366 Days
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January
News Headlines
1
SURPRISE BODENPLATTE MAULS ALLIED AIR FORCES
SHAEP HQ, Versailles, France • January 1, 1945 Nazi Germany’s position on the Western Front had declined precipitously after the D-Day landings of Allied troops on June 6, 1944. Gen. George S. Patton’s Third U.S. Army was driving rapidly into the enemy’s rear. The German High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht) was aware that German troops were […]
2
NUREMBERG DEALT AERIAL KNOCKOUT BLOW
London, England • January 2, 1945 In the 19th century the Bavarian city of Nuremberg, long associated with gingerbread, sausages, handmade toys, and Christkindlmaerkte (Christmas markets), had become an important industrial center with companies such as engineering and manufacturing giants Siemens and MAN. Both firms contributed mightily to Germany’s war effort—Siemens by producing everything from […]
3
GERMANS SET TO SNUFF OUT BASTOGNE GARRISON
Bastogne, Eastern Belgium • January 3, 1945 Beginning on this date and the next in January 1945 the German Wehrmacht (armed forces) began a risky, last-ditch attack on the U.S. garrison at Bastogne in Eastern Belgium. Adolf Hitler, in planning his massive onslaught against Anglo-American forces via the densely forested Ardennes region shared by Belgium, […]
4
JAPAN LAUNCHES TWO-WEEK ASSAULT ON RABAUL
Rabaul, Island of New Britain • January 4, 1942 The Battle of Rabaul was fought from January 23 to late February 1942 on the island of New Britain, part of Australia’s League of Nations-mandated Territory of New Guinea (1921 to 1941) lying roughly 660 miles/1,062 km northnorthwest of Australia. More forward observation post than anything else, the 1,400‑strong […]
5
AUSSIES SCORE BIG WIN IN OPERATION COMPASS
Bardia, Eastern Libya • January 5, 1941 In June 1940 Italian dictator Benito Mussolini declared war on Great Britain and France and began building up forces in his North African colony of Libya. That September the Italian Tenth Army under Gen. Rodolfo Graziani invaded Egypt, a British colony to the east of Libya, threatening British […]
6
ROOSEVELT’S LEND-LEASE TO AID WAR AGAINST AXIS
Washington, D.C. • January 6, 1941 Three days after Adolf Hitler had sent his Wehrmacht (German armed forces) into neighboring Poland on September 1, 1939, Great Britain and France declared war on Nazi Germany. Nine months later, following France’s surrender to the Wehrmacht in June 1940, the British government, which since 1939 had been paying for […]
7
IWO JIMA UNDER U.S. AIR ASSAULT
Saipan Island, Northern Marianas • January 7, 1945 In early October 1944, nearly 3 years into the Pacific War, the U.S. high command decided that, after securing the Philippine island of Leyte (done before the end of December), Gen. Douglas MacArthur was to liberate neighboring Luzon Island, while Fleet Adm. Chester Nimitz, from his station in […]
8
JAPAN TELLS SOLDIERS: “NEVER SURRENDER”
Tokyo, Japan • January 8, 1941 On this date in 1941 the Tokyo Gazette published the Imperial War Department’s newly adopted Japanese Field Service Code. It advised soldiers in part, “Do not give up under any circumstances, keeping in mind your responsibility not to tarnish the glorious history of the Imperial Army with its tradition […]
9
JAPAN DEPLOYS SECOND KAITEN ATTACK FLEET
Ulithi Atoll, Caroline Islands, Western Pacific • January 9, 1945 Toward the end of 1943, the Japanese high command in Tokyo recognized the unfavorable progress of the war that shrank their nation’s watery outer defense perimeter closer and closer to the 4 Home Islands themselves as the Allies seized one Pacific island after another. Seemingly overnight […]
10
RED ARMY TIGHTENS STALINGRAD NOOSE
Outside Stalingrad, Southern Russia • January 10, 1943 The contest between the German Wehrmacht (armed forces) and the Red Army for possession of Stalingrad (August 23, 1942, to February 2, 1943) proved to be the most strategically decisive battle on Germany’s Eastern Front and arguably of World War II. Known today as Volgograd, Stalingrad (population 400,000) occupied the west […]
11
GERMANS UNLEASH DEADLY U-BOATS OFF U.S. COAST
Washington, D. C. • January 11, 1942 On this date in 1942 the German Kriegsmarine launched Operation Drumbeat (Unternehmen Paukenschlag, or “roll of the kettledrums”), intending to destroy U.S. coastal shipping, particularly oil shipments from the Gulf of Mexico, and disrupt the stream of troops and key resources (e.g., agricultural products, steel, and oil) crossing […]
12
SOVIETS BEGIN ASSAULT ON GERMAN BORDER
Moscow, Soviet Union • January 12, 1945 On New Year’s Day 1945 Germans of every stripe faced the stark reality of impending defeat. That reality materialized in the cacophony of the opening salvos of the Soviet Union’s offensive on Germany’s eastern frontier, the Vistula-Oder operation, that began on this date in 1945. The strongest Soviet […]
13
SAAR VOTERS CHOOSE UNION WITH GERMANY
Saarbruecken, Saarland, Germany • January 13, 1935 On this date in 1935 Germans held a plebiscite in the only part of Germany that remained under foreign occupation following their country’s defeat in World War I—the Saar region, or Saarland in German. The wealth of its coal deposits and their large-scale industrial exploitation, coupled with its location on […]
14
ROOSEVELT, CHURCHILL ENDORSE NEW WAR AIMS
Casablanca, French Morocco • January 14, 1943 On this date in 1943 U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and their respective Chiefs of Staff opened a 10‑day strategy conference in Casablanca, a seaside resort halfway down the Moroccan coast in Northwest Africa. (Casablanca was a significant venue, chosen to underscore the liberation […]
15
M1 FLAMETHROWERS SEE FIRST COMBAT SUCCESS
Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands • January 15, 1943 On this date in 1943 M1 portable flamethrowers were used successfully in combat for the first time relatively late in the 6‑month Battle of Guadalcanal (August 7, 1942, to February 9, 1943). In one attack by U.S. Marines several 2‑man flamethrowing teams crawled close enough to 3 Japanese bunkers to burn […]
16
HITLER TAKES SANCTUARY IN UNDERGROUND BUNKER
Berlin, Germany • January 16, 1945 The Soviet Union’s offensive that began on the Vistula River, the principal river in Poland, on January 12, 1945, spread out over the following days to engulf Nazi Germany’s entire Eastern Front, running from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Carpathian Mountains in Southern Poland. Four days later, […]
17
WARSAW FALLS, MONSTEROUS CRIMES HINTED
Warsaw, Liberated Poland · January 17, 1945 On this date in 1945 Warsaw fell to Soviet and Polish Communist forces as the Nazis beat a hasty retreat from the ruins of Poland’s capital. In moving against the retreating Wehrmacht (German armed forces), the Soviets liberated 800 Jews in Częstochowa and 870 Jews in Łódź, Poland. Ten […]
18
AXIS POWERS RENEW TRIPARTITE TREATY
Berlin, Germany • January 18, 1942 On this date in 1942 Axis partners Germany, Italy, and Japan renewed their military and economic alliance just one and a half years into their 10‑year convention. The Tripartite Pact had come into being on September 27, 1940, when the foreign ministers of the 3 nations met in Berlin. Originally a […]
19
HITLER, MUSSOLINI IN CRISIS TALKS
Fuehrer HQ on the Obersalzberg, Germany · January 19, 1941 On this date in 1941 Adolf Hitler and Italian leader Benito Mussolini began 2 days of crisis talks at the Berghof, Hitler’s palatial Alpine residence whose enormous sliding window afforded magnificent views of nearby Berchtesgaden and, in the distance, Salzburg, Austria. High on the agenda was […]
20
HIMMLER TO HEAD NAZI PROTECTION SQUAD
Munich, Germany · January 20, 1929 On this date in 1929 failed German chicken farmer Heinrich Himmler became Reichsfuehrer-SS Heinrich Himmler. The SS in his title referred to Schutzstaffel, meaning “Protection Squad.” Informally known by its initials, the SS was created after National Socialist (Nazi) party leader Adolf Hitler, himself a Viennese vagrant, set about […]
21
BRITISH DECODE GERMAN BATTLE PLANS
London, England · January 21, 1943 Arguably one of Germany’s greatest assets early in World War II was the Enigma machine. It could encrypt and decrypt sensitive diplomatic and military messages in billions of ways (actually 10 to the 23rd power). The location of U‑boats in the Atlantic, supply convoys, and the orders of battle were […]
22
U.S. AGENCY TO RESCUE JEWS, OTHERS
Washington, D.C. · January 22, 1944 On this date in 1944 President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9417, which created the War Refugee Board (WRB). The president said that “it was urgent that action be taken at once to forestall the plan of the Nazis to exterminate all the Jews and other persecuted minorities […]
23
JAPANESE SEIZE RABAUL, AUSSIE ISLAND OUTPOST
Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia • January 23, 1942 On this date in 1942, over a month after Pearl Harbor, 20,000 Japanese Marines quickly overran the 1,400‑man Australian garrison at Rabaul, New Britain, the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago (labeled “Niu Briten” on map below). Rabaul’s capture was important because of its proximity to the Caroline […]
24
ALL-BLACK DIVISION LANDS ON GUADALCANAL
South West Pacific Area HQ, Brisbane, Australia · January 24, 1944 On this date in 1944 an advance party of the 93rd Infantry Division landed on the Pacific Island of Guadalcanal, the first African American (“colored” was the term used at the time) infantry unit to see action in World War II. Reactivated on May 15, 1942, […]
25
BULGE ELIMINATED, GERMANS RETREAT
Bastogne, Belgium · January 25, 1945 On this date in 1945, in the thickly forested Belgian Ardennes, the Battle of the Bulge (referring to the German-induced bulge in Allied lines) effectively ended. The largest, most costly land battle fought by American soldiers in World War II marked in many ways the U.S. Army’s finest performance. Besides […]
26
2ND LIEUTANANT KILLS/WOUNDS 50 ENEMY
Near Holtzwihr, Colmar Area, Northeastern France · January 26, 1945 On this date in 1945 U.S. Army Second Lt. Audie Murphy, age 20, commanded an infantry company when it came under attack from 200 German infantrymen and a half-dozen Mark VI Tiger tanks on the outskirts of Holtzwihr (now part of Porte-du-Ried), a village near Colmar on the […]
27
RED ARMY LIBERATES AUSCHWITIZ-BIRKENAU DEATH CAMP
Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland · January 27, 1945 In the months following the Red Army’s entry into the abandoned Nazi death camp at Majdanek on the outskirts of Lublin, Poland, where more than 79,000 people had been killed, the growing list of liberated camps (the Nazis had over 40 death camps) characterized by mounds of corpses and emaciated […]
28
U.S. EIGHTH AIR FORCE ACTIVATED
Savannah, Georgia · January 28, 1942 On this date in 1942 the fledgling U.S. Eighth Air Force was activated at Savannah Air Force Base in Georgia. Second-in-command Brig. Gen. Ira Eaker was sent to England to form and organize its bomber command, the VIII Bomber Command. An advanced detachment was established at RAF Bomber Command […]
29
GERMAN ANTI-WAR NOVEL DEBUTS
Berlin, Germany • January 29, 1929 On this date in 1929 Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front (German, Im Westen Nichts Neues) debuted in book form after being serialized in a German newspaper in late 1928. In the story Remarque, who was a conscript during the First World War, described the German […]
30
HITLER NAMED GERMAN CHANCELLOR
Berlin, Germany • January 30, 1933 At noon on this date in 1933 in Berlin, German president and World War I hero Paul von Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler, an Austrian now with German citizenship, Reichskanzler of the postwar Weimar Republic, a parliamentary representative democracy of 65 million people that had replaced the imperial form of government in 1919 […]
31
GERMAN SIXTH ARMY LIQUIDATED AT STALINGRAD
Stalingrad, Soviet Union · January 31, 1943 On this date in 1943 Red Army staff officers arrived at German Sixth Army headquarters in Stalingrad (present-day Volgograd) to discuss surrender terms for an invading enemy now bereft of ammunition, food, and effective command. Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus’ defensive perimeter had shrunk to 300 yards/256 meters when he surrendered […]
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