Thursday, November 23, 1944. Thanksgiving Day.

"Three American infantrymen eat K Rations on Thanksgiving day in a dugout somewhere in France.

They will be relieved later and will have Thanksgiving dinner in the evening with their unit. The soldiers are left to right: Sgt. Albert E. Burns, 1308 E. Gilbert Street, Muncie, Ind., Pfc. John K. Smith, Munderstar Route, Brookville PA., and Pvt. Robert H. Seymour, Newark, N.Y. Near Faulquemont, France. 23 November, 1944.80th Infantry Division."

French forces liberated Strasbourg.

US troops liberated the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp in France.  20,000 people had died there while it was open.

The Canadian cabinet made 16,000 Canadian conscripts, previously not liable for overseas deployment, available for the same.

Soviet troops took Cop, Czechoslovakia and Tokay, Hungary.

The Royal Navy disbanded the British Eastern Fleet.  Escort carriers and older ships were formed into the British East Indies Fleet with modern ships detached for service in the British Pacific Fleet.

"A newly captured crossroad carries east and west bound traffic as Lt. Gen. George S. Patton's Third Army smashes towards the Rhine. 23 November, 1944. Photographer: Sawyer."

Last edition:

Tuesday, November 21, 1944. Vive La France.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Albania, Albanian resistance movements, boats and ships, France, French Army, Imperial Japanese Navy, Prisoners of War, U.S. Navy, World War Two

Monday, September 18, 1944. Eindoven taken.

Distraught German medic at scene of German surrender, Orléans, September 18, 1944.

The 101st Airborne Division liberated Eindoven.

Lieutenant Colonel Robert George Cole, who would receive the Medal of Honor for his actions during Operation Overlord, was killed by a German sniper during Market Garden.  He was 29 years old.

Another American combatant would be killed in an action that resulted in his posthumously receiving the Medal of Honor.

The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor (Posthumously) to Private First Class Charles Howard Roan (MCSN: 504236), United States Marine Corps Reserve, for the conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving with the Second Battalion, Seventh Marines, First Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Peleliu, Palau Islands, 18 September 1944. Shortly after his leader ordered a withdrawal upon discovering that the squad was partly cut off from their company as a result of the rapid advance along an exposed ridge during an aggressive attack on the strongly entrenched enemy, Private First Class Roan and his companions were suddenly engaged in a furious exchange of hand grenades by Japanese forces emplaced in a cave on higher ground and to the rear of the squad. Seeking protection with four other Marines in a depression in the rocky, broken terrain, Private First Class Roan was wounded by an enemy grenade which fell close to their position and, immediately realizing the eminent peril to his comrades when another grenade landed in the midst of the group, unhesitatingly flung himself upon it, covering it with his body and absorbing the full impact of the explosion. By his prompt action and selfless conduct in the face of almost certain death, he saved the lives of four men. His great personal valor reflects the highest credit upon himself and the U. S. Naval Service. He gallantly gave his life for his comrades.

The Battle of Arracourt commenced in France.

The US dropped supplies from B-17s to resistance fighters in Warsaw, the only such mission permitted by the Soviets.  The aircraft flew on to Soviet held territory.

It's often been speculated, not without reason, that Stalin allowed the uprising to bleed itself out as it was resulting in the deaths of a present combatant, the Germans, and a feared future one, the Poles.

The Jun'yō Maru was sunk off Sumatra by the British submarine Tradewind resulting in the deaths of 5,620 people, most of whom were Allied POWs or Japanese slave labor.  The event is one of the worst naval disasters of all time, taking into account the lives lost were largely innocent.

Last edition:

Sunday, September 17, 1944. Operation Market Garden commences.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Animals, Battle of Arnhem, Battle of Nijmegen, Cats, Netherlands, Operation Market Garden, Operation Paravane, Palau, Paratroopers, San Marino, Tallinn, World War Two, Wyoming (LaGrange)

Thursday, August 24, 1944. Paris Reached.

US tank crossing the Seine, August 24, 1944.

The French 4th Armored Division entered Paris in the evening.

Germany closed theaters, cancelled holidays and cancelled military leave.

The First Canadian Army captured Bernay and crossed the Risle River at Nassandres.

The 51st SS-Brigade murdered 68 civilians of all ages in Buchères, France.

The 7th Army took Cannes.

The German Army Group South Ukraine line collapses with the switch in sides of Romania.

The USS Harder was sunk in Dasol Bay by the Japanese.

The U-354 and U-445 were sunk by the Royal Navy.

The Royal Navy unsuccessfully tried again for the Tirpitz.

IBM's Harvard Mark I electro-mechanical computer was formally presented to Harvard University.

Last edition:

Wednesday, August 23, 1944. The Act of 23 August.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Act of 23 August, Allied Powers, Battle for Paris, Battle of Numfoor, Eastern Front, French Resistance Movements, Italian partisans, Monarchy, Operation Dragoon, Romania, World War Two

Tuesday, August 22, 1944. End of the German Navy in the Baltic, Strikes on the Tirpitz, Advances in France.

Two GIs of the 2nd Infantry Division operate a .30 caliber light machine gun from under the cover of low-hanging trees. They are firing at a hedgerow across a clearing. Near Vire, France. 22 August, 1944.

The 7th Army captured Grenoble.

Destroyed German field kitchen, with more in background, near Falaise.

German POWs, Falaise.

The Royal Navy began carrier raids against the Tirpitz in Operation Goodwood.  The HMS Nabob was hit by torpedoes from a German submarine, but was able to continue with limited operations.  The U-344 was sunk in the Barents Sea by Fairey Swordfish aircraft of 825 Squadron, Fleet Air Arm.  The frigate Bickerton was scuttled after being damaged by a torpedo strike.

Strikes against the Tirpitz were ineffective.

The Kriegsmarine ordered the evacuation of Constanta, Romania, a Black Sea port.  Ships were authorized to be scuttled.

The 2nd Ukrainian Front captured Jassy, Romania, while the 3d Ukrainian Front drove northward, making 50 miles in two days.

The Japanese government introduced female labor conscription for women aged 12 to 40.

Last edition:

Monday, August 21, 1944. Dumbarton Oaks.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Battle of Marseille, Canadian Army, Dunbarton Oaks, Falaise Pocket, Operation Tractable, Polish Army, United Nations

Thursday, August 10, 1944. Stiffening German resistance in the East, Advancing in the West, Pacific victory.

The Battle of Narva ended in a German defensive victory while the Battle of Tannenberg Line ended in a German tactical victory.

The Tartu Offensive began in Estonia.

The British took Vimont.   The US 20th Corps took Nantes.  Fearing encirclement from Canadian and US forces, the Germans pulled back near Mortain.

Frenchmen of the town of Angers celebrate their liberation by burning the swastika that long flew over their town in the town Awuare.

After a frontal attack routed the Nazis from Angers, tanks with infantrymen walking alongside, move through the town.

The Battle of Guam ended in an American victory.

July 20 plotter Berthold Alfred Maria Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg was executed.

The U-608 was scuttled after being damaged by a RAF B-24 and the Royal Navy sloop Wren.

Lsat edition:

Wednesday, August 9, 1944. Finns battle Soviets to a draw, Horror at the Łódź Ghetto, Yes to MacArthur and the Philippines, Third Army at Le Mans, Smokey the Bear and Sam Elliot arrive on the scene.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Battle of Studzianki, Battle of Vyborg, Douglas MacArthur, Finnish Army, France, Franklin Roosevelt, Gypsies, Normandy Breakout, Pacific, Philippines, Poland, Red Army, The Holocaust, World War Two

Wednesday, August 3, 1944. Advances in Burma and Normandy.

The Siege of Mytkyina in Burma ended in an Allied victory over the Japanese.

The HMS Quon was sunk off of Normandy by German aircraft and ships.

The US 1st Army captured Mortain.  The 30th Infantry Division would win a Presidential Unit Citation for its defense to a German counterattack there.

The Germans blew up the bridges in Florence, Italy.

The USSR and Lebanon established diplomatic relations.

The British Education Act 1944 received Royal Assent.

Last edition:

Tuesday, August 2, 1944. Murder of the Gypsies.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Aircraft, Auschwitz, Battle of the Atlantic, boats and ships, Guam, Gypsies, Normandy, Normandy Breakout, Operation Overlord, The Holocaust, Turkey, Warsaw Uprising, World War Two

Friday, July 21, 1944. Landings on Guam.

Following up on the dramatic events of the day prior, German troops poured into Berlin.

Ludwig Beck, 64, Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim, 39, and  Claus von Stauffenberg, 36, were executed for their role in the July 20 plot.

Guderian succeeded Kurt Zeitzler, who had suffered a nervous breakdown, as Chief of Staff of the German Army.

US Marines and soldiers of the US Army commenced landing on Guam.  Initial Marine landings met with very little opposition.

The Japanese mounted attacks on US positions at Aitape.

The French Expeditionary Corps was withdrawn from the line in Italy in preparation for Operation Dragoon.

The U-212 was sunk sought of Brighton by the Royal Navy.

Harry S. Truman was nominated by the Democratic Party to run as Roosevelt's Vice President for 1944.

Last edition:

Thursday, July 20, 1944. The July 20 Plot.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, 1944 Election, Adolf Hitler, Battle of Narva, Claus von Stauffenberg, Franklin Roosevelt, German Resistance Movements, Heroes, July 20 Plot, Mussolini, Operation Valkyrie, World War Two

Saturday, June 24, 1944. The sinking of the Derrycunihy.

Soldiers awarded the Silver Star or Bronze Star on this day, for actions on June 6, 1944.  Notable in this photo is that quite a few of them are carrying M1 Carbines, not generally associated with combat troops in the U.S. Army, and all of them save for two are wearing M1941 field jackets.  One warm-blooded soldier is wearing just his wool shirt, with white t-shirt, and one is wearing a Winter Combat Jacket, commonly called (erroneously) a "tanker's jacket".  Nobody is wearing the new M1943 field jacket.

German acoustic mines sank the Derrycunihy off of Normandy, which had been laid by the Luftwaffe the night prior.  183 men of the 43d Wessex Reconnaissance Regiment went down with her. Twenty-five men of the crew also died.   

Hard fighting continued at Cherbourg.

The 1st Belorussian Front entered Operation Bagration with an assault aimed at Bobruisk. The Red Army's 1st Baltic Front and 3d Belorussian Front nearly encircled Viebsk as part of Operation Bagration leading Hitler to order all but one division of the German LIII Corps to break out, showing perhaps that he had wised up about leaving pockets of troops surrounded.  Red Army advances have been up to 25 miles.

The RCAF sank the U-1225 off of Bergen.

Progress is ongoing for the Army and Marines on Saipan.

The U.S. Navy again raided Iwo Jima and Chichi Jima, resulting in the Japanese losing 66 aircraft.

The Adelaide Mail revealed that one Ern Malley, a supposedly unknown dead (in 1943) poet who had been posthumously published, supposedly in the avant-garde Angry Penguins was a complete hoax meant to expose the vapidness of modernist style.

Last prior edition:

Friday, June 23, 1944. Bagration increases.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Bougainville, Cherbourg France, Lithuania, Operation Bagration, Operation Overlord, Polish Home Army, Red Army, Saipan, War Crimes, World War Two

Wednesday, June 21, 1944. Operation Bagration commences with artillery.

The Red Army commenced Operation Bagration with massive artillery and bombing raids.

Tailed first by a ME109, and then by a dispatched HE111, the Luftwaffe learned that the U.S. Army Air Force was using the Ukrainian airfield at Poltava.  German aircraft shadowed the B-17s headed to Poltava, Ukraine, following a raid.  The Luftwaffe then struck the base at night, destroying 15 P-51 fighters and more than 40 B-17s.  Soviet air defenses were ineffective, and P-51s were not allowed by the Soviets to take off during the raid.

Sarah Sundin's blog has a great photograph taken during this air raid:

Today in World War II History—June 21, 1944

The HMS Fury struck a mine off of Sword Beach and was wrecked.

Meanwhile, the Channel storm continued and was effecting British operations on land.

French refugees pass destroyed German self-propelled gun.

The Battle of Val-de-Saire started on the Cotentin Peninsula.  US troops enter Cherbourg following a massive bombardment.  Intense fighting occurs in Cherbourg and the German commander, Lt. Gen. Von Schlieben ordered the port and navy assets destroyed.  The US attacks towards Saint-Lô in the face of a German order to hold at all costs.

Mail call.  Note how heavily these soldiers are dressed.

Destroyed German artillery, June 21, 1944.

The British 8th Army reached the German Trasimene Line in Italy.

The US 2nd Marine Division captured Mount Tipo Pole and then started fighting for Mount Tapotchau on Saipan.  The 4th Marine Division progressed east on the Kagman Peninsula.

Marines in ox cart, Saipan, June 21, 1944.

The British broke the Siege of Imphal in Burma.

The Royal Navy raided the Andaman islands in an aircraft carrier raid.

Oliver Lyttelton addressed his remarks in front of the American Chamber of Commerce before the House of Commons, stating:

I was trying, in a parenthesis, to make clear the gratitude which this country feels for the help given to us in the war against Germany, before Japan attacked the United States, the words I used, however, when read textually, and apart from the whole tenor of my speech, seemed to mean that the help given us against Germany provoked Japan to attack. This is manifestly untrue. I want to make it quite clear that I do not complain of being misreported, and any misunderstanding is entirely my own fault. I ask the House to believe, however, that the fault was one of expression and not of intention. I hope this apology will undo any harm that the original words may have caused here or in the United States.

Last prior edition:

Tuesday, June 20, 1944. End of the Battle of the Philippine Sea.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, Battle of the Philippine Sea, boats and ships, Disaster, Finland, France, Imperial Japanese Navy, Lithuania, New Britain, Operation Overlord, Outer space, Rocketry, United Kingdom, World War Two

Sunday, June 11, 1944. D+5. Carentan taken.

Photograph taken the moment the No. 1 Cannoneer fires a M3 105 howitzer at Carentan, June 11, 1944.

The U.S. 1st Army captured Carentan and Lison.  The British and Canadians experienced heavy fighting in their effort to take Caen, including the deployment of the most recent German armor. The 46 Royal Marines Commando took Cairon after heavy fighting against the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend.  They then took Lasson, Rots and Rosel.

The HMS Halstand was torpedoed and rendered a loss by E-boats off of Normandy.

Gooseberry 1, an artificial breakwater formed from sunken obsolete ships, was in palce.

The French Expeditionary Corps captured Montefascone, Italy.

The US 15th Air Force raided Axis airfields at Focsani, Romania and flew on to Ukraine.

Task Force 58 began raids on Saipan and Tinian, causing the Japanese to lose 36 aircraft, three warships and 30,000 tons of merchant transport.

The USS Missouri was commissioned.  She is now a museum ship at Pearl Harbor.

USS Missouri, Pearl Harbor Hawaii

 USS Missouri viewed from the USS Arizona Memorial.

 Small trailed mortar, probably of a Japanese pattern.

 Dual Bofars 40mm Anti Aircraft guns formally on the USS Missouri.

 The "tears" of the USS Arizona.  Oil slick from oil leaking from the bunkers of the Arizona.

 The spot on which World War Two came to an end on the decks of the Missouri.

 The instrument of surrender.

 Oil from the USS Arizona alongside the USS Missouri.

 Tomahawk Missile platform.

 The location on the USS Missouri where she was hit by a Kamikaze aircraft.  The result was this dent in the side.  The Japanese pilot was buried in a formal burial at sea the following day.

 While not labeled on the ship, these are powder bags for 16 in guns.

Last prior edition:

Saturday, June 10, 1944. D+4. The Oradour-sur-Glane and Distomo Massacres.

Labels: 1940s, 1944, baseball, Distomo Massacre, Eastern Front, French Resistance Movements, German SS, Greek Partisans, Italy, Operation Overlord, Oradour-sur-Glane Massacre, Waffen SS, War Crimes, World War Two