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http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/thismonth/20.htm

April 20th, 1944 (THURSDAY)

FRANCE: Paris: Tonight an Allied air raid kills 641 people.

The Eighth Air Force flies Mission 309: 842 bombers and 388 fighters are dispatched to hit V-weapon sites in France; 24 of 33 sites briefed are hit; 9 bombers and 2 fighters are lost:

- 438 B-17s hit sites in the Pas de Calais and Cherbourg areas; 19 others hit targets of opportunity; 7 B-17s are lost.

- 113 B-24s hit sites in the Pas de Calais area; 2 B-24s are lost.

Escort is provided by 89 P-38s, 211 P-47 Thunderbolts and 88 P-51 Mustangs; they claim 4-0-2 Luftwaffe aircraft in the air and 4-0-0 on the ground; 2 P-51s are lost.

The Ninth Air Force dispatches almost 400 B-26 Marauders and A-20 Havocs to attack gun positions at Etaples, Bazinghen, Villerville, Gravelines and Fecamp, the airfield at Poix, and V-weapon sites and targets of opportunity in the Pas de Calais area; nearly 140 P-47s bomb marshalling yards at Creil and Mantes-La-Jolie. (Jack McKillop)

Countdown to D-Day:

Field Marshal Rommel, commander, Army Group B,
stays at his headquarters at La Roche-Guyon today,
catching up on paperwork and chairing a number of
sessions with his staff. They attend a number of
subjects, including the distribution of an incoming
supply of “nutcracker” mines, the manufacture of
tetrahedrons, and areas along the coast where they
are needed, and the repositioning of several units.

That evening, the headquarters is in a festive mood.
First of all, it is a going away party for the outgoing
Chief of Staff, Alfred Gause, and the staff has really
put forth an effort to make this a festive occasion.
Second, it is the Führer’s birthday, and the more
celebration that is done, the better it looks to outsiders.

The Rochfoucauld family, residing upstairs over the
noisy routine of a busy headquarters, has been invited
to the evening’s celebration, and they have graciously
accepted invitation. The duke’s younger son, dressed
in the uniform of the French navy attends. The duchess
donates a bouquet of lilacs and four bottles of her best
wine — a 1900 claret - for the party.

The celebration begins. They are all present: Rommel,
his senior staff officers, the duke and his family, their
young, pretty daughter Charlotte (escorted by a number
of Rommel’s junior officers), and most of the administrative
staff.

After a fine dinner, Rommel gets up and addresses his
audience. He prefaces his remarks with a well-intended
congratulatory comments recognizing the Führer’s birthday,
and noting the strength that he has given their country.

He then begins an oratory on the finer qualities of his
outgoing chief of staff. He tells them of their struggles
together in the French campaign, and later in North
Africa. Rommel of course takes great fervour in outlining
Gause’s many and varied accomplishments during this
time, sometimes describing in detail this episode, or
recanting with a caustic tone some tale of woe
that had befallen them.

At the end of the speech, after the applause dies down,
Gause stands and addresses the Rommel and his
attendants. He tells him of the privilege it has been
working for him, and that he has enjoyed working with
all of them. Formally recognizing members of the
Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe, he beseeches them to
strive to work together against the enemy, and to resist
trifling in petty power squabbles.

The final speaker is the Operations Officer, Colonel von
Tempelhoff, who puts in a few choice words welcoming
in Hans Speidel, and hoping, on behalf of the staff, that
Gause fines happiness in his future, and satisfaction in
his next assignment. Rumour has it that, based on
Rommel’s recommendation, he is going to get command
of a panzer division.

Then the “unofficial” part of the evening begins. Gause is
informed that, after due consideration by the staff members,
he has been elected the “Tetrarch of the Tetragoner,” with
a fancy (though unrefined) dark blue coat of arms.

Charlotte is waltzed around the dancing area by several
keen young men, while the senior officers spend their
time in glittering conversation.

Even though there is work to be done the next day, the
party does not wind down until about two in the morning -
unusual for the staff, but appropriate for the occasion.

Peter Margaritis

GERMANY: The so-called British Free Corps of the Waffen-SS holds its inaugural parade at the Haus Germanien in the St Michaeli Kloster, Hildesheim. Present are a small German staff and fourteen assorted British renegades including the senior NCO, SS-Oberscharfuehrer Thomas Cooper, a former concentration camp guard and veteran of ‘aktions’ in the Warsaw and Cracow ghettoes. After a brief speech from the German commanding officer and the formal presentation of rank insignia and side-arms, the British traitors are despatched to begin recruiting at POW camps throughout the Reich. (Adrian Weale)

U.S.S.R.: Soviet planes, destroyers, submarines and torpedo boats attack German and Romanian ships evacuating the 17th German-Romanian Army from Sevastopol. During the next three weeks, the Soviets will sink 10 Axis ships, but the sea lift will rescue more than 42,000 troops. (Jack McKillop)

ITALY: B-25s and B-26s of the Twelfth Air Force score hits on a marshalling yard and 3 fuel dumps at Leghorn and near misses on Cecina and Certaldo bridges and Arezzo viaduct; fighter-bombers hit railroad lines and fuel dump in the Florence area; bridges, dump, rail lines and train cars near Civitavecchia and Zagarolo, at Sezze, near Ladispoli, southwest of Stimipliano and north of Monterotondo; and guns south of Albano Laziale; in the battle area around Cassino fighter-bombers blast several gun positions and hit bridges, trucks, troops and other targets, at several points, including Falconara, Recanati, San Benedetto de Marsi, and the Fondi-Itri and Orte-Orvieto areas.

300+ Fifteenth Air Force B-17s and B-24s attack targets in Italy; the B-17s bomb marshalling yards at Ancona, Castelfranco, Padua and Vicenza and Venice harbour installations; the B-24s hit marshalling yards at Mestre, Reviso and Fano, Venice harbour, Monfalcone dockyards and Trieste; 180+ other heavy bombers dispatched against communications targets in northern Italy are forced to abort due to bad weather; about 250 fighters provide cover for the bombing raids. (Jack McKillop)

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: German torpedo planes and submarine U-969 attack the 87-ship convoy UGS-38 in the Mediterranean off the coast of Algeria. The destroyer USS Landsdale (DD-426) is sunk by aerial torpedo; the survivors are rescued by two destroyer escorts. The US freighter SS Paul Hamilton is struck by an aerial torpedo and disintegrates; the 47-man merchant crew, the 29-man Armed Guard and 504 troops aboard are all killed. (Jack McKillop)
TURKEY stops chrome exports to Germany under diplomatic pressure from the Allies.

INDIA: British forces reach the besieged Kohima garrison, but Japan still holds the surrounding land.

INDIAN OCEAN: During Operation COCKPIT, an Allied task force consisting of ships of the British Eastern Fleet, including the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious, and the US aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3) and three US destroyers, attacks Japanese ships and positions at Sabang, Netherlands East Indies. This is the first joint naval exercise in the Indian Ocean. (Jack McKillop)

BURMA: 11 Tenth Air Force B-25s hit a bivouac and supply area northwest of Manywet. (Jack McKillop)

BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: With improved weather conditions bombing of targets in the Bismarck Archipelago by the Thirteenth Air Force resumes; on New Britain Island, 22 B-25s hit the Matupi supply area and 40+ fighter-bombers blast the airfields at Lakunai and Keravat. (Jack McKillop)

MARSHALL ISLANDS: Tarawa-based Seventh Air Force B-25s, using Majuro Atoll as a shuttle base between strikes, bomb Maloelap and Jaluit Atolls. (Jack McKillop)

CAROLINE ISLANDS: Thirteenth Air Force B-24s bomb Woleai Atoll. (Jack McKillop)

NEW GUINEA: Fifth Air Force B-24s bomb airfields on Noemfoor Island, Schouten Islands. In New Guinea, B-25s, A-20s, and fighters hit a variety of targets around Hollandia, on Cape Croisilles, in the Bunabun area and along Hansa Bay. (Jack McKillop)

WAKE ISLAND: Seventh Air Force B-24s from Kwajalein Atoll search the area near Wake Island for shipping; finding none, the bombers hit Wake and Peale Islands. (Jack McKillop)

PACIFIC OCEAN: Submarine USS Seahorse (SS-304) sinks Japanese submarine HIJMS RO-45 off the Marianas. (Jack McKillop)

U.S.A.: The documentary short “It’s Your War Too” is released in the U.S. This ten-minute documentary film details the history of the U.S. Army’s Women’s Army Corps, the WACS. (Jack McKillop)