On this day during W.W. 2

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Jan 10 1941 The British carrier Illustrious was put out of action after being attacked by German and Italian aircraft about 60 miles west of Malta. She had been leading the escort force for the Malta convoy when 40 Lufwaffe Ju-87s and Ju-88s led the attack and scored 6 hits. More than 200 Illustrious crewmen were killed or wounded. She limped into Malta and eventually had to be sent to the U.S. for repairs, a heavy loss to the British at a time of great need for carrier cover in the Mediterranean. The additional loss of a cruiser and destroyer in the Axis aerial attack further aggravated the British problem. From this day Britian no longer commanded the central Mediterranean, and the Germans were able to supply the Axis forces in N.Africa with the equipment needed for the eventual drive into Egypt. Malta was nearly defenseless and was subject to incessant aerial attack.      Germany and the Soviet Union concluded agreements on increased trade (“an amount of mutual deliveries considerably exceeding the level of the first year of operation of the agreement”) and a settlement of the new frontier in Lithuania. The land adjustment was actually a sale. Germany recieved 7,500,000$ in gold and the Russians acquired a small strip of southern Lithuania around Kalvarija.    Klisura in Albania, 22 miles from the Greek border, fell to Greek troops.

1942 The Japanese began dropping leaflets over U.S. and Filipino positions calling on the troops to surrender.    Japanese aircraft launched daytime air stikes on Singapore’s airfields. Kuala Lumpur and Port Swettenham were abandoned by British and Indian troops.

1943 Paulus refused to surrender , and Red Army forces launched the final offensive at Stalingrad with 7 Armies of 281,000 men closing the ring around the trapped Germans.    The U.S. 25th Division began the final offensive to clear Guadalcanal.

1944 In a joint announement Roosevelt and Churchill revealed that merchant shipping losses to U-boats were 60% less than a year ago.    German defenders offered srtong resistance on the winters line’s remaining positions.    The rail line etween Smela and Kristinovka in the Ukraine was cut by the Russians. A large German force trapped north of Kirovograd was annihilated.    R.A.F. aircraft began mining the mouths of the Salween near Moulmein, Burma

1945 The U.S. first Army opened an offensive toward St.-Vith through Houffalize. Germanunits counterattacked around Strasbourg.  Hitler decreed that anyone diverting clothing and equipment intended for use by the military would be executed.    U.S. Sixth Army units on Luzon pushed forward on most sectors of the front.

1938 Japanese forces occupied Tsingtao. There wereonly about 50,000 Chinese left in the city ( population of 600,00) they  landed without opposition.

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Jan 11 1941 Hitler declared that Germany would dispatch aid to Libya, which he said must be saved on "strategic, political, and psychological grounds.    The British cruiser Southhampton was sunk by German aircraft based in Sicily. She had been escorting 14 merchantmen out of Malta ( allof which made the convoy run safely ) Southhampton was set afire by the Lufwaffe planes, she became totally incapacitated , and had to be sent to the bottom by British ships.

1942 Japan formally declared war on the Netherlands.    Japanese forces invaded Celebes in the Dutch East Indies. There was only token resistance by the small defending garrisons.    Kuala Lumpur was captured by the Japanese 5th Division. Japanese troops were 150 miles from Singapore.    The U.S. carrier Saratoga was hit by a topedo from a Japanese sub about 500 miles southwest of Oahu but suffered no damage.    The rail line between Rzhev and Bryansk was cut as Soviet forces continued their westward push on the Orel front.    A Japanese attempt to out flank the Bataan defense line failed. U.S. and Filipino forces on Bataan were put on half rations. Efforts to resupply were frustrated by the Japanese blockaid. 15 blockaid runners, totaling 40,000 tons were sunk trying to carry supplies from Cebu.

1943 Great Britian and the U.S. signed treaties with the Nationalist Chinese. The western powers relinquished all extraterritorial rights in China.    Roosevelt submitted a budget of 100 billion $ to congress.    Russian troops occupied large chunks of territory in the Caucasus evacuated by the Germans.    An offensive was launched by the Russians to relieve Leningrad. It was concentrated against positions held by the Hungarian Second Army and Italian and Rumanian forces.

1944 Allied bombers launched Oeration POINTBLANK, designed to cripple the German aircraft industry and render the Lufwaffe ineffective before the cross-channel invasion. The initial attack caused heavy damage to the targeted factories but 60 of the 663 heavy bombers were lost.    Moscow announced that the Soviet-Polish border established by the 1939 Russian-German partition would remain. Russia thus reclaimed permanent possession of the western Ukraine and western Byelorussia.

1945 German forces began pulling back southeast of Bastogne.    Serious fuel shortages began to affect German armored units. Allied bombing of transport cut supplies drasticly. The Panzer Lehr division alone abandoned 53 tanks during the next four days because of lack of gasoline.    A truce was effected between Greek communist guerrillas and British troops.

1938 A Japanese fleet, cosisting of a battle cruisier,carrier 3 cruisers and dozons of smaller ships sailed into Tsingtao harbor. Ten thousand more troops were put ashore

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Jan 11-17 1942 British forces completed the recapture of Sollum and the Halfaya Pass, eliminating the last Axis strongholds in Egypt. Rommel fell back to the natural defense position at El Agheila

Jan 12 1942 Field Marshal Walter von Reichenau, commander of Army group south, died of a stroke on the Russian front. He was an ardent Nazi even before Hitler’s rise to power, and his death deprived Hitler of a senior field commander he could trust.    Leaders of nine occupied European nations and China issued a resolution to try Axis officials for war crimes “whether they have ordered them, perpetrated them or in any way participated in them.” ( The prinipal of post war war crimes trials was established by this action of the Inter-Allied Conference in London.)

1943 U.S. forces landed unopposed on Amchitka Island in the Aleutians. Only 69 miles east of the Japanese held Kiska, the Island gave the U.S. an advanced fighter base to begin offensive operations against Kiska and Attu.    German fighter protection within Stalingrad was lost when the Russians captured the airstrip at Pitomnik.

1944 German troops counterattacked at Vinnitsa, southwest of Kiev. The Russians captured Sarny, in prewar Poland, enveloping it from the rear.    U.S. Fifth Army troops took Cervaro. Other strategic hills in the area were seized, opening up a clear route to the Rapido River.

1945 Russian forces under Zhukov and Marshal Ivan Konev, launched their greatest offensive of the war from Poland and East Prussia. A total of 1,350,000 Russians went into action, attacking a German force one sixththeir size. Stalin advanced the start of the offensive at the request of Churchill to relieve the pressure on the western front. The central eastern front was vunerable, with the Germans isolated in the north in Latvia and in southern Hungary, incapable of being moved to the area of the major advance.    U.S. Task force 38 aircraft sank about 40 Japanese ships off the Indochinese coast.

1938 Austria and Hungary recognized the Franco regime in Spain.

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Jan 13 1940  Fearing a German spring offensive, Belgium ordered full scale mobilization. Holland canceled all Army leaves.

1941 The Greek government turned down a British offer to send troops to Greece.    General Ugo Cavallero, Chief of the Italian General staff, relieved General Soddu of command in Albania. It marked the begining of the Axis counteroffensive.

1942 Russian forces captured Kirov on the central front, driving a deep wedge between the Second Panzer and Fourth Armies. Red Army units attacked Mozhaisk, 65 miles west of Moscow.  A badly needed convoy reached Singapore with antiaircraft weapons and 50 Hurricane fighters. The British prepared to abandon Johore

1944 The Chinese 38th Division completed securing the Tarung River line in Burma.    U.S. forces mopped up opposition remnants north of Cervaro in preparation for an attack on the German positions along the Rapido.

1945 The 51st British Division advanced to the Ourthe River and hooked up eith the U.S.87th Division. U.S. 30th Division elements reached the Ambleve River in driving south for Malmedy. The Houffalize-St-Vith road was cut.    Japan’s depleted air defense forces launched their final strike against U.S. positions at Lingayen Gulf.

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Jan 14 1940 Admiral Mitsumasa Yonai was named to head of a new Japanese government.

1941 Germany called on Rumania to enter the war on the side of the Axis.

1942 The ARCADIA conference ended in Washington with the top level U.S. and British strategists agreeing on a policy of defeating the Germans before embarking on an all out war against Japan. It was decided to launcg operation GYMNAST to occupy French North Africa because German use of the Naval and Air bases would constitute an unacceptable threat to Allied shipping in the Atlantic.    The U.S. blacklisted 1,800 European companies, making it illegal for any American to engage in a business transaction with them.    The German battleship TUPITZ was assigned to anticonvoy duty in the North Atlantic and was moved to Trondeim in Norway.    Singapore and Rangoon were bombed by Japanese aircraft.    German U-boats began attacking ships off the American east coast. The Panamanian tanker NORNESS was torpedoed off Cape Hatteras.

1943 Roosevelt, Churchill and the combined Chiefs of staff met at Casablanca to plan future Allied strategy the American Chiefs of staff pushed for a 1943 cross-channel attack but Churchill argued for a more limited operation against Sicily, which was agreed upon in the end.

1944 Russian forces began mass attacks against the Germans in the Baltic States. The Soviet second shock Army and the 42nd and 49th Armies moved against German Group North and prepared a pincers movement to recapture Novgorod.    French forces under General Alphonse Juin gave up their attempt to take heavily defended Monte Santa Croce.    Roosevelt wrote to Chiang to win a commitment of additional Chineseforces. He threatened to cut lend-lease aid if they were not sent.

1945 U.S. first Army forces made broad advances, establishing several bridgeheads across the Ambleve.    The Red Army widened its offensive with forces pushing forward from positions North and South of Warsaw.    Indian troops of the Britsh 14th Army established a bridgehead across the Irawaddy at Thabeikkyin, but the Japanese counterattacked in force and touched off a month long battle for controll of the area.

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Jan 16 1941 Roosevelt asked congress to appropriate $350 million for the construction of 200 merchant ships.

1942 15th Japanese troops pushed vigorously across the entire Bataan front.    Jawaharlal Nehru succeeded Mohandas K. Gandhi as leader of the congress party of India.
    16th Burma was invaded by Japanese forces from Thailand. Units of the 15th Army met no resistance until they reached Myitta, about 30 miles inside lower Burma.    Bataan’s defenses were seriously imperiled when the Japanese broke through the western flank.    Remaining R.A.F. aircraft in Singapore were evacuated to Sumatra with the Japanese attacking the island’s airfields relentlessly.

1943 15th British forces began their drive to take Tripoli and assaulted the Buerat defensive line. Little resistance was encountered.    Red Army troops crashed through the defenses of the 2nd Hungarian Army south of Voronezh, opening up a 175 mile gap in the Axis defenses.    Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to air lift 300 tons of supplies to the 6th Army at Stalingrad. The impossible requirement was never attained, the deliveries averaged over the 2 month siege was 94 tons a day.
16th The Buerat line was pierced by the British who penetrated main Axis positions all along the barrier.    Italian forces were routed by the Russians west of the Don as the Red Army launched a major offensive across the upper reaches of the river.    R.A.F. bombers raided Berlin, the first attack on the German capital in more than 2 months.    Iraq declared war on Germany,Italy, and Japan.

1944 15th All German were cleared south of the Rapido River. U.S. forces captured Monte Trocchino, completing reduction of the winter line. Allied forces were now confronted by the Gustav line, anchored by Cassino.    Russian forces launched major offensives to lift the siege of Leningrad and recapture Novgorod.    Sofia was attacked by Allied bombers the beginning of a series of raids on Balkan cities.    Australian units reached Sio on the north coast of the Huon peninsula in New Guinea.    British cabinet committee headed by Clement Attlee recommended the partition of Germany after the war.
16th Eisenhower assumed command of the Allied Expeditionary Force.    The U.S. II Corps was ordered to drive toward Anzio.    Allied forces turned back the final Japanese counterattack on New Britain and moved to oust the Japanese from their last positions near Arawe.    Chiang countered Roosevelt’s threat on an aid cutoff by saying China would no longer supply U.S. troops there if the U.S. did not grant a one billion dollar loan.

1945 15th Russian forces in Poland wheeled south to the Carpathians southwest of Krakow, capturing Kielce. Hitler refused Army Group Center permission to withdraw from the Warsaw area.    The British 7th armored division captured Bakenhoven in the Netherlands as the second Army moved to clear the German salient between the Meuse and the Roer and Wurm rivers.    U.S. elements reached Houffalize.    In China Japanese troops began their drive to capture the U.S. air base at Suichuan, in western Kiangsi Provice.    The U.S. beachhead on Luzon was widened to 45 miles.    A British commercial ship left London for France, the first nonmilitary vessel to cross the channel since May 1940.
16th The U.S. first and third armies hooked up at Houfflalize and eliminated the German Ardennes salient. British 7th Armored Division units drove northeast, capturing Dieteren in the Netherlands.    Norwegian resistance forces gained control of the northern part of their country.    Russian forces captured Radom in Poland.    Hitler moved his headquarters in East Prussia to the bunker under the Reich Chancellery in Berlin. There he spent the remainder of his life.    Hitler pulled the 6th Panzer Army out of the western front and sent it to Hungary.    Hong Kong was attacked by U.S. naval planes, which found Japanese air defenses almost nonexistent.

1938 15th Japanese aircraft began systematic bombing raids on Chungking, seat of the Chinese government

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Jan 17 1942 Effective resistance ended in eastern Cyrenaica, Libya, as the remaining Axis forces in the territory surrendered to the British. The surrender of Halfaya garrison came as the Free French were about to assault the position.    The south African parliament turned down a move to declare the country a republic and disassociate itself from Britian and the war.    Filipino forces made little headway in attempting to restore the western flank on Bataan.

1944 The official Soviet newspaper Pravada charged that Britian was planning to negotiate a separate peace with Germany. London denied the charge.    British X Corps troops crossed the Garigliano River on the western hinge of the Gustav line.    U.S. and Frencg Expeditionary Corps forces began attacking the Gustav line along the Rapido.    All Japanese resistance ended at Arawe on New Britian.

1945 Warsaw was taken by forces of the first White Russian Front under Marshal Zhukov and units of the Lubin Polish Army. Ukrainian units occupied Czestochowa.    MacArthur ordered U.S. Sixth Army to speed up its drive to take Manila and Clark Field.

1935 The League of Nations formally awarded the Saar basin to Germany.

1936 In a Berlin speech German Propaganda Chief Joseph Goebbels declared “we can do without butter, but, despite all our love of peace, not without arms. One cannot shoot with butter but with guns”

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Jan 19 1941 British troops launched a counteroffensive in East Africa. They moved into the Italian colony of Eritrea and Ethiopia with a force made up of the 4th and 5th Indian divisions and the Sudan Defense force under the command of Lieutenant General Sir William Platt. Attacking from Sudan, the British units encountered little resistance as the Italians retreated to better defensive positions.

1942 Moscow was freed from immediate peril when the Russian forces recaptured Mozhaisk the last German stonghold near the Soviet capital. In the Crimea, the Germans recaptured Feodosiya.    British North Borneo was formally surrendered to the Japanese at Sandakan.    Japanese troops crossed the Muar River in Malaya, placing them within 80 miles of Singapore.    British commanders were told their objective in North Africa was to capture Tripoli in Libya.    U.S. air units arrived in Aruba and Curacao in the Dutch West Indies.

1943 Novgorod, south of Leningrad, was occupied by the Russian 59th Army, forcing the German Army Group North to fall back or risk entrapment east of lake Peipus.    Red Army forces pressed forward in massive waves along the central and southern fronts. Valuyki and Kamensk were liberated.    Homs was occupied by the British in Libya.    The Japanese pulled out of Sanananda Point in New Guinea, but Australian and U.S. forces continued to face stubborn rear guard resistance. Other Japanese units landed at Wewak, New Guinea.
                        On the 18th the new Mark VI Tiger tanks were used for the first time in Tunisia.

1944 British forces ezpanded the Garigliano beachhead.    Novgorod was retaken by the Russians

1945 Krakow, Lodz, and Tarnow in Poland were occupied by the Russians. German forces were in full retreat along a 500 mile front.    Japanese troops in China began occupying bridges and tunnels along the Canton-Hankow rail line

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Jan 20 1940 Britians first Lord of the Admialty, Winston Churchill, warned the uncommitted nations of Europe their best chance of survival was to join the Allies. Churchill said of the neutrals “Each one hopes that if he feeds the crocodile enough, the crocodile will eat him last. All of them hope that the storm will pass before their turn comes to be devoured.” Churchill also condemned Russia’s invasion of Finland, increasing the fears in Moscow that Britian and France might intervene. Izvestia denounced Churchill as “the greatest enemy of the Soviet Union.” The U.S. protested delays imposed on American ships by British authorities at Gibraltar. Hitler informed his military leaders the invasion of france and the Low Countries would have to be postponed at least until March.

1941 Roosevelt was inaugurated for his third term as President of the United States of America, an unprecedeted event in American History.
19-20 Hitler and Mussolini conferred at Berchtesgaden, to discuss the problems of Libya and Albania and how the Germans might help the Italians. It was agreed that 2 Divisions were to be sent.

1942 The infamous Wannsee Conference was held, with the SS outlining Germany’s "Final Solution to the Jewish Problem.

1943 The Germans pressed their way down the Rebaa and Ousseltia valleys in Tunisia. Allied forces on the southern flank went to defensive positions.  With the German  6th Army now destroyed,or about to be captured,the Russian forces began to move out from the Stalingrad front to the mouth of the Donets River.Chile broke off relations with the Axis nations.

1944 Russian forces blocked off the German corridor to the Gulf of Finland.    The U.S. 36th Division forces reached the Rapido River but faced heavy fire when they attempted a crossing. The Americans suffered heavy casualties and abandoned the effort.    The Rail junction of Mega, southeast of Leningrad was retsken by the Russians.

1945 U.S. XXI Corps and FRench First Army forces launched attacks in southern Alsace to clear the Colmar pocket and the west bank of the Rhine.    East Prussia was almost encircled by the Red Army forces advancing from the south and east Tilsit fell.    Trapped German troops in Budapest attempted to break out of the city toward the Danube.    The first small U.S. convoy reached Kunming, China, over the Burma Road and a hastily repaired branch route. It took 16 days to drive from Myitkyina in Burma.    Roosevelt was inaugurated for a fourth term as U.S. president

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Jan 21 1940 The British light Crusier Liverpool stopped the Japanese ship Asamu Maru off the coast of Honshu, Japan, and removed 21 German male passengers. Tokyo protested the action but subsequently agreed not to transport German Military reservists attempting to return home.

1941 The U.S. ended its prohibition on exports to Russia which had been imposed as part of the “moral embargo”.    British and Australian units broke through the Italian Tobruk defenses in Libya.

1942 I-22, a Japanese mine-laying sub was sunk by the U.S.S. Edsall and Australian minesweepers at Darwin, Australia.    British forces in Malaya began a withdrawal to Singapore.    The Japanese began a drive toward Moulmein in Burma.    In a dramatic move, Rommel turned his Afrka Korps around and began an offensive in Libya. Three Axis columns,with powerfull air cover, began advancing eastward along the coastal road. The British were ordered to pull back to Agedabia.    Allied positions on New Guinea came under Japanese air attack. The aerial offensive was launched in a 50 plane raid directed primaily against Lae and Salamaua.

1943 The U.S. 1st Armored Division began a drive to push the Germans out of Ousseltia Valley of Tunisia.    Using Ultra intercept knowledge, Montgomery changed his plans and ordered the drive for Tripoli be directed along the coastal road rather than to the south.    Mopping up operations near Sanananda Point, New Guinea, left 500 Japanese dead.

1945 The first Ukrainian Front troops crossed into German Silesia. Several towns fell as Russian units reached points 10 miles from the Oder River. Tannenberg in east Prussia was taken by units of the White Russian front.    A V-1 rocket hit Antwerp, killing 76 and wounding 57.    U.S. naval aircraft destroyed about 100 Japanese planes on the ground at air bases on Oinawa and Formosa.    Tarlac on Luzon in the Philippines was taken by the U.S. 40th Division which then pushed on to San Miguel.

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JAN 22 1940 Pope Pius XII comdemned German rule in Poland.

1941 Tobruk fell. British and Australian forces captured 25,000 Italians and 87 tanks at a cost of fewer than 400 casualties, mostly Australian.

1942 Rommel recaptured Agedabia in Cyrenaica.    U.S. forces began another withdrawal on Bataan. Japan sent reinforcements ashore at Subic Bay.    Mussau Island, north of New Ireland, was occupied by the Japanese.    The British fell back toward Moulmein in Burma.

1943 Red Army forces launched an offensive to retake Voronezh. Paulus radioed Hitler from Stalingrad, “Rations exhausted. Over 12,000 wounded unattended in the pocket”. Hitler responded, “Surrender is out of the question”.    The British 8th Army advanced to within 17 miles of Tripoli.    The Papuan campaign on New Guinea ended with the Allies scoring their first land victory against the Japanese. About 16,000 Japanese participated in the fight and at least 7,000 were killed. Australian casualties were about 5,700, U.S. 2,7888. By clearing Papau, the Allies had eliminated the most pressing threat to Australia. The battle of the Coral Sea ended an amphibious invasion attempt and now the overland challenge had been turned back as well. With Papua in Japanese hands, Australia would have been subject to air and naval attack across a narrow span of water.    Stiff Japanese resistance on Guadalcanal slowed the final drive to clear the Island.

1944 An Allied force invaded the coastal area around Anzio, 35 miles south of Rome. The first of 3 assaults began at 2:00A.M. catching the Germans by surprise. More than37,000 British and American troops were put ashore, protected by massive air and naval cover. By nite fall the beachheads were consolidated and the U.S. VI Corps had moved 7 miles inland. The Port facilities of Anzio and Nettuno were captured intact. In outflanking the Germans and gaining a position just south of Rome, the Allies had secured a great advantage in breaking open the Italian campaign.  ( the gain was nullified when the American Major Grneral John P. Lucas failed to press forward and trap the Germans to the south. Instead, the Herman Goring Panzer Division was moved in to attack the bridgehead and other large units were moved down from Northern Italy to engage the Allies before the trap could be sprung.    The U.S. 36th Division suffered heavy losses and finallyabandoned its bridgehead across the Rapidio.

1945 The Burma road was declared open, but the Japanese activity along the Sino-Burmese border precluded a free flow of traffic.    U.S. forces advanced to the outskirts of St.-Vith.    Corregidor was bombed by Allied aircraft.    The German XXVIII Army Corps began pulling out of Memel.

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Jan 23 1940 Brition and France said their ships would not honor the Pan-American neutrality zone and would attack any German vessel operating in hemispheric waters.

1941 British forces advanced to the Biskia railhead in Eritrea.

1942 Japan invaded New Britian, New Ireland, Dutch borneo, and the Soloman Islands, brining the war to less than 1000 miles from north east Australia. Landings were at Rabaul, Kavieng, and Balikpapan. New Guinea was dangerously exposed.    Australia requested emergency military assistance from the U.S. and Britian.    In a major breakthrough the Russians advanced along a 250-mile wide front between Smolensk and lake Ilmen.

1943 British forces entered Tripoli to recieve the surrender of the city and the Province.    Russian troops recaptured Armavir, a key rail junction in the Maikop oil fields. Advance elements moved into Voronezh. Syalingrad’s Gumrak airfield fell to the Russian, cutting the 6th Army’s last linkto the outside. The Germans now had only 495 operational tanks left on the entire Russian front. Since the invasion the Germans had lost 7,800. In two weeks of fighting on the Don front, Zxis losses included 50,000 dead.    All Japanese resistance ended on Guadalcanal’s Mount Austen.

1944 The Anzio beachhead was consolidated as German resistance was almost negligible, but Field Marshal Kesselring correctly determined that " the danger of a large scale expansion of the beachhead was no longer imminent." The imminent threat to the Allies came from the Luftwaffe which attacked the new positions. German planes also attacked two British hospital ships off the coast of Anzio, sinking the St David and damagingLeinster. The attacks were made at dusk with the ships fully lighted and identified.    Moscow announced that heavy rains had halted the offensive around Vitebsk where a German force was virtually encircled.

1945 St-Vith was taken by the U.S.7th Armored Division.    German forces regained controll of Berg on the Rhine in a powerful armor infantry counterattack.    Red Army troops advanced to the Oder River 24 miles west of Breslau. Several Czechoslocak towns and villages fell to the Russians

1936 The first battle of Temien in Ethiopia ended in a stalemate, but the Rthiopians stopped the first major Italian offensive since the initial invasion. The 4 day battle ended with 1,100 Italians and 8,000 Ethiopian dead and wounded.

1937 The Hirota cabinet fell in Japan, with the Army bickering over policy and creating factions incapable of compromise.

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Jan 24 1940 With recurrent reports of an imminent invasion by Germany, Chamberlain reassured Belgium of Britain’s pledge to assist the Belgians if they were attacked.

1942 A special court of inquiry, headed by Supreme Court Justice Owen J. Roberts, submitted its report on the attack of Pearl Harbor. It placed the major blame on rear Admiral Husband E. Kimmel and Lieutenant General Walter C. Short, the Navy and Army commanders, for neglecting to heed warnings of an imminent attack, for not consulting each other on necessary precautions, and for taking only minimum and inadequate defensive measures.    Japanese ships en route to the oil center of Balikpapan, Borneo, for a landing were intercepted by 4 U.S. Destroyers. In the ensuing battle of Makassar Strait, 4 of the Japanese transports were sunk with heavy casualties. It was the first major naval engagement of the Pacific war.    Balikpapan was secured by the Japanese. (Capture of the Borneo oil field center was critical for the Japanese who eventually produced 70,000 barrel a day from there, or 90% of their total petroleum consumption.)    Australian forces evacuated Lae and Salamaua in New Guinea.    Peru severed diplomatic relations with Germany, Italy, and Japan.    Soviet troops smashed through German positions in the Ukraine. Barvenkova was recaptured.

1944 U.S. troops on Anzio were halted to await reinforcements.    The Germans formed stiff lines of resistance on the main Italian front. Hitler ordered the Gustav Line to be held at all costs. The 34th Division moved to establish a new bridgehead across the Rapido.    Russian forces occupied Pushkin and Pavlovsk.

1945 The American airbase at Suichuan in China was abandoned.    Russian forces resumed their offensive in Latvia.

1932 In a calculated show of strength, Japan increased its naval force in Shanghai waters to an aircraft carrier, four cruisers, and seven destroyers.

1937 Bulgaria and Yugoslavia signed a treaty of perpetual friendship, seemingly putting an end to the enmity which had marked relations between the two states.

1939 Goring directed Reinhard Heydrich of the SS to accelerate the emigration and evacuation of Jews from Germany as a solution to the Jewish problem.

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Jan 25 1942 Thailand declared war on yhe U.S. and Britian. Its forces immediatly joined in the invasion of Burma.    South Africa and New Zealand declared war on Thailand.    Uruguay severed diplomatic relations with Germany, Italy, and Japan.    Japanese forces landed at Lae in New Guinea.    A Japanese submarine shelled Midway Island.    British forces attempted a counterattack on Msus in Libya which had just been overrun by Rommel’s forces. The British 1st Armored Division was routed as the Germans captured 96 tanks,12 aircraft,38 guns, and 190 trucks.

1943 Voronezh was totally reoccupied by the Russians, who took 52,000 prisoners.    British Eighth Army units pressed westward from Tripoli to drive the Axis forces into Tunisia.

1944 An Allied raid on Rabaul resulted in heavy Japanese losses, including the destruction of 83 planes.    Three Battalions of the 36th Division pushed across the Rapido.    Red Army troops captured the rail junction of Krasnogvardeisk southwest of Leningrad.

1945 Tokyo directed its China Expeditionary force to discontinue offensive operations in the interior and to concentrate its efforts in defending the coast and north China.    U.S. B 29s dropped 366 mines in the approaches to Singapore. Other aircraft mined the waters off Saigon, Camranh Bay, and Penang. It was the largest mining operation of the war.
1939 Ribbentrop visited Warsaw to induce Poland to join the anti-comintern pact. The Poles, though wavering in their attitude toward France, were unwilling to be drawn into an alliance with Germany. Events quickly overtook the Berlin proposals. ( namely Hitlers decision to invade Poland)

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Jan 26 1940 The U.S. permitted its 1911 commerical traety with Japan to lapse. Hull informed Tokyo future trade between the two countries would be conducted on a day to day basis

1941 Matsuoka repeated Japan’s determination to impose a “new order” in Asia

1942 Rabaul on the Island of New Britian fell to the Japanese, giving them a major strategically located air and naval base.    The defenders on Luzon fell back to their final defensive line on Bataan.    Japanese reinforcements landed in eastern Malaya, at Endau, 90 miles north of Singapore.    The first contingent of American forces to reach Europe arrived in Northern Ireland. Headquarters for the U.S. armed forces in Britian was established in London.

1943 The Stalingrad pocket was reduced substantially as Russian forces split it in half.    French troops began moving forward in the Ousseltia Valley of Tunisia.

1944 Moscow published its report on the Katyn massacre, blaming the Germans.    An Allied assault on Regabil failed.    Liberia declared war on Germany and Japan.    Argentina broke off diplomatic relations with Germany and Japan.

1945 Russian troops reached the Auschwitz concentration camp, freeing 2,819 inmates. Red Army units reached a point 120 miles from Berlin.    East Prussia was sealed off as Red Army units reached the Gulf of Danzig northeast of Elbing.    U.S. 37th Division troops reached the edge of ClarkField on Luzon.    13 V-2 rockets hit London

1934 Germany and Poland signed a 10 year nonaggression pact.

1939 France stated that if it were threatened militarily, Britian’s armed forces would be at the disposal of the French authorities.

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JAN 27 1941 Ambassador Grew advised Washington of reports ciculating in Tokyo of a Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor being planned by the Japanese military in case of “trouble” with the U.S. Grew wrote that “the attack would involve the use of all the Japanese military facilities. My colleague (a member of the U.S. embasy and the source of the reports) said that he was prompted to pass this on because it had come to him from many sources, although the plan seemed fantastic”.    Matsuoka told a budget committee of the Japanese Diet that Japan must “dominate” the western Pacific if it were to achive its goals.

1942 The British began their retreat to Singapore across the causeway from Johore Baharu.    The U.S. Submarine Seawolf arrived at Corregidor, delivering ammunition and evacuating all available pilots.    Soviet forces captured the Rail center of Lozovaya on the Donets front.    Free France agreed to open French possessions in the Pacific as Allied military bases.

1943 The Rail line from Leningrad to Moscow was cleared, permitting delivery of supplies to the only partially recovered population of Leningrad. Moscow announced the capture of 86,000 Axis troops, mostly Hungarians, on the Voronezh front near Alekeyevka.    U.S. bombers conducted their first all-American raid on Germany, hitting the port facilities at Wilhelmshaven.    Axis troops fought a determined rear-guard action near Zwara in Libya.

1944 Moscow announced the relief of Leningrad.    The U.S. military issued a report on atrocities committed by the Japanese on U.S. and Filipino military personnel after the fall of Bataan in 1942.    Fighting was heavy all along the Italian front. Allied pressures were countered by unexpectedly strong German resistance.

1945 The Masurian Lakes region of East Prussia was overrun, Tighting the Red Army encirclement of Konigsberg. Poznan and Torun in Poland were surrounded.    U.S. Third Army units reached the border between Germant and Luxembourg.    Two Japanese cargo ships were sunk far up the Yangtze River after striking mines laid by U.S. 14th Air Force B-24s operating out of India.    The U.S. invasion force for Iwo Jima left Hawaii.

1937 Nationalists and Communists reached agreement in China to combine their forces in fighting the Japanese. Overall authority went to Chiang Kai-shek and the Nanking government.

[KaLeu]

Thanks for keeping this going, it makes for an interesting read.

An addition for January 27, 1945: on this day, Soviet forces reached the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, liberating about 7,000 prisoners that remained there.

[suprise attack]

Jan 29 1940 Moscow informed the Swedish government that Russia was willing to conclude a settlement eith Finland.

1941 American and British military staff planners began conferring in Washington on a common strategy in the event the U.S. entered the war. General Metaxas, the Greek dictator died. Metaxas had rallied his country against the Italians. His death deprived Greece of a powerfull leader in a time of crisis.

1942 Britian, Russa, and Iran concluded a treaty of alliance. Iranian indeoendence was to be respected, and the 2 powers agreed to eithdraw their troops 6 months after the war ended.  Ecuador severed diplomatic relations with Germany, Italy, and Japan.    Despite British military setbacks, Churchill was given his most overwhelming vote of confidence in the house of commons 464 to 1.    U.S. troops began arriving in the Fiji Islands.

1943 Kropotkin on the Baku-Rostov rail line fell to the Russians.

1944 U.S. Eighth Air Force radar- equipped bombers conducted their heaviest raid to date. More than 800 planes attacked Frankfurt killing 736.    German bombers raided Britian. Losses on this and a raid of the 21st were 57 aircraft, cutting sharply into availble Luftaffe resorces.    The rail line between Moscow and Leningrad was cleared of all Germans. To the south, a massive Red Army force opened up an offensive aimed at eliminating the GermanEighth Army in the Ukraine.    U.S. naval planes began nine consecutive days of raids in the Marshal Islands to knock out Japanese air power and shipping

1945 Russian forces crossed into Pomerania in Germany, capturing Schonlanke and Woldenberg, 95 miles from Berlin.    Chinese protecting the Stiwel Road 80 miles from Lashio were attacked by the Japanese, but it was the last effort to block the key overland route into China.    U.S. Army units were landed northwest of Subic Bay near San Antonio on Luzon. They were deployed eastward to cut off the Japanese on the Bataan Peninsula

1932 Japanese Army and Navy units bombed and virtually destoyed Chapei

1938 Vienna formally protested intensified Nazi activities in Austria to Berlin

[Little_Boot]

Thought it would be cool to do it for a leap day, so here you go:

Feb 29, 1940: Finland initiates peace negotiations in the Winter War

Feb 29, 1944: MacArthur invades the Admiralty Islands in Operation Brewer.

[suprise attack]

Tanks for filling in when I miss a day or adding some thing like the leap year. I had a global A+3.99 and it took us a while to beat back the Axis and then we said lets set up a small board, it will go fast,      well it didnt (just the Europe G 40 ) and we called it a draw, it was taking longer than the A+3.99