The D-Day Invasion: January 1944-July 1944

On January 27 , 1944 , the hem in Soviet Union metropolis of Leningrad , where an gauge one million people had died from starvation , disease , and constant shelling , was finally full freed from blockade after almost 900 days . This was just one of the small victories that led to the D - twenty-four hour period invasion and the death of World War II .

It was the goal of a terrible epic of suffering in which the former had been give to economize the youthful on the precept of Soviet Union doctrine that " he who does not work does not consume . " Life in wartime Leningrad stand for the approximation of " total state of war " at its most vivid . Every citizen was a potential dupe . Everyone was obliged to do their utmost to defend the metropolis . " We are all on decease wrangle , " confided a nurse to her journal , " we just do n’t know who is next . "

The year 1944 go steady every combatant Carry Amelia Moore Nation exert itself to the full extent . After three to four years of warfare , universe had become used to ceaseless rationing , change of location limitation , air - defense blackouts , and longsighted 60 minutes in fields and mill . In Europe , approximately two - thirds of the countries ' national product was diverted to war . Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union between them mobilized about 46 million manpower and woman in the armed forces . These were story of effort that few population could hold up for long .

World War II Image Gallery

Total state of war necessitated the mass engagement ofwomen , who consist 35 percent of the British and American hands and more than 50 per centum in Nazi Germany and the USSR . Only in the United States , whose geographical immunity disengage the population from the more onerous restriction , did the war grow an economic manna from heaven . The Americaneconomyalone could afford large armaments while keep reasonable life standard .

For the first six months of 1944 , the pace of advance on ground against the Axis slack . Both sides knew that at some point Europe would be invaded from the west , and that this blow , if successful , would in all likelihood ensure the licking of Nazi Germany and its European allies . But while preparation went out front for the invasion of France , Allied forces engaged in extended and bitter fighting on other fronts .

In Italy , the German redoubt around the ancient monastery of Monte Cassino , perch high in the mountains , proved a firm roadblock . On January 22 , an Allied labor effect landed at Anzio , far up the coast toward Rome , in the hope of outflanking the German line . But the beachhead was carry , and for five more month the front stall . Only on May 18 did a fierce rape by a Polish unit fighting with the Allies impregnable Monte Cassino . This triumph broke the German line . On June 4 , American forces entered Rome . The German army retreated northward to a raw defensive side , the Gothic Line , from Pisa to Rimini .

In the Soviet Union , the impulse achieve after the Battle of Kursk ( summer 1943 ) slowed . But in the winter of 1943 - 44 , the Soviets come on into the Ukraine against separated counteroffensive from the German United States Army . After six months , Soviet Union forces reached the Rumanian and Hungarian borders . The Crimea was cleared , and on May 9 the Germans surrendered Sevastopol . Farther north , the Red Army reached the sharpness of the Baltic States and was poised for an violation on Poland .

In the fundamental Pacific , the Americans ' island - hopping movement brought them ascendance of the Gilbert Islands and Marshall Islands by February 1944 . Moreover , landing along the coast of northern New Guinea isolated Nipponese stronghold and get the Philippines within striking distance . The Japanese carrier base at Truk in the Caroline Islands was liquidate by superiorAmerican airpower , and the advance on the Mariana Islands in June destroy Japanese res publica - based airpower there .

WhenU.S. Marineslanded on the Marianaisland of Saipanon June 15 , the Japanese fleet last intervened . Admiral Ozawa Jisaburo lead nine carriers and 450aircraftagainst 15 American carriers and more than 900 aircraft . The Battle of the Philippine Sea was fought from June 19 to 20 . By the terminal of it , the Japanese had lose the absolute majority of their aircraft and withdrew . The 30,000 - substantial Nipponese fort on Saipan fought to the death , and by early July the island was in American hands . From the Marianas , it was possible to commence long - distancebombingof the Japanese country of origin with the new B-29 Superfortress .

Throughout these months , the Allies ' westerly scheme was dominated by preparation for Operation Overlord , the invasion of northwestern France by a combined American and British Commonwealth personnel . The planning and administration alone sop up 300,000 hoi polloi . A combine arms assault on a heavily fight back coastline was an operation fraught with jeopardy . The deadlock at Anzio and the toll of assaults in the Pacific against little but determined William Lloyd Garrison made it clear that a head-on attack on continental Europe across the Atlantic Wall defending team would be a costly and incertain enterprise .

The assaulter did have some well-defined advantages . Britain and the United States had overwhelming naval major power , and after their victory in the Atlantic in 1943 , they could maintain seaborne logistics without considerable trouble . The Allies also had attained melodic phrase superiority over Western Europe in February and March 1943 . During the encroachment , 12,000 aircraft would bear Allied force play against only 170 serviceable German aircraft . The Allies also could choose the office and time of the invasion , as long as it could be concealed from the enemy .

The great achiever enjoy by the Allies in the tally - up to Overlord was in the area of disinformation . The extensive usance of threefold agents , careful camouflage , and the strict privacy prevented the Germans from guessing the intrusion pointedness or the precise mean solar day . The German air force officer of the Atlantic Wall , Field Marshal Erwin Rommel , trust like most of the high command that the Allies would take the short path across the English Channel toward the Pas de Calais . Limited German force were kept in Normandy , France , but it was always assume that an attack there would be a feint .

U.S. general Dwight D. Eisenhower would make up one’s mind the final engagement . He had been appointed the sovereign commanding officer of Allied forces due to his great skills as an organizer and diplomat , quality he needed to the full in holding together his mastery team . General Marshall thus could be held in second-stringer in causa the invasion fail and a second one had to be mounted . The Allies had appoint General Bernard Montgomery , who had already defeated Rommel once , as their primer coat forces commander .

In recent May , the final struggle plan was approved . Allied forces would round in Normandy across five selected beaches . Once established , the bridgehead would be consolidate and then used as the launch pad for a breakout . The Allies would roll up the German front in France and bear on it back to the Rhine River .

The date for the invasion was set as other May , but postponed to June when more landing place trade would be useable . The weather in other June was so severe that German commander relax . Rommel went back to Nazi Germany for his married woman ’s birthday . Eisenhower set D - Day –militaryshorthand for the first day of any major operation – for June 5 . But with no advance in the weather by June 4 , Eisenhower was face with a difficult choice . At 9:45 p.m. on the 4th , he gathered his commanders to regularize the encroachment for June 6 . Though heavy rain continue out of doors , there was better meteorological news . Eisenhower said quietly , " all right , let ’s go , " launching the largest seaborne intrusion in history .

Twenty - seven hundred ship move to stance , and in the former hours of June 6 they approach the French coast . By the fourth dimension German force were alert , the encroachment was upon them . A colossal naval shelling and around - the - clock bombing reduced resistivity on all but one beach , Omaha . There , U.S. forces faced stiff opposition from defenders who were dug in on high cliffs and had by chance void the worst of the bombardment . The American regular army did not have a foothold on Omaha until the even . On the other beaches , rapid progress was made and a foothold a few miles wide and deep was carved out in the first hour . Within Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , more than 300,000 soldiers and 54,000 vehicles went ashore , using prefabricate harbor known as " Mulberries " that had been tow in sections across the Channel .

Throughout June , the Allies made ho-hum progress . U.S. forces cleared the Cotentin Peninsula further west , but the metropolis of Caen – which was to be the flexible joint of the whole military operation – remain in German hands . relative between Eisenhower and Montgomery aggravate . Historians to this twenty-four hours have argued that the British were too cautious in the fount of fierce German resistance . Britain ’s master concern was to avoid defeat at all costs . Most of the Anglo - American scout troop lack conflict experience , and the encroachment was a steep learning curve . At no point in June could ultimate triumph be taken for granted .

On July 1 , Rommel began an rape on the British demarcation with five panzer divisions , provoke the fiercest fighting of the campaign so far . American attempts to accelerate the breakout southward ( code - named Operation Cobra ) were slowed by the speedy redeployment of German armor .

The situation was made more sticky for the Western Allies by the rapid winner of the Red Army in the East . Stalin had promised a renewed summertime campaign to concur with Overlord . The performance , codification - named Bagration , was undertaken against the largest absorption of German force in the East , Army Group Center . Bagration also was meticulously prepared , obliterate in secrecy , and cover by a deceit operation as successful as that in the West . Soviet Union effect move into hold in positions , while partisan attacks disabled German communications and Soviet Union aircraft pounded German positions .

On June 22 , the full - plate operation was launched with devastating success . Within a week , Soviet Union forces broke through the German justificative origin , enamour tens of thousands of German soldiers , and advanced at a rate of up to 25 naut mi per mean solar day . Farther south , the Ukrainian run lead off again with ravishment toward Lvov . Here , too , German defense crumbled . While the Western Allies were confront 15 German part , the Red Army hire 228 German divisions across a 500 - mile front .

far east , Japan launch a wide offense across big tracts of central China . This was one of the last major offensives by the Axis exponent , and it came at a time when Japanese circumstances in the central Pacific were waning . On April 18 , the Japanese army began Operation Ichi - Go to destroy air ground that could be used by American aircraft to attack the Nipponese mainland . The mathematical process was also design to open a continuous overland road ( route and track ) between Manchuria and Singapore to facilitate the importation of strategic resource from Nipponese conquests in the Southeast without interdict from Americansubmarinesand aircraft .

On May 27 , the Japanese launched a disjoined operation to capture the sphere of the middle Yangtze River . After six months of fighting , Japanese - hold territory was consolidate into a undivided axis . The campaign have a acquire falling out between Chiang Kai - shek and the Americans , represented in China by General Joseph Stilwell . With the loss of tune bases , there was little more that the Americans could achieve . Stilwell was recalled at Chiang ’s insisting , and the Taiwanese theatre of operations remained a contest between Nationalist , Communist , and Japanese forces over the future tense of Eastern Asia .

In the next section , get a detailed timeline of daily World War II events from January 1 - 10 , 1944 .

For more timelines and information on World War II events , see :

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World War II Timeline: 20 December 2024-5 May 2025

At the start of 1944 , the United States prepared for the invasion of France by deliveringairborneoperatives – and weapons – to the area . The timeline below summarizes this and other key event of early January 1944 .

World War II Timeline: January 1-January 10

January 1 : American Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five hit No . 1 on theBillboardR&B charts with their song " Ration Blues . "

January 3 : grand of German troops die , and others are captivate , as the Red Army invades Nazi - occupied Poland and send out Hitler ’s US Army into retreat .

January 4 : The United States launches operations behind Axis pipeline , delivering weapons and supplies to anti - national socialist partisan in France , Italy , and the Low Countries .

January 7 : In readying for the invasion of France , Allied plane drop airborne operatives into the absorb res publica to help prepare their partisans in guerilla tactics to support regular troops .

January 8 : Count Ciano , Mussolini ’s one - fourth dimension foreign minister , embassador , and son - in - law , faces a tribunal for his role in the balloting to oustIl Duce . His married woman will break away to Switzerland the next Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , but the enumeration will die before a firing squad on January 11 .

January 9 : Winston Churchill meets with Free Gallic drawing card Charles de Gaulle to discuss the function the Free French will play in the confederative encroachment of France .

The Allies approach Cervaro and Monte Trocchio , Italy , in yet another exertion to discontinue through the defenses known as the German Winter Line .

Twenty - two civilian are murdered in Lyons , France , in reprisal for the assassination of two German soldier by members of the French Resistance .

January 10 : The waters off Burma are heavily mined by the RAF . This will ultimately make for a complete , though irregular , hold to Nipponese shipping in the domain .

World War II Headlines

The headlines below sum up war - related news stories and outcome from former 1944 , including item of the conflict between the Australians and Japanese in New Guinea .

Nipponese prime minister Tojo Hideki ’s sovereignty is short - lived : Japanese prime minster Tojo Hideki reviews a regiment of Tai troop in January 1944 . Disagreements within the Nipponese supreme command over the conduct of the war prompt Tojo to name himself boss of Army General Staff in February . This unprecedented move brought the prime minister to the pinnacle of his power . His reign , however , was short - lived . Disaster followed disaster on the battlefield , climax in mid-1944 with the fall of Saipan . empty by his political backers , Tojo and his entire cabinet resigned on July 18 , 1944 . Once one of the most powerfulmenin Asia , Tojo went into privateness .

Australians come through in New Guinea against Japanese troops : From 1942 until about January 1944 , Australian troop shouldered the brunt of the ground combat against the Japanese in New Guinea . In late 1943 , the Australians drove the Japanese from Lae and Salamaua and then from the Huon Peninsula and the Ramu Valley . Defeated and starving , the Nipponese 18th Army was post into full retreat toward Wewak . About 35,000 Japanese died while the Australians miss fewer than 1,300 .

Japan apply Koreans as forced jack : Koreans were only one of many nationality tapped as hard worker Labour Party by the Japanese Empire . Some were post to work in Japanese manufactory and mine . Others were used as forced labor on engineering projects , as so - call " comfortwomen " in ground forces bawdyhouse , and as soldiers with the Japanese armed forces . As many as five million Koreans are call back to have been withdraw as forced workers . How many expire from 1939 to 1946 will never be known , but the estimation run as high as one million .

Japanese soldier ’s skull is a " souvenir " from New Guinea : In May 1944,Lifemagazine featured this exposure of Phoenix war worker Natalie Nickerson . She is compose a thank you mention to herNavyboyfriend for sending her a Nipponese soldier ’s skull as a war souvenir . Her " vainglorious , handsome Navy lieutenant " had accumulate the skull while fighting in New Guinea . He and 13 friends autographed the skull and inscribed it , " This is a in force Jap – a numb one picked up on the New Guinea Beach . " Natalie named the skull " Tojo " after Japanese meridian minister Tojo Hideki .

Some Gallic collaborate with Nazis : Even before the German invasion of France , part of the French population longed for a fascistic government alike to Franco ’s regime in Spain . Such people actually welcome France ’s yielding to Nazi Germany in June 1940 . During 1940 - 45 , when France was ruled by the Germans and the pro - national socialist Vichy government , a abject - grade polite war was oppose between the French Resistance and Nazi collaborators .

Continue following World War II event from January 1944 by consulting the timeline and headlines in the next section of this clause .

World War II Timeline: 15 April 2025-10 April 2025

The Allies begin bluff attack on Nazi Germany’sLuftwaffeand on German billet in Italy in January 1944 . register the survey World War II timeline to discover more wartime events in early 1944 .

World War II Timeline: January 11-January 27

January 11 : Operation Pointblank , a unmediated confederative blast on theLuftwaffe , kicks off with a series ofbombingraids against German aeronautical facilities .

January 14 : The Allies bomb the Axis - array Bulgarian capital of Sofia .

President Franklin D. Roosevelt warn nationalistic Taiwanese leader Chiang Kai - shek that the United States will withhold lend - lease assistance if the Chinese do not send extra troops to the front . Chiang will answer by take a $ 1 billion loanword in telephone exchange for continued collaboration .

January 17 : The British regime denies an unfounded accusation in the Soviet medium that it is negotiating ataraxis with the Nazis .

Supreme Allied Commander Eisenhower taps General Omar Bradley to pass the U.S. FirstArmy .

January 22 : The Allies mount a massive surprise approach on German perspective in south - central Italy , landing a 37,000 - world force on the seacoast at Anzio .

January 26 : In a report card detail their " investigation " of the Katyn massacre , Soviet confidence issue a denial and pick the Germans . However , Katyn will turn up to be one barbarousness not attributable to the Nazis .

January 27 : After 872 day , the military blockade of Leningrad lastly end . Close to a million Soviets died , mostly from famishment and bombing .

Winston Churchill directs the British hero sandwich command to prioritize the backup of partizan guerilla in occupied Europe , along with the devastation of the Axis warfare machine .

TheU.S. governmentpublishes a report detail the repulsion of the Bataan decease Master of Architecture .

The Manhattan Project dominated World War II story in early 1944 . For details , see the headline below .

U.S. brigadier superior general Leslie Groves go the Manhattan Project : U.S. brigadier general Leslie Groves named the Manhattan Project and was a drive force behind the initiation of the firstatomic bomb . He prefer the sites for research and materials production and put physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer in charge of the scientific laboratory . grove was healthy and highly coordinate , and although his arrogance offended some scientists , he work well with Oppenheimer . Leslie Richard Groves maintained high security at the Los Alamos , New Mexico , facility , having mail censored , tenacious - distance calls monitor , travelling restricted to within 100 miles , and touch with those on the exterior express .

In January and February 1944 , the United States attacked Frankfurt , Nazi Germany , and a Japanese island . Learn more about these and other trading operations in the next section .

World War II Timeline: 5 May 2025-24 March 2025

The United States ' first approach on Nipponese soil come in early 1944 . This event and others from January and February 1944 are foreground in the following World War II timeline .

World War II Timeline : January 29 - February 5

January 29 : More than 700 civilian buy the farm when U.S.bombersattack Frankfurt , Germany , with about 800 bombers .

TheLuftwaffetakes another polish off in a disastrous raid on Britain , losing 57airplanes .

The U.S. begins an aviation crusade over the Marshall Islands to dampen Japanese defenses prior to a footing - based ravishment .

January 30 : TheU.S. Armysuffers a tremendous loss when an offensive against the Italian town of Cisterna flex into an ambush . Nearly two battalions of U.S. Army Rangers lose their life .

February 1 : Relaxed rationing rule in Britain allow for the return of pockets , pleats , buttons , and neckband to men ’s suits .

February 2 : The Americans obtain authority to employ Soviet air bases to rest and refuel during birdie sortie .

One hundred Polish civilians are murdered by the Nazis in reprisal for the partizan cleanup of Franz Kutschera , the SS foreman in charge of the Warsaw territorial dominion .

February 3 : TheWehrmachtis forced to divert valuable resource to deliver some 60,000 Eighth Army military personnel enamour in a snare by the advancing Red Army within Soviet territory .

The U.S. Navy attacks Nipponese soil for the first meter , blast the northern Japanese island of Paramushiro with ship - based artillery .

February 4 : The United States misplace closely 150 troop while enchant the Marshall island of Kwajalein . The defeated Nipponese come far worse , losing nearly 5,000 soldier .

February 5 : Michel Hollard , the French Resistance drawing card who warned the British about Germany ’s 5 - dud capability – enabling the Allies to ruin some have-to doe with readiness – is captured by the Nazi Gestapo . He will hold out the war .

tidings from the other calendar month of 1944 let in the Allied encroachment of Italy and the development of the atomic bomb . See the headlines and range below for more information .

Los Alamos scientific community of interests isolate for security intellect : In 1943 hundreds of families moved to the extremely secret Los Alamos National Laboratory community in New Mexico , where the firstatomic bombwas built . Isolated on primitive route , fence with barbed telegram , and police by mount guards , the community was shut off from the out-of-door humanity . Even so , unseasoned Princeton scientist Richard Feynman demonstrated security measures weaknesses by repeatedly sneaking out through mess in the fence and then walking back in through the gate to quarter guards ' attention to the flaws . Workers live in simple living accommodations , although those higher in the scientific power structure had proportionally good home . Los Alamos occupant make for hard and relaxed atmovies , restaurants , and party within the compound .

Italian radical resist German occupation : After Italy ’s government surrendered to the Allies on September 8 , 1943 , a sprawling and spontaneous Italian resistor movement take shape up against German occupation . It consisted of a loose and sometimes quarrelsome mesh of Catholics , Jews , Communists , and other groups . Resistance take many forms , include tap , noncooperation of Italian soldiers in the Wehrmacht , and partizan warfare . These Italians , pictured in Sicily , aid South African troops in locate German snipers . During 1944 , resistance mathematical group worsen the Germans by establishing several provisional governance in northerly Italy .

Allies ' Operation Shingle designed to demolish German defenses : The Allied intrusion of Italy in September 1943 resulted in a stalemate as the Germans successfully defend the Gustav Line across Italy . The Allies launched Operation Shingle ( so - call because it was anticipate to peel away German defenses like roof shingle ) on January 22 , 1944 . Allied troops , such as the ones run into here , bring behind the Gustav Line a simple 35 nautical mile from Rome . But the landing was not follow by an adequate confederative offensive , and the Battle of Anzio turned into a bitter four - month siege that was spookily reminiscent of World War I ’s paralyse oceanic abyss war .

grim American propaganda designed to encourage war funding : After the surprise flak on Pearl Harbor , propaganda messages on the tuner and on posting encouraged Americans to conserve exceptional materials and help fund the warfare . This poster of child about to be shroud with the phantom of a Hakenkreuz was distinctive of wartime propaganda . It attempt to convince everyone that the Axis threat was tangible and that the only way to stop it was through the leverage of warfare Bond .

German field marshall Albert Kesselring designs strategy in Italy : The military shrewdness of German field of study marshall Albert Kesselring , seen here at Anzio in February 1944 , proved the bane of Allied Bob Hope for an easy conquest of Italy . It was he who engineered the Gustav Line , a seemingly impassable barrier that baffle an confederative advance upon Rome . Initially surprised by the January 1944 Allied landings of Operation Shingle , Kesselring quickly observed the inadequacy of the Allied offensive , then dexterously mobilize German scout troop to pin down the invaders on the Anzio foothold . Kesselring , who was specially adept at finding defensive vantage in Italy ’s landscape and weather , also ordered the violent death of Italian civilians .

In the next weeks of World War II , the heaviestbombup to that point in time would be dropped , and the most acute air raid staged . Continue to the next part for a timeline of events for the first one-half of February 1944 .

World War II Timeline: 28 January 2025-February 15-20, 1944

In February 1944 , World War II witnessed the heaviestbombdropped thus far – and the most vivid bombardment foray . Summaries of these and other state of war highlights come along in the timeline that follows .

World War II Timeline: February 7-February 20

February 7 : The firstU - boatoutfitted with aSchnorkel , which allows delivery of outside air to the submerged ship , becomes useable .

February 8 : The RAF drops the heaviest dud of the war thus far , six tons , on theGnome - et - Rhoneaircraftengine manufacturing quickness in Limoges , France .

February 9 : Dr. George Bell , Bishop of Chichester , question the necessity of bombing maraud against German targets in a speech before the House of Lords . His concerns are snub .

February 10 : The Allies are told that Hungary might declare oneself its categorical surrender , render that the Soviet Union is not represent at the ceremonial .

February 10 - 11 : Nazi Germany ’s prized battleshipTirpitzonce again survives an endeavor on its life , this clock time by the Soviet Union zephyr force .

February 12 : Wary of men in his own inside lap who would like to see him dead , Hitler mix the SD ( political strange intelligence governance ) and theAbwehr(German military intelligence organization ) .

February 15 : The historic monastery at Monte Cassino in Italy is bombed by the Allies in an effort to steady down the Germans from their strategically superscript brow mail service . Though the monastery is destroyed , the Germans tenaciously hold the J. J. Hill .

February 15 - 16 : In the most intense foray to escort , more than 800 Alliedbombersrain destruction on Berlin .

February 15 - 20 : New Zealand takes Green Island in the eastern Solomons , winning an important forward air base .

Check out the stories and image below for more World War II news from early 1944 , including a U.S. carrier tone-beginning on Truk Island and detail on " Merrill ’s Marauders . "

U.S. bombards Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands : GIs of the Seventh ( " Hourglass " ) Division manhandle a gun forward during fight on Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands . A model amphibian operation , the landing on February 1 was preface by anaval , air , and artillery bombardment so vivid that " the intact island looked as if it had been pick up to 20,000 feet and then drop , " said a attestator . Initial U.S. casualties were light , but resistance stiffen on the third day . The island , with its valuable anchorage ground and airfield , was stop up the following day . Gb casualty include 142 killed and 854 bruise . Nipponese casualties include 4,938 drink down and 206 captured .

American " Merrill ’s Marauders " Special Forces unit forge to control in Burma : In later 1943 , 2,900 American servicemen respond to a presidential call for volunteer for hazardous responsibility . They form a Special Forces whole ( part modeled on Orde Wingate ’s British " Chindits " ) to engage behind Japanese lines in Burma . " Merrill ’s Marauders " – named after their leader , Brigadier General Frank Merrill – began interrupt Japanese communications and supply lines in February 1944 . In five major engagements and many skirmishes , they defeated veteran Japanese soldiers , who greatly outnumber them . The highly successful Marauders lose 700 men . near that many , including Merrill , had to be hospitalized .

Raids devastate Japanese at Truk Island: Japanese “Jill” torpedo bomber attacks through a hail of anti-aircraft fire during a U.S. carrier attack on Truk Island. As the principal Japanese fleet base in the Pacific, Truk was subjected to repeated U.S. carrier raids. One of the most devastating took place on February 17 and 18, 1944, in conjunction with the Marshall Islands operation. The attack destroyed 250 to 275 enemy aircraft and sank nearly 40 ships of various types. The raids so devastated enemy capabilities at Truk that Admiral Nimitz abandoned plans to invade the island with five U.S. divisions. The once potent enemy bastion was simply bypassed.

foray waste Japanese at Truk Island : Nipponese " Jill " torpedo hero sandwich attacks through a hail of anti - aircraft fervor during a U.S. carrier attack on Truk Island . As the master Japanese fleet base in the Pacific , Truk was subjected to retell U.S. carrier raids . One of the most devastating took office on February 17 and 18 , 1944 , in conjunction with the Marshall Islands operation . The onrush destroyed 250 to 275 foe aircraft and sink nearly 40 ships of various types . The raid so devastated foeman capableness at Truk that Admiral Nimitz abandoned plans to infest the island with five U.S. partitioning . The once virile opposition citadel was simply get around .

Get casual World War II highlights of the 2d half of February 1944 in the next division of this article .

World War II Timeline: February 16-17, 1944-13 March 2025

American and Soviet Union advances against Nazi Germany are among the notable World War II consequence of February 1944 . day-after-day high spot are include in the follow World War II timeline .

World War II Timeline: February 16-February 22

February 16 - 17 : Japan ’s Imperial Navy is ram to withdraw from Truk , its master base in the central Pacific , when Truk is subject to a highly destructive rape by American carrieraircraft .

February 17 : The Red Army accepts the surrender of nigh 20,000 German Eighth Army troop , who are among those trap in the beginning in the calendar month . However , most of the Germans , some 55,000 , go down fighting .

The Americans capture another forward cornerstone in the Marshall Islands with the occupation of Bikini Atoll . The atoll will become famous in later years as the site of the first hydrogen turkey mental test .

February 18 : Seventy member of the French Resistance , sitting on death run-in in Amiens Prison in Nazi - occupied France , escape when Allied bombs damage the wall of their cell .

February 20 : A ferry laden with tanks of heavy water en path to German atomic research adeptness is sunk by a Norwegian wrecker in the very deep waters of Lake Tinnsjö .

February 20 - 25 : During " Big Week , " theAmerican Air Forcein Britain force the Germans to post up their fighters to protect their aircraft factories against a monumental assault bybombers . The see Mustang fighters decimate German fighter strength .

February 22 : Greek partisans sabotage a track used by German troop trains . As a resolution , a train plunges into a ravine , leading to the decease of some 400 German soldiers .

Japanese prime government minister General Tojo takes over as chief of the Japanese Army General Staff .

The headlines and images below leave more selective information about World War II ’s 1944 events , admit Soviet advances and the American seizure of Eniwetok .

Nazi General Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist defies Hitler with retreat in Russia : After participating in the invasions of Poland in 1939 , France in 1940 , and Yugoslavia in 1941 , General Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist led his tanks across the Russian boundary line on June 22 , 1941 . By September , he had played critical theatrical role in astounding military successes , admit the capture of much of the Ukraine . He was promoted to field marshall in 1943 . But even Kleist ’s considerable art stammer before inexorable Soviet Union offensives . Never one of Hitler ’s yes - man , Kleist in 1944 refuse theFührer ’s order by retire across the Ukrainian territory he had in the beginning conquered . In March , Hitler permanently relieved him of command .

Soviet Union progress reverse the lunar time period against Nazi Germany : A grim picture of a slain soldier , butterfly by military vehicles like roadkill , hint at the brutality of the fighting on the Eastern Front . By early 1944 , the Soviet Union had turned the lunar time period against the Germans . On January 4 , Axis force-out were routed westwards across the prewar Polish border . A month later , Soviet Union troops had advanced 100 stat mi into Poland . In the Ukraine , the port metropolis of Odessa fell to the Soviets on April 10 , and the Germans turn a loss Sevastopol on May 9 .

Nazi Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring ’s nimiety are fodder for cartoonist : By 1944 Nazi Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring , discredited by his Luftwaffe ’s failure , was showing the ill effects of his idolatry to sensual pleasures . His bloated girth , flakey costume , and temperamental behavior made him a pop subject for cartoonists . ( Even Germans referred to him as " Der Dicke , " signify the " Fat One . " ) One caricature of a grossly fat Göring with a skull - like face was signal " Kukryniksy . " The best known of Soviet toon touch , Kukryniksy was actually a corporate name used by collaborating artist Mikhail Kupriyanov , Porfiry Krylov , and Nikolai Sokolov .

U.S. fight on Bougainville island : American soldiers advance with a Sherman tank during the fighting on Bougainville in the Solomon Islands . After the initial landing on November 1 , 1943 , construction of an airstrip at Cape Torokina began immediately . Two other airfields were soon constructed to support the atmosphere campaign against Japanese - held Rabaul . U.S. Armytroops under Major General Oscar Griswold relieve the Third Marine Division in December to expand the beachhead , protect the perimeter , and tend to the logistics of the freshly institute base . United States Army troops saw limited fighting until March 9 , 1944 , when the Japanese attacked in effect . The Gb smashed the enemy assault , and the valuable airfields were never again threatened .

Americans confiscate Japan ’s Eniwetok atoll : Marinesof the 22nd Regiment stay low during combat on Japanese - curb Eniwetok . The U.S. seized the atoll on February 17 - 23 , 1944 , almost as an second thought to the landings on Roi - Namur and Kwajalein . Those operation had gone so well that Admiral Chester Nimitz settle to capitalize on his good fortune and confiscate Eniwetok more than two calendar month ahead of schedule . The atoll would serve as a base for future operations against Japanese - held Truk and the Caroline Islands . The twenty-second Marines and the 106th Infantry quickly overcame the 3,500 Nipponese shielder on Eniwetok and adjacent island . Fewer than 350 Americans were killed in military action .

For more information about World War II effect leading up to D - Day , move to the the next department of this clause .

World War II Timeline: 11 April 2025-2 December 2024

Among the event of March 1944 was the U.S.bombingof Berlin , in which the U.S. lost a book act ofplanes . Summaries of World War II events in February and March 1944 are let in in this timeline .

World War II Timeline : February 23 - March 6

February 23 : The Seventh Indian Division of the British 14th Army scores Britain ’s first military triumph over the Japanese , at Sinzweya , Burma .

The Marianas see action at law for the first time during the warfare , as the Allies launch a series of air attacks against the Japanese on the islands of Guam , Saipan , Tinian , and Rota .

February 29 : Ukrainian Red Army general Nikolai Vatutin is mortally wound in an attack by Ukrainian nationalists who are fighting for a Ukraine independent of the Soviet Union .

American infantryman invade the strategically of import Admiralty Islands , north of New Guinea .

March 1 : Nazi Germany announces that it has detained and enslave some five million alien nationals to fulfil the Reich ’s state of war - related labor needs .

March 2 : More than 400 Italian civilians die on a lading wagon train when it dilly-dally in a tunnel and suffocate them with smoke . The freight car had become the only means of transportation in a body politic where all usable resource are being devote to the war try .

Turkey ante up for its unregenerate disinterest with the personnel casualty of American lend - term of a contract help .

March 3 : The friend reveal that the U.S. , Britain , and Soviet Union will share equally in the state of war spoilage of the Italian navy .

As many as six million workers in northerly Italy strike in protest of transportation of Italians to German slave labor camp .

March 4 : The Japanese authorities regulate schoolchildren as unseasoned as 12 to mobilize for the warfare effort .

March 6 : Berlin is bomb by a U.S. force of well-nigh 700bombers , but the Americans stick out the loss of 69 planes , a one - day criminal record .

Chinese and American tank force engage the remnants of a Nipponese nautical segmentation at Burma ’s Tanai River .

Headlining warfare news in 1944 were the confederate attack on Italy and Japan , and the bearing of a Hitler relative in theU.S. military . Read the following timeline for more news from this period .

Adolf Hitler ’s nephew , William Patrick Hitler , cuss into U.S. Navy : Unknown to most Americans but find out very carefully by theFBI , William Patrick Hitler , the nephew of Adolf Hitler , lived with his mother inNew York Cityduring the warfare . He was the son of Hitler ’s half - buddy , Alois , and Alois ’s Irish - born wife . William and his female parent traveled to America for a speech tour , and they stay voluntarily there at the start of the war . His attempt to enter the American armed forces in 1942 was stonewalled , but he finally was sworn in to theNavyin March 1944 .

Allies execute dual assaults in Italy : The Allied landing at Anzio and the initial Allied violation on the Italian town of Cassino both took plaza in January 1944 . confederative leading hoped that the Anzio landing would go around the Germans ' redoubtable Gustav Line and divert and weaken German defenses at Cassino , the primal position on the pipeline . The strategy go bad , and fighting sweep up on in both places . But in May , the Allies finally broke through both at Anzio and Cassino . Bombing raids left Cassino in ruins .

British Amerindic nationalistic Subhas Chandra Bose , INA crusade against the British : Indian nationalist Subhas Chandra Bose became commander - in - chief of the Indian National Army ( INA ) . The INA ally itself with the Japanese during the war . A former president of the Indian National Congress , Bose turn away Mohandas Gandhi ’s unbloody resistance to British colonial principle , declaring , " Give mebloodand I shall give you freedom ! " His 85,000 - man INA press alongside the Japanese in the defeats at Kohima and Imphal . They surrendered following the capitulation of Japan . Though official records claim Bose died in a plane crash in 1945 , his literal destiny remains unsure .

British major ecumenical Orde Wingate hump for eccentricities : Eccentric British major general Orde Wingate have on an alarmclockon his wrist and snacked on natural onions . He first demonstrated a dash for unconventional war while fighting Arab irregular in Palestine . In 1941 he led a guerrilla unit against the Italians in Ethiopia , where his 1,700 - man force eventually accepted the capitulation of 20,000 enemy soldiers . In 1943 and 1944 , he led a long - range incursion brigade , the far-famed " Chindits , " against the Japanese in Burma . Wingate was pop in a woodworking plane clang on March 24 , 1944 .

Japanese war stager stigmatise In Japan : The popular Nipponese rhetoric observe grand destruction on the battlefield left bruise veterans in an uncomfortable situation when they return home maim but alive . An effort was made by the Military Protection Association , part of the Ministry of Welfare , to portray the war - injure as hakui yûshi ( hero in white ) . Their presence was encourage at patriotic rally and other public events . Still , the unstated feeling that they had somehow go wrong to meet their indebtedness to seize triumph or exit was deeply ingrained and unmanageable to overpower .

War , earthquake impart to cutting outlook in Japan : Osaka , Japan , suffered from the essence of confederate attacks and an earthquake . Despite a medium brim with pollyannaish " victory news , " it was becoming clear by 1944 that the warfare was not go well for Japan . Shortages offoodand habiliment head to price control and rationing , while defeat such as the loss of Saipan could not be hide . loyal slogans – " Deny one ’s self and process the land " – proliferated in an cause to stiffen Nipponese resolution . Despite their skepticism about the news , the ecumenical universe was prepared to fight to the remnant .

Find out how World War II progressed through March 1944 in the next section of this article . A detailed timeline of result and headlines of major news stories are include .

World War II Timeline: 8 December 2024-17 February 2025

Notable events of March 1944 include the deaths of thousands at Nazi Germany ’s Auschwitz - Birkenau death cantonment . For more on World War II history from this menstruation , surveil the timeline below .

World War II Timeline: March 7-March 20

March 7 : The British House of Commons contend whether popular vocalist , peach about the hardships of warfare on the BBC , harm esprit de corps on the front .

The gas chambers at Auschwitz - Birkenau claim more than 3,800 Judaic deportees from the Theresienstadt Ghetto .

March 11 : In the first of what will be many tryout of French " collaborators " ( Frenchmenandwomenwho aided and abetted the Nazis ) , Vichy internal minister Pierre Pucheu welcome a shamed verdict and a expiry time .

March 12 : Czechoslovakia ’s governance - in - exile sends a message to Czech citizens back home to sicken against the occupying Nazis .

Britain freeze travel between England and Ireland two days after Ireland denies an Allied request to shut down Axis consular bureau that effectively suffice as espionage operations for Axis nations .

March 14 : In Nazi Germany , Wernher von Braun ( a futureNASAstar ) is detained temporarily for spending clock time and money on labor that have slight to do with the imperialist aims of the Reich .

March 15 : respond to Hungary ’s late flirtation with the Allies , German troops arrange along the perimeter , forewarning an invasion .

March 16 : Oswald John Job , at age 59 , becomes the oldest individual to be executed under the terms of Britain ’s 1940 Treachery Act . Job had passed secrets to the Nazis in letters using unseeable ink .

March 18 : The RAF drops 3,000 tons ofbombson Frankfurt , Nazi Germany . A separate maraud four days after will claim more than 1,000 civilian sprightliness .

March 20 : Nazi Germany occupies Hungary two days after Hitler give his troops the order to demonstrate .

The espouse newspaper headline admit information on the ally ' success in Burma and the importance of ships to the war drive . register about these and other newsworthy item from 1944 .

Allies at long last prevail in Burma campaign : The fate of the China - Burma - India area was learn by the British 14th Army ’s successful Burma campaign ( supported by U.S.-led Formosan Nationalist forces ) from mid-1944 , follow its victories at Imphal and Kohima . The experient and struggle - season Japanese had initially enjoyed some successes against the British and Indian forces from 1942 to early 1944 . However , Japan ’s overextended logistical financial support scheme finally frustrated its strategic programme . Mandalay was occupied by the Allies in March , and Rangoon fell in May . The Nipponese forces in Burma eventually surrendered on August 28 , 1945 .

Allies advance in India , Burma : Alarmed by the buildup in Allied strength in late 1943 , the Japanese launched an offense against Imphal and Kohima in northeast India so as to skip the railroad line that cater " The Hump " airlift to China . After hard scrap , the Japanese yield frustration by early July and retreated , having suffered 55,000 casualties . It was the prominent Japanese defeat up to that clip . Elsewhere , Chinese section commanded by General Joseph Stilwell were on the attack in the Ledo region of Burma , and in mid - April 1944 Chinese divisions mounted an attack on the Yunnan front . heavily - pressed , the Japanese retreated . By the meter monsoon time of year arrived in 1944 , the Allies were poise to retake Burma .

French Resistance commits act of sabotage : A train motorcar sit atop the remains of an railway locomotive in Saône - et - Loire , France . Such human activity of sabotage by the French Resistance were among the most effective tactics against German moving in . From January to September 1943 , the figure of attack on railroad line jump from 130 each month to 530 , greatly reducing German mobility in France . Gallic factories used for German military production were also frequent target area . In increase to committing acts of fierceness and sabotage , the French Resistance also supply intelligence to the Allied powers – entropy that proved peculiarly important on D - Day .

Soviet Union force out storm into Belorussia : set in motion on June 22 , 1944 , Operation Bagration pitted 1.7 million Red Army troops against 800,000 Germans of Army Group Center in Belorussia . Enjoying overwhelming superiority in work force andguns– include 24,000 artillery pieces – the Soviet Union force were unstoppable . Minsk fell on July 3 . In two month of combat , the Red Army liberated most of Belorussia and drove into Poland . German Army Group Center was carry off , with 300,000 idle , 250,000 wounded , and 120,000 captured . Soviet Union loss totaled 68,000 kill or missing and 110,000 wounded .

Liberty ships carry military cargo during the war : familiarity ship were the workhorses of the war , bear valuable military cargo to Allied forces across the Atlantic and Pacific . Eighteen shipyards across the U.S. ramp up 2,751 Liberty ship during the war . While by and large dependable , many Liberty ships suffer from morphologic defects , such as cracks in the deck and hull . Nineteen burst in half and sank during the war .

Henry Kaiser , father of American ship building , crank out ships for the war effort : Known as the father of forward-looking American shipbuilding , Henry Kaiser own seven shipyard during the state of war . Using an assembly - lineage operation , his yards could build up a Liberty ship in five days , although most occupy two to three weeks . Kaiser start bring about ship for the U.S. Maritime Commission in the 1930s . He expanded his product facilities with edict from England following the start of the state of war . In all , his shipyard built 1,490 vessels for the war effort .

Both the Japanese and the British Royal Air Force suffered significant losses in March 1944 . Read about these and other World War II upshot in the next section .

World War II Timeline: 10 January 2025-24 March 2025

The British suffer a important loss ofbombersduring one raid in March 1944 . The World War II timeline below summarizes important issue that happen during late March and early April 1944 .

World War II Timeline : March 24 - April 1

March 24 : The Chindits , a British special army force comprised of Indian subject , are leave alone rudderless after their leader , Major General Orde Wingate , die in aplanecrash over Burma .

The Nazis murder 336 Italian civilians to avenge a partisan attack that claimed the life of 33 members of the SS who were marching through a narrow street in Rome .

March 25 : Seventy - six Allied pilots escape from the German prisoner of war campStalag Luft III , outside of Berlin , via an expertly orchestrate underground burrow .

March 26 : Only one sailor survives to tell the story of the sinking of theTullibee , a U.S. Navysubmarinewhose own torpedo struck the ship after follow a orbitual trajectory after being fired .

March 27 : The Nazi SS stockpile out a mass slaying of the Jewish children of Kovno , Lithuania . No child younger than 13 is spar .

March 29 : What will eventually become a massive flow of assistance to war - torn Europe start with a proportional dribble whenWashingtonallocates $ 1.35 billion to aid European refugees .

March 30 - April 2 : The Japanese suffer major equipment and supply losses whenU.S. Navyships bombard Japanese positions in the Caroline Islands .

March 31 : In the uncollectible RAF losses of the warfare , 95 poor boy are lose in one night in an unsuccessful raid of Nuremberg , Nazi Germany .

Admiral Koga , commander of the Japanese Imperial Navy in sequence to Yamamoto , is presume dead after his plane melt over the Philippines .

April 1 : Neutral Switzerland misplace 50 civilians in an inadvertent USAAF maraud over Schaffhausen .

The follow newspaper headline provide more info about World War II - relate news from 1944 , include the fight for Monte Cassino .

Britain ’s Entertainments National Service Association(ENSA ) provides needed amusement to scout troop : The British Entertainments National Service Association ( ENSA ) was similar to the American United Service Organizations ( USO ) . ENSA musicians , actors , comedians , and singers execute in hotels , manufactory , theaters , and at war - effort piece of work sites . ENSA performing artist also tour war front around the world . The organisation presented more than 2.5 million shows to some 300 million British and confederate military personnel and civilian war workers . Although some British citizens liked to poke fun at the performances , ENSA entertainments were democratic with their audience .

The U.S. Office of Price Administration controls prices of consumable goods during the war : Created in August 1941 , the U.S. Office of Price Administration ( OPA ) was a governmental representation that curb the cost and use of consumable goods . The government agency had the baron to place monetary value ceilings on retail particular . The OPA also oversaw the rationing of many frequently used items to ensure there were enough resources for themilitary . Rationed consumables included rubber products ( such as tires ) , gasoline , sugar , shoe , and meat . When the war was over , rationing end and price control bit by bit disappeared . The OPA close in 1947 .

U.S. West Coast braces for possible onset : Half of all American military aircraft were produce in California . The oil colour industry thrived there , and millions of scores of cargo and munitions were shipped from West Coast ports . Citizens and military leader constantly expected Nipponese attack . West Coast harbors were mined and guard with fluid anti - aircraftguns , radar , and searchlight . intelligent detectors stay on guard in 1944 ( even with radar in function ) , with military force still listen for enemy airplanes .

Next , learn more World War II story , admit what pass off in the first half of April 1944 .

World War II Timeline: 3 May 2025-1 February 2025

confederative actions in April 1944 included the devastation of Nazi Gestapo home office and a massivebombingcampaign in Hungary , Yugoslavia , and Nazi Germany . More notable events from this fourth dimension look in the undermentioned timeline .

World War II Timeline: April 2-April 13

April 2 : Nazis murder 86 Gallic civilians in reprisal for partisan aggression .

Soviet Union troops intrude on Romania , with a plan to retake the oil - rich country for the Allies .

April 3 : With the Nazi Germans in control of Hungary , the Allies revoke their hope to part with the area and attack German office in the majuscule of Budapest .

April 4 : General Charles de Gaulle assumes leadership of the Free French army .

April 5 : Alliedaircraftagain plan of attack the Axis - controlled vegetable oil production and tape transport facility of Ploesti , Romania .

April 6 : In Britain , the dramatic increase in the routine of salary - clear citizens leads the administration to infix pay - as - you - earn revenue enhancement , whereby an employer deducts a set amount from an employee ’s paycheck per salary flow .

April 7 : The Soviet Union declines a renew Japanese offering to negotiate a disjoined peace between the Nazis and the Russians .

April 10 : The Red Army reclaims Odessa , an authoritative Soviet port on the Black Sea , from the retreating German US Army .

April 11 : The RAF destroys the Gestapo ’s headquarters in The Hague , including files on individual Dutch subject scheduled to be deported to the Nazi camps .

The battle for command of Italy persist in in 1944 . Read about this and other World War II headlines below .

The fight for Italy continues : The Allies ' success in North Africa enabled them to obtrude upon Sicily in July 1943 and Italy in September . But despite an Italian truce on September 8 , the Germans continued to fight on determinedly . Due to the impending confederative invasion of Northern Europe , the Italian crusade was systematically accorded a humble precedency by the Allies , and therefore was often under - resourced . The strategical nonstarter of the landing place at Anzio exemplified this and other Allied deficiencies . Meanwhile , the German defence of Cassino was especially tenacious . Nevertheless , the Allies advanced relentlessly northwards , smash up through the Gustav Line and the Gothic Line . The Germans surrendered in Italy on May 2 , 1945 .

American infantryman Ira Eaker plans bombardment offensive : American Ira Eaker , an marcher during World War I , begin educate as apilotin 1918 . He win the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1929 for help set a earth flight survival record book . In 1942 he was call commander of the Eighth U.S. Army Air Force based in Britain , where he led the first U.S.bomberraid on Europe . A advocator of day precision bombardment , he helped persuade Winston Churchill to establish the Combined Bomber Offensive ( also lie with as the Eaker Plan ) , in which the Americans concenter on daytime bombing and the Royal Air Force conducted night bombardment . He was named commanding officer - in - head of the Allied Air Force in the Mediterranean in late 1943 .

Britain ’s Women ’s Auxiliary Air Force ( WAAF ) aids the warfare effort : Although WAAFs did not fly plane ( unlike their civilianfemalecounterparts in the Air Transport Auxiliary ) , their responsibility centered around such life-sustaining matter as weather , radar , codes , reconnaissance , and intelligence . Beginning in 1944 , many WAAFs service beyond the home front , include in Europe after the invasion of Normandy .

Pope Pius XII is hailed and criticized for wartime activity : In 1943,Timemagazine praisedPopePius XII and the Catholic Church for " contend Stalinism more wittingly , piously , and magisterially , and for a longer prison term , than any other organised power . " However , even during his living , Pius ’s wartime insurance policy were controversial . Despite his hushed denouncement of Nazi hostility and racial theories , the Vatican under his leadership remain officially achromatic throughout the warfare . Pius also stirred criticism for not denouncing the Nazis ' barbarousness against the Jews . Members of the Church hierarchy , however , hide Jews in monastery , convent , and the Vatican itself , saving G of Judaic life .

Romans hail American liberators : Shortly before the June 4 , 1944 , dismissal of Rome , the city had go a week of confederate bombings that killed some 5,000 civilians . Even so , crowds of Romans thankful for an end to the Nazi occupation joyfully greet the soldiers of U.S. general Mark Clark ’s Fifth Army , showering them with flowers . In his fireside schmoose of June 5 , President Roosevelt prompt his listeners that Ancient Rome had once ruled the known world . " That , too , is significant , " he said , " for the United Nations are determined that in the future no one city and no one race will be able to hold the whole of the world . "

carry on travel along World War II ’s history with the 1944 timeline and headlines present in the next section of this article .

World War II Timeline: 26 December 2024-17 December 2024

The Allied air maraud over Normandy , France , is just one outcome summarized in the following chronological timeline of World War II event for the 2nd half of April 1944 .

World War II Timeline : April 13 - April 25

April 13 : A monumental Alliedbombingraid hit German fair game in Hungary and Yugoslavia , as well as in Nazi Germany right .

April 13 : The Allies confront Sweden , which – despite increasing pressure from the international community – continue to supply the Nazis with ball bearings for their equipment and weapons .

Less than two months before the planned Allied invasion of France , American and Britishwarplanessoften German defenses on the Normandy seacoast .

April 14 : The Nazis deport the first trainload of Hellenic Jews from Athens . They are destined for the Auschwitz - Birkenau throttle chambers .

At a Bombay larboard , nearly 1,000 people break , 20 ships are lost , and tens of grand of tons of supply are destroyed in a massive series of explosions that are triggered when a TNT - laden ship catchesfire .

April 17 : The Japanese initiate a major offence , codification - name Ichi - Go , against American and Chinese positions in China ’s Honan Province .

April 18 - 19 : Nearly 1,400 Gallic civilian perish in Allied air raids over the responsibility of Normandy .

April 19 : The U.S. House of Representatives approves a one - year extension of the Lend - Lease Act .

April 20 : The Allies are ultimately capable to convince " impersonal " Turkey to stop supplying the Axis with chrome for weapons and tape transport production .

April 24 : The U.S. Department of War concludes that only through a footing encroachment of the Nipponese motherland will the Allies come through in winning the warfare in the Pacific Theater .

April 25 : U.S. general George Patton creates a bombilation when he implies that the Allies have plans for world supremacy .

The American seizure of a Germansubmarineand the fall of Crimean city of Sevastopol to the Soviet Union are among the notable news narrative of 1944 . sum-up of these and other major World War II case come .

Americans capture German submarineU-505 : Launched and commissioned in 1941 , the German submarineU-505sank eight ships and survived more equipment casualty than any other German hoagie during World War II . On June 4 , 1944 , depth charges from theUSS ChatelainforcedU-505 ’s work party to desolate ship , after which the sub was boarded and keep from sinking by U.S. sailors ( see ) . worthful papers and codebooks were direct from the Italian sandwich , which was then tow to the United States . This was the first enemy ship captured by the U.S. since 1815 .

Nazi Germans patrol the bluff at Pas de Calais , France : A German cooler patrols the beaches of Pas de Calais in the spring of 1944 . The Germans had every reason to think that the main impend Allied encroachment would arrive in Pas de Calais – and not far west in Normandy , as the Allies actually intended . After all , Pas de Calais was near to England and had splendid landing place beaches . The Allies added to Nazi Germany ’s mistake through a number of artifice , include the creation of a phantom ground forces chemical group that was stationed directly across the communication channel from Calais and was led by U.S. general George Patton .

national socialist politician Fritz Sauckel pass forced labor program in Nazi Germany : In March 1942 , Hitler put Nazi politician Fritz Sauckel in guardianship of acquire hands for the warfare effort . Sauckel pursued his obligation with extraordinary cruelty , forcing war captive and citizen of occupy easterly territory into brutal slave labor . In a memoranda , Sauckel ordered , " All the men must be feed in , shelter and treated in such a way as to work them to the high possible extent at the down imaginable level of using up . " Sauckel ’s policies bring some five million workers to Nazi Germany , only about 200,000 of them voluntarily . After the warfare , he was convicted of criminal offense against humanity and hanged .

The Nazis represent Terzin as a " manikin clique " to visitors : The eighteenth century fortress of Terezin ( Theresienstadtin German ) , Czechoslovakia , became a Nazi " fashion model camp . " To deceiveRed Crossinspectors and other international visitant , Theresienstadt – which included a theater , café , and car park – was fill with Jewish scholars , musician , and artist who were encouraged to give public performances and showing . On Adolf Hitler ’s order , actor Kurt Gerron lead a propaganda film , TheFürhrerGives the Jews aCity , praising Theresienstadt . Of the 144,000 Jews send there , about 33,000 died of famishment and epidemic diseases , and another 88,000 were carry to extermination camps .

City of Sevastopol falls to the Soviet Union : On April 8 , 1944 , the Soviet Union launched a major offensive ( 500,000 flock ) against the German 17th Army , which had been isolated in the Crimea since November . outnumber two to one and with their backs to the Black Sea , the Germans assay to make a stall at Sevastopol . However , after being shatter by massive ordnance barrages and relentless infantry attack , the metropolis fell on May 9 . Of the 230,000 Axis troops originally trap on the peninsula , about 150,000 escaped by ocean . The rest were killed or captured .

British air travel master marshall Sir Arthur Tedder uses bombers to exonerated way for troops : British air main marshal Sir Arthur Tedder was charge Eisenhower ’s deputy supreme commander for the encroachment of Normandy . Tedder successfully carry out the Allies ' " Transportation Plan , " which involved fail Gallic railroad to slow up down Axis reinforcer during the Allied landing place at Normandy on June 6 , 1944 . His tactic of using hoagie to assoil the manner for advancing troop ( " Tedder ’s Carpet " ) also proved effectual at Normandy and elsewhere . In May 1945 , he sign Nazi Germany ’s unconditional surrender on Eisenhower ’s behalf .

World War II Timeline: 15 April 2025-6 April 2025

The World War II timeline below sum up central issue of late April and early May conduce to D - Day , admit a D - Day " practice run . "

World War II Timeline: April 27-May 4

April 27 : In the run - up to D - Day , British authorities ban all travelling outside the country in an effort to put a stop to intelligence making water about the intrusion .

April 29 : Disaster strike a D - Day praxis lead when German naval force attack an American training utilization , wipe out more than 600 troops .

Some 120 Japaneseplanesare destroyed as the Allies deliver to the key Nipponese home of Truk to inflict further damage .

April 30 : The first prefabricate , $ 2,200 home goes on display in London , in advance of Churchill ’s plan to employ C of M of these structures to house those bequeath roofless by the war .

May 1944 : The Soviet Union hold in the Battle of the Crimea . The sphere is emptied of German and Rumanian military group , decade of thousands of whom have been killed .

This calendar month , for the first time since 1940 , no British civilian will die in Axis air raids .

Japanese shipping is severely curb following Allied excavation of the water off Thailand and Burma .

May 2 : Schoolteacher and crossword puzzle creator Leonard Dawe attracts the attention of the Allies when one of his puzzle , published in theLondon Daily Telegraph , contains the wordUtah . Subsequent puzzles will admit the wordsOmahaandOverlord , lead Allied surety to suspect Dawe is leaking intelligence about the D - twenty-four hours intrusion . He is not doing so .

May 3 : Spain ’s Fascist government under General Francisco Franco agrees to cut back supply freight to Nazi Germany in exchange for an step-up in fossil oil shipments from the Allies .

May 4 : The United States suspends the rationing platform for most types and cuts of pith .

The headline below summarise D - Day preparations , the D - Day intrusion , and other major events of World War II in 1944 .

British military machine argues about area bombing : Along with Arthur " Bomber " Harris , RAF head of the zephyr staff Sir Charles Portal was a vigorous advocator of areabombing– destroying civilian populations instead of military target . But Portal ’s thinking changed , putting him more and more at betting odds with Harris . Over Harris ’s unattackable remonstration , Portal sided with Eisenhower ’s commitment to the " Transportation Plan " of flunk Gallic railroads instead of German cities in preparation for D - Day . Portal grew progressively skeptical of field bombing ’s military strength , but was ineffective to restrain Harris from bombing city after urban center late in the war .

U.S. General Dwight Eisenhower greets troops before D - Day : On June 5 , 1944 , General Dwight Eisenhower wrote a short note . " If any inculpation or fault attaches to the attack , " he wrote , " it is mine alone . " achiever was not guaranteed , and Eisenhower probably composed this message in progression of D - Day for fear that the proper words would not number to him if the encroachment failed . " Ike " claver themenof the 101st Airborne as they prepared for their drop . He asked their names and where they were from . Not long after , he watched as the planes carry his airborne troop into the night .

General Omar Bradley ’s work force ramp Omaha , Utah beach in Normandy , France : Due to his success in corps control during campaigns in North Africa and Sicily , General Omar Bradley was chosen by General Eisenhower as the FirstU.S. Armycommander for the invasion of France . Eisenhower decided that Bradley ’s First Army , with its three corps , would land on the Omaha and Utah beach in the first waving of the invasion of Normandy . Bradley watched the assaults from theUSS Augusta . The landing at Utah met with relatively small opposition . Omaha , however , was heavy defended by German force . After securing a beachhead on Omaha beach , Bradley ’s Operation Cobra , begun on July 25 , 1944 , tore a hole in German defenses .

airy reconnaissance assesses enemy defenses : Photography provided essential intelligence to all belligerents . The RAF rapidly rise strategical reconnaissance ( with fast , high - altitude , unarmed aircraft ) and tactical reconnaissance ( with low - fly armed fighters ) . Their photographs were interpreted with stereoscopic techniques , producing a 3 - 500 figure of speech from two overlapping print . By 1942 Allied aircraft could produce 1:10,000 ordered series photographs from 30,000 human foot . The USAAF initially employed especially equippedbombers(such as the one figure ) for long - chain of mountains reconnaissance , but it soon flip to adapt champion . Aerial photography try out priceless for assess foe defenses ( notably for Operation Overlord ) , interfering with the production and use of the V - weapon , and planning strategic bombing .

The five beach of Normandy are give codification name calling : Sword and Gold were code names for the beaches attacked by the British Second Army . Americans landed on Utah and Omaha . British troops set ashore at Sword met with very little resistance , sustaining 600 casualty . The Canadians attempt to down on Juno met with greater resistance , suffering about 50 percent casualty in the first 60 minutes . But once over the ocean bulwark , they faced less opposition . The British who aggress Gold faced some underground , which decreased as they moved inland . Americans landing at Utah faced the least ohmic resistance , suffering only 200 casualty on D - Day . Omaha proved the toughest , as the terrain was considerably suit for defence . By the time the Americans come on off the beach , they had left about 3,000 fatal accident behind .

Breaking through the Nazi Atlantic Wall proves perilous : To maintain against an Allied invasion from Britain , the Germans retrace the Atlantic Wall – fortifications along the westerly coast of Europe . obstruction were set under water supply to buck holes in landing craft , and mine were seeded under the sand . Antitank barrier and walls of barbed wire were strategically placed along the beaches . The Omaha beach was rake bymachine gunsin pillboxes with overlap fields offire . soldier who made it to the barbed wire used Bangalore bomber – 50 - foot - long pipes ( pictured ) filled with 85 Irish punt of TNT – to blow holes through the wire bulwark .

ally encounter strong resistance after shore at Utah beach : friend met with the stiffest impedance on Juno and Omaha beaches . U.S. colonel George Taylor of the First Infantry Division taste to motivate his shell - shocked and fatigued men to boost off Omaha . " Two kinds of people are staying on this beach , " he said , " the dead and those who are going to break . " Once beyond the obstruction , troops advanced up the slopes to destroy pillboxes , from which machine grease-gun and artillery unit fire rained down .

In the next section , we ’ll render a chronological timeline of World War II case for the first half of May 1944 , as well as relevant headline from the period .

World War II Timeline: 2 January 2025-23 March 2025

The Allies ' readiness for D - Day continued throughout May 1944 . The timeline below includes summaries of major World War II events during this crucial clock time .

World War II Timeline : May 5 - May 13

May 5 : Ailing Indian Congress Party leader Mohandas Gandhi leave prison nearly two age after his immurement for impeding Britain ’s war effort .

May 6 : Nazi Germany orders an additional 1,800 laborer from France to serve staff the Mittelbau - Dora slave labor camp near Nordhausen , Germany . The workers are involve to mistreat up yield of the V-2bombsthat will terrorize Britain for much of the year .

May 8 : Supreme Allied Commander Eisenhower substantiate June 5 as the date for Operation Overlord , the invasion of France .

May 9 : Luftwaffeinstallations on Gallic soil are pounded by Alliedaircraftin an attempt to deliver them harmless prior to D - Day .

On the Eastern Front , the Soviet Union recaptures the Ukrainian city of Sevastopol .

May 10 : President Roosevelt name James Forrestal secretarial assistant of theNavyfollowing the death of Forrestal ’s herald , W. Franklin Knox .

May 12 : The Allies engage in heated up conflict with German troops across much of Italy , and manage to make steady addition .

The Allies warn lower-ranking Axis mightiness Romania , Hungary , and Bulgaria that they will suffer if they continue to stand with Nazi Germany .

A Free French court come up Vichy Admiral Edmond Darian guilty of cooperate with the Nazis and doom him to life sentence incarceration .

A joint U.S.-RAF aeriform ravishment over Nazi Germany inflicts labored wrong on theLuftwaffewhile wreaking mayhem on several synthetical - oil production facility .

May 13 : The ally finally break through the German Gustav Line , the western segment of the Winter Line , and begin their march northward through Italy .

American advances in Europe , the dissemination of tidings of the Normandy intrusion , and more World War II events are illustrate in the following headlines from 1944 .

ally break out from the Normandy beaches : The Allied seaborne and airborne landings in Normandy by General Montgomery ’s 21stArmyGroup on June 6 , 1944 , were the culmination of years of operational and logistic joint provision and cookery . Although the U.S. Fifth Corps landing on Omaha Beach at first meet life-threatening difficulty , Anglo - Canadian - U.S. success on the other four beaches – Utah , Gold , Juno , and Sword – was generally singular . Nevertheless , several first - day objectives – notably Caen – were after secure only after weeks of intemperate fight in the obtusely wooded countryside of northern France . The delayed Allied breakout meant that many German troops escaped blockade in the Falaise Pocket .

word of the encroachment of France is released : At about 3:30 a.m. Eastern prison term in the U.S. on June 6 , 1944 , the following news was released : " Allied naval force . . . began land confederative armies this morning on the northern coast of France . " This landing had been much anticipate in the Allied and Axis nations . Most Americans were anxious for news . President Roosevelt punctuate in a news league that the invasion did not mean the fighting was almost over . " You do n’t just walk to Berlin , " he said , " and the sooner this nation realizes that , the better . " The Nipponese ambassador in Berlin notified Tokyo that German headquarters told him there would be no counterattack in Normandy because the German army still awaited ( mistakenly ) the invasion of " the chief physical structure , which the Allies [ have ] not yet bring down . "

hedge impede ally ' progress in Cherbourg , France : " Too many hedges , " an Allied unit of measurement reported . " Must go forth slowly . . . take one hedgerow at a clip and clean it up . “Bocageis French for mixed woodland and pasture separated by buddy-buddy , eminent hedgerows . Cherbourg Peninsula ’s terrain proved excellent for defense , undermining America ’s vantage in melody funding , armour , and artillery . The hedgerows did not stop a tank , but the motorcar ’s underbelly – the weakest part of a tank ’s armor – was exposed to enemy antitank and bazooka flame as it attain the top of a hedge . Units from the U.S. First Army demand 17 days to move seven mile toward Saint - Lô .

British forces grab Bayeux , France : A British soldier fires a Brengunover detritus in Bayeux , France . Notice that censors have obscured his berm patch so his unit could not be identify . A member of the British 50th Division , he landed on Gold beach . The 50th come closer than any other Allied unit to its June 6 target , as Bayeux was captured by the British the day after the landing . This soldier is using a Bren Gun – a light machine artillery popular in the British Army during World War II . It used magazine- instead of swath - fed ammunition like other machine guns . One of the gun ’s benefits was that it sack the same ammo as the standard British rifle , the bolt of lightning - activeness Lee Enfield .

Americans break dance through the German line of merchandise at Saint - Lô , France : In mid - June 1944 , the Germans ' defence stiffened in the hedge of Normandy . The British advance conk at Caen , which was defended by much of Nazi Germany ’s armor . However , the Germans had few armored combat vehicle in the American sector at Saint - L'99 , allowing U.S. forces to offend the German line there in early August . U.S. general George Patton ’s newly formed Third Army threatened to circle the German force still deployed across Normandy . Hitler shout out for a retirement from Normandy on August 16 , leaving 50,000 dead and about 200,000 captured .

American troops made advances in operations in Italy and New Guinea in the latter part of May 1944 . Read more about these World War II operations in the next section .

World War II Timeline: 27 December 2024-2 March 2025

Key World War II issue of the latter part of May 1944 let in Allied seizure in Italy and New Guinea . translate about these events and others in the following timeline .

World War II Timeline: May 13-May 29

May 13 : Klaus Dönitz , boy of the GermanKriegsmarinecommander , pass when the Allies drop down the ship he is on .

May 15 : The Nazis start out the cognitive operation of deporting Hungarian Jews to proletariat and death camp with the assistance of the local Hungarian police . Ultimately , close to 440,000 will be deported , with about two - thirds ending their journeying in the gas chamber of Auschwitz - Birkenau .

May 18 : After four months of bloody battle and at a cost of some 20,000 aliveness , the ally finally capture the ruined hilltop of the Monte Cassino monastery in Italy .

May 19 : About 50 of the Allied POWs who fly the coop Stalag Luft III via an underground tunnel are executed after almost all who fly the coop were retake . About 20 are turn back to the camp to serve as a warning to other yard bird .

May 21 : The Americans capture Wakde Island , off the N coast of Dutch New Guinea , two days after their initial landing . The conquering gives them an important advancing nucleotide for their plan encroachment of western New Guinea .

May 22 : The North Atlantic island nation of Iceland announce itself main of Denmark .

May 25 : Josip Broz Tito , leader of the Communist Yugoslavian enthusiast , narrowly evades capture in a surprise German raid on his headquarters .

May 26 : Nearly 5,500 Gallic civilians die in Allied air raid over the southern part of the country .

May 29 : Luftwaffecommander Hermann Göring intromit that his fleet has yielded the skies over Europe to the Allies , telling Hitler " not a singleLuftwaffeaircraftdares show itself . "

The headline below contain news of 1944 ’s important wartime events , including the D - Clarence Day encroachment and the handling of American prisoners of state of war .

Allied intrusion of Normandy , France , deem a reverberating winner : The Allies ' successful intrusion and subsequent landing of supplies surpassed everyone ’s outlook . Once the beach were under Allied control , two prefabricated harbors , made of six miles of flexible steel roadway , were tow from England and constructed at Omaha and Gold beaches . By the end of June , approximately 850,000 troops , 150,000 vehicles , and 570,000 tons of supplies had hybridize the English Channel . Prime Minister Winston Churchill express that Operation Overlord , the Normandy encroachment , was " the most difficult and complicated operation ever to take position . "

Nazis massacre French residents at Oradour - sur - Glane , France : On June 10 , 1944 , a Waffen - SS multitude led by Adolf Diekmann surrounded the Vichy French town of Oradour - Tyre - Glane , where Gallic informant had cover that the Maquis ( resistance ) was holding a German official for execution . The Nazis crowd the town’smeninto b and thewomenand children into a church . They then killed these local residents by fire-raising andmachine gunfire . After slaughtering 642 people , the Nazis burnt the full town . The German official supposedly held there was never located .

German Nazi deploy remote - verify tanks to destroy targets : German " Goliaths " – small , remote control - controlled tanks – were loaded with TNT and designed to destroy such fair game as dugout , fortified positions , and full - ordered series armored combat vehicle . Deployed in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 and at the beach of Anzio and Normandy , these machine were ingenious but not especially effective . They were control by lengths of three - telegram electric cable , which a daring enemy soldier could simply cut with a power shovel . Still , an unmolested Goliath could travel at a speed equal to a brisk walk , and the operator could detonate the charge at will .

In the next section of this article , get a detailed chronological timeline of World War II military operation from later May to early June 1944 .

World War II Timeline: 11 February 2025-31 January 2025

In early June 1944 , the French Resistance was alerted to the upcoming five hundred - Day invasion . This and other key World War II events of May and June 1944 are highlighted in the chronological timeline that surveil .

World War II Timeline : May 29 - June 5

May 29 : Tanks clash in the Pacific Theater for the first time when U.S. forces attempt to force out the Japanese from their strategically of import airfield on the island of Biak .

The USSBlock Island , a Bogue Class accompaniment carrier , becomes the only American carrier to go down in the Atlantic when it is torpedo byU-549 in water northeast of the Canary Islands .

May 30 : The Nazis rank all Germans to kill drink down Allied airman on slew .

June 1 : The French Resistance is given its marching orders and alerted to the timing of the D - Day invasion when the BBC disseminate Verlaine ’s verse form " Chanson d’Automne . "

The Ultra code - breakers at Britain ’s Bletchley Park press " Colossus " – a quick , amply electronic Enigma decrypt machine – into service .

June 2 : As the Allies approach Rome , ingathering get along in from all quarters to give up the ancient city the death wrought on much of the rest of Europe .

June 4 : The Allies march on Rome , one daytime after Hitler orders his USA withdraw . Though sporadic fighting occurs in the outskirts , the city pith is spared .

A prognosis of in high spirits winds and unreasonable swarm cover forces the postponement of D - Day by one day , to June 6 .

TheU.S. NavycapturesU-505 , an intactU - sauceboat , off the coast of Africa .

June 5 : Field Marshal Erwin Rommel leaves his post on the coast of France to travel to Nazi Germany to observe his wife ’s natal day . He will expend most of D - Day speeding back to the Normandy front .

Allied paratroopers land in France late in the even as a preliminary to the 500 - Day invasion .

The newspaper headline below describe Nazi Eruca sativa ingeniousness , theU.S. Marines ' experience in the Mariana Islands , and other World War II news from 1944 .

German launch " buzz bomb " rockets at London : On June 13 , 1944 , Nazi Germany launched the V-1 flyingbombat London for the first time . The " buzz turkey " was an unmanned , pulse - jetaircraftdeveloped in Peenemünde , a town on a small German peninsula in the Baltic Sea . German scientists , under the direction of Wernher von Braun ( later the father of the U.S. outer space program ) , also developed the V-2 ballisticmissile , a pilotless aircraft that locomote at four clip the speed of sound , making it invulnerable to antiaircraft and fighter fire . RAF Cuban sandwich lash out Peenemünde on August 17 - 18 , 1943 , destroying much of the missile development web site . However , product of these arm continued there and at other locations .

Nazis produce the Fritz - X roquette , the first successful wireless - guided missile : Before and during World War II , the Germans researched rocket and projectile technology . Even before German V-1 pilotless " buzz bomb " and V-2 ballistic missiles impinge on London and other city in 1944 - 45 , undercover factories form to finish a V-3gundesigned to discharge foresightful - range payload . The Germans ' " Fritz - X " missile ( see ) was the first successful radio - take bomb . Fritz - X missiles settle the Italian battleship Roma and the British cruiser Spartan , and damaged other Allied war vessel .

Communication is fundamental to U.S. triumph on Saipan : A Marine works a flying field telephone switchboard at a temporary command post on Mount Tapochau in the center of Saipan . Even command posts were dangerous on Mount Tapochau in the center of Saipan ; 19 battalion commanders were shoot down or hurt . Tapochau , the island ’s highest point ( 1,554 substructure ) , was a all important aim from which Japanese observers had ab initio prognosticate down artillery fire on the beaches . Its seizure by the Second Marine Division on June 25 without loss was a turning full stop . Despite a lack of receiving set batteries and periodic cut telephony lines , effective American communication on Saipan contributed enormously to the complex invasion ’s eventual success .

U.S. Marines land on Mariana Island , Saipan : Invading the Mariana Islands , from which U.S.bomberscould bomb Japan , was an immense logistic challenge . Some 535 combat ships and auxiliaries enrapture 127,571 troops to islands more than a thousand miles from the nearest U.S. base , Eniwetok . The Marianas were 3,500 miles from the troops ' exit distributor point , Pearl Harbor . Early on June 15 , 1944 , after Admiral Turner have the go - ahead to the landing force , vessel such as landing foxiness carried Marines to the cardinal Mariana island , Saipan . More than 600 amphibious craft debarked two division on eight beaches on a four - nautical mile front with no serious collision . Some 8,000 Marines were shoot down in the first 20 minutes . Once the troop were ashore , they meet fierce resistance .

U.S. troops confront troublesome obstacles in Saipan : Saipan ’s terrain was much more diverse than the pocket-size , low - lying atolls of the Marines ' and Army ’s recent run . Mountains , tortuous flora , cane fields , ravines , and cave all presented obstacles . The enemy ordinarily proved unmanageable to locate , and fighting everywhere was at snug quarters . Grenadesproved invaluable , and so did satchel charges andflamethrowers . U.S. naval ascendency had forestall the Japanese from receive the support and provision needed to strengthen their defenses before the invasion . But the 30,000 Nipponese defenders struggle with characteristic conclusion for land that they considered strategically vital home territory .

To memorise more about World War II history in 1944 , understand on . Another elaborate timeline and news headlines for June 1944 follow .

World War II Timeline: 22 February 2025-5 December 2024

Learn about the Allied encroachment of France – the D - daytime invasion – and other major June 1944 upshot by following the World War II timeline below .

World War II Timeline: June 6-June 13

June 6 : In an awful show of military military unit , the Allies land on the coast of France . By the end of the solar day , German billet in Normandy will be bombarded with more than 175,000 troop , 600 warship , and nearly 10,000 bombers and otherwarplanes . By the end of the month , nearly a million friend will be on French territory .

While the European Theater is intemperately engaged on the beaches of Normandy , Allied Pacific Theater commanders set the date for a interchangeable encroachment of Japan for October 1 of the following year .

June 7 : German troops detain King Leopold III of Belgium and transport him to Nazi Germany .

June 8 : The beaten and depletedWehrmachtretreats from coastal place in easterly Italy .

June 9 : For the first meter , the Allies set up bombing missions on German positions from recaptured airfields on the French mainland .

June 10 : The Greenwich Village of Oradour - sur - Glâne is destroy , and 642men , adult female , and children are slaughtered , by member of theWaffen - SSwho are searching for a pretermit gold shipment and Major Helmut Kämpfe , kidnapped by Gallic partisans .

Americans on the Normandy beach code - named " Utah " and " Omaha " link force and move inland .

June 11 : TheU.S. Navydeals a rough blow to the Japanese , destroying more than 200 of theirair fleetin an attack on base in the Marianas .

June 12 : Six days after the initial D - mean solar day encroachment , the Allies have cemented a self-coloured sickening melody along the Normandy beach .

June 13 : Hitler unleashes his long - promised " occult weapon " against England . Over the next 80 daylight , V-1 rocketbombswill kill 5,500 civilians and cause widespread destruction .

The headlines below shed visible light on additional newsworthy events of 1944 , including news show from the Pacific dramatic art .

Nipponese soldier in Saipan choose death over resignation : In a World War II photo , the corpse of one of the 23,811 Japanese roll in the hay to have died on Saipan leans back on a tree as if asleep . How he go bad is unknown , but he evade the lot of thousands seal in caves or charred beyond recognition . Perhaps he died in a nighttime raid or abanzaicharge . The last charge , on July 7 , be more than 3,000 Nipponese life sentence . Perhaps this soldier in the photograph committed suicide rather than give up . Only 736 of the 30,000 defenders , includuing 438 Koreans , allow themselves to be captured . As the William Lloyd Garrison commander , General Saito , conclude before committinghara - kiri , " Whether we lash out , or whether we detain where we are , there is only demise . "

U.S. Marines seek spiritual force during Saipan campaign : During the initial landings on Saipan , Marines mind as chaplain gave them a prayer and thanksgiving over the ships ' speaker . Of 71,034 officeholder and men charge to the invasion of the island , casualties amounted to 14,111 , or about 20 pct . Nearly four times as many Marines became casualties on Saipan as on Tarawa . Navy chaplain , who supported the Marine Corps , make a motion between units from dawn till dusk , providing up to 14 inspection and repair a daytime . They also performed entombment service .

Americans seek to spare civilians while attacking in Saipan : American forces on Saipan were ordered to nullify civilian casualties when lash out enemy - held cave . Most American troops prove adept will towards civilian , even amid a quintessentially brutal battle . Civilians showed fright when encountering American servicemen , whom the island ’s Japanese commander call " American hellion . " Propaganda that civilians would be torment and killed prevent many from leaving their caves . Hundreds followed the lead of Nipponese troop and committed suicide , most splendidly by leaping off cliffs at Marpi Point .

In the next department , find out what happened during the remainder of June 1944 . Notable World War II events of the period are chronicle in a timeline .

World War II Timeline: 30 April 2025-8 February 2025

World War II events following the invasion of Normandy include the Allied bombardment of Cherbourg , France , and a weighed down nose candy to the Japanese in the Battle of the Philippine Sea . The timeline that follows summarizes these and other issue of the latter part of June 1944 .

World War II Timeline: June 14-June 29

June 14 : liberal French leader General Charles de Gaulle render to France some four years after the Nazi occupation post him into expat .

June 15 : operate out of Taiwanese bases , American B-29 long - rangebombersattack the Nipponese island of Kyushu , damage a steel plant that is a key supplier for the imperial war effort .

June 19 - 20 : TheU.S. Navydeals a heavy blow to the Japanese , and their naval airwave fleet in particular , in the Battle of the Philippine Sea . U.S. losses are comparatively small , while the incapacitated Japanese fleet is forced to retreat to Okinawa .

June 22 : The Alliesbombthe French metropolis of Cherbourg after a warning , delivered a day prior to the occupy German forcefulness , is met with silence .

President Roosevelt signs the GI Bill of Rights , a wide - range warhorse benefits package that will become the catalyst for the " American dreaming " nonsuch of the 1950s .

Keeping an eye on the postwar prize , the Soviets establish a tool communistic government in Chelm , Poland . The new body is call up the Polish Committee of National Liberation .

June 27 : TheU.S. Armyoccupies the French city of Cherbourg two Clarence Day after naval bombardment and street fighting get down to engulf the metropolis .

June 28 : Philippe Henriot , the Vichy minister of information who was known as " the French Goebbels , " is murdered in his bed by members of the French Resistance .

cause the news in June 1944 were the Battle of the Philippines , the American GI Bill , and more . Read summaries of these remarkable event below .

Americans cripple Nipponese aircraft carrier forcefulness during the Battle of the Philippine Sea : U.S. airman Ronald " Rip " Gift celebrates his endurance following a night landing on the USSMontereyduring the two - day Battle of the Philippine Sea ( June 19 - 20 , 1944 ) . The " Get the bearer " exhortation on the quick room chalkboard reflects the emphasis placed onaircraftcarriers as precedence targets . By mid-1944 , U.S. carrier labor strength were prowling the ocean , striking enemy targets at will . By line , the Japanese United States Navy was steady subvert . Losses of Japanese carriers , aircraft , and pilots during the Battle of the Philippine Sea were the concluding blows to Nipponese hopes for naval dominance .

Congress croak the GI Bill : in June 1944 , the U.S. Congress pass off the Servicemen ’s Readjustment Act , more popularly known as the GI Bill of Rights . The House of Representatives had attempted to descale down the invoice ’s provisions , but after much negotiation , the House finally overhaul it almost inviolate . The turn was sign into law by President Roosevelt on June 22 . Two of its major viands were grim - interest group home loans and educational benefits . The home loans , utilize by 2.4 million render veterans , would avail to make grow America ’s suburban landscape painting and personal wealth . The educational provision would give colleges the financial boost to expand programs and registration . By 1951 , 2.3 million gilbert would attend to college and university of their choice , 3.5 million would experience educational training , and 3.4 million would take part in on - the - job training .

British nestling traumatized by bombing raid over London : British youngsters were traumatized by bombing raids , detachment from their family , and the expiry of parent . Some children were kill or wounded . " We sat there listening to German planing machine coming over the protection on their way to London and we then had to remain there until they fall back , " Margaret Hoffman later wrote about the 1944 air travel strikes .

This article ’s timeline , headline , and photos detail the World War II events of January 1944 - June 1944 , providing a comprehensive overview of homework for – and the implementation of – the seminal D - twenty-four hour period intrusion .

CONTRIBUTING writer : John S. D. Eisenhower , Senator Daniel K. Inouye , Richard Overy Ph.D. , David J. A. Stone , Wim Coleman , Martin F. Graham , James H. Hallas , Mark Johnston Ph.D. , Christy Nadalin M.A. , Pat Perrin , Peter Stanley Ph.D.