Remembering History by day WW2

[Peter Clare]

23 January 1942

RAF reconnaissance aircraft locate the battleship Tirpitz in Aasfjord, near Trondheim.

Japanese troops occupied Rabaul, New Britain, and Kavieng, New Ireland.

[Bodston]

Wednesday 24 January 1940

Dutch Defensive Installations
Amsterdam; The Dutch news agency Algemeen Nederlandsch Persbureau (ANP) announced:
Dutch defensive installations are of modern design and strongly fortified. Thus during an attack the army would not have to fight in the open field, but could hold defensive lines capable of intercepting the enemy. Both fronts are protected by watercourses and floodplains. Ditches up to 1,500 feet wide have been dug and filled with water as tank obstacles. In addition, the terrain has been studded with countless minefields, machine gun nests, etc. Especially important is the fact that the defences are not visable from the outside.

[Bodston]

Wednesday 24 January 1945

Wood and Cardboard Mines
Mulhouse(France); The American United Press News Agency reported:
The French First Army has been given the task of clearing large quantities of land mines out of the Mulhouse area which has just been occupied by the Allies. The French have been struck by the fact that the Germans - due no doubt to their shortage of iron - did not lay down any steel mines but only mines encased in glass, cardboard, wood or any other substitute materials.

[Peter Clare]

January 24, 1943
Von Paulus to Hitler: Let us surrender!

On this day, German Gen. Friedrich von Paulus, commander in chief of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad, urgently requests permission from Adolf Hitler to surrender his position there, but Hitler refuses.
The Battle of Stalingrad began in the summer of 1942, as German forces assaulted the city, a major industrial center and a prized strategic coup. But despite repeated attempts and having pushed the Soviets almost to the Volga River in mid-October and encircling Stalingrad, the 6th Army, under Paulus, and part of the 4th Panzer Army could not break past the adamantine defense of the Soviet 62nd Army.
Diminishing resources, partisan guerilla attacks, and the cruelty of the Russian winter began to take their toll on the Germans. On November 19, the Soviets made their move, launching a counteroffensive that began with a massive artillery bombardment of the German position. The Soviets then assaulted the weakest link in the German force-inexperienced Romanian troops. Sixty-five thousand were ultimately taken prisoner by the Soviets.
The Soviets then made a bold strategic move, encircling the enemy, and launching pincer movements from north and south simultaneously, even as the Germans encircled Stalingrad. The Germans should have withdrawn, but Hitler wouldn't allow it. He wanted his armies to hold out until they could be reinforced. By the time those fresh troops arrived in December, it was too late. The Soviet position was too strong, and the Germans were exhausted.
By January 24, the Soviets had overrun Paulus' last airfield. His position was untenable and surrender was the only hope for survival. Hitler wouldn't hear of it: "The 6th Army will hold its positions to the last man and the last round." Paulus held out until January 31, when he finally surrendered. Of more than 280,000 men under Paulus' command, half were already dead or dying, about 35,000 had been evacuated from the front, and the remaining 91,000 were hauled off to Soviet POW camps. Paulus eventually sold out to the Soviets altogether, joining the National Committee for Free Germany and urging German troops to surrender. Testifying at Nuremberg for the Soviets, he was released and spent the rest of his life in East Germany.

[Peter Clare]

24 January 1945.

Avengers and Fireflies from the carriers Indomitable, Illustrious, Indefatigable and Victorious attacked the Pladjoe oil refinery and airfield around Palembang.

U 763 was sunk by Russian aircraft at Konigsberg.

[Peter Clare]

24 January 1944.

Off the Anzio beach-head the hospital carrier St. David, fully illuminated, was hit by a radio-controlled bomb and sank with the loss of nearly 60 on board.

[Bodston]

Sunday 25 January 1942

Winston Churchill to General Auchinleck
I am much disturbed by the report from the Eighth Army, which speaks of evacuation of Bengazi and Derna. I had certainly never been led to suppose that such a situation could arise. . . . Has our fresh armour been unable to compete with the resuscitated German tanks? It seems to me this is a serious crisis, and one to me quite unexpected. Why should they (i.e. our tanks) all be off so quickly?

[Bodston]

Tuesday 25 January 1944

Winston Churchill to Dominions Secretary
It is to my mind very unwise to make plans on the basis of Hitler being defeated in 1944. The possibility of his gaining a victory in France cannot be excluded. The hazards of battle are very great. The reserves of the enemy are capable of being thrown from point to point with great facility. All my information from the interior of Germany goes to show that Hitler and his Government are still in the fullest control, and that there is no sign of revolt as a result of the bombings. In all our contacts with the German troops, such as we see in Italy, their quality, discipline, and skill are apparent.

[Peter Clare]

January 25, 1942
Thailand declares war on the United States and England

On this day, Thailand, a Japanese puppet state, declares war on the Allies.
When war broke out in Europe in September 1939, Thailand declared its neutrality, much to the distress of France and England. Both European nations had colonies surrounding Thailand and hoped Thailand would support the Allied effort and prevent Japanese encroachment on their Pacific territory. But Thailand began moving in the opposite direction, creating a "friendship" with Japan and adding to its school textbooks a futuristic map of Thailand with a "Greater Thailand" encroaching on Chinese territory.
Thailand's first real conflict with the Allies came after the fall of France to the Germans and the creation of the puppet government at Vichy. Thailand saw this as an opportunity to redraw the borders of French Indochina. The Vichy government refused to accommodate the Thais, so Thai troops crossed into French Indochina and battled French troops. Japan interceded in the conflict on the side of the Thais, and used its political alliance with Germany to force Vichy France to cede 21,000 square miles to Thailand.
On December 8, 1941, the Japanese made an amphibious landing on the coast of Thailand, part of the comprehensive sweep of South Pacific islands that followed the bombing raid at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The Japanese had assistance, though: Thailand's prime minister, Lang Pipul, collaborated with the Japanese, embracing the Axis power's war goal of usurping territory in China and ruling over the South Pacific. Pipul wanted to partake in the spoils; toward that end, he declared war on the United States and England. In October, he took dictatorial control of Thailand and became a loyal puppet of the Japanese.

[Peter Clare]

BRUNO HEINEMANN (January 25, 1942)
German destroyer commissioned on January 8, 1938. Conducted mining operations in the North sea off Newcastle. On this occasion she carried around 60 sea mines which later sank eleven merchant ships. She took part in the invasion of Norway, landing her embarked troops at Trondheim. On January 25, 1942, while en route to a French port, the Bruno Heinemann hit two mines in the Straits of Dover and sank with the loss of 93 lives.