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08/01/1944 In the Pacific, Japanese resistance on Tinian ends.
Patton orders a daring maneuver in Brittany. Defying military textbooks, he orders 200,000 men and 40,000 tanks and trucks to highball down a single, two-lane dirt road in western Normandy. With Patton arm-waving traffic in Avranches, four divisions race through the town in 24 hours, split into spearheads and plunge into Brittany.
The 4th Armored and 8th Infantry divisions speed 40 miles to the suburbs of Rennes, Brittany's capital. The 6th Armored and 79th Infantry motor 15 miles toward Brest, Brittany's largest port.
Ike realigns American forces in Normandy, Omar Bradley now commands two armies: the 1st under Courtney Hodges and Patton's 3rd.
The Polish Home Army, 40,000 poorly armed men led by Gen. Tadeuzs Bor-Komorowski, seizes parts of Warsaw.
A Red Army spearhead is only 10 miles away.
08/02/1944 On Guam, the 3rd Marine and Army 77th divisions have destroyed half of the Japanese garrison and taken the southern half of the island. The Japanese are regrouping for a last stand on Mt. Santa Rosa.
American tanks and infantry spread east and west in Brittany.
Patton's Armored division is 35 miles inside Brittany, and Patton orders the 6th to roll 200 miles in five days and take Brest, a large seaport. He also organizes a task force to take St. Malo and liberate Brittany's northern coast.
Lightning Joe Collin's 3rd Armored and "Big Red One" infantry divisions push toward Mortain, a crossroads far behind the German battlefront in central Normandy.
Hitler orders a massive panzer counterattack to trap Patton's army and overwhelm Collins' units.
08/03/1944 The German Luftwaffe has introduced a revolutionary factor into aerial warfare -- rocket propelled fighter planes. Headquarters of the Eighth Air Force announced that Allied aircraft have encountered "small numbers" of the new fighters over Munich and Ludwigshaven this week. The United States and Britain have been testing jet-propelled aircraft, but no reports of their use have been issued.
Patton's 3rd Army sweeps across Brittany.
The "Super Sixth" Armored division thrusts 50 miles to Loudeac, midway across the Breton peninsula and only 100 miles from Brest. The 4th Armored bypasses German-held Rennes, Brittany's capital, and sweeps toward Vannes, another Atlantic port.
The Germans are retreating to Brest, Lorient and St. Nazaire, the province's biggest seaports. Realizing the Germans are abandoning Brittany, Bradley orders Patton to turn most of his forces toward Paris. Patton's outflanking column quickly darts 20 miles to Fougeres. Nearby, Collins' divisions take Mortain, a key crossroads 20 miles east of Avranches.
08/04/1944 In the Pacific, planes from eight carriers blast Iwo Jima and Chichi Jima south of Japan.
The "Super Sixth" Armored division rolls 55 miles toward Brest, the big French seaport near the western tip of Brittany.
Elsewhere, Patton's 8th "Pathfinder" Infantry overcomes German resistance in Rennes, Brittany's capital. Another Patton column isolates the German garrison of St. Malo, a submarine base.
The Polish Home Army in Warsaw now controls more than half the city, but German reinforcements are on the way. The German counterattack in Warsaw is directed by Gen. Erich von dem Bach-Zalewski, an "expert" in slaughtering partisans and guerrillas. He commands five panzer and SS divisions.
In Italy, the British 8th Army takes the southern half of Florence, where the Germans have destroyed all of the bridges except the ancient Ponte Vecchio.
08/05/1944 In the Pacific, carrier planes bomb Iwo and Chichi Jima for a second day and sink three Japanese ships.
Patton's 3rd Army lunges east, south, southwest and west in Brittany and Normandy. The 4th Armored division cuts off the Breton peninsula from the rest of France by taking Vannes, a seaport on Brittany's western coast.
Further north, the "Super Sixth" Armored division drives to within 40 miles of Brest, and the 83rd "Thunderbolt" Infantry attacks at St. Malo, where the German commander vows to fight to the last bullet. He'll hold for a couple of weeks, then surrender.
It's only a matter of time until 100,000 Germans are trapped in Brittany's four biggest seaports: Brest, Lorient, St. Malo and St. Nazaire. The fall of Brittany will force the Germans to abandon their French U-boat bases. Patton's thrust toward Paris rumbles 30 miles.
08/06/1944 Alerted by codebreakers that the Germans are about to attack at Mortain in southern Normandy, Montgomery devises a counter stroke.
He orders Patton's 3rd Army to continue driving toward Paris, then turn north and smash into the German rear at Argentan, a crossroads 35 miles south of Caen.
British, Canadian and Polish divisions will drive south to meet the Americans and pocket the entire German army in Normandy.
Patton's 79th division begins the maneuver by taking Laval, 175 miles from Paris.
In Italy, the British 8th Army crosses the Arno River and pushes into Florence.
Italian-based American fighters complete a round trip to the Soviet Union by raiding Bucharest and Ploesti in Romania. And 76 British-based B-17 Flying Fortresses bomb an aircraft factory in Gdynia, Poland, then land on Soviet airfields.
08/07/1944 In the Pacific, sub Croaker sinks Japanese cruiser Nagara off Kyushu.
Six German panzer divisions counterattack the American 1st Army at Mortain and drive toward Avranches on Normandy's west coast. Hitler has ordered the panzers to cut off Patton's 3rd Army, but the skeletal divisions have only 185 tanks among them. Their initial assault takes Mortain and gains 5 miles, but is halted by the U. S. 4th, 9th and 30th Infantry and 2nd Armored divisions.
On a hill near Mortain, 600 GIs of the 30th "Old Hickory" Infantry division, many of them from North Carolina, are surrounded for six days. They carpet the hill with dead Germans, then are rescued.
Montgomery's counter stroke accelerates as Patton's 3rd Army races 45 miles to Le Mans and British and Canadian units attack near Caen. American tanks also reach the outskirts of Brest and Lorient.
08/08/1944 Organized Japanese resistance on Guam ends.
More than 10,000 Japanese have been killed. Another 8,000 fade into jungles and will be hunted down through the end of the war and beyond. The last straggler on Guam will surrender in 1972. More than 7,000 Americans have been killed or wounded.
Later this year, Guam, Saipan and Tinian will become main bases for B29 Superfortresses that devastate Japan's home islands. Fleet Adm. Osami Nagano tells Emperor Hirohito that defeat in the Marianas means "hell is on us."
In Normandy, the German offensive near Mortain is cut to ribbons by Allied planes and hard-fighting Americans, notably the 2nd "Hell on Wheels" Armored.
Patton's 79th Infantry takes Le Mans and threatens the rear of the German 7th Army.
08/09/1944 Allied forces begin encircling the Germans in Normandy.
The Allies' left hand -- Courtney Hodges's American 1st Army -- repulse German attacks near Mortain. Their right hand, Patton, sends three divisions northward toward Argentan and the rear of the German 5th Panzer and 7th armies.
Patton's march to Argentan becomes an uproarious celebration when French civilians discover their liberators are the 2nd French Armored Division. Patton's march also is being made by the fresh-off-the-boat U. S. 80th "Blue Ridge" Infantry and 5th "Victory" Armored divisions.
However, the Germans are defeating British, Canadian and Polish units trying to join hands with Patton's column.
08/10/1944 The Polish uprising in Warsaw is becoming a horror story.
Counterattacking German Panzer, SS Storm troopers and Red Army turncoats have retaken much of the city and squeezed Gen. Tadeusz Bor-Kormorowski's poorly equipped Home Army into three shrinking pockets.
The Poles ask the Soviets to provide air cover and parachute supplies to their beleaguered forces, but Stalin has no sympathy for Bor-Komorowski's army, which is fighting to establish a non-Communist Poland.
In France, the U. S. 1st Army retakes ground it lost near Mortain in southern Normandy, and Patton's 3rd Army continues its spreading advance.
In Brittany, the U. S. 5th "Red Diamond" Infantry takes Angers and an armor-infantry force prepares to assault Brest. Approximately one-tenth of France has been taken by the Allies, mostly by Patton's army.
08/11/1944 Allied battlefield commander Bernard Montgomery orders Patton's 3rd Army and the Canadian 1st Army to join hands at Argentan and complete the encirclement of the Germans in Normandy.
The Americans and Canadians are only 50 miles apart as a Patton spearhead pushes north and British, Canadians and Poles led by Gen. Henry Crerar battle south.
The Allied thrusts worry Field Marshal Gunther von Kluge, who persuades Hitler to send three panzer divisions to oppose Patton. Fierce resistance slows Crerar's army.
More than 2,000 Allied warships, transports and landing craft carrying American and French troops of Gen. Alexander Patch's U. S. 7th Army sail from Naples and North Africa. On the 15th they will storm ashore near Cannes and Toulon in southern France.
08/12/1944 Led by the 5th "Victory" Armored division, Patton's 3rd army races 30 miles to Argentan and is a hairbreadth from encircling the Germans in Normandy.
Patton issues orders for a final lunge to Falaise, a crossroads 15 miles further north.
Churchill meets in Naples with Yugoslav leader Joseph Tito and Yugoslav royalist Prime Minister Ivan Subasic. Tito says he won't impose a communist government on Yugoslavia. Also in Italy, the British 8th Army crosses the Arno River and drives the Germans out of Florence.
Navy Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy, older brother of John F. Kennedy, is killed when his four-engined bomber explodes over England. The older Kennedy is participating in an experimental bombing program called Aphrodite that calls for the pilot and co-pilot to bail out while radio controls guide the explosive-laden plane to its target.
08/13/1944 Nimitz forecast that aerial bombardment and a sea blockade may force Japan to surrender without an invasion of the Japanese home island.
Bradley infuriates Patton by delaying the encirclement of the Germans in Normandy. Bradley, who later admits he missed a glorious opportunity, fears German panzers will maul Patton's army while trying to break out of the trap. Instead, he orders Patton to halt his northward march and rely on Henry Crerar's 1st Canadian Army to close the 18-mile gap. That postpones the encirclement five days and allows 40,000 Germans to escape.
Patton issues orders to resume the American drive toward Paris.
08/14/1944 Allied forces in Normandy batter the nearly surrounded German 5th Panzer and 7th Armies in the 15-by-35-mile "Falaise pocket."
As RAF planes bomb the pocket's northern shoulder, a "mad charge" by 250 tanks of the 1st Polish and 4th Canadian Armored divisions nearly reaches the crossroads at Falaise.
For the Germans, Falaise is the most important village in France; if it falls, their armies will be destroyed. Falaise is so heavily bombed and shelled it's impossible to determine where its streets are.
In Brittany, the U. S. 8th and 83rd Infantry nearly wipe out the German garrison at St. Malo, but a 6th Armored division assault on Brest fails.
Elsewhere, RAF planes parachute food and ammunition to the Polish Home Army in Warsaw.
08/15/1944 Nearly 100,000 U. S. and French troops begin landing in southern France. (The Champagne Campaign)
The last large-scale European invasion begins with 5,000 paratroopers of the U. S. 7th Army confusing German forces defending France's Mediterranean coast.
Led by Gen. Alexander Patch, the veteran U. S. 3rd, 36th and 45th Infantry divisions swarm ashore to establish a 35-mile bridgehead between Cannes and St. Tropez on the Riviera. The 2,300-ship armada includes nine American and British escort carriers and battleships Arkansas, Nevada, Texas, the Royal Navy's Ramillies and the French Navy's Lorraine.
The initial targets are Marseilles, France's largest seaport, and the naval base at Toulon.
In Normandy, the Germans begin evacuating the Falaise pocket. One of Patton's columns races 45 miles to the outskirts of Chartres 55 miles from Paris.
08/16/1944 Hitler finally agrees to evacuate his beleaguered forces from Normandy's Falaise pocket.
The pocket shrinks to 11 miles as Gen. Henry Crerar's Canadians nearly surround Falaise and Courtney Hodges's U. S. 1st Army pushes back Germans manning the pocket's southern battle line.
Patton's 3rd Army rolls toward Paris, with his 5th "Victory" Armored division taking Dreux, 47 miles from the French capital. Orleans falls to the 4th Armored and 35th "Santa Fe" Infantry divisions.
Several French divisions commanded by Gen. Jean de Lattre de Tassigny land in southern France as Patch's 7th Army consolidates its Riviera beachheads and moves inland.
Stalin announces the Soviets will give no help to the "reckless" Warsaw uprising by the anti-Communist Polish Home Army.
08/17/1944 The Germans have pulled out of Florence, releasing Italy's most beautiful city from a vise in which it long has been clutched. Neither army shelled Florence and it is believed that the historic city is intact except of five bridges blown up by the Germans.
In France, the Falaise pocket's escape corridor narrows to a few thousand yards as Americans, Canadians, Free French and Poles savage the German 5th Panzer and 7th armies.
Allied artillery and rocket-firing fighter-bombers mercilessly flay the 100,000 Germans jammed into the pocket. Hitler fires Field Marshal Gunther von Kluge, commander of Wehrmacht forces in France.
Elsewhere, St. Malo's German garrison surrenders moments before the U. S. 83rd "Thunderbolt" Infantry division is scheduled to make a final assault. In southern France, Patch's American-French 7th Army pushes 20 miles inland and probes toward Toulon and Marseilles.
On the eastern front, a Red Army spearhead reaches the border of East Prussia, homeland of Germany's militaristic Junkers. And 1,200 RAF bombers heavily damage Kiel and Stettin, German ports on the Baltic.
08/18/1944 The American Sub Rasher sinks the Japanese escort carrier Taiyo in the South China Sea and the sub Hardhead downs cruiser Natori near the Philippines.
Field Marshal von Kluge, fired yesterday from his post as commander of German forces in France, commits suicide and leaves a note telling Hitler:
"If your new weapons ... do not bring success, then, mein Fuhrer, make the difficult decision to end the war. The German people have suffered such unspeakable ills that the time has come to put an end to these horrors."
Field Marshal Walther Model replaces von Kluge as patrols of Patton's 3rd Army reach Versailles, 12 miles southwest of Paris.
In southern France, American and French units are rapidly isolating German forces defending Marseilles.
An American air raid on Toulon sinks French battleship Strasbourg, a cruiser, a destroyer and three German U-boats.
08/19/1944 An uprising begins in Paris as police and partisans seize public buildings and begin battling the city's German garrison.
Wehrmacht commander Dietrich von Choltitz disobeys Hitler's order to turn Paris into "a field of ruins." He arranges a five-day truce to evacuate his troops.
In Normandy, 100,000 Germans are surrounded in a six-by-seven mile trap as the U. S. 90th "Tough 'Ombres" infantry and Polish 1st Armored divisions meet at Chambois, a village 15 miles southeast of Falaise. Elsewhere, Patton's 79th Infantry division reaches the Seine River.
The Soviets' 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian armies begin a powerful offensive to knock Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary out of the war. Stalin forbids American and British planes dropping supplies to the Polish army in Warsaw to land on Soviet airfields.
08/20/1944 Thousands of Germans sneak through the Allied encirclement in Normandy while thousands of others surrender to the Allies.
One of Patton's 3rd Army columns bridges the Seine 30 miles west of Paris and another reaches the Seine east of the French capital.
Eisenhower is reluctant to assault Paris because he doesn't want Americans to damage its historic buildings in the fighting. He orders Patton to bypass the city and force the Germans to abandon it.
In southern France, the U. S. 3rd Infantry division reaches the outskirts of Aix-en-Provence; French forces close in on Marseilles and Toulon. The German 19th Army is rapidly retreating northward.
On the eastern front, the Soviets smash two Romanian armies and begin encircling the German 6th Army near Kishinev in Moldavia. Hitler again refuses to allow his forces to retreat.
08/21/1944 Four Allied armies storm across France as German resistance disintegrates.
Omar Bradley's Americans move east and west of Paris and into the upper Seine River valley, while Montgomery's British and Canadians bound toward Rouen and the lower Seine.
The U. S. 79th Infantry expands a Seine bridgehead 30 miles east of Paris, and the U. S. 4th Armored division takes Sens, 185 miles from the German border. The invasion of southern France becomes a race as Patch's 7th Army rushes north toward Grenoble and Lyons.
American, British, Soviet and Chinese diplomats begin a five-week conference on the postwar world at Dumbarton Oaks, an estate in Washington, D. C. They agree there should be a United Nations peacekeeping organization and an International Court of Justice.
08/22/1944 The Battle of Normandy ends as 50,000 Germans in the Falaise pocket surrender to GIs of Courtney Hodges's 1st Army and Henry Crerar's Canadians and Poles.
The Germans have suffered a catastrophic defeat. Since D-Day, they have suffered 440,000 casualties and the Allies have destroyed 1,500 tanks, 3,500 big guns, 20,000 vehicles and 3,600 planes.
Eisenhower describes the Falaise pocket as one of the war's worst "killing grounds" with dead men and destroyed equipment choking roads, highways, villages and fields. The Wehrmacht's 5th Panzer and 7th Armies have ceased to exist.
Fearing a bloodbath if the Allies don't stamp out German resistance in Paris, Ike sends a column toward the city. In southern France, the U. S. 36th "Texas" division takes Grenoble, the largest city in the French Alps.
08/23/1944 Romania surrenders to the Soviet Union as King Michael orchestrates a coup d'etat that overthrows pro-Nazi dictator Ion Antonescu. The capitulation occurs as two Soviet armies surround the 130,000-man German 6th Army near Kishinev in Moldavia.
French Forces of the Interior freedom fighters under Gen. Pierre Koenig take most of Paris and resume fighting the city's German garrison. An Allied column led by Maj. Gen. Jacques LeClerc's 2nd French Armored division races toward Paris's southern suburbs.
Elsewhere, Patton's 5th "Red Diamond" Infantry takes the royal palace at Fontainbleau, 37 miles southeast of Paris.
In southern France, the U. S. 36th "Texas" division is trying to trap the retreating German 19th near Montelimar, 110 miles north of Marseilles. And French forces commanded by Gen. Jean de Lattre de Tassigny reach the outskirts of Marseilles and Toulon.
08/24/1944 Maj. Gen. Jacques LeClerc's 2nd French Armored division uses back streets to crack the Germans' defenses of Paris and reach the heart of the city. Nearby, the U. S. 4th "Ivy" Infantry division pushes into Paris' suburbs.
The first shipments of gasoline, ammunition, food and other military equipment begin streaming across France on the "Red Ball Express," a highway supply line using thousands of American trucks.
Using two roads restricted to military traffic, Red Ballers hotrod form St. Lo in Normandy to advanced supply dumps of Courtney Hodges's 1st Army and Patton's 3rd Army. The Ball rolls 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Elsewhere, Patton's 5th Infantry and "Lucky Seventh" Armored divisions bridge the Seine at Melun and Mandara, east of Paris.
In southern France, French units enter Marseilles and Toulon, and Americans liberate Cannes and Antibes on the Riviera and Arles on the Rhone River.
08/25/1944 Paris goes wild as Gen. Jacques LeClerc's 2nd French Armored and the U. S. 4th "Ivy" Infantry take the city.
Ike and Bradley have chosen LeClerc's division to lead the way into the city to restore French pride. Hitler repeatedly asks "Is Paris burning?" but Gen. Dietrich von Choltitz ignores his order to destroy the city, then surrenders.
Elsewhere, the British cross the Seine and head for Belgium, and three American divisions attack the German garrison in Brest, Brittany's largest port. In southern France, the naval base at Toulon is cleared by French units.
In Italy, Allied forces lunge toward the Gothic Line, the last German defenses south of the Po River.
Romania, which surrendered to the Soviet Union two days ago, declares war on Germany.
08/26/1944 The delirious celebration in Paris continues as de Gaulle ignores German snipers and leads a massive victory parade down the Champs Elysees to Notre Dame cathedral, where French leaders attend a mass of gratitude and deliverance.
To prevent a Communist coup d'etat, Eisenhower recognized de Gaulle as de facto leader of the French provisional government. De Gaulle asks the Allies to help him rebuild France's armed forces so they can participate in the defeat of Nazi Germany.
Elsewhere, four Allied armies have crossed the Seine and are heading for Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Patton's 4th Armored division takes Troyes, 290 miles from the German border.
Bulgaria withdraws from the war as two Soviet armies reach the Danube.
08/27/1944 American GIs cross the Marne and overrun historic World War I battlefields.
Patton's 3rd Army takes Chateau-Thar, scene of the dough boys' first big victory in 1918, and Hodges's 1st Army thrust toward Belgium.
Assaults by the U. S. 2nd, 8th and 29th Infantry divisions fail to take Brest, the largest port in Brittany, but complete the port's encirclement.
In southern France, the Wehrmacht garrison in Marseille begins surrender negotiations.
RAF heavy bombers make their first daylight raid since the early days of the war as they blast oil refineries near Hamburg.
08/28/1944 French troops led by Gen. Jean de Lattre de Tassigny eliminate German resistance in Marseilles and Toulon, France's biggest Mediterranean ports.
Marseilles's liberation is a godsend for the Allies, who badly need an undamaged French seaport. During the next three months, one-third of Allied supplies and equipment will be offloaded in Marseilles and forwarded to Eisenhower's armies.
Elsewhere in southern France, the German 19th Army suffers heavy losses but eludes a near-encirclement by Alexander Patch's U. S. 7th Army near Montelimar, 110 miles north of Marseilles.
In northern France, Patton's 3rd Army rumbles 50 miles and closes in on Chalons-sur-Marne and Vitro-le-Francois. Patton's tanks and trucks are only 140 miles from the French-German border but are running out of diesel fuel and gasoline.
08/29/1944 Cheering Parisians celebrate their liberation as the 28th "Keystone" Infantry parades down the Champs Elysees. Eisenhower, Bradley and de Gaulle review the troops.
Elsewhere, Patton's 3rd Army takes Chalons and Reims and continues sweeping toward Germany.
Montgomery's British, Canadians and Poles break out of Seine River bridgeheads and drive toward Belgium and the Netherlands.
08/30/1944 The last Allied offensive of the year in Italy accelerates as Polish divisions of the British 8th Army penetrate into Pesaro, a port on the Adriatic.
Allied commander Harold Alexander plans a bluff to crack the Germans' Gothic Line and liberate northern Italy. Alexander begins with an attack on the eastern end of the Gothic Line. Next week, Americans will attack the western end in an apparent main assault. The British will then make a second attack in the east. Alexander's three-punch strategy will be a partial success.
In France, five Allied armies pursue disorganized Germans toward Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany.
Hodges's 1st Army takes Laon, 45 miles from the French-Belgian border, and Patton's 3rd Army closes in on Verdun, 30 miles from Belgium.
In Romania, Malinovsky's army takes the Ploesti oil fields, Germany's main fuel supply.
08/31/1944 The Allied offensive in the Pacific resumes as planes from carriers Enterprise, Franklin and San Jacinto attack airfields on Iwo Jima and Chici Jima in the Volcano and Bonin islands south of Japan.
The raids are the opening of a coordinated campaign by Nimitz and MacArthur to take Peleliu and Morotai, strategic islands east of the Philippines. Marines and GIs will invade the islands in mid-September.
In France, the Allies cross World War I battlefields as they roar toward Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. The British 2nd Army takes Amiens and bridges the Somme River, scene of Britain's worst World War I defeat. Patton's 3rd Army crosses the Meuse River near Verdun, but a gasoline shortage halts some of his forces.
Elsewhere, an American assault on Brest fails.
On the eastern front, Malinovsky's army takes Bucharest, capital of Romania
