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.
• 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 beached on Luzon left Leyte with a force including six battleships, twelve escort carriers and thirty-nine destroyers.
• Died: Bertram Ramsay, 61, British admiral

  [January 3], 1945 (Wednesday)

• In the Philippines, the Invasion of Lingayen Gulf commenced with a six-day Allied naval bombardment, which was countered with intense kamikaze attacks.
• 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, Roza Robota, Regina Safirsztajn and Ester Wajcblum were hanged at Auschwitz concentration camp for their role in the Sonderkommando revolt of 7 October 1944; Julius Leber, 53, German politician

  [January 6], 1945 (Saturday)

• Japanese kamikaze attacks against American ships in the Lingayen Gulf region damaged the battleships and, two cruisers and four destroyers.
• Turkey severed diplomatic relations with Japan.
• British Field Marshal Harold Alexander arrived in Athens as the Dekemvriana clashes continued.
• The British destroyer struck a mine in the North Sea and was rendered a constructive total loss.
• U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered the State of the Union message. For the first 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."
• Future United States President George H. W. Bush and future First Lady Barbara Bush were married.
• Died: Herbert Lumsden, 47, British lieutenant general ; Vladimir Vernadsky, 81, Russian/Ukrainian mineralogist and geochemist

  [January 7], 1945 (Sunday)

• RAF Bomber Command sent 654 aircraft to raid Munich overnight.
• Born:
• *Tony Conigliaro, baseball player, in Revere, Massachusetts
• *Shulamith Firestone, feminist writer, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
• Died: Theodore E. Chandler, 50, American rear admiral ; Thomas McGuire, 24, U.S. Army major and posthumous recipient of the Medal of Honor ; Curtis F. Shoup, 23, U.S. Army Staff Sergeant and posthumous recipient of the Medal of Honor

  [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 ; Rod Stewart, singer, in Highgate, North London, England
• Died: Pfc. Alex M. Penkala Jr., Paratrooper assigned to Company E, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. He and his comrade Warren H. "Skip" Muck were killed by German artillery fire on the outskirts of the Belgian Luxembourg town of Foy. They were taking cover in a foxhole from the artillery when a direct hit landed on them. He and his comrades had their story told by historian Stephen Ambrose in his 1992 work Band of Brothers.

  [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.
• Died: Eric Bailey GC, 38, New South Wales Police Force sergeant, was shot and killed in the line of duty. Although mortally wounded, Bailey restrained his assailant until assistance arrived. He would posthumously receive the George Cross.

  [January 13], 1945 (Saturday)

• The Mikawa earthquake killed over 2,000 people in Japan.
• The Red Army began the East Prussian Offensive.
• Operation Woodlark: Members of Norwegian Independent Company 1 blew up a railway bridge in Snåsa Municipality, 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, were 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 Rundstedt permission to carry out a fairly drastic retreat in the Ardennes region. Houffalize and the Bastogne front would be abandoned.
• Battle of Foy, part of the Battle of the Bulge ended in American victory.
• The Twin Star Rocket passenger train was introduced in the United States.
• Born: Einar Hákonarson, painter, in Reykjavík, Iceland

  [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 Rundstedt 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 ; Princess Michael of Kent, in Carlsbad, Sudetenland