By Josh

In 1944, Allied forces were beginning to win battles against the Axis powers. Instead of admitting defeat, Adolf Hitler committed suicide. The D-Day invasion was successful, ending Germany's participation in the war. The Battle of the Bulge was the final battle that occurred because of the D-Day invasion. The G.I. Bill Of Rights was passed which funded college educations for World War II veterans.

• Allied Troops Land At Anzio 25 miles from Rome on Anzio beach January 22 after the start of a new assault on the Gustav Line. The Germans had just withdrawn their patrols in the Anzio area to reinforce the Gustav Line. However, General J. P. Lucas commanding the U.S. VI Corps stayed behind. However, he missed his chance to advance on Rome.
• A U.S. task force commanded by Admiral Daniel V. Gallery, captured the German submarine U-505 on June 4 off French West Africa in the first capture at sea of any foreign warship since 1815. In doing so, he obtained valuable military secrets that included a German radio code and a new type of torpedo. This is kept secret so that the Germans will believe that the submarine has sunk.
• On D-Day, June 6, 176,000 Allied troops carried by 4000 Allied ships landed at Omaha Beach, Utah Beach, and other Normandy beaches. General Eisenhower was the supreme commander of these troops.
• The G.I. Bill Of Rights, passed by Congress on June 22, 1944. It helped to fund college educations for the U.S. war veterans.
• While America’s Pacific combat forces planned to retake Guam in mid-1944, the Japanese fortified Guam’s beaches with coastal guns. Allies Retake Guam in August 1944, most of these guns were dismantled.
• Allies take Pelelieu in the Palaus in October and begin carrier-based raids on Formosa (Taiwan), where 300 Japanese planes are destroyed October 12.Also, The Japanese Navy is destroyed here.
• German buzz bombs take a damage Britain's forces despite efforts by allied bombers to eliminate launching sites and destroy the German factories that are producing the bombs. Designed by German rocket expert Werner von Braun, the liquid-fueled missiles are called V-2 bombs. More than 1,000 of these bombs landed in Britain, which killed more than 2,700 people, incapacitating and injuring another 6,500.
• Near the end of World War II, the Germans developed the First Jet Plane. The engine on the aircraft was able to propel aircraft to about 500 miles per hour (800 kph). They called this plane the Messerschmitt Me-262.
• At the age of 33, the Dutch physician, Willem J. Kolff makes the first kidney machine. This machine was made to filter harmful wastes out of blood of people with kidney disease. He used the machine to save the lives of some Dutch partisans in Holland, which was occupied by Germany.
• At Harvard University, the first automatic, general-purpose digital computer is finished. Howard Hathaway Aiken unveiled his computer, the Harvard Mark I, which was an electro-mechanical computer.
• "Nuts," responds General Anthony McAuliffe on December 22 when the German army that demands that he surrender his 101st Airborne Division at Bastogne, which he has held against overwhelming odds. He was relieved December 26 by units of Gen. Patton’s Third Army headed by Col. Wendell Blanchard, 41, whose tanks have come 150 miles in 19 hours.
• About 80,000 Germans were trapped at Sevastopol on December 22 and surrender in The Battle Of The Bulge. However the Russians refuse to take prisoners. Soviet troops capture 300,000 to 500,000 Crimean Tatars who welcomed the Germans and send them into exile in Central Asia as they clear the Ukraine of German invaders.
• Elizabeth Taylor stars in National Velvet.

17^th Academy Awards
Best Picture: Going My Way
Best Actress: Ingrid Bergman for Gaslight
Best Actor: Bing Crosby for Going My Way

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1940s

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last updated 12/04/05