April 22nd, 1944 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Submarine HMS Shalimar commissioned.
FRANCE: During the night, the Eighth Air Force flies Mission 312: 5 B-17s drop 1.44 million leaflets on Orleans, Tours, Paris, Nantes, Lille, Reims, Chartres and Rouen at 2251-2344 hours.
The Ninth Air Force dispatches 400+ B-26s and about 90 A-20s to fly two missions against V-weapon sites in the area of Saint-Omer and Hesdin.
GERMANY: The Eighth Air Force flies Mission 311: 803 bombers and 859 fighters are dispatched to hit a marshalling yard at Hamm; the bombers claim 20-6-8 Luftwaffe aircraft and the fighters claim 40-2-16; 15 bombers and 13 fighters are lost:
- 459 B-17s bomb the primary, 20 hit Bonn, 19 hit Soest, 15 hit Hamm City and 1 hits a target of opportunity; 8 B-17s are lost.
- 179 B-24s hit the primary, 50 hit Koblenz and 36 hit targets of opportunity; 7 B-24s are lost.
The escort is 132 P-38 Lightnings, 485 Eighth and Ninth Air Force P-47 Thunderbolts and 242 Eighth and Ninth Air Force P-51s; 2 P-38s, 5 P-47s and 6 P-51s are lost.
ITALY: Twelfth Air Force B-25s bomb a bridge and tracks south of Ficulle and a bridge north of the town; other B-25s and B-26s attack San Stefano al Mare harbour, the northern section of Orvieto, Chiusi railroad bridge, viaducts south and west of Arezzo and Bucine, Certaldo railroad bridge, bridge approaches at Incisa in Valdarno, a bridge near Siena and viaduct at Poggibonsi; A-20s hit Valmontone ammunition dump and Sonnino; P-47s hit a railroad, trains, and tunnels in the Florence area and west of Chiusi, marshalling yard at Siena, a vessel south of Savona, railroad lines south of Orte and the town of Gaeta; and P-40s attack gun positions north of the Anzio beachhead and bomb the Ferentino dump area and towns of Fondi, Terracina and Formia.
U.S.S.R.: Moscow: Peace negotiations between Russia and Finland have been broken off, it was announced tonight by the Soviet vice-premier and vice-commissioner for foreign affairs, Andrei Vishinsky. This follows Finland's rejection of the armistice terms. These included the breaking of relations with Germany, the re-establishment of the 1940 Soviet-Finnish treaty and the payment of £150,000,000 reparations in goods within five years. The Allies have approved the Soviet reply.
EGYPT: Alexandria: The Greek naval commander-in-chief, Vice-Admiral Petros Voulgaris, is preparing to board five warships whose refusal to obey orders sparked a virtual strike by 12 April of all Greek navy seamen in Egypt. The First Division of the Greek Army has also rebelled against its officers. Britain is keeping an eye on developments. The mutiny's causes are confused, but seem to stem from dissatisfaction with the Greek government in exile.
INDIA: New Delhi: The Imperial Japanese army, already deeply enmeshed in a highly ambitious "March on Delhi" offensive from Burma, has now been committed to another equally ambitious offensive in China. Imperial headquarters has reinforced the China expeditionary force and ordered it to undertake an offensive to crush China.
On 17 April, the Japanese First and Twelfth Armies, supported by 200 aircraft, began a drive to open an overland supply route to the Southern Army in Thailand and Malaya and to occupy the new Allied airfields in south-east China which the Americans are using to attack shipping in the Formosa Strait.
The offensive also aims to prevent long-range American bombers from using Chinese airfields to bomb the Japanese home islands. Another Japanese army is driving towards French Indochina. The Chinese high command in Chungking has announced the advance of Japanese columns in Honan where the Japanese claim to have routed 300,000 Chinese.
Three days before the Japanese attack, Chiang Kai-shek ordered divisions from Yunnan into Burma to help the hard-pressed General Stilwell. Until then, fearing a Japanese offensive, he had not only refused to help but had indicated that Chinese divisions already in Burma should "drag their feet". Chiang was persuaded to send his troops into the Burma theatre after President Roosevelt had cabled a stern request.
BURMA: 12 Tenth Air Force B-25s bomb Kamaing while 5 B-25s and 6 P-51 Mustangs attack ammunition and other supplies at Hopin; 3 B-25s and 4 P-51s hit a village northeast of Bhamo while 7 P-51s attack Gokteik Viaduct.
Fourteenth Air Force P-40s on armed reconnaissance over northern Burma destroy 10 boxcars and a truck north of Lashio.
CHINA: The Japanese take Chengchow in Honan province, a railroad centre.
FRENCH INDOCHINA: 6 Fourteenth Air Force B-24 Liberators attack a Japanese Singapore-to-Saigon convoy anchored off Cape St. Jacques and sink a transport, a fleet tanker, an army cargo vessel, and a merchant tanker; and damaging a tanker. Only an escort vessel, a submarine chaser, escapes the low-level onslaught unscathed. Another B-24 knocks out a bridge southwest of Vinh.
NEW GUINEA: US I Corps lands from TF 77 at Hollandia.
In a swift lightning strike that has wrong footed the Japanese in northern New Guinea, a 52,000 strong Allied invasion force under General Douglas MacArthur today, in Operation PERSECUTION seized Hollandia, the administrative capital of Dutch New Guinea. The landings, made from 113 ships escorted by the US Fifth and Seventh Fleets, have cut off the escape route for General Adachi's main force, estimated to be 50,000 men, now surrounded at Wewak, where Adachi expected the attack. At the same time Australian troops have closed on nearby Madang. The amphibious Allied force swept ashore this morning at Hollandia, Aitape and Tanahmera bay after US Navy aircraft from Pacific fleet carriers had destroyed over 100 Japanese aircraft on the ground at Hollandia and its support airstrips. The 24th and 41st Infantry Divisions of the I Corps land unopposed 25 miles apart; the 24th Infantry Division at Tanahmerah bay while the 41st Infantry Division lands at Humboldt Bay. In Operation RECKLESS, the 163rd Regimental Combat Team, 41st Infantry Division, lands unopposed at Aitape.
Hollandia was like a battered ghost town as the US advance guard, covered in red mud, entered. Everywhere there are signs of panic as the 12,000 strong garrison of middle-aged reservists fled into the jungle following a dawn bombardment that seriously damaged all of Hollandia's buildings. In a bedroom a Japanese officer's polished boots still stand by his bed, a neatly-pressed uniform hangs on the door. In the school the days lessons are still on the blackboard.
For MacArthur, who celebrated with a chocolate ice-cream soda as he toured the beach-heads, the victory is a consolation for his fading presidential hopes following his defeat in the Republican primary at Wisconsin three weeks ago.
20+ Fifth Air Force B-24s bomb airstrips on Noemfoor Island, Schouten Islands while 80+ B-24s and A-20s hit Boram and But Airfields and other targets in the Wewak area; 100+ B-24s and B-25s pound targets along Hansa Bay; and all through the day B-25s and fighter-bombers, in flights of 1 to 20+ aircraft, attack areas around Hansa Bay, Wewak, Bogia, Madang, and many other points along the northern and eastern coast of New Guinea; many of the strikes indirectly support Allied amphibious landings at Hollandia.
PACIFIC OCEAN: The Japanese lose two ships at sea: U.S. aircraft sink a transport off Murilo Island, Carolines and the British submarine HMS Taurus sinks a salvage vessel off Malaya.
BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: On New Britain Island, about 40 Thirteenth Air Force B-25s bomb supply areas at Ratawul and Talili Bay, attack Keravat and hit the area between Rapopo and Cape Gazelle; and 40+ fighter-bombers attack the runway and gun positions at Rapopo while 9 strike Lakunai airfield.
MARSHALL ISLANDS: US forces occupy Ungelap Island completing the campaign for the islands.
CAROLINE ISLANDS: During the night of 21/22 April, Seventh Air Force B-24s from Kwajalein Atoll bomb Wotje Atoll and other B-24s from Kwajalein follow with another raid on Wotje during the day.
During the night of 22/23 April, 17 Thirteenth Air Force B-24s bomb Dublon, Param, and Eten Islands in Truk Atoll.
CANADA:
U.S.A.: "It is Love-Love-Love" by Guy Lombardo And His Royal Canadians with vocal by Skip Nelson and The Lombardo Trio reaches Number 1 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in the U.S. This song, which debuted on the charts on 18 March 1944, was charted for 19 weeks, was Number 1 for 2 weeks and was ranked Number 17 for the year 1944. Also on this date, Andy Russell's record of "Besame Mucho (Kiss Me Much)" makes it to the Billboard Pop Singles chart. This is his first single to make the charts and it stays there for 2 weeks reaching Number 10.
Escort carrier USS Salamaua launched.
Submarine USS Ronquil commissioned.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Frigates HMCS Matane and Swansea sank U-311 Kptlt Joachim Zander CO, at 52-09N, 19-07W. Of the crew of 51 there were no survivors. Escort Group 9, commanded by A/Cdr Layard, was operating independently when ordered to join a nearby RAF 'Wellington' patrol a/c that had gained a radar contact on a probable U-boat. A deliberate search by Matane and Swansea, supported by the frigate Stormont and corvette Owen Sound, produced a firm ASDIC contact. The U-boat was moving rapidly right as Matane closed for a deliberate 'Hedgehog' attack (indicating close range) when a periscope was sighted at only 200 yards on Matane's starboard bow. The Hedgehog attack was abandoned and an urgent depth charge attack was carried out. Swansea followed with a deliberate d/c attack, after which contact was lost. It was not until the mid-1980's that record reconstruction proved that U-311 had been sunk in this engagement.