Diary June 22, 1944

06-1944, War Diary, Year 1944 / 1 minute of reading

The only existing picture of the Poltava raid. A B-17 Flying Fortress in the light of German target marker bombs (‘christmas trees’).

WW2 War Diary for Thursday, June 22, 1944:

Air War

Eastern Europe – Poltava raid: Luftwaffe stages surprise night raid (60 planes) on 8th AF ‘shuttle bombing’ base in Ukraine. 44 B-17 Fortress destroyed; 26 men killed; 2,045,745 liters fuel burned. Shuttle raids subsequently abandoned.

Western Front

Normandy: Saturation bombing attack heralds major US infantry assault on Cherbourg.

Politics

Finland: Ribbentrop flies to Helsinki and brow-beats Finnish ministers into making public announcement that Finland will continue to support Germany (and not make a separate peace), in return for despatch of German troop reinforcements and arms.

Home Fronts

USA: GI ‘Bill of Rights’ promising generous benefits for returning US Servicemen, signed by Roosevelt.

Southeast Asia

Burma: Japanese siege off Imphal lifted.

Imphal-Kohima Losses:

	Casualties	Planes
British and Indian	16,700 + 5,100 Chindits	130 RAF, 40 USAAF
Japanese	30,520 dead, 23,003 wounded + 120 tanks, c. 90 guns, 17,000 horses	c. 100

About The Author

Kretaner

My name is Norman 'Kretaner' and since my childhood I am interested in history and strategy games. Later, I have learned programming and the development of computer games, and finally with the Internet, also web design. I'm in the fortunate position to combine all my interests with my work and to live on a place of my choice, on Crete. All information, figures, specifications and statistics used here had been compiled from a variety of sources and the large, over decades collected, library of the author about military history, WW2 and weapons.