Russian soldiers on the Soviet front. Click to enlarge.
By Phil Kohn. Dedicated to the memory of his father, GM3 Walter Kohn, U.S. Navy Armed Guard, USNR, and all men and women who have answered the country’s call in time of need. Phil can be contacted at ww2remembered@yahoo.com.
In Normandy on June 30, 1944, the fighting rages on. Since D-Day, the Allies have landed 630,000.
A new Red Army offensive in northern Ukraine opens on July 14, 1944, with massive support from the Soviet Air Force and gains up to 10 miles, recapturing Pinsk, Belorussia. The U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet Task Force 74, commanded by Rear Adm. Victor Crutchley, bombards Aitape, Papua-New Guinea. After a week of bitter house-to-house fighting, the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa), joined at various times by up to 100,000 Soviet troops, clears the Germans from Vilnius, Lithuania. As the fighting ends, the Soviets demand that the Poles abandon the city, arresting their officers and interning their soldiers. Around 18,000 Polish soldiers, partisans and civilian volunteers attempt to escape into woods west of Vilnius but are hunted down by the Soviets.
The Soviet Red Army occupies Vilnius, Lithuania, on July 15. Of the Poles captured west of the city, a majority are forcibly enlisted in the Soviet Red Army, while the rest are sent as prisoners to a slave-labor camp at Kaluga, Russia. Two armies from the Crimea join the Soviet Baltic Front so that it can continue its offensive against German Army Group North. Russian tank penetrations are only 25 miles from Lviv, in western Ukraine. Greenwich Observatory in the United Kingdom is damaged by a German V-1 flying bomb. In Italy, the U.S. Fifth Army advances toward Livorno.
The British Eighth Army captures Arezzo, Italy, on July 16 and reaches the Arno river. In northern Ukraine, Marshal Ivan Konev’s 1st Ukrainian Front traps 45,000 troops of the German XIII Korps in a pocket near the town of Brody. The first 5,000 soldiers of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force arrive in Italy to join the Allies. Brazil is the only South American country to supply troops during the conflict. (The Brazilian Navy and Air Force have been involved in the war since 1942 and April 1944, respectively.)
German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel is seriously injured on July 17 when his car is strafed from the air by a Spitfire of the Royal Canadian Air Force near Livarot, France. Field Marshal Günther von Kluge is given temporary command of Rommel’s Army Group B. In the U.S., two ammunition ships explode at Port Chicago, California, killing 320 sailors and other military personnel and injuring 390 in what is the worst stateside disaster of the war. Most of the dead sailors are African Americans who had received no training in ammunition handling. Many of the survivors, despite orders to the contrary, refuse to load any more ships until they receive training and proper safety procedures are put in place. The so-called “Port Chicago Mutiny” results in numerous arrests, courts martial and imprisonments, but publicity surrounding the event contributes towards the Navy ending racially segregated assignments, albeit two years later. The Germans state they will hold the Baltic States “at all costs,” as the Red Army approaches the Latvian border.
Saint-Lô, France, is taken by the Allies on July 18, and the breakout from the “hedgerow country” of Normandy begins. The Soviet 1st Belorussian Front — with six armies and 1,600 aircraft — attacks towards Lublin, Poland. In Japan, in the face of mounting Japanese military defeats, Gen. Hideki Tojo resigns as chief minister of the Japanese government.
The U.S. Fifth Army takes the port city of Livorno, Italy, on July 19. The Soviets claim their forces have crossed into Latvia. In Chicago, the Democratic National Convention once again nominates Franklin D. Roosevelt as its presidential candidate, and names Missouri Senator Harry S Truman as his running-mate.
In Germany, “The July 20 Plot” fails. It is an attempt by members of the German High Command to assassinate Adolf Hitler by detonating a bomb planted in a briefcase in the conference room at his “Wolf’s Lair” in Rastenburg, East Prussia. The device explodes, demolishing the room, killing one person and injuring 20 others (three of whom die later). Der Führer, however, survives with only a perforated eardrum, an injured arm, and singed and torn trousers. The officer who planted the bomb, Lt. Col. Claus Graf von Stauffenberg, is arrested and shot by day’s end.
On July 21, 1944, at 1 a.m., Adolf Hitler gives a speech over German radio to prove that he is still alive after the attempt on his life. The invasion of Japanese-held Guam, in the Mariana Islands, begins. Landings are made by the 3rd Marine Division, the U.S. Army’s 77th Infantry Division and the 1st Provisional Marine Brigade — some 48,200 troops. Some of the German defenders of the Brody Pocket in northern Ukraine reach German lines. Field Marshal Günther von Kluge warns Hitler of the impending collapse of the front in Normandy. After months of conflicts with Hitler, Col. Gen. Kurt Zeitzler resigns as Chief of Staff of the Army, complaining of health problems. He is replaced by Col. Gen. Heinz Guderian.
In Tokyo on July 22, Kuniaki Koiso replaces Hideki Tojo as prime minister of Japan. The Soviet advance into the Baltic States continues with the capture of Panevėžys, Lithuania. The Brody Pocket in Ukraine is eliminated by the Red Army, which takes 17,000 German prisoners.
The U.S. 34th Infantry Division takes Pisa, Italy, on July 23. In Lublin, Poland, heavy street fighting occurs between Soviet and German forces. Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler launches an investigation to identify the conspirators in the failed July 20 Plot. Reprisals follow against the plotters — including Field Marshals Rommel and von Kluge, who knew of the plan but were not participants — and their families. Executions related to the attempt on der Führer’s life will continue until Germany surrenders. Col. Gen. Ferdinand Schörner replaces Col. Gen. Johannes Friessner as commander of German Army Group North.
The 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions make landings on Tinian, in the Mariana Islands, on July 24. The U.S. Army’s 77th Infantry Division is held in reserve. The Germans begin evacuating Lviv, Ukraine. In Poland, Soviet troops discover the Majdanek concentration camp, on the outskirts of Lublin. The Red Army’s advance has been so rapid that SS troops manning the camp evacuate before destroying all the evidence of what transpired there. The Soviets find hundreds of unburied bodies and seven gas chambers. Although a thousand inmates had been marched off to Auschwitz, thousands of prisoners — mostly POWs —remain and are liberated by the Red Army. The Soviets invite reporters into the camp, and, for the first time, the world learns the extent of Nazi atrocities. It is estimated that at least 60,000 Jews and 19,000 others — Poles, Soviet citizens, Romani (gypsies) — were murdered at Majdanek.
The British Royal Navy’s Eastern Fleet on July 25 pounds the airfields and ports of Sabang, on Sumatra, in the Dutch East Indies. In Europe, 2,500 USAAF aircraft drop 4,150 tons of bombs on German defenses near Saint-Lô, France. Unfortunately, some land on American positions, killing 601 soldiers, including Lt. Gen. Lesley McNair, to date the highest-ranking U.S. military officer killed during the war. Narva, Estonia, is evacuated by the Germans, who take up a position to the west. Soviet forces cut the road between Daugavpils and Riga, in Latvia. The Soviet Second Tank Army reaches the Vistula, 40 miles west of Lublin, Poland. Lviv, Ukraine, is surrounded, and Soviet forces converge on Brest-Litovsk, on the Polish-Belorussian border.
Narva, Estonia, is captured by the Red Army on June 26. President Roosevelt arrives in Hawaii to confer with Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Adm. Chester Nimitz on Pacific strategy. MacArthur proposes to liberate the Philippines instead of bypassing them, as desired by the Navy and Nimitz, who feel Formosa should be the next target. Roosevelt listens to both sides, then authorizes MacArthur’s plan.
The Soviets on July 27 take Lviv, Ukraine, Daugavpils, Latvia, and Białystok, Poland, and secure the vicinity of Magnuszew, in east-central Poland. The Red Army also makes gains in the Baltic States. The British Gloster Meteor jet fighter enters active service with the RAF. It will be the only Allied jet-powered aircraft of the war.
Brest-Litovsk, on the Polish-Belorussian frontier, is taken by the Soviets on July 28. The Red Army also makes crossings over the Vistula River, in Poland. At Brandis, Germany, near Leipzig, the rocket-powered Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet fighter makes its combat debut. (The Komet’s top speed: 559 miles per hour for 7.5 minutes of powered flight; rate of climb: 16,000 feet per minute.)
The RAF on July 29 conducts the last of a series of air raids on Stuttgart, Germany; it leaves 900 dead and over 100,000 homeless. The Red Army reaches the Baltic coast west of Riga, Latvia, cutting off German Army Group North in Estonia and eastern Latvia. The Germans can now be resupplied only by sea. In the Mariana Islands, American troops now occupy more than half of the island of Tinian.
On July 30, U.S. Army infantry, artillery, reconnaissance and engineer units land at Sansapor, Dutch New Guinea. Their mission is to clear the area and nearby islands for construction of fighter and bomber airfields and radar stations. By the end of August, the goals are achieved.
The U.S. 30th Infantry Division reaches Saint-Lô, Normandy, France, on July 31. On the Eastern Front, the Red Army’s 3rd Belorussian Front enters Kaunas, the capital of Lithuania. Soviet units reach sections of Warsaw, Poland, that are east of the Vistula River.
Tinian, in the Mariana Islands, is declared secured by the Allies on August 1. The island will become a major U.S. bomber base. The Soviets take Kaunas, Lithuania, and cut all roads from Germany to the Baltic States. In Poland, the Second Warsaw Uprising begins, led by the 38,000-strong Armia Krajowa (Polish Home Army). The Poles make their move against the Germans expecting assistance from the approaching Soviets, who are already on the eastern bank of the Vistula River, opposite the city. Finnish President Risto Ryti resigns, with his place taken by Marshal Carl Gustav Mannerheim, commander-in-chief of Finland’s military and a politician.
Turkey breaks diplomatic and commercial relations with Germany on August 2. The Polish Home Army gains a Vistula bridgehead, 40 miles to the south of Warsaw. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill makes a statement in the House of Commons: After seven weeks of non-stop V-1 attacks (5,340 of the missiles having been launched), 4,735 people have been killed, 14,000 injured and 17,000 houses destroyed.
On August 3, U.S. Army Gen. Joseph Stilwell’s Sino-American troops, with the help of reinforcements, succeed in securing the town of Myitkyina in northeastern Burma. The 600 surviving Japanese defenders evacuate after holding out for 79 days. On Guam, the U.S. Army’s 77th Division advances up the east side of the island after Japanese defenders pull back.
