75 Years Ago—August 3, 1944: US and Chinese forces take crucial town of Myitkyina, Burma.
King George VI approves Education Act to reform British secondary schools.
75 Years Ago—August 2, 1944: Neutral Turkey breaks diplomatic relations with Germany.
US Ninth Air Force stops bombing bridges over the Loire and Seine Rivers in France in order to speed the Allied advance.
Germans liquidate Roma (Gypsy) family camp at Auschwitz, killing 4200.
Polish insurgent fighter Lt. Stanislaw Jankowski and his men right before the start of the Warsaw Uprising, Warsaw, Poland, 1 Aug 1944 (public domain via WW2 Database)
75 Years Ago—August 1, 1944: US Third Army under Gen. George Patton enters action in France, breaking out of Normandy and entering Brittany.
Warsaw uprising begins: Polish Home Army rises up against the Germans as the Soviets approach.
US secures Tinian in the Mariana Islands.
Manuel Quezon, the first president of the Philippines and the president of the government-in-exile, dies of tuberculosis in New York; replaced by his vice president, Sergio Osmeña.
Aerial view of Florence, Italy, 1944 (US Army Center of Military History)
French writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Toulouse, France, 1933 (public domain via Agence France-Presse)
75 Years Ago—July 31, 1944: Soviet Army reaches East Prussian border.
Germans destroy all bridges in Florence, Italy, except historic Ponte Vecchio, which could only handle foot traffic anyway.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, famed aviator and the author of The Little Prince, is killed when his P-38 Lightning (flying for the Free French) crashes into the Mediterranean off Marseille.
Destroyed German vehicles in Avranches, France, July 1944. (US Army Center of Military History)
75 Years Ago—July 30, 1944: US 6th Infantry Division lands on Vogelkop Peninsula on northwest tip of New Guinea with little opposition.
In drive out of Normandy, US First Army takes Avranches.
US Marines Gunnery Sergeant J. Paget and Privates L.C. Whether and V.A. Sot, Guam, 28 July 1944 (US National Archives)
75 Years Ago—July 29, 1944: On Guam, US Marines clear Orote Peninsula and take Orote Airfield.
New song in Top Ten: “It Could Happen to You.”
American armored and infantry forces pass through the battered town of Coutances, France, July 1944 (US National Archives)
75 Years Ago—July 28, 1944: In Poland, Soviets cross the Vistula River south of Warsaw and take Brest-Litovsk.
In the drive out of Normandy, US First Army takes Coutances.
Me 163 Komet jet fighter goes into combat with Luftwaffe.
Map showing the Allied breakthrough at Saint-Lô, France, 25-31 July 1944 (US Military Academy)
Gloster Meteor over England (Imperial War Museum)
75 Years Ago—July 27, 1944: In Operation Cobra in Normandy, US First Army breaks through German defenses south of Saint-Lô.
First operational use of RAF Gloster Meteor jet fighters, which will down 14 V-1 buzz bombs by the end of the war.
Pres. Franklin Roosevelt in conference with Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Adm. Chester Nimitz, and Adm. William Leahy, Hawaii, July 1944. (US Navy photo)
75 Years Ago—July 26, 1944: President Roosevelt arrives in Honolulu to meet with Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Admirals Chester Nimitz and William Leahy to determine strategy in the Pacific; the decision will be made to invade the Philippines rather than Formosa (Taiwan).
Lt. Gen. Lesley McNair, 1944 (US Army Signal Corps photo)
75 Years Ago—July 25, 1944: Operation Cobra: US First Army begins breakout from Normandy.
While supporting Cobra, US Eighth Air Force accidentally bombs Allied troops, killing 102, including Lt. Gen. Lesley McNair, former commander of US Army Ground Forces.
“Another masterful installment in Sundin’s roster of WWII novels.”—Booklist starred review for Embers in the London Sky