World war II chronology - April 1944

1 April 1944	Twenty American planes drop 400 bombs on Schaffhausen, Switzerland, mistaking it for German territory.
2 April 1944	Adolf Hitler issues Operation Order 7, instructing Army Group A, Army Group South, and Army Group Centre to hold a line against Russian advances.
3 April 1944	Planes of the British Fleet Air Arm attack German battleship Tirpitz in Altenfjord. Fourteen hits are scored, but damage is not serious.
5 April 1944	144 British bombers attack the Gnome et Rhône aero-works at Toulouse, France, effecting the complete destruction of the factory.
8 April 1944	In Burma, Kohima is surrounded by Japanese forces. Soviet forces under Marshal Ivan Konev cross the Pruth into Romania.
9 April 1944	At the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Germany, Dr. Hans von Dohnanyi is executed for several anti-Nazi offences. British bombers attack railway targets in Lille, France.
10 April 1944	The Soviet Red Army re-captures Odessa. British bombers attack railway targets in Ghent, France.
11 April 1944	362 British bombers attack targets in Aachen.
13 April 1944	The American government requests Sweden to unconditionally stop exporting ball bearings and special steel machinery to Germany.
14 April 1944	In the harbor in Bombay, India, American cargo ship SS Fort Stikine explodes. It was carrying 1395 tons of explosives, and gold for the Indian Treasury. Ten nearby ships are destroyed, 500 people are killed, and 8000 injured. In the North Atlantic, Royal Canadian Navy frigate Swansea and Royal Navy sloop Pelican sink German submarine U-448.   The 8th British Army secretly begins moving across Italy to join the 5th United States Army in an assault on Monte Cassino. 32 British Naval Air Arm Barracuda aircraft are launched from an aircraft carrier against German battleship Tirpitz in Kaafjord, Norway. Ten planes carry bombs weighing nearly one ton apiece. The attack is very successful, causing severe hull damage, leaving Tirpitz listing to starboard.
17 April 1944	British government imposes a ban on diplomatic pouches leaving the UK, except US and USSR, to help prevent information being leaked about the invasion of Europe.
22 April 1944	In the mid-Atlantic, Royal Canadian Navy frigates Matane and Swansea destroy German submarine U-311.
24 April 1944	In the mid-Atlantic, a Royal Canadian Air Force Sunderland plane from 423 Squadron extensively damages German submarine U-672. 627 British bombers attack targets in Karlsruhe, Germany. Little damage is done. 260 British bombers attack targets in Munich, Germany. 30,000 people are made homeless.
26 April 1944	German destroyer T-29 sinks in the English Channel, after shelling from Royal Canadian Navy destroyer Haida, and three other British and Canadian ships. 493 British bombers attack targets in Essen, Germany. Enormous damage is inflicted. Seven planes are shot down. 225 British bombers attack the ball-bearing industry centre at Schweinfurt, Germany. About 21 planes are shot down.
27 April 1944	Operation Tiger takes place, with the Allies practising landing at Slapton Sands on the south coast of England. Several German E-boats (Schnellbootes) sink two LSTs and damage six others, with the loss of over 700 men. (Because of this incident, Adolf Hitler orders the lower Normandy defences reinforced.) 323 British bombers attack Friedrichshafen, Germany. They destroy two-thirds of the Zeppelin works which was building V-2 rocket components.
29 April 1944	In the English Channel, Royal Canadian Navy destroyer HMCS Athabaskan is hit by a torpedo from German destroyer T-24. In the English Channel, Canadian destroyers Athabaskan and Haida score a hit on a German destroyer. In the English Channel, Canadian destroyers Athabaskan and Haida score a second hit on a German destroyer. In the English Channel, Royal Canadian Navy destroyer Haida forces German destroyer T-27 to run aground on Ile de Vierge. Canadian destroyer Athabaskan suffers a second explosion, possibly from a torpedo hit, and sinks in the English Channel. 128 men die, 83 taken prisoner, 44 rescued.