sunday, July 23, 1944. The Lwów Uprising

The Lwów Uprising by the Polish Home Army began.  The uprising was a success in that it took large portions of the city as the Soviets arrived, but a failure in that the Soviets arrested the political leadership of the city,  and then conscripted or arrested the Polish combatants.

The Red Army took Pskov, the last major town of the prewar USSR to be liberated, meaning that the Soviets were now fighting off of their soil, for the most part.

The last inmates at Treblinka were murdered.

The SS launched a manhunt for members of the July 20 plot.

The Canadian First Army became operational in Normandy.

US troops outside of Saint-Lô.  The soldier closest to the camera is a NCO, identifiable by the horizontal stripe on his helmet, and is carrying a M3 "Grease Gun".

Last edition:

Saturday, July 22, 1944. Changes in governments.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Bretton Woods, Italy, Japan, Operation Cobra, Operation Frantic, Operation Goodwood, Operation Overlord, Poland, Polish Army, Red Army, The Holocaust, World War Two

Thursday, July 13, 1944. Stuck in the Bocage.

Pvt. Roland Bonnell (left) of Cleveland, Ohio, and Sgt. James Devine (right) of Commack, New York, comfort a French girl with a puppy in Colleville, France.  July 13, 1944.  Bonnell, who had a brother serving in the Navy, is wearing the new M1943 combat boots.

The Red Army's Vilnius Offensive ended in a Red Army victory.  Polish Home Army troops that had staged a rebellion in Vilnius itself against the Germans were arrested by the Soviets.

The Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive began.

The Germans burned down the Kovno Ghetto's hospital.

U.S. forces become stalled in the bocage country.   The Western Allies in general were making dangerously slow progress in Normandy.

U.S. troops observe a destroyed Panzerkampfwagen V Panther, July 13, 1944.  Categorized as a medium tank, it was built to directly counter the Soviet T-34.  It was an excellent tank, but like all later German armor, it suffered from mechanical complication.

Sarah Sundin reports on a number of interesting items:

Today in World War II History—July 13, 1944

These include the recovering of US position on Aitape and the accidental landing of a Ju88 in the UK which featured equipment that homed in on US radar.

Last edition:

Wednesday, July 12, 1944. The death of Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Animals, Army, Dogs, Equine Transportation, Heroes, Italian Army, Italy, Mules, Operation Overlord, Red Army, Saipan, Theodore Roosevelt, World War Two

Friday, June 23, 1944. Bagration increases.

As part of Operation Bagration, the Soviets commenced the Bobruysk Offensive, Mogilev Offensive and Vitebsk–Orsha Offensive in Belarus.

It's worth remembering that the Soviet attack was done Soviet style, with a massive artillery barrage coming before anything else, and then the massive movement of men, which in this case involved over 1,250,000 soldiers.  Not all of the offensive actions part of the overall offensive started on day one, or two.

The Polish Home Army 5th Wilno Brigade murdered over 20 Lithuanian civilians in Dubingiai in retaliation for the Glinciszki (Glitiškės) massacre of Polish civilians on June 20th by the Nazi-subordinated 258th Lithuanian Police Battalion.

American WACs in France, June 23, 1944.  All three women are wearing M1943 field jackets, which were just coming into service at that time and which are not seen all that often at this point.

The Germans abandoned their first line of defense in Cherbourg.  The British took St. Honorina. Montgomery arrived in France.

The HMS Scylia was irreparably damaged by a mine in the English Channel.

A  Ju 52 aircraft carrying German generals Eduard Dietl, Thomas-Emil von Wickede, Karl Eglseer, and  Franz Rossi crashed in the vicinity of Rettenegg, Styria, killing them, and three others.

A monument remains on the location.

Dietl is associated with war crimes, and likely would have been tried had he lived through the war.

Hard fighting continued on Saipan.

Marines moving supplies to the front, Saipan, June 23, 1944.

On Bougainville, Sefanaia Sukanaivalu, a Fijian solder, gave his life attempting to rescue his comrades.

The KING has been graciously pleased to approve the posthumous award of the VICTORIA CROSS to:—

No. 4469 Corporal Sefanaia Sukanaivalu, Fiji Military Forces.

On 23rd June 1944, at Mawaraka, Bougainville, in the Solomon Islands, Corporal Sefanaia Sukanaivalu crawled forward to rescue some men who had been wounded when their platoon was ambushed and some of the leading elements had become casualties.

After two wounded men had been successfully recovered this N.C.O., who was in command of the rear section, volunteered to go on farther alone to try and rescue another one, in spite of machine gun and mortar fire, but on the way back he himself was seriously wounded in the groin and thighs and fell to the ground, unable to move any farther.

Several attempts were then made to rescue Corporal Sukanaivalu but without success owing to heavy fire being encountered on each occasion and further casualties caused.

This gallant N.C.O. then called to his men not to try to get to him as he was in a very exposed position, but they replied that they would never leave him to fall alive into the hands of the enemy.

Realising that his men would not withdraw as long as they could see that he was still alive and knowing that they were themselves all in danger of being killed or captured as long as they remained where they were, Corporal Sukanaivalu, well aware of the consequences, raised himself up in front of the Japanese machine gun and was riddled with bullets.

This brave Fiji soldier, after rescuing two wounded men with the greatest heroism and being gravely wounded himself, deliberately sacrificed his own life because he knew that it was the only way in which the remainder of his platoon could be induced to retire from a situation in which they must have been annihilated had they not withdrawn.

Last prior edition:

Thursday, June 22, 1944. The GI Bill signed into law.

Labels: Battle of Imphal, Battle of Kohima, Cherbourg France, Continuation War, GI Bill, It was because of World War Two, Operation Ichi-Go, Operation Overlord, Red Army, The Battle of Tienhaara, World War Two

February 1, 1944. Soviets advance beyond Leningrad.

The Red Army commenced the Kingisepp–Gdov Offensive on the Leningrad Front.

Kingisepp was taken on the first day.

The French Forces of the Interior (FFI), uniting all French Resistance movements, was formed.

Clothing restrictions were lifted in the United Kingdom.

"The butcher of Warsaw", Austrian Nazi SS-Brigadeführer Franz Kutschera, age 39, was assassinated by the Polish Home Army.  He was a figure in the repression of the region and was noted for his extreme harshness. The Poles had subjected him to a trial in absentia, and carried out the operation once his location in Poland was learned.  300 Poles were executed as a reprisal for his assassination.

He left behind a pregnant Norwegian girlfriend, Jane Lilian Gjertsdatter Steen, who was subsequently "posthumously married" to him, in a pagan ceremony.  Posthumous marriages had been introduced by Hitler during the war to legitimize the offspring of German soldiers under these circumstances.  She had been serving as a German Army nurse and remarried after the war and lived in Norway, in spite of the feelings of post-war Norwegians towards those who had sympathized with the Nazis. Their son, Sepp Kutschera, became a notable mountain climber.  

She had several more children by her second, Norwegian, husband.

Sarah Sundin notes:

Today in World War II History—February 1, 1944: Allied leaders issue Neptune Initial Joint Plan for D-day, including a 5-division front. US Marines land on Roi & Namur in Kwajalein Atoll in Marshall Islands.

Japanese fuel dump burning on Eniwetok, February 1, 1944.

The Umikaze was sunk off of Truk by the USS Guardfish.

The Bolu–Gerede earthquake killed nearly 4,000 people in northern Turkey.

1944 Mike Enzie born in Bermerton Washington.  His father was in the service at the time, and the family returned to Thermopolis after his father's discharge following World War Two.  He has served as a Senator for Wyoming since 1997.

Enzi has been a very popular Wyoming politician.  He was a successful businessman in Gillette, first in his family's shoe store business, and then as an accountant, prior to entering politics locally.

The entry above was obviously written while Enzi was still living.  He died, after a bicycle accident, in 2021, shortly after his retirement.

Enzi was a really decent guy who liked to work behind the scene in Wyoming's politics.  He was never flashy, he was highly intelligent, and he did not tend to be controversial.  He frankly is one of the politicians who would not fit in well into today's' GOP.

Enzi's term as Senator may have ironically, in retrospect, have been extended by Liz Cheney, who assumed he was retiring earlier than he intended to, and therefore ran briefly against him in 2014.  At least by appearances, when Cynthia Lummis ran to replace him, Cheney was still considering a Senatorial run in 2020 when Lummis announced, seemingly causing some animosity between them.  Had Cheney announced first, she might well be our Senator now, as it would be less likely that she would have been defeated in 2020, and Tim Stubson would have been our Congressman going into that election.