WHAT ALL HAPPENED JANUARY TO JULY 1944
Find out what all happened January to July 1944

World War II: Operation Carpetbagger, involving the dropping of arms and supplies to resistance fighters in Europe, begins. (4. January 1944)

World War II: Operation Spring – one of the bloodiest days for the First Canadian Army during the war: 1,500 casualties, including 500 killed. (25. July 1944)

World War II: More than 1000 British bombers drop 5,000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries on the Normandy coast in preparation for D-Day. (5. June 1944)

World War II: Approximately 38 people are killed and about a dozen injured when the Polish village of Koniuchy (present-day Kaniūkai, Lithuania) is attacked by Soviet partisan units. (29. January 1944)

Merrill's Marauders: The Marauders begin their 1,000-mile journey through Japanese occupied Burma. (24. February 1944)

Allied bombing raid on Nuremberg. Along the English eastern coast 795 aircraft are despatched, including 572 Lancasters, 214 Halifaxes and 9 Mosquitos. The bombers meet resistance at the coasts of Belgium and the Netherlands from German fighters. In total, 95 bombers are lost, making it the largest RAF Bomber Command loss of World War II. (30. March 1944)

World War II: Allied bombers conduct their most severe bombing run on Sofia, Bulgaria. (30. March 1944)

Florence Li Tim-Oi is ordained in China, becoming the first woman Anglican priest. (25. January 1944)

World War II: British agent Nancy Wake, a leading figure in the French Resistance and the Gestapo's most wanted person, parachutes back into France to become a liaison between London and the local maquis group. (29. April 1944)

World War II: The Battle of Osuchy in Osuchy, Poland, ends with the defeat of the Polish resistance forces. (26. June 1944)

The final page of the comic Krazy Kat was published, exactly two months after its author George Herriman died. (25. June 1944)

World War II: In an event later dramatized in the movie The Great Escape, 76 Allied prisoners of war begin breaking out of the German camp Stalag Luft III. (24. March 1944)

World War II: 642 men, women and children are killed in the Oradour-sur-Glane Massacre in France. (10. June 1944)

Deportation of Crimean Tatars by the Soviet Union government. (18. May 1944)

World War II: the Soviet Army enters Lviv, a major city in western Ukraine, capturing it from the Nazis. Only 300 Jews survive out of 160,000 living in Lviv prior to occupation. (26. July 1944)

World War II: United States Navy and Royal Navy ships bombard Cherbourg to support United States Army units engaged in the Battle of Cherbourg. (25. June 1944)

Ardeatine massacre: German troops murder 335 Italian civilians in Rome. (24. March 1944)

Navigation errors lead to an accidental American bombing of the Swiss city of Schaffhausen. (1. April 1944)

World War II: Claus von Stauffenberg and fellow conspirators are executed in Berlin, Germany for the July 20 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. (21. July 1944)

World War II: The Battle of Cherbourg ends with the fall of the strategically valuable port to American forces. (30. June 1944)