January 1944

January

• 03

  • Gregory Boyington shot downOn 3 January 1944 Major Gregory Boyington, leader of the “Black Sheep”, was shot down over Rabaul. Saved by a Japanese submarine, he survived the war as a POW.
• 04

  • Key eventThe Red Army crosses the pre-war Polish borderOn the night of 3–4 January 1944 troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front crossed the pre-war Polish border near Rokitno in Volhynia.
• 09

  • The British take MaungdawOn 9 January 1944 the 5th Indian Division took Maungdaw, a small port on the Naf – the first gain of the second Arakan offensive, before Japan's Ha-Go attack.
• 11

  • The execution of CianoOn 11 January 1944 Galeazzo Ciano, De Bono and three other Fascist leaders, sentenced by a Salò court for voting against Mussolini, were shot in Verona.
• 12

  • The launch of United VictoryOn 12 January 1944 United Victory, the first Victory ship and a faster successor to the Liberty ships, was launched in Portland. 534 were built.
• 16

  • Eisenhower in LondonOn 16 January 1944 General Eisenhower, newly arrived in London, took command of US forces in Europe (ETOUSA) while building SHAEF, the invasion staff.
• 17

  • Key eventThe Battle of Monte Cassino beginsOn 17 January 1944 British X Corps crossed the lower Garigliano at the western end of the Gustav Line. The first Battle of Monte Cassino had begun.
• 19

  • The Leningrad–Novgorod offensiveOn 19 January 1944 the Red Army took Ropsha and Krasnoye Selo near Leningrad, and Novgorod the next day. The German 18th Army began retreating west.
  • Operation Outward in SwedenOn the night of 19–20 January 1944 two trains collided at Laholm in Sweden. A British balloon from Operation Outward contributed to the accident.
• 20

  • The raid on Berlin of 20 JanuaryOn the night of 20–21 January 1944 the RAF sent 769 bombers to Berlin. They reportedly dropped about 2,300 tons of bombs; 35 aircraft were lost.
  • The bloody Rapido River crossingOn 20–22 January 1944 the US 36th Infantry Division tried to cross the Gari near Sant'Angelo. It lost about 1,700 men and failed to win a bridgehead.
• 22

  • Key eventThe landing at AnzioOn 22 January 1944 General Lucas's VI Corps landed at Anzio and Nettuno, close to Rome. Surprise was complete, but the Germans soon ringed the beachhead.
• 24

  • The Belgian social pactIn occupied Belgium trade unionists, industrialists and officials secretly agreed a “social pact” – an outline of the post-war social security system.
  • Burdenko CommissionOn 24 January 1944 the Burdenko Commission signed a communiqué blaming the Katyn massacre on the Germans. It rested on evidence forged by the NKVD.
• 27

  • Key eventThe end of the siege of LeningradOn 27 January 1944 Leningrad marked the end of the siege with a salute from 324 guns. It had lasted 872 days and cost hundreds of thousands of lives.
• 28

  • The Korsun pocketOn 28 January 1944 tanks of the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts met at Zvenyhorodka, trapping two German corps – some 56,000–60,000 men – near Korsun.
• 30

  • The Homfreyganj massacreOn 30 January 1944 the Japanese shot 44 Indians accused of espionage at Homfreyganj in the Andamans, most of them Indian Independence League activists.
  • The Battle of CisternaOn 30 January 1944 two Ranger battalions were ambushed near Cisterna. Of 767 men, six returned, and the attack from the Anzio beachhead stalled.
  • The Brazzaville ConferenceOn 30 January 1944 de Gaulle opened a conference on the future of French Africa at Brazzaville. It promised reform but rejected even distant self-government.
• 31

  • The landing on KwajaleinOn 31 January 1944, after three days of air strikes and shelling, the Americans launched Operation Flintlock: they took Majuro and islets of Kwajalein atoll.