Air Operations, CBI

• 12 10th Air Force B-25s attack the airfields at Aungban and Hsumhsai.
• 55 10th Air Force P-47s and 459th Fighter Squadron P-38s attack troops, stores, and motor vehicles at 7 locations.
• 34 P-47s support Allied ground forces near Namhkam and along the Irrawaddy River.

• 40 14th Air Force P-40s and P-51s attack numerous targets throughout northern and southern China.

Air Operations, Japan

• Only 28 of 73 73rd Very Heavy Bomb Wing B-29s dispatched are able to attack an aircraft-engine factory at Nagoya through heavy clouds. 27 B-29s attack secondary targets around Nagoya and 9 B-29s attack various alternates and targets of opportunity. Though many Japanese fighters intercept the bomber force.
• 1 B-29 is downed and 1 other B-29 is lost in an operational mishap.
• 4 28th Composite Bomb Group B-24s attack a cannery and other targets in the Kurile Islands.
• Japanese fighters down 1 B-24.

Air Operations, Philippines

• Task Group 77.4 TBMs and FMs support US 6th Army ground forces on Luzon.
• FEAF B-24s attack Baguio and the Silay airfield on Negros.
• B-24s and V Bomber Command A-20s attack Corregidor Island.
• A-20s attack the Aparri airfield on Luzon.
• V Fighter Command fighter-bombers attack Camp John Hay, artillery positions, a bridge, and luggers.
• In one continuous sweep, 16 345th Medium Bomb Group B-25s and 36 312th Light Bomb Group A-20s bomb and strafe all signs of Japanese Army ground activity, stores, road targets, and fortifications in and around San Jose, San Nicolas, and Floridablanca, Luzon.

Air Operations, Volcano Islands

• 12 VII Bomber Command B-24s attack Iwo Jima.
• During the night, 10 VII Bomber Command B-24s conduct snooper raids against Iwo Jima.

Burma

Myinmu is taken by 20th Indian Div. This division, and the other XXXIII Corps units which have crossed the Irrawaddy north of Mandalay, are attracting important Japanese counterattacks because of Japanese fears of a threat to Mandalay. This is exactly what Gen William Slim, commanding 14th Army, has hoped for while IV Corps prepares the real advance farther south.

Eastern Front

In East Prussia, in the northeastern sector, the 3rd Belorussian Front captures Wehlau, between Insterburg and Königsberg. The 2nd Belorussian Front advances toward Elbing (Elblag) and the Gulf of Danzig, while in northern Poland it occupies the towns of Brodnica and Lipno. The German forces in the eastern province are now cut into 3 parts.

In Poland the 1st Belorussian Front continues its battle for the fortified town of Bromberg (Bydgoszcz) and occupies Kalisz, while the 1st Ukraine Front reaches the Oder-Neisse line near Breslau (Wroclaw) on a front of 40 miles.

In Hungary, a powerful counterattack by the Germans to re-take the Danube line forces the Russians out of Székesfehérvár. North of Miskolc, the 2nd Ukraine Front reopens the offensive northward and, with assistance from the Rumanian 4th Army, captures a number of places in Slovakia.

The tenacity with which the Germans are fighting in Hungary is due to the oil deposits in the west of the country which are indispensable to the Wehrmacht.

The 5th Guards Tank Army is driving toward Elbing on the Baltic, thus threatening to cut off Wehrmacht forces in East Prussia.

The Kriegsmarine begins the evacuation of thousands of civilian refugees from East Prussia and the Danzig area.

The Soviet 21st Army reaches the Oder near Oppeln, and the 13th Army engages in heavy combat at Steinau as it struggles to create a bridgehead.

The IV SS Panzer Corps' attack is being contained by the 3rd Ukrainian Front. The Soviet Romanian 4th ane 40th Armies (2nd Ukrainian Front) launch and assault against the German 8th Army along the Slovak-Hungarian border.[MORE]

France, Home Front

Charles Maurras, editor of the Royalist and anti-Semitic Action Française, is on trial at Lyons for collaboration. He will get life imprisonment on January 27.

Germany, Home Front

Count Helmuth von Moltke-Kreisau, leader of the 'Kreisau Circle', a pacifist organization, is executed.

Pacific

The Japanese submarine I-48 is sunk by the combined efforts of the US destroyer escorts Corbesier (DE-438), Conklin (DE-439) and Raby (DE-698) off Yap Island in the Carolines.

Philippines

On Luzon in the US XIV Corps sector, infantry of the 40th Div overcome scattered Japanese resistance and occupy the town and airfield of Bamban, south of Tarlac, and cross the Bamban River not far from the big Clark Airfield. There is fierce fighting in the US I Corps area, east of the beachhead.

Western Front

In the American 1st Army sector, St Vith is captured by the 7th Arm Div, XVIII Airborne Corps. Further south, where the corps of the US 3rd Army are operating, Biwisch, Basbellain, Biensfeld and Fuhren are reached. Wasserbillig, a town at the confluence of the Saur and Moselle Rivers, is occupied by the 346th Regt of the US 87th Div, XII Corps.

In the southern sector of the front, the 1st Moroccan Div, II Corps, French 1st Army, crosses the Ill River between Illhäusern and Illwald.

German forces regain control of Berg on the Rhine in a powerful armor-infantry counterattack.

Images from January 23, 1945

M36 Tank Destroyer (90 mm), near St. Vith, Belgium, 23 January 1945.

M36 Tank Destroyer

Infantrymen of 'D' Company, Régiment de Maisonneuve, firing a two-inch mortar, Cuyk, Netherlands, 23 January 1945

Mortar Fire in the Netherlands

A column of German prisoners of war in Warsaw, January 1945

German POWs in Warsaw

Division of Soviet sappers walking down the street burning the German city of Insterburg (Insterburg) in East Prussia. 3rd Belorussian Front. The city of Insterburg (now – Chernyahovsk Kaliningrad region of Russia) was captured by Soviet troops on 21-22 January 1945

Soviet Troops in East Prussia

German soldiers battle the advancing Soviet forces in the coal mines near the town of Gleiwitz in Upper Silesia, Germany (now Gliwice, Poland). 23 January 1945

Battle in Upper Silesia

American forces recapture the town of St. Vith, the last major city in the Ardennes, 23 January 1945

Americans Recapture St. Vith

SGT William Phelps of the 42nd Tank Battalion, 11th Armored Division, mends his clothes in front of his M4 Sherman tank, during the Battle of the Bulge, 23 January 1945

Mending Clothes

Infantrymen of the Company 'E', 2nd Battalion, 30th Division, at the outskirts of Sart-lez-Spa - Sankt-Vith, during their advance on Sankt-Vith, 23 January 1945.

Advance on St. Vith