September 1944 Explained
The following events occurred in September 1944:
The Japanese cargo ship was torpedoed and sunk in the Sulu Sea by American submarine USS Paddle while carrying 750 American prisoners of war aboard. 688 perished.
- Elements of the First Canadian Army reached the Belgian coastal village of Zeebrugge.[15]
- Communist leader Bolesław Bierut assumed the presidency of a new provisional government of Poland.
- German submarine U-19 was scuttled in the Black Sea.
- US troops crossed the border into Nazi Germany for the first time. At 16:30 hours, a 7-person patrol led by Sgt. Warner W. Holzinger of the 2nd Platoon, Troop B, 85th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, 5th Armored Division, crossed the river Our at Stolzembourg, Luxembourg and reached Keppeshausen. They studied the pillbox area, and returned safely to Stolzembourg at 18:50 having encountered no German military personnel. This was also the first advance through enemy lines in Germany.[16] [17]
- The Second Quebec Conference began in Quebec City, Canada.
- Romania signed an armistice with the Allies in Moscow. Romania agreed to provide twelve divisions to fight Germany, provide goods and raw materials to the USSR, ban all fascist organizations, repeal anti-Jewish laws and revert to their 1940 borders. The Soviet Union took control of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina.[18]
- About 12,000 German troops surrendered as the First Canadian Army captured Le Havre.
- In the Apennine Mountains, the U.S. Fifth Army joined in the assault on the Gothic Line.[19]
- The Japanese passenger ship Rakuyō Maru was sunk in the South China Sea by American submarine USS Sealion while transporting 1,317 Australian and British prisoners of war. A total of 1,159 POWs died.
- Japanese destroyer Shikinami was sunk south of Hong Kong by the American submarine Growler.
- Born: Leonard Peltier, Native American activist and convicted murderer, in Grand Forks, North Dakota; Barry White, composer, singer and songwriter, in Galveston, Texas (d. 2003)
- The Battle of Rimini began in Italy.
- The 47th Army of the 2nd Belorussian Front took the Warsaw suburb of Praga.[20]
- Soviet aircraft began dropping supplies to the Home Army in Warsaw overnight.
- The American destroyer USS Warrington sank off the Bahamas in the Great Atlantic hurricane.
- The Battle of Meligalas between the Greek People's Liberation Army and the Security Battalions begins in Greece.
- Born: Carol Barnes, television newsreader and broadcaster, in Norwich, England (d. 2008); Jacqueline Bisset, actress, in Weybridge, Surrey, England; Peter Cetera, singer, songwriter, bassist and original member of rock band Chicago, in Chicago, Illinois
- Died: Yolande Beekman, 32, Madeleine Damerment, 26, and Noor Inayat Khan, 30, SOE agents (executed at Dachau concentration camp); W. Heath Robinson, 72, English cartoonist and illustrator
- The Soviet 3rd Ukrainian Front occupied the Bulgarian capital of Sofia.[23]
- The Second Quebec Conference ended.
- In accordance with a call from the Danish National Council in London (not actually a government in exile but an association of free Danes), workers in Denmark went on strike starting at noon to protest the transfer of about 190 Danish political prisoners to Germany. The strike mostly affected the transportation system.[24]
- Hitler made the decision to go through with the Ardennes Offensive in his Prussian headquarters (the Wolf's Lair). This would become the Battle of the Bulge.
- Died: Gustav Bauer, 74, Chancellor of Germany from 1919 to 1920
- Eindhoven liberated by 101st Airborne Division.
- The Battle of Arracourt began near the French town of Arracourt.
- The Japanese hell ship Jun'yō Maru was sunk off Sumatra by the British submarine Tradewind with the loss of 5,620 lives, the worst maritime disaster in history up to that time.
- American B-17 bombers dropped 1,284 containers of supplies to the Home Army in Warsaw, but only 228 fell on Polish-controlled territory. This was the only major supply drop of the war that the Soviets allowed the western Allies to carry out.[26]
- Born: Veronica Carlson, model and actress, in Yorkshire, England (d. 2022); Satan's Angel, exotic dancer, née Angel Cecilia Helene Walker in San Francisco, California (d. 2019)
- Died: Robert G. Cole, 29, American soldier and recipient of the Medal of Honor (killed in action by a sniper during Operation Market Garden); Viktor Eberhard Gräbner, 30, German Waffen-SS officer and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (killed during the Battle of Arnhem)
- The Continuation War between Finland and the Soviet Union came to an end with the signing of the Moscow Armistice.
- The Battle for Brest ended in Allied victory.
- The Battle of Păuliș ended in Romanian-Soviet victory.
- The Battle of Hürtgen Forest began between German and U.S. forces in the Hürtgen Forest along the border of Belgium and Germany.
- Thomas E. Dewey made a nationally broadcast campaign speech in Portland, Oregon in which he said that the making of peace was too important "to be dependent upon the life span and continued friendship of two or three individuals." Dewey said that there were "no indispensable men."[27]
- SS and Police Leader of Denmark Günther Pancke proclaimed a state of emergency and ordered the Danish police disarmed in an effort to stop the Danish transportation strike from becoming a general strike. This measure brought about shooting in front of the castle in Copenhagen when the royal guards thought they would be disarmed as well, and eight people were killed. Striking would continue for two more days.
- German submarine U-407 was depth charged and sunk in the Mediterranean Sea off Milos, Greece by Allied warships.
- U-565 was severely damaged by American aircraft near Skaramagas, Greece and scuttled five days later.
- U-867 was depth charged and sunk west of Bergen by a B-24 of No. 224 Squadron RAF.
- Born: İsmet Özel, poet and scholar, in Kayseri, Turkey
- The Soviet Army crossed into Hungarian territory.
- An RAF bombing raid destroyed an aqueduct on the Dortmund-Ems Canal and brought a halt to the shipment of prefabricated U-boat parts via this route.[32]
- German submarine U-859 was torpedoed and sunk in the Strait of Malacca by British submarine Trenchant.
- U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt made a campaign speech in Washington before the International Teamsters Brotherhood. He responded to a rumor that he'd sent a Navy destroyer to the Aleutian Islands to retrieve his Scottish Terrier Fala at great taxpayer expense by saying, "You know, Fala is Scotch, and being a Scottie, as soon as he learned that the Republican fiction writers in Congress and out had concocted a story that I had left him behind on the Aleutian Islands and had sent a destroyer back to find him— at a cost to the taxpayers of two or three, or eight or twenty million dollars- his Scotch soul was furious. He has not been the same dog since. I am accustomed to hearing malicious falsehoods about myself—such as that old, worm-eaten chestnut that I have represented myself as indispensable. But I think I have a right to resent, to object to libelous statements about my dog." Roosevelt drew huge laughs from the audience and the speech became a defining moment in the campaign.[33] [34]
- Died: Harry Chandler, 80, American newspaper publisher and real estate mogul
- Soviet troops and Yugoslav Partisans crossed the border into Albania.
- The Battle of Metz began in France.
- Finnish forces captured Pudasjärvi in northern Finland.[38]
- The Japanese troop transport and hospital ship Ural Maru was torpedoed and sunk in the South China Sea by the American submarine Flasher with the loss of some 2,000 lives.
- The British destroyer Rockingham (formerly the USS Swasey) struck a mine in the North Sea and sank under tow.
- Died: Aristide Maillol, 82, French sculptor, painter and printmaker; Aimee Semple McPherson, 53, American evangelist and media celebrity
- Soviet, Yugoslav Partisan and Bulgarian forces began the Belgrade Offensive.
- Winston Churchill made a speech in the House of Commons reviewing the progress of the war and announcing that a Jewish brigade would be formed to take part in active operations. "I know there is a vast number of Jews serving with our forces and the American forces throughout all the armies, but it seems to me indeed appropriate that a special Jewish unit of that race which has suffered indescribable torment from the Nazis should be represented as a distinct formation among the forces gathered for their final overthrow," Churchill explained. "I have no doubt that they will not only take part in the struggle but also in the occupation which will follow."[39]
- A roundup in Bratislava orchestrated by Alois Brunner captures 1,800 Jews and puts an end to one of the most successful underground Jewish organizations during the Holocaust, the Bratislava Working Group. The Jews are deported to Auschwitz, where most are murdered.
- Died: Josef Bürckel, 49, German Nazi politician (apparent complications from exhaustion)
- The Red Army began the Moonsund Landing Operation, an amphibious assault as part of the Baltic Offensive.
- The Battle of Arracourt ended in American victory.
- Born: Mike Post, television theme music composer, in Berkeley, California
- Died: John William Harper, 28, British soldier awarded the Victoria Cross for his self-sacrifice during a battle in Antwerp; Otto Herfurth, 51, German Generalmajor (hanged for his involvement in the 20 July bomb plot); Virginia Tonelli, 40, Italian partisan executed by burning (posthumously awarded the Gold Medal of Military Valour)
Notes and References
- Web site: 1944 . MusicAndHistory . March 1, 2016 .
- Web site: War Diary for Friday, 1 September 1944 . Stone & Stone Second World War Books . March 1, 2016 .
- Web site: Movie Review -Arsenic and Old Lace . September 2, 1944 . . March 1, 2016 .
- Web site: War Diary for Saturday, 2 September 1944 . Stone & Stone Second World War Books . March 1, 2016 .
- Book: . 2007. Księga pamięci żołnierzy Armii Krajowej Obwodu Ostrów Maz. 1939-1944. pl. Warsaw. 21–22.
- Web site: 1944 . World War II Database . March 1, 2016 .
- Web site: War Diary for Monday, 4 September 1944 . Stone & Stone Second World War Books . March 1, 2016 .
- Web site: The Liberation of Belgium (2 September - 4 February 1945) . March 1, 2016 .
- Web site: Chronology 1944 . 2002 . indiana.edu . March 1, 2016 .
- Book: 1989 . Mercer . Derrik . Chronicle of the 20th Century . London . Chronicle Communications Ltd. . 609 . 978-0-582-03919-3 .
- Web site: Conflict Timeline, September 4-13 1944. OnWar.com . March 1, 2016 .
- Web site: History for September 6 . On-This-Day.com . March 1, 2016 .
- Book: Lindeman, Yehudi. 2007. Shards of Memory: Narratives of Holocaust Survival. Westport, CT. Praeger Publishers. 206. 978-0-275-99423-5.
- Web site: The day Hitler's silent killer came falling on Chiswick . Heal . Clare . September 7, 2014 . . March 1, 2016 .
- Web site: War Diary for Monday, 11 September 1944 . Stone & Stone Second World War Books . March 1, 2016.
- Web site: US troops cross the border into Germany . WW2 Today . 3 June 2018.
- Web site: The September 1944 liberations remembered . mnhm.net . 3 June 2018.
- Web site: War Diary for Tuesday, 12 September 1944 . Stone & Stone Second World War Books . March 1, 2016 .
- Web site: Gothic Line Offensive . Chen . C. Peter . World War II Database . March 1, 2016 .
- Web site: War Diary for Wednesday, 13 September 1944 . Stone & Stone Second World War Books . March 1, 2016 .
- Web site: Top Ten Highest Water Levels for long-term stations in meters above MHHW (as of 4/2018) . April 1, 2018 . Tides and Currents, NOAA . December 13, 2020 .
- Book: Davidson . Edward . Manning . Dale . 1999 . Chronology of World War Two . London . Cassell & Co. . 213 . 0-304-35309-4 .
- Web site: War Diary for Saturday, 16 September 1944 . Stone & Stone Second World War Books . March 1, 2016 .
- Book: 2002 . Heiber . Helmut . Glantz . David M. . Hitler and His Generals: Military Conferences 1942–1945 . Enigma Books . 1010 . 978-1-929631-28-5 .
- Book: Dando-Collins, Stephen . 2015 . Operation Chowhound: The Most Risky, Most Glorious US Bomber Mission of WWII . New York . St. Martin's Press . 47 . 978-1-137-27963-7 .
- Web site: Conflict Timeline, September 14-23 1944 . OnWar.com . March 1, 2016 .
- September 20, 1944 . Challenges F. R. One-Man Theory . The Spokesman-Review . Spokane, Washington . 1 .
- Web site: War Diary for Wednesday, 20 September 1944 . Stone & Stone Second World War Books . March 1, 2016 .
- Book: Peaslee, Amos Jenkins . 1956 . Constitutions of Nations, Volume III: Nicaragua to Yugoslavia . The Hague . Martinus Nijhoff . 254 .
- News: September 22, 1944 . Cards Defeat Braves Twice to Clinch Flag . . Chicago . Part 2 p. 1 .
- Web site: 22 September 1944: From one occupation to another . Estonia.eu . March 1, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160306101126/http://estonia.eu/about-estonia/history/22-september-1944-from-one-occupation-to-another.html . 6 March 2016 . dead . dmy-all .
- Davidson and Manning, p. 215.
- Web site: September 1944 . Franklin D. Roosevelt Day by Day . March 1, 2016 .
- Web site: Fala, the dog who helped win a presidential election . September 23, 2014 . . March 1, 2016 .
- News: September 25, 1944 . Italy to Reopen Matteotti Murder Case Under New Law . . Chicago . . 1 .
- Web site: War Diary for Monday, 25 September 1944 . Stone & Stone Second World War Books . March 1, 2016 .
- Web site: Events occurring on Tuesday, September 26, 1944 . 2011 . WW2 Timelines . March 1, 2016 .
- Web site: War Diary for Wednesday, 27 September 1944 . Stone & Stone Second World War Books . March 1, 2016 .
- Web site: Review of Military and Political Situations . . March 1, 2016 .
- Web site: War Diary for Saturday, 30 September 1944 . Stone & Stone Second World War Books . March 1, 2016.