NAVY HISTORY - The Pacific War

1944


HMCS Courtenay was a Bangor-class minesweeper constructed for the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War. Entering service in 1942, Courtenay spent the entire war on the West Coast of Canada. The vessel was decommissioned in 1945 and sold for mercantile service in 1946. The fate of the vessel is uncertain.

The minesweeper was ordered as part of the 1940–41 construction programme. The ship's keel was laid down on 28 January 1941 by Prince Rupert Dry Dock & Shipyards Co. in Prince Rupert, British Columbia. Courtenay was launched on 2 August 1941 and commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy on 21 March 1942 at Prince Rupert.[3] Courtenay spent the entirety of the Second World War on the West Coast of Canada. Courtenay was among the eight minesweepers added to the force protecting the West Coast during the first five months of 1942 following the need to establish a larger force following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.[5] Assigned to the patrol units Esquimalt Force (operating out of Esquimalt, British Columbia) or Prince Rupert Force, the main duty of Bangor-class minesweepers after commissioning on the West Coast would be to perform the Western Patrol. Patrolling the west coast of Vancouver Island, inspecting inlets and sounds and past the Scott Islands to Gordon Channel at the entrance to the Queen Charlotte Strait.[3][6] Following the end of the war, Courtenay was paid off at Esquimalt on 5 November 1945.[3] The minesweeper was sold to the Union Steamship Company for mercantile conversion on 3 April 1946.[3][7] However, the conversion never took place and the fate of the vessel remains unknown with Macpherson and Barrie tracking a purchase offer by a San Francisco firm in 1951 and the Miramar Ship Index claiming that the ship was broken up in 1946.

There has been only 1 vessel named Courtenay in the Royal Canadian Navy.

1944 January 3 Major Gregory Pappy Boyington, the USMC fighter ace, was shot down after downing the last 3 of his 26 victories, and would spend the next 20 months in Japanese POW Camps.
1944 January 4 The 1st Ukrainian Front of the Red Army enters Poland.
1944 January 9 British forces take Maungdaw, Burma, a critical port for Allied supplies.
1944 January 11 Count Ciano, the Italian Foreign Minister and Mussolini's son-in-law, is executed by Mussolini's revived Fascist government sympathizers.
1944 January 12 The SS United Victory, the first Victory ship, is launched; this class of transport will prove to be crucial in hauling men and supplies across the oceans.[1]
1944 January 16 16: Commanding General, U.S. Forces, European Theater of Operations.
1944 January 17 The first Battle of Monte Cassino begins when the British X Corps attacks along the Garigliano river at the western end of the German Gustav Line.[2][3][4]
1944 January 19 Red Army troops push westward toward the Baltic countries.
1944 January 19 British Operation Outward accidentally claims lives in Sweden by knocking out lighting and causing a train crash.
1944 January 20 The Royal Air Force drops 2,300 tons of bombs on Berlin.
1944 January 20 The U.S. Army 36th Infantry Division, in Italy, attempts to cross the Gari River but suffers heavy losses.
1944 January 22 Allies begin Operation Shingle, the landing at Anzio, Italy, commanded by American Major General John P. Lucas.[2][3][5] The Allies hope to break the stalemate in south Italy, but they are unable to break out of the beachhead and the line holds until late May. The minesweeper USS Portent (AM-106), commanded by Lt. H.C. Plummer, hit a mine and sank southeast of Anzio, Italy.
1944 January 23 The British destroyer HMS Janus is sunk off Anzio.[2]
1944 January 24 The Allied forces have a major setback on the Gari River.
1944 January 24 In German-occupied Belgium, the Social Pact, detailing plans for post-war social reform, is secretly signed.
1944 January 27 The Siege of Leningrad ended after 872 days, as Soviet forces finally forced the Germans to withdraw. Some 2 million died, mostly of starvation and disease.
1944 January 28 The Russian Army completes encirclement of two German Army corps at the Korsun pocket, south of Kiev. Two-thirds of the Germans escape in the breakout next month with the loss of most heavy equipment.
1944 January 30 The Japanese kill 44 suspected spies in the Homfreyganj massacre.
1944 January 30  At Anzio, Italy the disastrous Battle of Cisterna took place, as MG John P. Lucas sent Darby's Rangers to begin the breakout from the beachhead. One of the four battalions in the action returned with only 6 of 767 men, the rest killed, wounded or captured.
1944 January 30 The Brazzaville Conference begins in French Equatorial Africa. During the conference (which lasts until 8 February), the French Committee of National Liberation (CFLN) agrees to major reforms to the French colonial empire.
1944 January 30 U.S. Navy shelling and carrier bombing began in the Marshall Islands, preliminary to invasions the following day.
1944 January 31 Operation Flintlock began, as American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands. United States troops also invade Majuro, Marshall Islands.
1944 February 1 U.S. Marines mop up on Roi and Namur in the northern part of the Kwajalein atoll in the Marshall Islands.
1944 February 2 The Narva front near the east border of Estonia is formed between the Soviet and German forces.
1944 February 2 Germans defeat American troops in the Battle of Cisterna near Anzio.[2]
1944 February 3  American planes bomb Eniwetok in the Marshalls, later to be a major B-29 base.
1944 February 4 Kwajalein, the world's largest atoll and a major Japanese naval base, is secured.
1944 February 5  The American Navy bombards the Kuril Islands, northernmost in the Japanese homelands.
1944 February 6 The Japanese pressure in Arakan forces the British to retreat.
1944 February 7  In a radio interview, the last Estonian Prime Minister Jüri Uluots, as acting Head of State, supports mobilisation.
1944 February 8 The plan for the invasion of France, Operation Overlord, is confirmed.
1944 February 10 Winston Churchill urges Harold Alexander to order the Anzio generals to show more aggression.[2]
1944 February 11  German forces sent to relieve the Korsun pocket in Ukraine are now only 10 miles away.[2]
1944 February 14 The Russian 374th Rifle Regiment forms a bridgehead on the western shore of Lake Peipus. The Mereküla Landing Operation of the special unit of the Soviet Baltic Sea Fleet in the rear of the Germans at the Narva front at Mereküla is resisted.
1944 February 14 The underground organisation, the National Committee of the Republic of Estonia, is formed in Tallinn.
1944 February 14 Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) headquarters are established in Britain by U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower
1944 February 14 An anti-Japanese revolt on Java occurs.
1944 February 15 The second Battle of Monte Cassino begins with the destruction of the historic Benedictine monastery on Monte Cassino by Allied bombing. The Allies believed the grounds were used as an observation post by the Germans.[2][3][6]
1944 February 15 The Soviet bridgehead on the west coast of Lake Peipus is annihilated.
1944 February 15 Soviet Leningrad Front initiates the Narva Offensive, February 15–28.[7]
1944 February 16 Germans launch a major counter-attack at Anzio, threatening the American beachhead.[2]
1944 February 16 Germans, with Panzer forces leading, fail to break out of the Korsun pocket.
1944 February 16 Diplomats from the USSR and Finland meet to sign an armistice.
1944 February 17 American Marines land on Eniwetok.
1944 February 18 The light cruiser HMS Penelope is torpedoed and sunk off the coast of Anzio with a loss of 415 crew.[3]
1944 February 18 American naval air raid takes place on the Truk islands, a major Japanese naval base, but they will be one of the bypassed fortresses of the Japanese outer defence ring.
1944 February 19 Leipzig, Germany is bombed for two straight nights. This marks the beginning of a "Big Week" bombing campaign against German industrial cities by Allied bombers.
1944 February 20 A colonial military garrison in Luluabourg in the Belgian Congo mutinies, killing three.
1944 February 22 John P. Lucas is replaced as commander of the U.S. VI Corps by Major General Lucian Truscott at Anzio.[2]
1944 February 23 US Navy planes attack the Mariana Islands of Saipan, Guam and Tinian.
1944 February 26 The "Big Week" bombing campaign comes to a successful conclusion; the American P-51 Mustang fighter with its long range proves invaluable in protecting American bombers over Germany.
1944 February 26 Red Air Force continues to bomb Helsinki, as Finland continues peace talks.
1944 February 27  USS Cod sinks a Japanese merchant ship by torpedo.[2]
1944 February 28 Belgian industrialist Alexandre Galopin is assassinated in occupied Belgium by Flemish paramilitaries.
1944 February 29 The Admiralty Islands are invaded by U.S. forces, marked by the Battle of Los Negros and Operation Brewer. The struggle for this important fleet anchorage will continue until May. Rabaul is now completely isolated.
1944 March 1  The keels of USS Tarawa and USS Kearsarge are laid down.
1944 March 1 Anti-fascist strikes occur in northern Italy.
1944 March 1 Leningrad Front initiate the Narva Offensive, March 1–4.
1944 March 1 The Allies bomb the Vatican for the 2nd time
1944 March 3 German forces around Anzio, having failed to drive the Allies from the beachhead, go over to a defensive posture.[2][8]
1944 March 6 Wingate's Chindits make several successful forays in Burma.
1944 March 6 The Soviet Air Force bombs Narva, the city is destroyed. The Leningrad Front initiates the Narva Offensive, March 6–24.[7]
1944 March 6 The Allies receive intelligence that the Japanese may be about to attack Western Australia, causing them to greatly bolster defenses there. When no attack comes, forces return to their regular stations on the 20th.
1944 March 7 Japanese begin an invasion attempt on India, starting a four-month battle around Imphal.
1944 March 8 American forces are attacked by Japanese troops on Hill 700 in the Bougainville; the battle that will last five days.
1944 March 8 A Red Army offensive on a wide front west of the Dnieper in the Ukraine forces the Germans into a major retreat.
1944 March 9 The Soviet Long Range Aviation carries out an air raid on Tallinn, Estonia. The military objects are almost untouched. Approx. 800 civilians die and 20,000 people are left without a shelter.[9]
1944 March 10 The creation of the Political Committee of National Liberation in Greece.
1944 March 13 On Bougainville, Japanese troops end their failed assault on American forces at Hill 700.
1944 March 15 The third Battle of Monte Cassino begins. The small town of Cassino is destroyed by Allied bombers.[2][3][10]
1944 March 15 Americans take Manus Island in the Admiralty chain.
1944 March 15 The National Council of the French Resistance approves the Resistance programme.
1944 March 16 United States XI Corps arrives in Pacific Theater.
1944 March 17 Heavy bombing of Vienna, Austria.
1944 March 18 The Red Army approaches the Romanian border.
1944 March 19 German forces occupy Hungary in Operation Margarethe.[2][3]
1944 March 19 Yugoslav partisans attack Trieste, on the border of Italy and Slovenia.
1944 March 20 Red Army advances in the Ukraine continue with great success.
1944 March 21 Finland rejects Soviet peace terms.
1944 March 22 Japanese forces cross the Indian border all along the Imphal front.
1944 March 22 Frankfurt is bombed with heavy civilian losses.
1944 March 24 The Fosse Ardeatine massacre in Rome, Italy. 335 Italians are killed, including 75 Jews and over 200 members of various groups in the Italian Resistance; this is a German response to a bomb blast that killed German troops.
1944 March 24 Orde Wingate is killed in a plane crash.
1944 March 24 Heavy bombings of German cities at various strategic locations last for 24 hours.
1944 March 25 Soviet air force bombs the city of Tartu, Estonia.[11]
1944 March 26 On Narva front, Strachwitz Offensive destroys part of the Soviet bridgehead.[12]
1944 March 28 28: Japanese troops are in retreat in Burma.
1944 March 30 RAF suffers grievous losses in a huge air raid on Nuremberg.
1944 April 3 Allied bombers hit Budapest in Hungary, now occupied by the Germans, and Bucharest in Romania, ahead of the advancing Red Army.
1944 April 4 General Charles de Gaulle takes command of all Free French forces.
1944 April 5  US Air Force bombs Ploesti oil fields in Romania, with heavy losses.
1944 April 6 The Japanese drive on the Plain of Imphal, supposedly halted, proves strong enough to surround British forces at Imphal and Kohima, in India.
1944 April 8 The Red Army attacks in an attempt to retake all of the Crimea, the Germans retreat westward to Sevastopol.
1944 April 10 Soviet forces enter Odessa, Ukraine.[2][3]
1944 April 11 Soviet forces take Kerch, beginning the reconquest of Crimea.[2][3]
1944 April 15 Heavy air raids on Ploesti oil fields (Romania) by both the RAF and the US Air Force.
1944 April 16 Soviet forces take Yalta; most of Crimea has been liberated.[2][3]
1944 April 17 Japanese launch Operation Ichi-Go with over 600,000 men in central China. The objective is to conquer areas where American bombers are located.[3] The first phase is the Battle of Central Henan.
1944 April 21 The Badoglio government in Italy falls and he is quickly asked to form another.
1944 April 21 An Allied air raid on Paris kills a large number of civilians.
1944 April 22  Operations Reckless and Persecution: US troops land at Hollandia and Aitape in northern New Guinea to cut off Japanese forces in Wewak.[2][3]
1944 April 24 British troops force open the road from Imphal to Kohima in India.
1944 April 25  LTG George Patton suffered yet another controversy setback, when giving a speech at the welcome Center in Knutsford, England. He opined that "the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union" were destined to rule the post-war world. A reporter's story the next day left out Soviet Union, and the Kremlin was offended; Patton was reprimanded by Eisenhower.
1944 April 27 The Slapton Sands tragedy: hundreds of American soldiers and sailors are killed over two days in a training exercise in preparation for D-Day at Slapton in Devon.
1944 April 30 Vast preparations for D-Day are going on all over southern England.
1944 April 30  American navy air raids continue in the Caroline Islands, including Truk.
1944 May 6 Heavy Allied bombings of the Continent in preparation for D-Day.
1944 May 8 D-Day for Operation Overlord set for 5 June.
1944 May 9 Sevastopol in the Crimea is retaken by Soviet forces.[2]
1944 May 11 The fourth battle of Monte Cassino begins led by general Anders of the 2nd Polish Corps.[2][3][13]
1944 May 12 Large numbers of Chinese troops invade northern Burma.
1944 May 13 The entirety of Crimea is under Soviet control. Many thousands of German and Romanian soldiers have been captured, but many thousands have been evacuated.[2][3][14]
1944 May 13 The bridgehead over the Gari River is reinforced.
1944 May 15 More than 130 Allied political leaders and military officers, including King George VI, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, GEN Dwight D. Eisenhower, LTG George S. Patton, GEN Bernard L. Montgomery, and LTG John C. H. Lee met for the final joint briefing for D-Day at St. Paul’s School in Hammersmith, west of London, England.
1944 May 18 The Battle of Monte Cassino ends in Allied victory. Polish troops of the 2nd Polish Corps led by general Władysław Anders capture Monte Cassino. German troops in west Italy have withdrawn to the Hitler Line.[2][3]
1944 May 18 Allied troops take airfields at Myitkyina, Burma, an important air base; the struggle over the city itself will continue for nearly three months.
1944 May 18 The last Japanese resistance in the Admiralty Islands, off New Guinea comes to an end.
1944 May 21  Increased Allied bombing of targets in France in preparation for D-Day.
1944 May 23 Allies start a new breakout from Anzio.[2][3]
1944 May 25 Allies at Anzio link up with Allies from south Italy. Though Harold Alexander wishes to trap the German Tenth Army, American Fifth Army commander Mark W. Clark orders Truscott to turn north toward Rome. The Germans in Italy form a new defensive position on the Caesar C line.
1944 May 27 Operation Horlicks starts, as Americans land on Biak, Dutch New Guinea, a key Japanese air base; stubborn Japanese resistance until August.
1944 May 31 The Japanese retreat from Imphal (India) with heavy losses; their invasion of India is over.
1944 June 2 The provisional French government is established.
1944 June 2 The U.S. begins Operation Frantic with a bombing of Debrecen, Hungary.[2][3]
1944 June 3  There are daily bombings of the Cherbourg peninsula and the Normandy area.
1944 June 4 Allies enter Rome, one day after the Germans declared it an open city. German troops fall back to the Trasimene Line.[2][3]
1944 June 4 Operation Overlord is postponed 24 hours due to high seas. German U-505 was captured by US forces, and towed to Bermuda.
1944 June 5 Operation Overlord commences when more than 1,000 British bombers drop 5,000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries on the Normandy coast in preparation for D-Day. And the first Allied troops land in Normandy; paratroopers are scattered from Caen southward.
1944 June 5 In the Pacific, the U.S. fleet transporting the expeditionary forces for the invasion of Saipan in the Mariana Islands leaves Pearl Harbor.
1944 June 6 D-Day begins with the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy in France. The Allied soldiers quickly break through the Atlantic Wall and push inland in the largest amphibious military operation in history.
1944 June 7 Bayeux is liberated by British troops.
1944 June 9 No agreement having been reached on their mutual borders, Soviet forces launch an offensive against Finland with the intent of defeating Finland before pushing for Berlin.
1944 June 10 At Oradour-sur-Glane (a town near Limoges), France, 642 men, women, and children are killed in a German response to local Resistance activities.
1944 June 10  In the Distomo massacre in Greece, 218 civilians are killed.
1944 June 12 American aircraft carriers commence air strikes on the Marianas, including Saipan, preparing for invasion.
1944 June 13  Germany launches a V1 Flying Bomb attack on England, in Hitler's view a kind of revenge for the invasion. He believes in Germany's victory with this "secret weapon." The V-1 attacks will continue through October, when the last launch site is taken by Allied forces.
1944 June 13 The U.S. Naval bombardment of Saipan begins. In response, Admiral Toyoda Soemu, commander-in-chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy, orders his fleet to attack U.S. Navy forces around Saipan.
1944 June 15  U.S. Marine and Army forces invade the island of Saipan. U.S. submarines sight the Japanese fleet en route.
1944 June 17 Free French troops land on Elba.
1944 June 18 Elba is declared liberated.
1944 June 18 Allies capture Assisi, Italy.
1944 June 19 The Battle of the Philippine Sea, nicknamed the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot by Americans, takes place. The United States Fifth Fleet wins a decisive naval battle over the Imperial Japanese Navy near the Mariana Islands. Over 200 Japanese planes are shot down while the Americans only lose 29 to enemy action.[2][3][16][17]
1944 June 19 A severe Channel storm destroys one of the Allies' Mulberry harbours in Normandy.
1944 June 19 The Red Army prepares for "Operation Bagration," a huge offensive in Byelorussia (White Russia).
1944 June 20  The British take Perugia, Italy.
1944 June 20 The Siege of Imphal is lifted after three months.
1944 June 21 Allied offensive in Burma.
1944 June 22 V-1s continue to hit England, especially London, sometimes with horrifying losses.
1944 June 22 Operation Bagration: General attack by Soviet forces to clear the German forces from Belarus This results in the destruction of the German Army Group Centre, possibly the greatest defeat of the Wehrmacht during World War II.
1944 June 22  In the Burma Campaign, the Battle of Kohima ends with a British victory.
1944 June 23 The National Committee of the Republic of Estonia makes a declaration "to the Estonian People." The declaration was made public to the world press in Stockholm in July 1944 and in Tallinn on 1 August 1944.
1944 June 25  The Battle of Tali-Ihantala between Finnish and Soviet troops begins. Largest battle ever to be fought in the Nordic countries.
1944 June 26  Cherbourg is liberated by American troops.
1944 June 27 San Marino is bombed by the Allies, under the belief that Axis forces had been stationed there
1944 July 1 The Leningrad diarist Tanya Savicheva dies of starvation at the age of 14. Her diary of her family's death during the siege becomes famous.
1944 July 2 V-1s continue to have devastating effects in South-East England in terms of material destruction and losses of life.
1944 July 3 Minsk in Belarus is liberated by Soviet forces.
1944 July 3 The Allies find themselves in the "battle of the hedgerows", as they are stymied by the agricultural hedges in Western France which intelligence had not properly evaluated. Various impromptu devices and inventions, often made out of cut-up German "hedgehog" shore defense devices and mounted to Allied tanks, are designed and made to successfully deal with the matter.
1944 July 3 Siena, Italy falls to Algerian troops of the French forces.
1944 July 6 Largest Banzai charge of the war: 4,300 Japanese troops are slaughtered on Saipan.
1944 July 7  Soviet troops enter Vilnius, Lithuania.
1944 July 9 After heavy resistance Caen, France is liberated by the British troops on the left flank of the Allied advance.
1944 July 9 Saipan is declared secure, the Japanese having lost over 30,000 troops; in the last stages numerous civilians commit suicide with the encouragement of Japanese military.
1944 July 10 Japanese are still resisting on New Guinea.
1944 July 10 Tokyo is bombed for the first time since the Doolittle raid of April 1942.
1944 July 11 President Roosevelt announces that he will run for an unprecedented fourth term as U.S. President.
1944 July 12 Hitler rejects General Field Marshal Walther Model’s proposal to withdraw the German forces from Estonia and Northern Latvia and retreat to the Daugava River.
1944 July 13 The Soviets take Vilnius, Lithuania.
1944 July 13 The Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive begins.
1944 July 16 First troops of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force (FEB) arrive in Italy.
1944 July 17 Field Marshal Rommel is badly wounded when his car is strafed from the air in France.
1944 July 18 General Hideki Tojo resigns as chief minister of the Japanese government as the defeats of the Japanese military forces continue to mount. Emperor Hirohito asks General Kuniaki Koiso to form a new government.
1944 July 18 St. Lo, France is taken, and the Allied breakout from hedgerow country in Normandy begins.
1944 July 19 American forces take Leghorn (Livorno), Italy far up the Italian boot.
1944 July 20 The July 20 Plot is carried out by Col. Claus von Stauffenberg in a failed attempt to assassinate Hitler. Hitler was visiting headquarters at Rastenburg, East Prussia. Reprisals follow against the plotters and their families, and even include Rommel.
1944 July 21 US Marines land on Guam.
1944 July 22 Hitler gives permission to retreat from the Narva River to the Tannenberg defence line in the Sinimäed hills 20 km West from Narva.
1944 July 23 The Poles rise up against the Germans in the Lwow Uprising.
1944 July 24 Marines land on Tinian Island, last of the Marianas (after Saipan and Guam); Tinian will eventually be a B-29 base, and the base from which the atomic bombers departed.
1944 July 24 Operation Cobra is now in full swing: the breakout at St. Lo in Normandy with American troops taking Coutances.
1944 July 24 At the start of the Soviet Narva Offensive, July 24–30, the Soviet 8th Army is beaten by the Estonian 45th Regiment and East Prussian 44th Regiment. The army detachment "Narwa" begins to retreat to the Tannenberg line.[11]
1944 July 24 Majdanek Concentration Camp is liberated by Soviet forces, the first among many. The Soviet Union is now in control of several large cities in Poland, including Lublin.
1944 July 24 US bombers mistakenly bomb American troops near St. Lo, France.
1944 July 26 The first aerial victory for a jet fighter occurs, with an Me 262 of the Luftwaffe's Ekdo 262 damaging a de Havilland Mosquito reconnaissance aircraft of the Royal Air Force's No. 540 Squadron RAF.
1944 July 26 The Leningrad Front's Narva Offensive captures the town.[11]
1944 July 27 27 July to 10 August: Battles on the Tannenberg Line. At the start of the battles there are 25 Estonian and 24 Dutch, Danish and Flemish infantry battalions on the German side at the Narva Front. The artillery forces, and the tank, engineer and other special units are composed mainly of Germans. The attack by the Soviet Armed Forces is stopped, tens of thousands of men are killed in both sides.
1944 July 28 The Red Army take Brest-Litovsk, the site of the Russo-German peace treaty in World War I.
1944 July 28 The first operational use of the Me 163B Komet rocket fighter occurs by units of JG 400 in defense of the Leuna synthetic fuel facilities, the Third Reich's largest synthetic fuels complex.
1944 July 29 A decisive day in the Battle of Narva, allowing the German army detachment "Narwa", including Estonian conscript formations to delay the Soviet Baltic Offensive for another one and a half months.[11]
1944 August 1 The Warsaw Uprising, staged by the Polish Home Army, begins: the Polish people rise up, expecting aid from the approaching Soviet Union armies, but it never comes.
1944 August 1  The Red Army isolates the Baltic States from East Prussia by taking Kaunas.
1944 August 1 The Americans complete the capture of the island of Tinian.
1944 August 3 Myitkyina, in northern Burma, falls to the Allies (the Americans and Chinese under Stilwell), after a vigorous defence by the Japanese.
1944 August 4 Florence is liberated by the Allies, particularly British and South African troops. Before exiting, the Germans under General Albert Kesselring destroy some historic bridges and historically valuable buildings.
1944 August 4 Rennes, France, is liberated by American forces.
1944 August 4 Prime Minister King states it is desirable that Japanese Canadians are dispersed across Canada.
1944 August 5 Wola massacre: 40-50 thousand civilians murdered by German and collaborating Russian forces in the Wola district of Warsaw.
1944 August 5 The Cowra breakout: Japanese POWs escape from an Australian prison near Cowra, New South Wales. Two guards are killed and posthumously awarded the George Cross.
1944 August 6 Germans round up young men in Krakow to stop the potential Kraków Uprising (1944).
1944 August 6 Ukrainian insurgents kill 42 Polish civilians in the Baligród massacre.
1944 August 7 First trials of the bomb conspirators against Hitler begin in a court presided over by notorious Judge Roland Freisler.
1944 August 8 Plotters in the bomb plot against Hitler are hanged and their bodies hung on meat hooks. Reprisals against their families continue.
1944 August 9 President Roosevelt chooses General Douglas MacArthur's plan to invade the Philippines and turns down Admiral Chester W. Nimitz's plan to invade Taiwan.[2]
1944 August 10 Guam is liberated by American troops; all of the Marianas are now in American hands. They will be turned into a major air and naval centre against the Japanese homeland.
1944 August 10 USAAF bombers attack Palembang in the Dutch East Indies
1944 August 14 The failure of the Allies to close the Falaise pocket in France proves advantageous to the Germans fleeing to the east who escape the pincer movement of the Allies.
1944 August 14 A clash between Italian POWs and American servicemen ends in the Fort Lawton Riot
1944 August 15 Operation Dragoon begins, marked by amphibious Allied landings in southern France.
1944 August 15  The Allies reach the "Gothic Line", the last German strategic position in North Italy.
1944 August 18 Following the assassination of a collaborationist politician in Belgium by the resistance, 20 civilians are massacred in Courcelles by paramilitaries in retaliation.
1944 August 18 The Red Army reaches the East Prussian border.
1944 August 19 The French Resistance begins an uprising in Paris, partly inspired by the Allied approach to the Seine River.
1944 August 19 In a radio broadcast, Jüri Uluots, the acting Head of State of Estonia, calls the Estonian conscripts to hold the Soviet Armed Forces back until a peace treaty with Germany is signed.
1944 August 20 The Red Army relaunches its offensive into Romania.
1944 August 20 168 Allied airmen arrive at Buchenwald concentration camp.
1944 August 21  The Dumbarton Oaks Conference begins, setting up the basic structure of the United Nations.
1944 August 22 The Japanese are now in total retreat from India.
1944 August 22 German Chancellor Adolf Hitler issued the first of several orders to the German commander of Paris, General Dietrich von Choltitz, to destroy the city.
1944 August 23 Romania breaks with the Axis, surrenders to the Soviet Union, and joins the Allies.
1944 August 25 Paris is liberated; De Gaulle makes a triumphant speech at the Hotel de la Ville, which is also broadcast nationwide. The German military under Lt. Gen. von Choltitz disobeys Hitler's orders to burn the city and destroy all bridges over the Seine. Meanwhile the southern Allied forces move up from the Riviera, take Grenoble and Avignon.
1944 August 26 De Gaulle and the Free French parade triumphantly down the Champs-Élysées under some sniper fire.
1944 August 28 The Germans surrender at Toulon and Marseille in southern France.
1944 August 28 Patton's tanks cross the Marne.
1944 August 29 The anti-German Slovak National Uprising starts in Slovakia.
1944 August 30 The Allies enter Rouen, in northwestern France.
1944 August 31 American forces turn over the government of France to Free French troops.
1944 August 31 The Soviet army enters Bucharest.
1944 September 1 Canadian troops capture Dieppe, France.
1944 September 2 Allied troops enter Belgium.
1944 September 3 Brussels is liberated by the British Second Army.
1944 September 3 Lyon is liberated by French and American troops.
1944 September 4 A cease fire takes effect between Finland and the USSR.[2][3][18]
1944 September 4 Operation Outward ends.
1944 September 5 Antwerp is liberated by British 11th Armoured Division and local resistance.
1944 September 5 The uprising in Warsaw continues.
1944 September 5 United States III Corps arrives in European Theater.
1944 September 5 The Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourgish governments in exile sign the London Customs Convention, laying the foundations for the Benelux economic union.
1944 September 6 The "blackout" is diminished to a "dim-out" as threat of invasion and further bombing seems an unlikely possibility.
1944 September 6 Ghent and Liège are liberated by British troops.
1944 September 8 Ostend is liberated by Canadian troops.
1944 September 8 Soviet troops enter Bulgaria.[3]
1944 September 8 The Belgian government in exile returns to Belgium from London where it has spent the war.
1944 September 8 The first successful operational use of the German V-2 rocket took place: two were launched at London, and one at Paris. A woman was killed by one that fell on the Chiswick area of London.
1944 September 9 Charles de Gaulle forms the Provisional Government of the French Republic in France.
1944 September 9  The Fatherland Front of Bulgaria overthrows the national government and declares war on Germany.[2]
1944 September 10  Luxembourg is liberated by U.S. First Army.
1944 September 10 Two Allied forces meet at Dijon, cutting France in half.
1944 September 10 First Allied troops enter Germany, entering Aachen, a city on the border.
1944 September 10 Dutch railway workers go on strike. The German response results in the Dutch famine of 1944.
1944 September 11 United States XXI Corps arrives in European Theater.
1944 September 11 the Air battle over the Ore Mountains (after German attacks on the US bomber formation, accompanying US Mustangs engage the German fighters)
1944 September 12  The Second Quebec Conference (codenamed "Octagon") begins: Roosevelt and Churchill discuss military cooperation in the Pacific and the future of Germany.[19]
1944 September 13  American troops reach the Siegfried Line, the west wall of Germany's defence system.
1944 September 14  Soviet Baltic Offensive commences.
1944 September 15 American Marines land on Peleliu in the Palau Islands; a bloody battle of attrition continues for two and a half months.
1944 September 15 The Lapland War begins
1944 September 16 The Red Army enters Sofia, Bulgaria.
1944 September 17 Operation Market Garden, the attempted liberation of Arnhem and turning of the German flank begins.
1944 September 17 British and commonwealth forces enter neutral San Marino and engage German forces in a small-scale conflict which ends 20 September.
1944 September 18 Brest, France, an important Channel port, falls to the Allies.
1944 September 18 Jüri Uluots proclaims the Government of Estonia headed by Deputy Prime Minister Otto Tief.[20]
1944 September 19 The Moscow Armistice is signed between the Soviet Union and Finland, bringing the Continuation War to a close.[3]
1944 September 19 Nancy liberated by U.S. First Army.
1944 September 20 The Government of Estonia seizes the government buildings of Toompea from the German forces and appeals to the Soviet Union for the independence of Estonia.[20]
1944 September 20 United States XVI Corps arrives in European Theater.
1944 September 21 British forces take Rimini, Italy.
1944 September 21 The Second Dumbarton Oaks Conference begins: it will set guidelines for the United Nations.
1944 September 21 In Belgium, Charles of Flanders is sworn in as Prince-Regent while a decision is delayed about whether King Leopold III can ever return to his functions after being accused of collaboration.[21]
1944 September 21 San Marino declares war on the Axis.
1944 September 21 The Government of Estonia prints a few hundred copies of the Riigi Teataja (State Gazette) and is forced to flee under Soviet pressure.[22]
1944 September 22 The Red Army takes Tallinn, the first Baltic harbour outside the minefields of the Gulf of Finland.
1944 September 22 The Germans surrender at Boulogne.
1944 September 23 Americans take Ulithi atoll in the Caroline Islands; it is a massive atoll that will later become an important naval base.
1944 September 24 The Red Army is well into Poland at this time.
1944 September 25  British troops pull out of Arnhem with the failure of Operation Market Garden. Over 6,000 paratroopers are captured; of the British 1st Airbourne Division, just under 8,000 of the 10,005 paratroopers are declared casualties, a staggering 80% loss. Hopes of an early end to the war are now abandoned.
1944 September 25 United States IX Corps arrives in Pacific Theater.
1944 September 26  In Caserta, Italy the Greek government in exile concluded an agreement with various guerrilla leaders who acknowledged its authority. There are signs of civil war in Greece as the Communist-controlled National Liberation Front and the British-backed government seem irreconcilable.
1944 September 28 Brig. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt Jr., dead of a heart attack on 12 July 1944, is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his leadership and actions on D-Day at Utah Beach.
1944 September 30 The German garrison in Calais surrenders to Canadian troops. At one time, Hitler thought it would be the focus of the cross-Channel invasion.
1944 October 1 A Hungarian delegation arrives in Moscow to negotiate an armistice with the USSR.[2][3]
1944 October 1 Soviet troops enter Yugoslavia.
1944 October 2 Germans finally succeed in putting down the Warsaw Uprising by the Polish Home Army.
1944 October 2 American troops are now in a full-scale attack on the German "West Wall".
1944 October 2 Allied forces land on Crete.
1944 October 5 Canadian troops cross the border into the Netherlands.
1944 October 5 The Red Army enters Hungary and also launch an offensive to capture Riga, Latvia.
1944 October 6 Soviet and Czechoslovak troops enter northeastern Slovakia.
1944 October 6 The Battle of Debrecen begins as German and Soviet forces advance against each other in eastern Hungary.
1944 October 7 A riot took place at Auschwitz concentration camp when the Sonderkommando Jewish collaborators came to understand that they also were slated for extermination. Over 450 were killed in suppressing the revolt, along with many others who escaped the camp in the melee.
1944 October 9 The Moscow Conference (1944) begins: Churchill and Stalin discuss spheres of influence in the postwar Balkans.
1944 October 10 The Red Army reach the Niemen River in Prussia and continue the battle around Riga.
1944 October 10 The Allied combined forces take Corinth, Greece.
1944 October 12 Athens is liberated by the EAM.
1944 October 12 US Navy carriers attack Formosa (Taiwan).
1944 October 12 United States XXIII Corps Arrives in the European Theater.
1944 October 14 British troops enter Athens.
1944 October 14 Field Marshal Rommel, under suspicion as one of the "bomb plotters" voluntarily commits suicide to save his family. He is later buried with full military honors.
1944 October 15 Hungarian regent Miklós Horthy is overthrown by the Germans, who replace him with Ferenc Szálasi.[2][3]
1944 October 15 Allied bombardment of Aachen continues, the first major battle on German soil.
1944 October 16 Red Army forces are attacking German forces in East Prussia.
1944 October 18 Hitler orders a call-up of all remaining men from 16 to 60 for Home Guard duties in the Volkssturm Militia.
1944 October 20 The Battle of Leyte: U.S. forces land on Leyte, Philippines. MacArthur lands and states: "I have returned".[2][3][23]
1944 October 20 The Red Army and Yugoslav partisans under the command of Josip Broz Tito liberate Belgrade.
1944 October 21  Aachen is occupied by U.S. First Army; it is the first major German city to be captured.
1944 October 23 The Battle of Leyte Gulf: The United States Third Fleet and the United States Seventh Fleet win a decisive naval battle over the Imperial Japanese Navy in the Philippine Islands.[3]
1944 October 23 The Allies recognise General de Gaulle as the head of a provisional government of France.
1944 October 23 B-29s are now using Tinian Island, in the Marianas, as a base for the systematic bombing of Japan.
1944 October 23 Soviet forces in cooperation with Tito's Partizan forces, liberated Novi Sad in Yugoslavia.
1944 October 24 Allied assault forces of Operation Market-Garden begin leaving The Netherlands as other Allied units take their places to hold the Allied line. The relieved forces retreat to Mourmelon to rest and reoutfit in preparation for the surprise Nazi German offensive attack at the Ardennes Forest, known as "The Battle of the Bulge".
1944 October 25 Three distinct air engagements in the Battle of Leyte Gulf take place as U.S. Navy carrier-based planes destroy many Japanese ships in the waters off the Philippines.
1944 October 25 Romania is fully liberated by Red Army and Romanian troops.
1944 October 27 The Battle of Hürtgen Forest is developing. It will continue through October and November and have its last attacks in December.
1944 November 1 British forces occupy Salonika, Greece, and distribute food in Athens, which is experiencing famine.
1944 November 1 "Operation Infatuate", an Allied attempt to free the approaches to Antwerp begins; amphibious landings take place on Walcheren Island.
1944 November 2 Canadian troops take Zeebrugge in Belgium; Belgium is now entirely liberated.
1944 November 4 Remaining Axis forces withdraw from the Greek mainland. German occupation forces will remain in several Greek islands until capitulation.
1944 November 4 British Gen. John Dill dies in Washington, D.C., and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, the only foreigner to be so honored at the time.
1944 November 5 US planes bomb Singapore.
1944 November 5 The aircraft carrier USS Lexington is heavily damaged by kamikaze attacks.
1944 November 7 Franklin Delano Roosevelt wins an unprecedented, unrepeated fourth term as U.S. president.
1944 November 9 General Patton's troops and tanks cross the Moselle River and threaten Metz.
1944 November 10 V-2 rockets continue to hit Britain, at the rate of about eight a day.
1944 November 12 After numerous bombings while anchored in a fjord at Tromsø, Norway, the German battleship Tirpitz is sunk.
1944 November 17 The Germans give up Tirana, Albania which is liberated by local partisans.
1944 November 20 Hitler leaves his wartime headquarters at Rastenberg, East Prussia, never to return; he goes to Berlin, where he will soon establish himself at the bunker.
1944 November 23 Metz, France is taken, and Strasbourg, in eastern France, is liberated by French troops.
1944 November 24  The first B-29 originating from Tinian, in the Marianas, raids Tokyo.
1944 November 25  Japanese take Nanning in south China, as the war in that theatre continues.
1944 November 25 The USS Intrepid is hit by kamikazes for the third time; other American ships are heavily damaged.
1944 November 26 The war in Italy is at a stalemate, partly because of heavy rains.
1944 November 26 Heinrich Himmler orders the crematoriums and gas chambers of Auschwitz II-Birkenau dismantled and blown up.
1944 November 28 Antwerp is now a major supply port for the onward moving Allies.
1944 November 30 Kunming, China, an important air base, is threatened by Japanese attacks.
1944 November 30 United States XXII Corps arrives in European Theater.
1944 November 30 The Thiaroye Massacre begins in French West Africa
1944 December 3 The British army and the police shot unarmed protestors in Athens; the crowd carried Greek, American, British and Soviet flags, and chanted: "Viva Churchill, Viva Roosevelt, Viva Stalin’"
1944 December 3 The Dekemvriana ("December events") begin in the Greek capital, Athens, between members of the leftist National Liberation Front and government forces, backed by the British. The clashes are limited to Athens, however, and the rest of the country remains relatively tranquil.
1944 December 3 The British Home Guard is stood down.
1944 December 5 The Allies are now in control of Ravenna, Italy.
1944 December 8  The softening-up bombardment of Iwo Jima begins.
1944 December 14  Japanese defenders in Palawan in the Philippines kill over 100 American POWs in the Palawan Massacre.[2][3]
1944 December 14 Units of Air Group 80 from USS Ticonderoga flew seven strikes against Japanese positions in northern Luzon in the Philippines.[2]
1944 December 15 Americans and Filipinos land troops at Mindoro island in the Philippines.[2][3]
1944 December 15 Bandleader and US Army Major Glenn Miller went missing as his single-engine transport was crossing the English Channel; he was headed to Paris to work out arrangements to entertain troops in France.
1944 December 16 The Battle of the Bulge begins as German forces attempt a breakthrough in the Ardennes region. The main object of Hitler's plan is the retaking of Antwerp.
1944 December 17 The Malmedy massacre: SS troops execute 84 American prisoners in the Ardennes offensive. The SS troops are led by SS commander Joachim Peiper.
1944 December 17  Typhoon Cobra hits the Third Fleet of Admiral Halsey; three destroyers capsize and almost 800 lives are lost.
1944 December 18 Bastogne, an important crossroads, is surrounded.
1944 December 22 The battle for Bastogne is at its height, with soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division running low on ammunition, food and other vital supplies. Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe's famous "Nuts!" reply is sent to German commanders at Bastogne demanding surrender; the news of the message serves to bolster morale of the Allied troops.
1944 December 23 The skies clear over the Ardennes, permitting Allied aircraft to begin their attacks on the German offensive, the one factor that Hitler feared in his planning.
1944 December 24 The American counter-attack at the "Bulge" begins.
1944 December 24 The Belgian transport ship SS Leopoldville is sunk off the coast of France. More than 800 lives, predominantly those of American servicemen, are lost.
1944 December 24 Manchester is attacked by V1 flying bombs
1944 December 26 The siege of Bastogne is broken by Patton's Third Army tanks, and with it the Ardennes offensive collapses into failure.
1944 December 26  Racial tensions within the US military boil over into the Agana race riot on Guam.
1944 December 28 Churchill and his Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden are in Athens in an attempt to reconcile the warring factions.
1944 December 29 Soviet troops begin the Siege of Budapest.[2][3]
1944 December 30 The Germans launch a heavy attack on the Bastogne, Belgium, corridor in the Ardennes.
1944 December 30 Second German spy (Erich Gimpel) who landed in Maine by U-boat on November 29, 1944 is arrested by FBI in New York City; William Colepaugh had turned himself in on December 26, 1944.
1944 December 31 The Soviet-backed Hungarian Provisional Government declares war on Germany.[2][3]
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1944

The Year in Pictures

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Drydock Repairs

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North Vancouver Shipyards

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Ship Production Vancouver

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HMCS Uganda

1944

Sources

Cite Article : Reference: www.navyhistory/sections/Ships/Minesweepers/HMCS_Courtenay.html

Source: NA