Air Operations, CBI

• 12 10th Air Force B-25s attack troops and stores at Namlan.
• More than 50 10th Air Force P-47s attack troops and supplies at numerous locations.

• 14th Air Force P-51s strafe targets of opportunity along rail lines near Pinghan.

Air Operations, Europe

• 8 Mosquitos are sent to the Hansa benzol plant at Dortmund and 6 to Duisburg.
• 1 Mosquito from the Dortmund raid crashes in Holland.
• The weather starts to improve at the beginning of February and Bomber Command commences an almost unbroken period of operations of the most intense and concentrated nature which will continue until a halt is called to the strategic-bombing offensive in April. The first round of raids, however, are not very effective because of poor weather at the targets.

Air Operations, Formosa

• 90th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack airfields.
• 18th Fighter Group P-38s down a Ki-43 'Oscar' fighter and an A6M Zero over the airfield at Koshun at 1210 hours.
• 35th Fighter Group P-47s down 6 A6M Zeros near Formosa between 1516 and 1530 hours.
• During the night, 63rd Heavy Bomb Squadron SB-24s attack the Okayama airfield.

Air Operations, Pacific

B-29s sink a giant floating dock at Singapore.

Air Operations, Philippines

• XIII Bomber Command B-24s attack the Cavite naval base.
• 3rd Light Bomb Group A-20s strafe landing beaches to help cover a US Army landing force going ashore at Nasugbu, Luzon.
• Rotating flights of 4 P-38 or P-47 fighter-bombers are available throughout the day for on-call support missions, and a number of these are employed against buildings and the Batangas airfield on Luzon.
• When 12 38th Medium Bomb Group B-25s locate 3 Japanese destroyers on their way from Formosa to Luzon, 1 destroyer is sunk and the other 2 are severely damaged.

Air Operations, Volcano Islands

• 20 VII Bomber Command B-24s attack Iwo Jima.
• During the night, 9 VII Bomber Command B-24s conduct snooper raids against Iwo Jima.

Baltic

The German liner Wilhelm Gustav, which is filled with civilian refugees from East Prussia, is sunk by the Soviet submarine S13 off the Hela Peninsula. More than 7,000 peopole drown.

China

China is sliced in half as the Japanese capture Kukong (Shaokuan), the last Chinese strongpoint on the Hankow railroad.

Diplomatic Relations

The Czechoslovakian Government in London recognizes the Polish Lublin Government as the Provisional Government of Poland.

Eastern Front

In East Prussia, the Russians occupy Heilsberg (Lidzbark Warminski) and Friedland (Mieroszow), south of Königsberg. In Germany, the 1st Belorussian Front occupies Zehden on the east bank of the Oder, but for some time this is to be the nearest that the Red Army gets to Berlin. East and southeast of Zehden, several Brandenburg towns - Landsberg, Schwiebus, Miedzyrzecz and Züllichau - fall into Russian hands.

In Hungary the German garrison in Budapest holds out doggedly. The violent counterattack by the German armor north of Lake Balaton has breached the line of the 3rd Ukraine Front. The Russians have had to send huge reinforcements to plug the gap, and now they are pressing hard to restore the position.

Heilsberg and Freidland fall to the Soviets.

The 2nd Guards Tank Army is now ins Zehden, only 60 miles from Berlin. The Soviet 5th Shock and 8th Guards Armies are also on the Oder, but have been halted by resistance. A unit of the Soviet 5th Shock Army, commanded by Col Khariton Episenko, occupies Kienitz. At the railway station the station master asks Episenko if he is going to allow the Berlin train to leave. Episenko replies: 'I am sorry, station master, but that is impossible, the passenger service to Berlin will undergo a short interruption - let's say until the end of the war.'[MORE]

Germany, Command

Gordon Gollob, with 150 victories, succeeds Adolf Galland as General der Jagdflieger.

Pacific

• The US submarine chaser PC-1129 is sunk by a suicide boat in the Philippine Islands area.
• The Japanese destroyer Ume is sunk by US Army aircraft off Formosa.

Philippines

The US 6th Army, holding in reserve the 32nd Division's 126th Infantry, the 13th Armored Group (less the 44th Tank Battalion), and the 112th Cavalry RCT, begins the final phase of the attack on Manila.

In the XIV Corps area, the 129th Infantry of the 37th Division attacks toward a hill mass--called the Top of the World--about 1,300 yards from the western edge of Ft Stotsenburg and gets halfway up the forward slopes. The 138th Infantry seizes crossing sites over the Pampanga at Calumpit late in the day. The 1st Cavalry Division starts toward Manila from Guimba, employing the 5th and 8th Cavalry Regiments, each with a motorized squadron spearheading. Preceding the motorized forces, the Provisional Reconnaissance Squadron crosses the Pampanga and takes Santa Rosa, south of Cabanatuan, without opposition. On the right flank of the corps, the 40th Division is clearing the mountains west of Clark Field and Ft Stotsenburg.

In the I Corps area, the 20th Infantry of the 6th Division continues a limited attack on Munoz but is unable to take it. Patrols of the 25th Division find Umingan, the division's next objective, strongly held by the enemy.

The XI Corps, leaving the 34th RCT to hold at Olongapo and keeping the 151st RCT of the 38th Division in reserve, begins a drive across the base of the Bataan Peninsula with the 152nd and 149th Regiments of the 38th Division. The 152nd, taking Route 7, reaches the vicinity of an enemy position called Zigzag Pass, beginning about 3 miles northeast of Olongapo. The 149th moves along a trail to the north without opposition.

South of Manila Bay, the 188th Glider Infantry of the Gen Joseph Swing's 11th Airborne Division lands on the west coast of Luzon in the Nasugbu area after a naval gunfire bombardment. The unit takes Nasugbu, Wawa, and Lian and drives inland toward Tagaytay Ridge without opposition. So successful is this operation that the 187th Glider Infantry is landed at once and Gen Eichelberger asks the 5th Air Force to drop the 511th Parachute Infantry on 2 February instead of the 3rd.

A 7th Division task force finishes clearing Poro Island and prepares to return to Leyte.

The 21st Infantry moves from northeast Mindoro, where about 135 Japanese have been killed in the Pinamalayan-Calapan region, to the San Jose area. Leaving a platoon on Marinduque, D Company, 21st Infantry, returns to Mindoro.

United States, Home Front

16 war workers' children are killed in a fire at a nursery in Auburn, Maine.

Western Front

Advance guards of the US 1st and 3rd Armies meet near Widdau. While the V Corps, 1st Army, advances in Monschau forest east of Elsenborn, the XVIII Airborne Corps penetrates into Buchholz Forest, where it crosses the German frontier.

Units of the VI Corps, US 7th Army, launch an attack along the line Oberhoffen-Drusenheim.[WE]

Images from January 31, 1945

1st Infantry Division Moving toward Murrigen

Japanese Motor Column Knocked Out

Tank Supporting Infantry

Refugees Leaving Manila

SB2C-3 of Bombing Squadron Eleven (VB-11)

Canoe Approaches Landing Craft

Taking the Shores of Nasugbu Unopposed

Waiting for an Attack

US Soldiers Advancing

Searching a POW

Sherman Tanks in Schleiden