The first wave of LVTs moves toward the invasion beaches on Peleliu in the Palau Islands, passing through the inshore bombardment line of LCI gunboats. Cruisers and battleships are bombarding from the distance. The landing area is almost totally hidden in dust and smoke. Photographed from a USS Honolulu (CL-48) plane. Source: 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.
In the Pacific, the U.S. First Marine Division lands on Peleliu, in the Palau Islands, on September 15, 1944. A bloody fight of attrition lasts for 2-1/2 months. In the Dutch East Indies, U.S. Army troops invade Morotai Island, in the Moluccas. Although far outnumbering the Japanese defenders, the Americans face fierce resistance. In two weeks, U.S. troops gain control of the island, which will be used as a jumping-off point for invasions of the Philippines and Borneo. Pockets of fighting on the island will continue, however, through the end of the war. In France, the de Gaulle Administration orders the arrest of Marshal Philippe Pétain and all members of the Vichy French Cabinet because of their alleged collaboration with the Nazis. In Belgium, German underwater commandos damage the floodgates at Antwerp, making the port unusable for the Allies for over six weeks.
The Germans inaugurate a new V-1 “flying bomb” campaign on September 16, launching the missiles from planes flying over Holland. Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels exhorts the German populace to fight “with the utmost fanaticism.” In the Pacific, U.S. Army troops assault Angaur, southeast of Peleliu, in the Palau Islands. In eastern Europe, the Red Army launches an offensive towards Riga, Latvia, and Tallinn, Estonia. In the Balkans, elements of the 3rd Ukrainian Front occupy Sofia, Bulgaria, then turn west to try to block the retreat of German troops from Greece.
In Europe on September 17, the Allies begin “Operation Market Garden,” a combined airborne and ground attack planned and primarily led by the British Army under Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. The objective is for paratroops to capture and secure several bridges over the lower Rhine River so that Allied ground forces can consolidate at Arnhem, the Netherlands, and enter Germany’s heavily industrial Ruhr region. Unfortunately, the operation is plagued by errors and miscalculations. In southern China, U.S. forces, pressed by the Japanese, abandon their airbase at Kweilin.
Brest, France, an important port on the English Channel, falls to the Allies on September 18. En route to Sumatra, the Japanese cargo ship Junyo Maru, carrying 1,449 Dutch, Australian, British and American prisoners of war and 4,200 Javanese slave laborers, is attacked and sunk by the British submarine HMS Tradewind, killing 5,620. It is, at the time, the world’s greatest sea disaster. In the only major supply drop by the Western Allies that Soviet authorities will permit, American B-17 bombers drop 1,284 containers of supplies to the Armia Krajowa (Polish Home Army) in Warsaw. Unfortunately, only 228 of the containers fall into territory controlled by the Poles, who are still fighting desperately against the Germans. Meanwhile, the nearby Red Army remains idle.
On September 19 the Soviet Union and Finland sign an armistice agreement, ending the three-year-long, so-called Continuation War (which followed their Winter War, fought from November 1939 to March 1940). In France, the city of Nancy is liberated by American troops. The first of a series of fights between American and German troops begins in the Hürtgen Forest, located on the border between Belgium and Germany. In the Pacific, fighting is intense on Pelelieu and Angaur Islands in the Palaus, with the Japanese garrisons holding firm against American attacks.
In the Philippines, U.S. planes on September 20 conduct a bombing raid on Manila and surrounding areas, destroying 357 Japanese aircraft. Angaur Island, in the Palaus, is declared mostly secured by the U.S. Army. In the Netherlands, Polish troops free Terneuzen, a port city in the southwestern part of the country. In Italy, the British V Corps, part of the British Eighth Army, enters the Republic of San Marino.
British forces on September 21 take Rimini, in northern Italy on the Adriatic coast. U.S. planes hit Manila, the Philippines, a second day in a row, this time sinking 40 ships in Manila Bay and damaging 35. In Poland, the Polish Home Army is forced to abandon its Vistula bridgeheads in and south of Warsaw.
On September 22, 1944, the 3rd Canadian Division takes Boulogne-sur-Mer, on the English Channel between Normandy and Calais. Elements of the U.S. Third Army reach the River Seine near Mantes-Gassicourt, France, 30 miles west of Paris. Inspired and emboldened by the Allies’ approach, the French Resistance in Paris begins an open rebellion against German occupation forces. Finland breaks off diplomatic relations with Japan.
A regiment of the U.S. Army’s 81st Infantry Division takes over unoccupied Ulithi Atoll, in the Caroline Islands, on September 23. A few days later, U.S. Navy Seabees arrive and begin transforming the atoll into an important naval base that can accommodate up to 700 ships. Soviet and Romanian troops enter Hungary. The Dortmund-Ems Canal in Germany is badly damaged in a bombing raid by 141 British aircraft. The canal is used to transport, among other things, pre-fabricated U-boat parts.
British naval units on September 24 begin operations against German-occupied islands in the Aegean Sea in the eastern Mediterranean. Finnish troops attack German forces in the north of the country who have refused to leave under terms of the Finnish-Soviet armistice.
After nine days of vicious fighting, Allied troops on September 25 are ordered to pull out of Arnhem, the Netherlands, marking the failure of “Operation Market Garden.” The Allies do not cross the Rhine as planned and suffer around 16,000 casualties, including over 6,000 Allied paratroopers captured. Strong German resistance, delays and failures to take some of the targeted bridges, and German successes in defending or destroying others doom the operation. Hopes for an early end to the war — by Christmas 1944 — are dashed. Held under the radar for a long time, the failed operation is first widely publicized in the 1974 Cornelius Ryan book “A Bridge Too Far,” as well as a motion picture of the same title three years later. Vidkun Quisling’s ministers urge the Germans to end their occupation of Norway. In the western Caroline Islands, on Peleliu, U.S. soldiers and marines, using tanks and flamethrowers, advance northward against strong, entrenched Japanese resistance.
German cross-Channel guns bombard Dover, England, on September 26. One shell hits a hostel in the city, killing 49 people. There begin to appear strong signs of an impending civil war in Greece between the communist-backed National Liberation Front and the British-backed Greek government. In Italy, the British Eighth Army crosses the Rubicon River. In Germany, Adolf Hitler signs a decree establishing the Volkssturm (People’s Militia). Every able-bodied male aged 16–60 not already in the Wehrmacht will be drafted as a member and will fight with the army as needed. The militia is to be commanded by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler.
German forces of Army Group E begin to evacuate western Greece on September 27. The Royal Air Force announces that the first British jet fighter, the Gloster Meteor, was successfully used in action on August 4, 1944. Over 2,000 fighters of the Armia Krajowa (Polish Home Army) surrender to the Germans in the Mokotów district in central Warsaw; others are being squeezed into smaller and smaller areas of the city. Sweden closes its ports to German shipping. Soviet, Bulgarian and Yugoslav Partisan forces jointly begin the Belgrade Offensive, intended to interrupt German lines of communication and transit between Greece and Hungary, liberate Serbia from German occupation and retake its capital, Belgrade.
German scuba divers on September 28 attempt to blow up the bridge over the Waal River at Nijmegen, the Netherlands, but are unsuccessful. In Moscow, Joseph Stalin and Josip Broz Tito reach an agreement that allows the Red Army to enter Yugoslavia.
