On this day during W.W. 2

Dec 17 1939 TheGraf Spee was scuttled

1941 Red Army forces launch strong counter offensives along a broad front, while GermanArmy group South opened a new drive toward Sevastopol in the Crimea
  Top U.S. military commanders were replaced in the Pacific. Admiral  Chester W. Nimitzwas named commander of the Pacific Fleet. Lieutenant General Delos C Emmons became commanding General of the Hawian Department

1942 Russian units advance to a point 70 miles west of Stalingrad

1943 U.S. troops captured San Pietro while the Germans began pulling back at several sectors of the Italian front

1944 Allied Reinforcements were rushed into the Ardennes. The U.S. 82nd and the 101 Airborne Divisions  moved to defend key road junctions. The Germans made small gains in the direction of Malmedy.  Russian main force units were within 5 miles of Budapest

Dec 18 1939  12 of 24 R.A.F. Wellingtons were shot down by German Fighters while atempting to attack Naval targets around Wilhelmshaven and schillig.

1940  Hitler decided toproceed with the invasion of Russia even though Britian had not been knocked out of the war

1942  Heavy fighting broke out in New Guinea with U.S. and Australian forces launching Tank led attacks at several points

1943  Japanese Planes raided Kunming in Chinia in a move to lessen the threat to it’s forces from Burma who would shortly launch a drive against India

1944  Russian troops crossed the Hungarian Czech border on a 70 mile front north of Miskolc.  Hangkow in Chinia a Japanese major supply base, was attacked by U.S. 14th Air force planes including 77 B 29s

Dec 18 1933  Germany stated its position on disarmament to the French " the heavly armed states either have no intetion of disarming or do not feel in a position to do so. Germany is entitled to obtain, in one way or another,equality of treatment as regards her own security.  Germany defended the Nazi SA and SS as simple organizations whose solemission is to organize the political masses of our people so as to make the return of the Communist peril impossible forevermore and to immmunize the country, intellectually and physically against the risk of Communist disintegration

Dec 19 1939 The German passenger liner Columbus was scuttled about 450 miles east of cape May New Jersey.  The Columbus had been trailed by the american Cruiser Tuscaloosa since leaving Vera Cruz Mexico,  with the U.S. ship constantly reporting the Germans position by radio for any and all ships to hear. The captain of the Columbus felt his position was untenable and could not avoid seizure or sinking. He concluded scuttling was the only coarse of action. The Tuscaloosa’s actions made the U.S. position of neutrality highly suspect, but Berlin never protested for of irritating the U.S. and pushing them into the war

1941  Hitler assumed personal command of the German Army, replacing the ousted Field Marshal Brauchitsch who felt Moscow could not be taken and that the Germans should go on the defensive. Three Italian “human torpedo” teams led by prince Borghese,  entered Alexandria harbor in Egypt and seriously disabled  the British battle ships Queen Elizabeth and Valiant. The underwater demolition crews attached delayed action mines to the hulls.  The British cruiser Neptune stuck 4 mines off Malta and sank immediatly with only one survivor, British naval strenth in the Mediterranean reached its low point.  Japaneses troops crossed over to Hong Kong proper from Kowloon.  British troops were evacuated  from Pinang in Malaya.  Derna and Mechili in Libya were recaptured by the British

1942 Red Army troops reached Kantemirovka on the Voronezh-Rostov Rail line

1944  All Allied offensive actions against the Rhine were halted because of the German Ardennes offensive. Montgomerery was given command of all Allied forces north of the Bulge, Bradly all forces south. Bastogne was almost surrounded as the 101st Airborne Division arrived in the village
  A U.S. naval attack on luzon was posponed because of a Typhoon . The Japanese 35th Army on Leyte was told it could expect no further reinforcements or supplies.  The Typhoon inflicted heavy losses and damage to the U.S. 3rd fleet 3 Destroyers capsized 769 lives were lost,  severe damagewas suffered by 8 carriers a light Cruiser and7 Destroyers, and nearly 150 planes were lost off the Carrier deck

1938 All Jews in Danzig were ordered to leave by April 1st 1939

Dec 20 1941  Japanese troops landed at Davao, Mindano, in the Philippines.  The Flying Tigers entered combat for the first time,  successfully challenging Japanese Aircraft over Kunming

1942  An 8000 ton Japanese cargo ship hit a U.S. mine and sank off Cape Inubo due east of Tokyo.  It was the first Japanese ship lost in home waters after American subs began mining the coast

1943 Plans for an Allied amphibious assault on the west coast of Italy were cancelled because of a lack of landing craft and an inability to overcome the German defenses along the winter line  The Arawe peninsula on New Britian was cleared of all Japanese forces.  Roosevelt and Chiang Kai-Shek exchanged messages which showed a strong disagreement over future offensive operations in Burma.  Roosevelt hedged on further economic aid to the Chinese

1944 German troops advance to Stavelot and Noville and continued applying great pressure on U.S. forces at St-Vith.  Kawlin in Burma was captured by the 19th Indian Division

1937 Japanese shops and cottonmills in Tingstao were looted and burned byChinese mobs

Dec 21 1939 Rumania signed a new economic agreement with Germany

1940 Germany deplored the pro British position of the U.S. Berlin said its policy toward the U.S. was one of restraint onto selfeffacement.  Washingtons was "from morning untill nite of pinpricks injury insult challenge and moral aggresion.

1941 Japanese troops began massive landing operations at points along the coast of the Lingayen Gulf in the Pilippines, about 135 miles north of Manila.  Churchill cabled Governor Sir Mark Young of Hong Kong  “every day that you are able to mantain your resistance you help the Allied cause all over the world, and by a prolonged resistance you and your men can win the lasting honour which we are sure will be your lasting due”

1942 British eighth Army troops reached Sirte in Libya before halting

1943 A German Bridgehead over the Dnieper at Kherson was wiped out by the russians

1944 Bastogne came under siege. U.S> ammunition and food suplies were runninglow.  U.S. units beat back the German drive to take back Stavelot

Dec 22 1939  Finland launched an unexpected major counterattack against the Russians

1941 The first American troops arrived in Australia.  Japans 14th Army, under Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma was put ashore at Lingayen Gulf. This was the main force (about 40,000 men) of the Japanese offensive which took the Philippines.  Chiang Kai-shek offered two Chinese Armies to help the British defend Burma.  General Wavell accepted a division with a regiment to be held in reserve.    More than 32,000 Jews were murdered by German Einsatzgruppen execution squads in Vilna Lithuania.  Einsatzgruppen A  would report a total of 229,052 Jews in the Baltic states during the first six months of German occupation

1942 Soviet forces made new attacks in the Caucasus, striking south east of Nalchik as the Germans pilled back.  The British First Army renewed its drive for Tunis.

1943 Berlin threatened reprisals on British and American prisoners in retaliation for the Russian atrocity trials at Kharkov.  Heavy fighting devloped for Ortona with the first Canadian Division encoutering stiff German resistance. Ortona was the best port onthe Adriatic coast south of Pescara.

1944 German forces launh their final drive to reach the Meuse River. U.S. forces within the Bastogne pocket kept retreating  or were attempting to avoid fatal entrapment. Brigadier General Anthony C. McAuliffe, acting commander of the trapped 101st Airborne Division, was issued an ultamatum by the Germans at Bastogne :  Surrender honorably or face annihilation his famous reply was " Nuts" .    The U.S. third Army was by now beginning to attack the Germans in the Ardenns salient from the south having shifted from an offensive across the Saar, a brilliant maneuver by Patton.  The Vietnamese Liberation Army under Vo Nguyen Giap was formed in Indochina

Tanks a bunch the hollidays and a stomach bug had me under the weather again tanks

Dec 26 1939 The British began mining the east coast from the Moray Firth to the Thames estuary

1941 Russian forces landed on the Kerch Peninsula in an effort to relive Sevastopol.  The Japaanese broke through the Perak River defense line in Mayla and pushed through to Ipoh, which was evacuated by the defending Indian division.  Manila was declaired an open city. All troops were removed and military supplies destoyed.  Japanese bombings continued.

1942 More Allied troops and tanks were landed in New Guinea at Oro Bay.  Free French met no opposition in occupying French Somaliland. They secured the rail line from Djibouti to Addi Ababa.  Soviet troops advanced to within 105 miles of Rostov.

1943 In the classic duel between capital ships Scharnhorst was sunk while attempting to intercept an allied convoy to Murmansk. The German ship was first hit by 4 torpedoes launched by British and Norwegian destroyers. Badly damaged Scharnhorst was then attacked by the British Battleship Duke of York, 3 Cruisers and 6 Destroyers. Within minutes it rolled over to starboard and sank. The crew sang " Over a seaman’s Grave no roses bloom" as it was going under, and there were only 36 survivors  of the 1900 man crew.  Scharnhorsts destuuction ended effective German efforts to block the Murmansk convoys.  For the rest of the war thr Allied loss rate was only four percent for each convoy

1944 Bastogne’s siege was lifted as tanks of the U.S. 4th Armored Division broke the German enciclement. Only the tanks were able to penetrate initially as the Germans contested any advance through the corridor.  Thus ended the Ardennes offensive, a tactical victory for the Germans. But it was so costly that the German army was never able to recover from from its staggering losses, including 220,000 men (half of them prisoners) and more than 1,400 tanks and heavy assult guns.  The et effect of the final German offensive was to delay the Allies by 6 weeks.  The Akyab peninsula in Burma was cleared after the Japanese decided to withdraw.  Japanese naval ships attacked U.S. beachhead positions on Mindoro in the Phillipines.

Dec 27 1939 Washington protested the British seizure of U.S. mail en route to Europe.  France and Britian began seeking permission from Sweden for the shipment of “unoffical” aid to Finland through Sweden.  Two German Army noncommissoned officers were kiled by Poles in a Warsaw suburb bar. The bar owner was immidiatly hanged and 120 Poles selected at random were shot and killed.  Indian troops began arriving in France to join the British Expeditionary Force.

1941 British Commando raids were made on Vaagso and the Lofoten Islands of Norway.

1942 Indian forces reached the tip of Mayu peninsula in Burma. The drive for Akyab continued  unopposed.

1943 Ortona fell to the Allies after two weeks of house to house fighting in the Italian city.  The Marines at Cape Gloucester on New Britian advanced 3 miles toward the airfield.  Russian forces cut the Rail line out of Vitebsk.

1944 A secure corridor out of Bastogne was cleared as trucks and ambulances sped in to assist the trapped Americans.  Budapest was totally blocked as Russian forces sealed the city on all sides. Fighting broke out in the eastern and western suburbs

1937 Tsinan fell to the Japanese without opposition

Dec 28 1940 To stretch out its petroleum supplies the Japanese embarked on a substitute fuel program to power private automobiles. Charcoal was the prime replacement to be used instead of gasoline

1941 German and British tank forces inflicted heavy losses on each other as the 8th Army resumed offensive action and drove toward Agedabia.  Manila was bombed by Japanese planes.

1942 Hitler approved the withdrawal of Army Group A from the Caucasus.

1943 After prolonged bitter fighting, Ortona was finally captured by the British 8th Army.  British talks with the Turks were held to bring Turkey into the war.

1944 The projected advance toward Bologna by the U.S. 5th Army was postponed because of the losses sustained in the Serchio valley fighting. But the Germans were already beginning to withdraw from the valley.

1937 King Carol II of Rumania named an anti-semitic fascist, Octavian Goga to head the new Government. Goga immidiately embarked on a program to establish a dictatorship, extend the power of his party’s private Army, and restrict and harass Jews.

1933 General Kurt von Hammerstein, chief of the German Army Command, resigned. He was the last outspoken anti-Nazi military leaders, and Hitler was now able to manipulate the Army as he wished.

Dec 29 1939 Finnish forces administered a resounding defeat to the Russians at Suommusalmi.

1940 Roosevelt called for a direct arms aid program to Britian “The Nazi masters of Germany have made it clear that they intend not only to dominate all life and thought in their own country, but also to enslave the whole of Europe, and then to use the resources of Europe to dominate the rest of the world … The people of Europe who are defending themselves do not ask us to do their fighting. They ask us for the implements of war, the planes, the tanks, the guns, the freighters which willenable them to fight for their liberty and our security.”  Incendiary bombs were dropped in massive quantities on London. 1,500 fires were started.

1941 Kerch and Feodosiya were recaptured by Russiananphibious forces in the Crimea. the German, however, maintained their drive toward Sevestapol. On the central front the Germans continued withdrawing from the Moscow area.

1942 Kotelnikovo, southwest of Stalingrad, was recaptured by the Russians.

1943 The Russian first Ukrainian front, under Marshal Vatutin began a spectacular breakthrough along a 185 mile front west of Kiev. 22 German Divisions were hurled back to the Plish border.  The airfield at Cape Gloucester on New Britian was taken by U.S. Marines who suffered few casualties. Counter attacks on the Arawe peninsulawere repulsed.  Chinese 28th Division forces made progress in advancing toward the Tarung river in Burma, dispersing the Japanese at a key strongpoint.

1944 Door to door fighting broke out in central Budapest. The provisional Hungarian government declared war on Germany.

1934 Japan declared its intenion not to adhere to the provisions of the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty which had established imposed limitations on the relative size of each Nations fleets ( 5, 5, 3, 1.67, 1.67 for the U.S., Britian, Japan, Italy, and France respectivel

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.