March 26th, 1944 (SUNDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Churchill broadcasts on the war situation, praising the efforts of Tito's partisans and solemnly declaring that "the hour of our greatest effort is approaching."
FRANCE: 500 Eighth Air Force B-17s and B-24s escorted by 266 P-47s hit 16 V-1 sites; nearly 140 Ninth Air Force P-47s and P-51s attack a marshalling yard at Creil and V-1 site.
NETHERLANDS: 373 Ninth Air Force A-20s and B-26s attack the torpedo-boat pens at Impudent but a miss by the lead aircraft results in very little damage.
GERMANY: Hauptmann Herward Braunegg, an Austrian from Graz is awarded the Ritterkreuz for his close recon work on the Eastern Front with Nahaufklaerungsgruppe 9. (Russ Folsom)
ITALY: A major re-organization occurs of the Allied forces facing Cassino in Italy.The US 100th Infantry Battalion lands at Anzio. It is assigned a section in the Anzio beachhead later. (Gene Hanson)
Despite bad weather, Twelfth Air Force A-20s, B-25s, B-26s, P-40s and P-47s hit viaducts, railway bridges, troop concentrations and guns in support of the Anzio beachhead. Bad weather forces Fifteenth Air Force B-24s en-route to Steyr, Austria to turn back but they bomb airfields and marshalling yards at Riming while B-17s attack port facilities at Fume.
FINLAND: After the initial Fenno-Soviet peace feelers in the preceding months had established that there's basis for a negotiated peace, Finnish delegation travels today to Moscow. The former ambassador at Moscow Juho Paasikivi (who was also in the Finnish peace delegation in 1940) and the former Foreign Minister Carl Enckell fly via Stockholm.
During the last days of March the Finns are involved in lengthy negotiations with the Soviets, whose head is FM Molotov. Soviet demands are: Finnish Army has during April to withdraw to the border of 1940 and the Army has to be cut to half by mid-May and fully demobilized to peace-time size by the end of June. Finland has also to pay $600 million as reparations. The Finns, unsurprisingly, consider the terms harsh, but Molotov retorts: "I don't understand why we should make any concessions to you. Germany has already lost this war and you had been Germany's allies, so you must accept the position of a defeated country.".
U.S.S.R.: The Red Army breaks through to the river Prut on a 53-mile front.
BURMA: Tenth Air Force A-31s hit Japanese positions in the Tonzang-Kalewa area; B-24s and B-25s attack roads; 70+ fighters and a B-25 attack airfields, bridges, roads and railroads; and 8 P-51s and 3 B-25s hit a bivouac and warehouses.
CHINA: Fourteenth Air Force B-25s sink 2 merchant vessels.
FRENCH INDOCHINA: Four Fourteenth Air Force P-40s attack barges and ships in the Gulf of Tonkin.
PACIFIC: US Marines of the 1st Provisional Brigade land on Kili Island and Namorik Atoll, Marshall Islands.
The US submarine Tullibee (SS-284), commanded by Charles F. Brindupke, is sunk by circular run of own torpedo off Peleliu Island. 79 men are lost, and 1 survivor taken prisoner. (Joe Sauder)
NEW BRITAIN ISLAND: 23 Thirteenth Air Force B-25s hit USAAF Airfield while 37 fighters attack supply areas.
NEW IRELAND ISLAND: Thirteenth Air Force B-25s heckle Rafael during the night.
NEW GUINEA: Over 200 Fifth Air Force A-20s, B-24s, B-25s and fighters attack various targets along the north coast and on Manus Island.
PALAU ISLANDS: Two Fifth Air Force B-24s, with US Marine Corps observers aboard, attempt to photograph possible targets for an upcoming carrier attack on the islands but due to poor weather and bad timing, the mission is futile.
TRUK ISLAND: 24 Thirteenth Air Force B-24s fly their first mission against Truck but they fail to locate the target due to poor navigation and bomb another island.
BOUGAINVILLE ISLAND: Thirteenth Air Force B-24s and fighters attack Japanese positions along Empress Augusta Bay.