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• » 26 Jun 1944

• USS Tang attacked a Japanese cargo ship with four torpedoes without success. ww2dbase [Tang | CPC]
• Red Army captured Vitebsk, Byelorussia. ww2dbase [Operation Bagration | TH]
• General von Schlieben, commander of the German garrison in Cherbourg, France, was captured by US troops. ww2dbase [Normandy Campaign, Phase 1 | TH]
• Germans instituted a curfew in Copenhagen, Denmark in response to a wave of sabotage. In retaliation, the people of Copenhagen underwent a massive civil strike. ww2dbase [TH]
• Gurkha troops of the Chindits captured Mogaung, Burma. ww2dbase [Operation Thursday | CPC]
• Major General James Doolittle authorized Operation Aphrodite. ww2dbase [Operation Aphrodite and Operation Anvil | James Doolittle | CPC]

• HMS CUMBERLAND deployed on patrol in Indian Ocean and called at Fremantle, Australia. ww2dbase [Cumberland | Fremantle | DS]

• USS Cero departed Manus, Admiralty Islands for her fifth war patrol. ww2dbase [Cero | Manus, Admiralty Islands | CPC]

• Brigadier-General Theodore F. Weasels took over command of the Myitkyina Task Force from the sick Brigadier-General Boatner following another bout of malaria. ww2dbase [Battle of Myitkyina | Myitkyina | AC]

• Japanese troops reached Hengyang, Hunan Province, China, site of an important US air base, but were checked by the 15,000-strong Chinese 10th Army supported by US 14th Air Force's B-25 Mitchell and P-47 Thunderbolt aircraft which made constant attacks on the Japanese supply lines. ww2dbase [Operation Ichigo | Hengyang, Hunan | AC]

• A transport of 3,119 Jews from Szeged, Hungary crossed into Poland at Kosice, Czechoslovakia. The train was destined for Auschwitz Concentration Camp in occupied Poland. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Kosice | CPC]

• Finnish troops counterattacked Soviet troops west of Lake Leitimojärvi near Tali (Paltsevo), Finland, destroying the Soviet 27th Tank Regiment and pushing the Soviets back to the line the Soviets held one day prior. ww2dbase [Battle of Tali-Ihantala and Battle of Vuosalmi | Tali | CPC]
• Lennart Oesch was awarded the Mannerheim Cross. ww2dbase [Lennart Oesch | CPC]

• Alexander Löhr was mentioned in the Wehrmachtbericht daily radio report. ww2dbase [Alexander Löhr | CPC]

• USS Croaker arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii. ww2dbase [Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Croaker | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]

• USS Luce bombarded Paramushiru (Paramushir), Kurile Islands. ww2dbase [Luce | Paramushiru, Hokkaido | CPC]
• The keel of landing ship No. 112 was laid down by Osaka Zosen. ww2dbase [No. 101/103-class | CPC]
• Landing ship No. 135 was launched. ww2dbase [No. 101/103-class | CPC]

• The crematoria in Auschwitz-II Birkenau in occupied Poland received four sieves for sifting bones out of human ashes. Up above, Allied aircraft took photographs of the Auschwitz camps complex at the altitude of about 30,000 feet (about 10,000 meters). ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Auschwitz Concentration Camp | Oswiecim | CPC]

• The first V-1 bomb to drop on London, England, United Kingdom on this day hit Elfin Road in Camberwell at 0130 hours, killing three and demolishing 18 houses. The US Naval Armed Guard Service vessel William A. Jones brought down a bomb whilst on patrol off the French Normandie coast. One US Naval Officer said "We never could get used to those buzz bomb attacks. Kinda like an artillery shell: as long as you can hear them you know that you are OK. When the noise of the buzz bomb stopped you had an instant cure for haemorrhoids." The Mosquito XIII night fighters of 96 Squadron from RAF Ford were getting used to the method of attacking the bombs and brought down six between 0030 and 0334 hours. ww2dbase [V-Weapons Campaign | London, England | HM]

• USS Ticonderoga departed Norfolk, Virginia, United States for Trinidad. ww2dbase [Ticonderoga | Norfolk, Virginia | DS]
• USS Segundo departed New London, Connecticut, United States. ww2dbase [Segundo | New London, Connecticut | CPC]

26 Jun 1944 Interactive Map