An RAF Mosquito raid destroys the Central Population Registry building in The Hague, destroying the records of the Gestapo.
The Red Army captures Dzhankoy and Kerch, Crimea.
The USS Redfin sank the Akigumo.
The U-108 was destroyed in its pen at Stettin in a U.S. Army Air Force air raid.
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The Red Army commenced the First Jassy-Kishinev Offensive, the invasion of Romania.
Or maybe it did. This is asserted by historian David Glanz, but the Soviets themselves don't really acknowledge it, perhaps because the effort was botched, as will be seen.
It seems to me that Glanz is likely correct.
The Luftwaffe began cargo flights from Polish airfields to Manchuria, using Junkers Ju 290 A-9 aircraft. Or at least maybe they did. This is fairly consistently asserted, but the details are obscure and there are obvious problems with the assertion, as common as it is. For one thing, even at very high altitude, it would be surprising that the Red Army would not have shot at least one of the planes down. Sill, at least some experts on the Luftwaffe claim it occured. Others are skeptical.
I'm pretty skeptical.
For one reason, Imperial Japan was at peace with the Soviet Union, and I don't imagine that it would have wanted to risk that in 1944 when it was already losing in the Pacific. It was doing okay in China and in Southeast Asia, but it didn't have the manpower to add the USSR to its list of enemies, particularly over something of such doubtful utility.
Secondly, flying clean over the USSR and not getting shot down would be tough. Even if we assume, and we probably can, that for much of the flight it would not have encountered any opposition, early on it certainly might, and then again nearer its destination.
Finally, the Germans kept records on everything they did, and such records seem to be lacking here.
The Red Army began a determined assault into Crimea through its land bridge with Ukraine.
The Battle of the Tennis Court happened within the Battle of Kohima. It was a pitched, hand to hand, battle that went on for several days. It has been referred to as one of the greatest battles in history, and a British/Indian Thermopylae
The German submarine U-2 hit the German trawler Helmi Söhle and sank off of Pilau.
The U-962 was sunk off of Cape Finisterre by the Royal Navy.
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The Germans pull off a major successful fighting withdrawal from Hube's Pocket (Kamenets-Podolsky Pocket). 200,000 German troops escaped Zhukov's forces, losing a lot of equipment, but also destorying a lot of Soviet equipment on the way.
An RAF Spitfire raid destroyed a substantial number of aircraft at Banja Luka field, Yugoslavia.
The French resistance shut down Timken ball bearing production at Paris.
The U-302 was sunk in the Atlantic by the Royal Navy. The U-455 went down in the Ligurian Sea due to a mine.
Proclamation 2610—Army Day, 1944
March 22, 1944
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
Whereas America's valiant soldiers have been welded by the fire of battle into a mighty army of liberation; and
Whereas the men and women of the American Army, of different races and creeds but one in their love of freedom and their devotion to the goals for which the United Nations are striving, must face during the coming year a burning test of their courage, their resourcefulness, and their physical prowess; and
Whereas the Congress, by Senate Concurrent Resolution 5, 75th Congress, agreed to by the House of Representatives March 16, 1937, has recognized April 6 of each year as Army Day and has requested that the President issue a proclamation annually with respect to that day:
Now, Therefore, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim Thursday, April 6, 1944, as Army Day, and do invite the Governors of the various States to issue proclamations calling for the appropriate observance of that day.
And I urge the civilians of the Nation to reconsecrate themselves on that day to the task of producing in fullest measure and with the greatest possible speed the weapons and ammunition and the materials and supplies required to equip our Army and to sustain it unto final victory.
In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States of America to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington this 22nd day of March, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and forty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and sixty-eighth.
Signature of Franklin D. Roosevelt
FRANKLIN D ROOSEVELT
By the President:
CORDELL HULL
Secretary of State.
Rose O'Neill, cartoonist and creator of the Kewpie character, died at age 69.
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Today in World War II History—April 2, 1944: Soviet troops enter Romania. First US B-29 Superfortress bomber arrives at Kharagpur, India, near Calcutta. Armed revolt erupts in El Salvador.
From Sarah Sundin's blog.
The entering of Romania was more proof, if anymore was needed, that the Third Reich was in its final act. Romania had sought to exit the war, but had been dissuaded from doing so by the Germans. It would start pondering that once again in earnest.
Romania, although somewhat forgotten in the West, was not a minor power in some significant ways. The country had the third-largest army in the Axis in Europe, behind Italy and Japan, until Italy's 1943 surrender, at which time it was the second-largest Axis power. Its army was in fact the fourth largest in the world. It was plagued with internal problems, however, with a rank and file that was woefully uneducated and an officer corps that was condescending towards its men. Generally, Romanians fought better under German officers and NCO's.
It was a monarchy, but a monarchy which was, at the time, led by a military dictator.
Hitler issued his directive 54 with the topic of stopping the Russian advance, which obviously wasn't going to happen.
The rebellion would be violently put down, but it would nonetheless lead to Martinez' fall a month later.
Martinez was killed in a labor dispute with his taxi driver in 1966 while living in exile in Honduras.
The Japanese 15th Army (Mutaguchi) continued to advance.
The Italian Communist Party declared its support for the Badoglio government.
The 1944 Tour of Flanders bicycle race commenced.
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The US Navy launched Operation Desecrate One, an airborne assault on and around Palau.
My Führer ... please believe me when I say I will use all strategic means at my disposal to defend the soil in which my son lies buried.
The reference was to his son, who had died on the Russian Front. As earlier noted, Von Manstein was buried with full military honors at the time of his death in 1973 in spite of being a war criminal. He was 85 at the time of his death.
While I've probably mentioned it before, an oddity of his biography is that his father was German general Eduard von Lewinski and his mother his spouse, Helene Pauline von Sperling. He was given to his aunt and uncle, General Georg von Manstein and Hedwig von Sperling, sister to Helene, upon birth, as they were childless, which is flat out weird. You can't psychoanalyze the dead, but I wonder if that act of betrayal caused his dog like loyalty to Hitler.
Like Von Manstein, Von Kleist would also not return to service. Unlike Von Manstein, however, he was turned over to the Soviets after the war and died in 1954 in prison in the Soviet Union at the age of 73.
The Red Army took Chemovtsky.
Sophia Bulgaria endured its heaviest bombing, by the U.S. Army Air Force, of the war.
The U-223 sank the HMS Laforey. The U-223 was in turn sunk by British destroyers.
The U.S. Public Health Service released To The People of the United States, a short film about a pilot who contracts syphilis. The film won an Academy Award for documentary short, but drew the ire of the Catholic Legion of Decency for failing to stress the immoral conduct giving rise to the disease.
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The Japanese 31st (Sato) Division cut the road between Imphal and Kohima. Gen. Slim, British 14th Army, decides to supply Imphal by air.
The Red Army took Kolomya, which was in Poland prior to 1939, but which is now in Ukraine.
The Royal Navy sank the U-961.
Lithuanian pilot Romualdas Marcinkus, part of the Great Escape, was executed by the Gestapo.
The Columbian Navy destroyer ARC Caldas engaged and damaged the U-154 while escorting the MC Cabimas.
The first award of the Expert Infantryman Badge was made.
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St. Patrick's Day fell on a Friday, which means that actual Irish Americans couldn't eat the traditional American Irish meal of corned beef and cabbage, unless a dispensation had been granted by their local bishop. Dispensations were quite common in North America, however.
Mount Vesuvius, not taking a time out for war, erupted, killing 26 Italian civilians and displacing a further 12,000. 88 American aircraft were destroyed.
Fighting continued at Monte Cassino. Regarding that, Sarah Sundin, on her blog, Today in World War II History—March 17, 1944; notes that in the town of Cassino, which is often forgotten was parat of the battle, New Zealanders took its western part of town and train stations.
She also noted in her blog the death of Félix Éboué, Governor-General of French Equatorial Africa, died of a heart attack in Cairo, age 60. He was a native African, the first to rise to such status in the French Empire.
Actor Ray Milland moves through the chow line in the mess hall of the 8th Special Service Co., Espiritu Santo, as the company cooks get a helping hand from Rosita Moreno, left, Latin-American dancer, and Mary Elliot, MGM starlet. March 17, 1944.
The Red Army took Dubno.
The U-801 was sunk by American aircraft and warships in the Atlantic.
Famous photographer Pattie Boyd was born in Taunton, England. She would marry George Harrison and Eric Clapton.
Musician John Sebastian was born in Greenwich Village, New York.
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The Red Army crossed the Bug.
US troops held off a Japanese assault on the American beachhead at Bougainville.
Additional cavalry landed on Manus Island in the Admiralities.
The Japanese crossed the Chindwwin River in Burma.
The U-653 was sunk in the North Atlantic by the Royal Navy. The British submarine Stonehenge was lost in the Indian Ocean.
The State Anthem of the Soviet Union replaced The Internationale as the anthem of the USSR.
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The first large scale daylight bombing raid on Berlin occured. The raid, remembered as Black Monday, involved 814 bombers and 944 fighters from bases in southern England. 69 bombers were lost.
P-51 pilot Donald Blakeslee would fly the first such aircraft over the city. An early American fighter pilot, he first joined the RCAF in 1941, he served in the USAF until 1965 and passed away in 2008 at age 80.
For those watching Masters of the Air, it is depicted in Episode 7.
The Red Army took Volochysk.
Finland rejected a Soviet peace proposal that included interning German troops that were inside of Finland and restoring the 1940 borders. The proposal was very similar to what the Finns would accept the following September and represented, effectively, a defeat, which is likely why it was not accepted, in part, at this time, although it was also surprisingly generous on Moscow's part.
The U-744 was sunk in the Atlantic, and the U-973 was sunk in the Arctic.
Albanian partisan Ramize Gjebrea age 20, was executed by a partisan firing squad for "immoral behavior", that being having intercourse with a male partisan. She was engaged to another person. The charge was denied by both parties, but she was convicted and, on this day, shot.
The German military, evil cause notwithstanding, was proving itself to be as amazing in defeat as it had been in victory. Never as well-equipped or modern as its propaganda would have it, it was nonetheless a potent fighting force, both in defeat as well as victory. On this day, the Second Narva Offensive resulted in a German victory.
Outnumbered, the Germans took thousands of casualties, but not as many as the Red Army. Both armies had a disregard for life. The Germans were, frankly quite surprisingly, aided by the presence of able Estonian recruits who had only recently entered service.
The latter was a portent of what was to come. As 1944 marched on, the German frontiers contracted, and as they did, the bloodletting, in part due to increased German resistance, meant that 1945, not 1944, was to be the bloodiest year of the war.
The Red Army launched a new series of offensive actions in Ukraine. Stalwart German resistance notwithstanding, and the frankly primitive state of much of the Red Army, the tide had irrevocably turned.
From Sarah Sundin's blog:
Today in World War II History—March 4, 1944: 80 Years Ago—Mar. 4, 1944: Maj. Gen. Alexander Patch assumes command of US Seventh Army in Algiers, to prepare for landings in southern France.
Germany's battlefield performance on the Baltic coast and in Italy notwithstanding, the direction the war was headed in was obvious and the Allies were preparing not only for Operation Overlord, but Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France. Patch was placed in command of that operation.
Patch had already seen combat command in the war in the Pacific, and more specifically Guadalcanal, making him one of a handful of U.S. generals who served against the Germans and Japanese. His health in the Pacific had been very poor, and he suffered from pneumonia while serving there.
Patch was born into an Army family and had originally wanted to be a cavalryman, but foresaw its obsolesce so he instead chose the infantry when he graduated from West Point in 1913 He saw action in the Punitive Expedition and in World War One. He never recovered from his respiratory ailments and died on November 21, 1945, just after the end of the war. He was 55.
Other things were also occurring in Algiers.
French industrialist, and fascist, Piere Firmin Pucheu went on trial in Algiers in spite of conditions that probably should have led to his safe presence in Algeria, Vichy role notwithstanding. He had been the Vichy minister of the interior. He was the first person tried under the French Committee of National Liberation's September 1943 edict charging all Vichy ministers with treason, something that was frankly political and extralegal. He would be found guilty and executed on March 20, 1944, going to his death after shaking hands with his own firing squad and giving the order to fire himself.
Pucheau is an uncomfortable example as to how some examples of Allied justice were not just. Pucheau was largely not admirable. He was a fascist, and he had a hatred of Jews. His execution, however, can be viewed for his being on the losing side of the war.
The 8th Air Force targeted Berlin, but only 29 bombers made it through due to weather.
Fighting was going on at Los Negros, where Troy McGill performed an act of heroism that would result in his receiving a posthumous Medal of Honor.
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action with the enemy at Los Negros Island, Admiralty Group, on 4 March 1944. In the early morning hours Sgt. McGill, with a squad of eight men, occupied a revetment which bore the brunt of a furious attack by approximately 200 drink-crazed enemy troops. Although covered by crossfire from machine guns on the right and left flank he could receive no support from the remainder of our troops stationed at his rear. All members of the squad were killed or wounded except Sgt. McGill and another man, whom he ordered to return to the next revetment. Courageously resolved to hold his position at all costs, he fired his weapon until it ceased to function. Then, with the enemy only five yards away, he charged from his foxhole in the face of certain death and clubbed the enemy with his rifle in hand-to-hand combat until he was killed. At dawn 105 enemy dead were found around his position. Sgt. McGill's intrepid stand was an inspiration to his comrades and a decisive factor in the defeat of a fanatical enemy.
The U-472 was sunk in the Barents Sea. She never sank a single ship.
China and Afghanistan entered into a pointless treaty of friendship.
Mobster Louie Lepke, birth name Louis Buchalter and also known as Louis Lepke or Lepke Buchalter, was executed.
Louis Capone met the same fate on this day, for the same reason.
The Phillies attempted to introduce a blue jay logo.
The Gothaer Waggonfabrik (Gotha) aircraft plant was hit as part of the Big Week.
The plant had been targeted for February 22, but bad weather had prevented the raid from occurring. On this day, 239 B-24s raided the plant.
Typical for such things, the US Army Air Force regarded the raid as a huge success. In reality, however, the lead bombardier, who controlled the run ins via the Norden Bomb site, suffered from anoxia due to a faulty oxygen mask and mistook Eisenach as the primary target. Forty-three bombers accordingly followed his error. Thirty-four B-24s were shot down, twenty-nine were damaged. Three aircrewmen were killed, six wounded and 324 went missing. 169 bombers did get through, and the plant was heavily damaged.
The Messerschmidt plants at Regensburg and Augsburg were hit and heavily damaged as well. Production was disrupted, but as Albert Speer noted, the damage was to the frame plant which was quickly put back into production. Had the engine plant been hit, results would have been different.
It was the climax of The Big Week.
The Allies prevailed in the Battle of Arawe.
The Red Army took Rogachev.
Finnish Prime Minister Edwin Linkomies announced that Finland wanted to restore peace with the Soviet Union.
The U-761 was sunk by tow U.S. Navy PBY's assisted by two Royal Navy destroyers.
The U-257 was depth charged and sank on the same day.
Merrill's Marauders began their march north in Burma.
A large scale air raid on the 400 year old Monte Cassino involving B-17s, B-25s, and B-26s reduced the abbey to rubble, but highly defensible rubble. Not a single German defender was injured in the raid.
It was an example of the gross overestimation of the effectiveness of air power in this context, and a human tragedy as well.
The Soviets commence the first Narva Offensive.
The Japanese cruiser Agono was badly damaged north of Truk by the USS Skate. It would sink two days later.
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.
The Umikaze was sunk off of Truk by the USS Guardfish.
The Bolu–Gerede earthquake killed nearly 4,000 people in northern Turkey.
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.
