Air Operations, Bismarcks

• 2 V Fighter Command P-39 fighter-bombers attack barges around Cape Raoult.
• During the night, XIII Bomber Command B-24s organized into two waves attack Rabaul and the Vunakanau airfield there.

Air Operations, CBI

• 26 10th Air Force A-36s and P-51s attack road targets, and 4 P-40s attack an occupied town.

• 2 341st Medium Bomb Group B-25s and 14 14th Air Force P-40s attack a barracks at Mon Kay.

• 16 7th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack a rail station in Bangkok.

Air Operations, East Indies

380th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack Halong (Celebes) and Amboina Island.

Air Operations, Europe

Wing-Cmdr Lance Wade, American-born RAF fighter 'ace' with 25 victories, is killed in a flying accident over Italy. He was 28.

• XII Bomber Command B-25s attack the Rieti Airdrome.
• XIi Bomber Command B-26s attack the Viterbo Airdrome.
• XII Air Support Command A-36s attack troop positions and rail and communications targets along the US 5th Army battlefront at the Garigliano River.
• XII Air Support Command P-40s attack German Army troop positions and defended villages in the battle area.

• XII Air Support Command P-40s attack two schooners at Makarska.

• 15th Air Force B-17s and B-24s attack three airdromes around Rome.

Air Operations, Marshalls

• 17 41st Medium Bomb Group B-25s mount a low-level attack against the Mille Atoll. 2 B-25s are lost.
• During the night, 13 VII Bomber Command B-24s pass through Hawkins Field, Betio to attack the Wotje Atoll.

Air Operations, New Guinea

57 V Bomber Command B-24s attack Boram, 2 B-24s attack a freighter at Aitape, and 65 V Bomber Command B-25s join RAAF bombers in supporting Australian Army ground troops clearing Shaggy Ridge.

Battle of the Atlantic

U-641 is ;sunk in a Hedgehog attack by the British corvette Violet near the convoy OS-65.

U-641

Britain, Home Front

In a speech to the House of Commons Eden warns the Spanish government against continued aid to Germany by maintaining Spanish troops on the Russian front.

CBI

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek threatens to discontinue providing housing and food to American forces in China unless he receives $1 billion in loans by March 1.

Eastern Front

The troops of the Leningrad Front take Krasnoye Selo, Popsha and Peterhof, linking the sectors of 42nd Army and 2nd Shock Army. The advance units of the 2 armies join up at Russko-Vysotskoye, a place southwest of Krasnoye Selo and Leningrad, thus cutting off the Germans from the Gulf of Finland. A hundred miles farther south the troops of the Volkhov Front make further encircling advances near Novgorod.

The 2nd Shock and 42nd Armies link up at Ropsha. A small part of the LIV Corps is encirled at Peterhof and quickly destroyed. However, large amounts of the German siege arty are captured as Ropsha and Strelna fall, the siege of Leningrad finally being broken for good. The 42nd Army also takes Krasnoye Selo and the heights of Voronya Gora. The 1st Corps loses a division in Novgorod as the advancing 59th Army encircles the town.

Italy

The British 5th and 56th Divs further widen their bridgeheads over the Garigliano. Minturno is taken by the British 5th Div in the continuing attacks by X Corps. The 56th approaches Castelforte.

New Britain

In the Cape Gloucester area American troops try to maintain contact with the Japanese as they retreat, and at the same time to extend the occupied area in the western part of the island as far as a line Borgen Bay-Itni River. Marines begin patrolling to locate the vanished enemy, setting ambushes and collection information from the natives, following trails and looking for signs of the Japanese. There are a series of short, intense, company-sized firefights with Japanese elements delaying the approache of the marines.

Images from January 19, 1944

German Prisoners of War in Italy

Crossing the River Garigliano

A Patrol Searches for Signs of the Enemy

Scanning the Jungle for Signs of the Enemy