Nurses and signalers of the Czech unit. Sputnik Click here for more background.
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 Red Army on September 29, 1944, begins to move toward Yugoslavia from Romania. Farther north, the Red Army begins amphibious landings to clear German Army Group North from islands in the eastern Baltic Sea.
On September 30, the German garrison occupying the French port of Calais surrenders to besieging Canadian forces. There is rejoicing in the streets of Dover, England, at the announcement that the last of the German cross-Channel guns (at Calais), which have pounded the southeast coast of Great Britain for three years, have been silenced.
Soviet troops enter Yugoslavia on October 1. In Finland, the Finnish Army continues its assault against German troops in Tornio, on the Gulf of Bothnia. In Greece, British commandos land at Poros, about 30 miles south of Piraeus, while Greek troops land at Lesbos and Lemnos, islands in the northeastern Aegean Sea.
The Germans on October 2 finally put down the Warsaw Uprising, after 63 days. The Armia Krajowa (Polish Home Army) is forced to surrender after all its food and ammunition has run out. The Wehrmacht, recognizing the Poles’ valor, agrees to treat the surviving combatants not as partisans but as regular POWs under the Geneva Convention. Some 9,000 Polish fighters have been killed in action, and 6,000 are missing. Between 150,000 and 200,000 Polish civilians have died in the fighting. The center of Warsaw is in ruins. Almost immediately, the Germans begin expelling the 500,000–700,000 civilians remaining in the city, moving them to a transit camp in Pruszków, about 12 miles southeast of Warsaw. Around a fifth of these will be sent to Nazi death camps, the rest will be transported to various destinations and released. The Red Army remains immobile on the east bank of the Vistula River, across from the Polish capital. In the Aegean Sea, the Allies land troops on the island of Crete. The Australian Army’s II Corps assumes the responsibility for mopping up and securing Papua-New Guinea. This frees up the U.S. Army’s XIV Corps to assist in offensives in the Philippines.
The Allies, which have besieged Dunkirk, in northern France, since September 15, 1944, on October 3 negotiate a 60-hour truce with the Germans to allow the evacuation of 17,500 civilians, as well as Allied and German wounded. North of Aachen, Germany, elements of the U.S. First Army break through the German forces holding the Siegfried Line. In Germany, the Messerschmitt Me-262 jet fighter officially becomes operational. A total of 40 are deployed at an airbase near Osnabrück, in northwestern Germany.
The British on October 4 launch “Operation Manna,” involving joint British and Greek activities in Greece in the wake of German withdrawals. The British 2nd Airborne Brigade makes a landing at Patras. Additional landings take place on Crete and other islands in the Aegean Sea. The Soviet 46th Army is within 10 miles of Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Meanwhile, the Soviet 3rd Ukrainian Front captures Pančevo, on the north bank of the Danube River, east of Belgrade. The Allies bomb Prague, Czechoslovakia, for the first time. On New Britain, in the Bismarck Archipelago of Papua-New Guinea, the Australian 5th Infantry Division arrives to relieve the U.S. Army’s 40th Infantry Division, which will be transferred to the Philippines. The Australians will continue to contain Japanese troops who have been bypassed on the island and mop up pockets of resistance.
Canadian troops cross from Belgium into the Netherlands on October 5. The Red Army enters Hungary. The Soviets begin an offensive to capture Riga, Latvia. The first German Me-262 jet fighter is shot down over the Netherlands; the “kill” is shared by five Royal Canadian Air Force pilots. In Germany, the minimum draft age for military service is cut to 16. Additionally, all hospitals are placed under military control.
Soviet troops enter Czechoslovakia on October 6, 1944. The Allies conduct heavy daylight and night-time air raids over Berlin. On Bougainville, in the northern Solomon Islands, the Australian 3rd Infantry Division comes ashore, relieving the U.S. Army’s 129th and 145th Infantry Regiments. The Australians will conduct offensive operations to contain or eliminate as many as they can of the 40,000 Japanese troops that have been bypassed and remain on the island. Several squadrons of the Royal New Zealand Air Force will provide air support for the Australian ground troops.
Forces of the U.S. Third Army make progress in Luxembourg and near Metz, France, on October 7. Warned of their imminent murder, Sonderkommandos — death-camp inmates forced by the Nazis to help dispose of corpses from gas chambers by burning them in crematoria — revolt at the Birkenau concentration camp (at Auschwitz), attacking SS guards with stones, axes and makeshift hand grenades. The uprising is put down by nightfall, with 451 Sonderkommandos killed, along with three SS guards. In the commotion, hundreds of other prisoners escape the camp, but all are quickly recaptured and immediately executed.
In Greece, British forces occupy Corinth and Samos on October 8. On the Western Front, the Allies face strengthening resistance from the Germans. In Cairo, Egypt, a meeting of representatives from Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Transjordan ends with a call for the formation of an Arab League. In the U.S., The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet makes its debut on the CBS Radio Network. The Nelsons’ sons, David and Ricky, are portrayed by professional actors, as the boys — aged 8 and 4, respectively — are considered too young to perform.
In the Soviet Union, the Fourth Moscow Conference begins on October 9, with Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union Averell Harriman discussing, among other things, post-war spheres of influence in the Balkans and elsewhere in Europe. Heavy fighting occurs in the region between Aachen, Germany, and Metz, France. In the Netherlands, the Germans shut off the electric power in Amsterdam.
The Red Army on October 10 reaches the Nemen River in Prussia and continues the fighting around Riga, Latvia. The Soviets reach the Baltic Sea at Memel, Lithuania, and cut off 26 divisions of German Army Group North. Allied combined forces — primarily British and Greek — take Corinth, in southern Greece. In the Pacific Theater, U.S. Navy planes from Adm. William Halsey’s Fast Carrier Task Force 38 bomb Okinawa. At Auschwitz, 800 Romani (gypsy) children are murdered by the Nazis.
The Red Army captures Cluj-Napoca in Romania on October 11. The Soviet Union and Hungary begin secret negotiations for a ceasefire. In the Pacific, Peleliu, in the Palau Group of the Caroline Islands, is declared secured, although fighting against Japanese pockets of resistance continue for another month and a half.
U.S. Navy carrier aircraft begin attacking Formosa on October 12. In the seven-day bombing campaign against the island off China, 650 Japanese planes are reported destroyed. In Greece, Allied paratroopers land at Athens airfield, British troops land on Corfu and the Germans evacuate Piraeus.
