April 16th, 1944 (SUNDAY)
U.S.S.R.: Soviet General Eremenko's Independent Maritime Army has taken Yalta in the Crimea. This is the last port apart from Sevastopol through which the Germans can escape the Crimea. Sevastopol's airfield at Kacha has also been captured and, as fighting rages across the old battlefields of Balaklava and Inkerman, the position of Germany's 17th Army looks hopeless.
A terrible toll is being taken of the Germans as they try to escape. A German correspondent describes how "bombers, dive-bombers and fighters in endless procession are raining their bombs on our ships and riddling them with cannon fire." Sevastopol harbour is choked with sunken ships and the bodies of drowned men.
In the Ukraine, Marshal Rodion Malinovsky's troops cross the Dniester at Tiraspol.
ROMANIA AND YUGOSLAVIA: 432 Fifteenth Air Force B-17s and B-24s hit targets in Romania and Yugoslavia; B-17s bomb the industrial area at Belgrade, Yugoslavia and an aircraft plant at Brasov, Romania; B-24s hit marshalling yards at Brasov and Turnu Severin, Romania; 90+ fighters fly escort while 50+ others, failing to rendezvous with the bombers, strafe trains on the Craiova line east of Turnu Severin.
ITALY: Twelfth Air Force B-25s bomb approaches to Ficulle and Todi railway bridges; A-20 Havocs hit fuel supplies; P-40s, P-47 Thunderbolts and A-36 Apaches hit the Capranica viaduct, town of Zagarolo, railway at Spigno Monferrato, marshalling yard at Orte-Terni, tunnel at Capranica and tracks, vehicles, railway cars, ammunition dump, bridge, and targets of opportunity at various points in central Italy.
BURMA: Air Commando Combat Mission N0. 44 3:00 Flight Time Hailakandi, Assam to Mahnyin, Burma. Bombed supply dump. (Chuck Baisden)
12 Tenth Air Force B-25s hit a bridge over the Mogaung River while 9 others, along with 12 P-51s, hit a warehouse and railroad station at Mohnyin; 9 P-38s destroy 3 medium bombers at Zayatkwin near Rangoon while 2 P-51s in the Mandalay area hit Anisakan Airfield, destroying 2 airplanes.
EAST INDIES: Fifth Air Force B-25s bomb Koepang on Timor Island.
NEW GUINEA: 170+ Fifth Air Force B-24s, B-25s and A-20s bomb Hollandia town and airfield and numerous other targets in the area; P-39Airacobras hit a wooded area and communications targets along Hansa Bay and attack villages and supply dumps from Bogia to Uligan Harbor; P-38s hit the Madang area; B-24s and PB4Y Liberators and PBY Catalinas fly a light strike against Wakde Island; other aircraft, operating singly or in pairs, attack targets of opportunity on the northern coast of New Guinea and south-eastern coast of New Britain Island in the Bismarck Archipelago.
MARSHALL ISLANDS: Seventh Air Force B-25s, from Abemama Island hit Maloelap and Mille Atolls, using Majuro Atoll as a rearming base between the strikes.
BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: On New Britain Island, 24 Thirteenth Air Force B-25s hit the Ratawul supply area and alternate target of Raluana; at Rabaul 30+ fighter-bombers attack area inland from Toboi wharf.
CAROLINE ISLANDS: Seventh Air Force B-25s, staging through Eniwetok Atoll, strike Truk Atoll. 15 Thirteenth Air Force B-24s bomb the runway at Satawan Atoll.
RAAF Catalinas mine the principal entrances to Woleai Atoll to prevent the Japanese from using them during the projected Hollandia operations. The evolution is repeated on 18 and 19 April.
PACIFIC OCEAN: The submarine USS Paddle (SS-263) attacks a Japanese convoy and sinks an army transport and a merchant cargo ship in the Ceram Sea.
The submarine USS Redfin (SS-272) continues to pursue the convoy attacked the previous day, sinking an army cargo ship in Moro Gulf, southwest of Mindanao, Philippine Islands.
The movement of Japanese convoy TAKE No.1, carrying elements of the Imperial Army's 32d and 35th Divisions to reinforce garrisons in the Halmaheras and in north-western New Guinea, gets underway as four transports, and escorts, depart Pusan, Korea.
U.S.A.: The U.S. Navy's last battleship, USS Wisconsin (BB-64), is commissioned at the US Naval Shipyard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: The armed U.S. tanker SS Pan Pennsylvania, in United Kingdom-bound convoy CU 1, is torpedoed by German submarine U-550 150 miles (241 km) east of Ambrose Light, New York. Later, destroyer escort USS Gandy (DE-764) is damaged when she intentionally rams U-550 off Nantucket Shoals, and teams with destroyer escorts USS Peterson (DE-152) and USS Joyce (DE-317) to sink the U-boat. Twelve of the 56-man U-boat crew survive. During the action, shells from the destroyer escorts set afire Pan Pennsylvania's abandoned wreck.