Air Operations, CBI
BURMA- 7 10th Air Force B-25s attack Man Mawn and 1 B-25 attacks Indaw.
- 27 341st Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack Kiyang, Lingling, Yungming, and targets near Chuanhsien.
- 14th Air Force P-51s and P-40s mount more than 100 effective sorties against numerous targets in east-central China.
- 5th CACW Fighter Group P-40s, 23rd Fighter Group P-40s, and an 81st Fighter Group P-47 down 8 Japanese fighters during a morning engagement over Sinshih.
- 21 7th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s transport fuel from India to Liuchow.
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]Air Operations, East Indies
- FEAF B-24s attack Piroe Bay, the Kairatoe airfield and Laha on Ceram.
- FEAF B-25s and P-38s attack small craft off Belang (Sunda Islands), Kairatoe (Ceram), Kakas (Celebes), barges off Kaoe (Halmahera), Menado (Celebes), the Namlea airfield on Boeroe, and Tomohon (Celebes).
| ]Air Operations, Europe
RAF BOMBER COMMANDDaylight Ops:
Minor Ops:
- 12 Stirlings and 1 Hudson are on Resistance operations, and 2 Fortresses and 2 Wellingtons make RCM sorties. There are no losses. Bad weather in the form of rain and low cloud prevents any major operation during the next 48 hours.
| ]Air Operations, New Guinea
- V Fighter Command fighter-bombers attack targets of opportunity on the Orai River and at Ransiki and Windissi.
- During the night, V Fighter Command fighter-bombers attack the Geelvink Bay and Bentoni Bay areas.
| ]Air Operations, Philippines
Task Force 38 carrier-based aircraft undertake punishing strikes against shipping and airfields in the Manila area and airfields in the central Philippines. US Navy fighter pilots (and 2 SB2C crews) down 147 Japanese aircraft over and near Luzon in two actions from 0740 to 1115 hours and from 1500 to 1700 hours.
[ | ]Allied Command
Gen MacArthur tells the US Chiefs of Staff that he is in a position to launch a big operation against Luzon, in the Philippines, following the advance deadline for the landing on Leyte. He also declares that there will be no point in landing on Formosa once Luzon has been captured.
[ | ]Eastern Front
CENTRAL SECTORThe Polish 1st Army is forced to withdraw from its bridgeheads in Warsaw.
The last air drop by Western aircraft to the Home Army in Warsaw takes place.
[ | ]Italy
8th Army's advance reaches Rimini. The Canadians of the I Corps and the Greek 3rd Mountain Bde enter the town which the Germans have evacuated. Since the beginning of operations against the 'Gothic' Line, the British 8th Army has lost 14,000 men killed, wounded and missing.
[ | ]Occupied Denmark
The general strike in Denmark is crushed by the Germans.
[ | ]Palaus
On Peleliu the stalemate continues for the US Marines in the face of the powerful Japanese defense from the caves on Mount Umurbrogol.
[ | ]Philippines
Over the next 4 days 12 carriers from Vice-Adm Mitscher's TF 38 attack targets on Luzon, especially near Manila and in Manila Bay on September 21 and 22. On the 23rd there are no attacks, but on Sept 24 the Visayan islands are hit once again. Japanese ships sunk in the day's operations include the destroyer Satsuki, the tanker Sunosaki, the surveying ship Katsuriki by the submarine Haddo (SS-255), the coast defense vessel No. 5, the auxiliary submarine chaser No. 39 and the minesweeper No. 7. In the operations since August 31 TF 38 had destroyed at least 1,000 Japanese aircraft and sunk 150 ships of all types. The Americans have lost 72 aircraft which includes 18 in accidents.
[ | ]Western Front
The British XXX Corps continues to attack northward from Nijmegen but can only make very slow progress because the advance must go along or very near to the roads and rail lines which are raised above the marshy surrounding ground and consequently exposed. It is, therefore, comparatively simple to meet these attacks. The British paratroopers have been driven out of Arnhem and are now holding a permiter west of the town but still north of the Rhine. A Polish Parachute Bde or 750 men is dropped 2 miles south of this position on the opposite side of the river.
[ | ]Yugoslavia, Politics
The partisan chief Marshal Tito meets the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. They reach agreement on the 'temporary entry of the Red Army into Yugoslavia.'
[ | ]Images from September 21, 1944
Airborne Artillery Near Arnhem |
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Mortar Crew in the Oosterbeek Perimeter |
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Waiting for the Enemy |
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Searching for Snipers |
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Wounded Man Being Carried Away |
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Cromwell Tanks at Nijmegen |
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A Vickers Machine-gun Team |
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Sherman Tanks Carrying Infantry Advance towards the Dutch Border at Hamont, 21 September 1944 |
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17 Pounder Anti-tank Gun Guarding the Bridge |
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A New Zealand Anti-aircraft Gun on the Outskirts of Riccione in Italy, 21 September 1944 |
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Germans Captured in the Herqulingue Hill |
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Tanks in the Village of Veghel |
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