A page from the Anne Frank diary. She was arrested in 1944 and taken to a concentration camp where she later died. Click on picture to enlarge. Wikimedia Commons.
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.
Florence, Italy, is liberated by South African troops on August 4, 1944. Before leaving, however, the Germans destroy some historically important buildings and bridges per orders of der Führer. In England, RAF Flying Officer T. D. Dean becomes the first pilot to destroy a V-1 flying bomb by “tipping” it. Piloting a Gloster Meteor jet fighter, Dean attempts to shoot the rocket down, the standard defense against the so-called “doodlebugs.” However, his guns fail, so he goes into a dive to match the missile’s speed, then uses his own plane’s wing to tip the V-1’s wing downward, sending it off course and crashing to the ground. In the Netherlands, the Gestapo, acting on information from a Dutch informer, raids an Amsterdam house, finding a hidden, sealed-off section. There they find and arrest 15-year-old Jewish diarist Annelies “Anne” Frank and her family, who are deported to concentration camps.
The Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) on August 5 goes on the defensive in Warsaw, as 60% of the city is now in its control. Among its activities is the liberation of a German labor camp: 348 Jewish prisoners are freed. In Australia, over 1,100 Japanese prisoners of war attempt a mass breakout from a prison camp at Cowra, New South Wales, west of Sydney. The casualties: 231 prisoners and four guards killed, and 108 prisoners wounded. Escaped prisoners who are not killed by other prisoners or who do not commit suicide are rounded up and returned to captivity within 10 days. No Australian civilians are harmed.
The German Rahmel aircraft factory near Gdynia, in Poland, is attacked by Allied bombers on August 6. The U.S. Third Army, commanded by Lt. Gen. George S. Patton, advances in Brittany, France.
The Red Army on August 7 advances into the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains, near the Slovak, Hungarian and Russian borders. On Guam, there is heavy fighting along the entire front as American forces attack Japanese positions.
The U.S. XV Army Corps occupies Le Mans, France, on August 8. In Germany, some of the participants in the “July 20 Plot” to assassinate Hitler are hanged — with wire nooses. Reprisals continue against their families. Investigations continue, attempting to identify other conspirators. In Warsaw, the Polish Home Army has control of most of the city and has captured significant quantities of German weapons and equipment. From Berlin, SS Lt. Gen. Erich von dem Bach-Zalewski is named to command German forces assigned to put down the uprising. Over the next three days, over 30,000 civilians — insurgents or not — will be killed.
In France, the Canadian II Corps (part of Canadian First Army) continues attacking along the Caen-Falaise road on August 9. The German attacks around Mortain continue to be held up by forces of the U.S. First Army. Meanwhile, the U.S. XV Corps (part of the U.S. Third Army) turns northward from Le Mans. In the U.S., the Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council release the first posters featuring the image of Smokey Bear, in jeans and a campaign hat, urging citizens to prevent forest fires.
Guam, in the Mariana Islands, is declared secured by American forces on August 10. All the major Mariana Islands are now controlled by the Allies; they will be used as naval and air bases for attacks against the Japanese homeland. In Paris, a wildcat strike by railroad workers disrupts German troop movements.
The Soviets on August 11, 1944, renew their offensive towards the Estonian border at Pskov. The Warsaw Uprising continues, but the Red Army remains across the Vistula River, apparently uninterested in aiding its supposed allies against the Germans. The Germans assault the old town area of Warsaw from three sides. In France, elements of Patton’s U.S. Third Army cross the Loire River.
Japanese troops begin retreating from India on August 12. In Italy, elements of the U.S. Fifth Army enter Florence.
On August 13, U.S. Third Army troops capture Argentan, France, and advance on Chartres and Orleans from Le Mans. Nantes, at the mouth of the Loire River is also captured. In New York, “The Jackie Gleason Show,” featuring the up-and-coming, Brooklyn-born comedian, makes its debut on NBC Radio.
Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meet on August 14 at Quebec, Canada, where they endorse the so-called Morganthau Plan that calls for the division of Germany after the war, and its conversion to a purely agricultural country. In Europe, 28 RAF bombers fly supplies from Italy to Warsaw for the Polish Home Army, which is still getting no assistance from the Red Army across the river. Only 11 planes make it through and drop only five tons of goods.
“Operation Dragoon” begins on August 15, the Allied amphibious invasion of the south of France along the Riviera, between Cannes and Toulon. Originally to occur simultaneously with Operation Overlord on June 6, the operation was scrapped due to a lack of available resources. (Churchill also felt that it would be a drain on Allied efforts in Italy.) Now, with ports in Normandy and elsewhere in western France clogged, making delivery of supplies to the advancing Allies difficult, the operation gets the green light. In Normandy, British forces enter the town of Tinchebray, trapping large numbers of Germans between the British and the Canadians to their north and the Americans to their south. The Germans begin a furious drive to the east to escape.
The Red Army, sitting east of the Vistula River, finally begins to move towards Warsaw, Poland, on August 16. The (Free) French II Corps, part of the U.S. Seventh Army, comes ashore in southern France. In Asia, Japanese resistance in northeast India comes to an end.
In Normandy, the Canadian First Army captures Falaise on August 17 while, in Brittany, the German defenders of the citadel at Saint-Malo surrender to the U.S. Third Army. Farther east, the Soviets cross the border into East Prussia from Lithuania. It is the first area of pre-war Germany reached by the Allies.
