Saturday, October 21, 1944. The Nemmersdorf Massacre.

Troops of the Red Army killed 74 German civilians as well as 50 French and Belgian POWs at Nemmersdorf (Mayakovskoye, Kaliningrad Oblast). As was typical for the Red Army, females victims were first raped.  The POWs had been detailed to care for German horses, and its likely that the Soviets were unaware that they were Allied POWs.

Mass rape, as well as the murder of German civilians and the murder of raped women, would soon become a feature of the Red Army advance into Germany. Rape and murder would also be a feature of its advance into Hungary.  The Red Army in many ways was a very primitive fighting force with mob aspects and declined into barbarous behavior.

Aachen was taken by the US.

This German prisoner of war was one of the many who surrendered with the capture of Aachen, Germany. Here he smokes a cigar as he proudly displays a torpedoman's medal he won as a former sailor in the Nazi Navy. 21 October, 1944.

Organized Japanese resistance on Angaur ends.

Sgt. Howard Preuss, Bronx, N.Y., one of the engineers, leads Filipinos who are being evacuated to Dulag, Leyte Island, P.I. 21 October, 1944.

The US took Dulag airfield on Leyte.

Franklin Roosevelt rode 51 miles in an open car in the rain in New York, which was foolish, but which was to demonstrate he was fit enough for another term of office, which of course, her really was not.

Last edition:

Friday, October 20, 1944. "This is the Voice of Freedom, General MacArthur speaking. People of the Philippines: I have returned."

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Battle of Leyte, Belgrade Offensive, Douglas MacArthur, Guatemalan Revolution, Operation Pheasant, Operation Sho-go, Philippines Campaign, Red Army, World War Two, Yugoslav Partisans, Yugoslavia