The US landed on Wakde.
Today in World War II History—May 17, 1944: Allied Expeditionary Air Force approves black & white invasion stripes for aircraft for D-day to prevent friendly fire, not announced yet to maintain security.
Ostensibly exploring the practice of law before the internet. Heck, before good highways for that matter.
The US landed on Wakde.
Today in World War II History—May 17, 1944: Allied Expeditionary Air Force approves black & white invasion stripes for aircraft for D-day to prevent friendly fire, not announced yet to maintain security.
Allied forces broke through German defenses in the Liri Valley in Operation Diadem with the first attacks being by the British 4th Infantry Division and the 8th Indian Infantry Division, with fire support from the 1st Canadian Armoured Brigade. All the Allies fighting in Italy would participate in the offensive.
Allied air forces raided the French coast, with Calais particularly hard hit.
Oberst Walter Oesau (123 victories) was shot down and killed over the Eifel Mountains.
Oesau had been goaded into flying by Luftwaffe chief Hermann Göring on that day even though he'd been sick in bed with the flu, Göring calling his command to see if he was flying. Göring had been turning his ire on unit commanders who were not regularly flying, and upon learning that Oesau was in bed he basically accused him of cowardice. He did skillfully fight three P-38s but was killed by cannon fire from one of the aircraft attempting to make an emergency landing.\
Oesau had fought in the Spanish Civil War, but there's little known about him overall. He was not a flamboyant figure and included no special markings on his aircraft.
The RAF Lancaster "S for Sugar" completed its 100th mission.
Today in World War II History—May 11, 1944 In Italy, Germans release Jews of Turkish, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Finnish, and Swiss citizenship under pressure from these neutral governments.Movie premiere of The White Cliffs of Dover, starring Irene Dunne.
Social Security Administration ruling reflecting a marriage on this date, and a complicated set of relationships.
SSR 60-9. STATUS OF CHILD IN THE WOMB
A child conceived during its mother's marriage to her first husband, but born after her re-marriage to her second husband is the stepchild of the second husband from the date of such marriage.
M was divorced from F on March 25, 1944. She married P on May 11, 1944. A child, C, was born to M on July 13, 1944. P died on May 20, 1945. An application for child's benefits on P's social security account was filed September 23, 1959, on behalf of C.
Section 216(e) of the Social Security Act defines the term "child" as including a stepchild of a deceased individual who has been a stepchild "for not less than one year immediately preceding the day on which such individual died."
In view of the general principle that when justice or convenience requires, the child in the womb is dealt with as a human being even though physiologically it is part of the mother, the marriage of P and M created a steprelationship between P and M's child, C, even though C was unborn at that time. Since the marriage of P and M occurred more than one year prior to P's death, and C had been conceived and was in existence at the time of the marriage, it is held that C was P's stepchild for one year prior to his death as required by section 216(e) for becoming entitled to benefits on his earnings record.
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The 8th Air Force conducted a 1,500 plane raid on Berlin. The 15th Air Force and Bomber Command attacked railway sites in Bucharest. The 9th Air Force attacked the railway yards at Mezieres-Charleville with B-26s and P-38s.
The 46th Infantry Division occupied Cape Hopkins Airfield on the Bismark Archipelago. The Japanese offered no resistance.
The Red Army carried out an assault on Sapun Mountain May 7, 1944 in the Battle of Sevastopol.
Polish Gen. Anders visited the 15th Vilnius Rifle Battalion "Wilków" and attended Mass with them.
The RCN Valleyfield was sunk by the U-548 off of Cape Rice. 129 out of 167 crewmembers died in the attack.
Sarah Sundin, on her entry Today in World War II History—May 7, 1944 notes that another D-Day exercise, Exercise Pigeon, commenced.
A B-25 crashed in bad weather and one mile north of West Chester, Pennsylvania, killing all seven on board.
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From "Uncle Mike":
Today in World War II History—May 4, 1944: In Exercise Fabius, a full-scale rehearsal for D-day, Allied troops who will land on Sword, Juno, Gold, and Omaha Beaches make landings on English beaches.
The Finisterre Range Campaign in New Guinea concluded in an Allied victory. US forces reached Lake Sentani near Hollandia. Australian forces took Madang.
The RAF violated Swiss airspace in order to evade Munich's air warning system. Earlier in the day, the U.S. Army Air Force had raided the heavily defended city, losing 55 aircraft, 14 of which crashed into Switzerland.
Italy started fielding a "Co Belligerent Air Force" in support of the Allies over the Adriatic.
The Special Boat Service raided Santorini in the Aegean.
A British blockade of mutinous Greek troops in Egypt ceased.
Double Indemnity was released in Brazil, a few months ahead of the American release.
Charles de Gaulle issued a decree giving French women the right to vote.
It's hard to imagine that the vote came to French women this late.
Japanese troops captured Crete West Hill during the Battle of Imphal.
As Sarah Sundin notes on her blog:
Today in World War II History—April 21, 1944: German Gen. Hans-Valentin Hube is killed in a plane crash at Berchtesgaden; Gen. Erhard Raus replaces him over German First Panzer Army.
She also noted that a massive US task force with up to twenty aircraft carriers had attacked Hollandia, Wakde, Sawar, and Sarmi, New Guinea from the air in preparation for landings. D-Day was the following day.
The following statement, a product of Bretton Woods, was released:
Italy formed a coalition government.
The RAF hit Cologne, La Chappelle (Paris), Lens and Ottignies (Brussels).
The Battle of Gurba occured in Ukraine, but it's obscure. It was an action between the Soviets and the Ukrainian National Army, and relatively large-scale for such an encounter.
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The Royal Air Force dropped 4,500 tons of bombs on a single raid, a new record. It was Hitler's 55th birthday.
The Luftwaffe sunk the USS Lansdale and the Liberty ship SS Paul Hamilton of Algiers. The attacking planes were Ju 88s which were used as torpedo bombers in this application.
Off of Anzio, the Germans deployed human torpedoes. No serious damages are incurred by any of the Allied ships which are stricken.
Elmer Gedeon, age 27, was killed piloting a B-26 over France. He had been, prior to entering the service, a professional baseball player and was one of only two major league ball players killed during World War Two, the other being Harry O'Neill who was killed as a Marine Corps officer on Iwo Jima.
The British conversation at Kohima was relieved.
The Luftwaffe attempted to raid Hull, but called off the mission.
George Grantham Baink "the father of foreign photographic news", died at age 78 in New York City, which he had heavily photographed.
Many of his photographs appear on this website.
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The combined Allied Air Forces achieved a new daily record, and dropped over 4,000 tons of bombs on Germany and occupied France.
On the same day, the Luftwaffe sent 125 aircraft on a raid over London, the last of the "Little Blitz" air raids. Fourteen German aircraft were brought down. Fifty-three tons of bombs were dropped on the city, and a hospital was amongst the buildings hit.
The Red Army took Balaclava.
German and Hungarian forces counterattacked at Buchach.
The British government banned coded radio and telegraph transmissions from the UK. Diplomats are forbidden to leave, and diplomatic bags are censored, with excepts for the US, USSR and the Polish government in exile. Incitement to strike is made a punishable offense.
The British 5th Brigade linked up with the Kohima garrison, braking the encirclement of the city.
The USS Gudgeon was sunk off of Iwo Jima by a Mitsubishi G3M.
The Vatican established the Pontificia Commissione di Assistenza to provide rapid, non-bureaucratic and direct aid to needy populations, refugees, and prisoners in Europe.
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The Uman–Botoșani Offensive concluded in a wide-ranging Soviet victory. The Soviets had advanced 190 miles in one month, cleared southwestern Ukraine and entered Romania and Moldova. The offensive had been, moreover, carried out during spring mud season, the rasputitsa. It was one of the most successful Soviet advances of the war.
The Take-Ichi sendan (竹一船団, "Bamboo No. One" convoy) left Shanghai with two infantry divisions to reinforce the Philippines and western New Guinea. Its story was to be fateful and strategically important.
Fr. Max Josef Metzger, German Catholic Priest and founder of the German Catholic Peace Association, was executed by the Nazi German state. He is regarded as a Catholic martyr.
The U-342 was sunk in the North Atlantic by a RCAF PBY.
Civilian airliner Deutsche Lufthansa D-AOCA, a Junkers Ju-52/3m was shot down on scheduled service E.17 from Vienna to Athens with stops in Belgrade, Sofia, and Thessaloniki. An Allied fighter sweep of Belgrade mistook it for a military aircraft. Five of its seven occupants were killed.
A Royal Air Force Warwick passenger plane went down over the UK, creating a mystery. As the recovery of its doomed passengers occured, large amounts of cash were found with them.
United Features Syndicate began to run Bill Mauldin's Up Front in U.S. newspapers.
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The RAF hit Romania for the first time. On the same day, the Soviet Air Forces hit Galatz.
The Germans began to gather Hungarian Jews, some 800,000 in number, into ghettos. Prior to this phase of the war, Hungarian Jews had been oppressed by their own nation, but not subject to deportation to the death camps.
The Red Army took Yalta. The Germans attempted to push the Red Army back over the Dnestr.
A large air raid was staged on Hollandia, Indonesia. The mission was successful with no losses, but the aircraft ran into a severe weather front on the return and 46 of the 170 aircraft in the raid went down. The day acquired the name "Black Sunday" as a result.
The attacking force was made up of B-24s, B-25s and A-20s, escorted by P-38s
862 Poles were killed by Ukrainian SS troops of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division. (1st Galician) in Chodaczków Wielki, part of pre war Poland which is now Velykyi Khodachkiv, Ternopil Oblast, Ukraine.
The Parczew partisans helped take over that town in Poland on this day.
The U-550 was sunk off of Nantucket. It was found in 2012: