Air Operations, Bismarcks
Air Operations, CBIBURMA
Air Operations, EuropeUS P-38 Lightning and P-47 Thunderbolt long-range fighters flying over Germany are joined for the first time by the P-51 Mustang, but heavy losses are suffered as the Luftwaffe use rocket-firing fighters in new tactical formations against the incoming flights of bombers and escort fighters. The experience prompts the Allies to strengthen fighter escorts on such missions. Luftwaffe leaders cite evidence of the fresh successes of their fighter units to urge an increase in production, but Hitler, concentrating on the broader program of retaliation, orders more bombers. [ | ]Air Operations, Marshalls
Air Operations, New Guinea
Air Operations, Pacific43 Japanese landing barges are sunk off Cape Gloucester, New Britain. [ | ]Air Operations, SolomonsXIII Fighter Command P-39s attack targets of opportunity on Bougainville. [ | ]Eastern FrontThe Red Army offensive in the central sector of the front in the Mozyr area continues. Hitler refuses to allow any rectification of the front and any strategic withdrawal, thus sacrificing men and materials in the vain hope of being able to regain the Dniepr line. The Russian salient in eastern Poland is now 64 km across. SOUTHERN SECTORTolbukhin's 4th Ukrainian Front joins the offensive in the Dniepr elbow, attacking the IV and XVII Corps with its 3rd Guards and 5th Shock Armies as it tries to link up with the 3rd Ukrainian Front. [ | ]Indian Ocean
Italy, Politics5 Fascist leaders, including former Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano and Marshal Emilio De Bono, are executed in Verona. Ciano's 'crime' was to have voted with other fascists to oust Mussolini in July 1943. Ciano and his wife had been lured to Bavaria in August 1943 following a report that their children were in danger. Having been promised safe passage to Spain, they were handed over to Italy's puppet fascist government. [ | ]Marshall IslandsUS naval aircraft based in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands attack Japanese shipping and installations on Kwajalein atoll. 2 vessels are sunk and 4 others are damaged. The task of destroying enemy installations and lines of communication is taking shape in readiness for the invasion. [ | ]New BritainFighting continues in the jungle around the Cape Gloucester beachhead. [ | ]New GuineaThe American forces at Saidor repair the airfield and it becomes operational. [ | ]PacificThe Japanese cruiser Kuma is sunk by the British submarine HMS Tally Ho. By 1944, Allied submarines are tightening the stranglehold on Japanese shipping travelling to and from the mainland. On January 8 alone, a US Navy communiqué states that US submarines have sunk 10 Japanese vessels, including an oil tanker. [ | ]Soviet Union, Home FrontMoscow announces that the Soviet-Polish border established in the 1939 Russian-German partition will remain. Russian thus reclaims permanent possession of the western Ukraine and western Byelorussia. [ | ]United States, Home FrontRoosevelt appeals to Congress for a new national service law to prevent damaging strikes and to mobilize the whole of the adult work force for war work. John W. Christie, brilliant designer of armored fighting vehicles, dies at age 87. [ | ]Images from January 11, 1944
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[January 10th - January 12th] |