German POWs in Aachen, Germany, World War II. 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 German Army begins retreating from Athens on October 13, 1944. Soviet forces reach the outskirts of Riga, Latvia. German V-1 and V-2 rockets land on the port of Antwerp, Belgium, crucial to the Allies for landing supplies. American troops enter Aachen, Germany, and engage in heavy, house-to-house street fighting in the first major battle on German soil.
On October 14, British troops begin moving into Athens even as the Germans are withdrawing. In Germany, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, implicated in the “July 20 Plot” to assassinate Hitler, is visited at home — where he is recuperating from wounds suffered in France — by two generals from Hitler’s headquarters. (Although Rommel was aware of the plot, he was not a participant.) He is given three choices: defend himself to Hitler in person, undergo a public trial in the People’s Court (a Nazi kangaroo court, in which he would undoubtedly be convicted), or commit suicide with the promise of a state funeral and a guarantee of immunity from prosecution for his wife and family (families of plotters are being prosecuted). Deciding that there is really only one option, Rommel chooses to swallow a cyanide capsule given to him after saying goodbye to his wife and fifteen-year-old son. His death is announced publicly as resulting from wounds he had suffered when his car was strafed in France. Der Führer declares a day of mourning and, as promised, authorizes a state funeral for the Desert Fox.
On October 15, the Allies and the Germans engage in an artillery duel at Aachen. In Asia, the British and Chinese begin a joint offensive from Myitkyina to Bhamo, in Burma. In Budapest, the Hungarian chief of state, Adm. Miklós Horthy, shortly after announcing Hungary’s withdrawal from the war against the Soviets, is taken prisoner by a German commando unit led by SS Maj. Otto Skorzeny. Horthy is told that unless he recants Hungary’s withdrawal from the Axis and abdicates, his son (abducted by Skorzeny and his men hours earlier) will be killed. Horthy complies, naming Ferenc Szálasi as head of state and prime minister. Szálasi immediately vows to continue the alliance with Germany, promising to keep the country open as an escape route for German troops fighting in the Balkans. Horthy is brought by Skorzeny to Bavaria, where he is held in “protective custody.”
The Red Army and Partisans under Josip Broz Tito liberate Belgrade, Yugoslavia, on October 16. The Red Army enters German territory near Goldap in East Prussia; thousands of German civilians flee the area in panic. Goldap is the first town in Germany to fall to the Allies. U.S. carrier-based planes, as well as aircraft from airfields on New Guinea, conduct air strikes on Leyte, Cebu and Mindanao, in the Philippines.
In the Philippines, the U.S. Navy on October 17 begins mine-sweeping operations in Leyte Gulf. In Italy, the U.S. Fifth Army’s II Corps continues its attacks toward Bologna. At an SS officers’ conference, Reichsfuhrer-SS Heinrich Himmler states that Warsaw “must completely disappear from the surface of the earth and serve only as a transport station for the Wehrmacht. No stone can remain standing. Every building must be razed to its foundation.” While Hitler’s plan to destroy the city — and build “Warschau, a new German city” in its place — dates back to June 1939, the Warsaw Uprising has infuriated the Nazi leadership and it is decided to make an example of the Polish capital. Even as the city’s residents are being expelled, German teams are working with a will on obliterating the city. Ultimately destroyed are: 10,455 buildings, 953 historical buildings, 25 churches, 14 libraries, 81 elementary schools, 64 high schools, two universities, most historical monuments and much artwork.
Hitler on October 18 orders a call-up of all males between the ages of 16 and 60 for Home Guard duties. SS chief Heinrich Himmler becomes Commander-in-Chief, Forces of the Interior. German radio says that 50,000 officers have been killed so far in the war. Soviet troops cross the Norwegian frontier while the Soviet 4th Ukrainian Front enters Czechoslovakia. German troops from Greece and southern Yugoslavia are falling back rapidly to avoid being cut off by the advancing Red Army. The Greek government-in-exile returns to Athens from Italy.
The Germans evacuate Belgrade, Yugoslavia, on October 19. In Burma, the British capture an important Japanese supply depot at Mohnyin. In the U.S., the Navy says that African-American women may join the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, the women’s branch of the U.S. Naval Reserve).
On October 20, the U.S. Sixth Army’s X and XXIV Corps along with Filipino guerrillas make amphibious landings in the Philippines, on the east coast of Leyte. The 60,000 men sent ashore encounter stiff Japanese resistance. Coming ashore at Leyte after a beachhead is established, U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur makes a speech via a portable radio transmitter that begins: “This is the voice of freedom, General MacArthur speaking. People of the Philippines: I have returned.” Soviet and Yugoslavian Army troops occupy Belgrade. Yugoslavian Partisan forces take Dubrovnik, on the Adriatic coast.
Aachen is occupied by the U.S. First Army on October 21. It is the first German city to be captured. (Goldap, in eastern Prussia, captured by the Soviets on October 16, is a small town.) In Yugoslavia, German and Croatian forces establish a line of defense northwest of Belgrade. In the Palau Islands in the Pacific, organized Japanese resistance on Angaur Island ends. 1,300 Japanese are dead and 45 are captured. American casualties number 265 dead, 1,335 wounded. U.S. heavy bombers begin operating from the island’s airfield.
Canadian troops of the British Eighth Army capture Cervia, in northeastern Italy on the Adriatic coast, on October 22. The 14th Soviet Army reaches the Norwegian border.
Much activity of note occurs on October 23. The Allies recognize Gen. Charles de Gaulle’s Provisional Government of the French Republic as the legitimate government of France. The Battle of Leyte Gulf — the biggest sea battle in history — begins. For the first time, the Americans experience heavy attacks from Japanese kamikaze aircraft. (Kamikaze, which means “divine wind,” are special attack units — first organized in August 1944 — of pilots who fly suicide missions against Allied naval vessels. Over the course of the war, over 3,000 kamikaze pilots and 7,000 Allied naval personnel will die in these attacks.) The light aircraft carrier USS Princeton is heavily damaged by a bomb dropped from a Japanese Yokosuka D4Y “Judy” dive bomber and sinks with the loss of 108 men (1,361 are rescued). The Battle of San Bernardino Strait takes place, as the Japanese try to stop U.S. Gen. MacArthur’s Sixth Army landings on Leyte Island, in the Philippines. American B-29 Superfortress heavy bombers begin using Tinian, in the Mariana Islands, as a base for the systematic bombing of Japan.
In Europe, the Red Army continues its drive westward, capturing several towns on October 24. In Berlin, Hitler informs his generals of his plan to launch a surprise counteroffensive against a weakly held section of the Allied line in the Ardennes region of Belgium, Luxembourg and France. In the Territory of Hawaii, martial law is lifted, and habeas corpus (the right to appeal to a court for a judgment of wrongful imprisonment) is restored.
On October 25, in the Pacific, the submarine USS Tang, credited with sinking more enemy ships than any other American submarine, sinks off Turnabout Island in the Strait of Formosa when struck by its own torpedo that, malfunctioning, makes a circular run. Nine crewmen survive, 78 are lost. Tang had sunk 33 ships totaling 116,454 tons. Off the Philippines, the most intense fighting of the Battle of Leyte Gulf takes place. The Japanese lose three aircraft carriers, two battleships, two cruisers and five destroyers. The Americans lose two escort carriers (one — USS St. Lo — by kamikaze attack) and two destroyers. Romania is fully liberated by the Red Army and Romanian troops. Soviet troops take the German base of Kirkenes, in far northeastern in Norway near the Soviet border.
In the Philippines on October 26, elements of the U.S. Army’s XXIV Corps unsuccessfully attack Japanese positions on Catmon Hill, north of Dulag, on the east coast of Leyte. Japanese reinforcements arrive at Ormoc, on the western side of the island, northwest of Dulag. The Battle of Leyte Gulf ends with the Japanese losing yet more ships: three cruisers, three destroyers and a submarine. The Imperial Japanese Navy now ceases to be a factor in the war. U.S. Gen. Joseph “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell, commander of the China-Burma-India Theater, departs China, having been recalled from his command by President Roosevelt. Nationalist Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek had sent to Roosevelt a demand that Stilwell be removed, stating his willingness to accept any other qualified U.S. general to fill the post. Allied losses in Burma and China are high, and Stilwell — highly and openly contemptuous of the Chinese leader — has been clashing continually with Chiang over a lack of aggressiveness on the part of Chinese forces in fighting the Japanese and rampant corruption within the Nationalist government. Stilwell has also had ongoing conflicts with U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Claire Chennault, commander of air forces in the theater, as well as British and Chinese commanders.
Another battle breaks out on October 27, 1944, in the Hürtgen Forest, on the border between Belgium and Germany. The sporadic fighting will last for months. Josip Broz Tito arrives in liberated Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
In Moscow, the U.S.S.R. and Bulgaria on October 28 sign an armistice agreement. The Germans begin to evacuate Albania. In Czechoslovakia, the Slovak National Uprising against the Nazi-collaborationist government of Jozef Tiso is put down by the German Army after two months of fighting. Over 12,000 Slovaks are killed in action or murdered in reprisals; the Germans suffer 4,200 killed and 5,000 wounded.
U.S. Maj. Gen. Albert C. Wedemeyer on October 29 arrives in China to replace Gen. Joseph Stilwell as Commanding General, U.S. Forces, China-Burma-India Theater and Chief of Staff to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. Wedemeyer is dismayed to find that his predecessor has left the country without meeting with him and briefing him on theater conditions. Upon searching headquarters, Wedemeyer discovers that Stilwell has left no record of future plans or ideas, nor any documentation of past or planned operations. Questioning Stilwell’s staff officers, Wedemeyer learns that they know little; they say Stilwell always kept things “in his hip pocket.”
Counterattacks against the Soviets by the 3rd Panzer Korps near Debrecen, Hungary, on October 30 end with the Germans claiming that they have inflicted 25,000 casualties and destroyed 600 tanks. However, this doesn’t hinder the Red Army — it begins a major offensive into Hungary. Teen-aged Holocaust diarist Anne Frank is transferred from Auschwitz to the Belsen concentration camp, in Lower Saxony in northwestern Germany. The Greek government, back in Athens, bans the ELAS National Militia, the communist resistance movement.
On the orders of Prime Minister Churchill, British troops on October 31 move into Salonika, in Greece, to assist the government in its efforts to prevent a takeover by communist insurgents in the wake of the recent withdrawal of German troops. In Denmark, a precision raid by Royal Air Force bombers flying at rooftop level destroys Gestapo headquarters in Aarhus, on the east coast of the Jutland peninsula. The Gestapo was about to initiate an anti-resistance operation, but all records are lost in the raid, killing the operation.
British forces take Thessaloniki, in Greece, on November 1. In Japan, the first of some 9,000 balloon bombs are launched (through April 1945) from Tokyo. The hydrogen-filled balloons — laden with either high-explosive or incendiary devices, or both — will ride the jet stream at around 37,000 feet in altitude to reach the west coast of North America, coming down from Mexico to Canada and Alaska. Only one of the devices is known to cause casualties. The destroyer USS Abner Read is sunk by a Japanese kamikaze attack in Leyte Gulf. All but 22 of her crew of 336 are rescued.
Canadian troops take Zeebrugge, on the Belgian coast, on November 2. Belgium is now completely liberated. The Red Army enters southeastern Hungary. In Budapest, 50,000 Jews are sent on a forced march to Austria; some 10,000 will die in the six days it takes them to reach their destination. Yugoslavian Partisans capture Zadar, Croatia, on the Adriatic Coast. In Belgrade, Josip Broz Tito becomes the 23rd prime minister of Yugoslavia.
