U.S. 2nd Infantry Division troops and equipment moving inland toward Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer on D+1, 7 June 1944. Click to enlarge. Wikipedia
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.
The U.S. Fifth Army breaches the last German defensive line in front of Rome on June 2, 1944. Hitler orders Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, commanding Army Group C, to have the German Tenth Army abandon the Italian capital. Rear guards delay American advances. The first shuttle raids of “Operation Frantic” are made on June 2 by 130 B-17s of the U.S. 15th Air Force, based at Tripoli, Libya. The planes attack targets in Silesia, Hungary and Romania, and then fly on to Soviet airfields at Poltava, in the Ukraine. In Italy, U.S. troops are only 20 miles from Rome. In India, The British 2nd Division begins an advance to relieve Imphal as the Japanese renew their attacks. The Provisional (Free) French government is formed.
The Allies begin daily bombings of the Cherbourg peninsula and the Normandy area of France on June 3. In India, the Japanese retreat from the besieged city of Kohima, ending a 64-day battle. German occupation troops pull out of Rome; Field Marshal Kesselring declares the capital an “open city” in return for a temporary truce with Italian partisans. (An “open city” is one that will not be defended against an invading force.) Anti-Nazi Partisan leader Josip Broz Tito flies from Yugoslavia to Bari, Italy, to meet with Allied commanders.
On June 4, “Operation Overlord” — the invasion of Normandy — is postponed for 24 hours, to June 6th, due to foul weather and heavy seas. The poor weather encourages the German defenders of occupied France to let down their guard a bit. Field Marshal Rommel, in charge of defenses, decides to go to Berlin to celebrate his wife’s birthday on June 6th and to meet with Hitler. Other German commanders in Normandy head to a training exercise in Brittany to the southwest. In Italy, American, British and French troops enter Rome. The Germans have ignored Hitler’s orders to blow up the bridges across the Tiber River, and — also against orders — the city’s historic buildings are left intact. In Asia, the first B-29 (Superfortress) mission against the Bangkok Railway, in Thailand, is flown. A “hunter-killer” task group of the U.S. Navy under the command of Capt. Daniel V. Gallery captures German submarine U-505 in the North Atlantic off the Canary Islands. It is the first time the U.S. Navy has captured an enemy vessel at sea since the 1800s. The captured sub is towed to Bermuda where the vessel, its codes, code machines and weapons are minutely examined and analyzed.
In the U.S., President Roosevelt holds a “fireside chat” on the radio on June 5 to discuss the fall of Rome: “The first of the Axis capitals is now in our hands. . . . One up, two to go!” In Europe, more than 1,000 British bombers drop over 5,000 tons of bombs on German gun emplacements on the Normandy coast in preparation for the invasion. Meanwhile, Allied naval vessels begin maneuvering (deceptively) to indicate an invasion in the Calais area, in the north of France. Shortly after 11 p.m., the first Allied troops enter Normandy, as paratroopers are dropped throughout the region, near Caen. In Italy, King Victor Emmanuel III abdicates in favor of his son, Crown Prince Umberto, who is given the title Lieutenant-General of the Realm. The king retains his crown and his title.
On June 6 —D-Day— “Operation Overlord,” the largest amphibious military operation in history, commences with the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy, France. The fighting is bloody and vicious, with many casualties, but the Allies doggedly get past the German forward defenses and begin moving off the beaches and heading inland. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill reports to the House of Commons: “So far, the commanders who are engaged report that everything is proceeding according to plan.” Hitler, at the Berghof in Bavaria, is informed of the Normandy landings and expresses confidence that the invasion will be turned back.
Allied forces from the various Normandy beachheads attempt to link up on June 7. German reserves are concentrating on the right flank of the invasion (the invaders’ left flank), against British forces approaching Caen. Bayeux, France, is liberated by British troops.
A second wave of Allied troops land on the Normandy beaches on June 8. In Italy, German rear guards slow the advances of the U.S. Fifth Army and the British Eighth Army. In the village of Oradour-sur-Glane, near Limoges, France, 642 men, women and children are killed by a Waffen-SS company in retaliation for local Resistance activities. While the men are shot immediately, the women and children are locked in a church that is set on fire; those who try to escape the flames are machine-gunned. In Italy, Prime Minister Pietro Badoglio and the Italian government return to Rome from Bari, where they had taken refuge.
From Moscow, Joseph Stalin on June 9, 1944, orders the launch of a Soviet Red Army offensive against Finland (which is fighting on the side of the Axis), an attempt to knock the Finns out of the war. For the first time since 1940, airplanes of the British Royal Air Force take off from airfields in France.
On June 10, paratroopers of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division are engaged in battle near Carentan, France. British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery establishes the headquarters of the 21st Army Group in Normandy. It primarily oversees two field armies: the British Second Army and the Canadian First Army. In Italy, the British Eighth Army advances along the Adriatic coastline. Planes from two British aircraft carriers raid Japanese positions at Sabang, in the Dutch East Indies. The intent of the operation is to distract Japanese attention from American forces approaching the Mariana Islands. In the U.S., because of a severe wartime personnel shortage, pitcher Joe Nuxhall becomes the youngest player (at 15) to appear in a modern Major League Baseball game, making his debut for the Cincinnati Reds against the St. Louis Cardinals. He has a rough first outing, giving up five runs in two-thirds of an inning. (Nuxhall goes on to be a two-time All Star, with a 135-117 record over 16 seasons in the pros.)
The U.S. Navy’s Fast-Carrier Task Force 58, commanded by Vice Adm. Marc Mitscher, begins a heavy bombardment of Saipan, Mariana Islands, on June 11. Operating from bases in Italy, the U.S. 15th Air Force raids airfields at Focşani, Romania. At Brooklyn, New York, the battleship USS Missouri is commissioned.
While U.S. troops capture Carentan, Normandy, France, on June 12, a third wave of Allied troops lands on the Normandy beaches. There are now 326,000 Allied soldiers, 104,000 tons of supplies and 54,000 vehicles deployed in Normandy along a 50-mile battle front.
U.S. Navy battleships, cruisers and destroyers of Task Force 58 on June 13 begin shelling Japanese shore positions on Saipan, in the Mariana Islands. In Europe, Germany launches the first V-1 “flying bomb” attack against London. Six people are killed, and a railroad bridge is destroyed. Called “buzz bombs” by the British for the sound the missiles make as they fly, the V-1 attacks on England will continue throughout June.
The first raid on Japan by U.S. B-29 Superfortress bombers — from airbases around Chengdu, China — takes place on June 14 against the Imperial Iron & Steel Works, in Yawata. The results are somewhat disappointing, with only one bomb hitting the factory facility. Free French leader Charles de Gaulle visits the Normandy front. In Poland, the Battle of Porytowe Wzgórze opens, as several groups of Polish and Russian anti-Nazi partisans, numbering some 3,000 fighters, find themselves surrounded near Lublin by between 25,00 and 30,000 German troops with artillery, tanks, armored cars and air support. The battle will be the largest between anti-Nazi partisans and German occupation forces in occupied Europe.
On June 15, amphibious landings are made on the western beaches of Saipan by 8,000 marines of the 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions. The island is defended by 32,000 Japanese. The marines meet heavy opposition, despite the heavy naval bombardment of the island during the past week. In Europe, the RAF launches 600-bomber attacks against Le Havre and Boulogne, France. In Poland, the Battle of Porytowe Wzgórze ends in a partisan victory. After heavy fighting, the surrounded partisans break through a section of the German lines and escape to the relative safety of the nearby Solska Wilderness, a heavily forested area. Partisan casualties number around 250, with about 125 killed or missing. German casualties include 495 Wehrmacht soldiers killed.
