Soviet forces took
Călărași and reached the Bulgarian frontier at
Giurgiu.[1] Moscow requested permission for their troops to enter Bulgarian territory.[2]
Lipniak-Majorat massacre: German troops carried out a massacre of around 450
Poles, including many women and children, in the village of
Lipniak-Majorat in
occupied Poland.[5]
The Spanish-language family magazine
¡Hola! was founded in
Barcelona.
Bulgaria accepted an armistice with the Soviet Union.[9]
The first
V-2 flying bomb to reach British soil (launched from
The Hague) landed in
Chiswick, west London, demolishing eleven houses and killing three people immediately. The British government did not acknowledge the new German weapon until November.[14]
Communist leader
Bolesław Bierut assumed the presidency of a new provisional government of Poland.[1]
German submarine U-19 was scuttled in the Black Sea.
US troops crossed the border into
Nazi Germany for the first time. At 16:30 hours, a 7-person patrol led by Sgt. Warner W. Holzinger of the 2nd Platoon, Troop B, 85th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, 5th Armored Division, crossed the
river Our at
Stolzembourg,
Luxembourg and reached
Keppeshausen. They studied the pillbox area, and returned safely to Stolzembourg at 18:50 having encountered no German military personnel. This was also the first advance through enemy lines in Germany.[16][17]
Romania signed an armistice with the Allies in Moscow. Romania agreed to provide twelve divisions to fight Germany, provide goods and raw materials to the USSR, ban all fascist organizations, repeal anti-Jewish laws and revert to their 1940 borders. The Soviet Union took control of
Bessarabia and northern
Bukovina.[1][18]
About 12,000 German troops surrendered as the First Canadian Army captured
Le Havre.[18]
The Japanese passenger ship Rakuyō Maru was sunk in the South China Sea by American submarine
USS Sealion while transporting 1,317 Australian and British prisoners of war. A total of 1,159 POWs died.
The
Lapland War begins between Germany and Finland.
The Germans carried out
Operation Tanne Ost to capture the Finnish island of
Suursaari before it could fall into Soviet hands. The operation was a complete failure for the Germans with the Finns taking 1,231 prisoners.
German frogmen carried out a successful raid on the floodgates at Antwerp and rendered the port unusable to the Allies for six weeks.[22]
The French provisional government in
Paris said it would try Vichy war criminals and issued warrants for the arrests of
Philippe Pétain and his cabinet.[10][22]
In accordance with a call from the Danish National Council in London (not actually a
government in exile but an association of free Danes), workers in Denmark went on strike starting at noon to protest the transfer of about 190 Danish political prisoners to Germany. The strike mostly affected the transportation system.[24]
Hitler made the decision to go through with the Ardennes Offensive in his Prussian headquarters (the Wolf's Lair). This would become the Battle of the Bulge.
Died:Gustav Bauer, 74, Chancellor of Germany from 1919 to 1920
30,000 Dutch rail workers obeyed a call from General
Eisenhower to go on strike to paralyze the German transport system in Holland. Many of the workers went into hiding.[25]
Operation Paravane ended when a bomb hit the German battleship Tirpitz, disabling her and causing the Germans to tow her south to
Tromsø where she would be sunk in
Operation Catechism two months later.
The Japanese
hell shipJun'yō Maru was sunk off
Sumatra by the British submarine Tradewind with the loss of 5,620 lives, the worst maritime disaster in history up to that time.
American
B-17 bombers dropped 1,284 containers of supplies to the
Home Army in Warsaw, but only 228 fell on Polish-controlled territory. This was the only major supply drop of the war that the Soviets allowed the western Allies to carry out.[26]
Thomas E. Dewey made a nationally broadcast campaign speech in
Portland, Oregon in which he said that the making of peace was too important "to be dependent upon the life span and continued friendship of two or three individuals." Dewey said that there were "no indispensable men."[27]
SS and Police Leader of Denmark
Günther Pancke proclaimed a
state of emergency and ordered the Danish police disarmed in an effort to stop the Danish transportation strike from becoming a
general strike. This measure brought about shooting in front of the castle in Copenhagen when the royal guards thought they would be disarmed as well, and eight people were killed. Striking would continue for two more days.[24]
German submarine U-407 was depth charged and sunk in the Mediterranean Sea off
Milos, Greece by Allied warships.
U-565 was severely damaged by American aircraft near
Skaramagas, Greece and scuttled five days later.
The
Battle of Porkuni was fought between Estonians serving in the Red Army and Estonian pro-independence and Waffen-SS units. The battle resulted in Soviet victory.
The Soviet Army crossed into Hungarian territory.[13]
An RAF bombing raid destroyed an aqueduct on the
Dortmund-Ems Canal and brought a halt to the shipment of prefabricated U-boat parts via this route.[32]
U.S. President
Franklin D. Roosevelt made a campaign speech in Washington before the International
Teamsters Brotherhood. He responded to a rumor that he'd sent a Navy destroyer to the
Aleutian Islands to retrieve his
Scottish TerrierFala at great taxpayer expense by saying, "You know, Fala is Scotch, and being a Scottie, as soon as he learned that the Republican fiction writers in Congress and out had concocted a story that I had left him behind on the Aleutian Islands and had sent a destroyer back to find him— at a cost to the taxpayers of two or three, or eight or twenty million dollars- his Scotch soul was furious. He has not been the same dog since. I am accustomed to hearing malicious falsehoods about myself—such as that old, worm-eaten chestnut that I have represented myself as indispensable. But I think I have a right to resent, to object to libelous statements about my dog." Roosevelt drew huge laughs from the audience and the speech became a defining moment in the campaign.[33][34]
Died:Harry Chandler, 80, American newspaper publisher and real estate mogul
Italy's high commissioner for the punishment of Fascist crimes
Mario Berlinguer said that he would seek a court order to reopen the case of the 1924 murder of Socialist politician
Giacomo Matteotti.[35]
German submarine U-596 was bombed and damaged in
Salamis Bay by American aircraft and consequently scuttled.
Finnish forces captured
Pudasjärvi in northern Finland.[38]
The Japanese troop transport and hospital ship Ural Maru was torpedoed and sunk in the
South China Sea by the American submarine Flasher with the loss of some 2,000 lives.
The British destroyer Rockingham (formerly the
USS Swasey) struck a mine in the
North Sea and sank under tow.
Soviet, Yugoslav Partisan and Bulgarian forces began the
Belgrade Offensive.
Winston Churchill made a speech in the House of Commons reviewing the progress of the war and announcing that a Jewish brigade would be formed to take part in active operations. "I know there is a vast number of Jews serving with our forces and the American forces throughout all the armies, but it seems to me indeed appropriate that a special Jewish unit of that race which has suffered indescribable torment from the Nazis should be represented as a distinct formation among the forces gathered for their final overthrow," Churchill explained. "I have no doubt that they will not only take part in the struggle but also in the occupation which will follow."[39]
A roundup in Bratislava orchestrated by
Alois Brunner captures 1,800 Jews and puts an end to one of the most successful underground Jewish organizations during the Holocaust, the
Bratislava Working Group. The Jews are deported to
Auschwitz, where most are murdered.
Died:Josef Bürckel, 49, German Nazi politician (apparent complications from exhaustion)
^Księga pamięci żołnierzy Armii Krajowej Obwodu Ostrów Maz. 1939-1944 (in Polish). Warsaw. 2007. pp. 21–22.{{
cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link)
^
ab"1944". World War II Database. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
^
abHeiber, Helmut; Glantz, David M., eds. (2002). Hitler and His Generals: Military Conferences 1942–1945. Enigma Books. p. 1010.
ISBN978-1-929631-28-5.
Soviet forces took
Călărași and reached the Bulgarian frontier at
Giurgiu.[1] Moscow requested permission for their troops to enter Bulgarian territory.[2]
Lipniak-Majorat massacre: German troops carried out a massacre of around 450
Poles, including many women and children, in the village of
Lipniak-Majorat in
occupied Poland.[5]
The Spanish-language family magazine
¡Hola! was founded in
Barcelona.
Bulgaria accepted an armistice with the Soviet Union.[9]
The first
V-2 flying bomb to reach British soil (launched from
The Hague) landed in
Chiswick, west London, demolishing eleven houses and killing three people immediately. The British government did not acknowledge the new German weapon until November.[14]
Communist leader
Bolesław Bierut assumed the presidency of a new provisional government of Poland.[1]
German submarine U-19 was scuttled in the Black Sea.
US troops crossed the border into
Nazi Germany for the first time. At 16:30 hours, a 7-person patrol led by Sgt. Warner W. Holzinger of the 2nd Platoon, Troop B, 85th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, 5th Armored Division, crossed the
river Our at
Stolzembourg,
Luxembourg and reached
Keppeshausen. They studied the pillbox area, and returned safely to Stolzembourg at 18:50 having encountered no German military personnel. This was also the first advance through enemy lines in Germany.[16][17]
Romania signed an armistice with the Allies in Moscow. Romania agreed to provide twelve divisions to fight Germany, provide goods and raw materials to the USSR, ban all fascist organizations, repeal anti-Jewish laws and revert to their 1940 borders. The Soviet Union took control of
Bessarabia and northern
Bukovina.[1][18]
About 12,000 German troops surrendered as the First Canadian Army captured
Le Havre.[18]
The Japanese passenger ship Rakuyō Maru was sunk in the South China Sea by American submarine
USS Sealion while transporting 1,317 Australian and British prisoners of war. A total of 1,159 POWs died.
The
Lapland War begins between Germany and Finland.
The Germans carried out
Operation Tanne Ost to capture the Finnish island of
Suursaari before it could fall into Soviet hands. The operation was a complete failure for the Germans with the Finns taking 1,231 prisoners.
German frogmen carried out a successful raid on the floodgates at Antwerp and rendered the port unusable to the Allies for six weeks.[22]
The French provisional government in
Paris said it would try Vichy war criminals and issued warrants for the arrests of
Philippe Pétain and his cabinet.[10][22]
In accordance with a call from the Danish National Council in London (not actually a
government in exile but an association of free Danes), workers in Denmark went on strike starting at noon to protest the transfer of about 190 Danish political prisoners to Germany. The strike mostly affected the transportation system.[24]
Hitler made the decision to go through with the Ardennes Offensive in his Prussian headquarters (the Wolf's Lair). This would become the Battle of the Bulge.
Died:Gustav Bauer, 74, Chancellor of Germany from 1919 to 1920
30,000 Dutch rail workers obeyed a call from General
Eisenhower to go on strike to paralyze the German transport system in Holland. Many of the workers went into hiding.[25]
Operation Paravane ended when a bomb hit the German battleship Tirpitz, disabling her and causing the Germans to tow her south to
Tromsø where she would be sunk in
Operation Catechism two months later.
The Japanese
hell shipJun'yō Maru was sunk off
Sumatra by the British submarine Tradewind with the loss of 5,620 lives, the worst maritime disaster in history up to that time.
American
B-17 bombers dropped 1,284 containers of supplies to the
Home Army in Warsaw, but only 228 fell on Polish-controlled territory. This was the only major supply drop of the war that the Soviets allowed the western Allies to carry out.[26]
Thomas E. Dewey made a nationally broadcast campaign speech in
Portland, Oregon in which he said that the making of peace was too important "to be dependent upon the life span and continued friendship of two or three individuals." Dewey said that there were "no indispensable men."[27]
SS and Police Leader of Denmark
Günther Pancke proclaimed a
state of emergency and ordered the Danish police disarmed in an effort to stop the Danish transportation strike from becoming a
general strike. This measure brought about shooting in front of the castle in Copenhagen when the royal guards thought they would be disarmed as well, and eight people were killed. Striking would continue for two more days.[24]
German submarine U-407 was depth charged and sunk in the Mediterranean Sea off
Milos, Greece by Allied warships.
U-565 was severely damaged by American aircraft near
Skaramagas, Greece and scuttled five days later.
The
Battle of Porkuni was fought between Estonians serving in the Red Army and Estonian pro-independence and Waffen-SS units. The battle resulted in Soviet victory.
The Soviet Army crossed into Hungarian territory.[13]
An RAF bombing raid destroyed an aqueduct on the
Dortmund-Ems Canal and brought a halt to the shipment of prefabricated U-boat parts via this route.[32]
U.S. President
Franklin D. Roosevelt made a campaign speech in Washington before the International
Teamsters Brotherhood. He responded to a rumor that he'd sent a Navy destroyer to the
Aleutian Islands to retrieve his
Scottish TerrierFala at great taxpayer expense by saying, "You know, Fala is Scotch, and being a Scottie, as soon as he learned that the Republican fiction writers in Congress and out had concocted a story that I had left him behind on the Aleutian Islands and had sent a destroyer back to find him— at a cost to the taxpayers of two or three, or eight or twenty million dollars- his Scotch soul was furious. He has not been the same dog since. I am accustomed to hearing malicious falsehoods about myself—such as that old, worm-eaten chestnut that I have represented myself as indispensable. But I think I have a right to resent, to object to libelous statements about my dog." Roosevelt drew huge laughs from the audience and the speech became a defining moment in the campaign.[33][34]
Died:Harry Chandler, 80, American newspaper publisher and real estate mogul
Italy's high commissioner for the punishment of Fascist crimes
Mario Berlinguer said that he would seek a court order to reopen the case of the 1924 murder of Socialist politician
Giacomo Matteotti.[35]
German submarine U-596 was bombed and damaged in
Salamis Bay by American aircraft and consequently scuttled.
Finnish forces captured
Pudasjärvi in northern Finland.[38]
The Japanese troop transport and hospital ship Ural Maru was torpedoed and sunk in the
South China Sea by the American submarine Flasher with the loss of some 2,000 lives.
The British destroyer Rockingham (formerly the
USS Swasey) struck a mine in the
North Sea and sank under tow.
Soviet, Yugoslav Partisan and Bulgarian forces began the
Belgrade Offensive.
Winston Churchill made a speech in the House of Commons reviewing the progress of the war and announcing that a Jewish brigade would be formed to take part in active operations. "I know there is a vast number of Jews serving with our forces and the American forces throughout all the armies, but it seems to me indeed appropriate that a special Jewish unit of that race which has suffered indescribable torment from the Nazis should be represented as a distinct formation among the forces gathered for their final overthrow," Churchill explained. "I have no doubt that they will not only take part in the struggle but also in the occupation which will follow."[39]
A roundup in Bratislava orchestrated by
Alois Brunner captures 1,800 Jews and puts an end to one of the most successful underground Jewish organizations during the Holocaust, the
Bratislava Working Group. The Jews are deported to
Auschwitz, where most are murdered.
Died:Josef Bürckel, 49, German Nazi politician (apparent complications from exhaustion)
^Księga pamięci żołnierzy Armii Krajowej Obwodu Ostrów Maz. 1939-1944 (in Polish). Warsaw. 2007. pp. 21–22.{{
cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link)
^
ab"1944". World War II Database. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
^
abHeiber, Helmut; Glantz, David M., eds. (2002). Hitler and His Generals: Military Conferences 1942–1945. Enigma Books. p. 1010.
ISBN978-1-929631-28-5.