On this day during W.W. 2

Dec 30 1939 China’s revivified air force was dealt a crushing defeat over Liuchow. 40 Chinese fighters challenged 13 Japanese Type 96 planes. In the ensuing air battle 14 Chinese planes were shot down without a Japanese loss.

1941 U.S. and Filipino forces abandoned their defensive line on Luzon and began pulling back to their final positions before Bataan.  The British halted their drive for Agedabia in Libya after loosing still more tanks to what were now concluded to be superior German armored vehicles.  Kaluga, 90 miles southwest of Moscow was recaptured by the Russians.

1943 An airstrip at Piva on Bougainville was activated by the U.S…  Cape Gloucester was cleared, giving the Allies controll of western New Britian.

1944 German units sought to close the Bastogne corridor, forcing the americans toabandon an attack on Houffalize.

1934 Mussolini issued a secret order to the Italian military for “the desruction of the Absyssinian (Ethiopian) armed forces and the total conquest of Ethiopia”.

Dec 31 1940 Hitler wrote to Mussolini and said he regretted Franco’s decision not to join the fighting on the side of the Axis.  The British civilian air raid casualty toll for the month: 3793 killed, 5244 wounded.

1941 With the Japanese forces 30 miles away, Manila was evacuated.  The isolated Axis garrison at Bardia was assulted by south African and British troops.  The Germabs eased their pressure on Sevestopol and moved to halt the Russian forces advancing from Kerch and Feodosiya.

1942 The Japanese decided to evacuate Guadalcanal and establih a new defensive line in New Georgia.  An outnumbered Royal Navy force engaged the German pocket Battleship Lutzow, cruiser Hipper, and 6 destroyers while escorting a convoy to Russia. A British destroyer and minesweeper were sunk, a German destroyer was lost and Hipper badly damaged. Hitler was infuriated  by the outcome which he learned about from a B.B.C. broadcast it also resulted in the resignation of Raeder as commanded in chief of the German Navy, and almost led to the scrapping of Germany’s larger ships. Raeder’s successor , Karl Donitz talked Hitler out of turning what was left of German Naval power into scrap.  Free French troops from Chad advanced into southern Fezzan of Libya.  British civilian air raid casualties for the last 5 months were 743 killed 986 wounded.

1943 Red Army units captured Zhitomir, leaving Vitebsk virtually isolated. Herman resistance at this time decame fierce.  10 British civilians were killed in air raids . for the 3 month total was 247 killed and 561 wounded.

1944 The U.S. 77th Division, in 11 days of fighting on Leyte, killed 5779 Japanese while loosing 17 Americans.  R.A.F. Mosquitos attacked the Gestapo head quarters in Oslo.  Gaining some lost ground in the Serchio valley of Italy, the U.S. 5th Army was able to restore the lines of last October.  British civilian air raid casualties for the month were 367 killed and 847 wounded

Jan 2 1940 Soviet forces launched major offensives actions against the Finnish positions on the Karelian isthmus.  Washington again protested Britians interference with the U.S. mail

1&2 1941 British naval and air forces pounded Bardia continuously to soften the Italian defense position in the extreme northwest Libya for a ground assult.

1  1942 The United Nations was conceived in Washington with 26 signatories vowing to employ their full resorces, military or economic, against those members of the Tripartite Pact and its adherents. They agreed not to make a separate armistice or peace with the enemies.  U.S. and Filipino forces insouthern Luzon retreated after blowing up bridges across the Pampanga river. The south Luzon force was disbanded.  Sarawak was abandoned by the british after the oil fields facilities were destroyed.  The Germans executed 23 Czech workers as saboteurs.
2 1942 The Japanese occupied Manila and the Naval base at Cavite in the Phillipines. Corregidor came under daily air attack.  Chinese troops began ariving in Burma to aid in the defese of the British territory.  Japanese planes caused widespread destruction in raids on Singapore.  British and South Africian troops recaptured Bardia,taking 7000 prisoners.

1943 Jan1 Red Army troops continued to reduce the pocket in which the German 6th Army was trapped around Stalingrad. The Germans were compressed to an area of only 25 by 40 miles.  The key Rail center of Veilikiye Luki, about 250 miles west of Moscow was taken by the Russians. The town had been under German occupation since August 1941.  In order to avoid encirclement Kleist’s Army Group A began falling back toward Rostov from the Caucasus, pursued by the Russian 39th Army.  German U-boat operational strenth reached 212 its peak of the war they were assigned as follows Atl 164  Med  24  Arctic 21  Black Sea 3. 
Jan 2 Resistance ended at Buna in Papua . about 2800 Japanese were killed in the campaign. U.S. and Australian casualties 620 dead 2,065 wounded and 132 missing.  The overland threat to Port Moresby was now ended, and Japan could no longer count on establishing a southern flank anchored on New Guinea or freely impending Allied naval and air movements north of Australia.

Jan 1 1944 Rommel was appointed to command Army Group B covering the expected invasion front from Brittany to the Netherlands.
Jan 2 Russian forces advance to within 18 miles of the original Polish-Russian frontier.

1945Japanese Kamikazes attacked the American fleet leaving Leyte Gulf for Luzon.  Danish underground forces destroyed a factory in Copenhagen producing V-2 parts.  The corridor into Bastogne was expanded by the 4th Armored Division.  In its last major operation of the war, the Luftwaffe sent 800 planes against Allied air bases and ports in France and the Low countries. The results were disasterous for the Germans as 364 of the aircraft were downed. About 125 Allied planes were lost but operations continued from the target fields
Jan1 Operation NORWIND, a German counter attack was launched in the Esztergom-Bicske area of Hungary, which was occupied by the Russians who were using it as a base to attack Budapest

1934 The German government ordered an aircraft building program with the Luftwaffe to be supplied with 4,021 new aircraft by Oct 1935

,Jan 3 1940 Roosevelt requested 1.8 Billion for National defence in his annual budget request to congress.  Mussolini sent a placating letter to Hitler to help offset Italy’s condemnations of Germany’s pact with Russia, but the Duce continued to undercut the German move: "the solution of your Lebensraum is in Russia not elsewhere.

1941 The recently arrived Australian 6th Division broke through the Bardia defenses and captured the city. Italian losses were 10,000 killed or wounder and 30,000 prisoners were taken. Italy had now lost 8 divisions since the British offensive began. British Commonwealth casualties in taking Bardia were fewer than 500 men.  Italian forces launched a counteroffensive in Albania. Units of the Luftwaffe began arriving in Albania to assist the Italians.  British bombers attacked the German port city of Bremen.

Roosevelt and Churchill announced a unified command for the southwest Pacific, General Sir Archibald P. Wavell as supreme commandeder of Allied forces. Wavell was directed to hold a line from Malaya through Sumatra, Java and northern Australia. Chiang Kai-shek was given command of the Cinia theater of operations.  The British chiefs of staff directed the home forces to begin planning operations for a second front in western Europe ( it was the genwsis of what would be the Normandy invasion 29 months latter ).  Japanese troops invaded Labuan Island in Brunei Bay and met no opposition.

1943 Red Army troops pursued the retreating German Armies northward from the Caucasus, occupying Mozdok and Malgobek.

1944 Russian units drove across the prewar border into Poland, cutting the rail line to Warsaw

1945 German units penetrated Aachenin their counterattack against the U.S. 7th Army but were thrown back. Rundstedt began pulling out some of his troops and Armored forces.  Akyab on the Arakan front in Burma was captuired by British and Idian forces.  American 3rd Fleet units attacked Japanese units around Formosa, Okinawa, and the Pescadores. Despite bad weather the 2 day oerationnetted 12 ships sunk and 110 planes destroyed for the loss of 18 U.S. planes.  Wanting was recaptured by the Chinese, but the Japanese drove the Chinese out of the Sino-Burmese border town by nightfall.  Turkey broke off diplomatic relations with Japan.  The first Canadian draftees to be sent abroad sailed for Europe from Halifax, of the 60,000 men in this catagory many seemed not interested, 6,300 were A.W.O.L. at sailing time, as they boarded they dropped their rifles into the water from the gangplank. All in all 13,000 draftees did go to Europe.

1935 Ethiopia appealed to the League for actions “to safegaurd peace” which Addis Ababa claimed had been broken by Italy.

Jan 4 1940 Goring was given total authority over all German industries involved in the production of war materials.

1442 Japanese forces bombed Rabaul for the first time. The air offensive signaled Toyko’s intention of seizing the strategic air and naval base in the Bizark Archipelago.  The Russians recaptured Borovsk.  Indian leaders promised to support the Allied war effort if Britian granted India domininion status.  3rd-12th Chinese troops routed a Japanese force estimated at 70,000 men in a major battle in the Hunan provincial capital of Changsha.

1944 German school children were mobilized for war related duty.    U.S. aircraft began transporting supplies to partisan units in western Europe in prparation for eventual disruptive action behind German lines.  Yugoslav Partisans captured Banja Luka.  British 46th Division forces crossed the Peccia River in Italy but only after overcoming stiff opposition.

1945 The U.S. invasion force approaching Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines was subject to heavy Japanese air attack. The escort carrier Ommaney Bay had to be sunk by other U.S. ships after being hit by a Kamikaze.  The occupation of Akyab was completed.  German troops attempted but failed to fight their way out of Budapest.

1932 Japanese units completed their occupation of south Manchuria by entering Shanhaikuan

1938 Chancellor Schuschnigg restated Austria’s policy of remaining politically independent:  we remain ourselves alone……to render great service to the German people as a whole."

1939 Prince Konoye resigned as Japans premier

Jan 5 1942 Stalin directed Russian units to launch an all out offensive along the entire front.  Reinforcements were landed on the Crimean coast as the red army tried to bbreak the seige of Sevestopol. They encountered heavy German resistance.  British forces assulted the German defences in the Halfaya Pass in Libya.  Japanese reinforcements for Malaya landed on the west coast of the peninsula. British forces withdrew to new defensive positions.  U.S. and filipino troops established the Layac line, a holding operation to permit evacuation through Layac junction through which all roads to Bataan passed.

1943 18 Allied Nations signed a formal declaration which would have the effect of nullifing Axis plundering in occupied Europe. The Governments reserved all rights to invalidate all transfers and dealings of properties, rights and interests in all territories seized by Germany and Italy.  Morozovsk, the major German air base supplying Stalingrad, fell to the Russians.

1944 The U.S. Fifth Army launched the final assult on the German Winter line. British troops pulled back from the Peccia River bridgehead because tanks were unable to cross.  Australian and U.S. forces were within 60 miles of reaching a juncture in New Guinea as the Australians reached Kelanoa.    Berdichev, a rail junction southwest of Kiex, was taken by the Russains.

1945 German forces recrossed the Rhine and recaptured Offendorf, Herlisheim, and Rohrweiler in Alsace.  London and Washington refused to accept the Lublin committee as the government of Poland.

1938 In a crack down on the Nazis , the Austians tried and convicted 27 National Socialists for antistate activity.

wwJan 6 1941 Roosevelt outlined the lend-lease program and enunciated the “four freedoms” principal. He asked congress for approval to extend arms credits to those nations wich are now in actual war with aggressor nations. Our most useful and immediate role is to act as an arsenal for them as well as ourselves. They do not need man power, but they do need billions of dallars worth of weapons of defence. The time is near when they will not be able to pay for them all in ready cash….For what we send abroad, we shall be repaid within reasonable time following the close of hostilities, in similar materials or at our option, in other goods of many kinds, which they can produce, and which we need.    Four British merchant ships steamed out of Gibraltar with vital supplies for Malta. It was the first convoy to make the dangerous Mediteranean run since Nov. The Royal Navy assigned Force H, comprised of capital ships to escort the cargo ships in and to prvide support for their return. A number of Merchantmen which had been in the Nov convoy were also stuck at Malta and they to would be escorted out by Force H. Malta at this time had only 15 R.A.F. Hurricane fighters for its myraid defence responsibilities.    Thai troops began attacking Cambodia and seized disputed border areas.

1942 In his state of the union message, Roosevelt said cooperative military planning would dictate strategy during the war  "we shall not fight isolated wars,each nation going its own way …The militarists of Berlin and Toyko started this war, but the massed,angered forces of common humanity will finish it.  Washington announced U.S. troops would be stationed inBritain.  The British ground offensive inLibya was temporary halted east of El-Agheila. 8th Army’s offensive was nonetheless successful in inflicting a servere defeat on Rommel’s Panzer Group Africa which suffered 38,000 killed, wounded, and missing. It was the first British victory over German troops in W.W.2    A Japanese amphibious force was landed and occupied Brunei Bay in Borneo. Units in Mayla continued advancing down the west coast.    U,S. and Filipino forces began pulling back from the Layac line    A typhus outbreak reached epidemic proportions in Lithuania.

1943 A stalemate developed on the Arakan front in Burma as the Japanese dug in at Donbaik and Rathedaung

1944 San Vittore fell to U.S. foeces in Italy

1945 U.S. 7th Army forces halted the German counterattack on the Rhine.  The Japanese air force on Luzon was reduced to 35 planes from a totalof 150 only a week before.

Sorry I didnt post yesterday, I had a long game of global going
  Jan 8 1940 The Finns scored a major victory on the Karelian front, wiping out the entire Russian 44th Division.  Britian began rationing food. Butter sugar, bacon, and ham were limited to 4 ounces per adult each week. German weekly rations then were 32 ounces of all meats and fats, 8 ounces of sugar 2 pints of milk plus restrictions on cloths soap shoes and boots.

1941 Roosevelts budjet message to congress requested a defense appropriation of 10,811,000,000 for fiscal 1942

1942 Jesselton in British north Borneo was taken by the Japanese.    Kuala Lumpur’s outer defensive lines were penitrated by the Japanese in Malaya.  The seige of Sevestopol was lifted by the red Army.

1943 General Konstantin K. Rokossovsky sent a surrender ultimatum to Paulus at Stalingrad.

1944 Count Ciano and other Italian Fascist leaders were placed on trial in Verona.  German troops began falling back to positions to block Allied advances to Rome through the Liri valley.    The Russians captured Kirovograd.    U.S. Navy ships bombarded the Shortland Islands in the Solomans.

1945 Hitler agreed to the withdrawal of German forces to Houffalize, which was already under Allied attack.  Heavy fighting broke out in central Budapest.    Frankfurt was attackedby 1,000 U.S. bombers.

1936 Japan said it would withdraw from the London Naval Conference unless it won the right to parity in the number of men-of-war it could have in relation to the other powers.

Jan 9 1942 Russian forces cracked German defenses and reentered Smolensk Province.    British forces in Malaya were ordered to pull back to Johore for a final stand in defense of Singapore.    Three Japanese regimental combat teams launched the Bataan offensive in simultaneous midafternoon attacks.

1943 The pupet Chinese government in Nanking declared war on the U.S. and Britian.  Japan and the Nanking regime signed an agreement abolishing all extraterritorial rights in China and providing for the return of all concessions and settlements to Chinese controll

1944 Churchill and de Gaulle met in Marrakech, Morocco. The main issues were the role of the free French forces in the forthcoming invasion of the continent.  Countess Ciano escapted to Switzerland.    New assults were made on Cervaro and Monte Trocchio, the last points on the winter Line held by the Germans.    British troops captured Maungdaw on the Arakan front in Burma.

1945 U.S. Sixth Army forces landed at Lingayen Gulf in Luzon 100 miles north of Manila. Most units advanced without encountering serious opposition, but I Corps could only establish a narrow beachhead by nightfall, 68,000 U.S. troops were ashore.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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”

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

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

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.

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.