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http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/9/20.htm

October 20th, 1944 (FRIDAY)

FRANCE: Kuroda, Robert T, SSgt., 442nd Regimental Combat Team, for actions at Bruyeres, is posthumously awarded the MOH. The 100th Infantry Battalion takes the important “Hill C” at Bruyeres.

Marseilles: Pierre Laval is sentenced to death in absentia for collaborating with the Germans.

In the U.S. Third Army’s XX Corps area, the Germans heavily shell 90th Infantry Division elements at Maizières-lès-Metz. In the XII Corps area, USAAF Ninth Air Force P-47 Thunderbolts breach a dam at Dieuze because the Germans are getting ready to flood the Seille River valley. The destruction of this dam releases the waters of the Etang de Lindre (Pond of Lindre) in the rear of German lines which the II Corps is attacking.

In the U.S. Seventh Army area, two fresh U.S. infantry divisions (100th and 103d) arrive at Marseille. In the VI Corps area the 179th Infantry Regiment of the 45th Infantry Division attacks for Brouvelieures after preparatory fire and gains the heights commanding the town; the 180th Infantry Regiment, which has been pushing toward the Mortagne River from the Freinifontaine area, tries in vain to break through the German defenses along the river. The 3d Infantry Division begins a drive on St Die, employing the 7th Infantry Regiment, which heads for Vervezelle, northeast of Bruyères.

WESTERN EUROPE: USAAF Ninth Air Force fighters fly armed reconnaissance over eastern France and widespread areas of western Germany, attack railroads and various military targets, and support US Third and Seventh Armies’ elements in E France.

BELGIUM: An offensive towards the north beginning northeast of Antwerp begins involving the British I Corps and the 1st Canadian Army.

NETHERLANDS: In the Canadian First Army area, British I Corps, protecting the right flank of II Corps, opens a drive toward the Bergen-op-Zoom-Tilburg highway with the Canadian 4th Armoured Division on the left, the 49th Division in the center, and the Polish 1st Armored Division on the right.

The USAAF Ninth Air Force’s 9th Bombardment Division hits the Parenboom rail bridge at Geertruidenberg and the Moerdijke rail bridge; attacks on other targets are aborted because of bad weather.

GERMANY: In the U.S. First Army’s VII Corps area, the 26th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division, which is being assisted by elements of 110th Infantry Regiment, 28th Infantry Division, forces the Germans to the western and southwestern suburbs of Aachen.

The XIX Tactical Air Command (one of the three TACs assigned to the Ninth Air Force) breaches the dam at Dieuze causing extensive flooding in the rear of German lines which the US 3rd Army is attacking. The details are: P-47s of the 362d Fighter Group, XIX TAC, breach a dam at Dieuze. The Germans were getting ready to flood the Seille River valley and the destruction of this dam released the waters of the Etang de Lindre.

USAAF Fifteenth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators bomb six targets: 95 bombers hit the marshalling yard at Rosenheim; 77 B-17s bomb two targets in Regensburg, 34 hitting an oil storage facility and 33 bombing the industrial area; 11 B-24s attack the airfield at Bad Arling; and three aircraft bomb targets of opportunity.

U-3011 launched. and

AUSTRIA: Forty one USAAF Fifteenth Air Force B-24 Liberators hit the Main marshalling yard at Innsbruck; one aircraft is lost.

HUNGARY: Russian units liberate Debrecen. These units involved were primarily the Romanian 2nd and 3rd Mountain Divisions, plus the Tudor Vladimirescu Division (the latter organized and equipped like a standard Soviet rifle division but made up entirely of Romanian volunteers recruited from POW camps in Russia: many joined simply to escape the virtual death sentence of harsh Soviet captivity). These three units, comprising the “Russian” 27th Army, were of course under Soviet command (in addition, the Tudor Vladimirescu division, nominally commanded by a Romanian colonel, was in reality controlled by its Soviet “advisors”). (Michael F. Yaklich)

Eichmann”>Eichmann starts the rapid deportation of Jews to the death camps again.

During the night of 20/21 October, 59 RAF bombers of No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group bomb the airfield at Szombathely with the loss of five aircraft.

POLAND: Auschwitz-Birkenau: Huge bundles of camp documents are burnt in the crematorium to try to conceal the evidence of deaths, tortures and medical experiments.

CZECHOSLOVAKIA: One hundred thirty one USAAF Fifteenth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses bomb a synthetic oil plant at Brux with the loss of three aircraft. Two other B-17s bomb the Skoda armaments factory at Pilsen and a target of opportunity.

ITALY: The British V Corps enters Cesena. The South African 6th Armored Division stops a German counterattack south of Bologna.

In the British Eighth Army’s V Corps area, the Germans destroy a bridge in Cesano as the 4th Division reaches it, but elements of the 12th Brigade wade the river near the bridge site. The 25th Brigade, Indian 10th Division, strengthens the bridgehead in the Castiglione area and takes S.t Carlo; to the south, elements of the 20th Brigade secretly cross the Borello River. In the Canadian I Corps area, the Canadian 1st Division attacks across the Savio River with two companies but cannot hold the bridgehead. In the coastal sector, Cesenatico is occupied after the Germans withdraw.

In the U.S. Fifth Army area, the South African 6th Armoured Division maintains positions on Mt. Salvaro under repeated German counterattacks and gains the slopes of Mt. Alcino. In the II Corps area, the 88th Infantry Division continues the offensive on the right flank of the corps, the 350th Infantry Regiment reaching the top of Mt. Cuccoli and taking Farneto. To forestall German counterattacks against the Mt. Grande hill mass, aircraft and artillery interdict all approaches. The rest of the corps front is virtually static. In the British XIII Corps area, the Germans recapture Mt. Spadura from the 78th Division. The 21st Brigade, Indian 8th Division, begins a drive on Mt. Romano.

During the night of 20/21 October, USAAF Twelfth Air Force A-20 Havocs bomb targets of opportunity during intruder missions north of battle area., and nine RAF bombers of No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group hit a pontoon bridge at San Benedetto.

YUGOSLAVIA: Tito’s partisans and Russian units complete the liberation of Belgrade. The First Proletarian Division, the elite formation of Tito’s Army of National Liberation, drove the Germans out of Belgrade today, freeing Yugoslavia’s capital from the hated occupiers. Tito can now enter Belgrade in triumph.

It was, in fact, a combined operation between partisans led by two of Tito’s most successful commanders, Dapcevich and Popovich, and troops of General Tolbukhin’s Third Ukrainian Front. The strategy, if not the tactics, of the operation had been worked out with Stalin during Tito’s clandestine visit to Moscow last month.

The liberation of Belgrade is a tremendous political victory for Tito, who has emerged as the clear winner in the struggle for power inside Yugoslavia with the royalist Draza Mihailovich. There seems little doubt now that he will impose a communist regime on Yugoslavia after the war.

The battle for Belgrade was a bloody affair, with the Germans fighting desperately to keep open their line of retreat from Greece and Albania. This retreat is under constant harassment from the RAF and USAAF, who are co-operating with the partisans.

The fall of the city will make tremendous difficulties for General Lohr’s Army Group E on its fighting retreat to the north. Lohr is in grave personal danger. His occupation has been marked by cruelty. If he should fall into the partisans’ hands, they would show him no mercy.

The “Russian” units involved were primarily the Romanian 2nd and 3rd Mountain Divisions, plus the Tudor Vladimirescu Division (the latter organized and equipped like a standard Soviet rifle division but made up entirely of Romanian volunteers recruited from PoW camps in Russia: many joined simply to escape the virtual death sentence of harsh Soviet captivity). These three units, comprising the “Russian” 27th Army were, of course, under Soviet command and the Tudor Vladimirescu division (nominally commanded by a Romanian colonel, was in reality controlled by its Soviet “advisors”). (Mike Yaklich)

Belgrade: The Balkan states are falling like dominoes to the Red Army. Romania and Bulgaria collapsed swiftly and are now fighting against their erstwhile German allies. The Yugoslavs, who have conducted a brave guerrilla war against the Germans, have liberated their own capital and joined the Russians in harassing the retreating Germans.

Now it is Hungary’s turn. The Hungarian army has been fighting with more conviction against the advancing Russians than it ever did as the Wehrmacht’s ally on the eastern front, but there are signs that its resistance is coming to an end.

The First Hungarian Army which with a stiffening of Germans, has been holding the Carpathian passes has thrown in its hand, and General Petrov’s Fourth Ukrainian Front is pouring south through the mountain gorges which lead down into the vaaley of the upper Tisza.

At the same time Malinovsky, having defeated Friessner in the tank battle of Debrecen, is driving north towards Budapest. The Hungarian capital is in turmoil, with huge numbers of refugees passing through the city, and the government is appealing for discipline: “Panic-stricken flight must give way to calm and manliness.”

Dubrovnik on the Adriatic is liberated by partisans.

CHINA: Eighteen USAAF Fourteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells bomb docks and storage area at Samshui and the town of Kweiping; 28 P-51 Mustangs and P-40s join the attack on the Samshui area; 77 P-40s and P-51s on armed reconnaissance attack road, river, and rail traffic, town and village areas and other targets of opportunity around Kweiping, Menghsu, Shawan, Kaotienhsu, Pingnam, Hsenwi, Wuchou, Dosing, Tanchuk.

BURMA: Nine USAAF Tenth Air Force P-47 Thunderbolts hit encampments and stores near Naha; five others knock out a road bridge near Wanling and hit a supply dump in the area, while four more attack troops and supplies in the Nansiaung area.

FRENCH INDOCHINA: USAAF Fourteenth Air Force fighter-bombers attack coastal areas including Hongay.

JAPAN: The Japanese Navy institutes Operation SHO-GO. To counter the U.S. landings on Leyte in the southern Philippines, a Japanese naval force consisting of four aircraft carriers, two battleships, three light cruisers, eight destroyers and only 116 combat aircraft, sorties from the Inland Sea for the Philippine Islands. This force, under Vice Admiral OZAWA, Tokusaburo, Commander-in-Chief Third Fleet and commander of the Northern Force, will act as a decoy to draw off the USN battleships and fast carriers so that other surface units can sink the American Seventh Fleet ships off Leyte.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: It is D-Day at Leyte. The escort and fleet carriers which have provided preparatory attacks and the US 5th Air Force provide air cover. The US 7th Fleet provides bombardment and escort for the US 6th Army. The landing troops involve 4 divisions from 2 Corps.

Two hours after the initial landings on Leyte, General MacArthur lands. At noon, wearing a crisp new uniform specially donned for the occasion, he stepped from the cruiser USS NASHVILLE into a landing-craft, to be transported to the beach, where he waded in knee-deep surf to the beach. He broadcasts to the Philippine people announcing: “I have returned”. Thus redeeming his promise of 1942 upon arriving in Australia from Corrigidor.

Two hours later, with the Philippine president in exile, Sergio Osmena, by his side, MacArthur proclaimed in a voice trembling with emotion: “People of the Philippines, I have returned! ... Rally to me!” He said that the blow at Leyte would split the 225,000-man Japanese Philippines garrison in two, making its forces on Mindanao redundant.

The 600-ship invasion armada, the largest amphibious operation in the Pacific, had been accelerated by two months after reconnaissance had revealed surprising gaps in the defence forces. The landings began three days ago with the capture of three offshore islands. Tonight 100,000 US Sixth Army troops are dug in around Leyte’s capital, Tacloban and Dulag to the south.

The Leyte landings surprised the defenders, who put up little opposition after their beach pillboxes were captured. Most of Leyte’s 21,500-string garrison has now withdrawn inland. The Japanese Philippines C-in-C, General Yamashita, was expecting the main attack to be against Luzon, hit by US air raids again yesterday, and is hurriedly moving men to Leyte.

The Japanese respond by launching their operation Sho-go. This will involve their entire remaining fleet units. Admiral Ozawa leaves Japan with his carriers in a decoy role.

Wai, Francis B., Capt., 34th ID, is awarded the MOH for actions today at Leyte. (William L. Howard)

The U.S. Sixth Army invades Leyte Island, landing on the east coast in the vicinity of Tacloban, the capital, and Dulag at approximately 1000 hours. Two firm beachheads are established, but at the end of day they are nearly 10 miles (16 kilometers) apart. In a preliminary operation, the 21st Infantry Regiment of the 24th Infantry Division lands well to the south in the vicinity of Panaon Strait at 0930 hours and secures the strait without opposition. Before landings, naval guns of the USN Seventh Fleet pound the assault zone, beginning at o6oo hours, and lifting for a time at 0850 hours for an air strike on the Dulag area. Aircraft provide close support throughout the day. The X Corps lands 2 divisions abreast in the north in the vicinity of Tacloban. On the northern flank, the 1st Cavalry Division, with the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the 2d Cavalry Brigade and the 12th and 5th Cavalry Regiments of the 1st Cavalry Brigade, lands and clears San Jose, Tacloban airstrip, and the Cataisan Peninsula. The 24th Infantry Division, with the 34th Infantry Regiment on the north and 19th on south, meets heavy fire after initial waves have landed; against strong opposition they seize Hill 522, the key terrain feature north of Palo commanding the northern entrance to Leyte Valley, and secure a bridgehead averaging 1 mile (1,6 kilometers) in depth. The XXIV Corps lands near Dulag with the 96th Infantry Division on the north and the 7th Infantry Division on the south. The 96th is slowed by harassing fire and difficult terrain but takes San Jose, positions astride Labiranan River, and Hill 120; they push inland about 2,500 yards (2 286 meters) on the N and 1,300 yards (1 189 meters) on the south. The 7th Infantry Division gets forward elements on the north across Highway 1 and on the south takes Dulag and reaches the edge of the airstrip, where counterattacks are repelled during the night of 20/21 October.

Forty six USAAF Fifth Air Force B-24 Liberators bomb a Japanese Army headquarters at Davao on Mindanao Island while 12 B-25 Mitchells attack Dumaguete Airfield on Negros Island. Twelve P-38 Lightnings and 16 P-47 Thunderbolts attack numerous targets on Mindanao and Negros.

CAROLINE ISLANDS: In the Palau Islands, Major General Paul Mueller, Commanding General 81st Infantry Division, takes responsibility for ground operations in the Palaus from the III Amphibious Corps. Elements of 81st seize Pulo Anna Island in the Sosoral Group, between the Palau Islands and Morotai.

SOLOMON ISLANDS: Special Task Air Group (STAG 1) operations continue from Stirling Island in the Treasury Islands. Three Interstate TDR-1 target drones controlled from converted TBM-1C Avengers are launched against Japanese gun positions west of Ballale Island located south of Bougainville: one is lost, one makes a hit with its bomb but crashes before it can be directed into its ultimate target (the beached Japanese freighter serving as an antiaircraft gun site off the Kahili Airfield on southern Bougainville and christened the “Kahili Maru”), the last achieves a bomb hit and crashes into “Kahili Maru” as planned.

PACIFIC OCEAN: 0300 hours: USS Hammerhead (SS-364) sinks two cargo ships at 04-45 N, 113-30 E.

0400 hours: USN submarine USS Hammerhead (SS-364) finds a six-ship Japanese convoy and sinks a transport and an army cargo ship of the west coast of Borneo about 176 nautical miles (326 kilometers) west-southwest of Jesselton, British North Borneo, in position 04.46N, 113.23E. (Skip Guidry)

CANADA:

Tug HMCS Maxwellton commissioned.

Frigate HMCS Capilano arrived Halifax from Esquimalt.

Frigates HMCS Sea Cliff, Cap De La Madeleine and corvette Beauharnois arrived Halifax from builders Quebec City PQ

U.S.A.: Four YP-80A-LO’s were prepared for shipment to the UK and the Mediterranean to demonstrate their capabilities to combat crews and to help in the development of defensive tactics to be used against the Me 262.

Top songs on the pop record charts are: “I’ll Walk Alone” by Dinah Shore; “Is You is or is You Ain’t” by Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters; “It Had to Be You” by Helen Forrest and Dick Haymes; and “Smoke on the Water” by Red Foley.