Pristina, August 22nd, 1944
The city was liberated by the 31st Kosovska Infantry Division. Or least that was what the Serb civilians left behind after four years of occupation would have said. For the Albanian majority things were less clear cut. Nowhere in occupied Yugoslavia was a good place to be since the start of the war, and Kosovo had been no exception, all the more so if you belonged in the Serb minority that had found itself out of power for the first time in a generation. Thousands had been killed and nearly 100,000 had been forced to flee or deported to concentration camps. In their place the Italian and German occupiers had brought over 70,000 settlers from Albania proper. Now with the Yugoslav army marching into Kosovo from the south and the resistance joining them after years of fighting and reprisals it was the turn of the Albanian population to fear. Thousands were fleeing into Albania or following the retreating Germans. Yet more thousands loyal to Balli Kombetar were fleeing into the mountains, determined to fight on against the returned Serb army and its allies, Ballist guerrilas in Kosovo and Tetovo would number nearly 15,000 over the next few months. Meanwhile the Germans kept retreating north. Mitrovice would be liberated on August 27th.
Montpelier, August 23rd, 1944
The city was liberated by the Spanish 7th infantry division. With the Germans trying to evacuate the South of France the Spanish were meeting very little resistance so far. Three days later their advance elements would link up with the French 10e Division Infanterie Coloniale advancing from the east.
Berlin, August 24th, 1944
Arvid Richert, the Swedish ambassador to Germany since 1937, delivered to the German foreign ministry, Sweden's formal declaration of war against Germany. An hour later Swedish artillery would open up across the Norwegian border as a quarter million soldiers with 370 tanks launched a three pronged attack into Norway with 6 infantry divisions and 2 armored brigades driving at Oslo, the II Swedish Infantry Division attacking towards Trodtheim and the XV Infantry Division attacking towords Mo-i-Rana. The German army had on paper 4 infantry divisions under LXX Korps in Oslo, 3 more with XXXIII around Trodtheim and another 3 with LXXI to the north of Noway. But while the Germans had on paper 308,000 men in Norway. But of these 143,000 belonged to coastal artillery, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine and police, actual frontline strength did not exceed 102,000 with 131 tanks a third of them old French H39s...
Aland archipelago, August 24th, 1944
The Swedish navy had been already removing the Finnish minifields under the pretext of exercises. Now its minesweepers openly opened a path through the minefields to make a landing possible. The next day a Swedish infantry brigade would begin landing after the cover of the armored cruiser Fylgia and 6 destroyers.
Italy, August 24th, 1944
The British 8th army liberated Ravenna. The Allied advance in Italy was continuing but as long as the US 5th army remained stuck to the south of Bologna it remained very slow. The removal of the four divisions French expeditionary corps back in July and of three American divisions in late August to reinforce the armies in France was certainly not helping much.
Off Gotland, August 25th, 1944
The Kriegsmarine hadn't been taken entirely by surprise by the Swedish declaration of war sortieing the panzerschiffs Admiral Scheer and Admiral Graf Spee escorted by 8 destroyers to attack the Swedish coast. They would be intercepted between Gotland and the Swedish mainland by the Swedish coastal battleships Sverige, Drottning Victoria and Gustaf V escorted by a dozen destroyers and the light cruiser Gotland. With the two fleets about equal in strength, the two heavy German ships equaled the Swedish in firepower but while much faster were rather worse protected the battle would prove tactically inconclusive with 2 German and 3 Swedish destroyers sunk before the Germans retired south. Both sides post-war histories would claim it as a victory.
Paris, August 25th, 1944
The German garrison surrendered to general Leclerc's 2e Division Blindee. The next day despite the presence of German snipers Charles De Gaulle would lead the parade for the liberation of the city in person before relighting the eternal flame in the Arc de Triomphe.
Warsaw, August 26th, 1944
Another airdrop from British, Greek, French and Polish air force aircraft brought another trickle of supplies to the Polish fighters. Use the Bulgarian airfields of Sophia and that of Skopje made the missions somewhat easier but as long as the Soviets refused use of their own airfields, which Stalin had done on the 22nd, the supply missions were necessarily limited in the amounts of supplies they could bring to the rebels. The USAAF was notably absent. Just this day Roosevelt had written to Churchill that he did not consider it to the advantge of the war effort to join the British in supplying Warsaw.
Romania, August 27th, 1944
Focsani was captured by the Soviet 6th tank army. With the Romanian army having ceased to fight the Soviets advanced all along the front. That the Romanians had stopped fighting and were actually fighting the Germans themselves did not stop the Soviets from taking thousands of Romanian soldiers prisoners. A formal armistice between Romania and the Allies would not be signed before September 7th.
South France, August 29th, 1944
Two days earlier the French army had liberated Toulon. Now it was the turn of Marseilles to be liberated and importantly with her port mostly intact.
Slovakia, August 29th, 1944
The Slovaks rose up in revolt following occupation of the country by German troops in the aftermath of the defection of Romania.
Helsinki, August 29th, 1944
Civilians watched sullenly at the Soviet tank columns marching through their capital. The Finnish army had fought to the limits of human endurance inflicting nearly 185,000 casualties on the Soviets. But Triandafillov's men had still pressed on. With the Soviets at the gates of Helsinki and no hope of outside support the country had been forced to accept the Soviet demands of unconditionally surrender. What this would mean for Finns remained to be seen. But tens of thousands of Finns soldiers and civilians alike were fleeing to Sweden already...
