SOUTH CAROLINA MILITARY MUSEUM 
- WORLD WAR II 1944 -
Germany Losing Ground 1944
January 11, 1944 - US P-38 Lightning and P-47 Thunderbolt long-range fighters flying over Germany are joined for the first time by the P-51 Mustang.
January 12, 1944 - First Allied attacks on Monte Cassino. The battle raged from 12 January till 18 May with heavy Allied losses.
Allied Forces resume attacks at the run aground Italian front.- Cassino formed the focal point of the Gustav Line, the strongest German de fences south of Rome. A natural fortress consisting of a town on the slopes of a high mountain crowned by Benedictine Monastery and skirted to the south by three rivers, Cassino had to be captured by the Allies in order to gain access to the Liri Valley, the so-called 'gateway to Rome.' The battle raged from 17 January until 18 May, often in appalling wet and cold weather with heavy Allied losses. Eventually, the Germans evacuated the town, and the monastery was finally stormed by Polish troops.
January 15, 1944 - British bombers drop 2.800 tons of bombs on Berlin, Germany.
January 21, 1944 - The first of Hitler's raids, 270 German aircraft, on London and southern England. The mission is a failure; 96 aircraft reach targets. Thereby, about 700 RAF bombers have made raids on Berlin, Kiel and Magdeburg.January 22, 1944 - American and British forces land at Anzio and Nettuno, Italy.
January 26, 1944 - Pro-Axis Argentina, under the rule of President Juan Domingo Peron, breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany and Japan.
January 27, 1944 - After Siege of 2½ years, Russian troops relieve Leningrad. Railway Moscow- Leningrad is free.
January 29 - February, 1944 - Several raids of the USA Fleet with carriers (Task Force 58) at the Marshall Islands.
February 2, 1944 - U.S. Army and Marines capture Rio, Namur and Kwajalein, the Marshall Islands.
- Soviet forces enter Estonia and Latvia.
February 4, 1944 - Admiral Chester Nimitz becomes the military governor of the Marshal Islands.
From 1943 Americans submarine is good organize, their best ships are from "Gato-Class": 1500 ton, up water speed 35km, radius of action 18.000km, 80 men, a good armament and superior radar. Japanese lost 5 million tonnage.February 7, 1944 - During the Dnjepr battle, 75.000 Germans killed from Army Group Oekraïne (10 Divisions).
February 29, 1944 - The Southwest Pacific-Forces of the USA begin with invasion of the Admirality-islands and the Bismarck-archipelago.
March 6, 1944 - American B-24 of the US Eighth Army Air Force bombers drop 2.000 tons of bombs on Berlin, Germany. It was their first large-scale daylight raids on Berlin. They lose 1 in 10 of their aircraft, but their escorting fighters get the better of the Luftwaffe.
- Third Ukranian Front joins the Sovjet offensive and von Kleist's Army Group A feels the pressure of this push.
March 8, 1944 - Battle of Imphal and Kohima begins. In northern Burma the Japanese begin their moves against the British forces in the areas around Imphal and Kohima. Operation 'U-Go' aims to destroy these units, push on through to Dimapur, cut off the Chinese and US forces, and open a route into India. The well-organized and supplied British IV Corps meets the first Japanese attacks; they know what the Japanese are planning, but are surprised by the scale of the Japanese commitment.
In the Pacific a regrouped and enlarged Japanese force prepares to attack the US bridgehead in Bougainville; the US aircraft have to be flown to safety elsewhere.March 10, 1944 - In Burma the scale and pace of Japanese 33rd Division's advance causes alarm as l7th Indian Division's positions are threatened. At Witok further Japanese moves are contained, and Chindit operations farther south see Japanese communication lines hit.
March 12, 1944 - The British Government suspends all travel between Ireland and Great Britain.
March 19, 1944 - 4 O'clock: Operation "Margarethe": German occupation of strategic al important points in Hungary (Minister-President Sztójay).
March 22, 1944 - Japanese forces invade India.
March 25, 1944 - Allied Airmens escape in Air Force Prisoner of War camps run by the Luftwaffe, called Stalag Luft, short for Stammlager or Permanent Camps for Airmen..
April 2, 1944 - The first B-29 Super fortress reaches India after a flight from the USA via the UK and North Africa. This heavy bomber will enter the war against Japan.
- In Burma, the Japanese cut the Kohima road, while l7th Indian Division continues its troublesome withdrawal to Imphal.
On the Eastern Front, Soviet forces entered Romania, by crossing the river Prut.April 3, 1944 - Operation "Tungsten": 42 bombers and 80 fighters from the carriers Furious and HMS Victorious bombed the Tirpitz and caused sufficient damage with 15 hits to extend the vessel's inactivity by another 3 months. By the attack 122 men of the crew were killed and 316 wounded. The Tirpitz was finally destroyed in November 1944 by heavy bombers from 617 Squadron RAF.
April 5, 1944 - General Charles de Gaulle becomes head of the French Provisional Government in London, England.
Begin of American systematic bombardments on Romania oil-fields from South-ItalyApril 12, 1944 - A massive air-battle takes place over Germany. More than 2,000 American aircraft are involved.
April 14, 1944 - A massive air-battle takes place over Germany. More than 2,000 American aircraft are involved.
April 18, 1944 - Allied air force launch a 30-hour air offensive on France and Germany.
April 22, 1944 - U.S. Army land at Holland ia, Netherlands New Guinea.
April 25, 1944 - Japanese forces launch a major offensive against Honan Province, China.
May 5, 1944 - Indian Nationalist Gandhi is released from detention in India.
- Admiral Koga, Commander of the Japanese Fleet, is killed.
May 9, 1944 - Soviet forces recapture Sevastopol.
May 18, 1944 - Polish troops hoist their red-white flag on the ruins of Monte Cassino.
In 24 days hard fighting, impregnable Cassino fell, two German armies were defeated, 20,000 prisoners were taken, three de fence lined were smashed, and vast quantities of German material were destroyed. But Allied casualties in the four battles amounted to about 21,000 including 4,100 killed in action.- The historic Benedictine monastery at Cassino, Italy, which the Germans used as an observation post and artillery position, now stands demolished. The abbey fell to Allied troops after fierce and bitter fighting. German troops evacuate Monti Cassino, Italy.4.
May 22, 1944 - Referendum in Iceland calls for the complete separation from Denmark.
May 23, 1944 - Allied forces begin an offensive from the beaches of Anzio, Italy.
May 25, 1944 - Marshal Josip Broz Tito and British Major Randolph Churchill narrowly escape an invasion by a German paratrooper force dropped on Tito's headquarters at Drvar, in Bosnia.(COSSACK).
May 27, 1944 -The Americans land on Biak Island, New Guinea, in the Pacific, after bombarding Japanese positions there. There is a substantial Japanese garrison but the landing passes without much opposition; this will come when the Americans seek to move inland to their strategic targets.
June 1, 1944 - The German Army's military intelligence unit, the Abwehr, is removed from the control of the Wehrmacht by Hitler. Its chief, Admiral Canaris, is dismissed and all secret service activities are placed in the hands of Heinrich Himmler, the SS leader. Canaris has been clandestinely conspiring against Hitler.
In the Pacific the Americans are deploying tanks against the Japanese on Biak.June 4, 1944 - 19.15u: 88th American division marches into Rome.
June 6, 1944 - Allied forces launch the D-Day invasion of Normandy, France.
- Preparations for the invasion of Europe by the Allies involved enormous movements of men and equipment and considerable secrecy in order to conceal the exact timing and destination from the Germans. The men did not know until the last possible moment where and when they were going.
- From 1942 onwards many people believed and hoped that the opening of a 'second front' on the continent would soon be possible. But it was not until the end of 1943 that serious preparations for the re-invasion of Europe across the Channel began. In the south of England seemingly endless convoys of military vehicles and troops of all the Allied nations poured along the roads and railways of Britain towards the sealed coastal area.
June 6 - July 2, 1944 - The Allied Sea-Operation "Neptune":
June 9, 1944 - Begin of the Russian offensive from the "Karelish landengte" against the Finnish Army (Marshal Mannerheim).
- Prime Minister of Italy Marshal Badoglio is forced to resign and replaced by Ivanoe Bonomi, a opponent of the Fascist movement.
June 10, 1944 - Destruction of the French village Oradour-sur-Glane by the Waffen-SS; all 642 villager are killed.
June 13, 1944 - V-1 named "Vergeltungswaffe". Germany launches its first V-1 rocket attack on England, till 20 June 8000 V-1's fired to London.
- The first salvo of 10 V1 flying bombs is launched at the UK from the Pas-de-Calais, but only 4 make it across the English Channel. One hits the village of Swanscombe, 20 miles from its London target, another lands in the Sussex town of Cuckfield and the third reaches the London suburb of Bethnal Green, killing 6 people.
- The German spotter plane sent to report on the raid is shot down.
June 14, 1944 - General de Gaulle returns to France.
- U.S B-29 Super fortress bomber make their first raid on Japan from bases in China
June 15, 1944 - American landing on Saipan (Marianen).
- Russia force Finland till the "Mannerheim linie".
June 17, 1944 - Allies invade Elba. Iceland is declared a republic.
June 19, 1944 - The Sea-Air Battle of the Philippine Sea. Between the Japanese Fleet with 9 Aircraft carriers and the American Navy-Air Force And the Task Force 58 with 15 Aircraft Carriers.
- The Japanese lost by Submarines and Planes; 3 Carriers and more then 400 Planes ("The Marianes' Turkey Shoot").
June 21, 1944 - Allied offensive in Burma..
June 22, 1944 - Operation Bagration.The Soviet Army under Stalin began offensive Bagration into Poland; in 6 weeks advanced 500 km to the Vistula. Three years to the day after Germany's 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union, the Red Army launched a massive offensive in Byelorussia. Code named 'Operation Bagration', this campaign climaxed five weeks later with the Red Army at the gates of Warsaw. The Wehrmacht's Army Group Centre was routed, a total of 17 Wehrmacht divisions were utterly destroyed, and over 50 other German divisions were shattered. It was the most calamitous defeat of the German armed forces in World War II.
June 30, 1944 - The U.S. Fourteenth Air Force abandons its air base at Hengyang, Hunan Province, China.
July 1944 - In the first days of July, 1944, the first Echelon of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force (FEB) left to Europe, aboard the American ship General Mann, in a total of 5.081 men. Later, on the 22 July, two more ships, Gen Mann and Gen Meigs, left to Europe, with the Second and Third Echelons, with 10.369 men total.
July 3,1944 - Soviet forces recapture Minsk.
July 9 , 1944 - U.S. Army and Marines capture Saipan, the Marianas. Nearly the whole Japanese Army of occupation fall, about 3.000 wounded japanese commit suicide. Admiral Nagoemo commits hara-kiri. The Japanese have lost about 27.000 men, the American lost more than 3.000 men and 4 times more injured.
July 12 , 1944 - Theodore Roosevelt Jr. falls at Normandy.
July 13, 1944 - The Battle of Guam was a US operation to recapture the island of Guam from the Japanese in 1943, during WW II. Guam is at the southern end of the Marianas group, about 1.600 km north of New Guinea. It was occupied by the Japanese on 10 December 1941 and used as a naval and air base. US forces invaded on 21 July 1943 and by 10 August the entire island was in their hands. US losses amounted to 1.744 killed and 5.970 wounded; the Japanese lost 18.250 killed and 1.250 captured. Some of the Japanese garrison fled to the interior of the island, the last of them did not surrender until 1960.
July 18, 1944 - British forces break-out at Caen, France.
-Japanese General Hideki Tojo is relieved as Chief of the General Staff. He is replaced by General Yoshijiro Umezu (General Koiso and General Yonai).
- Day raids on Peenemunde, night on Ruhr.
July 19, 1944 - The entire Government of Japan resigns, Emperor Hirohito asks General Kuniaka Koiso to form a new government.
July 19, 1944 - U.S. Army and Marines invade Guam.
- The Battle of Guam was a US operation to recapture the island of Guam from the Japanese in 1943, during World War II. Guam is at the southern end of the Marianas group, about 1.600 km north of New Guinea. It was occupied by the Japanese on the 10 December 1941 and used as a naval and air base. US forces invaded on the 21 July 1943 and by the 10 August the entire island was in their hands. US losses amounted to 1.744 killed and 5.970 wounded; the Japanese lost 18.250 killed and 1.250 captured. Some of the Japanese garrison fled to the interior of the island, the last of them did not surrender until 1960.
July 24, 1944 - Majdanek, the first great Concentration Camp at liberty by 1st Ukraine Front.
- US forces land on Tinian and face Japanese troops, 6.000 men. Early skirmishes are seen off but with considerable losses. Napalm is used for the first time in the Pacific theatre.
July 25, 1944 - U.S. forces (1th and 3th Army) break-out at Sainte-Lo, France, support with 1500 heavy bombers.
- Operation "Cobra": The Americans force break-through at Avranches.
July 27, 1944 - Reichsmarshal Hermann Goering is named as Germany's Mobilization Director, "to adapt in every respect the entire public life to the necessities of total warfare."
- Josef Goebels is named; "Reichskommissar für den totalen Kriegseinsatz".
August 1 - October 2, 1944 - The Warsaw Resistance Army (General Count Bor-Komorowski), also named Polish Home Army, begins battling German forces in Poland.
- The Poles in Warsaw rose up against the Nazis at the end of the war knowing that the Red Army was only a few miles away. The Russians however left the Poles to fight alone. The revolt lasted two months before the Poles ran out of food and ammunition.
Tinian liberated; In the Pacific fighting ended on Tinian (Marianas): Japan lost more than 6.000 men, the American just 390 men.August 2, 1944 - Soviet forces reach the Baltic Sea west of Riga, Latvia.
- Ryti, the President of Finland resigns, he is replaced by Marshal Carl von Mannerheim.
Soviet Unions recognition of "Comité of Lublin", Poland.
- Churchill declares: 4.735 men killed by V1's; more then 14.000 wounded; 17.000 houses destroyed and 800.000 damagedAugust 7 - 8, 1944 - "Das Volksgerichtshof" in Berlin (led by Freisler) against the men from 20 July..
August 9, 1944 - General Eisenhower moves his command headquarters from England to Normandy, France.
August 10, 1944 - U.S. Army and Marines capture Guam.
August 11, 1944 - German forces evacuate Florence, Italy.
August 15, 1944 - Operation "Dragoon": Allied forces, the 7th American Army (3 American and 7 French divisions) invade southern France, east of Toulon.
- The Allied landing in the South of France started when troops from General Patch's US 7th Army and French Commandos (II French Corps) came ashore between Cannes and Toulon. Naval bombardment supports the beachheads and carrier aircraft outnumber the Luftwaffe 25:1. The action is followed by Winston Churchill from distance and he saw little German opposition to the attack; General Weise has only 7 infantry divisions and 11th Panzer Division to protect the entire south and south-east of France.
August 16, 1944 - "The sack of Falaise": About 250.000 Germans of the 5th and 7th Army enclosed near Falaise.
August 20, 1944 - Marshal Pétain placed in arrest by the Germans and brought to the Castle Sigmaringen.
August 21 - October 9, 1944 - Conference of Dumbarton Oaks, between USA, Great-Britain, Soviet-Union and China.
Allied representatives meet at Dumbarton Oaks, near Washington, D.C., in a conference to discuss postwar security. An agreement is signed to create an assembly of all nations, a council of leading states, and an International Court of Justice. Among those attending are Edward Stettinius (U.S.), Sir Alexander Cadogan (British) and Andrei Gromyko (Soviet Union). This assembly is to be known as the United Nations.August 23, 1944 - Pro-Axis leader of Romania Marshal Ion Antonescu is arrested and replaced by Sanatescu. After the war, Antonescu is tried and executed. Romania declares war on German and joins the Allied battle.
August 24, 1944 - Allied forces capture Bordeaux, France.
- Britain attack on the Tirpitz in the Altafjord.
August 25, 1944 - Liberation of Paris by Free French, US, and British forces. General Jacques LeClerc accepts the German surrender (General von Cholitz).
August 26, 1944 - The Great Liberation Parade, Paris, France.
- Hitler's order: evacuate Greece by Armygroup E, General Löhr.
August 31, 1944 - American forces reach the old French Maginot Line.
- Russian troops capture the oilfields of Ploesti.
August 31 - September 14, 1944 - The U.S. Task Force 38 (before Task Force 58) execute raids on Iwo Jima and the Boninei islands, the West Carolinen, the Plau- islands, Mindanano and the Visayas-archipel (the Phillippines).
September 1, 1944 - Soviet forces enter Bucharest, Romania.
- Allied penetrate the "Gothenline" in Italy over about 30 km.
September 3, 1944 - British forces, under Lieutenant General Sir Miles C. Dempsey, capture Brussels, Belgium.
September 4, 1944 - An armistice is declared between Finland and the Soviet Union.
- Finnish order: Germany must leave Finland for 16 September
September 5, 1944 - The Soviet Union declares war on Bulgaria.
September 7, 1944 - Hungary declares war on Romania in hope of retaining the territory of Transylvania.
September 8, 1944 - The Germans launched the first V-2 rocket and hits England (London).
- Launched from Wassenaar, a suburb of The Hague still in German hands, the first V-2 rocket to land in England reaches Chiswick in west London. At this point the threat from the V-1 has been chiefly removed by the capture of the launch sites in France, but now the new projectile, fired from mobile launchers, poses a new problem. Its 192-mile flight is completed in five minutes and brings devastation to six houses in Staveley Road, much additional damage, and three people killed and ten injured. This was not the intended target, of course, but those witnessing the event cannot explain the cause of the explosion because the speed of the projectile is such that it arrives before the sound of its passage is heard. Press statements are minimal and the public remains in the dark for two months. The Allies will find it difficult to fly raids against the mobile launch vehicles even though they quickly trace the area in which they are operating. The V-2 programme will have a minimal effect on the war as a whole, the daily bombardment barely equalling the effect of a single Allied bomber over Germany..
September 9, 1944 - An armistice is declared between Bulgaria and the Soviet Union.
September 10, 1944 - Roosevelt and Churchill meet in Quebec, Canada.
- American troops capture Luxemburg.
September 11, 1944 - Units of the 1th American Army cross German border, north of Trier.
- Patrols of the 2th British Army cross Dutch border, north of Leopoldsbrug.
September 15, 1944 - Armed Forces of the US in the south-west Pacific invaded Morotai and the Palau-islands, the Japanese-held island of Peleliu (Palau) was one of the bitterest battles of the Pacific war and did not end for 10 weeks.
September 17, 1944 - Operation "Market Garden": Allied paratroops land inside the Netherlands, in the biggest airborne operation ever attempted.
- Railway strike in the Netherlands.
-The U.S. Fourteenth Air Force abandons its air base at Kweilin, China.
September 20, 1944 - British Guards Armored Division and 82th Airborne Division have taken Nimwegen by a fast attack which too captures the important bridge over the Waal before the Germans could destroy it. At Arnheim the paratroops unit loses its hold on one end of the bridge.
September 24, 1944 - Hitler's order the formation of the "Volkssturm". Soviet forces invade Czechoslovakia.
September 26, 1944 - End of "Market Garden"; 2.400 soldiers come back across the river "Rhein" from Oosterbeek, 10.000 soldiers were dropped north of the river.
October 1, 1944 - Begin of Operations for liberation of "Zeeuws-Vlaanderen", "Zuid-Beveland" and "Walcheren".
October 2, 1944 - The Warsaw Resistance Army surrenders to German forces, after 2 month heavy fight, ended in a Polnish disaster.
October 4, 1944 -The Me 262 fighters, their first action are ineffective. They will eventually shoot down 25 Allied bombers, but their cumbersome take-off and landing, and the routing restrictions necessitated by their high fuel consumption, sees 35 of them lost.
October 7, 1944 - Heavy air raids on German oil centres, by day.
October 7 - 16, 1944 - The battle of Aachen, the capture of Aachen, the first German city to fall (secured on 21th october), the offensive of the American 1st and 9th Armies to the Rür, which included the battle of the Hürtgen Forest, Operation Queen, the largest aerial close support operation of the war against the German lines east of Aachen; A total of 2,807 planes dropped 10,097 tons of bombs.
October 14, 1944 - British and Greek forces recapture Athens, Greece.
October 18, 1944 - Volkssturm formed; the last-ditch defenders of the Reich. All men aged from sixteen to sixty were organized in their districts, with few uniforms, with little training and with any weapons that could be found, under the leadership of any available officers from the SS, SA, NSKK or Hitler Youth. Units of this home de fence force varied greatly in quality. Young boys of the Hitler Youth were reputed to have fought with great ferocity in the last days of Berlin. The Volkssturm, intended to fight in their own areas, might have made a significant de fence contribution had they not been thrown into the last battles of the Reich whenever there was a desperate need.
October 20, 1944 - U.S. landing on Leyte island in Philippines.
- Soviet forces invade East Prussia.
- Tito's Partisans, along with Russian forces, complete the liberation of Belgrade. Partisans take Dubrovnik, Russians take Debrecen, Hungary.
October 23 - 26, 1944 - The Battle of Leyte Gulf, was the biggest (3-day) naval battle of WW II, results in heavy Japanese naval losses and the sinking of the U.S. aircraft carrier U.S.S. Princeton. Admiral Kinkaid's US 7th Fleet escorts the first landing-parties from General Kruegers's 6th Army to Leyte. There was little resistance from Japanese 16th Division, the first day about 130.000 US troops came ashore.
October 25, 1944 - Russians invade Norway, take Kirkenes.
October 29, 1944 - Last gassing in Auschwitz.
November 1, 1944 - The battle of Walcheren. 3 Commando groups land with the British 52th Division and bad weather reduces air support but battleship Warspite and some more ships provide gunfire. Several landing-ships are lost on their approach to the garrisoned island.
- A US aircraft flies a reconnaissance mission over Tokyo, this is the first flight over the capital since the Doolittle raid of April 1942.
November 4, 1944 - Whole Greece free.
November 6, 1944 - Joseph Stalin renounce the neutrality pact between the Soviet Union and Japan..
November 7, 1944 - Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected to an unprecedented fourth term as President of the United States.
November 10 - 11, 1944 - Razzia in Rotterdam, Netherlands; 50.000 men deported.
November 12, 1944 - The German battleship Tirpitz is capsized at anchor off Haakoy Island of the coast of Tromso (Norway) in the Tromsofiord by a 29 RAF Lancaster's raid which deliver a dozen Tallboy bombs, of which three hit the vessel. The vessel turns over within thirteen minutes of the explosion, few of the crew manage to abandon the ship ; more than 1000 are lost.
November 13, 1944 - The U.S. Fourteenth Air Force abandons its air base at Liuchow, China.
November 24, 1944 - The first B-29 (Marianen) raid on Japan begins. 100 planes are launched, only 16 bombs hit the target factory.
November 24 - 29, 1944 - Japanese "Kamikaze" flyers damage for Luzon and in the Gulf of Leyte 4 Air-craft carriers, 2 Battleships, 2 Cruisers and 2 Destroyers.
- Japanese Kamikaze pilots flew their planes directly at their targets, making escape impossible and committing suicide in the process of destroying the enemy.
November 26, 1944 - The U.S. Fourteenth Air Force abandons its air base in Kwangsi Province, China.
Destruction of the Gas chambers of Auschwitz according Himmler's order.November 29, 1944 - Albania liberated.
December 3, 1944 - A civil war breaks-out in Greece. British forces deliver an ultimatum for all side to surrender their arms.
December 11 , 1944 - France and the Soviet Union sign a 20-year mutual assistance pact.
December 16, 1944 - January 16, 1945 - German troops in the Ardennes forest launch a counteroffensive "The Battle of the Bulge", the operation is called : "Herbstnebel", last major attempt to turn back the Allied advance in the west. A German Airborne operation on a small scale was carried out against during the Ardennes offensive, there were a few other major Airborne operations launched by the Germans; at Holland May 1940 and at Crete May 1941.
December 17, 1944 - Mass murder on American prisoners of war at Malmédy.
The massacre was committed by troops of 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, Kampfgruppe Peiper.December 17 - 18, 1944 - In the Pacific Task Force 38 (regrouping after recent attacks on Luzon) involved in a particular bad heavy weather typhoon, which inflicts worse damage than the Japanese; 3 destroyers sank and 21 ships (carriers and other destroyers) damaged.
December 22, 1944 - Counter-offensive of General Patton from Arlon into the direction of Bastogne.
December 23, 1944 - Soviet forces reach Budapest, Hungary.
December 17, 1944 - Operation Nordwind, the second and final phase of the Nazi winter offensive began.
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