September 14th, 1944 (THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:
STRATEGIC OPERATIONS: The US Eighth Air Force in England flies
Mission 632: 2 B-17 control aircraft and 2 B-17 CASTOR drones fly an APHRODITE
mission to the oil refinery at Hemmingstedt, Germany; the target is
missed.
TACTICAL OPERATIONS: C-47s of the First Allied Airborne Army's US IX Troop
Carrier Command continue large-scale supply and evacuation missions in France.
Minesweeper HMS Serene commissioned. Destroyer HMS Barfleur commissioned. Minesweeper HMS Chameleon commissioned.
NETHERLANDS: The U.S. 30th Infantry Division reaches the Maas River and crosses the canal to Maastricht Island late in the day and finds the town undefended.
During the day, 35 Lancasters and ten Mosquitos of RAF Bomber Command bombed “an ammunition dump” (possibly a suspected V-2 store) near The Hague at Wassenar. The bombing is considered to be accurate until smoke and dust covered the target.
FRANCE: British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery, Commander-in-Chief 21st Army Group, issues orders for the next phase of the offensive to begin on 17 September, calling for the British Second Army to secure crossing of the Rhine and Meuse Rivers in preparation for a major drive on the Ruhr and for the Canadian First Army to open the port of Antwerp and seize Boulogne and Calais. Offensive operations are virtually at a standstill while supplies are being brought forward and units regrouped.
In northern France, the U.S. XII Corps completes the envelopment of Nancy. The French 2d Armoured Division makes contact with a patrol of the French 1st Armoured Division that advanced up from southern France.
In northern France, the USAAF Ninth Air Force activates HQ XXIX Tactical Air Command (Provisional) at Vermand, in anticipation of operating with the U.S. Ninth Army, shortly to join the Twelfth Army Group; Brigadier General Richard E Nugent is Commanding General; about 140 B-26 Marauders and A-20 Havocs bomb gun emplacements and strongpoints in the Brest area. C-47 Skytrains of the First Allied Airborne Army's IX Troop Carrier Command continue large-scale supply and evacuation missions in France.
In southern France, bad weather limits USAAF Twelfth Air Force fighters to a few sweeps but 53 USAAF Fifteenth Air Force B-24 Liberators fly supples from Italy to France.
GERMANY: The U.S. 3d Armored Division thrusts to the Vicht River southwest of Stolberg and crosses and elements also reach a suburb of Aachen. The U.S. 4th Infantry Division penetrates the West Wall in the Schnee Eifel while the 28th Infantry Division begins major attacks in an effort to breach the Wall in its sector. The 5th Armored Division begins to cross the Sauer River into Germany at Wallendorf.
During the day, RAF Bomber Command dispatched 184 aircraft, 133 Halifaxes and 51 Lancasters, to Wilhelmshaven but recalled while still over the North Sea; no reason for this is given in Bomber Command records. All aircraft returned safely.
U-2513 and
U-3008 launched.
U-2346 laid down.
NORWAY: Bergen: One of Britain's most successful secret weapons - a midget submarine able to penetrate the best defended waterways - has struck again. This time the target was a big floating dock, blown up in Bergen harbour. Lt. H. P. Westmacott skippered the four-man craft, X24, as it slipped through 30 miles of islands offshore and a minefield and into a fjord to sail at periscope depth to the harbour. After diving to 35 feet to avoid collision with a merchant ship, Westmacott attached delayed-action charges to the target and escaped. It is the second such raid on Bergen by Westmacott in X24.
POLAND: Units of the Soviet First Belorussian Front assisted by Polish forces enter the Warsaw suburb of Praga. But the Germans are preparing for a stand along the line of the Narew and Vistula Rivers.
FINLAND: By this date all German troops have left Southern Finland.
U.S.S.R.: The Finnish peace delegation has waited for a week at Moscow for the negotiations to begin. Delay is caused by disagreements between the Soviets and British over the terms of the interim Peace Treaty (the final treaty will be the one concluded with the Soviet Union, UK and the Dominions at Paris in 1947). Today the two allies finally reach an agreement, and the Fenno-Soviet negotiations are to begin in evening. However, Prime Minister Antti Hackzell, who is the chairman of the Finnish delegation, suffers brain haemorrhage just hours before the first session is to start and is paralysed. Minister of Defence Gen. Rudolf Walden acts as the head of the delegation in the first session. Minister of Foreign Affairs Carl Enckell arrives two days later to replace Hackzell.
The Soviets attack Army Group North with 130 Divisions. General Schorner asks Hitler to let Estonia to go. This time Hitler allows a retreat. (Gene Hanson)
YUGOSLAVIA: A British detachment with 25-pounders (87.6 mm) lands on Peljesac Peninsula and shells Trpanj, the German withdrawal point.
GREECE: During the night of 14/15 September, RAF Liberators of No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group attack three airfields in the Athens area: 34 hit Kalamaki Airfield, 31 bomb Eleusis Airfield and 20 bomb Tatoi Airfield.
ITALY: The Canadian First Division of the British 8th Army continues its advance, crossing the Marano River, after capturing the Gemmano Ridge.
The U.S. II Corps continues to hammer the Gothic Line defenses of Il Giogo Pass but is unable to break through. The Canadian 1st Division reaches the Marano River and begins crossing it after capturing the Gemmano Ridge.
US Twelfth Air Force medium bombers attack defensive positions in the east and central parts of the Gothic Line as the enemy fiercely resists, especially at Il Giogo Pass and on Monte Altuzzo; fighter-bombers continue strikes against communications and movement in the Po Valley.
The sailing yacht EROS is torpedoed and sunk by US PT boats off Genoa. She is ex-mercantile, originally built as a yacht for the Rothschild family. 1,019 tons built 1926 in England with some guns. She was seized by the Germans at Toulon in 1942 and redesignated Kriegsmarine Uj.2216 in 1943. [prior information courtesy of Henri Le Masson's The French Navy, Volume 2, Macdonald and Co., 1969] (Greg Kelley)
BURMA: Japanese troops withdraw from the Manipur river line.
On the Salween front, the Chinese complete the capture of Teng-chung which was entered on 4 August. Since Teng-chung is lost and the Chinese are vigorously resisting in Lung-ling, the Japanese decide to halt their counteroffensive on the Salween front.
JAPAN: During the night of 13/14 September, 3 US Eleventh Air Force B-24s strike Kurabu Cape shipping and airfield on Paramushiru Island in the Kurile Islands.
MARCUS ISLAND: USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberators on armed reconnaissance bomb Marcus Island. The island is located in the North Pacific about 768 nautical miles (1 422 kilometers) west-northwest of Wake Island and is used as a refueling point for Japanese aircraft en route to the Central Pacific.
CAROLINE ISLANDS: USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberators from Eniwetok Atoll, Marshall Islands, bomb Truk Atoll and Gilbert Islands-based B-25 Mitchells hit Ponape Island.
VOLCANO ISLANDS: USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberators from Saipan Island, Mariana Islands, bomb Iwo Jima Island.
SOUTH CHINA SEA: The USN submarine USS Pargo (SS-264) lays mines near Natuna Island.
SOUTHWEST PACIFIC: USN Task Group 38.2 (TG 38.2, Rear Admiral Gerald F. Bogan)
attacks Japanese shipping and installations on and around Panay and Negros
Islands, supported by TG 38.3 (Rear Admiral Frederick C. Sherman). TG 38.1 (Vice
Admiral John S. McCain), en route to support the Morotai landings, carries out
strikes on Japanese installations on Mindanao; during the course of these
operations, SB2Cs Helldivers of Bombing Squadron Two (VB 2) sink a fast
transport in Davao Gulf. Meanwhile, destroyers USS Farenholt (DD-491), USS
McCalla (DD-488), and USS Grayson (DD-435), detached from TG 38.1, bombard
suspected Japanese radar installation on Cape San Augustin, at the mouth of
Davao Gulf.
NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: 5620 Dutch, English, Australian and American POWs and Javanese slave labourers are loaded aboard the Japanese cargo ship "Junyo Maru" at Batavia on Java. The ship will be sunk by an RN submarine four days later. (See 18 September)
CANADA: At the OCTAGON Conference being held in Quebec City, Quebec, (1) representatives of Australia and New Zealand join in conference at and (2) the Combined Chiefs of Staff draw up a new directive for British Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia Command, making his primary mission the recapture of Burma as quickly as possible. Operation DRACULA (plan for the capture of Rangoon, Burma in 1944) and that part of Operation CAPITAL (the attack across the Chindwin River to Mandalay, Burma) requiring an air and land route to China be opened and approved with a target date of 15 March 1945.
Frigate
HMCS Waskesiu departed departed
Londonderry with Convoy ONF-253.
Frigate HMCS Stettler attacked by
U-802 Kptlt Helmut Schmoeckel
CO. U-802 was a type IXC/40,
U-boat, built by Deutsche Schiff und Machinen Bau AG Seebeck Yard Bremen,
commissioned 12 Jun 43, in service 23 months, with a record of sinking 1 ship on
14 Sep 44. Stettler together with other frigates were on a routine patrol of
Gaspe Passage when they fell within torpedo range of
U-802. Assuming a convoy
following astern of the sweep,
U-802 tried to slip through the screen. Asdic sounds surrounded it as the
formation zigzagged around its base course in full view of Schmoeckel's
periscope, "Suddenly a destroyer turns bows on at full speed, making black
smoke". Incorrect though his assumption was, Schmoeckel could only conclude in
that split second that HMCS Stettler had
gained asdic contact and was commencing her attack. Pressed by the apparently
threatening frigate slicing through an "absolutely smooth, leaden sea (at
approximately) 20 knots" Schmoeckel hastily fired a T-5 acoustic Gnat at a range
of 500 m. An "explosion," in the words of the Canadian report, "believed to be
a torpedo, occurred 40 yards astern of HMCS
Stettler in the ship's wake." The crew of
U-802 heard their torpedo
explode, followed by "the sounds of sinking," and credited themselves with a
kill. Lying under protective layers at a depth of 170 m eight minutes after
their attack, they listened in safety to the counter-attacks as "destroyers"
crossed overhead. U-802
rounded Cap de la Madeleine by late afternoon on 15 Sep, and let itself drift
eastward with the prevailing set of the Gaspe stream.
U.S.A.: The Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944 made its initial landfall as a Category 3 storm at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, shortly after 0900 hours. The barometric pressure at Cape Hatteras dropped to 947 millibars (27.97 inches of mercury or 94,71 kPa) with the highest winds clocked at 110 mph (177,0 km/h). From this point forward, the storm began to accelerate to the northeast to a speed in excess of 40 mph (64,4 km/h). By 1200 hours, the hurricane passes 75 miles (120,7 km) to the east of Norfolk, Virginia, and hurricane force winds swept over portions of extreme southeast Virginia. Winds peaked at 73 mph (117,5 km/h) in downtown Norfolk with gusts to 90 mph (144,8 km/h). At Cape Henry in Virginia Beach, Virginia, peak 1-minute winds reached 134 mph (215,7 km/h) with momentary gusts to 150 mph (241,4 km/h), the highest ever observed at any site during the hurricane. The lowest barometric pressure reported at Norfolk during the hurricane was 985.7 millibars (29.11 inches of mercury or 98,58 kPa). The high winds were the result of intensive convective activity which occurred in the western semi-circle of the storm. Over 4 inches (10,2 cm) of rain fell in a three and a half hour period from 1000 hours to 1330 hours. Fortunately for the area the hurricane passed at the time of low tide and tides only reached 6.0 feet (1,8 meters) above mean low tide with little or no flooding reported. The bulk of the damage was due to the hurricane force winds which brought down numerous trees in the area. At 1800 hours, the center of the hurricane was just offshore of Atlantic City, New Jersey. Winds there reached 82 mph (132 km/h) out of the north. Nearly all New Jersey shore communities suffered heavy damage to roofs and chimneys. Three hundred homes were destroyed on Long Beach Island alone and boardwalks in Atlantic City and on Seven Mile Beach, which contains Avalon and Stone Harbor, were literally washed away. Even inland, the storm brought heavy rains and tropical-storm force winds resulting in agricultural losses estimated at US$3.5 million (US$35.7 million in year 2002 dollars) in New Jersey alone. The hurricane made a second landfall on the eastern end of Long Island, New York and as the storm progressed northeastward, it passed to the north of Boston, Massachusetts, and then into the Gulf of Maine. The storm continued to accelerate rapidly to the east-northeast toward Nova Scotia, Canada, on 15 September. In Maine, the storm began as rain at 1600 hours. As the night progressed, the weather got gradually worse, and by 2400 hours, torrential rains were falling. At 0025 hours on the 15th, Civil defence authorities mobilized personnel and equipment to assist the emergency services. By 0230 hours, the winds had reached 50 mph (80,5 km/h) in the Auburn and Lewiston area. At 0400 hours, the center of the storm passed only 50 miles (80,5 km) from Portland and was headed northeast. By 0433 hours, the all clear was sounded. A total of 390 people died in the storm; 340 of them were lost on ships at sea. The U.S. Coast Guard lost three vessels: (1) the patrol boats USCGC Bedloe (WPC-128, ex-USCGC Antietam) and USCGC Jackson (WPC-142) foundered off Cape Hatteras during a hurricane. 26 crewmen are lost on former, 21 on the latter and (2) Lightship No. 73 on Vineyard Sound Station, Massachusetts, foundered during the hurricane; all 12 of her crew perish.
A USAAF A-20 Havoc is deliberately flown into the hurricane to collect scientific data. This is the first time that an aircraft is deliberately flown into a hurricane.