Norway, September 29th, 1944
Oslo was liberated by the Swedish army. The loss was not catastrophic for the German army in Norway, coastal convoys could still move back and forth between Germany and Norway but was hardly a good thing either. The Norwegian Bergen and Stavanger railroads were both ending on Oslo. And German convoys to Bergen or Trodtheim would be rather more exposed to British air and naval attack than the same convoys going to Oslo would had been. With Oslo liberated, the Swedish high command would pull the I and XI Infantry Divisions out of the line and sift them north to resume the failed attack on Trodtheim.
Belgium, October 2nd, 1944
Seven divisions of the US 1st Army attacked across the German border into Aachen. It would take nearly three weeks of heavy fighting to clear the city of the German defenders. Further west the 1st Canadian Army begun the slow work of clearing the Scheldt estuary, that would open Anwerp to shipping. Facing the entire German 15th Army the battle would continue till early November...
Italy, October 2nd, 1944
Genoa was liberated by the US 92nd Infantry Division. It would take some time before sufficient repairs could be made to the port facilities, the retreating Germans had done as much damage as they could including scuttling the half finished aircraft carrier Sparviero as a blockship inside the harbor trying to delay the Allied advance. But delayed or not the Allied advance continued. The next day the Americans would link up with French forces advancing from the west.
Syrmia, Yugoslavia, October 3rd, 1944
The Allied dash north finally came to a halt between fatigue after three months of heavy fighting, severe supply issues and growing German and Croatian resistance. In three months of fighting the Allied armies of the Orient had suffered 93,000 casualties, more than half of them Greek, and lost over 900 tanks. But in the process they had knocked Bulgaria out of the war, liberated Northern Greece, Serbia and Albania and inflicted almost 200,000 casualties on the Germans and another 120,000 on the Bulgarians. Heersgruppe E by now was down to fewer than 400,000 German soldiers, Waffen SS Turkish, Albanian and Bosniak units included, with several divisions like the 10th Panzer completely destroyed during the retreat from Macedonia. But the Allied units had to regroup and rebuild before resuming the offensive. The Allied commanders start rotating divisions out of the line to rebuild and lessen the logistical burden.
Debrecen, Hungary, October 6th, 1944
The Soviet 2nd Ukrainian front reinforced by the 3rd and 4th Romanian attacked towards the Tisza river. The Soviets would advance as deep as 60km at points and by October 10th would cross the Tisza at multiple places threatening Bucharest itself. A German counterattack would for a time stop the Soviet advance but still fail to dislodge them from their bridgeheads across the river.
Warsaw, October 7th, 1944
The Polish forces in the city surrendered to the German army. The Germans would keep the part of the deal to treat the AK fighters as lawful combatants, with 15,000 sent to prisoner of war camps. But they would also deport the entire population of Warsaw, over half a million with tens of thousands sent to death camps and even more as slave labor to Germany. Then on Hitler's orders they would begin to systematically demolish the city.
Petsamo, October 7th, 1944
The Soviet 14th Army took the offensive against the German 20th Mountain Army. Petsamo would be liberated a week later on October 15th, but the Soviet offensive while successful would fail to cut off the German forces which would continue to retreat towards Norway in good order.
Moscow, October 9th, 1944
Winston Churchill was there in person for the next conference with Stalin. Roosevelt was not with the United States represented by its ambassador in Moscow Averell Harriman. The conference was beginning in the shadow of the fall of Warsaw but soon Churchill and Stalin, Harriman would be unsurprisingly sidelined by the two leaders, would concentrate on more pressing matters, like revisiting the secret agreement they had made at Tehran. For the most part the agreement had so far held, not least as by now in most cases it was backed by troops on the ground. It was over the final status of Constantinople that Churchill was interested the most...
Herrlingen, Germany, October 9th, 1944
Field marshal Erwin Rommel, bit the cyanide pill brought to him from Berlin. He was not the first nor the last man to die in the aftermath of the July 15th plot. He had at least the consolation of securing the safety of his family by preferring suicide over a public trial.
Norway, October 13th, 1944
The Swedish army launched the second battle of Trondheim this time with 3 divisions and over 80,000 men facing a German force perhaps half their size. This time they would gain ground but at a very slow pace against determined German resistance.
Italy October 15th, 1944
The US 1st Armored Division liberated Milan three days after Turin had been liberated by Italian guerillas. Kesserling was pulling back to a new defensive like behid the Po and Mincio rivers. It was an open question whether it could hold. But "smiling Albert" wasn't the kind of man to give up easily. If the Po line fell he would retreat behind the Adige. Then behind Piave. Then to the Alps...
