October 1944 Explained
The following events occurred in October 1944:
- The Battle of Tornio began between German and Finnish forces.
- Operation Undergo ended in Allied victory.
- Putten raid happened from October 1st to 2nd 660 men were taken away after a failed attack on a German official in November 1944
- After a four-day battle, the U.S. Fifth Army captured Monte Battaglia on the Gothic Line in Italy, helped by the Italian partisans.[1] The II and the IV Corp of the Army launch an offensive towards Bologna, that will end in a month with heavy losses and a limited gain of ground.
- Richard McCreery replaced Oliver Leese as Commander-in-Chief of the Eighth Army.
- The St. Louis Browns won the American League pennant on the final day of the season by beating the New York Yankees 5-2. The Browns, who had never won a pennant in franchise history and would not win another as a St. Louis team, were helped immensely by the wartime roster depletion across baseball that happened to affect them less than the other ballclubs. The average major league team had ten 4-F players on its roster, but the Browns had eighteen.[2] [3]
- Died: Rudolf Schmundt, 48, German Army officer (died of wounds sustained in the 20 July bomb plot)
- In Finnish Lapland the Germans moved from Operation Birke to Operation Nordlicht, an organized retreat using scorched earth tactics.
- The Battle of Morotai ended in Allied victory, although intermittent fighting continued there until the end of the war.
- Allied planes bombed Prague for the first time.[6] Moscow requested permission for their troops to enter Bulgarian territory.[7]
- German submarines U-92, U-228 and U-437 were all rendered inoperable by an air raid on Bergen by RAF aircraft.
- Milan Nedić's collaborationist puppet government of the Axis powers, the Government of National Salvation in Nazi-occupied Serbia, was disbanded.
- Born:
- Danilo Abbruciati, nicknamed “the chameleon”, Italian gangster and hit man, member of the “Banda della Magliana”, in Rome; d. 1982, killed by a security guard while he was carrying out an attack on Roberto Calvi’s behalf.
- Tony La Russa, baseball player and manager, in Tampa, Florida
- Ross Milne, Australian Olympic Alpine skier, in Myrtleford, Victoria, Australia (d. 1964, training crash at Winter Olympics)[8]
- Died: Al Smith, 70, American statesman, Governor of New York and 1928 Democratic presidential candidate
- Japanese forces captured Fuzhou, the last seaport under Chinese control.[9]
- The Battle of Memel began on the Eastern Front.
- Joseph Goebbels announced a reduction in food rations.[10]
- The incomplete Italian aircraft carrier Sparviero was scuttled at Genoa by Axis forces.
- In Italy, the IV Corp of the Fifth Army launched an attack towards La Spezia.[11]
- End of the Marzabotto massacre, on the Apennines over Boronia, aimed to repress the support of the villagers to partisan brigade Red Star. In a week, the 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division Reichsführer-SS, headed by Walter Reder, had slaughtered 770 civilians (women and children included) in the territories of Marzabotto, Grizzana and Monzuno, with episodes of inenarrable sadism.[12]
- Five pilots of No. 401 Squadron RCAF participated in the shooting down of a Messerschmitt Me 262 over the Netherlands, marking the first time that a jet fighter had been shot down by enemy fire.[13]
- The stage musical Bloomer Girl with music by Harold Arlen, lyrics by Yip Harburg and book by Sig Herzig and Fred Saidy premiered at the Shubert Theatre on Broadway.
- Born: Gianni Mazza, Italian conductor and composer of jazz and pop music, in Rome; Cesare Nosiglia, Archbishop of Turin, in Rossiglione (Genoa)
October 7, 1944 (Saturday)
The Sonderkommando (Nazi death camp prisoners deployed to remove corpses from the gas chambers and burn them) at Auschwitz-Birkenau revolted with makeshift weapons. Three SS guards were killed, but more than 200 members of the Sonderkommando died in the fighting. Hundreds of prisoners escaped but were all soon captured and executed.
- The Fourth Moscow Conference began. Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and U.S. ambassador W. Averell Harriman met to discuss the future of Europe.
- Operation Loyton ended.
- During the Battle of the Scheldt, the 9th Canadian Infantry Brigade made an amphibious landing on the south bank of the Western Scheldt.[16]
- The St. Louis Cardinals defeated the St. Louis Browns 3-1 to win the 1944 World Series, four games to two.
- Born: John Entwistle, bass player for The Who, in Chiswick, London, England (d. 2002); Nona Hendryx, musician, in Trenton, New Jersey
800 Romani children were murdered at Auschwitz.[18]
- A delegation of Austrian industrialists and officers asked Reichsstatthalter Baldur von Schirach to declare Vienna an open city.[19]
- On the Italian front, while the Wehrmacht stopped the offensive of the II American Corp on the Bologna Apennines in Livergnano, the V English Corp passed the Rubicon and conquers Longiano and Savignano.[20]
- In Genoa, the explosion of a German ammunition deposit in the San Benigno quarter (caused by lightning or, according to some never confirmed theories, by a partisan attack) caused hundreds of deaths. The victims included German soldiers, Genoese civilians living in the area and refugees in air-raid shelters.
- In Piedmont, a coalition of "blue" (monarchist) and "red" (communist) partisans occupied Alba, without fighting; the blue ranks included the future writer Beppe Fenoglio, who would describe the event in his novels. The town became the most important urban center freed by the Resistance's forces, before being reconquered by the Fascists a month later.[21]
- Ramón Grau took office as President of Cuba.
October 11, 1944 (Wednesday)
- The U.S. Air Force bombed Okinawa.[22]
- The Soviets annexed the Tuvan People's Republic.
- The Soviet 2nd Ukrainian Front captured Cluj and Szeged.[23]
- A secret Hungarian delegation signed a ceasefire agreement in Moscow. Hungary agreed to declare war on Germany and give up all territory gained since 1937.
- Italian front: While the tenacious opposition of the Wehrmacht stopped the American offensive on the Boronia hills in Livergnano and at Monte Battaglia, on Romagna the British, Indian and Canadian troops passed the Rubicon at many points, directed to Cesena; the New Zealanders conquered Gatteo.[24]
- The film noir Laura directed by Otto Preminger and starring Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews was released.
- The Howard Hawks-directed wartime romance/adventure film To Have and Have Not starring Humphrey Bogart, Walter Brennan and Lauren Bacall (in her film debut) premiered in New York City.
- Died: Fritz Feßmann, 30, German military officer (killed near Tilsit by a Soviet shell)
- The Battle of Rovaniemi began between German and Finnish forces.
- The British destroyer Loyal struck a mine in the Tyrrhenian Sea and was rendered a constructive total loss.
- The attacks of the American Fifth Army were stopped at Mount Cavallara; the offensive to Bologna was temporarily suspended, at by the target.[25]
- Canadian Arctic explorer Henry Larsen reached Vancouver after sailing from Halifax, Nova Scotia through the Northwest Passage in just 86 days.[26]
- Born:
- Died: Alfredo Di Dio, 24, Italian Catholic partisan, commander of the Brigate Fiamme Verdi (Green Flames Brigades), fallen in the combat for the defense of the Ossola Republic; Andrew Haldane, 27, U.S. Marine (killed during the Battle of Peleliu); Jack J. Pendleton, 26, U.S. Army soldier and recipient of the Medal of Honor (killed in action at Bardebnerg, Germany)
October 14, 1944 (Saturday)
- German forces withdrew from Niš.[32]
- In Italy, the American Fifth Army had some success on the Apennine front; a South African division entered Grizzana, and the German Army left Livergnano. In Romagna, the Polish II Corps went into action.[33]
- The German and Fascist troops reconquered Domodossola, which for forty days had been the capital of an independent republic, ruled by the partisans and the antifascist parties.[34]
- The Canadian frigate Magog was torpedoed and damaged in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by German submarine U-1223 and rendered a constructive total loss.
- "I'll Walk Alone" by Dinah Shore hit #1 on the Billboard singles charts.
- Born: Udo Kier, actor, in Cologne, Germany
- Died: Erwin Rommel, 52, German field marshal (allowed to commit suicide by the Nazis rather than face trial and reprisals against his family for his knowledge of the July Bomb Plot)
October 15, 1944 (Sunday)
- The Battle of Leyte began when American forces and Filipino guerrillas under the command of General Douglas MacArthur launched an amphibious invasion of the Gulf of Leyte in the Philippines.
- Rival partisans in Athens began fighting each other.
- Contact was lost with the USS Escolar. The American submarine was probably lost to a mine in the Yellow Sea.
- Died: Pavel Haas, 45, Czech composer (murdered at Auschwitz concentration camp); Hans Krása, 44, Czech composer (murdered at Auschwitz)
- The Battle of Aachen ended in American victory when the last German garrison in Aachen surrendered.
- Axis forces established the Syrmian Front, a line of defense on the Eastern Front northwest of Belgrade.
- Red Army soldiers carried out the Nemmersdorf massacre in East Prussia.
- Despite heavy rain, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt rode in an open car through of New York City streets on his way to make a speech at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. With a little over two weeks left to go in the presidential election campaign, Roosevelt's ride through the city in the pouring rain without any proper covering was an attempt to show that he was still healthy.[44]
the 14th Army of the Soviet Karelian Front captured the Norwegian town of Kirkenes.[48]
- The American submarine Tang was sunk by one of her own torpedoes near Formosa.
- The Allies officially recognized the Italian government under Ivanoe Bonomi.
- Florence Foster Jenkins, the amateur operatic soprano known for her lack of singing ability, made her first proper public appearance at a sold-out Carnegie Hall.
- Born: Kati Kovács, singer, and actress, in Verpelét, Hungary
- The Battle of Leyte Gulf ended in decisive Allied victory. On the final day of the battle the Japanese lost the cruisers Abukuma, Kinu and Noshiro, destroyers Hayashimo, Nowaki and Uranami and submarine I-26
- Died: Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom, 87, youngest child of Queen Victoria; Hiroyoshi Nishizawa, 24, Japanese flying ace (shot down over Mindoro, Philippines in a transport plane in which he was riding as a passenger); William Temple, 63, Archbishop of Canterbury
- The British Eighth Army reached Forlì. The Allied advance in Italy had slowed considerably in recent days and time was running out to realize the objective of taking Bologna before winter.
- The U.S. Third Army completed the capture of Maizières-lès-Metz.[50]
- Finnish forces captured Muonio in northern Finland.
- The Greek government banned the leftist militia group ELAS.
- Born: Ahmed Chalabi, politician, in Kadhimiya, Iraq (d. 2015)
Notes and References
- Web site: Gothic Line Offensive . Chen . C. Peter . World War II Database . March 1, 2016 .
- Web site: St. Louis Browns 5, New York Yankees 2 . . March 1, 2016 .
- Web site: 1944: Meet Us in St. Louis . This Great Game . March 1, 2016 .
- Web site: War Diary for Tuesday, 3 October 1944 . Stone & Stone Second World War Books . March 1, 2016.
- News: Donne e Uomini della Resistenza: Ugo Ricci. Women and Men of the Resistance: Ugo Ricci. ANPI. 2018-09-15. it-IT.
- 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: Ross Milne . . OlyMADMen . February 5, 2022.
- Web site: Chronology 1944 . 2002 . indiana.edu . March 1, 2016.
- Book: 1989 . Mercer . Derrik . Chronicle of the 20th Century . London . Chronicle Communications Ltd . 611 . 978-0-582-03919-3.
- Web site: Le notizie del 5 ottobre 1944 . The news of 5 October 1944 . www.cinquantamila.it . it . 2018-09-15.
- Web site: Eccidiomarzabotto.com - Sito della strage di Marzabotto . Marzabotto . Eccidio . www.eccidiomarzabotto.com . 2018-09-15.
- Book: Nijboer, Donald . 2010 . No 126 Wing RCAF . . 52 . 978-1-84603-483-1.
- Web site: Le notizie del 7 ottobre 1944 . The news of 7 October 1944 . www.cinquantamila.it . it . 2018-09-15.
- Web site: Tehumardi Night Battle Monument . Lonely Planet . March 1, 2016.
- Web site: The Battle of the Scheldt, Chapter XVI . . March 1, 2016.
- Web site: Midget Submarines Based at Okinawa and the Ryukyu Islands 1944–1945 . Imperial Japanese Navy Page . March 1, 2016.
- Web site: Eight hundred children are gassed to death at Auschwitz . . . March 1, 2016.
- Web site: Was war am 10. Oktober 1944 . chroniknet . March 1, 2016.
- News: Scarsi risultati nell'offensiva contro Bologna . Poor results in the offensive against Bologna . 2018-09-15 . it-IT.
- News: Langhe e Alto Monferrato . . 2018-09-15 . it-IT.
- Book: Overy, Richard . Richard Overy . 2010 . War in the Pacific . Osprey Publishing . 40 . 978-1-84908-394-2.
- Web site: War Diary for Wednesday, 11 October 1944 . Stone & Stone Second World War Books . March 1, 2016.
- News: Le notizie del 11 ottobre 1944 . The news of 11 October 1944 . www.cinquantamila.it . it . 2018-09-15.
- News: Le notizie del 12 ottobre 1944 . The news of 12 October 1944 . www.cinquantamila.it . it . 2018-09-15.
- Web site: Today in Canadian History: October 12 . CanadaChannel.ca . March 1, 2016.
- Book: Davidson . Edward . Manning . Dale . 1999 . Chronology of World War Two . London . Cassell & Co. . 218 . 0-304-35309-4 .
- [#Ahto|Ahto (1980)]
- See Lothar Rendulic, Gekämpft, gesiegt, geschlagen, Welsermühl, Wels-Heidelerg, 1952, p. 306; J.H. Palokangas, "Kohtalokkailla Retkillä", in the military journal "Kansa Taisteli", Helsinki, 1965.
- https://blackwatchwardiary.blog/1944-2/
- https://www.liberationroute.com/pois/447/black-friday
- Web site: War Diary for Saturday, 14 October 1944 . Stone & Stone Second World War Books . March 1, 2016.
- News: Le notizie del 14 ottobre 1944 . The news of 14 October 1944 . www.cinquantamila.it . it . 2018-09-16.
- News: La Val d'Ossola - 1944 - Le Repubbliche Partigiane . 2014-03-23 . 1944 - Le Repubbliche Partigiane . 2018-09-16 . it-IT.
- Book: Lindeman, Yehudi . 2007 . Shards of Memory: Narratives of Holocaust Survival . Westport, CT . Praeger Publishers . 206 . 978-0-275-99423-5 .
- Web site: War Diary for Sunday, 15 October 1944 . Stone & Stone Second World War Books . March 1, 2016 .
- Web site: Le notizie del 15 ottobre 1944. www.cinquantamila.it. it. 2018-09-16.
- Book: 2007 . DeRouen . Karl R. . Heo . Uk . Civil Wars of the World: Major Conflicts Since World War II, Volume 1 . Oxford . ABC-CLIO . 370 . 978-1-85109-919-1 .
- Web site: War Diary for Wednesday, 18 October 1944 . Stone & Stone Second World War Books . March 1, 2016 .
- Book: Butler, Daniel Allen . 2015 . Field Marshal: The Life and Death of Erwin Rommel . Havertown, PA . Casemate Publishers . 567 . 978-1-61200-297-2 .
- Book: Mitcham, Samuel W. . 1997 . The Desert Fox in Normandy: Rommel's Defense of Fortress Europe . Praeger . 198 . 978-0-275-95484-0 .
- Web site: War Diary for Thursday, 19 October 1944 . Stone & Stone Second World War Books . March 1, 2016 .
- Web site: General MacArthur 'I Have Returned' to the Philippines . World War II Today . March 1, 2016 .
- Web site: Presidents Don't Use Rain Delays . February 25, 2011 . . March 1, 2016.
- Web site: Conflict Timeline, October 14-23 1944 . OnWar.com . March 1, 2016 .
- Web site: The Holocaust: The French Vichy Regime . . March 1, 2016 .
- Web site: 47 Ships Sunk by Kamikaze Aircraft . Gordon . Bill . Kamikaze Images . March 1, 2016 .
- Web site: War Diary for Wednesday, 25 October 1944 . Stone & Stone Second World War Books . March 1, 2016 .
- Book: Sweet Home Cook County . . 6–7 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160528132937/http://www.cookcountyclerk.com/sweethomecookcounty/documents/2007sweethome.pdf . 28 May 2016 . 31 May 2023.
- Web site: War Diary for Monday, 30 October 1944 . Stone & Stone Second World War Books . March 1, 2016 .
- Web site: War Diary for Tuesday, 31 October 1944 . Stone & Stone Second World War Books . March 1, 2016 .
- Book: Wilson, Colin . 2006 . The Murder Casebook . Barnes & Noble . 163 . 978-0-7607-7465-6 . registration .