The two-year-long Battle of the Caucasus ended in a Soviet victory.
What's partially amazing about this is that the Soviets and Axis forces were fighting a war that was effectively far behind the real front lines by this point. The Axis forces should have withdrawn from this region months prior to this.
The war in Italy at this point was remarkably multinational, with the US 5th Army including a wide variety of western units, including units of the Indian Army. Sepoy Kamal Ram won the Victoria Cross in Italy for single handely wiping out a German machinegun post, causing a second one to surrender a,d n assisting a feelow soldier in the destruction of a third.
His citation.
In Italy, on 12 May 1944, after crossing the River Gari overnight, the Company advance was held up by heavy machine-gun fire from four posts on the front and flanks. As the capture of the position was essential to secure the bridgehead, the Company Commander called for a volunteer to get round the rear of the right post and silence it. Volunteering at once and crawling forward through the wire to a flank, Sepoy Kamal Ram attacked the post single handed and shot the first machine-gunner; a second German tried to seize his weapon but Sepoy Kamal Ram killed him with the bayonet, and then shot a German officer who, appearing from the trench with his pistol, was about to fire. Sepoy Kamal Ram, still alone, at once went on to attack the second machine-gun post which was continuing to hold up the advance, and after shooting one machine-gunner, he threw a grenade and the remaining enemy surrendered. Seeing a Havildar making a reconnaissance for an attack on the third post, Sepoy Kamal Ram joined him, and, having first covered his companion, went in and completed the destruction of this post. By his courage, initiative and disregard for personal risk, Sepoy Kamal Ram enabled his Company to charge and secure the ground vital to the establishment of the bridgehead and the completion of work on two bridges. When a platoon, pushed further forward to widen the position, was fired on from a house, Sepoy Kamal Ram, dashing towards the house, shot one German in a slit trench and captured two more. His sustained and outstanding bravery unquestionably saved a difficult situation at a critical period of the battle and enabled his Battalion to attain the essential part of their objective.
He was 19 years old at the time, and would remain in the Indian Army after the war, retiring in 1972. He died in 1987 at the age of 57.
The 5th Army made progress against the Gustav Line. The French Expeditionary Corps captured Monte Faito. The British 13th Corps crossed the Rapido opposite of Cassino.
Frederick Schiller Faust, better known by his pen name Max Brand, was killed by artillery while working as a writer attached to U.S. infantry, a request he'd made some weeks earlier. He was 51 years old.
The United States Army Air Force hit synthetic oil plants at Leuna-Merseburg, Bohlen, Zeitz, Lutzkendorf and Brux.
ME 410 photographed from a B-17 over Brux.
A20 hit by flak over France. Pilot 1st Lt Robert E. Stockwell and gunner S/Sgt Hollis A. Foster were killed. Bombardier Lt. Albert Jedinak and gunner S/Sgt. Egon W. Rust bailed out and were captured.
The State Department was busy trying to find a way to save Rome from destruction.
German U-boat commander Oskar Kusch was executed for holding views critical of Adolf Hitler.
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1940s, 1944, 1944 at the Movies, Blog Mirror, Bougainville, German Luftwaffe, Hermann Göring, Italy, Movies, Operation Diadem, Personalities, Royal Air Force, The Holocaust, World War Two
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