ADDENDA

 

This is a brief chronological list of events from January through September 1944. The events have been noted without comment.  The Department of State Bulletin, the chronologies of Current History and of the Bulletin of International News, the New York Times and the London Times proved most useful in the preparation of this list. It was prepared after the completion of the index to the main chronology, and is not itself indexed.

The first part of the Addenda (through May) is the work of Evelyn Wiley; the period from June through September was covered by A. 0. Sarkissian (both of the Inquiry Section).

 

1944

 

January 8. Russian armies drove across the border into pre-war Poland. (This report was not confirmed by the Russian Government. )

 

January 5. Announcement was made of the establishment under the Anglo-American Caribbean Commission of a system of West Indian conferences.

The Polish Government in London issued a statement on the entry of the Soviet forces into pre-war Poland. The Polish Nation was entitled to expect "full justice and redress" as soon as it was freed from enemy occupation. The first condition of such justice was "The earliest reestablishment of Polish sovereign administration in the liberated territories of the Republic of Poland and the protection of life and property of Polish citizens."'

 

January 9. Prime Minister Churchill and General de Gaulle met at Marrakesh, Morocco, for discussions on the cooperation of a French expeditionary force in the invasion of Europe, and the degree of authority of the French committee in the control of civil affairs inside France after the invasion.

 

January 10. Prime Minister Churchill and President Roosevelt, in a joint announcement, reported that merchant shipping losses due to U-boats were 60 percent less than losses for the preceding year.

The report of the Anglo-American Caribbean Commission was issued: A Caribbean Research Council had been set up (representing Britain, United States, and the Netherlands); steps had been taken to establish an organization for coordinating and expanding the purchase of imported food; an interisland distribution system was developed.

Announcement was made of a Swedish-German trade agreement for 1944, providing for reduction of Swedish exports to Germany.

The Moscow radio broadcast a statement by the Soviet Government replying to the Polish statement of January 5. The Soviet statement declared that the Polish assertions about the Soviet-Polish frontier were incorrect, and defended the incorporation of the territories of western Ukraine in Soviet Ukraine, and those

 

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of western White Russia in Soviet White Russia. The Soviet, Government did not regard the 1939 frontiers as immutable. The Soviet-Polish frontier could pass approximately along the so-called Curzon line, but Poland's western borders must be extended to incorporate Polish land previously stolen by Germany. The Soviet Government repeated its desire for the reestablishment of a strong, independent Poland, and for friendship between Poland and the Soviet Union.

 

January 12. Leighton McCarthy presented his letters of credentials to President Roosevelt as the first Canadian Ambassador to the United States.

 

January 15. The Polish Government replied to the Russian statement of January 10: The Polish Government was "approaching the British and United States Governments with a view to  securing through their intermediary the discussion by the Polish and Soviet Governments . . . of all outstanding questions, the settlement of which should lead to friendly and permanent cooperation between Poland and the Soviet Union . . ."

Secretary of State Hull announced the reorganization of the State Department. A policy committee and a post-war program committee were established. An advisory council on foreign policy and a new division for labor relations were created.

 

January 16. It was announced that General Eisenhower had arrived in Great Britain and assumed his duties as Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces.

 

January 17. Colombia signed the United Nations Declaration.

Moscow radio broadcast the Russian reply to the Polish declaration of January 15. The evasion in the Polish declaration of the question of the recognition of the Curzon line as the Soviet Polish frontier could only be interpreted as a rejection of that line. The Soviet Government was of the opinion that it could not enter into official negotiations with the Polish Government, since diplomatic relations were broken off between them, and had been broken off through the fault of the Polish Government. In the opinion of Soviet circles these circumstances demonstrated that the existing Polish Government did not desire to establish good neighborly relations with the Soviet Union.

 

January 19. In a speech to the House of Commons, Foreign Secretary Eden warned the Spanish Government against continued aid to Germany by maintaining Spanish troops on the Russian front.

 

January 20. Soviet troops captured Novgorod.

General Isaias Medina, President of Venezuela, addressed the United States Congress.

 

January 22. Allied troops made a surprise landing a short distance from Rome in the Anzio region.

 

January 25. Eighty-three Japanese planes and numerous ships were destroyed by an Allied raid on Rabaul.

 

January 26. President Ramirez of Argentina, informed President Roosevelt that he had signed a decree of breach of diplomatic relations with Germany and Japan.

 


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January 27. Atrocity stories on the treatment by the, Japanese of American and Filipino soldiers after the surrender of Bataan and Corregidor disclosed in official reports of the United States Army and Navy.

The government of Liberia declared war on Germany and Japan.

 

January 29. Russian troops cleared the entire Moscow Leningrad area of Germans.

 

January 31. Combined United States forces invaded Kwajalein.

The United States Department of State issued a statement in which it revealed a series of protests and requests concerning the treatment of prisoners made by the United States to Japan from December 7, 1941, to date.

 

February 2. Russian forces crossed the Esthonian border and captured Vanakula.

 

February 3. United States warships shelled Paramushiru Island in the first attack on Japanese home territory.

 

February 4. Argentina severed diplomatic relations with Bulgaria, Vichy France, Hungary, and Rumania.

 

February 6. In Italy, both on the Cassino front and on the beachhead south of Rome, Allied troops were forced to withdraw

under heavy German counterattacks.

 

February 8. The Chancellor of the Exchequer announced in the House of Commons that a Financial and a Mutual Aid Agreement had been signed with the French Committee of National Liberation.

President Roosevelt signed a proclamation to repeal the Chinese Exclusion Act.

 

February 12. Pravda published an article accusing the Polish Government of "hostile activities screened by false words of friendship."

 

February 15. German fortification of the Mount Cassino Abbey bombed by Allies. President Roosevelt declared that such monuments cannot be spared where American lives are at stake.

 

February 16-17. Strong United States Navy task forces attacked Truk.

 

February 17. The Red Army completed "liquidation" of 10 trapped Nazi divisions in the Ukraine.

 

February 25. President Ramirez, of Argentina, resigned and was succeeded by General Edelmiro Farrell.

 

February 29. The Soviet Government confirmed the Finnish-Soviet peace rumors, and revealed the conditions of peace demanded of Finland.

Americans invaded the Admiralty Islands.

 

March 3. President Roosevelt declared that the Italian Fleet would be equally divided between the United States, Great Britain, and Russia, the decision having been made when Italy surrendered.

 

March 6. In a daylight raid, 800 American planes bombed Berlin in what was to be the beginning of round-the-clock bombing.

 

March 11. Former Vichy Minister of the Interior, Pierre Pucheau, was found guilty of treason and sentenced to death by a special military court in Algiers.

 

March 15. Allied bombers leveled Cassino with 3,500-ton assault.

 

March 17. United States planes landed Allied troops behind Japanese lines in northern Burma, following occupation of Hukawng Valley by United States and Chinese infantry.


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March 20. The Russians swept into Bessarabia.

It was reported that Turkey had concluded a new commercial treaty with Germany.

 

March 21. Finland announced its rejection of the Russian armistice terms.

Secretary of State Hull issued a 17-point program of American foreign policy aimed at a post-war world of international cooperation.

 

March 22. The Japanese invaded India from Burma.

 

March 29. German troops entered Hungary and took control of airfields and other key points.

 

March 21-31. The first West Indian Conference, acting under the Anglo-American Caribbean Commission, was held at Bridgetown, Barbados, British West Indies. Its purpose was the discussion of a cooperative program to rebuild economic, social, and health conditions in American and British possessions in the Caribbean area.

 

March 22. Prime Minister Churchill declared that a clarification of the Atlantic Charter must be the subject for renewed consultation between the principal Allies.

 

March 25. Secretary of State Hull announced that the United States would send a delegation to collaborate with the Conference of Allied Ministers of Education in London. The delegation would consist of: Hon. J. William Fulbright, chairman Archibald MacLeish, John W. Studebaker, Grayson N. Kefauver, Ralph E. Turner, Dean C. Mildred Thompson (appointment announced April 1).

 

March 28. House Joint Resolution 192 approved, providing for the appropriation of a sum not to exceed $1,350,000,000 to be used for United States participation in the work of United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.

 

March 28-April 3. Allied bombers destroyed 288 Japanese planes at Hollandia in largest Southwest Pacific raids.

 

March 30. United States bombers from the Mediterranean area began a series of heavy raids on the Balkans.

 

March 31. The House of Commons gave Prime Minister Churchill a 425 to 23 vote of confidence, after a previous Government defeat on the issue of equal pay for women teachers.

 

April 2. The Red Army swept into Rumania.

 

April 7. United States Under Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., arrived in London to begin a series of conferences with the British Foreign Office.

 

April 9. Secretary of State Hull, in a speech to the people of the Nation, defined United States foreign policy.

 

April 10. The Russians captured Odessa.

 

Apr. 10. Liberia signed the United Nations Declaration.

 

Apr. 13. Three thousand United States planes from Britain and Italy raided Germany, Hungary, and Yugoslavia.

 

April 14. Canada signed a treaty with China relinquishing extraterritorial rights in China.

 

April 22. Allies landed at Hollandia, Dutch Now Guinea.

 

April 28. The Chinese acknowledged the Japanese capture of Chengchow.

 

May 9. The Soviet Army retook Sevastopol.


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May 10. The Chinese began drive toward northern Burma.

 

May 11. Allies opened big offensive in central Italy.

 

May 12. The American, British, and Soviet Governments issued a declaration to the Axis satellites, Hungary, Rumania, Bulgaria, and Finland, warning them to withdraw from the war, cease collaboration with Germany, and resist the forces of nazi-ism, or suffer the consequence in rigorous peace terms.

 

May 18. Cassino captured by the Allied forces.

The Prime Ministers of the British Commonwealth of Nations announced that they had decided at their London conference that after the War there should be a new kind of League of Nations with power and authority to prevent aggression.

 

May 24. Prime Minister Churchill, speaking to the House of Commons, stated that a post-war world organization would be set up, probably with a "world council, of the greatest states, and a “world assembly" of the lesser.

 

May 26. President Roosevelt issued a call for the meeting of United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference.

 

May 27. United States forces landed on Biak Island in the Shoutens group, 900 miles from the Philippines.

 

May 29. Secretary of State Hull announced that he was ready to proceed through international discussions with principal Allied governments with steps toward formation of a world security program.

Japanese launched an offensive in the Honan-Hupeh areas, hoping to seize the entire Canton-Hankow railroad.

 

May 30. President Carlos Arroyo del Rio of Ecuador and his cabinet resigned after a revolutionary junta seized power in Guayaquil.

 

May 31. President Roosevelt announced the first United States draft of a nonpolitical and tentative organization to the major powers.

Ex-President Ibarra returned to power in Ecuador and assumed the Presidency, with General Alba as leader of the "military provisional government.”

 

June 1. Iceland severed ties with, Denmark and became an independent republic.

Pope Pius XII broadcast from the Vatican on conditions for an enduring peace.

King Peter of Yugoslavia issued a declaration to Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, urging unity "till war is won."

Prime Minister de Valera's party retained its majority in the general election.

 

June 2. Senor Grau San Martin elected President of Cuba.

 

June 3. General Alexander issued a proclamation to the people of Rome, calling on them to help to save the city.

 

June 4. Rome was captured by the United States Fifth Army.

 

June 5. King Victor Emmanuel of Italy transferred royal powers to Prince Umberto and the latter became "Lieutenant of the Realm."

Premier Mikolajczyk of the Polish Government arrived in Washington for conference with President Roosevelt and Secretary Hull on Polish-Russian relations.


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June 6. Allied invasion forces under the supreme command of General Eisenhower began landing on the northern coast of France.

The Badoglio government in Italy resigned.

United States recognized the Ibarra government of Ecuador.

Portuguese Government prohibited the export of wolfram, and took steps to bring about the cessation of its production.

 

June 7. Allied High Command and the French authorities representing General de Gaulle have fully agreed on military matters.

King Leopold of the Belgians was taken to Germany.

King Haakon of Norway delivered a speech on the rights of small nations to share in post-war decisions.

 

June 8. Crown Prince Umberto of Italy asked Signor Bonomi to form a new government.

 

June 11. Saipan, Tinian, and Guam Islands in the Marianas were, attacked by United States carrier forces.

 

June 12. Czechoslovak Government in London called on all Czechs and Slovaks in German and Hungarian armies to desert whenever possible,

 

June 18. The French Committee of National Liberation was recognized as Provisional Government of France by the exiled Governments. of Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Luxembourg, and Poland.

 

June 15. President Roosevelt issued an outline plan calling for postwar international security.

United States amphibious forces stormed Saipan in the Marianas group.

 

June 16. The Finnish Minister in Washington and his three counselors were given their passports and asked to leave the country.

 

June 18. Czechoslovak-Soviet agreement was signed, providing for printing of Czech currency in Russia for use by Czech and Russian authorities when Red Army reaches Czech territory.

 

June 19. Allied governments approved the newly formed Bonomi government in Italy.

 

June 21. British Government promised the Trans-Jordanese that a treaty more favorable than that of 1928 will be negotiated after the war.

 

June 28. United States and Great Britain resumed diplomatic relations with the new Government of Bolivia.

 

June 26. United States invasion forces captured Cherbourg.

 

June 27. United States Ambassador to Argentina was recalled for "consultation."

 

June 28. The Vatican resumed diplomatic relations with the Netherlands Government in exile.

British Government agreed to establish a war refugee haven in one of the former Italian colonies in Libya.

Governor Dewey of New York was nominated for the Presidency, with Governor Bricker of Ohio as his running mate by the Republican National Convention in Chicago.

 

June 29. Polish Government signed an agreement with Britain for war supplies on lend-lease terms.

 

June 30. United States severed diplomatic relations with Finland.

 

July 1. United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference opened at Bretton Woods, N. H.

President Ubico of Guatemala resigned and the Government, fell into the hands of a military junta.


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July 5. Secretary of War Stimson conferred with Pope Pius XII and talked on peace terms to be dictated to Germany.

 

July 6. General Charles de Gaulle arrived in Washington for conference with the President.

 

July l1. United States recognized the French Committee of National Liberation as the de facto authority in the civil administration of France.

 

July 18. Egyptian Government issued a call for a pan-Arab meeting.

 

July 26. President Roosevelt was nominated for Presidency for a fourth term by the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, with Senator Truman as his running mate.

 

July 20. Attempted plot to assassinate Hitler was reported.

 

July 21. United States forces began landing on Guam island.

 

July 23. Moscow announced the formation of a Polish Committee of National Liberation.

 

July 27. The State Department issued a summary of the position of Government in its relation to the Farrell regime in Argentina, justifying its non-recognition policy.

United States signed an agreement with Luxembourg in the civil administration of Luxembourg territory.

Premier Bonomi of Italy asked the United States for lend-lease aid.

 

July 31. Premier Mikolajczyk of Poland arrived in Moscow to confer with Soviet officials.

 

August 2. Churchill reviewed the course of the war in an address in the House of Commons.

Turkey severed diplomatic and economic relations with Germany.

Polish underground army in Warsaw area under, General Bor started fighting against the Germans.

President Ryti of Finland resigned, and the Parliament voted unanimously Field Marshal Mannerheim for the Presidency.

 

August 6. Russia recognized the Lebanese government as an independent, republican government.

 

August 7. Colombia and Venezuela declared that they "are unable to normalize, their relations with the Argentine Government of Farrell."

 

August 8. Petroleum agreement was signed between the representatives of the United States and the United Kingdom.

 

August 11. It was reported that United States, Great Britain, and Russia will establish a joint commission for post-war administration of Austria.

 

August 12. Churchill met Tito in Italy for a conference.

 

August 14. Russia proposed to United States and Great Britain the creation of a world security organization backed by an "international military air corps."

 

August 15. Allied forces under Lieutenant General Patch began landings in southern France (Cannes-Toulon sector).

 

August 16. United States Government froze Argentina's gold stocks in this country.

 

August 17. India is cleared of all Japanese forces.

 

August 19. Secretary Hull announced the resignation of Mr. Phillips, political adviser to General Eisenhower.


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August 21. International Peace and Security Conference opened at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D. C.

 

August 23. Churchill conferred with Pope Pius XII in Rome..

 

August 25. Paris is retaken by the Allied forces.

Russians captured Kishinev in Bessarabia and arrived at Galati Gate, pathway to the Balkans and the Danube delta.

Rumania declared war against Germany.

 

August 26. Marseilles is retaken by the Allied forces.

General Mikhailovitch lost his command in Yugoslavia by a royal decree.

 

August 29. United States recognized the Polish Home Army as a combat force.

 

August 3l. Bucharest is captured by the Russians.

 

September 1. Mr. Robert Murphy is appointed political adviser to General Eisenhower on Germany.

 

September 2. Finland accepted the Russian armistice terms.

 

September 4. Russo-Finnish war came to an end as "cease fire" was ordered by the Finnish Government.

Brussels is retaken by the Allied forces.

 

September 5. Russia declared war on Bulgaria.

Customs agreement is signed, among Belgium, Luxemburg, and the Netherlands.

 

September 6. Bulgaria asked Russia for an armistice, and declared war on Germany.

 

September 7. Russian forces in the Balkans reached the eastern borders of Yugoslavia.

United States recognized Czechoslovak fighting forces and those of Slovakia as a combat force.

 

September 9. Provisional Government of France issued a proclamation abolishing all laws promulgated by the Vichy government.

 

September 10. Russian-Iraqi diplomatic relations established.

 

September 11. Churchill-Roosevelt conference started at Quebec.

Luxemburg is liberated.

 

September 12. Le Havre is retaken by the Allied forces.

 

September 13. Russo-Rumanian armistice signed.

 

September 14. Australia and New Zealand joined in Churchill-Roosevelt conference at Quebec.

United States forces began landing on Pelelieu Island of the Palau group.

 

September 15. Landings also began on Halmahera and Moratai Islands, in the Mulacca group.

 

September 16. Tito's territorial demands on Italy, including Istria and Trieste, caused dismay among Italians.

 

September 17. Allied air-borne troops successfully landed behind enemy lines in Arnhem, Holland.

 

September 19. Russo-Finnish armistice signed.

United States accorded full recognition to Syria and the Lebanon.

 

September 20. Port of Brest is captured by the Allies.

 

September 22. Russian forces captured Tallinn, capital of Esthonia.

 

September 25. Pan-Arab conference opened in Alexandria, Egypt, with Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Trans-Jordan participating.

 

September 28. Allied air-borne troops relinquished their hold in Arnhem after severe losses.


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September 29. Russian representative withdrew from the Dumbarton Oaks Conference, and the second part of the Conference began with China participating.

President Roosevelt publicly rebuked the Farrell regime in Argentina.

The Polish Government dropped General Sosnkowski from the post of commander in chief, and appointed General Bor in his place.