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.

Monday, January 17, 1944. The Battle of Monte Cassino begins.

U.S. forward observer operating in support of British forces at Monte Cassino, January 17, 1944.

The British 56th and 5th Divisions attack at Monte Cassino, forcing a crossing of the Garigliano.  The German 29th and 90th Panzergrenadier Divisions were redeployed from the Rome as reinforcements.

The Red Army took Slavuta.

The Soviet Union rejected negotiations with the Polish Government In Exile over the Polish border.

While it was not really occurring, the Polish Home Army ordered Polish partisans not to cooperate with the Germans in attacking Soviet partisans operating in Poland.  Given the extreme repression by the Germans in Poland, there was little reason to fear that would occur.

Pravda reported a falsehood that British and German representatives had met on the Iberian Peninsula to discuss a separate peace.  The British Foreign Officer immediately denied the rumor.

Slovene partisans attack the Germans at Paški Kozjak.

The U-305 was lost in the Atlantic.

Australia began rationing meat.

Wednesday, January 5, 1944. Trying to remind people that the war in Europe started with the rights of Poland. . .

 Men of B Btry., 163rd AAA Bn., grouped around the barrel of their 90mm AA gun named "Tojo Special", Goodenough Island, New Guinea.

The Polish Government In Exile issued a statement declaring itself to be "the only and legal steward and spokesman of the Polish Nation".  It further called and called for the Soviet Union to respect the rights and interests of Poland, a rapid reestablishment of a Polish republic and agreement between itself and the Soviet Union which would allow for Soviet coordination with the Polish Home Army.

In other words, it saw the handwriting of betrayal on the wall and was desperately trying to do what it could to prevent it.

Sailors of the USS Hoggatt Bay, CVE 75, eat chose at battle stations, January 5, 1944.

The Red Army captured Berdychiv, Ukraine, a city which was fought over by the Poles, Ukrainians and Soviets after World War One and which was rocketed in the ongoing Russo Ukrainian War.  Prior to World War Two it had a major Jewish population.

German survivors of the SS Weserland, sunk on January 5, 1944, are shown below, disembarking to imprisonment.

Tuesday, January 4, 1944. Crossing the Polish Frontier.

Pvt. George McLean of Jamaica, Long Island, foreground and in the rear L to R: Pvt. Larry Leonetti, N.Y.C., and Pfc. Dominic Recentio of Philadelphia manning a water cooled .50 Browning M2 on New Britain, January 4, 1944.

Today in World War II History—January 4, 1944: 80 Years Ago—Jan. 4, 1944: Church authorities at the Abbey of Monte Cassino in Italy give the Luftwaffe permission to remove artwork to Germany.

Sarah Sundin.

The move was taken to attempt to protect it from destruction.

Sundin also notes that the Italian Social Republic seized Jewish assets and restricted the Jewish ownership of property.

The Red Army took Bila Tserkva and further pushed the German Army Group South beyeond the pre war Polish border at Sarny.  It also took Kaluga, southwest of Moscow.

German radio announced a decree to mobilize school children for war purposes.

At that point, the German people really should have realized the war was irrevocably lost and have risen up against their government.

The Polish Home Army commenced Operation Tempest, a series of local uprising that would go on for a year.

Carrier born U.S. aircraft struck Kavieng on New Ireland, damaging the destroyer Fumitsuki.

Argentina recognized Bolivia's military government.

The Roosevelt's deeded their Hyde Park house to the U.S. Government.

Jean Tatlock, American psychiatrist, and a Communist who wrote for the Western Worker, was found dead of suicide.  He burned her correspondence prior to calling the authorities.

She is best remembered for having been a romantic interest of J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Thursday, August 12, 1943. German withdrawals, Polish and Albanian raids, German reports, Pacific staging.

The Germans, in one of the most successful withdrawals of the Second World War, carried on with day two of its evacuation of Axis forces from Sicily.

Franklin Roosevelt broadcast a message to the Filipino people, promising to establish full sovereignty for the nation upon liberation from the Japanese.  The scheduled date for that was already July 4, 1946.  As it was, liberation of the island would not come until July 1945 and the scheduled date was kept.

The Polish Home Army executed Operation Góral and recovered a massive amount of cash being taken out of the country by the Germans.  On the same day, the Albanian resistance ambushed a German convoy successfully in the Kurtës Ambush

The German Sicherheitsdienst, the SD reported on the attitude of young Germans. Among other things, it reported:

Most boys and girls have not the slightest interest in becoming a member of the NSDAP. All attempts by the relevant authorities to get them involved have been in vain. For the boys it's the Wehrmacht which is now the thing not the Party.

And: 

The reserve shown towards the Party is also encouraged by the unresolved Party-Church question. Since a large section of youth, and above all their parents, are still loyal to the Church, remarks aimed at the "sacred beliefs which they have held hitherto" by Party comrades, cadres and HJ leaders have a negative impact. This is particularly the case at the present time because, as a result of the current war situation, young people too notice that the Church pays great attention, for example, to caring for the relatives of those who have been killed, and that the priests give clear answers on questions concerning life and the present time. In addition, rumors about alleged positive remarks about the churches by leading personalities, soldiers who have been decorated etc. have a big impact.

The SD and related organizations carried on a lot of secret polling of this type during the war. 

Things were happening in the North Pacific. 

USS Tennessee (BB-43) at Adak, Aleutians, August 12, 1943, just before the Kiska landings.

On the Eastern Front, Luftwaffe Hptm Hans-Ulrich Rudel completed his 1300th mission and his tail gunner OFw Hentschel’s completed his 1000th.