On this day during W.W. 2

January 19, 1942. Eastern Front
The Soviet counteroffensive around Moscow continues unabated, with the Red Army capturing Mozhaisk about 100 km west of Moscow. This had been a key Red Army position during Operation Typhoon. In addition, Soviet paratroopers continue landing south of Smolensk in the Vyazma area. Their goal is to distract enough German troop strength from the front to help Red Army attacks further east and also to organise partisan forces. 225 miles northwest of Moscow, 3rd and 4th Shock Armies continue widening and deepening the gap between German Army Group North and Army Group Centre. 4th Shock Army continues it progress southwest towards Toropets while 3rd Shock Army aims west for Kholm having overcome initial German resistance.
In the Crimea, the German 30 Corps’ attack toward the Parpach Narrows continues with growing confidence. The German troops pursue two divisions of Soviet 44th Army east along the Black Sea Coast in the Feodosia area, undermining the Red Army defensive line just to the north. The main Soviet advantage is that the Parpach Narrows offers a shortened defensive line where the Red Army may be able to stop the advancing Germans.
Source: worldwartwodaily and worldwar2daybyday

U-123 (Kptlt. Reinhard Hardegen, shown here in January/February 1942, was the first U-boat operating off the east coast of the United States as part of Operation Drumbeat. On 25 January 1942, it sinks British freighter Culebra.

'Operation Shingle’
Anzio, Italy, 25 January 1944.
Sherman tanks of the 46th (Liverpool Welsh) Royal Tank Regiment provide fire support for men of the 1st Battalion, Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire).
Operation Shingle’ was finally launched on 22 January 1944, four days after a new US Fifth Army attack on the Garigliano and Rapido rivers near Cassino. British 1st Infantry Division under Major General Ronald Penney, supported by 46th Royal Tank Regiment and commandos of 2nd Special Service Brigade, landed north of Anzio. The US 3rd Infantry Division under Major General Lucian Truscott, supported by a tank battalion, three battalions of Rangers and an Airborne battalion, landed south of the port. Tactical surprise had been achieved and the landings were virtually unopposed. A handful of Luftwaffe aircraft got through the Allied fighter umbrella to strafe the ships, but the Allies lost only 13 men killed and 97 wounded. Anzio itself had been abandoned by the Germans and its civilian population moved out. Many German units had been deployed further south to counter US Fifth Army’s attack on the Garigliano. By the end of the day 36,000 troops and 3,200 vehicles had been delivered ashore. A US reconnaissance jeep patrol found the way open to Rome, and a bolder commander might well have taken advantage. But Major General John Lucas threw away the initiative, choosing instead to dig in and await the Germans.
(Ian Carter - IWM)
(Photo source -© IWM NA 11412)
Sgt. Menzies - No. 2 Army Film & Photographic Unit

yea too bad Patton wasn’t calling the shots. I get it that he shouldn’t have bitch slapped that soldier but he woulda saved a lot of lives by being aggressive. Of course he also wasted some by doing the same thing. In this instance it would’ve been justified imo

On this day in 1945, SSG Audie Murphy repelled a German attack all by himself, killing/wounding 50 German soldiers with a machine gun, firing from a burning M10 tank destroyer.
For his actions that day, he was awarded the Medal of Honor.
Picture is from the movie ‘To Hell and Back’ (1955). The soldier is Murphy himself, re-enacting the battle.

Gurkhas of the Fourteenth Army crossing the Irrawaddy, Burma on 27th January 1945 (IWM)

@captainwalker said in On this day during W.W. 2:

January 8th 1940 - Finland
Details of the Finnish victory over two Russian Divisions at Suomussalmi were released. The 44th Division was completely destroyed, trapped while going to the support of the defeated 163rd Division. The Finns captured 102 field guns, 43 tanks, over 300 vehicle and 1,170 horses.
On the night of 8th January in Helsinki the Church bells were ringing, flags were flying and strangers embraced on the streets in celebration.
Many Soviet tanks were burnt-out by Molotov cocktails thrown by Finns hiding in pits by the forest tracks, other Soviet troops froze to death with nothing to protect them from the cold except crude shelters of spruce branches.
When the Finns attacked some of the Soviet troops were too weak to stand, too cold to fight.
Picture shows Finnish soldiers preparing to tow a Soviet flamethrower tank OT-130. The OT-130 tank was based on the T-26 tank chassis, with the 45 mm gun replaced with a flamethrower.

Stop. I don’t need more pieces added to my game !!! Lol Sweet stuff as always.

January 28, 1942. Eastern Front
The unexpected success by a small German force to relieve the trapped garrison at Sukhinichi leads Adolf Hitler to begin dreaming of bigger successes. He asks the Second Panzer Army to convert the relief operation, which barely reached the town, to continue to the northeast toward a Fourth Army garrison at Yukhnov. This, at least theoretically, would trap a large Red Army force to the west. The plan bears remarkable similarities to Hitler’s desire to have Army Group North continue its advance past Tikhvin in November 1941. Second Panzer Army commander General Rudolf Schmidt has to explain to the Fuehrer that further advances are impossible until reinforcements arrive.
The Soviet Stavka (military command) creates the Crimean Front under Lieutenant General Dmitry Timofeyevich Kozlov. It includes the 44th, 47th, and 51st Armies. The Separate Coastal Army and Black Sea Fleet also come under Kozlov’s control. General Kozlov is inexperienced and has been hastily promoted from a regimental command, and his staff also is inexperienced. The Stavka sends Lev Mekhlis to Kozlov’s headquarters to help plan strategy, and the two agree to launch an offensive in mid-February to reconquer the entire Crimea. The Soviets in general and Kozlov, in particular, remain under the impression that the Red Army has military superiority in the Crimea when the opposite is true. In addition, the Kerch Peninsula has poor roads and the Luftwaffe has complete aerial superiority, making road movements in daylight extremely hazardous for the Soviets.
Photo: A Soviet KV-2 captured by the Germans and put into use on the Kalininsky front. 28 January 1942. The Germans would sometimes use captured tanks as “Beutepanzers” (“booty tanks”).
Source: worldwartwodaily

@captainwalker

Thats a big fckn tank. Was the above one a Russian t-26 ?

@barnee In the earlier post, yes, with a flamethrower, replacing the 45mm cannon.

Ya barnee the Russians only built 330 K-V2s by end of war. Ya they were bad mobility and they were considered more of a SPA.
It had a 152 mm gun but since it wasn’t that great on movement and just sitting there the Germans Tank Destroyers could chew it up. It did make it in the Finland winter war same as the K-V1.
KV-1 was also built in 39 ( had issues too but better than any German tank at the time ) and on the Eastern front. But the KV-1 got better as the war went on. Had good traction in sand and snow. You could give them still move 2 ( while rest of motorized units can only move 1 in winter season if you have weather in your game. Then in 43 they made more of the IS-0 series tanks.

I do have the KV-1s on the fronts in my game on setup. Game starting in Dec of 41 the KV-1s A6 D8 M2 for d12. Build 2 a turn only for 6 icps. Helps with Russian to defend Moscow and such. Just sayin.

Captured equipment can be very much of a mixed blessing if you’re trying to actually use it on the battlefield, especially big complicated pieces of equipment like tanks which are notorious for requiring a lot of maintenance and spare parts. Supplying spare parts to your own guys for your own tanks is already enough of a challenge; it can be downright impossible if your captured enemy tanks use components which aren’t an exact match for what your own factories produce. Ditto for ammunition: I don’t know if the Germans had 45mm guns on any of their tanks, but if they didn’t I can see why they would have replaced the KV’s 45mm gun with a flamethrower. When the French battleship Richelieu switched to the Free French side in 1943, and went to New York for a refit, the shipyard workers – whose experience and measuring tools and (literally) nuts and bolts were based on the imperial system of weights and measures – had all sorts of headaches working on the vessel, which had been built using the metric system. Sometimes the best use for captured equipment is study rather than combat, a good example being the T-34, which gave the Germans a considerable shock when they they saw the shells from their Panzers bouncing off of it. Once they had recovered from their embarrassment (among other things, at discovering that the supposedly backward Russians had successfully produced a diesel engine powerful enough for a tank, something which Germany had failed to do), they created their own version of the T-34, the Panther. Another good example is the Akutan Zero, an A6M Zero which crashed in the Aleutians during the diversionary operation for the Battle of Midway. The pilot was killed, and from the air the plane looked like it had been totalled, but in fact it was barely damaged. U.S. forces found it about a month later. It was dismantled, shipped to the States, reassembled, then throughly evaluated by test pilots. This told American pilots, and American aircraft designers, everything the needed to know about the Zeros’s strengths and weaknesses.

January 30, 1944 Italy
At Anzio the Allied offensive begins. There are heavy losses and no gains against the German defenses. To the south, along the German-held Gustav Line, the US 5th Army continues attacking. The British 5th Division (part of 10th Corps) breaks through the line and captures Monte Natale. Around Monte Cassino, the US 34th Division (part of 2nd Corps) holds its bridgehead on the west bank of the Rapido River.

January 30, 1942. Eastern Front

There are heavy snowstorms in northern Russia on 30 January 1942 which bring most operations on the Moscow sector to a halt. General von Mackensen’s III Panzer Corps moves north in anything it can find to use as transport, while XI Corps moves east, both trying to cut off Soviet advances near Barvenkovo. There is little fighting today, and overall the poor weather aids the Wehrmacht’s attempt to stabilise the front while the Soviets are having trouble capitalising on earlier successes. Soviet forces also are getting strung out as they cover much longer distances than the Germans do. The Red Army cavalry is moving much faster than the tanks and infantry, leaving them vulnerable for a riposte - if the Germans can get into position to deliver one.

Source: worldwartwodaily

January 31, 1942. Eastern Front

The weather on the Eastern Front on 31 January 1942 is horrible, with snowstorms that close roads throughout the sector. However, some German and Soviet formations have remained on the move through the worst of it, or at least some key elements have. The Soviets are trying to encircle German formations tied to strongpoints along their old front lines both by the weather and Hitler’s firm orders to stand fast. The German-held towns are easy to encircle, but at least they provide some shelter from the blizzards. Elsewhere, the Wehrmacht is simply trying to block the worst of the Red Army advances while allowing them to occupy empty space. These conflicting strategies come into play today when the irresistible force of the Red Army is met by the immovable object of the German Army.

In the German Army Group South (von Kleist) sector, the Soviet 57th and 9th Armies and some cavalry corps have moved behind the front line of the German 17th Army (General Hoth). Hoth is holding the line in the centre of the Army Group South sector, with Sixth Army to his north and First Panzer Army to his south and down to the Sea of Azov. The Soviet breakthrough has taken place in the northern part of Hoth’s line, and the Red Army is trying to use two cavalry corps (I and V) to head south to the coast. This would effectively encircle two German Armies and blow a huge hole in the front.

However, Hoth’s men have found a copy of the Soviet plan on a dead Red Army officer. Thus, they know that the Soviet cavalry is heading for the coast. There’s only one problem, and that is the complete absence of any Wehrmacht troops to block them. Kleist thus has ordered the “Von Mackensen” Group, a mixed force under the command of General von Mackensen (commander of III Corps) that is composed of the 14th Panzer Division, 100th Light Division, and Panzer Detachment 60, to intercept the fast Soviet cavalry. The fate of Army Group South rests on von Mackensen getting into position to block the Soviet advance before the Red Army cavalry opens a road for the two following Soviet armies. For three days, the Mackensen Group struggles through the bitter landscape.

Today, the issue is decided. Using any means available in blinding snowstorms, von Mackensen’s Group arrives just in time to block the road south before the Soviet cavalry can get through. Fortunately for the Germans, the Soviet tanks have fallen behind in the horrible conditions, leaving more vulnerable Red Army cavalry units unsupported in the lead. The most mobile elements of the von Mackensen Group, Panzer Detachment 60 and 14th Panzer Division attack the leading Soviet elements about forty miles south of Barvenkovo. The Red Army tanks have lagged behind on the poor roads, so the German tank forces defeat the Soviet troops on their horses and send them reeling. This leads to an extended battle in zero-degree weather, with both sides gradually feeding in reinforcements but the Germans always holding the advantage because they only have to hold the ground, not take new ground in the Arctic like conditions.

Source: worldwartwodaily

@captainwalker
this is one of your best ones. I’d never heard of this.

1 February, 1943
T-34s on the main square of Stalingrad, a six-barrel Nebelwerfer mortar standing by.
While the last fighting goes on in the industrial district, the city center is cleared of German troops. Victory is near.

February 2, 1942. Eastern Front

The winter has bent but not quite broken the Wehrmacht, and by 2 February 1942 it is fighting back to protect its most vital arteries. The Rollbahn, a major (for Russia) road from Yukhnov to Gzhatsk, is the lifeline to Fourth Army in the Moscow sector, and the Soviets have held it for a week. The Germans now are fighting furiously from either end of the road to open it up, with General Heinrici sending his Fourth Army troops south and General Ruoff advancing with his Fourth Panzer Army vehicles north toward him. They make good progress today, though they do not quite close the gap and reopen the road yet. There are supplies waiting behind Ruoff’s forces to be sluiced through the moment the road is cleared. This is one of the most important operations of the winter because until the road is cleared, the Fourth Army must rely on air support. The Luftwaffe already is hard-pressed supplying surrounded garrisons at Kholm, Demyansk, and elsewhere, so clearing the road is a top priority.

As the Germans regain their footing on the Eastern Front, their ambitions begin to expand again. General Dietl, commanding the Army of Lapland, is trying to convince the Finns to participate in an attack to cut the Soviet railway line to Murmansk at Belomorsk. Marshal Mannerheim, commanding all Finnish forces, is noncommittal but indicates that he would be ready to participate in such an operation once the Germans capture Leningrad. Of course, the Germans have no hope of capturing Leningrad anytime soon due to their difficulties on the main front and pretty much everyone knows that. German General Waldemar Erfurth, who leads the German liaison team at Mannerheim’s headquarters, reports back to OKW that Mannerheim has a pessimistic view of the war and is unwilling to stage any attacks that he has any chance of losing. Mannerheim prepares a letter to General Keitel today which basically expresses these views. The Germans have no alternatives in the northern sector of the front and are at Mannerheim’s mercy.

Source: worldwartwodaily

February 2, 1943 Battle of Stalingrad ends!
At four in the morning, General Strecker was informed that one of his own officers had gone to the Soviets to negotiate surrender terms. Seeing no point in continuing, he sent a radio message saying that his command had done its duty and fought to the last man. He then surrendered.
The northern pocket of the German 6th Army, trapped at Stalingrad, surrenders. In total, the Red Army has taken about 90,000 prisoners. Later, the Soviets announce that 147,000 Axis, and 47,000 Soviet corpses have been removed from Stalingrad. Furthermore, an estimated 40,000 were evacuated during the air supply operations conducted by the Germans, during the siege. The Luftwaffe lost about 500 transports. Only 5000 Germans taken prisoner survive to return to Germany after the war; the last to return arrives in 1955. The Soviet success is generally attributed to General Chuikov’s leadership and tactical innovation.

February 3, 1942. Eastern Front

The Germans achieve a major success on 3 February 1942 when they clear the vital supply road to Fourth Army that runs from Yukhnov to Gzhatsk. German XII Corps and the 20th Panzer Division blast their way through Red Army roadblocks and “bridge the gap,” thereby allowing resupply to the beleaguered army. There are Soviet forces on either side of the road - Soviet Thirty-third Army to the west and Forty-third Army to the east - and the corridor (which includes the nearby railway line) is only a few miles wide in places. However, for the first time in over a week, General Heinrici’s Fourth Army can get the supplies that it needs to survive. Now, the Soviets to the west of the corridor begin to worry that they may be the ones who are trapped. However, German strength along the Rollbahn (as the Germans call the road) is very weak, and supply convoys must have armed escorts to fight their way through at times.

In Finland, General Mannerheim sends a letter in response to a German request that Finnish forces resume an advance toward the Murmansk railway line. It says that Finnish troops would be unavailable to advance toward Belomorsk, the chosen point of attack, during the winter. The letter leaves few doubts in German minds that Mannerheim has become pessimistic about the course of the war and is unlikely to mount any offensive operations until the Red Army is basically defeated.

Luftwaffe ace Rolf Kaldrack (24+ victories, 3 in Spain) is killed in his Messerschmitt Bf 110 E-1 “S9+IC” (Werksnummer 4057 (factory number)) south of Toropets when his plane collides with a Mig-1 that he or his gunner (Unteroffizier Enke, also killed) had just shot down. He posthumously is awarded the 70th Oak Leaves to the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross.

Source: worldwartwodaily