August 1944

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August 12, 1944: Last known photograph of Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. prior to death in plane explosion

The following events occurred in August 1944:

August 1, 1944 (Tuesday)[edit]

August 2, 1944 (Wednesday)[edit]

  • The Germans launched 316 V-1 flying bombs at London, the highest single-day total yet. Over 100 reached the capital, hitting Tower Bridge and doing great damage to the armament factories on the outskirts.[2]
  • The primary stage of the Lublin–Brest Offensive concluded with Soviet objectives met.
  • Turkey broke off diplomatic relations with Nazi Germany.[3]
  • The American destroyer escort Fiske was torpedoed and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean by German submarine U-804.
  • SS authorities in Auschwitz-Birkenau murdered the last residents (just under 3,000) of the so-called Gypsy family camp.[4]
  • Born: Jim Capaldi, drummer, singer, songwriter and co-founder of the rock band Traffic, in Evesham, England (d. 2005)
  • Died: Kakuji Kakuta, 53, Japanese admiral (probable suicide on Tinian)

August 3, 1944 (Thursday)[edit]

August 4, 1944 (Friday)[edit]

August 5, 1944 (Saturday)[edit]

  • The Cowra breakout occurred when over 1,100 Japanese prisoners of war attempted to escape from a POW camp near Cowra in New South Wales, Australia. Four Australian soldiers and 231 Japanese were killed, but hundreds managed to escape although they would all be recaptured within ten days.
  • The four-day Wola massacre began when German troops and collaborationist forces started systematically killing between 40,000 and 50,000 people in the Wola district of Warsaw during the Uprising.
  • More than 300 Jewish refugees perished when the Turkish motor schooner Mefküre was sunk in the Black Sea by shellfire from the Soviet submarine Shch-215.
  • "Swinging on a Star" by Bing Crosby went to #1 on the Billboard singles charts.

August 6, 1944 (Sunday)[edit]

August 7, 1944 (Monday)[edit]

August 8, 1944 (Tuesday)[edit]

August 9, 1944 (Wednesday)[edit]

August 10, 1944 (Thursday)[edit]

August 11, 1944 (Friday)[edit]

August 12, 1944 (Saturday)[edit]

August 13, 1944 (Sunday)[edit]

August 14, 1944 (Monday)[edit]

  • The Osovets Offensive officially ended with the completion of Soviet objectives.
  • Canadian and Polish troops began Operation Tractable, the final offensive of the Battle of Normandy.
  • The Fort Lawton Riot began at Fort Lawton in Seattle. An Italian prisoner of war was killed during a violent conflict between American soldiers and Italian POWs.
  • German submarine U-618 was sunk in the Bay of Biscay by British ships and aircraft.

August 15, 1944 (Tuesday)[edit]

August 16, 1944 (Wednesday)[edit]

August 17, 1944 (Thursday)[edit]

  • In the Pacific, the Battle of Biak ended in Allied victory.
  • During the Battle of the Falaise Pocket, the First Canadian Army captured the ruined town of Falaise itself.[17][18]
  • VIII Corps of the Third United States Army took Saint-Malo when the German-held fortress there surrendered after enduring two weeks of bombing and shelling.[17][19]
  • Two Soviet infantry battalions under Georgy Gubkin and Pavel Yurgin reached part of the River Scheshule. Some of them were sent to raise the Red Flag on the other bank, with Sergeant Alexander Belov doing the actual raising; the Soviets had now crossed into East Prussia and thus Germany proper.[20]

August 18, 1944 (Friday)[edit]

August 19, 1944 (Saturday)[edit]

  • The Battle for Paris began. Resistance fighters in the capital became confident enough to begin making sniper attacks on nervous German troops.[22]
  • Operation Bagration ended in a Soviet victory.
  • The battle for Hill 262 began during the final stages of the Normandy Campaign.
  • The American "wolfpack" submarine attack on Japanese convoy Hi-71 in the South China Sea continued for a second day. Troopship Teia Maru (formerly the French ocean liner Aramis) was torpedoed and sunk by Rasher and Redfish, the landing craft depot ship Tamatsu Maru was sunk by Spadefish with the loss of some 4,890 lives, and fleet oiler Hayasui was torpedoed and sunk by Bluefish.
  • German submarines U-123 and U-466 were scuttled at Lorient and Toulon, respectively.
  • A referendum was held in Australia asking whether the public approved of an alteration to the Constitution granting the federal government additional power to legislate on a wide variety of matters for a period of five years. 54% voted against the proposal.
  • Private Nikolay Alekseevich Ignatiev (Russian: "Игнатьев Николай Алексеевич") was awarded the medal "For Courage" (За отвагу/Za Otvagu) for his actions on the last day of Operation Bagration
  • Born: Bodil Malmsten, poet and novelist, in Bjärme, Sweden (d. 2016)
  • Died: Günther von Kluge, 61, German field marshal (suicide); Henry Wood, 75, English conductor

August 20, 1944 (Sunday)[edit]

August 21, 1944 (Monday)[edit]

August 22, 1944 (Tuesday)[edit]

August 23, 1944 (Wednesday)[edit]

August 24, 1944 (Thursday)[edit]

August 25, 1944 (Friday)[edit]

August 26, 1944 (Saturday)[edit]

August 27, 1944 (Sunday)[edit]

August 28, 1944 (Monday)[edit]

August 29, 1944 (Tuesday)[edit]

August 30, 1944 (Wednesday)[edit]

August 31, 1944 (Thursday)[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Mercer, Derrik, ed. (1989). Chronicle of the 20th Century. London: Chronicle Communications Ltd. p. 607. ISBN 978-0-582-03919-3.
  2. ^ Davidson, Edward; Manning, Dale (1999). Chronology of World War Two. London: Cassell & Co. p. 206. ISBN 0-304-35309-4.
  3. ^ Weisband, Edward (1973). Turkish Foreign Policy, 1943–1945: Small State Diplomacy and Great Power Politics. Princeton University Press. p. 272. ISBN 978-1-4008-7261-9.
  4. ^ "Auschwitz: Chronology". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
  5. ^ "Was war am 3. August 1944". chroniknet. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
  6. ^ Pirro, Deirdre (February 8, 2007). "The night the bridges came falling down". The Florentine. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
  7. ^ a b c d "1944". MusicAndHistory. Retrieved March 1, 2016.[permanent dead link]
  8. ^ "Richard Belzer Dead: The Actor and Comedian Was 78". Forbes.
  9. ^ Chen, C. Peter. "Pacific Strategy Conference". World War II Database. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
  10. ^ "1944: Key Dates". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
  11. ^ "War Diary for Friday, 11 August 1944". Stone & Stone Second World War Books. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
  12. ^ "War Diary for Sunday, 13 August 1944". Stone & Stone Second World War Books. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
  13. ^ Contemporary Fashion. St. James Press. 2002. p. 228. ISBN 9781558623484.
  14. ^ That's Bulgaria. Sedem Dni Podkrepa. 1994. p. 27.
  15. ^ "La libération de Chartres (Août 1944)". Chartres.fr. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
  16. ^ a b c "Chronology 1944". indiana.edu. 2002. Archived from the original on June 15, 2013. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
  17. ^ a b "War Diary for Thursday, 17 August 1944". Stone & Stone Second World War Books. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
  18. ^ Davidson and Manning, p. 208.
  19. ^ "A Shattered City - 'Festung St Malo' - Surrenders". World War II Today. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
  20. ^ World War Two. “Week 260 - Hitler Has a Bad Day - WW2 - August 19 - 1944.” YouTube, 19 Aug. 2023, https://youtube.com/watch?v=80kk1u4bJhU?&t=1374.
  21. ^ "1944". World War II Database. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
  22. ^ a b c d Davidson and Manning, p. 209.
  23. ^ Argyle, Christopher (1980). Chronology of World War II. Exeter Books. p. 34. ISBN 978-0-89673-071-7.
  24. ^ Poland Alone, Jonathan Walker, page 241
  25. ^ a b "War Diary for Monday, 21 August 1944". Stone & Stone Second World War Books. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
  26. ^ "War Diary for Tuesday, 22 August 1944". Stone & Stone Second World War Books. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
  27. ^ a b "War Diary for Thursday, 24 August 1944". Stone & Stone Second World War Books. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
  28. ^ Bruge, Roger (1994). 1944 – Le temps des Massacres: Les crimes de la Gestapo et de la 51e Brigade SS. Albin Michel. ISBN 2-226-06966-6.
  29. ^ "25 August 1944 - Speech at the Hotel de Ville in Paris". Charles-de-Gaulle.com. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 1 March 2016.
  30. ^ "The Gistory of Avignon". Avignon-et-Provence.com. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
  31. ^ a b Chen, C. Peter. "Gothic Line Offensive". World War II Database. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
  32. ^ Yenne, Bill (2004). Operation Cobra and the Great Offensive: Sixty Days That Changed the Course of World War II. Pocket Books. ISBN 978-1-4516-0421-4.
  33. ^ "War Diary for Sunday, 27 August 1944". Stone & Stone Second World War Books. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
  34. ^ "Conflict Timeline, August 25-September 3 1944". OnWar.com. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
  35. ^ "Chronomedia: 1944". Terra Media. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
  36. ^ a b "War Diary for Wednesday, 30 August 1944". Stone & Stone Second World War Books. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
  37. ^ Ent, Uzal W. "Ploesti." War in the Balkans: An Encyclopedic History from the Fall of the Ottoman Empire to the Breakup of Yugoslavia. Ed. Richard C. Hall. ABC-CLIO, 2014. p. 231. ISBN 978-1-61069-031-7.
  38. ^ "War Diary for Thursday, 31 August 1944". Stone & Stone Second World War Books. Retrieved March 1, 2016.