January 1945
(France)
Operation Nordwind was launched on the 1st January 1945 by the Germans to support the Battle of the Bulge. The Bulge campaign was effectively lost by the end of December 1944. The objective was to attack the American forces in northern Alsace and Lorraine and seize the port of Strasbourg to cut off U.S. supplies. After initial German success, two weeks of heavy fighting by U.S. troops from the 10th January 1945 halted the German offensive. By the 25th January 1945 with the main objective not achieved the German offensive was an operational failure.
(Belgium)
The Battle of the Bulge began on the 16th December 1944 and Bastogne had been relieved on the 27th December 1944. On the 17th December 1944 Waffen SS soldiers massacred 84 U.S. POWs near the town of Malmedy. However, on the 22nd December 1944 before the relief, the German commander demanded of the U.S. troops, the honourable surrender of Bastogne. The simple American reply was NUTS!!
When the U.S troops engaged the Germans at Chenogne, on New Year’s Day, 1st January1945, approximately 80 German POWs had been assembled in a field after they had surrendered. Machine guns had been set-up and the POWs were murdered. It is believed they were verbally ordered to take no prisoners. At the time the murders were covered up and none of the perpetrators were brought to justice.
Undoubtedly during the Battle of the Bulge war crimes were committed by both the Allied and Axis forces but the three events appear not to have been related.
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During a snowstorm and to the east of Bastogne. the British launched an offensive against the German salient on the 3rd January 1945. The objective was to join forces with U.S. General George Patton’s troops who were approaching from the south. Patton’s troops were being slowed down by German Tiger II tanks but eventually the British and U.S. Armies linked-up on the 16th January 1945. With joining of the allies the Germans were forced to retreat eastwards toward the offensive start line. An official announcement was made on the 17th January 1945 that the Battle of the Bulge had ended.
(Eastern Front)
On the Eastern Front the Red Army were forcing the Germams to retreat on a broad front. Soviet troops launched their Winter Offensive in East Prussia on the 13th/14th January 1945 and by the 20th January 1945 had made further advances. The Red Army entered Warsaw in Poland on the 17th January 1945 and by the 24th January 1945 the Battle of Poznan began. The month-long battle was fought to eliminate the Nazi German garrison in the stronghold city of Poznan in occupied Poland. By the 31st January 1945 the Red Army had crossed the Oder River into German occupied Poland. On the 28th January 1945 the Red Army had completed the occupation of Lithuania.
The “Final Solution” to the Jewish question for the German Nazi Party was the extermination of over 6 million Jews and “unclean” people in what became the Holocaust. Between 1940 and 1945, Auschwitz was a Nazi concentration and extermination camp in occupied Poland. 1.3 million people, mostly Jews, were deported to Auschwitz and over one million people were murdered. Auschwitz now symbolises the Holocaust. It was only one of many concentration/extermination camps in operation during the Nazi German occupation of Europe. When battle-hardened troops of the Red Army arrived at Auschwitz on the 27thJanuary 1945 they found approximately 7,000. Inmates still alive. Upon the liberation of Auschwitz, they were appalled by the health conditions of the survivors and the awful accommodation conditions. During November 1944 German Deputy Fuhrer Heinrich Himmler ordered the SS to halt the murders in the gas chambers. The crematoria and gas chambers were to be destroyed. On the 17th January 1945 over 100,000 inmates were force-marched, under guard, into concentration camps in Germany. The Red Army was focused on advancing into Germany, therefore the liberation of Auschwitz received very little press coverage.
(Pacific – Burma
Built in 1937/1938 the Burma Road was constructed to link the British Colony of Burma to China. The 717 mile (1,154 km) long road was built by 200,000 Burmese and Chinese labourers through rough mountainous country. The Allies transported materials to China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. When the Japanese overran Burma in 1942 the Burma Road was closed. During the Burma Campaign, following the Battle of Kohima in June 1944, the British were forcing the Japanese to retreat. By the 5th January 1945 the Japanese had retreated across the Irrawaddy River followed by the British advancing toward Mandalay. By the 11th January 1945 the new Ledo Road had been connected to the old Burma Road and the first convoy of materials were transported. On the 31st January 1945 the Burma Road was fully open.
(Pacific – Philippines)
In the Philippines campaign in the Pacific the Japanese were facing defeat. The American land, sea and air forces systematicaly forced Imperial Japan to retreat. The Japanese continued their resistance with kamikaze attacks on U.S. naval vessels on the 2nd January 1945. On the same day USAAF B-29 bombers attacked Bangkok in Thailand. The U.S. Navy attacked the Philippine islands of Formosa on the 4th January 1945 and Luzon on the 9th January 1945 Tokyo was again attacked by USAAF B-29 bombers on the 6th January 1945. Beginning in November 1944 the USAAF conducted eleven B-29 bombing raids on Singapore Harbour until March 1945. The second raid was on the 11th January 1945.
(Other Areas)
In America, presential elections were held on the 7th November 1944. Re-elected Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt defeated Republican Thomas E. Dewey with a majority of 53.4% of the popular vote. Roosevelt was sworn-in for his 4th term of office on the 20th January 1945. His chosen deputy was Harry H. Truman.
The Malta Conference began on the 30th January 1945 and ended on the 3rd February 1945. The purpose of the conference was for British and U.S. delegates to plan for the control of Germany at the end of the war. The British participants were Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the British Chiefs of Staff Committee. The U.S. participants were newly re-appointed President Franklyn Roosevelt and the U.S. Combined Chiefs of Staff. Roosevelt’s journey was delayed and he did not arrive at the conference until the 2nd February 1945. However, agreement was reached that the Red Army advancing into central Europe was undesirable. The object of the Malta Conference was to present a united front to the Soviet Union dictator Joseph Stalin at the Yalta Conference a few days later.
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The Bay Museum & Research Facility 