January 1945

January 1, 1945 (Monday)

The Luftwaffe executed Operation Bodenplatte, an attempt to cripple Allied air forces in the Low Countries. The operation was a tactical German success but failed in its aim of achieving air superiority.

The Battle of the Oder–Neisse began on the Eastern Front.

Chenogne massacre: American soldiers retaliated for the Malmedy massacre by killing German prisoners of war near the village of Chenogne, Belgium.

Britain refused to recognize the Polish Committee of National Liberation.

German radio broadcast a New Year's Day address by Adolf Hitler. The 26-minute speech offered no information on the battlefield situation or any hint that the war was nearing its end, only a declaration that the war would continue until victory was won. The foreign media speculated as to whether the speech was live or pre-recorded, and even whether it was Hitler's voice at all.

January 2, 1945 (Tuesday)

RAF bombers conducted heavy raids on Nuremberg and Ludwigshafen; in both cities over 2,300 tons of bombs were dropped. Some ninety percent of Nuremberg's old medieval town center was destroyed.

Philippines Campaign: A U.S. bombardment fleet bound for invasion beaches on Luzon left Leyte with a force including six battleships, twelve escort carriers and thirty-nine destroyers.

Died: Bertram Ramsay, 61, British admiral (plane crash near Paris)

January 3, 1945 (Wednesday)

The Battle of Bure began as part of the Battle of the Bulge.

British forces made landings on the Burmese island of Akyab with little resistance from the Japanese.

General Nikolaos Plastiras became Prime Minister of Greece.

Born: Stephen Stills, rock musician, in Dallas, Texas

Died: Edgar Cayce, 67, American mystic

January 4, 1945 (Thursday)

The American escort carrier USS Ommaney Bay was severely damaged in the Sulu Sea by a Japanese kamikaze attack. The ship was abandoned and then scuttled by a torpedo from the destroyer USS Burns.

Allied forces captured the Burmese island of Akyab.

Geoffrey Fisher was appointed the new Archbishop of Canterbury to succeed the late William Temple.

Born: Richard R. Schrock, chemist and Nobel laureate, in Berne, Indiana

January 5, 1945 (Friday)

The Battle of Bure ended in Allied victory.

The first mission of Operation Cornflakes was carried out, when a mail train to Linz was bombed and then bags containing false, but properly addressed, propaganda letters were dropped at the site of the wreck so they would be picked up and delivered to Germans by the postal service.

Died: Ala Gertner, 32, Polish woman hanged at Auschwitz concentration camp for her role in the Sonderkommando revolt of October 1944; Julius Leber, 53, German politician (executed by the Nazis at Plötzensee Prison)

January 6, 1945 (Saturday)

Japanese kamikaze attacks against American ships in the Lingayen Gulf region damaged the battleships USS New Mexico and California, two cruisers and four destroyers.

The British destroyer Walpole struck a mine in the North Sea and was rendered a constructive total loss.

Turkey severed diplomatic relations with Japan.

British Field Marshal Harold Alexander arrived in Athens as the Dekemvriana clashes continued.

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered the State of the Union message. For the one and only time during his presidency, Roosevelt did not deliver the message as a speech before a joint session of Congress. Rather, he delivered it to Congress as a written message and recited a summary of the speech over the radio. The message concluded: "1945 can and must see the substantial beginning of the organization of world peace. This organization must be the fulfillment of the promise for which men have fought and died in this war. It must be the justification of all the sacrifices that have been made-of all the dreadful misery that this world has endured. We Americans of today, together with our Allies, are making history-and I hope it will be better history than ever has been made before. We pray that we may be worthy of the unlimited opportunities that God has given us."

Died: Herbert Lumsden, 47, British lieutenant general (killed by a kamikaze attack on the bridge of the battleship New Mexico during the bombardment of Luzon); Vladimir Vernadsky, 81, Russian/Ukrainian mineralohist and geochemist

January 7, 1945 (Sunday)

RAF Bomber Command sent 654 aircraft to raid Munich overnight.

Born: Shulamith Firestone, feminist writer, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (d. 2012)

Died: Theodore E. Chandler, 50, American rear admiral (died from wounds sustained in the Japanese kamikaze attack of the previous day); Thomas McGuire, 24, U.S. Army major and posthumous recipient of the Medal of Honor (killed in action in the Philippines)

January 8, 1945 (Monday)

Parliamentary elections in Egypt were won by a coalition led by Ahmad Mahir Pasha.

U.S. Technical Sergeant Russell E. Dunham earned the Medal of Honor near Kaysenberg, France when he single-handedly eliminated three German machine gun nests.

January 9, 1945 (Tuesday)

The Battle of Bessang Pass began north of Manila.

The first in a series of American landings at Luzon codenamed Operation Mike was carried out.

German submarine U-679 was depth charged and sunk in the Baltic Sea by the Soviet guard ship MO-124.

Died: Dennis O'Neill, 12, Welsh boy whose death at the hands of his foster parents led to reform of the British foster care system; Jüri Uluots, 54, Prime Minister of Estonia

January 10, 1945 (Wednesday)

The British Fourteenth Army captured Gangaw, Burma.

Born: Gunther von Hagens, anatomist, in Skalmierzyce, Poland; Jennifer Moss, actress and singer, in Wigan, Lancashire, England (d. 2006); Rod Stewart, singer, in Highgate, North London, England

January 11, 1945 (Thursday)

The series of events in Athens known as Dekemvriana ended in victory for the British Army and government of Greece.

The British escort carrier HMS Thane was torpedoed and damaged in the Irish Sea by U-1172 and declared a constructive total loss.

Born: Christine Kaufmann, actress, author and businesswoman, in Lengdorf, Styria, Austria

January 12, 1945 (Friday)

The 1st Ukrainian Front began the Sandomierz–Silesian Offensive.

The Red Army began the Vistula–Oder Offensive.

U.S. warplanes attacked the Japanese naval base at Cam Ranh Bay and sank 40 ships. They also sank most of the ships in a Japanese convoy from Qui Nhơn, including the cruiser Kashii.

January 13, 1945 (Saturday)

The Red Army began the East Prussian Offensive.

The Mikawa earthquake killed over 2,000 people in Japan.

Operation Woodlark: Members of Norwegian Independent Company 1 blew up a railway bridge in Snåsa, Norway. A military troop train unaware of the sabotage derailed and crashed into the river below, killing 70 to 80 people. It remains the most deadly railway accident in the history of Norway.

Adolf Galland was relieved of his command in the Luftwaffe for his role in the Fighter Pilots' Revolt, which protested against the incompetence of the German High Command in squandering limited resources on missions like Operation Bodenplatte.

Died: Wilhelm Franken, 30, and Siegfried Lüdden, 28, German U-boat commanders, killed in a fire aboard the accommodation ship Daressalem in Kiel harbour

January 14, 1945 (Sunday)

The Battle of Ramree Island began off Burma.

The British Second Army began Operation Blackcock with the objective of clearing German troops from the Roer triangle formed by the Dutch towns of Roermond and Sittard and the German town of Heinsberg.

A Heinkel He 111 of the Luftwaffe carried out the last air launching of a V-1 flying bomb, which landed in Yorkshire.

Adolf Hitler granted Gerd von Runstedt permission to carry out a fairly drastic retreat in the Ardennes region. Houffalize and the Bastogne front would be abandoned.

The Twin Star Rocket passenger train was introduced in the United States.

Born: Einar Hákonarson, painter, in Reykjavík, Iceland

Died: Heinz-Gerhard Vogt, 33, German Luftwaffe fighter ace (shot down near Cologne)

January 15, 1945 (Monday)

In Poland, the 1st Ukrainian Front took Kielce while the 2nd Belorussian Front crossed the Pilica in Poland and attacked toward Radom, Łódź and Posen.

British escort carrier HMS Thane was torpedoed in the Irish Sea by German submarine U-1172 and rendered a constructive total loss.

Adolf Hitler held a last meeting with Runstedt and Walter Model at the Adlerhorst, instructing them to hold the Western Allies at bay for as long as possible. He then boarded a train, never to visit the Western Front again.

Born: Vince Foster, Deputy White House Counsel, in Hope, Arkansas (d. 1993); Princess Michael of Kent (Marie Christine Anna Agnes Hedwig Ida), in Carlsbad, Sudetenland

January 16, 1945 (Tuesday)

Hitler returned to Berlin, where he would spend much of the remainder of his life in the Reich Chancellery and Führerbunker.

The Soviet 1st Belorussian Front captured Radom, Poland.

German submarine U-248 was depth charged and sunk by U.S. destroyer escorts north of the Azores.

Billy Amato was born in Pelham Manor, New York.

January 17, 1945 (Wednesday)

The Soviet 1st Belorussian Front captured Warsaw.

Angry at the abandonment of Fortress Warsaw, Hitler sacked generals Smilo Freiherr von Lüttwitz and Walter Fries.

The Battle of Tsimba Ridge began between Australian and Japanese forces in the northern sector of Bougainville Island.

Swedish architect, businessman, diplomat and humanitarian Raoul Wallenberg disappeared after being detained by Soviet authorities during the Siege of Budapest to answer charges of being engaged in espionage. Wallenberg is presumed to have died in a Moscow prison cell on July 17, 1947 although conflicting accounts exist.

January 18, 1945 (Thursday)

The Soviet-controlled Polish Committee of National Liberation moved from Lublin to Warsaw.

The Germans ordered the evacuation of the remaining 58,000 inmates of Auschwitz concentration camp ahead of the advancing Soviets. Some were deported by rail while others were forced to march in freezing temperatures.

January 19, 1945 (Friday)

The 1st Ukrainian Front captured Łódź and Kraków while the 2nd Belorussian Front took Mława and Włocławek and the 1st Baltic Front captured Tilsit.

With German troops mostly driven out of Poland, Home Army commander Leopold Okulicki ordered his forces to disband.

Martin Bormann and Eva Braun arrived at the Führerbunker.

The British submarine HMS Porpoise was sunk off Penang, Malaya by Japanese aircraft.

Died: Petar Bojović, 86, Serbian military commander (beaten to death by partisans); Gustave Mesny, 58, French Army general (executed by the Nazis)

January 20, 1945 (Saturday)

The fourth inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt was held in Washington, D.C on the South Portico of the White House.

The German Evacuation of East Prussia began.

The 4th Ukrainian Front advancing through Slovakia took Prešov.

Chinese forces captured Muse, Burma.

Born: Robert Olen Butler, author, in Granite City, Illinois

January 21, 1945 (Sunday)

Hungary declared war on Germany.

The 3rd Belorussian Front captured Gumbinnen, while the 1st Belorussian Front crossed the Warthen and approached Poznań.

The Germans began demolishing key structures of the Tannenberg Memorial ahead of the Soviet advance.

Hitler ordered that every commanding officer from division level upward was required to notify him of all planned movements so he could override them if he saw fit.

German submarine German submarine U-1199 was depth charged and sunk off the Isles of Scilly by British warships.

Died: Archibald Murray, 84, British Army officer

January 22, 1945 (Monday)

In Burma, the British IV Corps took Htilin and the Battle of Hill 170 began.

Four squadrons of RAF Spitfires destroyed a factory in Alblasserdam that manufactured liquid oxygen for German rockets.

Died: Else Lasker-Schüler, 75, German-Jewish poet

January 23, 1945 (Tuesday)

The First United States Army captured St. Vith, the last German stronghold in the Ardennes "bulge".

The 1st Ukrainian Front reached the Oder around Oppeln and Steinau.

The 20th Indian Division in Burma took Myinmu.

Died: Helmuth James Graf von Moltke, 37, German jurist (executed for anti-Nazi activities); Newton E. Mason, 94, American admiral

January 24, 1945 (Wednesday)

The Battle of Poznań began for the German-occupied stronghold city of Poznań in Poland.

Hitler appointed Heinrich Himmler as commander of the newly created Army Group Vistula, despite Himmler's lack of military expertise.

Japanese destroyer Shigure was torpedoed and sunk in the Gulf of Siam by American submarine USS Blackfin.

January 25, 1945 (Thursday)

The Battle of the Bulge ended in Allied victory.

The Germans blew up and abandoned the Wolf's Lair ahead of the advancing Soviets.

Born: Leigh Taylor-Young, actress, in Washington, D.C.

January 26, 1945 (Friday)

The Battle for the Kapelsche Veer began in the Netherlands.

The battle of the Heiligenbeil Pocket began on the Eastern Front.

The Przyszowice massacre began in Upper Silesia. Between this day and January 28, soldiers of the Red Army killed between 54 and 69 civilian inhabitants of the Polish village of Przyszowice. The reason for the massacre remains unknown.

American Lt. Audie Murphy earned the Medal of Honor near Holtzwihr, France when he saved his company from potential encirclement by climbing onto a burning U.S. tank destroyer and single-handedly killing or wounding 50 Germans with its .50 caliber machine gun until its ammunition was exhausted. Despite taking a leg wound Murphy made his way back to his company and organized a counterattack that forced the Germans to withdraw.

British frigate HMS Manners was torpedoed and broken in two in the Irish Sea by German submarine U-1051, which was then sunk in turn by depth charges from Royal Navy frigates.

The war film Objective, Burma! starring Errol Flynn premiered in New York City.

Born: Jacqueline du Pré, cellist, in Oxford, England (d. 1987)

January 27, 1945 (Saturday)

Auschwitz concentration camp, with its last 7,500 inmates still present, was liberated by Soviet forces.

Operation Blackcock ended in British victory.

The Ledo Road linking India to China was finally cleared of Japanese forces when Chinese troops linked up near Mong-Yu.

German submarine U-1172 was depth charged and sunk in St. George's Channel by British warships.

Born: Harold Cardinal, Cree writer and political leader, in High Prairie, Alberta, Canada (d. 2005)

January 28, 1945 (Sunday)

Action of 28 January 1945: An inconclusive naval engagement was fought between two British light cruisers and three German destroyers near Bergen, Norway.

The Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front captured Katowice and Leszno.

Born: Chuck Pyle, country-folk musician, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (d. 2015)

Died: Roza Shanina, 20, Soviet sniper with 59 confirmed kills (died in East Prussia of a chest wound sustained the previous day from a shell fragment)

January 29, 1945 (Monday)

Battle of Königsberg: The Soviet 3rd Belorussian Front attacked into the city of Königsberg.

Erich von Manstein was snubbed when he attempted to meet with Hitler.

German submarine U-763 was scuttled in the Schichau-Werke shipyard in Königsberg after taking damage in a Soviet air raid.

Born: Jim Nicholson, politician, in Armagh, Northern Ireland; Tom Selleck, actor, in Detroit, Michigan

January 30, 1945 (Tuesday)

While evacuating German civilians, Nazi officials and military personnel from Gdynia, the German military transport ship Wilhelm Gustloff was torpedoed and sunk by the Soviet submarine S-13. 9,400 people died, making it the largest loss of life in a single ship sinking in history.

On the twelfth anniversary of the Nazis coming to power, a speech by Adolf Hitler was broadcast wearily appealing once again for the German people to keep up a spirit of resistance. It was the last speech Hitler ever made.

The Second Battle of Kesternich began just inside the German border with Belgium.

U.S. and Filipino forces conducted the Raid at Cabanatuan and liberated more than 552 Allied prisoners of war from a camp near Cabanatuan.

Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester became Governor-General of Australia.

In Italy, the Ivanoe Bonomi government issued a decree granting women the right to vote. The Mussolini regime had granted women the right to vote in 1925, but only at local levels.

President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met at Malta for discussions preparatory to next week's Yalta Conference.

The German historical film Kolberg premiered in Berlin. The film, telling the story of the Prussian city of Kolberg successfully holding out against a siege by the French during the Napoleonic Wars, was intended as Nazi propaganda to encourage the German population to continue the fight against the Allies.

Born: Michael Dorris, novelist and scholar, in Louisville, Kentucky (d. 1997)

Died: William Goodenough, 77, British admiral

January 31, 1945 (Wednesday)

The Battle for the Kapelsche Veer ended in Allied victory.

The Battle of Hill 170 ended in British Indian victory.

Born: Joseph Kosuth, conceptual artist, in Toledo, Ohio

Died: Eddie Slovik, 24, U.S. Army private and the only American soldier to be court-martialled and executed for desertion since the American Civil War