1944

1944 – Nineteen-Forty-Four

22 January – Operation Shingle, Allied landings at Anzio, begins

27 January – Russians announce the lift of the blockade on Leningrad

31 January – Start of invasion of the Marshall Islands

15 February – Monte Casino is bombed

18 February – Allied troops attack Monte Casino

1 March – Rommel takes command of the Atlantic Wall

20 March – Germans complete their occupation of Hungary

27 March – Germans occupy Romania

15 April – USAAF bombs the Ploesti oilfields

17 April – Japanese launch last big offensive against China

19 May – Allied prisoners escape from Sagan, Poland. Only 3 out of 50 get back to England. The rest are executed by the Gestapo at Gorlitz

3 June – French Committee of National Liberation proclaims itself the provisional government of the Republic in France

4 June – Operation Overlord is postponed

4 June – U.S. 9th Army capture Rome

6 June – Operation Overload commences (D-Day)

20 June – Battle of the Philippine Sea

20 July – In Rastenburg, Prussia, a bombing attempt fails to kill Hitler

15 August – Allied troops storm the southern shores of France in Operation Dragoon

25 August – Paris is liberated

4 September – The Finns cease fire on all fronts

17 September – Operation Market-Garden launched

2 October – Warsaw uprising crushed

9 October – Churchill and Eden start conference with Stalin in Moscow

23 – 26 October – Battle for Leyte Gulf

7 November – Roosevelt is re-elected for a fourth term as President of the U.S.

16 December – Battle of the Ardennes (Battle of the Bulge)