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• US 85th Division captured Monte Altuzzo, Italy; other US units captured Monte Pratone. To the east, Indian 4th Division attacked German 278th Infantry Division in San Marino. ww2dbase [Gothic Line Offensive | TH, CPC]
• USS Guam was commissioned with Captain Leland P. Lovette in command. ww2dbase [Guam | AC]
• Hans Thurner was awarded Oak Leaves to his Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. ww2dbase [CPC]
• An Operation Frantic UK-USSR-Italy-UK shuttle mission was completed as 72 B-17s and 59 P-51s fly without bombs from Italy to England. ww2dbase [Operation Frantic | P-51 Mustang | B-17 Flying Fortress | DS]

• USS Bailey covered the landings on Angaur Island, Palau. ww2dbase [Bailey | Palau Islands and Ulithi Islands Campaigns | Angaur, Palau | DS]

• Douglas MacArthur disembarked from USS Nashville at Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea. ww2dbase [Nashville | Douglas MacArthur | Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea | CPC]

• The Red Army broke through near Narva, Estonia. ww2dbase [Narva | TH]

• The siege of Boulogne, Pas-de-Calais, France began. With 1 Corps grounded from lack of transport, the only available formation was 3rd Canadian Division, less one brigade, but reinforced with some armour and medium regiments of artillery. Despite being smaller than Le Havre, Boulogne proved to be a hard nut to crack, with deep underground fortifications, as well as surrounding forts, minefields and anti-tank ditches. Heavy bombing on the opening day failed to destroy the many German gun batteries, making the siege more difficult than expected. ww2dbase [Normandy Campaign, Phase 2 | Boulogne, Nord-Pas-de-Calais | AC]
• Lorraine departed waters off southern France. ww2dbase [Lorraine | CPC]

• USS Tunny arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii, ending her seventh war patrol. ww2dbase [Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Tunny | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]

• The Allies launched Operation Market Garden, an airborne-ground combined attack to penetrate into northern Germany via the Netherlands, capturing Sint-Oedenrode and Veghel. US 56th Fighter Group lost sixteen out of thirty-nine P-47D Thunderbolt aircraft on flak suppression duties in support of the operation. ww2dbase [Operation Market Garden | TH, AC]
• Dennis Smith landed in the Netherlands via glider. ww2dbase [Operation Market Garden | Dennis Smith | CPC]
• The USAAF 306th Bomb Group flying from RAF Thurleigh launched a bombing raid against anti-aircraft batteries around Volkel, Netherlands in advance of the glider flights in Operation Market-Garden. ww2dbase [RAF Thurleigh | Volkel | DS]

• Soviet newspaper Unichtozhim Vraga credited Roza Shanina with 51 kills. ww2dbase [Roza Shanina | CPC]

• British Blackout regulations, which had been in force since the start of the war, were finally abolished. ww2dbase [AC]
• A German Heinkel bomber was lost when 14 of them took off from Varrelbusch, near Bremen, Germany on a sortie to launch V-1 flying bombs over eastern England, United Kingdom. Unteroffizier Hans Jördens ditched into Lake Braassemermeer in southern Netherlands, the crew survived but the aircraft was written off; it had flown into friendly fire. 9 of the returning aircraft were also damaged by the flak around the Dutch coast. These messages were all picked up on Utlra intercepts. A Mosquito aircraft from 96 Squadron brought down a flying bomb after its launch over the Kent coast of southern England. ww2dbase [Vergeltungswaffe 1 | V-Weapons Campaign | England | HM]

17 Sep 1944 Interactive Map