Photo of the Day

Reading the paper on Nov. 2, 1944.

British troops wade ashore from landing craft near Flushing to complete the occupation of Walcheren. [Imperial War Museums photo.]

British and Canadian forces attacked Walcheren Island, in the Antwerp harbor, yesterday to eliminate German coastal batteries blocking Allied use of the North Sea port.

During the day, American heavy bombers targeted the Ruhr industrial area in Germany, along with rail hubs.

The Army Air Forces announced it now has 74,500 aircraft of all types.

Twelve thousand of these are currently fighting overseas and six thousand are there as ready reserves.

Officials explained that for every aircraft used in combat another five planes were needed as reserves or for training and transport purposes.

Middle-aged and elderly Jewish civilians from Budapest are force-marched west towards Vienna, where they will construct defenses against the approaching Red Army, November 1944.

The Red Army continues to gain ground in Hungary and now is thirty-two miles from Budapest.

The American Fifth Army repulsed several German attacks near Bologna in which the German infantry was aided by flame-throwers.

The fighting has been reported as costly for both sides.

Left: Cologne. Right: Bombed University of Aarhus dormitory housing the Gestapo.

In the evening, one thousand RAF aircraft struck Germany cities, in the tenth attack on Cologne, a German transportation center which RAF personnel say has been ‘marked for extermination.’

In an operation planned by the American Office of Strategic Services and the British Special Operations Executive, the RAF destroyed the Gestapo headquarters in Denmark, which had been located in a student dormitory at the University of Aarhus.

Belgian Andrée de Jongh (1916-2007) organized the “Comet Line” of escape through German-occupied territories and escorted 118 Allied troops to safety. She was captured and imprisoned in 1943 for the duration of the war, but survived, and did humanitarian work in Africa after the war.

Personnel of the RAF have donated two million francs to the children of French partisans who have been executed for aiding downed RAF airmen escape from occupied territories.

[Twelve thousand French citizens aided the escape of five thousand Allied airmen during the war. The number of those who were executed is unknown.]

Left: The USS Princeton engulfed in flames after bombardment by the Japanese navy on October 24, 1944. Right: U.S. landing ships, tanks (LSTs), on the beach at Leyte Island in the Philippines, October 1944.

The US Navy has announced additional sea losses in the Philippines in heavy action but has refused to identify them at present, stating such information would be helpful to the Japanese.

The sea battles have followed the US amphibious assault to reclaim the islands which began on October 20.

Fierce land battles rage on Leyte Island.

Junkers 188 [Imperial War Museums photo.]

A German civilian engine mechanic working for the Luftwaffe stole a Junkers 188 aircraft from an airfield near Leipzig recently and flew west four hundred miles to reach Allied lines.

As the aircraft circled the Allied airfield several times in a low, erratic pattern, anti-aircraft fire ignited its left engine.

A Luftwaffe band.

But the mechanic, who had never flown before, managed a belly landing and emerged from the plane uninjured.

Upon his capture, the mechanic, age thirty, explained that, because he was half-Jewish, he was destined for a concentration camp unless he could escape from Germany.

Dewey will lose the November 7 election to FDR but will make a stronger showing than any previous Republican opponent. He’ll get 45.9% of the popular vote compared to FDR’s 53.4%, but will lose in the Electoral College by a margin of 432 to 99.

The Republican presidential candidate, Governor Thomas Dewey of New York, has warned that the reelection of President Roosevelt would increase the menace of the Communists, who seek control of the federal government.

Addressing a crowd of 24,000 in Boston Arena, with another 100,000 outside and unable to get in, Dewey claimed that FDR had placed the Democratic Party on the auction block, for sale to the highest bidder, in his attempt to continue in office.

FDR in Phiadelphia, October 27, 1944.

“Once in every for years, late in October, my opponent announces that he believes in the enterprise system.

Then, for the remaining three years and eleven months, he wages war against the American enterprises system day in and day out.”

Left: Harold Ickes (1874 - 1952) opposed Japanese-American internment during the war. Right: Gary Cooper (1901 - 1961) in the 1944 film "The Story of Dr. Wassell."

Meanwhile, in a radio address, Harold Ickes, a civil rights advocate and the Secretary of the Interior, charged Dewey with ‘walking hand in hand with the most vindictive enemies of the Negroes and showing great zeal to assist in the administration of lynch law.’

Hollywood actor Gary Cooper has endorsed Dewey, claiming that, despite his previous support of FDR, ‘there have been too many broken promises and too much double-talk.’

The Cirminello quadruplets in 1954.

A Philadelphia hospital announced the birth of quadruplets by Ceasarean section.

It is the first time in medical history that the surgical procedure was used in a multiple birth.

And finally…

The New York Public Library announced the return of 27,000 books, prints and manuscripts to its Manhattan building from protective storage in Saratoga Springs, New York.

The items had been sent there in secret in May 1942 as a precaution against potential air raids or enemy attack.

Among the treasures returned is the original manuscript of Washington’s Farewell Address, entirely in Washington’s own handwriting, signed and dated September 19, 1796.

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I’ll see you on Monday.

— Brenda

Stories from the New York Times.

Banner image: Washington’s Farewell Address to His Officers, 1796.