Air Operations, CBI

• 1 7th Heavy Bomber Command B-24 attack a village in the Arakan coastal region.
• More than 20 10th Air Force P-40s attack numerous targets in and around Myitkyina.

• More than 60 10th Air Force A-31s attack Japanese Army positions.

Air Operations, Central Pacific

US carrier aircraft from Task Group 58.6 [see May 20, 1944] attack Wake Island.

Air Operations, Europe

RAF Spitfires shoot down 8 FW-190 fighter-bombers north of Rome.

RAF BOMBER COMMAND
Evening Ops:

• 442 aircraft are sent to attack 2 railway yards at Aachen, Aachen-West and Rothe Erde, east of town. Included in the total are 264 Lancasters, 162 Halifaxes and 16 Mosquitos from all Groups except No. 5.
• The targets are important links in the railway system between Germany and France. Local reports say that both targets are hit with the one east of town hit the hardest. Because the targets are in a German town, more planes than normal are sent for a railway attack. Many bombs fall in Aachen and in the villages near the railway yards.
• 18 Halifaxes and 7 Lancasters are lost.
• 59 Lancasters and 4 Mosquitos of No. 5 Group are sent to attack the Philips factory at Eindhoven, but the Master Bomber orders the force not to bomb because of poor visibility. 1 plane does not hear the order and drops its load.
• There are no losses.
• 106 Halifaxes, 102 Lancasters and 16 Mosquitos, split into small groups, attack coastal gun positions at Boulogne, Colline Beaumont, Le Clipon and Trouville without loss.
• 55 Lancasters and 7 Mosquitos of Nos. 5 and 8 Groups attack the Ford motor factory at Antwerp, but the bombs miss the target. Some bombs fall on nearby dockside buildings.
• There are no losses.

• 15 Mosquitos are sent to Berlin, 18 Halifaxes and 7 Stirlings lay mines in the Frisians and off Brest, and there are 31 Serrate and 8 Intruder patrols and 6 RCM and 23 OTU sorties.
• 1 RCM Halifax is lost.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• 3rd Light Bomb Group A-20s attack Kamiri and Namber airfields on Noemfoor.
• 5th Air Force B-25s, A-20s, and fighter-bombers complete more than 200 sorties against targets from Hansa Bay to Wewak.

Burma

There are strong counterattacks by units of the Japanese 18th Div south of Myitkyina and they drive the Chinese-American forces out of Charpate and open the road north to Myitkyina.

On the Salween River front the Chinese carry out an ineffective frontal attack against a ridge enclosing the Pingka valley to the southeast.

Eastern Front

600 German paratroopers make a surprise assault on Yugoslave Partisan headquarters near Drvar. Tito and Randolph Churchill, son of the prime minister, barely escape.

Italy

At Anzio the attacks also continue. Cisterna is still held by the Germans but a little to the south Route 7 is reached near Latina by the 1st Arm Div. The Allies now have a salient between the German 10th and 14th Armies. Hitler authorizes Kesselring to withdraw to the 'Caesar' Line, a defensive line which starts from the Tyrrhenian coast about half-way between Anzio and the Ostia Lido and reaches the Adriatic in the area of Pescara, touching Albano, Popoli and Chieti. To slow down the Allies' movement as much as possible, the Germans carry out effective rearguard actions in which the Hermann Goering Panzer Div plays a major part enabling von Vietinghoff's forces to withdraw successfully.

The attacks of 5th and 8th Armies continue. On the Tyrrhenian coast the American 85th Div captures Terracina despite resistance from 29th Pzr Gren Div, from which the Germans have already retired.

In the northern sector of the front, units of the Canadian I Corps take Pontecorvo in the morning, putting pressure on the Germans in the fortified positions north of Aquino. Meanwhile the Canadian 5th Arm Div reaches the Melfa River and establishes a bridgehead on the north bank during the night.

New Guinea

Employing armored cars and flamethrowers, the US 158th Combat Group gradually opens up a road west from the Arare beachhead toward Sarmi, and reaches the Tirfoam River.

In the Aitape beachhead the Americans in the Nyaparake sector withdraw to a new line.

Pacific

• Aircraft taking off from a group of aircraft carriers under the orders of Rear-Adm Mongomery bomb Japanese installations on Wake Island. The day before a squadron of US destroyers had shelled the enemy fortifications on Wotje atoll. By now the Americans have mastery of the Pacific. Not a day passes in which their air and naval forces do not strike some point of the 'sphere of common prosperity'. Adm Soemu Toyoda, inexperienced in battle but a good administrator, is planning to reorganize the Japanese naval air forces very much on the lines of the American task forces, and is getting ready to parry the next American move, which will almost certainly be the capture of the Marianas. If the Americans are sucessful in this new task they will have opened the way to the Philippines, and indeed to the very home islands of Japan. To avoid this danger he works out a plan, code-named A-GO, with the following objects: to attract the American fleet into the Marianas-Palau-Carolines sector and destroy it there by joint action by the whole fleet and all available land-based and carrier-based aircraft. If in spite of this action the enemy succeeds in carrying out the landing in the Marianas, they will find themselves facing very large Japanese forces. The big group of task forces, including almost the whole of the Imperial fleet, is put under command of Vice-Adm Jisaburo Ozawa, 9 aircraft carriers, with a powerful escort of battleships, cruisers and destroyers, are assembled in the roadstead at Tawi-Tawi in the Sulu Islands, the southernmost of the Philippines. The 1st Air Fleet, which completes the line-up, deploys its 540 aircraft on many different islands, from Chichi Jima in the north to Biak, off the north coast of Dutch New Guinea, in the south. 172 aircraft are stationed on the Marianas.
• The Japanese submarine RO-116 is sunk by the US destroyer escort England (DE-635) north of the Bismarck Archipelago.
• The Japanse frigate Iki is sunk by the US submarine Raton (SS-270) in the Netherlands East Indies area.

Images from May 24, 1944

Landing Craft During Invasion Exercises

A fleet of Landing Craft Assault passing a landing ship during exercises prior to the invasion of Normandy. King George VI (not visible) is taking the salute on board the headquarters ship HMS Bulolo at Beaulieu Roads. The numbers of several of the LCAs are visible, they are LCA-654, LCA-1254, LCA-926, LCA-1025, LCA-1009, LCA-920, LCA-602, LCA-656, LCA-921, and LCA-1043

I Canadian Corps forces advancing from the Gustav Line to the Hitler Line during the Liri Valley Offensive, May 24, 1944

Canadians Advance from Gustav Line

Captain J.A. Gardner Talking with a Wounded German Soldier in the Liri River Valley, Italy, 24 May 1944

US Tank and Troops in Monte San Biagio, Italy, 24 May 1944

Wounded US Soldier Being Treated in Cisterna, 24 May 1944

US Soldiers in Monte San Biagio, Italy, 24 May 1944

24 May 1944: Canadian Infantry Hold Bridgehead against Panzer Attack

German prisoners (approximately 100) are marched single file by rifle squad of 387th Infantry Regiment to C.C.S.P.W. enclosure after being captured near Cisterna. Fifth Army, Cisterna area, Italy. 24 May 1944

German Prisoners Are Marched Single File

Infantrymen of 6th Armored Regiment, 1st Armored Division, pass knocked out American medium M-4 tank on way up to front, 5th Army, Anzio area, Italy, 24 May 1944

Passing a Knocked Out American Tank

The Tiny 7th Air Force's 11th Bomb Group Gets Ready to Roll, May 1944