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• » 21 Apr 1944

• USS Croaker was commissioned into service with Commander John E. Lee in command. ww2dbase [Croaker | CPC]
• Operation Chattanooga: Allied aircraft destroyed German rail and other transportation targets. ww2dbase [Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | CPC]
• Allied bombers conducted a raid on Belgrade, Yugoslavia. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Colonel General Erhard Raus replaced Hans-Valentin Hube as the commander of the German 1.Panzerarmee. Hube was killed in a plane crash on the previous day. ww2dbase [CPC]
• USS Gar ended her eleventh war patrol. ww2dbase [Gar | CPC]

• Joseph Stilwell gave orders to launch a desperate plan in an attempt to capture Myitkyina, Burma, having Chinese and American troops march over the difficult Kumon Mountains starting on the following day. ww2dbase [Joseph Stilwell | Battle of Myitkyina | CPC]

• USS Yorktown (Essex-class) launched raids against installations in the Wakde-Sarmi area of northern New Guinea in support of General Douglas MacArthur's assault on Hollandia (Jayapura), Dutch East Indies. ww2dbase [Yorktown (Essex-class) | New Guinea-Papua Campaign, Phase 3 | Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea | DS]

• USS Gabilan departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for her first war patrol; her primary task was to conduct reconnaissance in the Mariana Islands area. ww2dbase [Gabilan | Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Pearl Harbor, Oahu | CPC]
• Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Thirty-seven aircraft (Model F6F-3), 19 aircraft (Model TBF), 77 officers and 92 men of Air Group 20 arrived on board. ww2dbase [Barbers Point Naval Air Station | Ewa, Oahu | DS]
• Casablanca-class escort carrier USS Sargent Bay departed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii bound for Alameda, California with 16 aircraft as cargo and 307 personnel as passengers. ww2dbase [Sargent Bay | Pearl Harbor, Oahu | DS]

• Japanese troops captured Crete West hill near Imphal, India. ww2dbase [Battle of Imphal-Kohima | Imphal, Manipur | CPC]

• Yamato departed Kure, Japan for Okinoshima and loaded troops. ww2dbase [Yamato | Kure, Hiroshima | CPC]

• As part of US Navy Carrier Task Force 58, USS Portland screened carriers launching the initial strikes in support of the landings at Hollandia on New Guinea. ww2dbase [New Guinea-Papua Campaign, Phase 3 | Portland | DS]

• No. 486 Squadron RNZAF, flying Tempest V fighters, arrived at RAF Newchurch in southern England, United Kingdom. ww2dbase [RAF Newchurch | Newchurch, England | CPC]

21 Apr 1944 Interactive Map