August 1944

August

• 01

  • Key eventThe Warsaw Uprising beginsAt 5 p.m. on 1 August 1944 Home Army units attacked the Germans in Warsaw to liberate the capital before the Red Army entered it.
  • The capture of KaunasOn 1 August 1944 the 5th Army of the 3rd Belorussian Front took Kaunas, Lithuania's former capital, weeks after the Germans liquidated its ghetto camp.
  • The end of the fighting on TinianOn 1 August 1944 the Americans declared Tinian taken. Almost the entire garrison was killed, and the island became one of the largest B-29 bases.
• 03

  • The capture of MyitkyinaOn 3 August 1944, after a 78-day siege, Stilwell's Chinese divisions and Americans took Myitkyina, the most important Japanese-held town in northern Burma.
• 04

  • The liberation of FlorenceOn 4 August 1944 New Zealanders and South Africans entered southern Florence. Overnight the Germans blew the Arno bridges; only the Ponte Vecchio survived.
  • The liberation of RennesOn 4 August 1944 the US 8th Infantry Division entered Rennes, abandoned by the Germans overnight, as Patton's Third Army spread across Brittany.
• 05

  • Key eventThe Wola massacreOn 5 August 1944 Reinefarth's police and SS began murdering the people of Warsaw's Wola. In three days 10,000 to several tens of thousands of civilians died.
  • The Cowra breakoutOn 5 August 1944 some 1,100 Japanese prisoners rushed the wire of the camp at Cowra in Australia. 231 Japanese and four Australians were killed.
• 06

  • Black Sunday in KrakówOn 6 August 1944 the Germans carried out the largest round-up of the occupation in Kraków. Some 6,000–8,000 men were held as hostages in Płaszów camp.
  • The Baligród massacreOn 6 August 1944 the UPA unit of “Burlaka” raided Baligród in the Bieszczady and murdered dozens of Polish men. The victims' memorial lists 42 names.
• 07

  • The trial of the 20 July plottersOn 7 August 1944 the first 20 July conspirators stood before Roland Freisler's People's Court. All eight were hanged at Plötzensee on 8 August.
• 09

  • The dispute over the road to JapanIn summer 1944 the Americans argued over whether to strike Luzon or Formosa. Roosevelt favoured MacArthur, but the Joint Chiefs decided on 3 October.
• 10

  • The end of the fighting on GuamOn 10 August 1944 the Americans declared organised resistance on Guam at an end. The next day General Obata died in the Mataguac caves.
  • The raid on PalembangOn the night of 10–11 August 1944 B-29s from Ceylon attacked the Pladjoe refinery at Palembang and mined the Musi River. The refinery suffered little damage.
• 14

  • Key eventThe Falaise pocketOn 14 August 1944 Canadians and Poles advanced on Falaise in Operation Tractable. The pocket was closed on 19–21 August at Chambois and on the Mace.
  • The Fort Lawton riotOn the night of 14–15 August 1944 Black soldiers attacked Italian prisoners at Fort Lawton in Seattle. In the morning Guglielmo Olivotto was found hanged.
• 15

  • Key eventOperation DragoonOn 15 August 1944 the US VI Corps landed in Provence between Cavalaire and Saint-Raphaël. Resistance was weak, and losses on the first day were light.
  • The Allies before the Gothic LineIn mid-August 1944 the Allies stood on the Arno and Metauro, before the Gothic Line's outworks. Eighth Army was secretly regrouping on the Adriatic to attack.
• 17

  • The Red Army at the border of East PrussiaOn 17 August 1944 divisions of the Soviet 5th Army reached the Šešupė on the East Prussian border, standing on the Reich's frontier for the first time.
• 18

  • The Courcelles massacreOn 18 August 1944 Rexists killed 19 hostages at Courcelles in revenge for the killing of Charleroi's mayor Oswald Englebin. In two days 27 civilians died.
• 19

  • The Paris uprisingOn 19 August 1944 police officers seized the Prefecture on the Île de la Cité and Colonel Rol-Tanguy's FFI took on General von Choltitz's garrison in Paris.
  • Uluots's appealOn 19 August 1944, as the Red Army advanced on Tartu, Jüri Uluots called on Estonians by radio to fight. That day volunteers from Finland returned to Paldiski.
• 20

  • Key eventThe Jassy–Kishinev offensive beginsOn 20 August 1944 the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts struck at Iași and Bender. Within days they encircled the German Sixth Army and Romania left the Axis.
  • Allied airmen at BuchenwaldOn 20 August 1944, 168 downed Allied airmen were brought to Buchenwald, branded “terrorists” by the Germans rather than treated as prisoners of war.
• 21

  • The Dumbarton Oaks ConferenceOn 21 August 1944 the US, Britain and the USSR, later joined by China, began Washington talks on a post-war organisation. They produced the outline of the UN.
• 22

  • The end of the Japanese invasion of IndiaIn August 1944 the shattered Japanese Fifteenth Army, pursued through the monsoon by Slim's Fourteenth Army, fell back from Manipur to the Chindwin in Burma.
• 23

  • Key eventThe coup in RomaniaOn 23 August 1944 King Michael I had Marshal Antonescu arrested. The new government stopped fighting the Allies; Germany lost Romanian oil and the Prut front.
• 25

  • Key eventThe liberation of ParisOn 25 August 1944 the French 2nd Armoured and US 4th Infantry Divisions entered Paris. Von Choltitz surrendered and de Gaulle spoke at the Hôtel de Ville.
• 26

  • The parade on the Champs-ÉlyséesOn 26 August 1944 de Gaulle walked down the Champs-Élysées amid crowds of Parisians. Shots rang out on the Place de la Concorde and in Notre-Dame.
• 28

  • The surrender of Toulon and MarseilleOn 28 August 1944 the last German garrisons of Toulon and Marseille surrendered. French Army B had taken both ports weeks ahead of the planned schedule.
• 29

  • Key eventThe Slovak National UprisingOn 29 August 1944, as the Wehrmacht entered Slovakia, Lt Col Ján Golian signalled a rising against the Germans and Tiso. Its centre was Banská Bystrica.
• 30

  • The Allies on the Marne and in RouenOn 28 August 1944 Patton's tanks crossed the Marne and on 30 August the Canadians entered Rouen. The Germans fled over the Seine as the Normandy battle ended.
• 31

  • The Provisional Government in ParisAt the end of August 1944 the Provisional Government of the French Republic moved from Algiers to Paris and took over the administration of liberated France.
  • The Red Army in BucharestOn 31 August 1944 troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front entered Bucharest. The city was already clear of Germans, and Romania was still awaiting an armistice.