This Day In World War Two

January 28th in 1939-1945

January 28th

1940:  The Finnish 9th Division chops the 54th Soviet Division into three pockets and keeps them penned in.  Meanwhile, troops on the Mannerheim Line notices signs of another looming Soviet offensive.

 

1941:  HMS Indomitable drops off a load of 48 Hurricanes on Java for the defences of not so indomitable Singapore.

 

1943:  Elements of 2nd German Army are cut off east of Voronezh.  The Japanese bounce off an Australian detachment at Wau on New Guinea.  The Germans widen their mobilization of civilian labour inside Germany.

 

1944:   Manstein assembles a force out of 8th and 1st Panzer Armies in order to relieve the Korsun pocket.  Hero of the Day:  Major General Adelbert Schulz, who had two weeks earlier been decorated with the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds, is killed in the turret of his tank while leading the 7th Panzer Division.  He has been with 7th Panzer Division since 1940.  Four of the Division’s commanders (including Erwin Rommel) received the Knights Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds during the war.

 

1945:  The Soviet juggernaut in Poland trundles into Leszno and Katowice, and noses into German Pomerania.  With the recapture of virtually all the territory lost in December, the Battle of the Bulge is finally over.

Essential Reading:  Samuel W. Mitcham’s account of the Battle of the Bulge from the German perspective is another of the valuable works coming out of Stackpole Books.  Panzers in Winter:  Hitler’s Army and the Battle of the Bulge has some conclusions that have been underplayed in conventional accounts of the campaign.  For a start, the enterprise was doomed from the onset, particularly as the congested roadways in the Ardennes kept the Germans from reinforcing and refueling those spearheads that (often at significant cost) made progress.  Contrary to many views, Eisenhower reacted very swiftly to the offensive and made excellent use of the Allies superior operational mobility.

January 27th in 1939-1945

January 27

1940:  A “Peace Vote” introduced in the South African Parliament by the Opposition is defeated by 81 to 59 votes.  German planning for the invasion of Norway is advanced and a code name (Weserubung) is supplied.

 

1941 : The Eritrean Campaign becomes focused on the  battle at Agordat.  Count Ciano and other high level muckimucks arrive in Albania to shore up Italian morale – improved weaponry and some wine and women might have gone over better.

 

1942:  Only one MP votes against Churchill’s government in a vote of confidence.  Soviet troops under Timoshenko run into stiffening German resistance around Dnepropetrovsk.  Japanese troops land at Pemangkat on Borneo – securing an airfield.  USS Gudgeon becomes the first US submarine to torpedo an enemy submarine, sinking I.73 on the latter’s return from a war patrol off California.

 

1943:   Another shadow falls over Germany – American bombers make their first air raid over the Reich at Wilhmelmshaven, 55 set out and 52 come back.

Essential Reading:  Is there anything more iconic of US military and industrial might in the war years than their bomber fleets?  The mightiest of them all was the 8th US Army Air Force.  From its first small forays in 1942-43, it grew into a massive formation – eventually able to fly 1,736 B-17s and B-24s when at full strength.  If there is to be only one single book on the 8th US Army Air Force in a library concerned with the war, take pains to acquire Roger A. Freeman’s History of the US 8th Army Air Force.

 

1944:  The Siege of Leningrad is declared to be over as the Moscow-Leningrad rail line is now open once more.   It has been 879 days since the first German artillery shell thundered into the outskirts of the city.  US 34th Infantry takes Monte Maiola and Caira, just north of Monte Cassino.  Marines on New Britian capture Natamo near Cape Gloucester.  Liberia declares war on Germany and Japan.  The Western Allies file protests with Japan over the treatement of POWs.

 

1945 – 32nd US Division lands at Lingayen Gulf to reinforce the Americans on Luzon.  The latest advance by 3rd Army has just about erased the Ardennes Salient made by the Germans.  Soviet troops enter the Auschwitz concentration camp complex, liberating about 7,500 prisoners who had been abandoned during the evacuation.  Memel in Lithuania falls to the Soviets and Poznan is surrounded.  Chinese troops from Burma and Yunnan Province complete the clearing of the Ledo Road.  Hero of the Day:  One of the main components of the Soviet offensive power in the last two years are entire divisions composed of nothing but heavy field guns and multiple rocket launchers.  These deliver enormous firepower. Marshal Leonid Govorov is made a Hero of the Soviet Union for his work in commanding Soviet artillery diviisons over the past two years and for his epic command of the defences of Leningrad in 1941-43.

 

January 26th in 1939-1945

January 26th

1941:  A good day for the Italian Army, they manage to withdraw unmolested from Mechili in Ethiopia, and stage a successful local counterattack against the Greeks in Albania.

 

1942:  They’re heeeerrrre!  The first US troops arrive in Northern Ireland.  The Board of Inquiry on the Pearl Harbour attack publishes its findings… bombs away on Admiral Kimmel and General Short.

 

1943:  Le Clerc’s men reach Tripoli overland from Chad.   Rommel endures protests from the Italian High Command (and ignores his ‘replacement’ by Italian General Messe).

 

1944:  The French alone are making progress around the Gustav Line around Monte Santa Croce and Colle Belvedere.  With another major air attack on Rabaul, the Japanese base is quickly becoming impotent, its harbor is largely empty of ships and hardly any intact aircraft remain on its airfields.

 

1945:  US 3rd Army crosses the Clerf River.  Rokossovsky’s Front completes the isolation of East Prussia.  There are more British landings off Southern Burma.  Hero of the Day:  2Lt Audie L. Murphy is commanding a much depleted company of infantry in the 3rd US Infantry Division near Holtzwihr France, when they are threatened with envelopment byGerman infantry supported by six tanks.  Murphy orders his men to fall back, but stays at his CP to direct artillery fire.  When the enemy tanks are abreast of his position, he climbs up on a burning US tank destroyer and employs its .50 Caliber machinegun on the German infantry with considerable effect (despite a wound) until its ammunition runs out.  Stripped of their infantry support by his actions, the German tanks fall back, and Murphy rejoins his company and leads them in a successful counterattack.  He is awarded the Medal of Honor.

Essential Reading:  On the evening of the Yalta Conference in February 1945, Winston Churchill told his daughter Sarah “Tonight the sun goes down on more suffering than ever before in the World”.  Totalitarian regimes die hard, Stalin sacrificed millions as his tottered, and the pace of killing in the War was never higher than it was in those months when Germany finally collapsed.  How did people endure it?  Max Hastings tells the history as everyone endured it in Armageddon:  The Battle for Germany, 1944-45.  Like all of his books, he blends the talents of historian and reporter quite smoothly and makes a nightmare into gripping reading.

 

January 25th in 1939-1945

January 25

1940:  The Canadian parliament is dissolved pending a March election over national readiness for the war.

Essential Reading:  Canada’s readiness for the Second World War was low, even by the standards of the rest of the Western democracies.  However, the country caught up; ending up as the only minor ally in command of a threatre of war, running an Army of its own (albeit with British, Polish and other troops under its command) and having crewed several hundred warships.  A good primer on Canada’s involvement in the war comes from two of its more widely published historians:  Jack Granastein and Desmond Morton; although A Nation Forged in Fire:  Canadians and the Second World War, 1939-1945 was written for an internal audience of Canadians who have clearly forgotten the accomplishments of their own country.

 

1942:  Luxembourg’s government-in-exile declares war on Germany, Italy and Japan; but the tiny country has almost no manpower or physical resources to commit to the war effort.  Wavell orders a defence of Rangoon, but the local commander thinks the position is untenable.  With the evacuation of the Maur River Line, Percival starts to haul his men back towards Singapore.  Rommel’s men smash the 2^nd British Armoured Brigade.

 

1943:  Voronezh is liberated and the Stalingrad Pocket is pinched in half.  US troops in Tunisia threaten Sfax and Gabes by advancing on Maknassy.

 

1944:  Determined Soviet attacks press home at Korsun and at Karasnogvardeisk near Leningrad.  Attacks on the Gustav Line continue – making no progress.  The Australians reach the top of Shaggy Ridge, overlooking the Ramu valley of New Guinea.

 

1945:  East Prussia is virtually cut-off and the evacuation begins with all of the Germany’s remaining surface warships and transports called in to ferry civilians and wounded troops to safety.  Konev’s troops cross the Oder near Breslau.  37^th US Division takes much of Clark Field on Luzon.  Iwo Jima is bombed by heavy bombers and shelled by USS Indiana.  Hero of the Day:  PFC Jose F. Valdez of the 3^rd Infantry Division is outpost duty with five other men near Rosenkrantz, France, when two companies of Germans supported by armor show up.  He engages the enemy, then covers the withdrawal of his patrol back into the lines amid very heavy fire.  He is then struck with an extremely painful wound, but calls down artillery and mortar fire on the advancing Germans, bringing fire within 50m of his own position.  This breaks up their advance, whereupon he finally crawls back to his own line and expires from his wound.  He is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

January 24th in 1939-1945.

January 24th

1941:  The ABC (American-British-Canadian) talks are held in London over sundry issues relating to North American Security and ‘worst-case’ scenarios.   The Italians in North Africa are split into two with the British advance on Mechili.   With German help, the Iron Guard Revolt in Romania is quelled.

 

1942:  American and Dutch destroyers sink 5 Japanese transports off Balikpapan.  Soviet troops cross the Donets below Kharkov.  US troops on Bataan withdraw to secondary positions.

 

1943:  The Casablanca Conference winds up, with the declaration that the Allied goal is the unconditional surrender of the Axis powers.  Manstein asks Hitler to let 6th Army surrender, but the Fuhrer feels that the starving freezing men trapped in Stalingrad should continue to be the instruments of his own willpower.  US Warships shell New Ireland and US troops on Guadalcanal keep pushing the Japanese back.

 

1944:  1st and 2nd Ukranian Armies begin an operation designed to encircle a battered Panzer Corps at Korsun-Sevchenovsky.  Slow progress is made in expanding Anzio, and the Rapido River is crossed yet again. Hero of the Day: Private George Allan Mitchell of the 1st Battalion of the London Scottish posthumously wins the Victoria Cross for his actions in a night assault on German positions on Damiano Ridge in Italy. All the officers and most of the NCOs in his company were down, so Pte Mitchell personally leads a number of his fellows in a series of assaults on entrenched German positions, personally killing and wounding many of the enemy.

 

1945:  1st French Army reaches the Ill River in Alsace and 3rd US Army reaches the River Clerf.  The first of five days of UK carrier raids on Japanese airfields and oilfields on Sumatra.  Himmler is given a new job as commander of ‘Army Group Vistula’.  With the liberation of Calapan, Mindoro is almost freed.  Elements of 14th Air Force have to depart their Sichuan Airfield due to a Japanese advance.  Everybody’s luck runs out sometime – the Japanese destroyer Shigure has been in nine battles from the Coral Sea in May 1942 to Surigao Straight  in October 1944, and survived them all (sometimes with slight damage).  Tonight she is torpedoed by USS Blackfin and sinks with heavy loss of life.

Essential Reading:  Every library needs some impressive looking shelf filler and finding single copies from multi-volume editions of some history or another can be one of the small joys of the bibliophile with a lesser budget.  In the late 1970s Time-Life books started to produce a mass of volumes on the Second World War – eventually coming out with 39 titles.  These are pedestrian histories, and many of the authors for individual volumes are not that distinguished, but each one has some splendid and very unusual photographs and other illustrations.   The volumes are durable, come without dust jackets, and can still be found in garage sales, second-hand stores, and so on.  World War II, Time-Life Books – worth hunting down for a reasonable price.

January 23rd in 1939-1945

January 23

1941—Malta’s harbour looks emptier as the bomb-riddled Illustrious finally heads out to Egypt (and then the US) for complete repairs.  The Bulgarians agree to alliance with Germany.

 

1942-- The Japanese land on Borneo, at Rabaul on New Britain, on New Ireland and Bougainville.  Hungarian troops in Novi Sad begin a week of mass murder by marching 550 Jews and nearly 300 Serbs out onto the frozen Danube, then shelling the ice till it breaks and all are drowned.  Several weeks later, when charged by his government with the deaths of 6,000 Serbs and 4,000 Jews, the officer in charge flees to German protection.

 

1943—British troops enter Tripoli with port repair teams hard behind them.  The Voronozh Front opens a new axis of attack, driving on the city for which it is named.  The surviving Japanese on Guadalcanal retreat towards Cape Esperance.

 

1944—Lucas is a bit slow in exploiting matters at Anzio, but Kesselring calms Hitler’s fears about a withdrawal, but asks for eight more divisions – which are promptly on the way.  Meanwhile, the Germans activate alarm units and assemble four division sized groups, create 14th Army and move to seal off Anzio.  Australian troops on New Guinea capture Maukiryo.

 

Essential Reading:  Another of the fine entries from Stackpole Books is the account of German Heavy Anti-Unit 653; a regiment that trundled around in some of the heaviest and most cumbersome anti-tank platforms ever deployed in battle.  Copiously illustrated and full of recollections, diary extracts and correspondence, the reader gets a very good view of what it was like to fight in Ferdinands, Elephants, and Jagdtigers.  One of the campaigns the unit was involved in was at Anzio and the defence of Rome.  The author, Karlheinz Munch, first undertook the book as a hobbiest with a fascination for the heavy vehicles and the book was originally published in German for Fedorowicz Publishing.

 

1945 – US XIV Corps takes Bamban on Leyte.  Slim’s XXXIII Corps is doing a magnificent job in attracting Japanese attention around Mandalay, while his IV Corps continues to sneak up behind them.  St. Vith is back in US hands, while withdrawing German Armor takes heavy losses from Allied airpower.  Hero of the Day:  To the Germans, now much battered by Allied bombing, night-fighter pilots have become among their greatest heroes.  One of them, Oberst Hans-Joachim Herrmann, has been flying bombers and nightfighters since the Spanish Civil War, and has flown over three hundred combat missions, before he became Inspector General of Night Fighters.  For this he receives Oak Leaves and Swords to append to his Knight’s Cross this day.

January 22nd in 1939-1945

January 22nd

1941:  The Aussies finish the capture of Tobruk and take 27,000 Italians POW – and the port is intact!  The Italians must run their supply routes all the way back to Tripoli.  The Italians also fall back in Eretria and skirmishing takes place on the Kenya-Italian Somaliland frontier.

 

1942:  The Afrika Korps no more, Rommel’s troops are now redesignated Panzer Armee Afrika.

 

1943:  Another day, another massive artillery bombardment heralding another massive Soviet assault in Stalingrad.  The Germans scamper out of Tripoli.  The Japanese are essentially out of the Papua region on New Guinea, leaving 7,000 dead behind; but 3,500 Allied troops are dead too.

 

1944:   The Allies land at Anzio, with US 3rd and British 1st Division making up most of the assault force.  The Port is captured intact, and German strength on the ground is very thin.   Hero of the Day: As the 36th US division attempts another crossing of the Rapido River, Staff Sergeant Thomas E. McCall’s company takes his machinegun detachment forward to support the foundering assault of his company; using them to shield his company and exposing himself to aid the wounded.  However, as his gunners are knocked out by German fire, he takes a machinegun and goes into a lone assault on three German machinegun posts, firing it from the hip. He knocked out two and was captured when his attack on the third failed.  He is awarded the Medal of Honor.

Essential Reading:  The Anzio landing is another of the great missed opportunities for the Allies; using their superior strategic mobility to flank the grim Gustav Line by landing outside Rome with an amphibious landing; instead turned into a five month fight that accomplished little.  The real debate is who is to blame?  Carlo D’Este spreads it around widely in his 1991 book Fatal Decision:  Anzio and the Battle for Rome; although he cannot get away from Mark Clark’s central indecisiveness.  In the details of the battle, it is faultless.

 

1945: TF.38 sets course for a return to Ulithi:  In the last three weeks, it has lost 201 aircraft (and 167 aircrew), in return for shooting down 615 Japanese aircraft and sinking 300,000 tons of shipping.  Converging Soviet fronts threaten to turn all of East Prussia into a giant pocket.  1st Ukranian Front (Konev) reaches the Oder and crosses it at Steinau.  US 1st Army attacks on a broad front between Houffalize and St. Vith, while British 2nd Army takes several towns in the Roermond area.  In Burma, British IV Corps takes Tilin in the southern advance towards the Irriwaddy.

January 21st in 1939-1945

January 21st

1941:  6th Australian Division breaches the outer defences of Tobruk, and captures two of the Garrison’s generals.

 

1942:  Overstretched and over-confident, the Guards Brigade and elements of 1st Armoured Division are surprised as Rommel starts a drive at El Agheila.  The RAF in Singapore is just about out of Hurricanes, and the 15th and 45th Brigades on the River Maur are just about out of men.  The ascerbic American General “Vinegar” Joe Stilwell gets a job he’s just going to love – Chief of Staff to Chang Gaishek.

Essential Reading:  This is a no-brainer, how can anyone who loves books and reading pass up on a history by the great Barbara Tuchman?  Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-1945 stands well alongside her other great histories and could easily take its place in any collection on the war.

 

1943:  The Allies (at Casablanca) agree on their over-all plan for strategic bombing in Germany.  There is no escape from Stalingrad now, Gumrak Airfield is overrun and there is no longer any hope of resupply or continued evacuation of key personnel and wounded.  It’s mopping up time for the Allies at Sanadanda and Giruwa on New Guinea.   Now that they don’t have to work around the Vichy French, the Germans can organize a major round-up of the Jews of Marseilles.  Hero of the Day:  Necdet Kent is the Turkish Consul General in Marseilles and has already given Turkish citizenship to dozens of Jews in the city who can claim it to protect them arrest and deporation.  When informed that 80 of ‘his’ Jews have been loaded on a train for deportation, he boards the train as well and refuses to leave until they have been released.  For this he is later named Righteous Among the Nations.

 

1944:  Despite a valiant effort, 36th US Division’s lodgements over the Rapido are eliminated by German counterattacks.  The Anzio Invasion force leaves Naples.

 

1945:  A day of all take and no give:  Tarlac is taken on Luzon as 40th US Division pushes towards Clark Field.  US III Corps takes Wiltz in the Ardennes.  The Soviets take Gumbinnen in East Prussia.  Monywa is taken on the Chindwin by 20th Indian Division and elements of two Brigades stage an amphibious landing and take parts of Ramree Island off Burma.  TF.38 launches over a thousand sorties over Formosa, destroying 104 Japanese aircraft and sinking 10 ships, but three carriers are damaged in return.

January 20th in 1939-1945

January 20^th

1937:  The Me 109 makes its operational debut as the first combat patrol using the new fighter is flown by members of the Condor Legion in Spain.

 

1941:  The Iron Guard gets out of hand and starts a revolt; their erstwhile leader General Antonescu calls on Hitler for aid.

 

1942:  A quiet little conference, chaired by Reinhard Heydrich, meets in Berlin at Lake Wannsee to make some big plans for the systemic murder of Europe’s 11 million Jews; this is the ‘final solution’ to the ‘Jewish problem’ as the Reich bureaucrats phrase it.  Rabaul receives another raid from four Japanese carriers.

Essential Reading:  The Wannsee conference is well worth studying and is the point where casual genocide was turned into an industrial process.  The best reference on it is Christopher R. Browning’s 2004 book The Origins of the Final Solution and is certainly worth adding to any collection on the war that wants something more than a basic coverage of the Holocaust.

 

1943:  The Japanese defences on Mount Austen and Gifu Point on Guadalcanal are crumbling fast.  The Americans and Australians close in on Sanananda on New Guinea.   Army Group A falls back all along its line.

 

1944:  With X UK Corps fully engaged, II US Corps crosses the Rapido (no easy task in itself) and attacks towards the Liri Valley and Monte Cassino.  Novgorod is in Soviet hands again, after some savage fighting.

 

1945:  Hungary signs an Armistice with the Allies and agrees to attack Germany.  Roosevelt begins his fourth term with Truman as his VP.  Chinese troops have also cleared most of the Ledo Road.  French 1^st Army stages an attack in the Vosges, under miserable conditions while 3^rd US Army takes Brandenburg at the base of the Ardennes bulge.  Hitler orders the transfer of 6^th SS Panzer Corps from the Ardennes to the relief of Budapest.  The Soviets now control Pest, are steadily pacing forward in Poland and have just punched into East Prussia neat Tilsit.  On the night of 19/20 January at Kyeyebyin in Burma, a Japanese night attack was launched on a position held by the 16^th Punjab Regiment.  Lance Naik Sher Shah crawled out among the Japanese and engaged them at point blank range, breaking up two attacks but sustaining a gun shot wound that shattered his leg.  Assuring his men he was fine, he repeated this performance for the third attack, during which he was killed.  Sher Shan was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.

January 19th in 1939-1945

January 19^th

1940:  A Finnish attack bounces off the encircled 122^nd Soviet Division.

 

1941:  The British offensive in East Africa is renewed as General Platt takes 4^th and 5^th Indian Divisions against 4 Italian divisions in Eretria. Illustrious is damaged again in Malta.  Hitler and Mussolini meet, and Mussolini says he wants to handle Greece himself, Hitler agrees unless the British start to deploy troops there.

Essential Reading:  There are a few biographies of Benito Mussolini about, and the one dimensional wartime view of him has long been eclipsed by more detailed examinations.  One of the more interesting biographies comes from Christopher Hibbert (an infantry officer in the British Army in Italy) in the beginning days of his subsequent celebrated career as a biographer and historian.  Il Duce is always worth acquiring for any collection on the war.

 

1942:  Von Bock is given command of Army Group South as the Soviets use paratroopers and cavalry to attempt a deep penetration towards Smolensk and Mozhayske is recaptured by the Soviets in ferocious fighting.

 

1943:  The Soviet Voronezh Front continues to pound on the hapless Hungarians, 50,000 of whom have just entered captivity.  The recapture of Schlusselberg gives a host of options for the Soviets to re-open land routes into Leningrad. Bug out time for the Afrika Korps as elements of 8^th Army flank their holding line at Tarhuna.  The Japanese decide to evacuate Sanananda on New Guinea.

 

1944:  X British Corps takes Minturno.  The Soviet campaign to break the siege of Leningrad captures several key sites southwest of the city, including the old palaces of Peterhof and Krasnoye Selo – which have been stripped bare of their treasures.  The Volkhov Front has almost encircled Novgorod.  The Figeac Works of Usine Ratier is visited by the French Resistance and critical machinery for making aircraft propellers is demolished by a massive bomb. Hero of the Day: There is an exacting price for duty.  Lt. Alec George Horwood of the Royal West Surreys is a mortar fire controller in the fighting around Kyauchaw, Burma.  Over the last two days, he has been busy directing urgently needed fire and developing intelligence on the Japanese, usually under heavy fire himself.  At night, he goes out on reconnaissance and draws enemy fire so that he can accurately site their positions.  His risky leadership is yielding results, but he is still killed in battle the next day.  He is posthoumously awarded the Victoria Cross.

 

1945:  US Troops on Luzon take Carmen as they drive south towards Manila, while 21^st US Infantry and Filipino Guerrillas are making good progress in liberating Mindoro.  The Polish cities of Krakow, Lodz, Nowy Sacz, Tarnow and Wroklawek are all taken by Soviet troops.

January 20^th

January 18th in 1939-1945

January 18th

1941 – X Fliegerkorps is back over Malta, and they’re after the Island’s fighter bases today.   The Lion of Judah Banner flies again on Ethiopian soil, Haile Selassie returns home to take to the field against the Italians.

 

1942.  South and Southwest Fronts open up a new offensive north of the Sea of Asov against 6th and 17th German Armies.  The Soviet offensive west of Moscow is now within 110 km of Smolensk and Velikiye Luki – they’ve done splendidly.  The Germans in the Crimea have done well too, and resume their offensive on Feodosia.

 

1943:  14th Indian Division bounces off the Japanese at Donbaik in the Arakan campaign.  The British get their first look at Germany’s new Tiger Tanks as they appear at Bou Arada in Tunisia, and one is knocked out by well-emplaced six pounder anti-tank guns.  The supply corridor into Stalingrad is open for business… risky business but open all the same although the inventory of Ju-52s and aircrew is being greatly reduced.  The Soviets liberate Cherkessk and Divnoe in the wake of the retreating Germans.  American cruisers bombard the Japanese on Attu.

Essential Reading:  Considering that only 1,839 Tiger Tanks (of both models) were ever manufactured, this large heavy tank has attracted more than its share of attention, but then some more recent analysis has revealed that each of the Tigers was responsible for 5-6 tank kills on average.   For those who want to know that these tanks did and what it was like to fight in them, the works of Wolfgang Schneider for Stackpole Books are particularly recommended; these being Tigers in Combat:  Volumes I & II.

 

1944:  The Germans pull reserves down from the Anzio region to prop up the front at the Garigliano River.

 

1945:  Hero of the Day:  Private Dennis Donnini of the Royal Scots Fusiliers is knocked unconscious by enemy fire in a platoon attack on the German village of Stein in the Roer Triangle.  As he re-awakens, he charges a house held by the enemy and tosses in a grenade.  As the enemy flee, he pursues them firing his Bren gun despite being wounded a second time.  The third time he is hit, it detonates a grenade that he is carrying.  However, his actions enable his comrades to clear a village defended by twice their number.  Donnini is posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. 

 

January 17th in 1939-1945

January 17th

1942:  Jan Smuts wins a vote of Non-Confidence in South Africa, a vote which is linked to a refusal to sever ties to Britain.  PQ-8 encounters the first submarine opposition to an Arctic convoy, and U.454 sinks a destroyer and a merchant ship.  Field Marshal von Reichenau dies of a heart-attack in Germany.  The defence of Halfaya staged by Hauptman the Reverend Bach is finally yielded after five weeks and 5,500 German and Italians are taken prisoner.

 

1943:  Another day, another series of Soviet attacks from Orel to the Caucasus.  The Aussies and Yanks are chewing on the Japanese in New Guinea with mixed results.

 

1944—The horrors of war have a new meaning in Australia, meat rationing is introduced!  British X Corps starts its assault on the Gustav Line at its extreme western end on the Garigliano River, 5th and 56th Divisions get across, but 46th is stalled at Sant’Ambrogio – the German 94th Division is still holding.  US II Corps crosses the Rapido and starts to make slow painful progress towards the foot of Monte Cassino.

 

1945—A field of ruins once called Warsaw finally falls into Soviet hands, while Rokossovsky’s Front takes Modlin.  Elements of 3rd Army take Diekirch.  Auschwitz is evacuated and 60,000 prisoners are forced out on a death march.  Heroes of the Day:  The Soviets arrest Swedish diplomats Raoul Wallenberg and Per Anger when they respond to an invitation to meet with Marshal Malinovsky of the 2nd Ukranian Front (little knowing that a Hungarian Communist has denounced them to the NKVD).  This ends the life saving work these two have performed for tens of thousands of Jews in the last year.  Wallenberg will vanish in Soviet custody and was apparently executed on Stalin’s orders in 1947.  Anger is released in April 1945.  Both are named Righteous Among the Nations.

Essential Reading:  Wallenberg is perhaps the most famous and one of the most effective of those later named ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ by Israel.  The honor is one for non-Jews who worked to save Jews from the genocidal intentions of the Nazis and their supporters.  There appear to be no studies of the psychology of these people – while being alike in moral courage they had many different motives – but there are several collections of anecdotes about them.  When Courage was Stronger than Fear:  Remarkable Stories of Christians who Saved Jews from the Holocaust by Peter Hellman is perhaps one of the more popular volumes.

 

January 16th in 1939-1945

January 16th

1940:  Thanks to the loss of their plans and the bad weather, Hitler decides to wait until spring before attacking into France.

 

1941:  The British are having a hard time getting the battered carrier HMS Illustrious mobile again, and 80 Stukas pounce on it in Malta – damaging it and HMAS Perth while losing 10 of their own.  (The ship’s bell for Illustrious is in the WW2 museum for Malta, and if its appearance is anything to go by, there wasn’t a square foot on her exterior that didn’t have a bullet or fragment strike it).

 

1942:  Donald Nelson is appointed as head of the US War Production Board.  Field Marshal Leeb is sacked as head of Army Group North; since December, Hitler has fired 33 generals in Russia – and now dominates planning and decision making, while encouraging Himmler plans to expand the Waffen SS.  Hero of the Day:  On the Bataan Penisula, Sergeant Jose Calugas of the Philippine Scouts is a mess sergeant in an artillery battery.   When intensive Japanese counter-battery fire knocks out a gun in another battery during a critical action, Sgt Calugas races towards it and assembles a volunteer crew which restores the gun while still under fire and brings it back into action.  He is nominated for the Medal of Honor, but will spend a year as a Japanese POW and two more as a guerrilla before his award is pinned on him.

 

1943:  Iraq declares war on Germany, Italy and Japan.  In the USSR, Manstein is still holding the Red Army away from Rostov; the Stalingrad pocket has been halved in size over the past five days; the Soviets are finding that the 8km wide route into Leningrad is under German fire for most of its length.  RAF bombers revisits Berlin for the first time in since November 1941.

 

1944:  The Soviets break through the German lines at Velikiye Luki.  As the Japanese grip at Cape Gloucester starts failing, they react in the usual way and are stitched down in numbers during “vigorous” counter-attacks.  Eisenhower takes up his new duties, as commander of all Allied Forces earmarked for the D-Day invasion and the Liberation of France.

 

1945:  Two Japanese destroyers are sunk off southern China by TF.38.  Zhukov’s troops take Radom and encircle Warsaw while Konev’s reach Czestochowa.  1st and 3rd Armies link up at Houffalize; UK XIII Corps attacks the German salient on the west bank of the Maas.  Chinese troops start clearing sections of the Ledo Road near Myitkyina.  Hitler is imagining that he still has intact Panzer formations and a decent rail net.  He pulls the Grossdeutschland Panzer Corps out of East Prussia and orders its transfer to southern Poland to launch a counter-attack.

Essential Reading:  Grossdeutschland was the elite unit of the Wehrmacht and has long captured popular admiration among wargamers and those interested in the Eastern Front, particularly after Guy Sajer’s account The Forgotten Soldier was published.  There are several histories of the division, but perhaps James Lucas’ Germany’s Elite Panzer Force:  Grossdeutschland is one of the more serviceable accounts.

January 15th in 1939-1945

January 15th

1940:  As a consequence of the acquisition of German invasion plans, the British and French offer to position troops in Belgium, but Brussels prefers strict neutrality for the moment.  Hitler uses the British decision to arm all merchant vessels to issue orders to all U-Boat commanders to attack any vessel in British waters… which they’ve been doing anyway for weeks.

 

1942:  Tirpitz moves into a new home in a Norwegian Fjiord.  In Malaysia, the Japanese are spearheaded by the Imperial Guards Division and move south of Malacca.  The Japanese 55th Division moves into Burma.  The Rio de Janeiro conference begins and will eventually result in the end of Axis support from Latin America. 

 

1943:   Montgomery resumes the advance in Libya.  The remaining German forces in the Citadel at Velikiye Luki surrender, some of their commanders will be shot by the Soviets in the town square in 1946.   Hero of the Day:  US Marine fighter pilot Captain Joseph Jacob Foss adds three more Japanese aircraft to the 23 confirmed kills he has racked up since early October 1942.  For his leadership and skill with the ‘Cactus Air Force’ on Guadalcanal, he is later awarded the Medal of Honor.

 

1944:  The Germans are proving stubborn around Leningrad and fierce fighting ensues.  5th Army has finally closed up to the Gustav line, but must continue to push to distract the German from the coming Anzio operation.  The Australians take Sio on New Guinea.

Essential Reading:  The long ordeal around Cassino for 5th Army was only just getting started, and the complex series of battles needed to break through the Gustav Line deserves careful explanation.  One of the best such explorations was by Professor Dominick Graham in Cassino which dates from 1971 and iss another of the excellent publications by Ballantine on the war years.

 

1945:  Another day, another series of raids by TF.38, this time off Formosa and the Pescadores again.  Soviet forces take Kielice in Poland and 4th Ukranian Front begins its offensives to the south of Konev’s 1st Ukranian Front in southern Poland.  US XIV Corps crosses the Agno River on Luzon while I Corps can’t quite enter Rosario.

January 14th in 1939-1945

January 14th

1940:  Prime Minister Abe’s government resigns, and Admiral Yonai is to form a new one in Japan.  The British decide to arm all merchant vessels.

 

1941:  General Wavell and Air Marshal Longmore are in Athens for talks with Prime Minister Metaxas and his senior staff.  The Greeks want nine British divisions and attendant airpower.  Metaxas has got 13 divisions facing the Italians in Albania, and only four manning the defences on the Bulgarian frontier.

 

1942:   Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and El Salvador all receive declarations of war from Italy.   Australia declares war on Bulgaria.

 

1943:  The defenders of Stalingrad lose Pitomnik airfield, halving their lifeline.  Some of the last elements of the German holdouts at Velikiye Luki manage to exfiltrate through Soviet lines at night.  The Japanese land some reinforcements in Guadalcanal to secure an evacuation site.  The Casablanca Conference begins, although there is some reserve over differing priorities between the Americans and the British.  Rommel pulls 21st Panzer Division out of the line and sends it off for immediate re-fitting in Tunisia.  The German General Staff proposes drafting personnel from the Baltic States for Army and Police duties.

 

1944—The Japanese can no longer contain the Marines on Cape Gloucester. The Soviet Leningrad, Volkhov and 2nd Baltic Fronts start an offensive to finally break the siege of Leningrad.  After being under Federal control since 17th December, US railroads are returned to private control when the Unions agree not to strike.

Essential Reading:  One June 22nd, 1941, Gefreiter G. Bidermann and eleven other German soldiers crossed the frontier into Russia as an anti-tank gun crew in the 132nd Division.  Eventually, Bidermann returned home in 1948 as a decorated captain after three years as a POW in the USSR.  One man returned home in 1942 with one eye, another in 1943 after leaving an arm and a leg in Russia.  The rest fell.  Gottlob Bidermann’s engrossing account of his soldiering in Russia was published as In Deadly Combat:  A German Soldier’s Memoir of the Eastern Front.  Not being from one of the celebrated elite formations, but from an ordinary infantry division, Bidermann’s recollections are even more useful to any libraryon the Second World War.

 

1945 – Krakow’s rail-lines to the south are cut by advancing Soviet troops, who also fend off German attempts to relieve Budapest and make advances in Czechoslovakia.  Another day, another Communist-British ceasefire in Greece – the Communists ELAS says it will release all its hostages, except for those accused of collaboration (strangely, a number of accusations are about to surface, who knew?).  Hero of the Day: Infantrymen seldom know quite what to make of poets and literary critics in their number.  Lt Ziya Bunyadov has been lodged as his battalion’s intelligence officer for two years and is at least prized for his entertainment value.  Today at the Pilitsa Bridge in Poland, the poet becomes a warrior and leads an assault into the German defences where his men kill 100 of the enemy and take 45 prisoners.  His conduct in capturing the bridge earns him the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

January 13th in 1939-1945

January 13th

1942:  The Allied governments agree on trials and punishments for Axis war criminals after the war.  Doenitz orders the start of Operation Drum Roll (Paukenschlag), and 10 U-Boats move to take up patrols off the Eastern seaboard off the US.  Although warned that the U-Boats are coming, the absence of blackouts and convoys will kill a lot of sailors in the coming months.  The Japanese make a dent on the east end of the Baatan defences.

 

1943:  Good progress is made into the Stalingrad pocket by Voronezh and Bryansk Fronts.  US troops on Guadalcanal continue to push into the Japanese defences.  Eichelburger takes over command of the Allies on New Guinea.

 

1945:  Yesterday, the Germans had an intact frontline in Poland, today they don’t.  The Japanese on Luzon are almost out of Kamikazes, but one manages to badly damage a US Escort carrier.  The American beach-head is being steadily expanded. In the Bulge, US and British troops are closing in on Houffalize. Hero of the Day:  Generalleutnant Smilo Frieherr von Lüttwitz gets the thin pleasure of telling Hitler ‘I told you so…’ and then gets removed from the command of the shattered Armies in Poland.  After five years of fighting that have seem him receive the Knights Cross with Swords and Oak Leaves, he knows what would result from an 11:1 imbalance in manpower, 20:1 in artillery and 7:1 in tanks, and has made his opinions on the matter clear.  He is sent to command a phantom headquarters and to stay out of Hitler’s notice, but eventually gets the last laugh… this talented and brave commander is among the first generals called on to help build the West German Army ten years later.

Essential Reading:  It is a school of thought that has been contested by somewhat chauvinistic writers in recent years, but the German Army mostly performed better than most of its opponents most of the time.  In terms of tactics, operational theory and ability to improvise, the German military had long demonstrated an institutionalized excellence.  One of the first and best explorations of the phenomenon comes from one of the early giants of operational research analysis, Colonel T.N. Dupuy.  His book A Genius for War:  The German Army and Gerneral Staff, 1807-1945 truly is essential reading.

January 12th in 1939-45

 

January 12th

1942:  Rommel decides on a counter-stroke but has suspicions about his communications security and will not inform Rome or Berlin about his plans.  Meanwhile, the 8th Army must give up 2 Australian Brigades and an armoured brigade to fight the Japanese.  Also, new troops in transit around Africa to the Middle East are being re-directed to Southeast Asia.  The Japanese open new airbases on the Celebes and enter Kuala Lumpur in Malaya.  The Yugoslav government in exile dumps General Simovic for Professor Yovanovic as Premier.  The last 19,580 members of Odessa’s Jewish community are railed off to concentration camps near Poland.

 

1943:  The Soviet Voronezh Front attacks 2nd Hungarian Army and the Bryansk Front attacks 2nd German Army, the Hungarians are cracked open and the Soviets drive towards Kharkov.  The Soviets are also pressing hard on Army Group Don in their drive to Rostov, picking on the Hungarian and Italian sectors for preference.  The Aussies attack the Japanese beyond Gona.  Amchitka (in the Aleutians) is occupied by US troops, but a destroyer is lost accidently.  Hero of the Day:  Captain Charles W. Davis is with the 25th Infantry Division on Guadalcanal.  When his battalion’s advance bogs down under heavy Japanese fire, he starts running through it to bring messages to the pinned companies and relay instructions.  He stays forward with one exposed company during the night, and then personally leads an assault on the main Japanese position in the morning.  His example galvanizes the company, and they take their objectives.  He is awarded the Medal of Honor.

 

1944:  US 34th Divison liberates Cervaro and moves on Cassino while the Free French Corp attacks towards Sant’Elia.

 

1945:  Zhukov’s 1st Belorussian Front (which now contains seven armies), Rokossovky’s 2nd Belorussian Front (nine armies), and Konev’s 1st Ukranian Front (seven armies) are unleashed from central Poland;  1st and 2nd Baltic Fronts and 3rd Belorussian Front will start a new offensive in East Prussia and against the German pocket in Latvia.  Facing the trio of famous Soviet generals are 9th Army, 2nd Army and 4th Panzer Army (all outnumbered by four or five to one in manpower and major equipments).  VII and XVIII Corps of 1st Army stage new attacks in the north of the Bulge Salient.  Elements of TF-38 call on Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam and have a very good day – sinking 29 merchant ships and 11 minor warships.  An attack by Kaiten human torpedoes on US anchorages at Guam and Ulithi goes unnoticed… the Japanese suicide attackers didn’t even get close enough to endanger any ships.  19th Indian Division crosses the Irrawaddy north of Mandalay, which excites considerable interest from the Japanese while more British commandos land in the Arakan area.

Essential Reading:  The titanic battles on Germany’s eastern approaches devour even more of Germany’s remaining manpower and army equipment than the Western Allies do, and the massive expenditure of Soviet resources at this time has never really been fully understood by Westerners.  The battles of the last year of the war that crushed Germany is always worth reading, and one of the better books is the recent history by Max Hastings.  Erudite, with thoughtful opinions, Hastings is in his usual form with Armageddon:  The Battle for Germany, 1944-1945 and the book is strongly recommended for all libraries.

January 11th in 1939-45

January 11th

1940:  The French decide on controlling food sources too, Fridays are to be meatless, and no beef, veal or mutton will be sold on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Essential Reading:  Considering how much rationing affected so many people during the war years (starvation rations did kill millions, often deliberately); surprisingly little has been written about rationing and its effects.  British austerity measures including rationing of some substances well into the 1950s and are the best documented.  The only book this reviewer has ever seen on the subject was a 2002 academic paper (not his favorite school of prose) is Austerity in Britain:  Rationing, Controls and Consumption, 1939-1955 by the economist Ina Zweiniger-Bargielowska.  This is a field of inquiry that begs for more exploration.

 

1941:  Hitler orders the creation of the Afrika Korps and decides to limit the British in North Africa.  British cruisers Gloucester and Southampton depart Malta for Gibralter, but JU-87s damage HMS Gloucester and sink HMS Southampton.

 

1942:  The Japanese make their opening moves for the invasion of the Dutch East Indies.  USS Saratoga is torpedoed by I.6 off Hawaii and will be in the shipyards for several months.

 

1943:  The Americans make good progress on Guadalcanal.  The Soviets open a narrow land corridor to Leningrad to the south of Lake Ladoga while more Caucasus towns come back under their control.

 

1944:  New Soviet attacks at Mozyr.  The US airfield at Saidor on New Guinea is now operational.  Roosevelt asks Congress for a national service law to prevent any more damaging labor strikes.  The French Expeditionary Corps makes a go at Monte Cassino’s outer defences while US IV Corps tries to close up to the Rapido again.

 

1945:  25th US Division and an armored combat team splash ashore at the Lingayen beaches – where the more forward elements soon make contact with the Japanese.  The Japanese still have aircraft and boats for Kamikaze attacks and damage a number of smaller US naval craft.  In the Ardennes, 3rd Army and XXX Corps link up at St. Hubert, while 7th US Army holds up Army Group G at Bitche.  Hero of the Day:  There is still a lot of German armour in the Ardennes, and a platoon of infantry from the 6th Armored Division have the misfortune to run into a German Royal Tiger near Bastogne.  Staff Sergeant Archer T. Gammon charges ahead through thick snow to assault the German infantry shielding the 72 ton Tiger, he knocks out a machinegun crew and other infantry; drawing the fire of both the German infantry and the tank itself.  His lone charge puts the massive German tank on the defensive, and it withdraws after killing the gallant NCO.  S/Sgt Gammon is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

January 10th in 1939-45

January10th

1940:  A plane carrying two German staff officers and the plans for the attack on the West strays off course and lands in Belgium – where the pair are detained.  The Belgians pass the plan to the Allies.  Hitler had planned to attack the West on January 17th, but postpones the attack again.

 

1941:   Thailand invades French Indochina to take advantage of current circumstances and secure disputed border territories in Cambodia and Laos.  The Thais have 50,000 troops, 150 combat aircraft of varying types, an ex-RN destroyer and nine Italian torpedo boats.  They will be victorious on land, defeated at sea, and will – like the Vichy French – accede to a Japanese offer of resolution.  The Lend-Lease bill is introduced to Congress – its prominent opponents will include Senator Wheeler, Senator Nye, Joe Kennedy Sr. and Charles Lindbergh.  The Soviets and Germans ink a trade agreement to swap raw material for German machinery.  The Greeks take Klisura in Albania after four Italian divisions fall back.  X Fliegerkorps opens its offensive against Malta by damaging HMS Illustrious. 

Essential Reading:  As the only man to win the Presidency four times and who took America through both the Great Depression and most of the Second World War, Franklin D. Roosevelt is obviously the most influential president of the 20th Century and no library on the war would be complete without a biography.  There are a dozen decent biographers to choose from, but the 2003 Franklin Delano Roosevelt:  Champion of Freedom by Conrad Black is perhaps the most interesting.  Black is no academic – he is a remarkably well-read business tycoon, currently in a minimum security US prison after a questionable fraud trial.  His prose is heavy going for the less educated, but his analytical powers are very impressive.

 

1943:  The Soviets tighten their coils around Stalingrad with the main attacks being conducted by 65th and 21st Armies.  The Japanese on Guadalcanal are starving and now only number 15,000 – the Americans have 50,000 men and launch a series of vigorous attacks.  Heroes of the Day:   As bad off as they are, the Japanese on Guadalcanal remain full of fight, and a determined counterattack goes in on the vulnerable the flank of company of the 25th Infantry Division just as they are securing a tough objective.  Sergeant William G. Fournier and Technician 5th Grade Lewis Hall ignore orders to retire and take an abandoned machinegun, using it to considerable effect on the advancing Japanese.  Hall is killed at the gun, and Fournier is mortally wounded, but their self-sacrifice stabilizes the situation and allows the assault to resume.  Both are posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

 

1944:  The US troops on New Britain expand their bridgehead – just, as Japanese resistance is growing fast.

 

1945:  Now that XXXIII Corps’ advance on the Irrawaddy has got the attention of the Japanese, Slim sends IV Corps to hook behind the Japanese by crossing the Irrwaday much further south near Meiktila.  The American beachhead at Luzon expands as more US troops flood in.  1st and 3rd US Armies and XXX British Corps pound on the Germans in the Bulge some more.  Fighting in Alsace has centred on US VI Corps of 7th Army and it is taking some hard blows (and dishing out the same).

January 9th in 1939-1945

January 9th

1942:  The Soviets begin their new counter-offensive in the Valdai Hills NNW of Moscow and make good progress.  This is not true of the Japanese who start to engage the main defences of Baatan.

Essential Reading:  Stackpole Books has a growing inventory of insightful and informative books on the Second World War, and discovering Artem Drabkin and Oleg Sheremet’s book T-34 in Action was one of those accidental pleasures than only a true bibliophile can know.  The authors clearly understand what it is like to live from a tank in the field, and armed with this went in search of Soviet veterans of the War and interviewed them about their experiences in Tridtsatchetverkas in combat.  The result is an extremely informative and engrossing account – well worth acquiring for any library.

 

1943:  The 17th Australian Brigade is airlifted to Wau, in preparation for the next stage of the offensive.

 

1944:  US Engineers complete a second airfield on Bougainville.  US troops start to attack Cevaro and Monte Trochio, adjacent to Monte Cassino.

 

1945:  The liberation of Luzon begins as elements of 6th US Army (6th, 337th, 40th and 43rd Divisions) land at the Lingayen Gulf.  Some 150,000 US troops will land to challenge the 110,000 Japanese troops on the Island.  Kamikaze aircraft and speedboats will damage the USS Mississippi, two cruisers and several amphibious ships.  Hero of the Day:  As the German offensive in Alsace continues, they attempt to take Hatten, France.  Among the village’s defenders is Master Sergeant Vito R. Bertoldo of the 42nd US Infantry Division.  Over the next 48 hours, he continually ignored close range German tank fire (at one point, the muzzle of an 88 was poked through a window of a room he was in and fired), while firing on every suitable target that he saw with a machinegun.  He is believed to have killed 40 German soldiers and wounded many more.  He is awarded the Medal of Honor.

January 7th in 1939-1945

January 7th

1940:  Timoshenko takes charge in the war on Finland and orders new training for all troops in winter survival, patrolling techniques and all-arms cooperation.  This will set a new training standard for Soviet troops that will pay enormous dividends in a couple of years.  Hero of the Day:  Seymon Konstantinovich Timoshenko was a long-time friend of Stalin (insofar as that murderous tyrant had any), and one of the few senior officers to survive the purges.  A competent commander, he will take the Soviet Army intact through some of its worst moments for three years in a row.  The reforms he sets in place as a consequence of the horribly incompetent performance against Finland were also instrumental in ensuring the toughness and field-skills of Soviet soldiers.  Warts and all, Timoshenko deserves his merit as a Hero of the Soviet Union. 

 

1942:  The 11th Indian Division on the River Slim on Malaya is down to about 40% of its original strength.  Meanwhile, Roosevelt presents the 1943 budget to Congress, with a whopping $59 Billion in appropriations; on the order book for are 8 million tons of shipping, 60 thousand aircraft and 40,000 AFVs. The Volkhov Front opens up a counter-offensive to the south of besieged Leningrad, their orientation is an ambitious drive towards Novgorod.  The Kalinin and West Fronts resume their attacks on Army Group Centre.  USS Pollock sinks a Japanese freighter off Tokyo; the first of the 1,113 merchant ships (and 201 warships) American submariners will sink in the Pacific War.

Essential Reading:  Unlike the German U-Boat men, plenty of US submariners survived the war and wrote recollections of their service in the Pacific.  One particular favorite for this reviewer is William J. Ruhe’s 1994 book War in the Boats:  My WWII Submarine Battles.  It is a particularly detailed account and even more informative than most personal memoirs from submariners.

 

1943:  US forces prepare for the end-game on Guadalcanal, meanwhile the Japanese start reinforcing Lae on New Guinea.

 

1944:  The German defenders of Kirovgrad are weakening, and the Soviets occupy the old (pre-1939) Polish city of Rovno.  British and US elements of 5th Army clear the peaks of Monte Porchia and Monte Chiaia.  Facing horrific losses among his U-Boats, Doenitz abandons Wolf-Pack tactics and deploys his boats individually.

 

1945:  The Germans make progress south of Strasbourg, but so does US VIII Corps near Houffalize.  Elements of 8th Army close up to the south bank of the Senio River in Italy; but the Allies there do not enjoy a high priority for reinforcement, resupply and re-equipment, and their ability to continue the advance is diminished.  Around Lingayen Gulf, Kamikaze attacks damage two US Escort Carriers, and in the last ship to ship action of the Pacific War for the US Navy, a Japanese destroyer is sunk by four US ships. 

January 6th in 1939-45

January 6th

1940:  The 44th Rifle Division, like the 163rd, has been ground into isolated fragments by the Finns who now pause to regroup. 

 

1941:  Roosevelt’s makes his celebrated Four Freedoms Speech to Congress.  There is no freedom from fear for the 25,000 Italians inTobruk as XIII Corps has just started to sink its teeth into them.

Essential Reading:  It is indeed true that pictures can be a worth a thousand words, and Norman Rockwell’s four wartime posters based on Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms still have the power to stir emotions.  There are several books on wartime art worth collecting, but one of them should be any portfolio of Norman Rockwell’s paintings.   The Four Freedoms postersare included in Maureen Hart Hennessey and Anne Knutson’s Normal Rockwell:  Pictures for the American People.

 

1942:  The British move their green new 1st Armoured Division into eastern Libya.  The British have reached El Agheila, beyond which the Germans have paused to refit and reinforce themselves.  The British badly need to do the same.

 

1943:  Hitler is still furious with the lousy performance of the Kriegsmarine in the attempt to intercept Convoy JW-51B (December 30th, 1942), so Admiral Raeder resigns as CinC of the German navy.

 

1944:  The Marines on Cape Gloucester expand south of their beachhead to the Aogiri River.  The Polish town of Rakotino gets to see the Soviet Army arrive for the second time in 5 years.

 

1945:   Rundstedt might have saved his breath – Hitler still refuses to allow withdrawals from the Ardennes.  Churchill asks Stalin for an offensive to takes some of the pressure off the Allies in Belgium and France.  Stalin says he will advance the timing for the next series of offensives.  US Battleships enter the Lingayen Gulf to prep the invasion sites and enter a storm of Kamikaze attacks.  A minesweeper is sunk, two battleships, four cruisers and six destroyers are damaged.  TF 38 is diverted from its planned missions to the north, to assist in suppressing Kamikaze airfields on Luzon.  Hero of the Day:  Commander George Fleming Davis is the captain of the destroyer USS Walke when it is attacked by four Kamikazes.  Two are shot down, and one crashes into the bridge, enveloping it in flames.  Cdr Davis is horribly burned, but stays at his post – conning his ship, directing damage control and seeing to the destruction of the fourth attacker.  Only when his ship is safe does he consent to be taken for treatment but his wounds are mortal.  He is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

January 5th in 1939-45

January 5t h

1940:  The Finns ease up in their attacks on the trapped 18th and 168th Divisions – which have formed a solid series of defences, while the handful of Finnish ski battalions are nearing exhaustion.   Leslie Hore-Belisha is replaced at the War Office by Oliver Stanley, the new head of the Board of Trade is Sir Andrew Duncan and the Information Minister is Lord Reith.

 

1941: Bardia falls, leaving 40,000 POWs in Western Desert Force’s hands.  However, Bergonzoli (with his celebrated “electric” whiskers) has scampered off.  British casualties in the battle come to around 500. 

 

1942:   Excited by the damage done to the Germans around Moscow, Stalin orders a general advance by all Fronts (very much against the advice of Zhukov).  The defenders in the Philippines make their final withdrawals into the Baatan positions.

 

1943:   On Guadalcanal, the Americans remain unaware that the Japanese are thinning their defences and gear up for a new series of attacks.  General Clark opens 5th Army Headquarters for business in Tunisia, while the British start some local attacks near Mateur.  The Soviets start liberating towns in the wake of the German withdrawal from the Caucasus.  Hero of the Day:  For four months, Brigadier General Kenneth N. Walker has repeatedly flown on combat missions with the 5th Bomber Command in the Solomon Islands.  Today he leads an attack on the harbor in Rabul despite very heavy flak and fighter opposition; the attack is a success but General Walker’s aircraft is shot down.  He is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

 

1944:  Vatutin’s 1st Ukranian Front captures Berchidev, southwest of Kiev, while Konev’s 2nd Ukranian Front starts driving on Kirovgrad.  American and Australian forces are moving on the Japanese at Saidor and the Huon Peninsula on New Guinea.

 

1945:  The Japanese are busy today off Luzon and damage 2 US Escort Carriers, and 2 light cruisers plus other vessels and just miss torpedoing the USS Boise (which is carrying MacArthur), US aircraft sink an IJN destroyer in the area.  Superforts and US destroyers hit Iwo Jima and neighbouring islands – while other cruisers and destroyers bombard the Kurile islands north of Japan.  XXXIII Corps continues its advance to the Irriwaddy.  Surprise, surprise, the Soviets recognize the Lublin committee as the true government of Poland.  The British and Communists reach another ceasefire in Athens.  In the Ardennes, 1st Army continues to pound on the Germans, who in turn are still pounding on 7th Army in Alsace.

Essential Reading:  There are many ways of thinking about the Kamikazes, pilots who essentially turned their aircraft into anti-ship cruise missiles but there are myths about them. Not all were volunteers or went cheerfully and willingly to their deaths; yet the Japanese impulse for suicide in battle is alien to Westerners and difficult to understand.  One good book to begin an exploration of the issue is by Denis and Peggy Warner and Sadao Seno; although The Sacred Warriors:  Japan’s Suicide Legions should be followed by a more detailed exploration of the militarization of Japan’s military aesthetics in the 1930s.

January 4th in 1939-45

January 4th

1940:  Goering is given overall control of the entire German war industry – but Hitler being Hitler, there will be lots and lots of exemptions and back-door deals anyway.

 

1941:  After a pause to regroup, the Greeks start a new offensive toward Valona in Albania, however, the Italians are no longer stuck in the mountains and have been reorganizing themselves too.

 

1942:  Rabaul receives its first air raid of the War – the Japanese bomb the town on New Britain.  Now that their airfields in Thailand are open for business, Japanese tactical air support plays a major role in dislodging the 11th Indian Division from its positions on the River Slim in Malaya.

 

1943:  A revolutionary new weapon has its debut as US Navy warships thumping Bunda on New Britain now carry proximity fuzed ammunition for their guns.  To preserve the secret of the new fuze, they cannot be fired over enemy occupied land until late in 1944. The tiny radar sets in the nose of each shell make AA fire far more effecient.  Nalchik in the Caucasus is liberated, as is Chernyshkovskiy on the Chir River.  The German attempt to relieve the hold-outs cut off in the Citadel at Velikiye Luki fails.

Essential Reading:  The proximity fuze was a revolutionary weapon and a triumph of combined Allied research and development.  Ralph Baldwin was one of the scientists working on the project and his account of their work is recounted in The Deadly Fuze.  The book is truly essential for anyone seeking to understand how Allied R&D worked, especially with responsibilities and projects divided between the UK and the US and other Allied countries. 

 

1944:  The Soviet offensive in the Ukraine continues, this time to the south of Kiev.  Sherman’s carriers are bashing the Japanese on New Ireland today.  Spearheaded by the British 46th Division, 5th Army starts to attack the Gustav line in Italy along a 10 mile front.  Hero of the Day:  Robert Klein, a Soviet officer, receives the award Hero of the Soviet Union for his actions near Cherkassy in late 1943.  There’s a catch:  Klein’s heroism was performed while wearing the uniform of an officer of the German General Staff.  During his maskerade, he had prevented the withdrawal of elements of 4th Panzer Army and convinced German engineers to remove the demolition charges from a vital bridge.  When asked for his orders by a stressed Panzer officer, he had drawn his pistol and threatened a summary execution on the spot. His ruse snarled the withdrawal of German forces and enabled heavier casualties to be inflicted on them by pursuing Soviet troops.

 

1945:  6th SS Panzer Army comes in for attention from XXX British and US VIII and III Corps – which hastens the departure of some of its key elements to shore up the Eastern Front.  Army Group G continues to advance on Bitche in Alsace, although the American troops there are proving as stubborn in the defence as many of their brothers did in the Ardennes.  Allied ships at sea are busy today – Admiral Vian’s three RN Carriers hit oil refineries in Sumatra, US Third Fleet steams away from Formosa and the Ryukyus; leaving 100 Japanese aircraft (and 20 US ones) strewn in its wake while the Escort Carrier Ommaney Bay is fatally damaged by Kamikazes near Luzon.

January 3rd in 1939-45

January 3rd

1941:  The gallant 7th Armoured Division is joined by the 6th Australian Division to form XIII Corps – they then tear into the Italian fortress of Bardia and bag about 30,000 Italians as POWs.

 

1942:  A pair of Allied command appointments:  Chang Gaishek is appointed CinC of all Allied forces in China, and General Wavell is to head the ABDA (American/British/Dutch/Australian) defences of Malaya-Java-Sumatra and Borneo.  Hero of the Day:  When the Japanese overran LCol Arthur Edward Cumming’s battalion of Indian troops near Kuantan Malaysia; he personally led the counterattack that stabilized the situation long enough to withdraw.  He supervised the withdrawal, despite two bayonet wounds in his stomach, and was wounded again while driving a Bren gun carrier to retrieve some of his men who had not managed to extricate themselves.  He is awarded the Victoria Cross.

 

1943:  Kleist and Manstein continue to try to hold the area around Rostov to enable trapped German troops in the Caucasus to leave, and the air corridor to Stalingrad is littered with downed transports.

 

1944:  The Soviets continue to move west and southwest of Korosten.

 

1945:  The Japanese notice the massive US flotilla moving on Luzon and start to move Kamikaze aircraft and minor naval combatants in its way.  The new British offensive in Burma starts to unfold as a commando and an Indian brigade land on Akyab Island and XXXIII Corps takes Yeu on the approaches to the Irriwaddy.  US carrier raids on Formosa, the Pescadores and Ryukyu start bashing Japanese airfields.  Elements of Army Group G start to approach Strasborg (to the acute consternation of de Gaulle) while furious fighting continues around Bastogne and Houffalize.

Essential Reading:  The Second World War in Burma began with the British Army’s longest and most difficult retreat and culminated with one of its most brilliant offensives.  Burma also had the last call on Britain’s resources and the Army there was the last Imperial one ever deployed.  The library with slender means would do well to acquire William Fowler’s succinct but well-written summary of the whole campaign We Gave Our Today:  Burma 1941-1945.

January 2nd in 1939-45

January 2nd

1940:  The Finns savage the 44th Division as the Soviet troops blunder forward to attempt to relieve the 163rd Division at Suomassalmi; the Russian habit of staying roadbound costs them dearly as the few Finnish ski battalions are enjoying uncontested mobility in the woods and are striking at will.

 

1941:  Roosevelt announces a plan to build 200 standardized 7,500 ton cargo ships – later to be called “Liberty Ships”.  Henry Kaiser supervises the building of these ships, which are based on a British design from the 1880s.

Essential Reading:  The history of the Liberty Ship has largely been limited to a trio of books all from academic sources.  Although these vessels were as essential to the Allied victory as Studebaker trucks and jeeps, this mass-produced cargo vessel deserves more respect.  Of the three books on the subject, perhaps the most appealing is Peter Elphick’s Liberty: The Ships that Won the War from the Naval Institute Press.  It is more engaging to somebody unversed in marine engineering and logistics than might be expected and is a good read.

 

1942:  Manila is now in Japanese hands.  The Soviet West Front captures Maroyaroslavets to the south of Moscow.  The Axis garrison trapped in Bardia since the start of Operation Crusader surrenders.

 

1943:  The renewed US assault on Mt Austen on Guadalcanal achieves better results than the last one, while US troops also mount a highly successful assault around Buna on New Guinea.  US Submariners in the Pacific have a new commander, Rear-Admiral Charles Lockwood, who has been listening to complaints about unreliable torpedoes and the under-employment of his boats.

Hero of the Day:  Specific deeds of courage, usually on specific days, attend most awards of the Medal of Honor, Victoria Cross, the higher awards of the Knights Cross and the status of Hero of the Soviet Union.  Those who won the title “Righteous Among the Nations” often had to be brave day in and day out for months and years.  Today’s hero is the Belgian aid worker Yvonne Nevejean, who has been hiding Jewish children from the Nazis.  The Gestapo is aware she is up to something, but cannot crack her organization – which receives clandestine funding from many prominent Belgians and hides many with the aid of the Church.  She saves over 4,000 children and is named Righeous Among the Nations.

 

1944:   The Japanese finally manage to contain the expansion of US Marine holdings on Cape Gloucester.  The Soviets advance to within 30km of the 1939 Polish border.  Elements of 32nd Division land at Saidor on New Guinea and grab the harbor and airfield.

 

1945:  The continuing advance of Army Group G in Alsace encourages Hitler to forbid German withdrawals in the Ardennes.  US forces stage from Leyte for the invasion of Luzon.  Two SS Panzer Divisions (withdrawn from the Reserve near Warsaw) are dispatched to relieve the siege of Budapest.

 

January 1st in 1939-45

January 1st

1941:   Bulgaria comes closer to becoming a German ally and will allow German troops to transit across its territory.  X Fliegerkorps is reinforced and can now muster 120 bombers, 150 Stukas and 40 fighters against Malta – which is currently defended by 15 Hurricanes.

 

1942:  Representatives from 26 nations meet in Washington to endorse the Atlantic Charter, the signatory countries call themselves the United Nations.  German troops stage a counter-offensive towards Kerch in the Crimea; the Kalinin Front recaptures Staritza.

 

1943:  The ferocious German defence of Velikiye Luki is failing and the bulk of the town falls into the hands of the Kalinin Front.  German troops in the far south of Russia fall back from the Terek River.  The Americans and Australians start to force a Japanese withdrawal from Buna.

 

1944:  Admiral Sherman’s carrier group (Taskforce 50.2) hits a Japanese convoy off New Ireland.

 

1945:  Some 9-10,000 Jews from Labour Camps in the Danzig/Konigsberg area are machinegunned at the clifftops at the edge of the Baltic near Palmnicken, there are less than a handful of survivors.   The Luftwaffe makes its last big attack and sends 1,035 aircraft in a surprise offensive to cripple Allied air strength on the ground.  However, the raid turns into a debacle:  305 Allied aircraft are destroyed on the ground and 25 are shot down, the Luftwaffe loses 280 aircraft shot down by the Allies or their own flak units – who were not informed of the raid and had grown unused to seeing their own aircraft up in numbers.   US VIII Corps makes impressive progress in the Ardennes counter-offensive, but Eisenhower will direct 7th Army to cede ground to Army Group G’s Nordwind Offensive in Alsace.  In the fighting between the 17th SS Panzergrenadier and the 44th US Infantry Divisions near Woelfling France,a fight over a thickly forested area has developed.   Sergeant Charles A. MacGillivary sets out to stalk German machinegun posts by himself and repeatedly uses stealth and sudden lone attacks with submachineguns and grenades to destroy them.  His fighting spirit, initiative and contempt for danger win him the Medal of Honor.

Essential Reading:  Often eclipsed by the Battle of the Bulge, Operation Nordwind was Germany’s last major offensive in the West during the war.  As a result, there are very few histories on the campaign.  This makes Richard Engler’s The Final Crisis:  Combat in Northern Alsace, January 1945 a necessary book.  The volume is an acceptable work, but is almost alone in its subject material.

January in 1939-45

January in WW-II

1940:  Doenitz has 32 operational U-Boats, which will sink 40 Allied ships this month – 111,000 tons total.  33 other ships (amounting to 104,500 tons) will be sunk by other means.

 

1941:  Doenitz only has 22 U-boats ready for operations, but 67 more will soon be ready.  Due to the rough winter weather over the North Atlantic, they will sink only 21 of the 76 ships (320,000 tons total) that will be lost this month.  Between the Luftwaffe and the RAF, major air raids will be visited on Bremen, Brest, Bristol, Cardiff, Hamburg, London, Portsmouth and Wilhelmshaven.  .

 

1942:  A grim year looms for the Allies in the Atlantic, 91 U-boats are operational and 158 more are on the way.  This month 110 Allied ships with a total displacement of 419,000 tons will be sunk.  The RAF will bomb Bremen, Brest, Emden and Hamburg this month, and the Axis will hammer Malta continually to restrict its ability to interfere with African supply routes.   Even before the implementation of the ‘Final Solution’ the mass murder of European Jews is well underway, this month in the Warsaw Ghetto alone, 5,123 will die from disease and starvation.

 

1943:  U-Boat strength amounts to 212 U-boats and 181 being readied for operations, but bad weather this month will restrict Allied shipping losses to 50 vessels and 261,000 tons.  The RAF will concentrate on Cologne, Dusseldorf, Essen and Lorient with a growing inventory of Lancasters and increasing accuracy in technique. The tiny US bomber fleet will go after Brest, St. Nazaire and Wilhelmshaven.

 

1944:  What a difference a year makes:  Over the next three months, U-boats will only sink 54 Allied ships, while losing 60 submarines.  Allied strategic bombers from the UK will drop 40,000 tons of bombs on Germany in January alone while tactical bombers work over the Pas de Calais region.  Bombers in the Mediterranean will drop 11,000 tons in Italy this month.

 

1945 :  Some 92,000 tons of bombs from various Allied bomber fleets will be showered on Germany, with particular attention to rail centres, oil production and supply routes to the Ardennes.  US bombers in the Pacific will be busy over Japan, China, Malaya and Vietnam.