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• Weather data for 17 Sep 1944

• USS Guam was commissioned with Captain Leland P. Lovette in command. ww2dbase [Main Article | AC]
• 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 [Main Article | TH, CPC]
• Hans Thurner was awarded Oak Leaves to his Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. ww2dbase [CPC]

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

• Lorraine departed waters off southern France. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• 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 [Main Article | AC]

• USS Tunny arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii, ending her seventh war patrol. ww2dbase [Main Article | Facility | 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 [Main Article | TH, AC]
• Dennis Smith landed in the Netherlands via glider. ww2dbase [Main Article | Event | CPC]

• Soviet newspaper Unichtozhim Vraga credited Roza Shanina with 51 kills. ww2dbase [Main Article | 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 [Main Article | Event | HM]

17 Sep 1944 Interactive Map