The Dying Animals Lash Out; Kamikazes and the Bulge

December, 1944 to March, 1945

Operation Watch on the Rhine: Utterly surprising all the Allied High Command, (except Patton whose quick OODA loop; Observation - Orientation - Decision - Action, is reflected in his HQ staff performance), Germany's 5^th and 6^th Panzer Armies, with a combined strength of twenty-four divisions, burst through the heavily wooded Ardennes. In what had been a very quiet sector, Model's Army Group B strikes at Middleton's weakly held area in the Ardennes from Monschau to Echternach, across a front more than fifty miles wide. The initial attack rolls straight through the American lines in a two pronged assault with the objective of converging at Antwerp. Sepp Dietrich Leads the 6^th Panzer Army in the primary thrust west, out of the north, near Monschau, and Butgenbach, while Von Manteuffel's 5^th Panzer Army attacks on Dietrich's left flank, through St. Vith and further south, toward Bastogne, near the extreme southern end of the offensive.

The name of the German operation (Watch on the Rhine) was part of a Nazi deception plan. This was to lull the Allies into thinking that the forces concentrated near Bonn were there to oppose an anticipated American breakthrough and subsequent attack on Cologne and Bonn. Communications security by the Germans prevented Ultra from intercepting any information about the planned attack. James Lucas, in his book, "Kommando" describes the German operation "Watch on the Rhine" as making "...as much sense as driving up a cul-de-sac at full speed". The operation cost the Germans close to 100,000 casualties, with another 16,000 lost as prisoners of war.

Nine special forces infiltration groups are used by the Germans, with as much captured American equipment as they can make work. Using about three hundred and fifty soldiers, of whom about fifty could speak English, these groups are to sow confusion in the American rear areas. Their biggest success is the psychological damage they do to the confidence of the U.S. troops. Concerns for their personal security wind up keeping both Bradley and Eisenhower in semi-seclusion for about a week.

The Luftwaffe's fuel shortage delays their deployment of paratroopers by twenty-four hours. Just as other combat zones were stripped of armor, so too were they denuded of aerial protection. Nearly twenty-three hundred aircraft have been dedicated to support the operation, along with some twenty-five hundred tanks and self propelled guns.

Opposing the northern thrust is the U.S. 2^nd Infantry Division, defending the Roer river dams, with the 99^th Infantry closest to them on their right flank. To the south, are the 14^th Cavalry, the green 106^th; (in place for only four days), and the exhausted 28^th Division, recently pulled out of the Hürtgen Forest for a rest. Further south is the 4^th Infantry Division, some of whom had also been engaged in the Hürtgen fighting, and are refitting along with the 28^th. Between the 28^th and the 4^th, are pieces of the 9^th Armored.

With forecasts for continued bad weather, the Germans hope to reach Antwerp before Allied aerial superiority can play a decisive role. This will eliminate the port as source of supply to the allies, and split their forces in two.

Colonel Mark Devine's 14^th Cavalry Group, charged with the defense of the Losheim Gap between the 99^th Division in the north and the raw recruits of the 106^th in the south, is hit by the leading edge of the 5^th Panzer Army's offensive. After a few hours, the Cavalrymen are routed, and the 106^th is threatened immediately with encirclement in their very first combat operation. The 7^th Armored Division is detailed to move south, to St. Vith, and reinforce the 106^th. The commander of the 106^th; General Jones, doesn't hear 8^th Corps' order authorizing the withdrawal of two of his Regiments; the 422^nd, and 423^rd, and so he keeps them both in position, under German attack. The third Regiment; the 424^th, is to the north, expecting to receive help from 7^th Division the next day. The commander of 7^th Armored; the newly promoted General Bruce Clark, sends his division south from Maastrict in two columns; about seven miles apart from each other, and then sets off for Bastogne, south of St. Vith.

That night, Bradley's Chief of Staff, General Allen, calls Patton to transfer the 10^th Armored Division on Third Army's northern flank, to First Army's 8^th Corps.

The 6^thSS Panzer Army, after rolling through Honsfeld, has caused the remains of the 14^th Cavalry to break west in sheer panic, leaving all of their equipment behind. The 7^th Armored division is trying to move south to help the 28^th Division; already worn out from their fight in the Hürtgen, and the virginal 106^th Division. Their progress is slowed by fleeing troops from the 14^th Cavalry near Honsfeld, while German troops succeed in cutting the road further south.

South of Malmédy, the eastern column of the 7^th Armored runs smack dab into the 1^stSS Panzer Division, and is stopped cold in its effort to continue on south. As the vanguard of the German division continues west, American prisoners are rounded up from the surrounding woods. By the end of the day; in three separate actions, at least one hundred and fifty-five U.S. soldiers that had been taken prisoner have been executed by the 1^stSS Panzer Division.

(West Point Military History Series, "Europe and the Mediterranean" page 380. The murder of prisoners by this division continues, accounting for the deaths of about 350 American prisoners, and 100 unarmed Belgian civilians. One of the division's second level commanders, Colonel Joachim Peiper, was convicted of war crimes for the executions. His death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, but he was released in 1957. He moved to France, where he was murdered on July 14, 1976 when his home was attacked and firebombed.
There is some question as to who was in command of the Division at the time of the executions. Mitcham's work in "Hitler's Legions" suggests it may have been SS Lt. General Theodor Wisch, while most assume that it was SS Major General Wilhelm Mohnke. After the war, Mohnke was believed to have passed away, but when a signed photograph of him appeared it was noticed that the ink was of a type common to felt tip pens; an instrument not developed until well after he was thought to have expired after his release from aRussian prison in 1955. He was found in semi-seclusion in Germany, but I have not found any interviews with him. Patton writes on page 160, that Wisch was in command, and that Mohnke was then an SS Oberst, or Colonel. On August 18, 1996, Dateline NBC ran a story on Mohnke who was then living in Germany, and had never been indicted.)

 The Germans of the 18^th Volksgrenadier Division succeed in encircling the 422^nd and 423^rd Regiments of the 106^th Division in an area called the Snow Eiffel in western Germany, as their lead elements complete a pincer movement, linking up at Schoenberg. The 106^th's Recon troop is destroyed as they search for an exit, and only some five hundred soldiers of the Divisional Headquarters holds St. Vith. There, General Jones hands off the defense of the town to the more experienced General Clark from 7^th Armored, whose advance elements are now starting to arrive in the town.

The attacks of the 2^nd Infantry are halted, and preparations are made to assist the 99^th Division, defending the Elsenborn Ridge against 6^thSS Panzer Army, already six miles behind 2^nd Infantry's front lines.

Elements of 10^th Armored Division from 3^rd Army, move north to help anchor the 4^th Division around Echternach.

The German paratroopers, delayed in their jump off by fuel shortages, are now scattered by high winds. Of the one hundred and fifty aircraft sent aloft with the troops, a mere ten planes actually reach their target zone; the road to Elsenborne; already being used to move U.S. troops south.

In China, 20^th Bomber Command launches a raid at Major General Claire Chennault's request. Eighty-four B-29 bombers are loaded with incendiary weapons (fire bombs), and sent to the Chinese port city of Hankow. Three miles of the Chinese waterfront are consumed by the resultant flames, which continue to smolder even five days after the attack.

One of the two U.S. regiments trapped behind the Germans who have linked up at Schoenberg; the 422^nd, sheds its heavy equipment and tries to assemble for an attack east, toward St. Vith. Attempting to regain contact with their headquarters and breakout from their pocket, most of them get lost in the forest. The other regiment; the 423^rd, attacks toward Schoenfeld, believing that the 7^th Armored Division is at St. Vith and is attacking Schoenfeld from that town as well. In fact, 7^th Armored is not yet fully assembled for an attack, and the Germans stop the 423^rd's attack about a mile short of Schoenfeld.

The 28^th Infantry, along with those elements of the 9^th Armored attached to them, withdraw to the southwest, under attack from the German 7^th Army, under Brandenberger. Isolated in the middle are remnants of 14^th Cavalry, the 106^th, and one regiment from the 28^th. The road to Bastogne, which is held only by the headquarters staff of Middleton's 8^th Corps (billets held by men that Patton had re-trained as riflemen, before sending them into combat), is now clear for the Germans. Later in the day, some tanks of the 10^th Armored Division, just released from the Third Army, arrive to help hold the town, and around midnight, the 101^st Airborn starts to arrive by truck.

Six miles west of St. Vith, the rest of Clark's Shermans are engaged with Von Manteuffel's Panthers and Tigers, and are in no position to assist anyone.

Patton is ordered to suspend 3^rd Army's planned attack to the east, in order to concentrate on the German counterattack against First Army.

In the Philippines, a typhoon blows up off Luzon, so severe that three U.S. destroyers are swamped. Seven hundred and ninety American sailors loose their lives to an implacable enemy; the weather. ^{(Rohwer & Hummelchen, "Chronology..." page 320. These are Spence, Hull, and Monaghan. TF38 and its support group is badly damaged by the gale, losing 146 aircraft as well. The planned attacks on Luzon for the 19th through the 21st are canceled.)}

In the early morning, the balance of the 101^st Airborn Division, along with a pick-up force of men from the 28^th Division arrives at Bastogne to help Middleton's 8^th Corps HQ troops defend that area against 5^th Panzer Army's 47^th Panzer Corps.

Patton is directed by Eisenhower to take command of the battle as soon as possible. Patton promises to attack with 4^th Armored, and the 26^th and 80^th Infantry Divisions in just three days; on the 22^nd. In fact, the 4^th Armored is already in motion for the move north.

With the US 2^nd and 99^th Divisions emplaced and the flanks anchored by the 1^st and 9^th Infantry Divisions, Dietrich's tanks are cut off from the road network they need north of Butgenbach. Without access to these roads, it is doubtful if they can ever reach Liege, much less Antwerp.

In the late afternoon, approximately eight thousand American troops with the 422 and 423 Regiments of the 106^th Division surrender to the Germans. Random soldiers escape into the woods to evade capture, some one thousand of them continuing to wage a guerrilla war against the German supply routes in the area. Some of these under the command of a Lt. Fisher Wood.^{(Charles Whiting, "Death of a Division" ©1980, Charles Whiting, Stein and Day, N.Y. On page xviii of the introduction to his book, Mr. Whiting cites these loss figures as having their source in the Department of the Army's published accounts of the 106th's fate. See also pages 96--97 for Lt. Wood's war.)}

The first U.S. combat aircraft land on Mindoro Island in the Philippines.

With his northern thrust blunted, Model shifts the focus of his offensive south, to Von Manteuffel's 5^th Panzer Army.

The 28^th Divisional HQ, after falling back toward Wiltz, and then being assaulted by the Germans is so disorganized and fragmented, that, for all practical purposes, it ceases to exist.

With Bradley's 12^th Army Group nearly cut in half, the 9^th Army, and most of 1^st Army, are now out of touch with Bradley's command post in Luxembourg. These are temporarily placed under the command of Montgomery in the north, leaving Bradley's 12^th Army Group with only Third Army and those units of First Army that are south of the Bulge. The British Second Tactical Air Force similarly assumes control over the U.S. 9^th and 29^th Tactical Air Commands, in order to better coordinate close air support.

(Illustrative of the disdain Patton holds for Montgomery, he comments that the loss of these U.S. troops to the British leader may have been Ike's only way of preventing Monty from regrouping again.)

Five hundred more American troops encircled in the Snow Eiffel since the 16^th, surrender to the Germans.

Bastogne is surrounded by the Germans, as Brigadier General Anthony C. McAuliffe is ordered to defend the city at all cost.

Late at night, General Clark decides he cannot hold St. Vith, and orders it evacuated. The defense of the town has already thrown off the German time table by three days; they were to have taken St. Vith on the day after the offensive began; not nearly a week later. The 7^th Armored continues to withdraw, taking stragglers from other units with them, across the Salm river, through the newly arrived 82^nd Airborn Division.

In the Philippines, American troops close a circle around the bulk of the Japanese 35^th Army in northwestern Leyte.

Third Army sends three divisions into an attack north, toward Bastogne; the 80^th, 26^th, and 4^th Armored, far more quickly than what most believed was possible. The 26^th Division encounters the German 5^th parachute Division, and in the fierce fighting that follows, the Germans begin to run short of ammunition, and urgently request more anti-tank weapons.

General McAuliffe passes into American folklore as he responds to a German ultimatum for his surrender of the 101^st Airborn Division with a single word; "Nuts".

As the weather begins to clear, Allied airpower begins to resupply the isolated troops at Bastogne, and to attack the spearheads of the German salient. Patton's offensive is being counterattacked, and progress is slow.

U-486 sinks a U.S. troop transport, Leopoldville, off Cherbourg, killing eight hundred and nineteen men as she goes under.

The U.S. 8^th Air Force launches an unbelievable one thousand, nine hundred bombers, along with a similar number of fighter escorts, to attack targets inside Germany. The Luftwaffe, having focused its remaining strength around the fighters, sends up some eight hundred planes to intercept. These are largely unsuccessful, and lose a hundred of their number in the ensuing battle that downs less than one per cent of the bombers.

Elements of the 77^th Infantry Division land at Palompan, effectively sealing off the Japanese 35^th Army, and securing the Phillipine island of Leyte. Their formal defeat not withstanding, individual soldiers and small units of Japanese will continue to resist for several more months. The mud and rain on Leyte hampers engineering efforts to build the airbases required for the support of future operation against Luzon, allowing the northern island's defenses to be built up by the Japanese.

The U.S. 2^nd Armored Division attacks the 2^nd Panzer Division at the leading edge of the strike force, around the town of Celles, four miles from the Muese river. East of these battles, the 2^ndSS Panzer Division is engaged by the U.S. 3^rd Armored Division, stopping that unit's drive north to Namur.

The 5^th Division, fighting at the southern base of the Bulge, has pushed the Germans in their area back to the Sauer river.

The 101^st Airborn is still fighting off German reinforcements at Bastogne, including some eighteen German tanks that have managed to pierce the division's defenses.

Montgomery is unable to attack with First Army, declaring it to be too weak to attack for three months, and advocates a withdrawal as far as the Moselle, if necessary, to allow a transfer of additional units to Third Army's offensive.

(See Patton, "War as I Knew It", page 157, where Patton recounts a conversation with Bradley about the most unsatisfactory behavior and opinions of Montgomery.)

Elements of the U.S. 8^th Army are put ashore at various places in the San Bernadino Straights area, as the Americans clear the Visayan passages of Japanese resistance.

One German and two Italian Divisions take to the offensive on the western coast of Italy toward Leghorn, badly beating the U.S. 92^nd Division.

After advancing sixty miles into the American rear areas, the 2^nd Panzer Division's attack is stopped at Celles.

Towards evening, the lead elements from 3^rd Army's relief force, under General Gaffey, cut a narrow path through the German lines and fight their way through to Bastogne.

Bradley visits Eisenhower and Montgomery, pressing for the return of the U.S. forces to himself. Neither he nor Patton believe the British will be suitably aggressive with the forces under their control.

The 8^th Indian Division, placed behind the 92^nd, probably as a result of Ultra intelligence, backs up the failed American unit, stopping the German advance on Italy's west coast.

The 39^th Panzer Corps is transferred from the Bulge, south to Alsace Lorraine, to take part in a new offensive; Operation Norwind, aimed at the overextended lines of General Dever's 6^th Army Group.

Hitler orders a renewed offensive against Bastogne, which is stopped only by the coincidentally simultaneous assault of two newly arrived Divisions from 3^rd Army; the 87^th and the 11^th Armored. Both of these units were delayed in reaching their jump-off points, and General Middleton's request for a one day postponement has been rejected by Patton. Both go into the attack with virtually no respite from their advance, and unexpectedly run into the flank of the German counterattack, successfully breaking up the assault. Two further German Divisions attack from the northeast towards Bastogne.

Montgomery, unrelentingly pushing for total control over Bradley's Army Group for his single strategic thrust concept, has finally pushed Eisenhower's buttons to the max. Montgomery's Chief of Staff; DeGuingand, is made aware of Ike's intention to present the Combined Chiefs of Staff with an ultimatum to either dismiss Montgomery or accept his own resignation. DeGuingand then goes to work on both Eisenhower and Monty, effecting a reconciliation between the two, prior to Ike's ultimatum. The harmony lasts only a few weeks.

American troops on Mindoro begin to leap-frog up both the east and west coastlines of that island, just south of Luzon.

Operation Groundplate: After being forced to watch his painstakingly formed fighter reserve torn from him and handed over to the bomber commanders, Galland is also powerless to halt the series of ground attacks now launched by Peltz' remaining aircrews in the west. Striking at continental Allied airstrips, the attacks destroy many British and American tactical aircraft, but cost two hundred and thirty-seven Luftwaffe pilots, eighteen of them squadron commanders or higher. Men who had been trained for their role in interceptors; not as ground attack pilots.

(I have come across three radically different accounts of Allied aircraft destroyed in the raids. One claims only 134 planes destroyed, a second ups that to 156, while a third puts the tally at 214. Whatever the true number, the attack marks the end of the Luftwaffe's efforts to concentrate a massive fighter force to defend German industrial and residential areas from Allied bombing.

A footnote passage on page 638 of Warlimont's "Inside Hitler's Headquarters", clearly details Hitler's poor understanding of aerial combat when, in conversation with two Luftwaffe officers, he extrapolates from a single raid's loss data that, at best, he would need 2,600 aircraft to shoot down 200 bombers. This explains his willingness to release Galland's fighter reserve for ground attack missions, as well as his obsession with the Me-262 "Blitz Bomber" variant.. Quote: "In other words there's not a hope that, even if we employ aircraft en masse, we can really break the enemy up. It's lunacy to go on producing these aircraft just to let the Luftwaffe juggle with figures!". This passage is dated November 6, 1944, and also coincides with Von Greim's statements concerning the replacement of Göring as head of the Luftwaffe.)

Operation Norwind: The German 1^st Army attacks Patch's 7^th Army along the western bank of the Rhine, where they are holding the positions vacated by Third Army, as well as their own perimeter. Sixth Army Group, under General Devers, is ordered to withdraw from its position inside Germany, in order to shorten up the defensive lines. Seventh Army, along with the First French Army, under DeLattre, is to pull back to the base of the Vosges mountains, abandoning the city of Strasbourg in Alsace-Lorraine. After having just patched up his relationship with one Allied General, another, DeGaulle, now breaks ranks with Eisenhower, and orders the French to advance into Strasbourg, and defend the city. This prompts another crisis in the Allied coalition, with both Generals threatening to cut the other off. Ike uses the threat of withdrawing U.S. material support from DeGaulle, who counters with the threat of cutting off Ike's access to French rail and logistics support.

Japanese troops abandon their positions in Akyab, on the Burmese coast. General Slim's troops do not move into the village until the 4^th.

Colonel Franzl Lützow, son of Germany's famous W.W.I veteran, Admiral Lützow, addresses a private meeting with Colonel "Macky" Steinhoff and a handful of other senior Luftwaffe fighter commanders to discuss ways to eliminate Göring from the Luftwaffe. (Steinhoff; one of the Luftwaffe's leading aces, was very badly burned at the end of the war when his Me-262 crashed on take-off, later rose to be Chief of Staff of the post-war German Air Force. He accompanied President Reagan on his visit to a German military cemetery before the reunification of Germany. Steinhoff, in his autobiography, unfortunately refers to several people using only initials to obfuscate their identity.) Galland is subsequently called in to confer with the group, who have all been infuriated and disgraced by Göring's accusations of cowardice. They agree to try and find a way to use theSS to oust the Reichsmarshall, and failing that, to go to Colonel-General Ritter Von Greim; the commander of Luftflotte 6 (formerly "Luftwaffe Command East"). The last resort is to face Göring personally, and confront him with their objections to the way he has handled the Luftwaffe, in the hope that they may still convince him of the value of concentrating the Reich's dwindling resources in the fighter arm. (In June of '45, Von Greim will commit suicide, while still a prisoner. Alfred Price, "Luftwaffe Handbook", page 92)

(Johannes Steinhoff, "The Final Hours", pages 66--77. © 1985, Steinhoff. The date that I have assigned to this meeting is an approximation. The date selected is based on a passage on page 66, where he states, "We met in Oberst Trautloft's hunting lodge on the edge of the wannsee late one grey January afternoon." Had it been New Year's day, I suspect he would have remarked on it, so I exclude Jan. 1 from possibility. After explaining how Galland expressed that he wished NOT to be included in the meeting, he goes on to say on page 73, "It was growing late. The discussion had tired us all and the apparent hopelessness of our undertaking depressed us... 'We ought to get the General here', someone said." The next paragraph immediately begins with, "Galland sat silent for a long time after Lützow had finished his résumé of our plans." This suggests a lapse of some time, locating Galland at a late hour, and reviewing their meeting before hearing him out. On page 77 we learn that the meeting with an SS officer; Obergruppenführer O., is set for January 4. I therefore believe that the meeting occurred on Jan.2, and the appointment with the SS officer was made on the 3rd, for the following day. Galland throws in his lot with the group, since, in his opinion, he will be branded the ringleader in any event.)

American forces land on tiny Marinduque Island, north of Mindoro, but still south of Luzon.

General Hodges' First Army attacks into the German salient from the north, beginning a slow but steady march to the south.

A final assault on Bastogne is begun by the Germans, only to be repulsed the following day.

Eisenhower and DeGaulle meet to resolve their differences. DeGaulle has become the de-facto; if self-declared, head of the French government. He has threatened Eisenhower with the loss of access to French rail transportation, as well as the separation of French troops from the Alliance. Eisenhower has threatened to cut off all American supplies to the French troops. In the end, Ike caves in to the Frenchman, as will the American government in later months over the re-establishment of French colonialism in Indo-China.

As U.S. ships begin to form up for the largest amphibious operation of the Pacific; the invasion of Luzon, Japanese pilots from shore installations fly kamikaze missions into the ships. The escort carrier Ommaney Bay is lost on the first of eight days of such attacks.

Steinhoff, and two associates from the January 2^nd meeting, (These are only identified as "Major Br." and "Hauptmann K.") meet with anSS officer to see if they can use theSS to help rid the Luftwaffe of Göring. The meeting soon degenerates into a political confrontation, and as if administering a coup-de-gras, theSS officer plays a recording of one of General Galland's phone calls from Albert Speer! The Luftwaffe men beat a hasty retreat, now knowing that they are all under suspicion and observation.

Nine American ships are struck by the Kamikaze pilots in the Pacific.

A German division from 14^thSS Corps crosses the Rhine about fifteen miles north of Strasbourg, and establishes a firm bridgehead.

The battleship New Mexico is hit by a kamikaze during an attack that damages fifteen other ships. The waves of suicide aircraft continue to come for four days. Then the Japanese switch tactics, and begin to send in suicide boats against the Lingayan Gulf invasion fleet.

The German 64^th Corps, at Rhinau, inside the Colmar pocket, some twenty-two miles south of Strasbourg, mount a breakout attempt to the north. This makes slow progress against the Allied ring, and begins to draw additional units to the area. Further north, a two division attack is launched around the town of Hatten.

Hitler authorizes the units inside the Bulge to begin a withdrawal, east of the Ourthe River. Sixth Panzer Army is then prepped for transfer to the Russian Front.

Four American divisions land on the beaches of the Lingayan Gulf, and immediately begin to move south, and inland.

The Eastern Front erupts with a new Soviet Offensive from the Baronov bridgehead, south of Warsaw, across the Vistula. More than a thousand German armored vehicles are immediately lost in the attack; many because they are without fuel. (The fuel shortage in Germany is so severe that aircraft are being pulled into takeoff position on runways by pack animals, rather than waste the precious fluid taxiing, or using the small tractors specifically designed for the task.) Two avenues of attack are used by the Soviets. The first is toward Krakow and central Poland; the other, in East Prussia, toward Ebenhausen, Schlossberg, Memel, and Tilsit. (These place are now Slavst, Niman, Klaypedia and Sovetsk. ^{Steinhoff, page 86.})

Colonels Lützow and Steinhoff, after their rebuke by the SS, meet with Ritter Von Greim to try and convince him that Göring ought to be replaced. After joining Von Greim at 3^rd Air Fleet Headquarters in Litzmannstadt; (The German name for Lodz, in Poland) for a situation report on the Eastern Front, and the progress of the fresh Russian offensive, Von Greim remarks, "It may equally-and this is what I am inclined to think myself-be the beginning of the end....". Von Greim sympathizes with the fliers, but explains that it is much too late to do anything about it now. The VVS already outnumbers Luftwaffe aircraft about 10 to 1. The 567 German fighters on the Russian front now face more than 6,000 VVS fighters. In September, he says, Hitler had begun to go around Göring, and was preparing Von Greim to take over operationally, but that Göring had managed to convince Hitler to scrap the plan. He reiterates his belief that the current Soviet offensive means the end of the war. He also warns the men that he was told of their approach in advance, (by General Koller; Chief of the Luftwaffe General Staff), in essence putting them on notice that they are being very carefully watched. (Steinhoff, page 86.)

The Japanese have been taking a fearful toll of American shipping off the Philippine islands of Luzon and Mindoro. Twenty-four U.S. ships have already been sunk, and another sixty-seven have been damaged by the suicidal attacks.

A fresh American attack is made on the town of Houffalize, north of Bastogne, where the Germans are still holding on to some of the territory so dearly won during the Bulge fighting.

The Soviet 1^st Byelorussian Front follows on the heels of First Ukrainian Front, breaking out of the Vistula area, in what the Russians hope will be the final offensive of the war.

The 3^rd Air Fleet can manage a mere forty-two sorties against the new Russian attacks on the Eastern Front. The VVS, on the other hand, supports their ground troops with some three thousand-four hundred sorties.

In northern Belgium, Montgomery orders his British 12^th Corps to eliminate a bulge in his lines held by the 12^thSS Corps, known as the Roermond Triangle. Attacking north, from Linnich to Sittard, across a twelve mile front, the British succeed in pushing the Germans back toward the Roer River.

U.S. troops from either side of the Bulge meet up at the town of Houffalize, as the remaining Germans withdraw east. The reduction of the Bulge allows Bradley to resume command of a unified 12^th Army Group, with 3^rd, 9^th and 1^st Armies.

Warsaw is abandoned by the Germans in the face of the renewed Soviet offensive.

Units of the Geman 1^st Army , attacking south near Sessenheim, move toward the bridgehead established by Wiese's 19^th Army around Drusenheim.

Sixty-two B-29's from the 21^st Air Force in the Marianas strike at the Kawasaki aircraft production plant near the village of Akash. The attack is very successful, in that it destroys 90% of the plant's ability to produce aircraft; the first such strategic success with the big bomber thus far. Because the attack is on a new target, the Japanese were unprepared to oppose the bombers with the same kind of force that they have been able to send up over Tokyo or Nagoya.

General Sultan's units join up with mainland Chinese troops and reopen the Burma Road supply line into China. The first truck convoy from India to China rolls soon afterwards, arriving in Kunming on Feb. 4.

General Curtis LeMay takes over the 21^st Bomber Command in the Marianas from General Hansall. Replacing LeMay as head of 20^th Bomber Command, is Brigadier General Roger Ramey, formerly Chief of Staff to Hansall.

The Russian First Guards Tank Army overruns the Polish city of Lodz, and are now within about seventy-five miles of the German border. Zhukov's troops are now within a hundred miles of Berlin.

General Devers orders the French 1^st Army to reduce the German salient at Colmar to ruins, and an attack with six divisions; five French and one U.S., is begun. Later, they will be joined by 7^th Army's 21^st Corps, as the German resistance withstands attack after attack.

A very secretly very ill President Roosevelt is inaugurated for his fourth term in office. He has dumped his previous running mate and Vice-President; Wallace, amid rumors of Wallace's association with the communists, in favor of a man he is not quite so familiar with; Harry Truman.

The German 1^st and 19^th Armies join up in the Drusenheim bridgehead, but the troopers from Rhinau cannot breakthrough to Strasbourg, and are still some thirteen miles south of that city, as the French resistance stiffens.

Truk comes under attack by the 21^st Bomber Command, which sends thirty-three of their B-29's to attack the harbor.

Sixth Panzer Army, after withdrawing from the Ardennes battles, is refitted as best as possible, and committed to action on the Russian Front, with its complement of armor reduced to one hundred and twenty-eight tanks.

North of Diekirch, the U.S. 19^th Tactical Air Command destroys thousands of German vehicles.

Patton urges Bradley to order all the Armies to continue to advance, regardless of the achievement of objectives.

Shaef Headquarters transfers the 35^th Division, in combat with virtually no rest since early July, from Third Army to the 7^th Army, to help reduce the Colmar Pocket.

Iwo Jima is attacked by twenty-eight B-29's.

In a meeting with Patton and Hodges to plan 12^th Army Group's renewed attack into the Siegfried Line, Bradley is interrupted by another request from SHAEF to send a Corps Headquarters to 6^th Army Group as well as the 35^th Division. Bradley refuses, claiming that such a move would cripple his strategic operation to attack to the Rhine.

First and Second Byelorussian Fronts succeed in cutting off the German troops remaining in East Prussia, and the Nazis begin to evacuate by ship. Many of these are lost to mines and Russian submarines. ^{(Sommerville, "World War II, Day by Day", page 282.)}

At Haguenau, west of Drusenheim, the German 1^st Army mounts another attack south, against the extreme right flank of Patch's 7^th Army.

Guderian, as OKH Chief of Staff, meets with Von Ribbentrop. The Foreign Minister refuses to join Guderian in requesting Hitler to seek a negotiated peace.

The 12^thSS Corps, under 15^th Army, is backed up all the way to the Roer River, as Montgomery "tidies up" his front.

The Red Army has advanced to the point where they liberate the remaining skeletons not yet dead from abuse at the cluster of installations known as Auschwitz. Despite frantic efforts by the Nazis to burn and destroy evidence of the systematic annihilation of selected elements of humankind, six of the thirty-five buildings holding the personal effects of those murdered remain intact, as do six rail cars loaded with similar contents, stopped before completing their journey to the Reich.

Seventy-six B-29's take off from the Marianas to bomb Japan, and are met by more than 300 Japanese interceptors. Despite this maximum effort along the lines of the "Big Blow" that Galland had hoped to launch, only nine of the big bombers are lost. An estimated sixty Japanese aircraft are destroyed, ending the Japanese ability to ever mount a similar offensive.

Seventh Army's 6^th Corps halts the German attack in southern France, and begins to reverse the course of the offensive.

Clark Field on Luzon is recaptured by American troops.

Fresh U.S. troops are put ashore on Luzon's west coast, northwest of Bataan, and move to cut off any Japanese withdrawal to the peninsula.

Bradley's 12^th Army Group begins to move east again, with Third Army crossing the Our River.

Albert Speer, now Germany's Armaments Minister, sends a message to Hitler declaring that the loss of Silesia's mineral resources to the Russians means that the war is lost. There will not be enough coal or steel to keep the Nazi dogs of war fed. German industrial production is already down 80% from its highs established in mid 1944.

The U.S. 11^th Airborn Division lands at Nesugbu, to contain any Japanese forces south of Manila.

As Patton's 3^rd Army renews its march to the east, the U.S. 4^th Infantry Division takes the German village of Elcherrath; the first such offensive action since Watch on the Rhine. Once again, U.S. troops enter the Hürtgen forest, this time to significantly less opposition.

Eisenhower orders Bradley's 12^th Army Group and Dever's 6^th Army Group, to halt all offensive action in the Ardennes, except the battles for control of the Roer river dams. This allows Ike to shift strength and supplies north, to Montgomery.

Chuikov's 8^th Guards Army begins to cross over the Oder River, just north of Frankfurt, after bypassing a pocket of German resistance around Poznan. The German capitol, Berlin, is a mere forty miles distant.

The Combined Chiefs of Staff adopt Eisenhower's plan for crossing the Rhine with a strong British and American force, under Montgomery, north of the Ruhr. Ninth Army is thus transferred to Monty's 21^st Army Group, for the attack tentatively planned for the tenth of February. A supporting attack is to be launched in the area around Frankfurt.

Gerow's 5^th Corps renews the American assault to seize the Roer dams.

The 1^st Cavalry Division enters Manila, after driving a hundred miles through Japanese resistance. At the University of Santo Tomas, they liberate four thousand prisoners of war. Further south, elements of the 11^th Airborn Division parachute onto Tagaytay Ridge, and begin to drive north to Manila.

In another huge bombing attack on Berlin, the escorting fighters are unchallenged by the Luftwaffe, and launch their own ground attacks. Some estimate that twenty-five thousand Berliners die in this attack alone. One of the thousands of bombs dropped destroys the courthouse used for the July 20 Bomb Plot trials, destroying many of Judge Freisler's records of who was arrested and executed. (I found one estimate that nearly 5,000 were executed and another 2,000 incarcerated on the pretext of having been involved with the plotters.) Freisler is injured in the attack, which occurs during the trail of Fabian Von Schlabrendorff, and the Judge subsequently dies. Fate thus keeps the conspirator alive long enough to be eventually freed by the arrival of American forces, but not before he suffers immense, medieval tortures. ^{(See Butler, "Illustrated History of the Gestapo" On page 171, some of these are detailed.)}

Manila becomes the scene of house to house fighting, as Japanese naval troops fight to their death.

The first supply truck convoy to use the newly reopened Burma Road , arrives safely in Kunming.

Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill all meet at Yalta, in the Crimea, while Russian troops nearing Frankfurt pause to refit after a three hundred mile advance. At this meeting the soon to be defeated nations are broken up into zones of occupation for each of the major powers.

B-29's from Tinian and Saipan attack Kobe, Japan, testing new types of incendiary bombs. The 20^th Air Force has been unsuccessful in ending the industrial output from Kobe and many other Japanese industrial areas for a variety of reasons. The Japanese tended to disperse work among many smaller shops, rather than fewer larger ones. The gremlins with the new bomber were being exacerbated by the discovery of the jet-stream winds over Japan, and the bad weather of the recent weeks. As the U.S. commanders looked for ways to solve the problem, they realized that they could burn entire sections of Japanese cities to the ground fairly easily, using small incendiary weapons to ignite the light Japanese residential construction. The prospect of thus killing much of the Japanese workforce, inducing many more to flee the area, would effectively end industrial output in those areas. This particular experiment is less than fully successful.

The Germans around Colmar are now trapped by the French and Americans who encircle them by joining up at Rauffach. Some German units escape back across Rhine, but do so only after incurring heavy losses.

Revisiting the scene of last autumn's heavy fighting, units from Middleton's 8^th Corps attack the town of Brandscheid. The results are very different. Instead of losing twenty-six hundred casualties, the Americans suffer only forty-three killed or wounded, as the Volksgrenadiers surrender.

The Germans are not quite ready to yield Brandscheidt; as the 5^th Parachute division counterattacks the U.S. troops. After two hours of close combat in the town center, the Americans prevail.

Three separate U.S. divisions try to cross the Sauer River. The virgin 76^th Infantry division is mauled by the German defenders as they cross; suffering 50% casualties in their first action, but they secure a toehold on the opposite bank. Further north, elements of both the 80^th and the 5^th Divisions are thrown back to the Luxembourg shoreline by the Germans. The battle continues for several days, without a really secure bridgehead being established.

Operation Veritable: After a concentrated air operation to isolate the area in front of the British 30^th Corps and the Canadian First Army, allied artillery begins a five and a half hour barrage of German positions along a front of some seven miles. After firing in excess of a HALF MILLION rounds of artillery shells, the Allied army moves southwest along the western bank of the Waal River, which feeds the northern Rhine from Holland.

The Schwammenauel dam across the Roer River is taken by U.S. troops, but the Germans have succeeded in destroying the controls; insuring that the area down river will flood. The tactic succeeds in delaying the start of the American 9^th Army's offensive south of "Veritable" for two weeks, allowing the Germans to concentrate their reserves in the north, against Montgomery's troops. The southwesterly attack by the British stalls at the town of Cleves, amid the rubble left in the wake of the Allied bombers.

The Allies finally succeed in eliminating the Colmar pocket and advance to the Rhine, as far south as the Swiss border.

Iwo Jima is again attacked by B-29's from the 21^st Bomber Command.

Bradley is forced to tell Patton that he will soon have to go over to the defensive in order that more supplies can be sent north to Montgomery for Eisenhower's offensive. Both Generals are disgusted over the situation. Bradley refers to the offensive by Montgomery as SHAEF's biggest mistake of the war. Patton insists that he will ask to be relieved of command before telling his men to assume a defensive posture.

The long nightmare of the city of Dresden begins. This first attack on the city uses incendiary bombs to start the city burning. Over the next two days, many more attacks will be made, creating another firestorm. The tremendous inferno generated by the attack sucks all the oxygen out of the air, suffocating those who are not roasted to death. The rising plume of superheated air creates its own draft along the ground, sucking cooler air in towards the center, fanning the flames, and turning the entire city into a massive blast furnace. So long as there remains combustible material in the center of the furnace, the air rushing in from the perimeter feeds the flames as if there were an immense bellows pumping air into the pyrogenics. When the fires finally burn themselves out, an estimated one hundred thousand civilians have been vaporized.

With the Allied attack focused on the northern sector, Third Army in the south must now be resupplied, in part, by air drops.

The newly formed 11^thSS Panzer Army attacks south against Zhukov's right flank. Zhukov redirects 1^st and 2^nd Guards Tank Armies to the north, and clears the area in about a month.

A Japanese search plane reports finding between seventy and a hundred U.S. warships sailing north, just west of Saipan. This is Task Force 52, sailing for the invasion of Iwo Jima.

The Bataan peninsula is liberated by U.S. troops.

As fighting in Manila continues, US paratroopers drop onto Corregidor, with another battalion assaulting from the sea, reversing the fights of 1942.

Mitscher's tactical aircraft return to Tokyo, hitting the Musashino aircraft engine plant. The attack cost eighty-eight U.S. aircraft, but does damage the engine plant. There are claims by the American airmen that total more than five hundred Japanese aircraft were destroyed.

US amphibious forces assault the Japanese island of Iwo Jima with eight Marine battalions. The twenty-thousand Japanese fight a devastating battle from well prepared defenses. By dawn on the following day, one quarter of the Marines (2,321) will be dead or wounded.

LeMay sends a hundred and fifty of his B-29's back to Musashino, to capitalize on Mitscher's raids. For the seventh time, the bombers fail to destroy the plant. The cloud cover forces the attack to be diverted to Tokyo's port facilities, and LeMay will be forced to attack Musashino again and again.

General Walker, resorting to Patton's "rock soup" tactics, manages to secure the addition of the 10^th Armored Division to his 20^th Corps, in order to clear out the Saar-Moselle Triangle.

Off Iwo Jima, Japanese kamikaze attacks destroy the escort carrier Bismark Sea, and badly damage the fleet carrier, Saratoga, among the other ships attacked.

Operation Grenade: General Simpson's 9^th Army begins its delayed attack across the Roer River. Despite the fact that there are still rising floodwaters, the offensive is launched toward the Rhine, and the Army crosses the Roer with less than eleven hundred total casualties. The army of some three hundred thousand men advances on a wide front toward Düsseldorf and Cologne. First Army, on the 9^th's right, follows with its three corps attacking toward Cologne. After First Army's attacks are well under way, Third Army is to proceed against Coblenz, in the northern part of their sector.

U.S. Marines raise a small American flag atop Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima. The subsequent replacement of this small flag with a larger one atop a pole, has been immortalized as perhaps the most famous image of the Pacific War.

Von Rundstedt requests permission from Hitler to fight a "flexible defense" which is characteristically denied.

Tokyo is bombed by two hundred and thirty-one B-29's carrying incendiaries. The aircraft fail to form up properly for the attack, but one hundred and seventy drop their loads from a variety of altitudes and directions. The snowfall that contributes to the American bombers' difficulty, also prevents the Japanese fighters from rising up to challenge them. For more than an hour and a half, the weapons fall. The chaotic attack still reduces about a square mile of Tokyo to smoldering ruins.

Third Army attacks toward Trier from the north with 76^th Division, and from the south, with 10^th Armored. This is an unauthorized use of 10^th Armored, but Bradley promises to stay away from his phone so as not to have to order Patton to stop. Turning the 10^th Armored north also evades a counterattack from the German 2^nd Mountain Division, who had expected an attack to the southeast.

Corregidor is secured as soldiers from the 41^st Infantry Division land on Palawan. A mere 19 Japanese prisoners have been taken on Corregidor, while more than 5,000 Japanese corpses will be buried.

A German salient between 9^th Army in Germany and the British 2^nd Army in Holland, is allowed to withdraw, just as Simpson's 16^th Corps begins an attack to the town of Venlo, north in Holland, to cut them off.

One of Europe's oldest cities; Trier, falls to 3^rd Army's 10^th Armored Division, with an intact bridge over the Moselle. Walker's rock soup is done.

Okinawa comes under attack by U.S. carrier planes from Mitscher's Task Group, for the first time during the war.

Troops from Simpson's 9^th Army, under Montgomery's Army Group, reach the Rhine river near Düsseldorf on the river's eastern bank.

Manila is declared safe from Japanese resistance.

Slim's forces in Burma get behind the Japanese lines, and cut off their supply line by siezing Meiktila. Allied air superiority allows supplies to be flown in to the men on the ground, at the same time denying that option to the Japanese.

Two divisions of Third Army are across the Kyll River; the 5^th Infantry, and the 10^th Armored.

All the bridges across the Rhine river are being systematically destroyed by the retreating Germans. Ninth Army is poised on the western bank of the Rhine from Rheinberg, south, to Oberkassel.

Operation Lumberjack: Bradley's 12^th Army Group attempts to encircle a large contingent of the German 7^th Army west of the Rhine, with First and Third Armies. Hodges' First Army, which has sent both its 3^rd and 7^th Corps east in order to protect Simpson's southern flank, captures Cologne with units from Collins' 7^th Corps. Further south, Patton's 3^rd Army, which had been making slow progress eastward since February 8, now sprints to the northeast along the Moselle river.

The Germans of 7^th Army flee south, across the Moselle River to evade capture by 12^th Corps. This opens a route to Coblenz at the junction of the Moselle and Rhine Rivers; exposing the southern flank of Model's Army Group B, and 15^th Army.

The U.S. First Army's 9^th Armored Division discovers that the Ludendorff railway bridge across the Rhine at Remagen still stands. Although badly damaged by German demolition efforts, it is still capable of supporting traffic. Tons of men and machines are poured across the bridge, amid repeated German efforts to destroy it. When the bridge does finally collapse on the 17^th, it takes many servicemen with it into the river.

The Dutch resistance, in attempting to steal a German car, happen to wound a senior German Police officer; Hanns Albin Rauter. This one attack leads to the reprisal murder of one hundred and seventeen Dutch citizens on the following day. ^{(Butler, "Illustrated History of the Gestapo" page 180.)}

Sultan's troops retake Lashio from the Japanese in Burma, as they continue to push to the south.

Three hundred and thirty-four B-29's are massed for a giant attack on Tokyo. In order to deliver the biggest punch possible, all machine gun ammunition is removed from the planes, allowing for a larger payload. The bomb run is to be made at 7,000 feet. This also saves added weight, as well as wear and tear on the rather tricky new engines. Either move would have been unthinkable over hotly contested airspace, but the attack puts the bombers over the target during the night, from a variety of directions and altitudes, dramatically reducing the threat of aerial interception. Fuel is so scarce in Japan that fighter planes are not being sent up to do battle with the bombers. Every drop is being hoarded to fuel the "special attack" (suicide) operations.

For three hours the attackers drop incendiary bombs on the city, setting fire to almost a quarter of Tokyo, triggering another firestorm. Entire city blocks are ignited by the wave of heat preceding the flame front. One bomber crew reported seeing doors and debris being hurled to eight thousand feet by the high winds generated by the fire. An estimated eighty-four thousand people are killed in the horrible flames. Some seeking shelter along the river banks are drowned when the press of humanity behind them trying to escape the incinerator forces them into the water. Bombers returning to base, later report being able to still see the flames of Tokyo a hundred miles behind them. Sixteen square miles of the city are reduced to ash.

Similar attacks will be repeated time and again in an effort to force a Japanese capitulation before an invasion of the Home Islands becomes necessary. Should that develop, some planners estimate that U.S. casualties could run as high as a million men.

The Japanese troops in Indo-China attack the increasingly defiant French forces that had been maintaining an uneasy peace alongside them. Demanding that all the French forces be placed under direct Japanese control by the 11^th, the French are caught completely by surprise. Nearly a hundred thousand men are disarmed and incarcerated, leaving only a few thousand in the mountains, who now flee the Nationalist guerrillas, the Communists, and the Japanese. Six thousand eventually arrive in China.

Crerar's First Army (Canadian), clears a German strong point at Wesel.

Von Rundstedt is fired for the last time by Hitler. Replacing him as OB West, is Field Marshal Kesselring.

Nagoya is the next Japanese city struck by the firebombs of the B-29's. Again, nearly three hundred bombers participate, burning up two square miles of that city.

Bao Dai, a descendant of the former Emperors of Vietnam, declares the separate sections of Tonkin and Annam to be reunited as Vietnam, and proclaims himself Emperor. He then rejects the French-Annamite Treaty of 1884, declares Independence for the Kingdom, and joins the Japanese Greater East Asian Nations.

Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia echoes the actions of Bao Dai, adding to the Indo-Chinese alliance with Japan. (Laotian King Sisavang Vong will also join his neighbors in alliance with the Japanese some time in April).

The French resistance to the Japanese attack in the north at Lang Son and Dang Dong, provokes the Japanese 37^th and 22^nd Divisions into "punitive" actions. In these areas, all the French who survived on the field of battle are murdered by the victors.

In Germany, Third Army turns south across the Moselle River, from Coblenz to Trier, in support of Dever's 6^th Army Group. (Patch's 7^th Army and DeLattre's First French Army). They begin to tear through the rear areas of the Germans engaged with 7^th Army along the Siegfried Line.

Osaka is firebombed by the American bombers, destroying eight square miles of that city.

12^th and 20^th Corps commit their armor to exploit the openings in the German defenses created by 3^rd Army's infantry. 7^th Army now moves east, into the German "West Wall" defenses manned by Foertsch's 1^st Army.

In the east, a German counterattack against the Russians near Lake Balaton is halted after it fails to make any inroads against the Red Army's juggernaut.

Kobe is the next Japanese city to suffer the consequences of war with America. The B-29's incinerate nearly three square miles of that city as well.

Third Army is moving very quickly to the south. The German 7^th Army again begins to withdraw to the east, across the Nahe River, to escape encirclement by Patton's Army.

After repeated German assaults on the Ludendorff Bridge, including artillery bombardment and V2 rocket attacks, the Allied gateway into Germany's heartland collapses.

Zhukov's First Guards Tank Army reaches the Baltic Sea at Kolberg, and then turns east along the coast. First Guards Tank Army proceeds to gather up the remains of Army Group Center, which is being compressed into an ever shrinking perimeter around Danzig at the mouth of the Vistula River.

Coblenz is secured by Middleton's 8^th Corps.

The American 8^th Army in the Pacific sends units ashore at Panay, and then Negros Occidental, between Luzon and Mindanao, west of Leyte. Allied carrier aircraft strike targets in southern Japan, as preparations for the invasion of Okinawa continue.

Nagoya is next on the list of B-29 target cities, and another three square miles of Japanese society goes up in flames.

Colonel-General Fromm; former Commander-in-Chief of the Replacement Army during the July 20 Bomb Plot, is executed for not having acted sooner to halt the conspiracy against Hitler.

The Japanese in Burma lose Mandalay to the Allied forces. Slim's troops pursue the defenders south, toward Rangoon. The Japanese no longer present any kind of offensive threat in Burma.

The survivors of Germany's 7^th Army, not yet captured by Patton's men, are authorized by Kesselring to pull back across the Rhine.

After two months in command of Army Group Vistula, Himmler is relieved by Hitler. In his place, Generaloberst Gotthard Heinrici is appointed.

A pocket of German troops is caught between the Moselle and Nahe Rivers by 3^rd Army, about fourteen miles east of Trier. Patch's 7^th Army, attacking north along the Rhine, against Foertsch's 1^st Army, is on the verge of encircling another group west of the river, and Patton's men roll south from Ludwigshaven.

Third Army crosses the Rhine at Oppenheim with 5^th and 90^th Divisions leading the way. The crossing is completed at night, with no aerial or artillery bombardment. The men in Oppenheim are able to launch their boats free of enemy observation, allowing 5^th Division to row across without a fight. They take eleven thousand German prisoners in a single day.^{(Patton, "War as I Knew It" page 210. Third Army's advance has been so swift that General Gerow, now in charge of 15th Army, wired Patton his congratulations on Third Army's having surrounded three armies; one of them American!)}

The Germans manage to withdraw across the Rhine as their First Army escapes from the pincers of 3^rd and 7^th Armies. By the late afternoon, Third Army has already gotten three entire divisions across the river. One of these; 4^th Armored, streaks northeast, to very little opposition.

Operation Plunder: On the opposite end of the Allied line, Montgomery begins his crossing of the Rhine with more than a million men under his command. These forces will flood across the north German plain, and the industrialized Ruhr, while two paratroop divisions are dropped across the river.

The entire length of the Rhine's western bank is in Allied hands; from Switzerland to the Netherlands. The defense of the Rhine has cost the Wehrmacht sixty thousand casualties, and about a quarter million men lost as prisoners of war.

Fourth Armored has reached the Main River, and pauses to plan the morrow's assault crossing.

The British 6^th Airborn Division and the U.S. 17^th Airborn Division both suffer heavy casualties from concentrated anti-aircraft fire in their drop zones near the German border with The Netherlands. On the ground, the infantry advances east to spotty opposition. Two bridgeheads are established across the Rhine, as the ground troops meet up with the paratroops.

The Mitsubishi plant in Nagoya is singled out for demolition by allied planners. The attack is made using 500 lb. general purpose (GP) explosives, rather than an incendiary bomb load. Results of the raid disappoint the planners, who then turn increasingly to area bombing with incendiaries as the most effective way to destroy Japanese targets.

The northern bridgeheads are linked as the combined Allies flow into the Ruhr. Hodges' First Army is authorized to break out from its bridgehead around Remagen, and they advance rapidly to the east and south, where elements meet up with Third Army.

A small force of two hundred and ninety three men; an armored company and an armored infantry company, is sent across the Main River to Hammelburg by Patton, where his son-in-law, Colonel J.K. Waters, is one of about nine hundred Allied POW's being held by the Germans. (Patton, "War as I Knew It", page 212 The Colonel was badly wounded in the effort to liberate the camp.)

Patch's 7^th Army crosses the Rhine, south of Oppenheim, near Worms.

Eighth Army continues to sweep through the Philippines. New landings are made on Cebu, Behol, and Negros Occidental.

Preparing for the invasion of Okinawa, U.S. forces are put ashore on the smaller islands to the southeast. Securing these insures a safer approach to Okinawa from the south, while naval gunfire and aircraft pound the island's coastline. One of these islands, Zamami; in the Kerama Archipelago, with a civilian population under a thousand people, has many of them commit suicide; nearly two hundred of them simultaneously. The horror stories told by the Japanese veterans of the China Incident and other atrocities, are projected behaviors anticipated under American domination. Many prefer to die rather than suffer that kind of fate.

First Army, after their rapid breakout from Remagen, has units as far east as Marburg; fifty-two miles from the bridgehead. Hodges now turns these units north, behind Model's Army Group B, in an effort to trap both 5^th Panzer Army and Fifteenth Army in the Ruhr. Eisenhower unilaterally decides not to attack Berlin, and to concentrate on the encirclement of Army Group B in the Ruhr.

The last V-2 rocket to hit England wounds seventy people.

Third Army seizes a train at the town of Bromskirchen loaded with V-2 rocket parts. The Allies now all begin to hide technical discoveries from each other. Little in the way of combat effectiveness remains to face the Allies in the west, though rumors of a Nazi "Alpine Redoubt" circulate.

Third Army enters Frankfurt.

Patton's headquarters, having lost contact with the unit sent to liberate Hammelburg, finds out from German radio that the unit has been nearly annihilated. Only three men will return from the disastrous effort.

First Army's 3^rd Armored Division has raced ninety miles to gain a position behind Army Group B.

The French First Army joins the Allies across the Rhine, near the town of Speyer.

General Galland, sacked by Göring and threatened with prosecution for cowardice earlier in the year, is finally allowed to initiate interceptor operations with a band of Germany's hand picked pilots flying the Me-262 jet in JV-44. Collectively, these pilots account for more than a thousand allied kills. They begin to ferry the dispersed aircraft to an airfield near Munich.

Not even a letter from Churchill can dissuade Eisenhower from ignoring Berlin as a military objective.