| 11 January |
Operation Pointblank: Allies attack German aeronautic facilities with a series of bombing raids to degrade the capabilities of the Luftwaffe.
|
| 12 January |
In Italy, Allied attack on the Gustav Line resumes, centered on Monte Cassino.
|
| 22 January |
Allies land at Anzio, Italy.
|
| 27 January |
Russian troops retake Leningrad after 900 day siege.
|
| 31 January |
United States Marines and Army units invade Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands, Central Pacific [31 Jan-5 Feb].
|
| 3 February |
German forces launch a counteroffensive against the Anzio beachhead [3-4 Feb].
|
| 5 February |
Kwajalein Island in the Marshall Islands declared secure.
|
| 7 February |
Italian forces launch a counteroffensive against the Anzio beachhead.
|
| 13 February |
General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, establishes SHAEF headquarters in England.
|
| 15 February |
Allied forces occupy Green Island, Northern Solomon Islands, needed for an airbase to support the assault on Rabaul.
|
| 17 February |
First day of the Battle of Truk, one of the most significant Pacific Theater air battles.
|
| 17 February |
Battle of Eniwetok Atoll in the Central Pacific Marshall Islands [17-23 Feb].
|
| 20 February |
Operation Argument aka 'Big Week' begins; American bombers concentrate on German aircraft manufacturing to lure the Luftwaffe into a decisive battle.
|
| 23 February |
US forces achieve victory in the Battle of Eniwetok Atoll, in the Pacific Marshall Islands.
|
| 29 February |
USS Trout [SS-202] sunk by Japanese ships during the submarine's attack on a convoy, 81 men lost.
|
| 29 February |
US 1st Cavalry Division invades the Admiralty Islands [Battle of Los Negros and Operation Brewer].
|
| 29 February |
Oppossing guerrilla armies fighting the Greek Civil War sign the Plaka Agreement, a ceasefire that directed both to fight the German occupation.
|
| 8 March |
Finns reject Soviet armistice terms.
|
| 15 March |
Allied aircraft bomb German-held monastery at Monte Cassino, Italy and stage an assault.
|
| 19 March |
Operation Margarethe launched by Germany to occupy Hungary.
|
| 20 March |
RAF Flight Sergeant Nicholas Alkemade survives 4000 meter [13000+ ft] drop without a parachute over Germany.
|
| 20 March |
Beginning of Allied invasion to occupy Emirau Island, Northern Solomons, effectively cutting off the Solomon Islands and the Bismarck Archipelago from the Japanese.
|
| 23 March |
Last large scale Japanese counterattack to break the American line on Bougainville fails, although mopping up operations on the island continue to November 1944.
|
| 23 March |
Italian Resistance attacks Nazis marching in Via Rasella, killing 33.
|
| 24 March |
Fosse Ardeatine massacre in Rome: 335 Italians are killed, including 75 Jews and over 200 members of the Italian Resistance.
|
| 31 March |
Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese fleet, Fleet Admiral Mineichi Koga, killed in an airplane crash on-route from Palau and Davao in the midst of a typhoon.
|
| 2 April |
Near Lille, 86 French civilians murdered by Nazi forces in reprisal for partisan attacks by the Resistance.
|
| 2 April |
Red Army invades Romania to recapture its oil resources for the Allied cause.
|
| 4 April |
Start of Battle of Kohima, India, with invading Japanese forces pitted against British and Indian troops [4 Apr - 22 Jun].
|
| 8 April |
Crimean Offensive: Soviet troops begin an offensive to liberate the Crimea from German occupation forces [8 April-12 May]. |
| 10 April |
Russians recapture the Black Sea port of Odessa.
|
| 19 April |
Japanese launch Operation ICHIGO, the first Japanese ground offensive in China since December 1941.
|
| 28 April |
D-Day preparations take tragic turn with 749 American troops killed by German attack on training Exercise Tiger at Slapton Sands [Start Bay, Devon, England].
|
| 3 May |
Admiral Soemu Toyoda is appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet, replacing Fleet Admiral Mineichi Koga.
|
| 4 May |
Meat rationing ends in the United States for most types and cuts of meat.
|
| 4 May |
Concentration camp Neuengamme (near Hamburg) liberated by the British Army.
|
| 4 May |
Netherlands liberated by British and Canadian troops under British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, with German surrender next day.
|
| 4 May |
Denmark liberated by British forces, with German surrender next day. Island of Bornholm, in the east, was liberated by Soviet forces 9 May after heavy bombing and fighting.
|
| 8 May |
Supreme Allied Commander Eisenhower confirms 5 June 1944 as the date for Operation Overlord, the invasion of France [changed last minute to 6 June due to weather].
|
| 11 May |
Allied Fifth and Eighth Armies launch long-awaited offensive, finally capturing Cassino and breaking the German Gustav Line [night of 11-12 May].
|
| 15 May |
Germans begin withdrawal from the Gustav Line to new positions south of Rome, Italy.
|
| 18 May |
Battle of Monte Cassino, Italy, ends with German evacuation of the site and occupation by Allied troops.
|
| 19 May |
British troops capture Aquino airfield in the Liri valley SE of Rome, Italy.
|
| 23 May |
Allied breakout from Anzio beachhead.
|
| 30 May |
German V-2 test rocket crash recovered and hidden by Polish Home Army resistance; two months later RAF sent a plane to transport the disassembled V-2 for analysis in the UK.
|
| 31 May |
Exercise LASH: Jedburghs exercise in organizing, protecting, and controlling partisan groups, held in Leicestershire, England [31 May-8 June].
|
| 4 June |
Allies enter Rome the first Axis capital city to fall [4-5 Jun].
|
| 4 June |
German submarine U-505 captured, the first time a US Navy vessel has captured an enemy vessel at sea since the 19th century.
|
| 5 June |
In the night before D-Day, thousands of US and British paratroopers fly from England to jump over Normandy [5-6 Jun].
|
| 5 June |
In a black Halifax, Team HUGH departed England at 2300 hours, the first Jedburgh team to infiltrate into occupied Europe, landing on French soil early D-Day mcrning.
|
| 6 June |
'D-Day' the largest invasion force in history lands at Normandy on the French coast.
|
| 9 June |
Soviet Union launches offensive against Finland.
|
| 10 June |
With no reason given, German soldiers kill 642 men, women and children in the Oradour-sur-Glane Massacre in France.
|
| 12 June |
First German V-1 rockets directed at England [12-14 Jun].
|
| 15 June |
US invades Saipan, in the Marianas, first island close enough to support bombing of Japan.
|
| 15 June |
First raid on Japan by B-29 Superfortress bombers based in China.
|
| 19 June |
First day of the Battle of the Philippine Sea, the last major carrier aircraft battle [19-20 June].
|
| 22 June |
Soviet forces clear Wehrmacht from Belarus, destroying German Army Group Centre and liberating all Russian territory still held by the Germans from Operation Bagration.
|
| 22 June |
British and Indian troops defeat the Japanese at the Battle of Kohima, India [4 Apr - 22 Jun].
|
| 25 June |
Finnish and Soviet troops engage in Battle of Tali-Ihantala, history's largest battle in a Nordic country [25 June - 9 July].
|
| 26 June |
American troops enter Cherbourg, capturing the vital French port for the Allies.
|
| 29 June |
Beginning of deportations of Jews from Hungary to Nazi concentration camps including Auschwitz.
|
| 3 July |
Minsk retaken by Soviet Red Army.
|
| 8 July |
US forces on Saipan mop up after surviving a 15-hour banzai charge, one of the largest ever, defesting over 3000 Japanese soldiers plus wounded and civilians who participated.
|
| 9 July |
British and Canadian forces capture Caen from the Germans, a critical post-D-Day objective in Normandy, France.
|
| 9 July |
US forces reach the northern end of Saipan, finding thousands of Japanese civilian men, women, and children who commit suicide by leaping off the cliffs rather than be captured.
|
| 17 July |
Protected by the Royal Canadian Navy, the largest shipping convoy of WW II embarks from Halifax, Nova Scotia.
|
| 17 July |
Disaster at the Port Chicago Naval Magazine, CA, where the munitions ship SS E.A. Bryan, explodes killing 320, injuring almost 400 more, many of them African-American stevedores.
|
| 18 July |
St. Lo taken in Normandy, France, first step in breakout from beachhead.
|
| 20 July |
Attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler fails as he survives a bomb inside his Wolf's Lair field headquarters, near Rastenburg, East Prussia [20 July Plot].
|
| 21 July |
US forces land on Guam.
|
| 22 July |
Setbacks in the Japanese war effort force the resignation of Hideki Tojo as Prime Minister of Japan.
|
| 24 July |
US forces land on Tinian.
|
| 25 July |
Operation COBRA starts US breakout from Normandy.
|
| 25 July |
Air combat between an Me-262 and an RAF Mosquito, the first combat involving the German experimental jet fighter.
|
| 28 July |
Rapid Red Army advance through Poland overruns German defenses and captures Brest-Litovsk, Jaroslaw and Przemysl.
|
| 30 July |
Operation Bluecoat begins, an attack by British Second Army supporting breakout in Normandy, aimed to secure the Vire junction and high ground of Mont Pinçon [30 Jul-7 Aug].
|
| 1 August |
Polish Home Army emerges to attack the German garrison in Warsaw [1 Aug-2 Oct].
|
| 4 August |
Anne Frank and her family arrested by the Gestapo, turned in by a Dutch informer; diary ends.
|
| 9 August |
Port Chicago Mutiny: Following the 17 July explosion, hundreds of African-American stevedores refuse to return to work, citing unsafe conditions; 250 arrested, 50 brought to trial.
|
| 11 August |
Guam secured in the Marianas.
|
| 12 August |
Battle of the Falaise Pocket, the decisive engagement of the Battle of Normandy, begins; Allied fighter-bombers and artillery destroy twenty nearly-encircled German divisions [12-21 Aug].
|
| 12 August |
Florence, Italy liberated by the Allies.
|
| 13 August |
US XV Corps [of US 3rd Army] captures Argentan, threatening to close the Falaise Pocket on the overextended Germans.
|
| 13 August |
Gen. Bradley orders Gen. Patton to stop northward movement of XV Corps, preventing them from meeting Canadian troops and sealing the Argentan-Falaise pocket.
|
| 15 August |
Operation Dragoon [aka Anvil] invasion of Southern France.
|
| 16 August |
Canadian troops secure Falaise, still 15 miles north of US XV Corps, a gap that permitted large numbers of German troops to escape to the east from the Battle of the Falaise Pocket.
|
| 18 August |
Submarine USS Rasher [SS-269] sinks the highest tonnage of any WW II submarine patrol to that date, a record exceeded only once.
|
| 20 August |
168 captured allied airmen arrive at Buchenwald concentration camp, accused of being 'terror fliers' rather than legitimate combatants.
|
| 21 August |
US Army Transportation Corps creates the huge Red Ball Express trucking operation, moving supplies to the ETO front around the clock.
|
| 23 August |
Following overthrow of dictator Marshal Ion Antonescu, Romania repudiates the Axis and joins the fight against Germany, cooperating with the Soviet Union.
|
| 25 August |
Paris is liberated by Allied troops.
|
| 25 August |
Operation OLIVE commences Allied attack on Germans in Northern Italy, across a broad front.
|
| 28 August |
German experimental Me-262 jet fighter shot down near Brussels by USAAF P-47 aircraft, the first Me-262 lost in air combat.
|
| 29 August |
US Army 28th Infantry Division parades down the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in a victory celebration for the liberation of Paris a few days earlier.
|
| 30 August |
Last remnants of German forces retreat across the Seine River, bringing Operation Overlord to a successful conclusion.
|
| 31 August |
Major fighting ends in New Guinea after Australian and US forces complete a series of successful engagements against the Japanese.
|
| 3 September |
Anne Frank and family sent to Auschwitz concentration camp.
|
| 4 September |
Brussels is liberated by Allied troops.
|
| 4 September |
Russian-Finnish war ends; Finland cuts ties with Germany.
|
| 5 September |
USSR declares war on Bulgaria.
|
| 8 September |
Bulgaria surrenders to Soviet Union as Communist-led coup takes over; declares war on Nazi Germany.
|
| 8 September |
First German V-2 rocket combat launch, fired against Paris. Later the same day first V-2 struck London suburb of Chiswick, destroying 19 homes and killing scores of people.
|
| 9 September |
Communist coup and Bulgarian armistice with USSR.
|
| 11 September |
Following Operation DRAGOON, US Seventh Army links up with Patton's Third Army west of Dijon, France, creating a solid wall of Allied forces stretching from Antwerp, Holland to the Swiss border.
|
| 11 September |
First into Germany: At 1805 a 5th Armored Division patrol reached the Our River, then waded across, moving from Luxembourg into Germany near Stalzemburg, on the Siegfried Line.
|
| 12 September |
Second Quebec Conference [OCTAGON] begins between the British, Canadian and American military leaders [12-16 Sep].
|
| 13 September |
US troops reach the Siegfried Line after liberating French and Belgian cities.
|
| 15 September |
US Marines invade Peleliu, beginning a long and tough battle to wrest the island from the Japanese [15 Sep-27 Nov].
|
| 17 September |
Thousands of Allied planes begin airborne assault on Holland, Operation Market Garden.
|
| 19 September |
Battle of the Hürtgen Forest begins with a probe toward the town of Schmidt by US 60th Infantry Regiment.
|
| 19 September |
Finland signs armistice with the Soviet Union.
|
| 24 September |
US releases Morgenthau Plan, a plan for occupation of post-war Germany and conversion of that country to an agrarian economy, with no industry that could be used to wage war.
|
| 25 September |
British troops, cutoff and suffering heavy casualties, begin withdrawal from unsuccessful Operation Market Garden positions.
|
| 26 September |
Operation Market Garden ends; Field Marshal Montgomery conceals the full extent of the failure until a report to Gen. Eisenhower on 8 Oct.
|
| 1 October |
Red Army presses offensive on Eastern Front with Battle of Debrecen, Hungary [6-29 Oct].
|
| 4 October |
Following the withdrawal of German troops, Allied forces [British] enter Greece.
|
| 7 October |
Using stolen explosives, Sonderkommando inmates at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp stage a revolt, blowing up a crematorium and killing SS guards.
|
| 9 October |
Fourth Moscow Conference [Tolstoy Conference]: Churchill, Stalin and US Ambassador Harriman plan the future of Europe [9-19 Oct].
|
| 12 October |
Greek Resistance [ELAS] seizes Athens as last German troops leave [accompanied by Greek collaborators], amid liberation celebrations.
|
| 13 October |
Riga, Latvia is taken by the Soviet Red Army; Salaspils concentration camp near Riga is liberated.
|
| 13 October |
British enter Athens, followed after a few days by Papandreou's government in exile.
|
| 14 October |
German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel commits suicide rather than face execution for his involvement in the 20 July plot against Adolf Hitler.
|
| 18 October |
Volkssturm founded by Hitler, mobilizing all German civilian males between sixteen and sixty for a suicidal final defense of the Third Reich.
|
| 19 October |
US Eighth Air Force B-24 Liberator bomber flying over the Wirral, west of Liverpool, inexplicably explodes, killing all 24 on board.
|
| 20 October |
Philippines invaded by Allies at Leyte, joined by Filipino guerillas.
|
| 20 October |
Gen. Douglas MacArthur Returns to Leyte, Philippine Islands.
|
| 20 October |
Belgrade, Yugoslavia liberated by Russian Red Army aided by Yugoslav Partisans.
|
| 21 October |
Aachen falls to American troops, the first German city to be captured.
|
| 21 October |
Allied ships experience the first kamikaze attack as a Japanese pilot suicidally flys his bomb carrying plane into the HMAS Australia off Leyte, Philippines.
|
| 23 October |
Naval Battle of Leyte Gulf begins in the Philippines, protecting US 6th Army Leyte beachheads from sea based attack [23-26 Oct].
|
| 23 October |
Palawan Island, Japanese armada detected on route to Leyte; American submarines sink two Japanese cruisers.
|
| 24 October |
US 7th Fleet units block southern approaches to Leyte while 3rd Fleet aircraft attack Japanese task forces in the Sibuyan Sea [Center Force] and Sulu Sea [Southern Force].
|
| 24 October |
Battle of Surigao Strait: last battleship vs battleship action in history; Japanese Navy Southern Force ambushed by US Navy 7th Fleet; heavy Japanese losses [Leyte, 24-25 Oct].
|
| 25 October |
First operation by the Japanese Kamikaze Special Attack Force: 55 kamikazes strike 7 carriers and 40 other ships, sinking six, off Leyte, Philippines.
|
| 25 October |
Battle off Samar [Leyte]: US Admiral Sprague skillfully prevents a loss to the stronger Japanese force under Japanese Admiral Kurita.
|
| 25 October |
Battle off Cape Engaño (Leyte): lopsided naval battle resulting in the loss of most of Japanese Northern Force to US Admiral Halsey's carrier planes and battleships [25-26 Oct].
|
| 25 October |
Soviet Red Army enters Kirkenes, the first town in Norway to be liberated from the Germans.
|
| 27 October |
Allied offensive in Northern Italy halted due to stiff German resistance, Allied munitions & shipping shortages, troop exhaustion, lack of replacements, and worsening weather.
|
| 29 October |
1st Inf Div Chaplain Sidney Lefkowitz and Cantor Max Fuchs hold a 10-minute, open-air service near Aachen, the first Jewish service on German soil since Nazi suppression began.
|
| 30 October |
Sisters Anne and Margot Frank deported from Auschwitz to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
|
| 2 November |
German battleship Tirpitz sunk in Tromsø Fiord by British RAF planes.
|
| 4 November |
Liberation of Bitola, second largest city in Macedonia, by the 7th Macedonian Liberation Brigade.
|
| 4 November |
End of the six week long Death March from Bor to Gyor, Hungary. Of 5000 who started the march, only nine survive to the end of WW II.
|
| 7 November |
US President Franklin Roosevelt wins reelection to unprecedented fourth term. His Vice President, Harry Truman, will succeed him in only five months.
|
| 8 November |
Operation Infatuate, the liberation of the Dutch Island of Walcheren, concludes with end to all German resistance.
|
| 10 November |
Accidental detonation of 3800 tons of ammunition on USS Mount Hood [AE-11] while anchored on Manus Island [Papua New Guinea] destroys itself and 22 small boats, damages 36 nearby ships, and kills 432 men with 371 more injured.
|
| 17 November |
Albanian partisans liberate Tirana, Albania as the Germans pull out.
|
| 19 November |
Metz, France, the capital of Lorraine, liberated by U.S. 95th Infantry Division.
|
| 20 November |
Hitler leaves his Wolf's Lair field headquarters [near Rastenburg, East Prussia] to go to Berlin, never to return.
|
| 23 November |
Strasbourg, in eastern France, liberated by French General LeClerc's 2nd Armored Division. Eisenhower orders controversial halt at the Rhine by US Sixth Army Group.
|
| 24 November |
First B-29 Superfortress bombers originating from Tinian, in the Marianas, raid Tokyo, 1550 miles away.
|
| 25 November |
In Philippine waters, USS Intrepid [CV-11] hit by two Japanese kamikaze planes within five minute period, killing 69 and seriously wounding 85 of the crew.
|
| 25 November |
Most deadly German V-2 rocket attack in Britain happened at New Cross Road, destroying a Woolworths store and surrounding area, killing 160 people, seriously injuring 120 others.
|
| 25 November |
Japanese occupy Nanning, a transportation hub in south China, for the second time, in final stages of the Ichi-Go offensive.
|
| 25 November |
Last American airborne troops withdraw from unsuccessful Operation Market Garden positions.
|
| 27 November |
Thousands of tons of ordnance explode at RAF Fauld underground munitions storage depot in Staffordshire, England, leaving about 75 dead and a huge crater.
|
| 29 November |
USS Archer-Fish [SS-311] sinks Japanese aircraft super-carrier Shinano, the largest ship ever sunk by a submarine.
|
| 29 November |
First ship carrying Allied supplies unloads at Port of Antwerp, Belgium, after liberation by First Canadian Army, de-mining and clearing operations.
|
| 3 December |
East African British colonial troops capture Kalewa, Burma, one of the main centers for river traffic south to Mandalay.
|
| 3 December |
US forces reach key European river crossings: US 9th Army st the Roer River and US 3rd Army at the Saar River.
|
| 6 December |
Stalin meets Free French leader, Gen. Charles de Gaulle, in Moscow.
|
| 6 December |
Lt. General Lucian Truscott takes command of US 5th Army fighting in Italy, replacing Lt. Gen. Mark Clark.
|
| 7 December |
US Army units land at Ormoc Bay, Leyte, Philippine Islands cutting off the Japanese ability to reinforce and supply Leyte.
|
| 13 December |
American forces take the towns of Gey and Strass, bringing US troops to the Roer River, ending the intense phase of the battle of the Hürtgen Forest.
|
| 15 December |
American forces invade Mindoro, Philippine Islands.
|
| 16 December |
Most deadly German V-2 rocket attack of the war occurred when a V-2 struck the Rex Theatre in Antwerp, Belgium, killing 567 people, wounding 291 others.
|
| 16 December |
Battle of the Bulge begins, major German counteroffensive in Ardennes Forest, Belgium.
|
| 17 December |
Malmedy Massacre: Germans of the 1st SS Panzer Division execute 84 American prisoners of war during the Battle of the Bulge.
|
| 18 December |
Task Force 38 [13 carriers, 8 battleships, 15 cruisers, and about 50 destroyers] heavily damaged by a small but violent typhoon 300 miles east of Luzon in the Philippine Sea. |
| 22 December |
Vigorous American defense at St. Vith finally overrun by German forces in the Battle of the Bulge.
|
| 22 December |
In Bastogne, during the Battle of the Bulge, Gen. Anthony McAuliffe, 101st Airborne Commander, answers a German ultimatum with 'Nuts!'.
|
| 23 December |
In Bastogne, the weather finally clears allowing an airlift of 241 planes to resupply the surrounded town, during the Battle of the Bulge.
|
| 25 December |
American B-29 Superfortress airfields on Saipan are attacked by about 25 Japanese aircraft, the last such attack on the island.
|
| 26 December |
Units of Patton's 3rd Army relieve Bastogne, then attack German Panzers from the rear, deflating the German Battle of the Bulge offensive.
|
| 27 December |
US Army 10th Mountain Division ski troops begin arriving in Italy.
|
| 29 December |
Budapest encircled by the Red Army and the Romanian Army, beginning a 100 day siege.
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