27 January 1939

Yesterday Tomorrow

1932: GERMANY: Hitler speaks before the Rhineland Industrialists in Dusseldorf at the Industry Club. Hitler was addressing this group in the hope of getting financial support for his party which was becoming steadily ever more bankrupt. He did not get as much as he had hoped for. (Jason Leech)

A Clarification on the above:

There is some controversy about the date of this event. I believe it was actually on 26 January. The following is a footnote from my work-in-progress on Hitler's personal fortune:

Toland (TOLA76, p. 260) has the date as 17 January and the majority of writers give the date as 27 January, possibly based on the evidence of Otto Dietrich's two memoirs, DIET34 and DIET57. However, I can find no date in DIET57. Lüdecke (LÜDE38, p. 326), who was not even in Germany at the time, puts the date at 27 January, possibly on the evidence of Dietrich.

Similarly, Fromm (FROM43, p. 43), on the basis of second-hand evidence, gives the date as 27 January, noting that that was also the ex-Kaiser's birthday. According to the invitation (TURN85B, p. 205), the meeting was held on 26 January. Two local newspapers, Kölnische Volkszeitung and the Düsseldorf Volkszeitung, printed accounts of the meeting in their 27 January editions, strengthening the view that the meeting was on 26 January.

Turner has a copy of the original invitation, which clearly states January 26. (Cris Whetton)

January 27th, 1939 (FRIDAY)

MEXICO: A guard is placed on the home of exiled Bolshevik Leon Trotsky in Mexico City. The article.....

27 January 1940

January 27th, 1940 (SATURDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill (uneasy at the slow increase in war production) speaks at Free Trade Hall, Manchester: "each to our station... there is not a week, nor a day, nor and hour to be lost!" He also says he is puzzled and worried about the "phoney war" and wonders why Britain has not been bombed yet. The speech is broadcast to the dominions and the United States.

Minesweeping trawler HMS Fir launched.

Sloop HMS Black Swan commissioned.

GERMANY: The Plan for the German invasion of Norway and Denmark is given a formal codename of "Weserubung".

FINLAND: There is an expectant air about the Mannerheim Line today as the Finns prepare for the massive attack that they know is being prepared by General Timoshenko, who has been whipping his Red Army into shape behind his defensive lines on the Karelian Isthmus. This does not mean that there is no action. Soviet guns have kept up a steady pounding of the Finnish positions and small groups of soldiers, now well-trained in winter tactics, have launched a series of attacks to wear down the Finns.

GIBRALTAR: U.S. freighter SS Cold Harbor, bound for Odessa, U.S.S.R., is detained at Gibraltar by British authorities.

REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA: Cape Town: In an extraordinary spectacle, with the former Prime Minister, General Hertzog, openly supporting Hitler, South Africa's all-white parliament has rejected the call for a separate peace with Germany.

The pro-British Premier, general Jan Smuts, likened the speech of Hertzog, his former Boer comrade-in-arms, to a chapter from Mein Kampf. "Goebbels could not have done it better," he said.

The division in the lobby was clear-cut, reflecting the division in the country - the English-speakers and liberal Afrikaaners in one camp, the irreconcilable Boers, with their own theories of racial supremacy , in the other.

U.S.A.: Baltimore: The 'City of Flint' arrives back at her home port following her adventures in the Baltic.

Submarine USS Tautog launched.

ATLANTIC OCEAN:

At 2052, SS Fredensborg was torpedoed and sunk by U-20. The ship was sailing together with SS England, which was also torpedoed and sunk by the same U-boat at 2124.

At 2003, SS Faro was torpedoed by U-20 about 15 miles SE of Copinsay, Orkneys. She was taken in tow, later abandoned and was wrecked when drifted ashore in the Taracliff Bay near Copinsay the next day.

At 2313, SS Hosanger was torpedoed and sunk by U-20 15 miles SE of Copinsay Light. The ship was hit by one torpedo, lost the stern and sank within two minutes. The only survivor, Magnus Sandvik, managed to reach a raft with four others, but his shipmates froze to death while a British destroyer picked him up after about 15 hours. A line was thrown down on him, but he was not able to fasten it around himself, so a man from the destroyer jumped overboard to assist. He was then brought to a hospital in Kirkwall.

27 January 1941

January 27th, 1941 (MONDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM:

RAF Bomber Command: 2 Group: In the event of invasion 21 Blenheims would be used to spray gas if necessary.

Boscombe Down: The prototype Avro Lancaster arrives for acceptance tests. It is fitted with triple fins and lacks either dorsal or ventral turrets.

Minesweeping trawler HMS Dragora mined and sunk in Thames Estuary.

Corvette HMS Azalea commissioned.

Minesweeping trawler HMS Fara launched.

ASW trawler HMS Tarantella launched.

FRANCE: VICHY FRANCE: All civil servants and state officials are ordered to swear an oath of allegiance to Marshal Petain.

GERMANY:

U-371 launched.

U-599 laid down.

ALBANIA: Italy's foreign minister, Count Galeazzo Ciano and other senior members of the Italian government arrive in Albania to take up active military commands. Ciana takes command of a bomber squadron. This measure is designed to boost morale.

ROMANIA: The preparatory work on the Danube bridges to enable them to carry the Wehrmacht's heavy tanks, begins.

LIBYA: One company of the Australian 2/11th Battalion captures Fort Rudero on the heights above Derna capturing 290 prisoners and 5 field guns.

ERITREA: Barentu: The British advance from the Sudan has been held up at this mountain fortress and the bridge across the river Baraka at Agordat.

The 4th and 5th Indian Divisions and the Sudan Defence Force began by retaking the border town of Kassala eight days ago. Next day they crossed the frontier.

The 5th Indian Div. found Tessanai deserted, its garrison in retreat, and went onto Barentu. Forty miles north a flying column under Colonel Frank Messervy, "Gazelle Force", penetrated as far as Keru Gorge before being stopped. There the British suffered their only set-back so far. 10th Indian Brigade, trying to outflank the Keru defences, got lost, was strafed by planes, and its commander, Major General Bill Slim, retired with a bullet in his backside. It was two days before Messervy was through the gorge, his artillery fighting off a frontal cavalry charge on open sights. Now Messervy is outside Agordat and the 5th Indian outside Barentu.

JAPAN: Tokyo: The Peruvian ambassador to Japan warns his American counterpart, Joseph Grew, that the Japanese plan to destroy the US fleet at the naval base of Pearl Harbor; Grew passes the information on to Washington.

CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Outarde launched North Vancouver, British Columbia.

U.S.A.: Washington: This week, for the first time in history, senior US and British military staff officers will meet here in secret to hammer out a common strategy in case the United States finds itself at war with Germany or Japan (or both) in alliance with Britain. The talks, known as "ABC1", illustrate how quickly Washington is changing its view of the danger of war. On 12 November Admiral Stark, the chief of US naval operations, sent "Plan Dog" to the navy secretary, Frank Knox, giving priority to war in the Atlantic and urging closer links with Britain.

27 January 1942

January 27th, 1942 (TUESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Westminster: Churchill announces the formation of a Pacific War council and a joint Anglo-US chiefs of staff committee, and that an Australian representative is to join the war cabinet.

Representatives of the Free French National Committee in London and of the United States had come to an agreement concerning the Allied military use of French possessions in the Pacific area.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill opens a major House of Commons debate with the report on Allied Cooperation. He details the Combined Chiefs of Staff, the Pacific Councils and the plans for the arrival of American land forces in Britain. The vote of confidence is opposed by one member of the House.

Lt. John McDonald Ruttan RCNVR was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC). The Citation, awarded as per the London Gazette of 27 Jan 42, read: "For bravery and endurance while minesweeping and when attacked by enemy aircraft." John McDonald Ruttan worked in Port Arthur on the Port Arthur News Chronicle in 1937. He was recruited by LCdr. Rollo Mainguy into the Port Arthur Half Division of the RCNVR in Spring 1937. Ruttan served on the Canadian training schooner Venture in late Dec 37. He was assigned to the Winnipeg Division in the rank of Sub-Lieutenant in May 38. In Jun 40, he was sent to the Britain for a six-week basic officer's course at HMS King Alfred and then the minesweeping course at Lochinvar. He was appointed as Executive Officer of HMS Skudd V (a converted Norwegian whaler) in Sep 40. Skudd V sailed for Alexandria in Oct 40 via the Cape and operated in the eastern Mediterranean, including Tobruk and Greece in 1941. Ruttan was promoted to Lieutenant on 16 Sep 41 and was appointed CO of a converted landing ship, HMS Svan, in Oct 41. Lt. Ruttan 'hitch hiked' home in 1942 in order to assume his new duties as Executive Officer of the minesweeper HMS Saint John. His next appointment was as Commanding Officer of the Landing Craft Infantry (Large) LCI(L)-302 in Feb 44, where he served through D-Day landings. His final appointment was as CO of the River-class frigate HMCS Matane from 20 Sep 44 to 03 Feb 45. He was demobilized on 13 Dec 45 and promoted to LCdr. while on retired list. John Ruttan died 21 Mar 92 in Ottawa.

U.S.S.R.: In the Ukraine, on the Donets front, Soviet forces seize the important rail centre of Lozovaya, west of Izyum. They now threaten the main German supply base for Army Group South at Dnepropetrovsk. German resistance is growing.

LIBYA:. South African reconnaissance aircraft spot Rommel's diversionary move toward Mechili, and the British swallow the bait, moving 1st Armoured Division on the diversion. Axis forces renew their offensive from Msus, making their main effort toward Benghazi.

AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Latrobe laid down.

BORNEO: Japanese troop occupy the towns of Ledo, Singkawang, Pemangkat, Sambas with its Naval Air Station, and Singkawang II airfield located near Ledo. All Dutch aircraft had been transferred to Sumatra prior to the Japanese invasion.
USAAF Far East Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses based in Java bomb and damage a Japanese seaplane carrier off Balikpapan.

MALAYA: No. 36 and 100 Squadron's RAF fly their last missions with the venerable Vickers Vildebeest biplanes against Japanese landings at Endau. (Peter Sinfield)

Destroyer HMS Thanet is sunk by gunfire from IJN destroyers off Endau on the east coast of Malaya at 02 40N 103 42E. (Alex Gordon)(108)

Lieutenant General Arthur Percival, General Officer Commanding Malaya Command, having received permission from General Archibald Lord Wavell, Commander in Chief Australian-British-Dutch-American (ABDA) Command, to retire to the 225 square mile (583 square kilometer) Singapore Island at his discretion, decides to withdraw at once through Johore Bahru and across the causeway to the island. Withdrawal is to be accomplished under cover of darkness and completed during the night 30/31 January. East Force meets no opposition as it pulls back. While elements of the Indian 11th Division’s Batu Pahat force fall back to Benut, the rest move to the mouth of the Ponggor River, from which they are withdrawn by sea during the following nights. West Force fights local actions while retiring along the main road and railroad.
Off Endau, the destroyers HMAS Vampire and HMS Thanet encounter three Japanese destroyers and a minesweeper. HMS Thanet is sunk by gunfire but HMAS Vampire escapes to Singapore. The Japanese 96th Airfield Battalion completes their landing at Endau with much-needed supplies and ammunition.

NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: On Java, General Archibald Lord Wavell, Commander in Chief Australian-British-Dutch-American (ABDA) Command, tells Lieutenant General Sir John Lavarack, General Officer Commanding I Australian Corps, that he must hold Sumatra with one Australian division and central Java with another.
The British aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable brings a cargo of 48 Hawker Hurricane fighters to Java, for shipment to Singapore.

PACIFIC OCEAN: Submarine USS Gudgeon (SS-211) torpedoes and sinks Japanese submarine HIJMS I-73 240 miles (386 kilometres) west of Midway Island; the Japanese submarine had shelled Midway two days earlier. This is the first Japanese submarine sunk by a USN submarine.

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: In the II Corps area on Bataan, the Japanese begin an assault against the main line of resistance (MLR) in the afternoon. After a feint down the East Road, the main attack is made against Sectors C and D. Sector C is thinly manned and in the process of being reinforced by the 41st Infantry, Philippine Army (PA), from Sector D. The Japanese force the outposts back and get a small advance group across the Pilar River. In the I Corps area, the Japanese renew efforts to break through the MLR on the west coast and is again brought to a halt by the 91st Division, PA. In the South Sector, Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright, Commanding General I Corps, sends the 3d Battalion of the 45th Infantry, Philippine Scouts (PS), to Quinauan Point and the 2d Battalion of the 57th Infantry, PS, to Longoskawayan Point to dislodge or destroy the Japanese along the southwestern coast. Meanwhile, after preparatory fire from all available guns is conducted against Longoskawayan Pt, the infantry attacks but is unable to clear it. Scouts of 2d Battalion, 57th Infantry, relieve the naval battalion there during the night of 27/28 January. The Japanese are contained but cannot be cleared from Quinauan Point. Water-borne reinforcements for this position land short of their objective, between the Anyasan and Silaiim Rivers, before dawn and put beach defenders, the 1st Battalion of the 1st Philippine Constabulary, to flight. The ground echelon of the USAAF’s 17th Pursuit Squadron (Interceptor), from reserve, and the 2d Battalion of the 2d Philippine Constabulary, from the MLR to the north, move against the Japanese but are halted about 1,000 yards (914 meters) from the shore. The Japanese are ordered, upon reinforcing the Quinauan beachhead, to drive to Mariveles.
Four USAAF Far East Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses based in Java stage through Del Monte Airfield on Mindanao and attack Japanese targets on Luzon. One B-17 is shot down.
Submarine USS Seawolf (SS-197) delivers ammunition to Corregidor Island, and evacuates naval and army pilots.

PHOENIX ISLAND: The USAAF’s Hawaiian Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses of Task Group 8.9 return to Canton Island.

CANADA:

HMCS Sault Ste Marie (ex-HMCS The Soo) laid down Port Arthur, Ontario.

Minesweeper HMCS Milltown launched Port Arthur, Ontario.

Patrol vessel (ex-fishing vessel) HMCS Barkley Sound commissioned.

U.S.A.: President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces that the Office of Price Administration (OPA) will ration all retail goods and commodities until the end of the war.

Destroyer USS Saufley laid down.

Destroyer USS Rodman commissioned.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: Two unarmed U.S. merchant tankers are attacked by German U-boat U-130: (1) one is torpedoed and sunk 90 miles (145 kilometres) northeast of Virginia Beach, Virginia and (2) one is torpedoed and damaged 20 miles (32 kilometres) east-northeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

At 0203, U-123 opened fire with the deck gun at the unescorted motor tanker Pan Norway east of Cape Hatteras because no torpedoes were left. With the third salvo hits were scored in the engine room and the funnel. Even though the gun on the stern of the tanker was put out of action, the machine guns mounted on the bridge returned fire, hitting the conning tower and the deck several times. The U-boat then fired at the bridge, which caught fire after some hits. When the tanker stopped and the crew began to abandon ship, the fire was ceased. In between Hardegen had to clip the split lower lips of Ma-Gfr Bastel, who had been hit in the face by a empty ammunition case that fell through the open hatch and lost several teeth. After the crew had left the Pan Norway, the fire was reopened but soon no ammunition for the deck gun was left so they shot holes into the waterline with the 37mm AA gun until the tanker capsized and sank at 03.45 hours. Shortly before the duel began, they had spotted lights and the U-boat now went to investigate them. The lights belonged to the Greek steam merchant Mount Aetna, which was neutral because she operated in Swiss charter. Hardegen stopped the vessel and gave the direction to the survivors of Pan Norway. In a short time the merchant picked up 40 survivors including five wounded and the U-boat rescued another wounded man, took care of him and after a short interrogation placed him aboard the neutral vessel, whose master expressed his thanks and wished the U-boat a lucky return journey. The survivors were landed at Lisbon on 6 February.

At 0943, the unarmed and unescorted steam tanker Francis E. Powell was hit by one torpedo from U-130 about eight miles northeast of the Winter Quarter Light Vessel, while proceeding completely blacked out at 10.5 knots. The torpedo struck on the port side aft of the midships house, between the #4 and #5 tanks. The explosion started a small fire in the pump room and destroyed the radio antenna. Then the U-boat was sighted a few hundred yards away. The eight officers and 24 crewmen abandoned ship in two lifeboats. The master was crushed to death when he slipped and fell between the boat and the ship. The same boat was lifted back on the ship by a wave and the occupants had to launch another boat. Another officer and two men were also lost. The tanker sank at about 1400. After five hours, 17 men in one of the boats were picked up by the American steam tanker W.C. Fairbanks and landed at Lewes, Delaware. The remaining eleven survivors in the other boat were picked up by a USCG boat from the Assateague Station and landed at Chincoteague VA.

Steam tanker Halo shelled and damaged by U-130.

At 0021, U-754 fired a spread of three torpedoes at SS Icarion, dispersed from Convoy ON-53, and observed a hit in the stern after 5 minutes 25 seconds. The ship sank at 01.08 hours.

27 January 1943

January 27th, 1943 (WEDNESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: The US 8th Air Force raids Wilhelmshaven, naval base in Germany. This is the first US raid over Germany. All previous raids have been over occupied countries. 84 Flying Fortresses and seven Liberators took part in the unescorted raid. They also hit several other targets in north-west Germany.

Wilhelmshaven is considered a tough target by the RAF, but while the 55 bombers which actually carried out the raid were attacked by fighters the crews said it was "not nearly as tough as St. Nazaire".

Captain J. L. Ryan of "Sweetpea" said: "I noticed what might have been a capital ship. I figured we'd get heavy flak ... but there wasn't enough to bother us."

Captain Richard Riordan, recently awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) for bringing home three crippled "Forts", said that the raid was one of his easiest missions: "We came home on all four engines and that was an agreeable change."

Major E. R. T. Holmes, the Surrey and England batsman, now a flak specialist, flew in the raid and took over a gun when the gunner was injured. He praised tight formations of the Americans. Three Fortresses failed to return.

Aircraft carrier HMS Triumph laid down.

Submarine HMS Golet laid down.

Minesweepers HMS Gozo and Tattoo launched.

GERMANY: U-297 laid down.

U-309 and U-507 commissioned.

U.S.S.R.: The railway line between Leningrad and Moscow is reopened, enabling supplies to be delivered to the starving population.

PACIFIC OCEAN: During the submarine USS Wahoo's third war patrol, Wahoo encounters a convoy of eight Japanese ships, including two freighters and a tanker. However, efforts to gain a position are foiled by a persistent destroyer escort who drops six depth charges. Though all her torpedoes were expended and she only had 40 rounds of 4-inch ammunition left, Commander Morton rather rashly decided to attack on the surface. An escorting destroyer drove him deep. When WAHOO surfaced, Morton sent, "Another running gun fight ... destroyer gunning .... WAHOO running". (Marc James Small and Jack McKillop)

U.S.A.: Destroyer escorts USS Camp, Dionne, Hurst and Cabana laid down.

Destroyer USS Doyle commissioned.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-376 had to break off her patrol in the North Atlantic when some crewmembers were wounded in an air attack.

At 0925, the unescorted MS Cape Decision was hit by two torpedoes from

, as she steered a zigzag course in clear weather and moderate seas. The torpedoes struck on port side between the #4 and #5 hatches with an interval of less than ten seconds. The explosions did not do much visual damage but quickly stopped the ship. The blasts damaged the ship throughout and knocked out the electrical system, which halted the engines. As the ship settled by the stern, her complement of nine officers, 36 men, 26 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in, one 3in and eight 20mm guns) and six US Army passengers abandoned ship in the two lifeboats and two of the four rafts. Two of the armed guards remained at their gun until the last moment and had to jump overboard. The master jumped into the water and brought the exhausted men, which were in danger of being caught by the suction of the sinking ship to his lifeboat. The U-boat moved around the stern at periscope depth and fired a third torpedo at 09.55 hours, which struck on the starboard side in the engine room. The vessel immediately began to list to port and sank five minutes later. U-105 surfaced, questioned the survivors and directed them to the nearest land. The third assistant engineer and an able seaman were taken aboard, but were later put back into the boats after checking their papers. The survivors distributed the men evenly between the two boats. The boat of the master with 21 crewmen, three passengers and 16 armed guards reached Bridgetown, Barbados nine days later having travelled 957 miles. The boat of the chief mate with 37 men arrived at Saint Barthelemy, French West Indies, 14 days after the sinking and were provided with food and medicine by the natives.

At 1807, SS Julia Ward Howe was torpedoed by U-442 about 175 miles south of the Azores. The ship was a straggler from the convoy UGS-4 due to heavy weather. One torpedo struck on the starboard side between #3 hold and the deckhouse. The explosion blew off the #3 hatch cover, wrecked two lifeboats, and destroyed the radio equipment. The ship immediately took a 15° list but flooded slowly afterwards and gradually righted herself on an even keel. Three shots from the after 5in gun (the ship was also armed with one 3in and eight 20mm guns) were fired in the direction of the U-boat. The eight officers, 36 crewmen, 29 armed guards and one passenger (US Army security officer) abandoned ship in two lifeboats and two rafts. The master, one armed guard and the passenger were lost. 40 minutes after the attack, a coup de grâce struck amidships and broke the ship in two. The U-boat then surfaced and questioned the crew, taking the second mate on board for closer examination. Then the mate was released and the U-boat left. The rafts were secured to the lifeboats and they set sail for the Azores. After 15 hours, the survivors were picked up by the Portuguese destroyer Lima about 330 miles southwest of the Azores and landed at Ponta Delgada, but the chief engineer died of wounds on the rescue ship.

At 2043, U-514 fired three torpedoes at the Liberty ship Charles C. Pinckney. A lookout spotted one of the torpedoes 750 yards away approaching the ship off the port bow. The master tried to evade, but one torpedo struck just abaft the stem. The explosion ignited a portion of the cargo, the blast blew the bow off forward of the #1 hold and created a pillar of flame that shot skyward. The engines were immediately secured and the most of the nine officers, 32 crewmen, 27 armed guards and two US Army security officers abandoned ship in four lifeboats and one raft. A portion of the gun crew and the gunnery officer remained on board and opened fire at 23.08 hours, as U-514 surfaced 200 yards away. They claimed several hits and the sinking of the U-boat, but U-514 made an emergency dive and escaped undamaged. The crew reboarded the vessel, but the chief engineer discovered that he could not get steam up. At 23.26 hours, a coup de grâce from U-514 missed, but a second fired at 00.11 hours on 28 January hit and all survivors abandoned ship a second time. U-514 surfaced and questioned the men in the lifeboats. Then U-514 left her victim in sinking condition, which later sank over the bow. The four lifeboats set sail, but during the night of 28 January, they became separated. On 8 February, the second mate, four men and nine armed guards in one boat were picked up by the Swiss steam merchant Caritas I and landed at Horta, Fayal Island, Azores. The other three boats with eight officers, 28 men, 18 armed guards and two passengers were never found.

27 January 1944

January 27th, 1944 (THURSDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: USAAF Captain James Stewart is promoted to the rank of Major.

London: Churchill lays down two priorities for Bomber Command: first to bomb targets on the continent, and second, to drop supplies to resistance fighters.

Rescue tug HMS Emphantric commissioned.

Submarine HMS Subtle launched.

GERMANY: U-1202 is commissioned

U.S.S.R.: The blockade of Leningrad is lifted. This has continued for 872 days and took the lives of over a million people. The news was announced by General Govorov, the planner and commander of the onslaught which drove the Germans away from the beleaguered city. In an order of the day he announced: "The city of Leningrad has been completely freed from the enemy blockade and the barbaric artillery shelling."

Addressing his troops, sailors of the Baltic fleet and "workers of the city of Lenin", Govorov said that in 12 days' fighting the Red Army had liberated 700 places and driven back the Germans along the whole front for 40 to 60 miles.

Leningrad had suffered grievous damage. Many of its fine buildings have been destroyed by shelling and bombing. In the occupied southern suburbs the retreating Germans looted and set fire to buildings, and left the bodies of partisans hanging from the trees.

As the sound of gunfire faded from the city for the first time for nearly two and a half years, the people, gaunt and tired, emerged from their shelters to celebrate in the unusual safety of the streets.

They are the true victors of the siege. They withstood everything that the Germans threw at them. They watched their families die of starvation. They ate bread made of sawdust. Some even ate the dead. One million citizens died, mainly from hunger, along with 150,000 troops. But their city has become an example to the world that Hitler's military might could be defied.

Now, as they celebrate their release, their liberators are rushing on to the west in great strength, outnumbering Field Marshal von Kuchler's weakened Army Group North in men, arms and aircraft.

The Red Army is now approaching the German defence zone codenamed "Panther", which runs south from the Gulf of Finland, along the river Narva and the banks of Lakes Peipus and Pskovskoye, to the town of Ostrov. Hitler thinks the "Northern Wall" is impregnable: that remains to be seen.

LIBERIA: The government of Liberia declared war on Germany and Japan.

CANADA: Frigate HMS Ettrick transferred to RCN while under refit Halifax, Nova Scotia. Became HMCS Ettrick.

Tug HMCS Parksville assigned to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

U.S.A.: Atrocity stories on the treatment by the Japanese of American and Filipino soldiers after the surrender of Bataan and Corregidor disclosed in official reports of the United States Army and Navy.

Destroyer escort USS Bowers commissioned.

Destroyer escort USS Bray laid down.

Submarine USS Razorback, Redfish, Ronquil and Scabbardfish launched.

Destroyer escorts USS Alfred Wolf and Groves launched.

ARGENTINA: Buenos Aires breaks off diplomatic relations with Berlin. (Mike Yared)

27 January 1945

January 27th, 1945 (SATURDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: U 1172 Sunk in St George´s Channel, in position 52.24N, 05.42W, by depth charges from the British frigates HMS Tyler, Keats and Bligh. 52 dead (all hands lost). (Alex Gordon)

Corvette HMCS Long Branch departed Londonderry for Halifax, Nova Scotia.

FRANCE: German gains in the Ardennes are eliminated.

Lyons: Charles Maurras, the leader of Action Français, is sentenced to life imprisonment for collaborating with the Nazis.

GERMANY: U-3028 is commissioned.

POLAND: KL (Konzentrationslager) Auschwitz liberated by Soviet troops. (Jason Leech)

Auschwitz-Birkenau: At midday, the four young Soviet cavalrymen, guns at the ready, came cautiously down the road that surrounded the camp. Looking through the barbed wire, they saw living skeletons moving slowly in a landscape of corpses sprawled in the snow, punctuated by broken-down and burnt huts. The Red Army had stumbled upon the Nazis' biggest extermination camp.

As the booming Russian artillery came nearer, the Nazis attempted to conceal the traces of their hideous mass murder. They have burnt most of the camp's carefully maintained records. Nine days ago they evacuated the 20,000 prisoners with the most chance of survival. Those who were too weak to walk out of the camp were shot dead. The rest have been dispersed to other camps further west. Anyone falling behind on the long march to their new destination was shot and thrown into a ditch.

Meanwhile the SS blew up the crematoria and gas chambers, and set fire to the clothing stores, destroying 29 of the camp's 35 warehouses. In the remainder, the Russians have found huge piles of suits, dresses, children's clothing, shoes, carpets, shaving brushes, spectacles and false teeth. Enormous numbers of suitcases bear hotel labels from all over Europe; trade marks on clothing show that the victims came from countries as far apart as Hungary and the Netherlands.

The Germans left only a few hundred inmates behind in the camp's hospital block, most of them sick with diptheria, scarlet fever or typhus. In the last few days they have led a twilight existence roaming the unguarded camp, a ragged hollow-eyed, feverish horde, rifling the deserted and burnt huts for fuel and food. They have peered out through the fog at the Wehrmacht tanks and lorries retreating around them, and tentatively breached the wire to gather potatoes. Now, they regard the young Red Army troops with a jaundiced stare: can the nightmare really be over? Or is there more to come?

(From the Memoirs of Yakov Vinnichenko in the Guardian, Tuesday January 25, 2005)

At about 4am on January 27 we approached Oswiecim (Auschwitz). It is a small town on the Sola river. We didn't even know there was a concentration camp there.

The Germans had far better weapons than us, and their rations were excellent, not like the gruel we had. Sometimes we didn't even get that and went hungry for days. The Germans also had warm clothing, but we looked like riffraff by 1945: our clothes were threadbare, and we had no decent boots or blankets. It was mild for January. There was no snow, which we needed to melt in our pots to get water.

We won that war with our bodies. We would lose seven of our men for each German. It was tough in Auschwitz, too. The Germans deployed artillery and submachine guns outside the camp. They shot at us from the watchtowers and barracks. The fight raged for about five hours, and we lost many men. Then they pulled back.

When we entered the camp, we gasped: barbed wire everywhere, everyone in striped clothes and caps. The prisoners could barely walk: they looked like shadows or ghosts, they were so skinny. Some could not even move, others were supported by friends. They tried to talk to us, but we could not understand them: there were people from different countries, including many Jews from France, Poland and even Palestine. At the time of our assault there were 7-10,000 people in the camp - I learned after the war that the Germans had earlier shipped hundreds of thousands of prisoners to Germany and continued to use them for forced labour. But those left behind were barely alive.

At first, when they saw us, they could not believe they were free. But when they understood, some began to laugh, others broke down crying. Many tried to kiss us, but they looked so horrible that we kept away so as not to catch some bug. Many asked for food, but we didn't have any. Our support units arrived the next day and got busy with the prisoners, feeding and washing them. But we only stayed for a couple of hours. It was a horrible scene. We went into a filthy women's barrack, with bunks in tiers and bloodstains on some of them.

The Germans had not expected everything would move so fast: we carried out the operation very quickly. They hadn't had time to blow up anything or plant mines. There was a huge construction site next to the camp: prisoners were building a chemicals plant. There were not just camp inmates working there, but also tens of thousands of civilians shipped from the USSR.

The grim barracks stood in rows and, from a distance, looked like a factory - and it was a real factory of death. I saw a great deal in the war, but nothing so horrible or awesome as that camp. The experience gave us a new energy and determination to put an end to the abomination of nazism. Our men did not spare their lives - we knew our cause was just. In a few days we moved on to the west, and I was again gravely wounded, now on German territory, at a place called Lonau.

(Jim Davies)

EASTERN FRONT: The Soviet Army reaches Memel in Lithuania.

Marshal Konev has virtually severed the vital industrial area of Upper Silesia from the rest of the Reich. At the same time, according to German reports, Marshal Zhukov has outflanked Poznan and his forward patrols have reached Bentschen, only 100 miles from Berlin. In the north Marshal Rokossovsky has burst through to the Baltic and cut off East Prussia. About two-thirds of the province has now been captured. Konigsberg, to the north, has been practically cut off and Danzig is threatened. Rokossovsky had to move fast to beat off a desperate final German counter-attack to try to break out to the Vistula.

Meanwhile in Berlin the Volkssturm, consisting largely of old men and schoolboys, is to fight on. The streets are being cleared of refugees to make way for reinforcements. German radio is preparing the people for disaster: "This is our last chance. Victory or destruction is the slogan guiding the fate of the German people."

BURMA: The Ledo Road from Burma to China is finally opened.

ULITHI: USAAF General Curtis LeMay meets with Admirals Spruance and Mitscher for a conference to discuss the projected American invasion of Iwo Jima.

LeMay secured the approval of Nimitz and Harmon for the following supporting operations: 1) picketboat searches on D minus 8 and D minus 5; 2) weather-strike missions by three B-29s operating individually against Tokyo on three nights beginning D minus 4/3 and against Nagoya on three nights beginning D Plus 3/4; 3) major strikes against a primary target in the Tokyo area on D Plus 4; and 4) a diversionary raid against Nagoya on D minus 2."

CANADA: Corvette HMCS Woodstock paid off Esquimalt for conversion to loop layer.

U.S.A.: Liberty magazine cover has a portrait of Captain Thomas H. "Tommy" Wakeman as the face of Army Air Force.

Starting today 40 Consolidated B-32A-5, -10 and -15 aircraft are delivered as unarmed TB-32-CF crew trainers.

Commissioning of USS Higbee, first US Navy ship named after a USN woman.

Destroyers USS Meredith and O'Hare laid down.

Destroyer escort USS Hanna commissioned.

Destroyer USS Stormes commissioned.

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