- April 12
- The British War Office circulates a paper on German Long-Range Rocket Development, the first formal warning of the impending threat. [339.63]
- April 13
- Beginning of Warsaw ghetto uprising. [766.40]
- (evening) 211 British bombers attack La Spezia, Italy, especially the naval base with three battleships in port. Four Lancaster bombers are shot down. The battleships are unharmed. [84.165]
- April 14
- (evening) About 500 British bombers attack Stuttgart, Germany. [84.170]
- April
- German radio announces the discovery of a massacre of thousands of Polish officers in the Katyn Forest near Smolensk. [405.524]
- In Germany, Josef Müller is arrested. He had opened a communications link with the British government through Pope Pius XII. [691.208]
- Geyr von Schweppenburg, German commander of 86th Corps, is ordered to prepare Operation Gisela, with divisions entering Spain, in case Allied movements require it. [172.18]
- American aircraft carrier USS Wasp loads on 48 Spitfire planes in England, and sets out for the Straits of Gibraltar, to help the defence of Malta. [14.9]
- British Prime Minister Winston Churchill decides church bells would no longer be used only for warning of an air invasion of the country. [503.120]
- April 16
- (evening) 327 British bombers attack Pilsen, trying for the Skoda armament works. No hits are scored, and 36 planes are shot down. [84.170,345]
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- April 17
- 110 American B-17 bombers attack the Focke-Wulf works outside Bremen. 16 planes are shot down. [84.186]
- April 18
- US Navy planes shoot down the Japanese transport plane flying Admiral Isokuro Yamamoto (killing him) from Rabaul to the Solomon Islands. Sixteen American P-38G Lightening attack fighters from their base 430 miles away in Guadalcanal attack the three transport bombers and six Zero fighter planes. All but one P-38G fighter returns to base. (This is the longest fighter-intercept of the entire war.) [522.1989] [766.44]
- (evening) 178 British bombers attack La Spezia, Italy, again. One destroyer is sunk, but the target three battleships are unharmed. [84.166]
- April 19
- 2000 Nazis with armored support make a final assault on the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw, resulting in over 50,000 deaths over several weeks, lasting until May 16. [166.355] [821.1519]
- In Tunisia, the British 8th Army begins an attack north through Enfidaville toward Tunis. [277.191]
- April 20
- (evening) 339 British bombers attack Stettin, wrecking 100 acres of the town. [84.170]
- April 21
- In Tunisia, the British 8th Army ceases its attack on Enfidaville due to losses. [277.192]
- April 22
- In Tunisia, the British 1st Army near Medez el Bab attacks the Germany 334th Division. [277.192]
- April 23
- In Tunisia, US General Omar Bradley's 2nd Corps attacks a German division of 8000 men. [277.192]
- Britain requests Canada commit one Canadian infantry division and one tank brigade to operations based in Tunisia. (The Canadian government approves two days later.) [442.14]
- April 25
- The Soviet Union severs relations with the Polish Government, over the Katyn Forest massacre affair, accusing the Poles of acting in collusion with Hitler. [406.207]
- April 26
- In Tunisia, US General Omar Bradley's 2nd Corps resumes its attack on German forces, forcing a withdrawal to a line east of Mateur, 15 miles from Bizerte. [277.192]
- April 27
- (evening) 160 British Bomber Command aircraft take off to lay mines. 458 are laid off the French Atlantic ports, and around the Frision Islands. One plane is shot down. [84.182]
- April 28
- (evening) Over 200 British Bomber Command aircraft take off to lay mines. 593 are laid in the area of Denmark, the highest amount for a single outing of the war. 22 planes are shot down. [84.182]
- April
- The Allied Combined Chiefs of Staff issues a final directive that the invasion of Europe would be delayed until 1944. [54.71]
- April (month)
- British Bomber Command dropped 1809 mines in the sea during the month. [84.181]
- Total German submarine sinkings of merchant shipping in the Atlantic during the month: 245,000 tons. [173.30] (351,000 tons in 64 ships [827.11])
- German submarine losses during the month: 15. [173.30] [827.11]
- (month unknown)
- (Spring) German Colonel von Schlaberndorff puts a briefcase containing a time bomb on Adolf Hitler's aircraft at the Eastern Front headquarters. The bomb fails to detonate. [668.8]
- May 2
- German submarine U-465 under commander Heinz Wolf is lost with all hands (48 dead). [827.12]
- May 3
- (afternoon) Twelve New Zealand Ventura bombers take off from England to bomb a power station at Amsterdam. Only one plane reaches the target, and misses. Ten planes are shot down. [84.183]
- May 4
- German submarine U-109 under commander Joachim Schramm is lost with all hands (52 dead). [827.12]
- (to May 6) An Atlantic convoy outward bound from England results in the sinking nine German submarines. British corvette Pink sinks U-192 under commander Werner Happe, with all hands (55 dead). HMS Loosestrife sinks U-638 under commander Oskar Staudinger, with all hands (44 dead). British destroyer Vidette sinks U-125 under commander Ulrich Folkers, with all hands (54 dead). Oribi sinks U-531 under commander Herbert Neckel, with all hands (54 dead). British sloop Pelican sinks U-438 under commander Heinrich Heinsohn, with all hands (48 dead). British Coastal Command aircraft sink U-710. Royal Canadian Air Force aircraft sink U-630 under commander Werner Winkler, with all hands (47 dead). U-659 and U-439 collide and sink. U-659 under commander Hans Stork suffers 44 dead of 47 crew. U-439 under commander Helmut von Tippelskirch suffers 40 dead of 49 crew. [173.30] [827.12]
- (evening) 596 British bombers attack Dortmund, Germany. [84.171]
- May 5
- The Comintern is dissolved, as a gesture of reassurance to Russia's allies. [485.9] [518.1905]
- May 6
- At Experimental Station Suffield, Alberta, Canada, a ten-day experiment begins testing the field performance of men burned with mustard gas. [61.13]
- In Tunisia, Allied forces break through German defence lines in Medjez el Bab. [277.193]
- May 7
- American and British forces capture Tunis and Bizerte in North Africa. 160,000 German and Italian soldiers surrender at Tunis. [166.355] [277.193] [519.1933] (May 12 [149.209])
- German submarine U-209 under commander Heinrich Brodda is lost with all hands (46 dead). [827.12]
- German submarine U-447 under commander Friedrich Bothe is lost with all hands (48 dead). [827.12]
- May 8
- German submarine U-663 under commander Heinrich Schmid is lost with all hands (49 dead). [827.12]
- May 10
- Canada's National Research Council head Chalmers Mackenzie tells Louis Mountbatten in England that the Habbakuk ice ship project could not be completed for 1944. [101.36]
- Hans-Thilo Schmidt, employee of the German Defence Ministry's Cipher Center, is arrested for treason for giving information to the French (French intelligence officer General Gustave Bertrand) since October 1932. he had given information on the Enigma coding machine, other cryptography systems, and Göring's wiretapping agency. [704.33]
- May 11
- The American 7th Infantry Division lands on Japanese occupied Attu Island in the Aleutian Islands. [101.54] [714.14]
- German submarine U-528 under commander Georg von Rabenau is lost with 11 dead of 56 crew. [827.12]
- May 12
- German submarine U-89 under commander Dietrich Lohmann is lost with all hands (48 dead). [827.12]
- German submarine U-186 under commander Siegfried Hesemann is lost with all hands (53 dead). [827.12]
- German submarine U-456 under commander Max-Martin Teichert is lost with all hands (49 dead). [827.12]
- (evening) 572 British bombers attack Duiburg, Germany, in the Ruhr. Over 1300 buildings are destroyed, damaging four of the Thyssen steel factories, 60 ships, and sinking 34 barges. [84.172]
- May 13
- In the North Atlantic, German submarine U-753 is sunk by combined efforts of Royal Canadian Navy corvette Drumheller, Royal Navy frigate Lagan, and British and Canadian aircraft. U-753 under commander Alfred Manhardt von Mannstein is lost with all hands (47 dead). [27.21] [827.12]
- In Tunisia in North Africa, German Afrika Korps commander General Dietloff Juergen von Arnim surrenders 275,000 troops. [80.322] [84.345] [166.341] [519.1933] [721.42]
- May 14
- The Trident Conference is held in Washington, US. Britain and the US agree for an invasion of France after May 1, 1944. [84.185] [382.12] [529.2017]
- German submarine U-640 under commander Karl-Heinz Nagel is lost with all hands (49 dead). [827.12]
- May 15
- German submarine U-176 under commander Reiner Dierksen is lost with all hands (53 dead). [827.12]
- German submarine U-266 under commander Ralf von Jessen is lost with all hands (47 dead). [827.12]
- May
- The German ME-262 twin-jet fighter plane is ready for serial production. [54.31]
- The German OKW begins planning Operation Citadel, an attack on the Kursk salient. [80.323]
- The Royal Canadian Air Force acquires long-range Liberator bombers from Britain for mid-Atlantic convoy escort and submarine warfare. [1.7]
- May 16
- Nine British Lancaster bombers fitted with dam-busting mines take off from Scampton, England, headed for the Möhne and Eder dams in Germany. After four unsuccessful tries, the fifth plane succeeds in breaching the Möhne dam. Six planes with three bombs head over to the Eder dam. The third hit breaches the dam 30 feet below the top. Five planes return to home base. Two more waves of bombers attack other dams, causing a small breach in the Sorpe dam. In total, 19 aircraft take off, and 11 return. 34 awards are given out. Extensive damage is done by the flooding and loss of hydroelectric power. 1000 houses are destroyed or damaged, 125 factories destroyed/damaged, 1294 people killed, 2822 hectares of farmland ruined, 6316 animals killed, 35 road bridges destroyed/damaged, etc. Germans add more defenses to other dams. Manpower is diverted from the West Wall to repair the dams. (It takes four months to complete closing the Möhne dam breach.) [84.175,345] [373.280]
- Jewish resistance in Warsaw ghetto crushed. [766.40]
- German submarine U-182 under commander Asmus Nicolai Clausen is lost with all hands (61 dead). [827.12]
- German submarine U-463 under commander Leo Wolfbauer is lost with all hands (57 dead). [827.12]
- May 17
- German submarine U-128 under commander Hermann Steinert is lost with 7 dead of 54 crew. [827.12]
- German submarine U-646 under commander Heinrich Wulff is lost with all hands (46 dead). [827.12]
- German submarine U-657 under commander Heinrich Göllnitz is lost with all hands (47 dead). [827.12]
- May 19
- German submarine U-273 under commander Hermann Rossmann is lost with all hands (46 dead). [827.12]
- German submarine U-954 under commander Odo Loewe is lost with all hands (47 dead). [827.12]
- May 20
- German submarine U-258 under commander Wilhelm von Mässenhausen is lost with all hands (49 dead). [827.12]
- May 21
- At the Trident Conference in Washington, Britain and the US agree Operation Overlord, the amphibious landing in France, should be launched May 1, 1944. [84.186] [172.2]
- German submarine U-303 under commander Karl-Franz Heine is lost with 20 dead of 48 crew. [827.12]
- German submarine U-381 under commander Graf Wilhelm-Heinrich Pückler und Limpurg is lost with all hands (47 dead). [827.12]
- May 22
- German submarine U-569 under commander Hans Johannsen is lost with 21 dead of 46 crew. [827.12]
- May 23
- German submarine U-752 under commander Karl-Ernst Schroeter is lost with 29 dead of 46 crew. [827.12]
- (evening) 826 British bombers attack Dortmund, Germany. This attack and the prior one on May 4 destroy over 3000 buildings and kill 1300 people. [84.171,345]
- May 24
- Commander-in-Chief of the German Navy Karl Dönitz withdraws submarines from the North Atlantic, due to heavy losses. [493.60] [827.11]
- May 25
- German submarine U-414 under commander Walther Huth is lost with all hands (47 dead). [827.12]
- German submarine U-467 under commander Heinz Kummer is lost with all hands (46 dead). [827.12]
- (evening) 759 British bombers attack Düsseldorf, Germany. [84.172]
- May 26
- At Peenemünde, comparison tests are made of the flying bomb (Fi.103 or FZG 76, later called V-1) and the A-4 rocket (V-2) in the presence of Nazi ministers and generals. Two rockets perform perfectly, flying 160 miles. Two flying bombs crash in the Baltic after travelling a mile or two. The Long-Range Bombardment Commission accepts the recommendation of putting both into production, top priority. [339.53]
- German submarine U-436 under commander Günther Seibicke is lost with all hands (47 dead). [827.12]
- May 27
- In France, the National Resistance Council meets for the first time. [494.12]
- British Bomber Command head Arthur Harris issues an order to his Groups, to prepare for major raids on Hamburg, intent on "the total destruction of this city". Code name for the operation is Gomorrah. [84.187]
- May 28
- German submarine U-304 under commander Heinz Koch is lost with all hands (46 dead). [827.12]
- German submarine U-755 under commander Walter Göing is lost with 40 dead of 49 crew. [827.12]
- May 29
- 1000 Japanese on Attu Island charge at US forces, but do not succeed. Of 2500 Japanese on the island, only 28 survive. 1800 Americans are wounded or killed. [101.54]
- (evening) 719 British bombers attack Barmen, Germany, destroying nearly 4000 houses, damaging 200 factories, and killing 3400 people. [84.171]
- May 31
- Japanese forces driven from Aleutians. [766.40]
- German submarine U-440 under commander Werner Schwaff is lost with all hands (46 dead). [827.12]
- German submarine U-563 under commander Gustav Borchardt is lost with all hands (49 dead). [827.12]
- May (month)
- Total German submarine sinkings of merchant shipping in the Atlantic during the month: 165,000 tons. [173.30] (304,000 tons in 58 ships [827.11])
- German submarine losses during the month: 40. [173.30] [827.11]
- June 1
- (about 1230 hours) German Luftwaffe shoots down British Overseas Airways Corporation Flight 777 airliner en route from Lisbon, Portugal, to London, England. (One explanation for the shooting is that the Germans thought British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was on board.) [38.89]
- June 4
- Convoy HX 240 from North America arrives at Liverpool, England. All 280 ships arrived safely. [74.57]
- London receives the first detailed and accurate (though not realized at the time) intelligence about German rocket work. A Luxembourg scientist working at Peenemünde reports on rockets ten metres long, with range 150-250 km, fueled by bottles of gas. [339.68]
- June 10
- The British Air Ministry sends the "Pointblank" directive to Bomber Command head Arthur Harris, giving him freedom to continue destruction of Germany's major towns. However, the primary focus when weather permits is to attack targets identified at the Casablanca conference. German fighter force and related industry are a high priority because of the American intention to begin daylight bombing. [84.185,345]
- Canada's National Research Council head Chalmers Mackenzie informs British Prime Minister Winston Churchill that the Habbakuk ice ship project can not be done. Churchill refuses to face that reality, and establishes another committee to investigate use of other materials. [101.36]
- June 11
- (evening) 783 British bombers attack Düsseldorf, Germany. 130 acres of the city are destroyed, in 882 separate fires. 1300 people are killed, and 140,000 made homeless. [84.172]
- June 12
- A British Coastal Command Mosquito plane flies a reconnaissance flight over Peenemünde, Germany. Photos show a large rocket lying on a trailer. (The rocket is a V-2, the type first used in September 1944.) [84.198]
- Pantelleria Island off Sicily surrenders. [416.E5]
- June 15
- German General Heinz Guderian tells Adolf Hitler that the new Panther tanks are not ready for battle. [277.207]
- June
- British Bomber Command aircraft begin dropping sea mines from 6000 feet, instead of 2000-3000 feet. [84.182]
- British military intelligence receives its first report from an agent about a "bomb with wings" (V-1) being developed in Germany. [84.223]
- Britain invokes the treaty of Windsor (established in 1386, binding Britain and Portugal to mutual assistance), and requests of Portugal that Britain be allowed to use airfields on the Azores islands. [38.91]
- June 18
- In England, Dr. R.V. Jones studies aerial reconnaissance photos of Peenemünde from June 12, and discovers what he concludes is a rocket, about 35 feet long, with five-foot diameter. [339.70]
- The British "RDF" or "radiolocation" technology is renamed "radar". [84.345]
- June 19
- (evening) 290 British planes attack Le Creusot, damaging the Schneider arms plant and the Breuil steelworks. Two planes are shot down. [84.171]
- June 20
- (evening) 56 British Lancasters and four Pathfinder Lancasters attack the Zeppelin works at Friedrichshafen. No planes are lost, and considerable damage is done. [84.187,345]
- June 21
- Adolf Hitler orders Operation Citadel to commence July 3. [519.1938]
- Gestapo policemen raid a doctor's surgery at Caluire near Lyons, France. They capture Resistance leaders including president of National Resistance Council Jean Moulin. (He is tortured and dies, probably July 8.) [494.10]
- (evening) 705 British bombers attack Krefeld, Germany, west of the Rhine river. Half of the town is set afire, and 72,000 people are made homeless. [84.172]
- June 22
- Sixty British Lancaster bombers attack the former Zeppelin works at Friedrichshafen on Lake Constanz, under the assumption that a radar station was being installed. The attack is a success, with no loss of attacking aircraft. (The factory was actually being converted to build A-4 rockets.) [339.91]
- Romania issues three postage stamps marking the 2nd anniversary of Romanian entry into the war. [343.492]
- (evening) 557 British bombers attack Mülheim, Germany, destroying nearly two-thirds of the area. [84.171]
- June 24
- (evening) 630 British bombers attack Elbefeld, destroying 171 factories, 3000 houses, and 1800 people. [84.171]
- June 25
- (evening) 603 British bombers attack Cologne, Germany. About 50 military and industrial buildings are destroyed, along with 15,000 other buildings. 4377 people are killed, and 230,000 are made homeless. [84.172]
- June 27
- The British Chiefs of Staff circulate the paper "German Long-Range Rocket: Evidence Received from All Sources", concluding that German rocket development is taking place at Peenemünde, with manufacturing to start soon in the nearby factory area. [339.71]
- June
- Canadian troops of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division sail from Great Britain, heading to Sicily, as part of an invasion by United States and British Army units. [1.17]
- June 29
- The Defence Committee of the British War Cabinet gives orders for Peenemünde, Germany to be bombed on the heaviest scale. Recent aerial reconnaissance had identified the area to be a center of rocket research and development. (The bombing takes place on August 17/18.) [84.198] [339.75]
- June 30
- American forces under General MacArthur begin landing in New Guinea. [166.355]
- June (month)
- Total German submarine sinkings of merchant shipping in the Atlantic during the month: 18,000 tons. [173.30]
- German submarine losses during the month: 17. [173.30]
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