Allied Bomber Offensive: Operation Crossbow, attack on V-Weapon sites: Heavy day-time American air raid 380+ aircraft attack early morning mission to attack 23 V-weapon sites in Pas de Calais area. 120+ aircraft attack V-weapon sites at Marquise/Mimoyecques, Watten, Bois de I'Enfer, Paix, Montdidier & Roye/Amy. In the afternoon 328 aircraft attacked Troyes, Reims, Sarreguemines, Metz, Liege, & Brussels.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 130+ aircraft attack Toulouse, France. Serious damage caused to targets an aircraft assembly factory & explosive factory
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 130+ aircraft attack St-Ghislain, France. Serious damage caused to railway infrastructure 
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 130+ aircraft attack Malines, France. Attack on railway infrastructure 
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 130+ aircraft attack Chambly, France. Main railway stores & repair depot damaged

1 May 1944 Kaisariani executions: 200 Greek communists were executed by Nazi occupation authorities in the Athens suburb of Kaisariani as reprisal for the killing of a German general by Greek Resistance fighters.

Spain bowed to pressure from the Allies and agreed to stop exporting tungsten to Germany.

The Eastern Front: The Second Battle of Târgu Frumos begins
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 250+ aircraft attack on Busigny, Valenciennes, & Blanc-Misseron, in France and the Low Countries.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 250+ aircraft attack on La Spezia, Italy. Targetting dock and harbour installations

Damaged by depth charges from British Wellington aircraft 8 Squadron, the captain decided to scuttle the boat off Ras Mabber, Somalia 7 dead, and 59 survivors were captured on shore by British Somaliland Camel Corp 09.32N 50.59E 03/05/1944. British forces later managed to recover a Bachstelze, a gyrocopter, fitted to the boat's conning tower to extend her visual range from 5 miles to 25 miles at sea. In November 1946 her Captain & 2 senior officers. (Heinz Eck) of U-852 was executed for war crimes by a British Military Court Marshal. U-852 had machine-gunned survivors of the Greek steamer Peleus in the water on 13/03/1944.

Damaged by GNAT acoustic homing torpedo German submarine U-473, 280 miles SW of Cape Clear, Ireland, in the North Atlantic. Torpedo detonated depth charges blowing off both propellers & wrecking her stern, 29 dead, 25 injured 47.48N 19.55W 03/05/1944. Towed to Dunnstaffnage Bay, Scotland 12/05/1944. Constructive total loss. Accomidation ship Lisahally 10/07/1944. Decommissioned 23/10/1945. She was towed to Cherbourg, France to use her electric power motors to provide power to the local grid until shore installations were operational 08/1944

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 340+ aircraft attack Mailly-le-Camp, France. German military camp was the target.

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 850+ aircraft attack on Brunswick & Berlin, Germany
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 110+ aircraft attack on gun emplacements and other military targets at Etretat/SainteMarie-Au-Bosc, Etaples, Le Treport, Ault, Fecamp, Ouistreham, on the French coast.

The Burma Campaign: The British Fourteenth Army counterattacked during the Battle of Imphal.

British authorities announced that Mahatma Gandhi had been unconditionally released from custody on medical grounds after being interned at Aga Khan III's palace in Pune since August 1942.
The Biltmore Conference opened at the Biltmore Hotel in New York City, with 600 delegates and Zionist leaders attending to discuss an official Zionist policy on the Jews and Palestine.

The Eastern Front: Soviet forces began their final attack on Sevastopol with a massive artillery bombardment.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 140+ aircraft attack aircraft attack on railway infrastructure of Mantes-la-Jolie, France. Main railway stores & locomotive sheds damaged

Pensive wins the Kentucky Derby.
Wartime Football International: Wales 0-2 England, Ninian Park, Cardiff

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 540+ aircraft attack on Berlin & 150 on Brunswick, Germany
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 420+ aircraft attack on Bucharest, Romania

French Cup Final: Équipe Fédérale Nancy-Lorraine 4-0 Équipe Fédérale Reims-Champagne, Parc des Princes, Paris

The Czechoslovak government-in-exile signed a convention in London allowing the Soviet Army to liberate Czechoslovakia.

The Western Front: Supreme Allied Commander General Eisenhower sets D-Day for Normandy invasion as 5 June 1944
The Eastern Front: The Second Battle of Târgu Frumos ended in Axis victory.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 370+ aircraft attack on Berlin & 280 on Brunswick, Germany
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 450+ aircraft attack on coastal defences, bridges & V-weapons sites in France & Belgium.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 140+ aircraft attack aircraft attack on railway infrastructure of Hanine-St-Pierre, France. Main railway yards & locomotive sheds damaged

The Eastern Front: The Soviet forces capture Sevastopol.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 790+ aircraft attack on Saint Dizier Robinson, Thionville, Juvincourt-et-Damary, Laon/Athies, Laon/Couvron, Lille, Nivelles, Saint-Trond, Florennes, France as well as Liege, Thionville, Belgium & Luxembourg. This is the start of an offensive set within a month of the Normandy invasion.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 410+ aircraft attack on coastal batteries in the Pas de Calais, France.

The Eastern Front: Soviet General Aleksandr Vasilevsky was wounded in the head at Sevastopol after his car drove over a mine. He was evacuated to Moscow for treatment.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 400+ aircraft attack on Wiener-Neustadt, Germany.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Operation Crossbow, attack on V-Weapon sites: Heavy day-time American air raid, 300+ aircraft attack on various V-Weapon sites in Belgium & France
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 500+ aircraft attack aircraft attack on railway infrastructure of Courtrai, Dieppe, Ghent, Lens & Lille, in Belgium & France.

The Italian Campaign: American & British forces start Operation Diadem, breaking through German defences in the Liri Valley.
The Western Front: Allied forces raided airfields and coastal installations in Normandy, hitting Calais particularly hard as part of the deception plan to make the Germans think the landings would be made there.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 160+ aircraft attack on Mulhouse, Belfort & Epinal, France; 24 bomb secondary targets of M/Ys at Chaumont; 66 attack Orleans/Bricy and other targets of last resort. In the late afternoon 2 forces, totalling 540+ aircraft at Saarbrucken, Ehrang, Volkingen, KonzKarthaus, Thionville, Liege, Brussels/Midi, Brussels/Schaerbeek, Bettembourg, and elsewhere in Luxembourg.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 540+ aircraft attack on Saarbrucken, Ehrang, Volkingen, KonzKarthaus, Thionville, Liege, Brussels/Midi, Brussels/Schaerbeek, Bettembourg, and elsewhere in Luxembourg.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 330+ aircraft attack on Beaumont-le-Roger, Cormeilles-en-Vexin, Aerschot and Mezieres/Charleville, France
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 190+ aircraft attack the largest German military camp in Bourg-Leopold, Belgium
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 130+ aircraft attack on railway infrastructure of Boulogne, France
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 120+ aircraft attack on railway infrastructure of Hasselt, Belgium
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 100+ aircraft attack on railway infrastructure of Louvain, France

The Eastern Front: The two-year Battle of the Caucasus ended in Soviet victory.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 800+ aircraft attack on oil plants, other industrial targets at Merseburg, Lutzkendorf, Zeitz, Bohlen, Zwickau, Gera, Chemnitz, and Brux, Germany
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 750+ aircraft attack on German HQs at Massa d'Albe and Monte Soratte; the town of Civitavecchia; on Tarquinia and in the surrounding area; Chivasso, Piombino, Marina di Carrara, Viareggio, and Ferrara; Orbetello; Piombino harbour; docks and communications at San Stefano al Mare; harbour, the railroad bridge at Chiavari; La Spezia harbour
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 120+ aircraft attack on railway infrastructure of Louvain, France
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 110+ aircraft attack on railway infrastructure of Hasselt, Belgium

The Burma Campaign: The Battle of the Tennis Court ended in Allied victory.
The Eastern Front: The German forces complete their withdrawal from Crimea, having evacuated more than 150,000 men by air and sea over several weeks.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 670+ aircraft attack on Trento, Bronzola, Fidenza, Piacenza, Faenza, Imola, Cesena, Modena, Parma, San Rufillo, Borgo San Lorenzo, Castel Maggiore and Bologna, and hit railroad bridges at Bolzano and Avisio. Ftrs sweep Bologna-Modena area.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 300+ aircraft attack on various V-Weapon sites in coastal defences, railway batteries, and V-weapon sites in France and Belgium.

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 700+ aircraft attack on Vicenza, Padua, Ferrara, Treviso, Mestre, Mantua, Piove di Sacco, Piacenza and Reggio Emilia, Italy.

German forces of the Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Skanderbeg (1st Albanian) rounded up 281 Kosovo Jews in Pristina and handed them over to the Germans for deportation to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
Vichy French radio reported that French cardinals had appealed to the Roman Catholic clergy in Britain and the United States to use their influence to ensure that the French civilian population as well as towns, works of art and churches would be spared from Allied bombing as much as possible.
Football International: Brazil 6-1 Uruguay, Estádio São Januário, Rio De Janeiro

The Pacific Campaign: The Battle of Wakde began in Netherlands New Guinea.
The Western Front: British Commando reconnaissance raids known as Operation Tarbrush began in northern France.

Hungarian officials under the guidance of SS officials began deporting Jews from Hungary. By July 9 a total of about 440,000 Jews would be deported from the country, mostly to Auschwitz.

In Algiers, French Vice-Admiral Edmond Derrien was sentenced to life in prison for handing over units of the French Fleet to the Germans in December 1942, after the Allied landing in North Africa.

The Burma Campaign: The Siege of Myitkyina begins
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 450+ aircraft attack on Piombino and San Stefano al Mare harbours and shipping in the areas, harbour area and nearby steel works in Portoferraio, causeway at Orbetello, Ancona, and town of Bihac.

Football International: Brazil 4-0 Uruguay, Pacaembu Stadium, Sao Paulo

The Pacific Campaign: The Admiralty Islands campaign ends after 80 days with a decisive Allied victory.
The Pacific Campaign: The Battle of Wakde ends in American victory.

The Italian Campaign: The Battle of Monte Cassino ended 123 days after in Allied victory when the Germans finally abandoned the stronghold at Monte Cassino.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 450+ aircraft attack on Belgrade and Nish and oil refineries, Yugoslavia

Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ordered the deportation of the Crimean Tatars as a form of collective punishment for alleged collaboration with the Nazis.

The Republican Party presidential primaries ended in the United States with New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey prevailing in Oregon.

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 430+ aircraft attack on Berlin & 270 on Brunswick, Germany
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 500+ aircraft attack on ports, and oil storage in NE, C, and NW Italy. Over 500+ attacked railroad bridges at Latisana, Tagliamento, Casarsa della Delizia, and Rimini. Also Forli, Faenza, and Bologna, oil storage at Porto Marghera, the port of La Spezia, the harbour at Leghorn, and harbour and rail installations at Genoa
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 290+ aircraft attack on coastal defences, port area, railway battery, in France
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 140+ aircraft attack on railway infrastructure of Boulogne, France
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 110+ aircraft attack on railway infrastructure of Orleans, France
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 110+ aircraft attack on railway infrastructure of Amiens, France
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 110+ aircraft attack on railway infrastructure of Tours, France
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 110+ aircraft attack on railway infrastructure of Le Mans, France

The Communist Party USA convention in New York voted to dissolve the party and continue as the Communist Political Association.

Polish Resistance recovered a German V-2 rocket, dismantled it and sent it to London for analysis.
The Italian Campaign: American forces capture the Italian cities of Gaeta and Itri.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 280+ aircraft attack on Orly, Villacoublay, Reims and Reims/Champagne, France
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 450+ aircraft attack on V-weapon site in France.

English Football League (War) Cup Final: Aston Villa 1-1 Charlton Athletic, Stamford Bridge, London.

The West Loch disaster occurred at the American Naval Base in Pearl Harbor when a mortar round detonated aboard the LST-353, starting a fire that spread among ships being prepared for Operation Forager, the invasion of the Mariana Islands. Six LSTs were sunk and 163 naval personnel were killed.

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 120+ aircraft attack on V-weapon site at Siracourt & similar installation at Marquise/Mimoyecques.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 600+ aircraft attack on railroad rolling stock in France.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 510+ aircraft attack Duisburg, Germany.

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 500+ aircraft attack on communication, military targets in C and NW Italy. Attacks on Pescina, troop concentrations at Avezzano, port and oil depot at La Spezia, supply and ammo dumps at Marina di Carrara, port and harbour installations at Piombino, railroad and highway bridges in Pineto area, railroad from Ancona to Pescara and N of Pescara, and towns of Valmontone and Palestrina.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 330+ aircraft attack on Cherbourg, Calais, and Paris
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 360+ aircraft attack Dortmund, Germany.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 220+ aircraft attack Brunswick, Germany.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 130+ aircraft attack on railway infrastructure Le Mans, France.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 120+ aircraft attack on railway infrastructure of Orleans, France

A four-day constitutional referendum ends in Iceland. More than 98% of voters approved of the founding of the Republic of Iceland.

The Italian Campaign: Allied forces began a new offensive from the Anzio beachhead.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 800+ aircraft attack on Hamburg, Saarbrucken, Metz, Epinal, Bayon, Chaumont, Etampes, Chateaudun, Caen/Carpiquet, Bourges, Avord, and Orleans/Bricy.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 300+ aircraft attack on troop concentrations and comm in the rear of the battle area, at Avezzano, Subiaco, Valmontone, Marino, Nemi and Grottaf.

The Italian Campaign: Allied forces breached the Hitler Line in central Italy.
The Italian Campaign: Canadian forces in the Liri Valley take Pontecorvo.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 400+ aircraft attack on Orly, Melun, Creil, and Poix, France
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 480+ aircraft attack on Berlin, Germany
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 850+ aircraft attack on Mulhouse, Troyes, Tonnerre, Belfort, Sarreguemines, Thionville, Metz, Blainville-sur-l'Eau, Liege, Brussels, Alost, and Charleroi; A/Fs at Esseyles-Nancy and Bretigny-sur-Orge; and coastal batteries at Fecamp and Saint- Valery-en-Caux.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 620+ aircraft attack on Avisio viaduct, Atzgersdorf aircraft components factory, the town of Neunkirchen, Munchendorf, Graz, Wollersdorf, Bad Voslau and Zagreb, and Varazdin 
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 450+ aircraft attack on V-weapon sites in France.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 440+ aircraft attack Aachen, Germany.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 120+ aircraft attack on coastal batteries Boulogne, Beaumont, Le Clipon & Trouville, France.

Second Sino-Japanese War: The Battle of Central Henan (Operation Ichi-Go) in China ends in Japanese victory.
The Eastern Front: German forces began Operation Rösselsprung, a combined airborne and ground assault on the headquarters of the Yugoslav Partisans in the Bosnian town of Drvar.
The Italian Campaign: American forces linked up with the Anzio beachhead and captured Cisterna
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 340+ aircraft attack on Lyon, Carnoules, Amberieu-en-Buguey, and Givors
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 250+ aircraft attack on bridges near Liege, Lille/ Nord and Monchy-Breton
German paratroops attack Marshal Tito's HQ in Bosnia, but Tito and Maj Randolph Churchill escape to the mountains.

The Italian Campaign: Allied forces continued to advance towards Rome as American troops took Cori, the Canadian forces captured San Giovanni & British forces took Monte Cairo.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 930+ aircraft attack on Ludwigshafen, Mannheim, Karlsruhe, Konz-Karthaus, Neunkirchen, Saarbrucken, Lachen/Speyerdorf, Strasbourg, and Woippy. Coastal batteries at Fecamp and Saint-Valeryen-Caux
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 700+ aircraft attack on Saint-Etienne, Lyon, Nice, Chambery, and Grenoble, France
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 400+ aircraft attack on Beaumont-sur-Oise and Chartres and bridges at Vernon and Poissy. 100+ attack bridges at Oissel and Creil, Cormeilles-en-Vexin and Evreux/Fauville

The Pacific Campaign: The Battle of Biak began as part of the New Guinea campaign.

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 700+ aircraft attack on Avignon, Montpellier Frejorgues, Nimes, Marseilles-Blancarde, and Marseille-Saint Charles
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 690+ aircraft attack on railroad, bridges in France
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 330+ aircraft attack the largest German military camp in Bourg-Leopold, Belgium
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 160+ aircraft attack Aachen, Germany.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 100+ aircraft attack Nantes, France.

The Italian Campaign: Canadian forces capture Ceprano
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 600+ aircraft attack on naval yards, railway bridges, and V-weapon sites in France and Belgium
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 110+ aircraft attack on railway infrastructure Angers, France.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 180+ aircraft attack on coastal batteries Boulogne, Beaumont, Le Clipon & Trouville, France.

The Blitz: The Germans called off Operation Steinbock after four months of strategically bombing southern England accomplished little effect.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 880+ aircraft attack on synthetic oil plant at Politz, at Hohn and Schneidemuhl, and aircraft assembly plant at Tutow, and aircraft factories and assembly plants at Leipzig, Cottbus, Sorau, Krzesiny, and Poznan
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 820+ aircraft attack on aircraft factories at Wollersdorf, Wiener-Neustadt, and Atzgersdorf, and attack troops, and supply concentrations at Zegar, Zavalje, Prijedor, Bosanski Novi, Knin, Banjaluka, Drvar, Livno, and Basanska Krupa
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 450+ aircraft attack on railroad bridges, coastal batteries, in France and Belgium

The Italian Campaign: American forces breach the Caesar Line
The Italian Campaign: British forces capture Acre
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 500+ aircraft attack on aircraft factory at Wels, factories at Pottendorf, Neudorfl, and Neunkirchen
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 330+ aircraft attack on Denain/Prouvy and Mantes/ Limay, and highway bridges at Meulan and Rouen

The general election in Ireland. Prime Minster Éamon de Valera of the Fianna Fáil Party wins an overall majority.

The Government of India announced the formation of a Department of Planning and Development to plan for the postwar period.

Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 370+ aircraft attack on Schwerte, Hamm, Osnabruck, Geseke, and Roosendaal; Luxeuil-lesBains, Gilze-Rijen, and Florennes; and 5 bridges in France
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 480+ aircraft attack on oil refineries in Ploesti, Romania
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy day-time American air raid, 200+ aircraft attack on highway bridges at Bennecourt, Courcelles-sur-Seine, and Rouen
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 110+ aircraft attack on railway infrastructure Trappes, France.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 110+ aircraft attack wireless transmitting station Au Fevre, France.
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 110+ aircraft attack radio jamming station Mont Couple, France. Insulation rendered completely unserviceable
Allied Bomber Offensive: Heavy night-time British air raid, 110+ aircraft attack on railway infrastructure Tergnier, France.