12 January 1939

GERMANY: The Allied Military Control Committee, which oversaw the demobilization of German military forces after World War I, is disbanded.

UNITED KINGDOM: Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden says Britain repudiates any division of Europe into the supporters of rival ideologies stating, "Not only would the widespread acceptance of such a fatalistic doctrine be highly dangerous to peace, but in our judgment it does not correspond to realities. Human nature is far too rich and too diversified to be hemmed in within such limitations."

INTERNATIONAL: Austria and Hungary recognize General Francisco Franco in Spain stating ". . . this decision represents a practical contribution to the normalization of relations between Spain and other nations and to the pacification of Europe. . . ."

U.S.S.R.: The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union meets for the first time, the new legislative branch created under the country's constitution of 1936.

CANADA: The Daily Colonist newspaper in Victoria, British Columbia reports shots fired at a German consular officials home in Holland. The article....

UNITED STATES: U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt asks Congress for US$552 million (US$7.756 billion in 2005 dollars) in defense expenditures to prepare the country for war. The American government plans to expand fortifications in the Pacific and the Caribbean (Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands). President Roosevelt begins to express his strong support for the Western democratic states. The Roosevelt administration allows the French government to purchase large numbers of American aircraft and orders an additional 600 aircraft for the U.S. armed forces.

The Battle of Taipale begins. The Soviet Army attempts to break through the Finnish flank and cross the Taipale River.

JAPAN: The government notifies the Netherlands it is terminating their treaty in which each party agreed to settle disputes peacefully.

U.S.A.: A mine explosion in the Pond Creek No. 1 mine in Bartley, West Virginia, kills 91. 47 other men in the mine shaft escape injury. The mine shaft is about 600 feet (183 meters) below ground.

ANTARCTICA: The U.S. Interior Department 1,434 ton wooden ice ship USMS North Star of the U.S. Antarctic Service, reaches Bay of Whales, and immediately begins discharging cargo to establish West Base. Ice conditions prohibit unloading at the original chosen site, King Edward VII Land.

SICILY: RAF Hurricane fighters based on Malta attack Catania airfield on Sicily in an attempt to prevent German and Italian planes from attacking Malta while temporary repairs are carried out on the crippled aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious (87).

ETHIOPIA: Amadeo, the Italian Duke of Aosta sends the Elite Savoia Grenadiers to defend Keren.

GERMANY: Berlin: Hitler orders the battle cruisers GNEISENAU and Scharnhorst to sail from Brest to Norway.

TUNISIA: Tangiers: A German plan to detect Allied shipping movements in the Mediterranean by sending an infra-red beam across the Straits of Gibraltar is foiled when British agents blow up the transmitter.

LIBYA: Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, General Officer Commanding Panzer Gruppe Africa, adopts his subordinates' plan to prepare a surprise counteroffensive against the British. Neither the German nor the Italian High Command are informed of the plans. As a result, British codebreakers who are reading top-secret German messages with their Enigma machine can't warn the unprepared 8th Army.

U.S.S.R.: Friedrich Mennecke writes to his wife: "Since the day before yesterday, a large delegation from our Aktion [`T4´ Osteinsatz], headed by Herr Brack, is on the battlefields of the East to help in saving our wounded in the ice and snow. They include doctors, clerks, male nurses and female nurses from Hadamar and Sonnenstein, an entire detachment of 20-30 persons! This is top secret! Only those who could not be spared for carrying out the most urgent tasks of our Aktion were excluded." (84)

Field Marshal Walter von Reichenau, Commander in Chief Army Group South suffers a heart attack at his HQ in Poltava. (Jeff Chrisman)

MALAYA: The Japanese take Port Swettenham and Kuala Luxmpur, the Malaysian capital, when elements of the Japanese 25th Army enter the city. This completes the first phase of Japan's planned conquest of Malaya.

The consequences for Singapore are grave. Despite attempts to burn them, huge quantities of supplies have fallen into Japanese hands, and the possession of the airfields in the area will facilitate the intensification of the air bombardment against Singapore's bases and installations.

The fall of Kuala Lumpur has followed swiftly on the collapse five days ago of the 11th Indian Division on the Slim River. Shortly afterwards, General Wavell visited the III Indian Corps, whose main supply base was at Kuala Lumpur, and ordered its withdrawal to Johore for rest and re-organization.

The exodus from Kuala Lumpur began on 10 January. All day and all night an interminable convoy of every description of vehicle carrying civilians and military rolled south. Little silent groups of Malays, Indians and Chinese gazed in wonder from the roadside as the humbled white tuans departed, leaving them to the Japanese.

The Japanese army embarked on the conquest of Malaya when they landed at Kota Bahru, on the north-eastern coast. The landing began on 8 December, two hours before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Shortly after the Kota Bahru landing elements of the 5th Japanese Division went ashore at Singora and Patani, in southern Thailand. The British defenders in Malaya and Singapore comprised two Indian divisions in northern Malaya and the 8th Australian Division in the south, together with the Singapore fortress and mobile formations.

The RAF committed to Malaya 476 aircraft, many of which were obsolescent, such as the Wildebeest biplane. However, 64 modern bombers, including Blenheims, and six Catalina flying boats arrived, while 51 Hurricanes are on their way to the region. The RAF planned to deploy 336 first-line planes, but the plan came to nothing owing to the speed of the Japanese advance. In any case these 336 planes would still have been outnumbered 2-1 by Japanese aircraft.

By 12 December the Japanese had routed the British positions at Jitra, taking 3,000 prisoners. On 26 December a heavy engagement was fought north of Ipoh, and when Japanese tanks succeeded in "hooking" around Indian positions the road to Kuala Lumpur - and beyond it to Singapore - was open.

Eight RAAF Brewster Buffalo fighters intercept 27 Japanese bombers after they had bombed Singapore. Seeing the fighters, the bombers went into a shallow dive and outran the fighters. One RAAF pilot put it, “Bombers outpacing fighters. You’ve got to bloody-well laugh.”

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: On Bataan, the Japanese exert strong pressure against the II Corps, particularly on the west, while taking up positions for a concerted assault. The 51st Division, Philippine Army (PA), is hard hit and gives ground, some of which is regained after reserves are committed. In the center, the Japanese push back the outpost line of the 41st Division (PA). On the east coast, the Japanese regain positions on the south bank of the Calaguiman River; to meet threat there, the 21st Infantry (PA) is released from reserve to assist the 57th Infantry, Philippine Scouts. In the I Corps area, a Japanese detachment moves by boat and seizes undefended Grande Island in Manila Bay.

EAST INDIES: On Tarakan Island, Dutch Borneo, the Japanese 2nd Kure Special Naval Landing Force advances rapidly to the Tarakan airfield and occupies it. During this first fighting, the Japanese manage to capture a group of about 30 Koninklijk Nederlands Indisch Leger (KNIL) or Royal Dutch Indies Army soldiers. When this group refuses to tell the Japanese how to get to the main city of the island, they are bayoneted. Only one man survives this massacre and he manages to drag himself to a hospital where he recovers.

AUSTRALIA: Three USAAF B-17 Flying Fortresses arrive in Australia after flying a new southern ferry route from Hawaii.
The Japanese submarine HIJMS I-121 mines Clarence Strait, the body of water connecting Van Diemen Gulf and the Timor Sea, off Australia's Northern Territory, at the approaches to Darwin, the Asiatic Fleet's main logistics base.

U.S.A.: Washington DC: Charles Lindbergh the celebrated aviator meets with Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson. Stimson tells him that his speeches decrying the war between the 'white races', mean that he could not be considered for a position of command and that in fact those speeches had raised doubts as to his loyalty to the country. Stimson then called in the Assistant Secretary of War for Air, Robert A. Lovett, to see if Lindbergh could help the government in a position of non-command.

The Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS) approve U.S. plans to garrison the islands along the proposed ferry route from Hawaii to Australia. Local defence forces are to be based at American Samoa, Bora Bora, Canton Island, Christmas Island, the Fiji Islands and Palmyra Island. The CCS also approves the deployment of a USAAF fighter squadron to New Caledonia Island in the New Hebrides Islands.

The wartime Office of Price Administration said standard frankfurters would be replaced by "victory sausages", consisting of a mixture of meat and soy meal. (Mike Ballard)

President Franklin D. Roosevelt reinstates World War I President Woodrow Wilson's National War Labor Board (NWLB) in an attempt to forestall labor-management conflict during World War II. The evolution of the NWLB illustrates the complexity of developing labor policy in the rapidly changing early-war years. It was formed in 1940 as the National Defense Advisory Board; later it became the Labor Division of the Office of the Production of Management (OPM), which morphed into the National Defense Mediation Board (NDMB) until 1942 when Roosevelt renamed the unit the National War Labor Board. The NWLB is made up of political, business and labor leaders and is tasked with providing labor-policy recommendations. Although the NWLB is established to mediate between parties involved in industrial disputes, Roosevelt also gives the board power to intercede and impose settlements in order to preempt any pause in production. In October 1942, Roosevelt issues the "Order Providing for the Stabilization of the National Economy," which expands the NWLB's control over wages and prices by stipulating that any adjustment of wages has to be cleared through it.

The U.S. and Mexican governments establish a joint defense commission to coordinate defense planning between the two countries.

CARIBBEAN SEA: USS S-26 (SS-131) is sunk in a collision with a submarine chaser in the Gulf of Panama.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: During heavy weather in the North Atlantic a lookout on U-654 broke his arm.

HMCS Red Deer, a Bangor-class minesweeper, rescued survivors from the British merchantship SS Cyclops, 125 miles south-east of Cape Sable. Cyclops was the first ship sunk in the German U-boat campaign against the East Coast of North America, known as Operation Paukenschlag (Drumbeat). She was sunk by U-123, Kptlt. Reinhard Hardegen, CO.

UNITED KINGDOM: Prime Minister Winston Churchill leaves for Casablanca, French Morocco, where he and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt will plan the invasion of the European continent. Churchill believes it is essential for them to alleviate the pressure on the Soviets in 1943 with an attack on Sicily and then a cross-Channel invasion.

FRANCE: During the night of 12/13 January, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 32 aircraft to lay mines off Bay of Biscay ports: nine aircraft off Gironde, six off La Rochelle, four off St. Nazaire, two off Lorient and one each off Bayonne and St. Jean de Luz.

GERMANY: During the night of 12/13 January, RAF Bomber Command dispatches four Pathfinder Mosquitos and 55 Lancasters in a problematical attack on Essen; 49 aircraft attack the city with the loss of one Lancaster. The Oboe equipment of the first Mosquito to arrive fails and the other three Mosquitos are all late. Because of this, many of the Lancasters bomb on dead reckoning. Some bombs do fall in Essen, where 20 houses are destroyed or seriously damaged and nine people are killed, but other bombs fall in Neviges, Remscheid, Solingen and Wuppertal, a group of towns 12-20 miles (19-32 kilometers) south of Essen. Nineteen people are killed in Remscheid.

U.S.S.R.: The attack on Stalingrad is extended with assaults on the Hungarian and German Second Armies.

Soviet troops create a breach in the German siege of Leningrad, which has lasted for a year and a half. The Soviet forces punch a hole in the siege, which ruptures the German encirclement and allows for more supplies to come in along Lake Ladoga.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Italian torpedo boat R.N. Ardente sinks after being rammed by destoyer R.N. Grecale.

USAAF Twelfth Air Force B-25 Mitchells sent to hit shipping in the Straits of Sicily and in the Gulf of Gabes fail to find targets and return with their bombs.

LIBYA: General Leclerc's Fighting (Free) French army captures the Fezzan from the Italians.

RAF (B-24) Liberators, under operational control of the USAAF IX Bomber Command, Ninth Air Force, bomb Tripoli.

Twelve USAAF Twelfth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses bomb the Castel Benito Airfield south of Tripoli claiming the destruction of 14 attacking Italian Mc 202 aircraft in aerial combat.

TUNISIA: USAAF Twelfth Air Force B-26 Marauders hit the bridges at La Hencha and Chaaba, completely destroying one bridge. Fighters fly patrols, reconnaissance, C-47 Skytrain escort and strafe moored seaplanes and destroy numerous trucks during a sweep over the Ben Gardane area.

NEW GUINEA: After an artillery preparation, two battalions of the Australian 18th Brigade, 7th Division, with tank support, attack Japanese positions at the junction of the Kododa Trail in Papua New Guinea. The U.S. 163d Infantry Regiment, 41st Infantry Division, supports the assault with feints from Musket and Rankin. Japanese antitank fire soon disables the tanks, but Australians continue the battle, progressing slowly at great cost. The Japanese begin withdrawing from the junction, during the night of 12/13 January. The Japanese withdrawal from the Kokoda trail enables the Allies to plan the encirclement of important Japanese positions in the Buna, Sanananda and Gona beachhead. Sanananda is the last of the three to fall to the Allies after weeks of heavy fighting.

In Northeast New Guinea, USAAF Fifth Air Force B-24 Liberators, in single-plane actions, bomb the Finschhafen and Madang areas.

PACIFIC: Submarine U.S.S. Guardfish (SS-217), patrolling the waters of the Bismarck Archipelago on her third patrol, fires three torpedoes during a night underwater radar attack. One torpedo finds the mark and destroys the ex-DD Shimakaze, now re-named patrol boat P 1 (1215T). She sinks about 10 miles southwest of the Tingwon Islands near New Hanover in position 02°51'S, 149°43'E. (Chris Sauder)

WAKE ISLAND: After the fall of Wake in December 1941, the 1,187 US Marines, were herded into the cargo holds of the 17,163 ton Japanese luxury liner Nitta Maru, for transportation to Yokohama and then to Shanghai. By 1 January 1943, there are still 98 civilian workers on the island but one is caught stealing food and is beheaded.. Tonight, the Japanese accuse the civilians of being in secret radio communication with U.S. naval forces. The 97 civilians are marched to the beach and there lined up with their backs to the ocean and machined gunned. After the war, the Japanese commander on Wake, Rear Admiral SAKAIBARA Sakaibara, and eleven of his officers, are sentenced to death by a US Naval Court at Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands. Sakaibara is transported to Guam, Mariana Islands and he executed by June 1947.

UNITED KINGDOM: Scotland: Loch Ewe: The 20 ships of convoy JW-56 sail for Murmansk.

POLAND: The Red Army envelops Sarny, in prewar Poland, and take it from the rear.

ITALY: British General Harold Alexander, Commander in Chief 15th Army Group, directs the U.S. Fifth Army to impose maximum losses on the Germans south of Rome and to clear Rome; advance to the general line Civitavecchia-Viterbo-Terni and later to Pisa-Pistoia-Florence. The long-range objective of the British Eighth Army is the Faenza-Ravenna region. The importance of speed is stressed.

U.S. Fifth Army orders the U.S. VI Corps (Lieutenant General John Lucas) to land in the Anzio-Nettuno area at H Hour (0200 hours) on D Day (22 January) and drive on Colli Laziali. In the U.S. II Corps area, the 2d Battalion, 168th Infantry Regiment, 34th Infantry Division, overruns Cervaro; other units of the division continue to clear hills near the town towards Cassino. On the right flank of II Corps, Task Force B reaches Capraro Hill. The French Expeditionary Force, with the 3d Algerian Division on the left and the 2d Moroccan Division on the right, opens a drive toward St. Elia and makes steady progress.

USAAF Twelfth Air Force B-25 Mitchells and B-26 Marauders bomb the Giulianova railway bridge and attack a dam and road bridge; P-40s hit enemy defensive positions at San Biagio Saracinesa, Sant' Elia Fiumerapido, Monte Trocchio, and Atina, and bomb Vallerotonda; and A-36 Apaches attack the Avezzano railroad yards, a village near Atina, railroad facilities at Cisterna di Latina, and numerous trucks and train cars in the Rome area.

USAAF Fifteenth Air Force P-47 Thunderbolts fly a fighter sweep in the Rome area, strafing the marshalling yard at Teramo and buildings between the Tronto and Tesino Rivers.

Forty nine RAF No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group aircraft attack targets of opportunity during the night of 12/13 January.

FRENCH MOROCCO: Marrakesh: General de Gaulle flew into Morocco today to meet the British prime minister at the villa where he had been convalescing for a few weeks. Mr. Churchill was in fine form, and when de Gaulle asked him if he still painted he replied: "I am too weak for that, but I am strong enough to wage war." The two imperious leaders made jokes at each other's expense but managed to agree on Franco-British co-operation for victory. The Prime Minister requests an end to the prosecution of General Peyrouton and General Boisson, the former Governors General of French West Africa and Algeria respectively. Churchill cites guarantees made to the defendants by himself and U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt in exchange for their cooperation at the time of the North Africa landings. DeGaulle declines to interfere with what he considers an internal French matter. It was Peyrouton who had signed DeGaulle's death warrant in 1940.

ALGERIA: The U.S. Seventh Army planning group under Brigadier General Garrison H. Davidson moves from Sicily to Algiers to work on plans for Operation ANVIL, the invasion of southern France.

BURMA: Over 20 USAAF Tenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells and P-38 Lightnings hit the marshalling yard at Letpadan, damaging warehouses, engine sheds, and other buildings; the fighters also strafe Myohaung, setting three3 buildings afire.

THAILAND: Fourteen USAAF Fourteenth Air Force B-24 Liberators bomb the Bangsue marshalling yard at Bangkok.

NEW GUINEA: In Northeast New Guinea, USAAF Fifth Air Force B-24 Liberators and B-25 Mitchells attack the Alexishafen area and A-20 Havocs hit Warai.

EAST INDIES: USAAF Fifth Air Force B-24 Liberators attack Balikpapan, Borneo and ; Makassar, Celebes Island, both in the Netherlands East Indies, and Dili, Portugese Timor.

BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: The Arawe beachhead, New Britain Island, is now strengthened by Company B, 1st Tank Battalion, 1st Marine Division, and Company F, 158th Infantry Regiment.

On New Britain Island, USAAF Thirteenth Air Force bombers attack airfields at Rabaul: 13 B-25 Mitchells bomb Vunakanau Airfield in the early morning, 19 B-24 Liberators, with an escort of about 50 fighters, attack the airstrip and other targets at Tobera and 16 B-24 Liberators hit Lakunai Airfield during the night of 12/13 January.

MARSHALL ISLANDS: Twenty one USAAF Seventh Air Force A-24 Dauntlesses from Makin Island, Gilbert Islands dive-bomb antiaircraft positions and the storage area on Mille Atoll and 20 supporting P-39 Airacobras strafe runways.

USN PB4Y-1 Liberator of Bombing Squadrons One Hundred Eight and One Hundred Nine (VB-108 and VB-109) bomb Japanese shipping in Kwajalein lagoon, sinking a gunboat. Aerial minelaying operations continue as five PBY-5 Catalinas, flying from Tarawa, mine Tokowa and Torappu channels and the south entrance to Maleolap; one Catalina goes on to bomb Jabor but is forced down by antiaircraft fire 6 miles (9,7 kilometers) east of Jaluit.

SOLOMON ISLANDS: The U.S. Americal Division completes their movement to Bougainville Island.

On Bougainville Island, three flights of USAAF Thirteenth Air Force P-39 Airacobras bomb and strafe Teop, Inus Point, Numa Numa, and Piano Mission; other aircraft on armed reconnaissance and sweeps hit several targets of opportunity throughout the Bougainville area.

PACIFIC OCEAN: Submarine U.S.S. Albacore (SS-218), sailing through the waters between Truk and the Admiralty Islands on her eighth patrol, conducts a twilight periscope attack firing eight fish. The Japanese vessel XPG Choko Maru #2 (2629T) is rocked by four torpedoes about 350 miles southwest of Truk in position 03°30'N, 147°27'E. Albacore's attack also apparently damages PGM Hayabusa-Tei #4 (25T). The motor gunboat had been under tow by Choko Maru #2 proceeding from Truk to Rabaul. Gunfire from a Japanese escort latter scuttles the gunboat in position 03°37'N, 147°27'E.

Submarine U.S.S. Hake (SS-256), on her third patrol cruising at night on the surface in the northern reaches of the Philippine Sea, fires four torpedoes at XAPV Nigitsu Maru (9547T). Two torpedoes hit and down goes the aircraft transport south of the Daito Islands in position 23°15'N, 132°49'E. (Chris Sauder)

U.S.A.: Leighton McCarthy presented his letters of credentials to President Roosevelt as the first Canadian Ambassador to the United States.

War Department planners in Washington, considering the matter of a new directive for the South East Asia Command (SEAC), reject Operation CULVERIN, the assault on Sumatra, and favor opening of a land route to China.

The advance part of the U.S. Third Army leaves Fort Sam Houston, Texas, to embark for the European Theater of Operations.

Alfred Hitchcock's war drama film "Lifeboat" opens at the Astor Theater in New York City. The film stars Tallulah Bankhead, William Bendix, and Walter Slezak. The plot involves several survivors of a torpedoed ship in the same lifeboat with one of the men who sank it. The film is nominated for three Academy Awards including Best Director but wins none.

Minesweeper USS Devastator commissioned.

Destroyer escorts USS Marsh and Price commissioned.

Escort carrier USS Rudyerd Bay launched.

Destroyer escorts USS George A Johnson and Metivier launched.

Submarine USS Lagarto laid down.

Escort carrier USS Makin Island laid down.

Destroyer escorts USS Tabberer and Robert F Keller laid down.

To-day Admiral of the Fleet Lord Keyes, whose son, Lt-Col Geoffrey Keyes, was killed in a raid on Rommel's headquarters in North Africa in 1941, said:

"I shall always regret that I never had the opportunity to thank Rommel for his generous behaviour to my son. Rommel paid my son a great honour. He went to kill Rommel and, although he failed in his mission, he killed four of the German Commander's staff officers.

"Rommel not only gave orders that my son be laid before the altar of an Italian church with the four officers, but also paid public tribute to his leadership and bravery, and accorded him a full military funeral."

FRANCE: In the U.S. Seventh Army's VI Corps area, the Germans have shifted from aggressive offensive to stubborn defensive in the Bitche salient. Efforts of the 45th Infantry Division to regain ground lost on yesterday are only partly successful. The 14th Armored Division attacks to relieve the 315th Infantry Regiment, 79th Infantry Division, in Hatten and Rittershoffen; Combat Command A clears part of Rittershoffen. The situation in the Gambsheim bridgehead is unchanged.

BELGIUM: In the U.S. First Army VII Corps area, the 2d Armored Division attacks in the vicinity of the junction of the Manhay-Houffalize and Laroche-Salmchâteau roads: Combat Command A takes Chabrehez, continues about a mile (1,6 kilometers) south in the Bois de Belhez, and reduces a strongpoint east of Bois de St Jean; Combat Command B captures Les Tailles and Petite Tailles. On the 3d Armored Division right, the 83d Armored Reconnaissance Battalion drives south through Task Force Hogan (Combat Command R) at Regne, crosses the Langlir River, and clears Bois de Cedrogne east of the Manhay-Houffalize road and blocks the road there running west from Mont le Ban. Task Force Hogan moves to Bihain and clears the high ground southwest of the town. The 83d Infantry Division completes the capture of Petite Langlir and Langlir and gains a bridgehead south of the Langlir-Ronce River. In the XVIII (Airborne) Corps' 106th Infantry Division sector, a bridgehead is established across the AmblÃ¨ve River south of Stavelot.

In the U.S. Third Army's VIII Corps area, the Germans continue withdrawing. The 87th Infantry Division takes Tonny, Amberloup, Lavacherie, Orreux, Fosset, Sprimont, and a road junction northeast of Sprimont. The 17th Airborne Division recaptures Flamierge. Flamizoulle is found to be heavily mined. Renuamont, Hubermont, and villages to southwest are held by light, delaying forces. The 101st Airborne Division will launch an attack to the north and northeast of Bastogne. In preparation for the attack the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment attacks at 1405 hours and seizes a segment of the Foy-Margaret road 500 yards (457 meters) in front of its Main Line of Resistance. The attack secures the Line of Departure to be used by the 327th Glider Infantry Regiment as it attacks through the 501st tomorrow. The 501st takes 42 casualties during the attack, mostly from artillery and mortar fire. In the III Corps area, Combat Command A of the 6th Armored Division captures Wardin and adva nces to within a few hundred yards of Bras. (Jay Stone and Jack McKillop)

LUXEMBOURG: In the U.S. Third Army's III Corps area, the 357th Infantry Regiment, 90th Infantry Division, mops up Sonlez and continues to the high ground southeast of Bras, Belgium; the 359th Infantry Regiment repels attacks on the crossroads northeast of Doncols.

Twenty seven-year-old Gertrud Seele, a nurse and social worker, was born in Berlin and served for a time in the Nazi Labor Corps. She was arrested last year for helping Jews to escape Nazi persecution, and for "defeatist statements designed to undermine the morale of the people." She was tried before the People's Court in Potsdam and executed in Plötzensee Prison, Berlin, today.

During the night of 12/13 January, RAF Bomber Command sends 20 Mosquitos to attack several targets: ten bomb the Carolinengluck benzine oil refinery at Bochum, eight bomb the Forsetzung benzine oil refinery at Rechlinghausen and one bombs Dortmund.

In other missions, 32 Halifaxes are sent to lay mines: 16 mine Kiel Harbor with the loss of one aircraft, and eight lay mines off Flensburg with the loss of three aircraft.

ARCTIC OCEAN: In the Barents Sea, German submarine U-956 torpedoes and sinks the Soviet destroyer Dejatelnyj [ex USS Herndon (DD-198) and HMS Churchill (I 45)] about 54 nautical miles (100 kilometers) east of Murmansk, U.S.S.R. The destroyer is escorting Convoy KB-1 (Kola Inlet to the White Sea).

Norway: U-427 attacked heavy cruiser HMS Norfolk off Egersund (Norway) with five torpedoes, but all missed.

General A. Erich Heinrichs is appointed to the post of the Commander in Chief of the Defence Forces.

EASTERN FRONT: A major Soviet attack begins. The Red Army today unleashed its major winter offensive, hurling 163 divisions at the German positions in Poland and East Prussia, and is sweeping forward with massed tanks under a massive artillery bombardment and clouds of warplanes against 30 German divisions. The Germans are fighting from well-prepared defensive positions, but they are outnumbered by five tanks to one.

Hitler refused to believe intelligence reports of a massive Russian build-up, and rejected calls from General Guderian, now chief of the general staff, to transfer troops from the Ardennes offensive or call off attacks near Budapest. Yet today's attack by General Konev's First Ukrainian Front in southern Poland is only the first round of Russia's winter offensive.

From Memel, on the Baltic, to Warsaw, some 300 miles further south, the Red Army is poised to attack, with Warsaw the prime target for Marshal Zhukov's First Byelorussian Front when it joins the fray. The Russian commanders have their eyes on the industrial cities of Upper Silesia, but if they can cross the Vistula the German border will be less than 60 miles away. Russia has stockpiled supplies to sustain a broad advance.

At 0400 on January 12th, 1945 the attack began from the Baranow bridgehead [the 'Vistula-Oder operation'] with Soviet Marshal Ivan Konev's formidable "1st Ukrainian Front" hammering the skeletal frontline positions of 48.Panzerkorps, commanded by General der Panzertruppe Maximillian Reichsfreiherr von Edelsheim, with an unrelenting barrage for some 6 hours. By the time the cannon-fire let up, and the wary but confident Russian "frontovik" footsloggers moved forward into the main line of battle riding on and accompanied by T-34/85's, Su-100's and JSII's attached to special 'breakthrough' units, a heavy windswept snowfall had risen up to obfuscate the terrain details of the cratered battlefield from both attacker and defender alike. Nevertheless, the determined Soviet spearheads quickly advanced beyond the devastated trenches and weapons pits of the "hauptkampflinie" [HKL] (main line of resistance) of the German 48.Panzerkorps, leaving a swath of dead, destroyed, and dazed German defenders in their wake. 48.Panzerkorps consists of the 68th, 168th and 304th Infenterie-Divisions.

Genobst.Josef Harpe's Heeresgruppe 'A' reserve, deployed with 4.Panzerarmee to the north and west of the tottering 48.Pz. Kps.position, included reforming elements of the battered 16th and 17th.Panzer Divisions, which were almost immediately engaged and bypassed by the onrush of Soviet armor and tank-borne infantry. At the main breach German defenses virtually ceased to exist - simply pulverized beneath the onslaught; with the two 'anchor' formations; the 68th, and 168. Infanterie Divisions losing cohesion, and in full rout.

Despite it's designation as a "Panzerkorps", Edelsheim's command had no integral Panzer units, and could boast only some 30 or so assault guns without petrol attached to the infantry units in static defensive positions, along with some 12 "schwere" or heavy tank-destroyers, the lumbering and mechanically unreliable "Elefants" of the 614th Army Heavy Panzerjaeger Battalion, recently arrived from the Italian front, to give his lines any sort of backbone. What strength did exist was parcelled carefully among the (static) infantry echelons, and supported by divisional artillery batteries, some 300 barrels strong, strung out over a front of nearly a hundred kilometres; which, though strategically placed, were severely limited in ammunition.

In a mere matter of hours, the Baranow-Sandomierz bridgehead had exploded wide open, allowing Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front to bypass hastily staged and ineffective local German counterthrusts on it's way west. (Russ Folsom)

ITALY: Weather severely curtails operations, but fighters and fighter-bombers of the USAAF Twelfth Air Force's XXII Tactical Air Command score successfully against communications targets in western and central Po Valley, claiming over 50 rail cuts and destruction or damage of over 100 vehicles.

GREECE: Athens: Maj-Gen Ronald Scobie, the British GOC in Greece, today faced four rebel leaders at a conference table and laid down his terms for a truce in the Greek civil war. And the indications are that the left-wing ELAS (National Liberation Army) will accept a form of armistice and agree to exchange prisoners.

Minesweeper HMS Regulus (J 327) is mined during clearance operations off Sista Island near Corfu and loses her propellers. She is taken in tow, but capsizes an hour later. (Alex Gordon)(108)

INDIA: In the Northern Combat Area Command (NCAC) area, a U.S.- Chinese convoy starts along the Ledo Road from Ledo, India.

BURMA: In the Allied Land Forces South East Asia (ALFSEA) Indian 15 Corps area, the 3d Commando Brigade conducts an amphibious assault on the Arakan coast at Myebon after an air and naval bombardment and establishes a firm beachhead, which the Japanese without success soon attempts to destroy. The Allied position now threatens the Japanese line of retreat. (Dave Shirlaw & Jack McKillop)

Sixteen USAAF Tenth Air Force fighter-bombers support ground forces in the battle sectors at Si-U and at Lawa on the Irrawaddy River; over 70 fighter-bombers hit troops, supplies, vehicles, and general Japanese movement at Namsa-lap, Longmao, Hsa-ihkao, Mangpu, Pangnim, and near Lashio, Hsipaw, and Hsenwi. .

Six USAAF Fourteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells again damage a bridge at Wan Mai-Lo.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: In the U.S. Sixth Army's XIV Corps area on Luzon, the 40th Infantry Division's 185th Infantry Regiment takes Port Sual, the west terminus of the Army Beachhead Line, without a fight and continues west toward Alaminos. The 37th Infantry Division is consolidating on the Army Beachhead Line; elements move into Bayamhang and Urhiztondo without opposition. In the I Corps area, the 6th Infantry Division (less Regiment Combat Team 63) is ordered to conduct a holding action along the line Malisiqui-Catablan-Torres until the situation in the 43d Infantry Division sector improves and is moving forward toward that line. Regiment Combat Team 158, released from army reserve to the corps late in day, moves elements to Rabon and Bani and patrols to Damortis. Corps attaches Regiment Combat Team 158 to the 43d Infantry Division; to further strengthen the division, commits Regiment Combat Team 63 (â€”) of the 6th Infantry Division to right of Regiment Combat Team 158 to close the gap between the 158th and 172d Regiments. Regiment Combat Team's 158 and 63 are to secure the Damortis-Rosario road. Elements of the 43d Infantry Division take Hill 560 and are attacking toward Hills 318 and 200.

On Mindoro, the entire 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division, assembles at Pinamalayan for a drive on Calapan, where the Japanese force is now concentrated. Guerrilla patrol reaches Wawa, on the north coast near Abra de Ilog.

USAAF Far East Air Forces B-24 Liberators bomb the San Jose del Monte area and bivouac areas on northern Luzon; other B-24s hit Legaspi, and Batangas Airfields on Luzon, and Matina Airfield on Mindanao Island while B-25 Mitchells bomb Fabrica warehouses on Negros Island.

NEW GUINEA: The Japanese Operation KONGO, employing suicide torpedoes [Kaitens], continues; submarine HIJMS I 47 launches kaitens that damage a U.S. freighter at Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea; there are no casualties among the merchant sailors or the 27-man Armed Guard.

SOLOMON ISLANDS: On Bougainville, troops of the Australian 47th Battalion, 29th Brigade, 3rd Division, that crossed the Adele River yesterday, continue on and seize the mouth of the Hupai River and a log crossing across the river about 800 yards(732 meters) inland.

VOLCANO ISLANDS: Twenty eight USAAF Seventh Air Force Guam-based B-24 Liberators bomb airfields on Iwo Jima. During the night of 12/13 January, the island is hit by four B-24 snooper strikes.

PACIFIC: Aircraft carrier TF 38, under the command of Vice Admiral John S. McCain, hits Japanese shipping, airfields, and other shore installations in the South China Sea and in southeastern French Indochina. Among the sunken vessels is the Ch 43 (442T). This subchaser, with the help of Ch 15 and W18, sank the submarine U.S.S. Wahoo (SS-238) in La Perouse Strait on 11 October 1943. (Chris Sauder)