Air Operations, Bismarcks

• 18 VMTB-143 and VC-40 TBFs, escorted by 84 AirSols fighters, attack ships in Simpson Harbor, and 5 merchant vessels are confirmed sunk. As a result of this attack, the Japanese cease concentrating large numbers of merchant ships at Rabaul.
• 347th Fighter Group P-38s down 4 A6M Zeros in the Rabaul area at 1220 hours. VMF-211, VMF-215, and VMF-321 F4Us, VF-38 F6Fs, and a VMTB-143 TBF crew down 18 Zeros and Ki-61 'Tony' fighters in the Rabaul area between 1220 and 1235 hours.

Air Operations, CBI

• 341st Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack numerous vessels while conducting anti-shipping sweeps off China.

Air Operations, Marshalls

• 24 531st Fighter-Bomber Squadron A-24s, 12 VII Fighter Command P-39s, and 7 45th Fighter Squadron P-40s attack barracks, artillery batteries, and storage dumps in the Mille Atoll. 8 41st Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack the airfield on Wotje during the late afternoon.
• During the night, 12 VII Bomber Command B-24s and 9 41st Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack the Maloelap Atoll while 1 B-24 attacks the Mille Atoll.

Air Operations, New Guinea

More than 40 V Bomber Command B-24s attack the airfield at Boram and Wewak. B-25s and V Fighter Command P-47s attack Hansa Bay and Japanese Army ground troops in the Madang area. 38 345th Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack port facilities and shipping at Manus Island in the Admiralty group. Also destroyed on the ground during the Manus attack are 8 or 9 Japanese fighters, the last seen in the Admiralty Islands.

Eastern Front

In the Leningrad sector Pushkin and Pashovsk are captured and the rail line between Narva and Krasnogvardeisk cut. In the south the 1st and 2nd Ukraine Fronts begin a major offensive to encircle and eliminate the German salient around Korsun-Sevchenovsky, west of Cherkassy and the Dniepr. 5 Soviet armies, 3 of them with large tank units, move in against the German XLII and XI Corps. In this sector the Germans have 9 infantry divisions, the SS Viking Panzer Div and the SS Valonja Motor Bde, the 8th Army and the 1st Pzr Army. The attacking pincers are designed to meet at Zvenigorodka. From the south a number of German armored divisions try to penetrate the Russian lines to open a gap for the surrounded forces. A little further south, other troops of Konev's 2nd Ukraine Front mount an offensive in the Kirovograd area.

Pushkin and Pashovsk fall to the 42nd Army while the railway line to Narva is severed by the 2nd Shock Army.

The Soviet Korsun-Cherkassy Offensive begins against the German Cherkassy salient (held by XLII Corps). The XLII Corps still holds a small section of the west bank of the Dniepr despite the retreat of the 1st and 4th Panzer Armies and is therefore in a very vulnerable position. The corps is assaulted by the 1st Ukrainian Front's 27th Army, while the 2nd Ukrainian Front's 4th Guards, 52nd and 53rd Armies attack the German XI Corps.

The XLII Corps is attacke by the 27th Army (1st Ukrainian Front), while the 2nd Ukrainian Front throws its 4th Guards, 52nd and 53rd Armies against the XI Corps. Despite fierce resistance the German line begins to crack near Shpola.

Italy

The slow expansion of the Anzio beachhead continues. The line is advanced to the left towards the Moletta River with Gen Penney's British 1st Div, and to the right, where the US 3rd Div reaches the Mussolini Canal.

On the 'Gustav' Line the French Corps attack Monte Santa Croce while units of II US Corps attack over the Rapido toward Caira, a little to the south. The Germans counterattack in the southern sector, driving back the divisions of the British X Corps back and recapturing Castelforte and Monte Rotondo, but suffering heavy losses. Further north, during the night, the American 34th Div opens its attack on the Rapido River to secure a bridgehead over the river north of Cassion.

An Order of the Day from Hitler instructs German troops to hold the 'Gustav' Line at all costs.

Mediterranean

Three US ships are damaged in the ongoing Anzio operation: the destroyer Plunkett (DD-431) by a dive bomber; the destroyer Mayo (DD-422) by an external explosion; and the minesweeper Prevail (AM-107) by a horizontal bomber.

Images from January 24, 1944

B-17G ‘Hang the Expense III’ pictured after being hit by flak over Frankfurt on 24 January 1944. The explosion blew the tail gunner, S/Sgt Roy Urich, out of the B-17. He survived, unhurt: other crews recall seeing him falling through formations of B-17s still sitting on his seat

B-17G Showing Flak Damage

24 January 1944 - Raising a Flag in Leningrad

An Albion lorry and Sexton 25pdr self-propelled gun come ashore at Anzio, January 1944. A DUKW is alongside the jetty.

Unloading at Anzio