October 1944

October 1, 1944 (Sunday)

The Battle of Tornio began between German and Finnish forces.

Operation Undergo ended in Allied victory.

After a four-day battle, the U.S. Fifth Army captured Monte Battaglia on the Gothic Line in Italy.

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 before, 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.

Died: Rudolf Schmundt, 48, German Army officer (died of wounds sustained in the 20 July bomb plot)

October 2, 1944 (Monday)

The Warsaw Uprising was put down after two months by Nazi occupation forces.

The Battle of Aachen began between American and German forces in and around Aachen, Germany.

The Battle of the Scheldt began in northern Belgium and the southwestern Netherlands.

Born: Vernor Vinge, computer scientist and author, in Waukesha, Wisconsin

October 3, 1944 (Tuesday)

Finnish forces captured Taivalkoski in northern Finland.

The Japanese submarine I-177 was shelled and sunk in the Pacific Ocean by the destroyer escort Samuel S. Miles.

The American submarine USS Seawolf went missing, probably sunk in the Molucca Sea by the U.S. destroyer escort Richard M. Rowell in a friendly fire accident.

October 4, 1944 (Wednesday)

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. Moscow requested permission for their troops to enter Bulgarian territory.

German submarines U-92, U-228 and U-437 were all sunk or rendered inoperable by an air raid on Bergen by RAF aircraft.

Born: Tony La Russa, baseball player and manager, in Tampa, Florida

Died: Al Smith, 70, American statesman, Governor of New York and 1928 Democratic presidential candidate

October 5, 1944 (Thursday)

The Battle of Memel began on the Eastern Front.

Japanese forces captured Fuzhou, the last seaport under Chinese control.

The incomplete Italian aircraft carrier Sparviero was scuttled at Genoa by Axis forces.

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.

Joseph Goebbels announced a reduction in food rations.

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.

October 6, 1944 (Friday)

The Battle of Debrecen began in Hungary.

German submarine U-168 was torpedoed and sunk in the Java Sea by the Dutch submarine Zwaardvisch.

Born: Mylon LeFevre, singer, in Gulfport, Mississippi

October 7, 1944 (Saturday)

The Dumbarton Oaks Conference concluded.

The Red Army began the Petsamo–Kirkenes Offensive against Axis forces in Finland and Norway.

Birkenau revolt: 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 Alexandria Protocol was signed between Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, leading the establishment of the Arab League on March 22, 1945.

"You Always Hurt the One You Love" by The Mills Brothers topped the Billboard singles charts.

October 8, 1944 (Sunday)

The Battle of Crucifix Hill was fought outside the German village of Haaren, resulting in American victory.

The Battle of Tehumardi was fought at night on the Estonian island of Saaremaa between retreating German troops and a Soviet Estonian rifle division. Both sides fought blindly, firing into the darkness or feeling for the enemy by touch.

The Battle of Tornio ended in German retreat.

The Battle of Turda ended in Romanian-Soviet victory.

Sir William Jowitt was appointed Britain's first Minister of National Insurance.

Died: Wendell Willkie, 52, American lawyer, corporate executive and 1940 Republican presidential candidate (heart attack)

October 9, 1944 (Monday)

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 in British failure.

During the Battle of the Scheldt, the 9th Canadian Infantry Brigade made an amphibious landing on the south bank of the Western Scheldt.

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

October 10, 1944 (Tuesday)

Porajmos: 800 Romani children were murdered at Auschwitz.

Allied commando unit Z Special Unit began Operation Rimau, an attack on Japanese shipping in Singapore Harbor.

A delegation of Austrian industrialists and officers asked Reichsstatthalter Baldur von Schirach to declare Vienna an open city.

Six Japanese midget submarines were bombed and sunk at Unten, Okinawa by Grumman F6F Hellcats from the carrier USS Bunker Hill.

Ramón Grau took office as President of Cuba.

October 11, 1944 (Wednesday)

The Soviet 2nd Ukrainian Front captured Cluj and Szeged.

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.

The U.S. Air Force bombed Okinawa.

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 Tuvan People's Republic is annexed by the Soviets.

October 12, 1944 (Thursday)

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.

Canadian Arctic explorer Henry Larsen reached Vancouver after sailing from Halifax, Nova Scotia through the Northwest Passage in just 86 days.

Died: 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 13, 1944 (Friday)

Allied forces liberated Athens from German occupation.

The Germans launched V-1 and V-2 flying bombs at Antwerp in an attempt to deny use of its crucial port to the Allies.

The Battle of Rovaniemi in Finland ended in German retreat.

October 14, 1944 (Saturday)

German forces withdrew from Niš.

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 for his knowledge of the July Bomb Plot)

October 15, 1944 (Sunday)

The ceasefire between Hungary and the Soviet Union was publicized. Regent of Hungary Miklós Horthy made a radio broadcast announcing that he had made a separate peace with the Soviet Union withdrawing Hungary from the war.

During the Riga Offensive, the Soviet 3rd Baltic Front captured Riga itself.

Anti-Nazi partisan fighters launched the Kosovo Operation to expel German forces from Kosovo.

The German cruiser Leipzig collided with the cruiser Prinz Eugen during a heavy fog in the Baltic Sea and was declared a constructive total loss.

German submarine U-777 was sunk off Wilhelmshaven during a British air raid.

Born: Haim Saban, media proprieter and producer, in Alexandria, Kingdom of Egypt; David Trimble, politician, in Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland

October 16, 1944 (Monday)

Soviet forces began the Gumbinnen Operation, attempting to penetrate the borders of East Prussia.

Operation Rimau ended in failure for Z Special Unit.

Regent of Hungary Miklós Horthy was forced out of office and replaced by Ferenc Szálasi of the fascist Arrow Cross Party.

With the Gothic Line now penetrated, the U.S. Fifth Army launched a new offensive toward Bologna with the objective of taking the city before the onset of winter.

Albanian partisans liberated Vlorë.

October 17, 1944 (Tuesday)

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 to fight 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)

October 18, 1944 (Wednesday)

The exiled Greek government returned to Athens.

Germany announced the formation of the Volkssturm, a national militia.

The British Eighth Army in Italy captured Galeata.

Erwin Rommel was given a state funeral in Ulm. German military personnel and Nazi officials who attended included Friedrich Ruge, Karl Strölin, Konstantin von Neurath and Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb.

Died: Viktor Ullmann, 46, Silesia-born Austrian composer (murdered at Auschwitz concentration camp)

October 19, 1944 (Thursday)

The U.S. Seventh Army captured Bruyères.

The Fourth Moscow Conference ended.

German submarine U-957 collided with a German merchant ship at Lofoten, Norway and withdrawn from service two days later as a result of the damage sustained.

The Cuba-Florida Hurricane made landfall at Sarasota, Florida and moved north. A total of 300 people were killed in the storm.

Born: Peter Tosh, reggae musician, in Grange Hill, Jamaica

Died: Dénes Kőnig, 60, Hungarian-Jewish mathematician (suicide)

October 20, 1944 (Friday)

The Philippines Campaign began. Douglas MacArthur made a speech from a portable radio set at Leyte that began: "This is the Voice of Freedom, General MacArthur speaking. People of the Philippines: I have returned."

The Belgrade Offensive ended in Partisan/Soviet victory when the capture of Belgrade itself was completed.

The Greek government-in-exile returned to Athens.

Guatemalan President Juan Federico Ponce Vaides was overthrown by a popular uprising. The ten-year period of Guatemalan history known as the Guatemalan Revolution began.

The Cleveland East Ohio Gas explosion killed 130 people and destroyed a one-mile square area of the east side of Cleveland, Ohio.

Born: Clive Hornby, actor, in Liverpool, England (d. 2008)

October 21, 1944 (Saturday)

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 51 miles 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.

October 22, 1944 (Sunday)

The main offensive in the Battle of Memel ended in Soviet victory.

The Soviet 14th Army reached the Norwegian border.

The Battle of Angaur ended in American victory.

Canadian Private Ernest Smith earned the Victoria Cross for his actions over the night of October 21–22 on the Savio in Italy. Smith disabled a German tank and then killed four panzergrenadiers and damaged another tank while protecting a wounded comrade.

Died: Richard Bennett, 74, American actor

October 23, 1944 (Monday)

The Battle of Leyte Gulf began between U.S./Australian and Japanese forces at Leyte Gulf in the Philippines, possibly the largest naval battle in history. The Japanese cruisers Atogo and Maya were sunk off Palawan by the American submarines Darter and Dace, respectively.

German submarine U-985 struck a mine at Lista, Norway and was withdrawn from service.

The Allies recognized the Provisional Government of the French Republic as the legitimate government of France.

Died: Charles Glover Barkla, 67, British physicist and Nobel laureate

October 24, 1944 (Tuesday)

The Riga Offensive ended in Soviet victory.

The Daksa executions took place on October 24/25 when Yugoslav Partisans killed 53 men accused of collaborationism.

In the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the American aircraft carrier USS Princeton was crippled by a kamikaze aircraft attack and was scuttled. Japanese destroyer Wakaba was bombed and sunk by American aircraft from USS Franklin.

The Japanese battleship Musashi was bombed and sunk in the Sibuyan Sea by U.S. aircraft.

The American submarine Shark was depth charged and sunk in the Luzon Strait by Japanese warships.

The American submarine Darter ran aground in the Palawan Strait and was scuttled to prevent capture by the Japanese.

The Japanese hell ship Arisan Maru was torpedoed and sunk in the South China Sea by an American submarine. Only nine of the 1,781 Allied and civilian prisoners of war survived.

Martial law was lifted in Hawaii and habeas corpus restored.

Born: Ted Templeman, record producer, in Santa Cruz, California

Died: Shōji Nishimura, 54, Japanese admiral (killed in action in the Surigao Strait)

October 25, 1944 (Wednesday)

The most intense fighting of the Battle of Leyte Gulf was waged, including the Battle off Samar in the centermost action. The Japanese lost the aircraft carriers Chitose, Chiyoda and Zuikaku, battleships Fusō and Yamashiro, cruisers Chikuma, Chōkai and Suzuya and the destroyers Akizuki, Asagumo, Michishio, Wakaba and Yamagumo. The Americans lost the escort carriers Gambier Bay and St. Lo and destroyers Hoel and Johnston. The St. Lo was the first of 47 ships to be sunk by kamikaze attacks during the war.

The 14th Army of the Soviet Karelian Front captured the Norwegian town of Kirkenes.

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

October 26, 1944 (Thursday)

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

October 27, 1944 (Friday)

The Gumbinnen Operation ended in Soviet failure due to strong resistance by the Wehrmacht.

The Japanese destroyers Fujinami and Shiranui were sunk north of Oloilo, Panay by U.S. aircraft.

German submarine U-1060 was damaged in the North Sea by British aircraft and was grounded and wrecked near Brønnøysund.

Died: Walter Reed Weaver, 59, American major general

October 28, 1944 (Saturday)

Bulgaria signed an armistice with the Allies.

The Battle of the Dukla Pass ended indecisively.

The Slovak National Uprising was put down by Axis forces.

Charles de Gaulle ordered the French Resistance to disarm.

The American destroyer escort USS Eversole was torpedoed and sunk in the Leyte Gulf by Japanese submarine I-45.

A V-1 flying bomb killed 71 people in Antwerp.

Born: Dennis Franz, actor, in Maywood, Illinois

October 29, 1944 (Sunday)

Soviet and Romanian forces began the Budapest Offensive.

The Petsamo–Kirkenes Offensive ended in Soviet victory.

The Battle of Debrecen ended inconclusively.

RAF Bomber Command carried out Operation Obviate aimed at sinking the German battleship Tirpitz at Tromsø. The attack was foiled by cloud cover and the bombs caused only minor damage.

The Finnish People's Democratic League was founded.

October 30, 1944 (Monday)

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.

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)

October 31, 1944 (Tuesday)

25 British Mosquito planes carried out the successful Aarhus Air Raid targeting the Gestapo headquarters at Aarhus University in Denmark.

The last German forces evacuated Salonika ahead of the arrival of a force of the British Special Boat Service. German vessels in the port were also scuttled, removing the last Kriegsmarine presence in the Aegean Sea.

French serial killer Marcel Petiot was apprehended at a Paris Métro station when he was recognized despite having grown a beard.

Died: Henrietta Crosman, 83, American stage and film actress; Russell Foskett, 27, Australian aviator and flying ace (plane crash in the Aegean Sea)