Today in
World War II History

US Army troops land at Anzio, Italy, while ships are bombed by the Luftwaffe, January 1944 (US Army photo)

80 Years Ago—Jan. 23, 1944: Australians take Shaggy Ridge in the Finisterre Mountains of New Guinea, securing the Huon Peninsula.

Countdown to D-day: Gen. Dwight Eisenhower approves a 5-division front for D-day rather than the original 3-division front, which necessitates postponing the invasion date from May 1 to June 1 to obtain enough LSTs (landing ship, tank).

Off Anzio, Luftwaffe bombers sink British destroyer HMS Janus with a glide bomb and damage destroyer HMS Jervis with a Fritz-X bomb.

Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (“The Scream”) dies in Oslo, age 80; his art is banned by the Nazi occupiers.

US DUKWs landing troops at Anzio, Italy, 22 January 1944 (US National Archives)

80 Years Ago—Jan. 22, 1944: US and British troops land at Anzio, Italy, establish a solid beachhead, and secure the towns of Anzio and Nettuno.

US War Refugee Board is established to resettle European Jews in the US.

Air Marshal Sir Roderick Hill is shown the wreckage of a German Junkers Ju 188 bomber shot down by the RAF over Essex on the night of 21 March 1944 during the Little Blitz (Imperial War Museum CH 12537)

80 Years Ago—Jan. 21, 1944: The “Little Blitz” begins (Operation Steinbock), a renewed German air offensive on England: 447 German bombers attack London at night, the largest air raid since July 1942.

In Italy, Allied ships bombard Civitavecchia to deceive Germans about the next day’s landings at Anzio.

US casualties being brought back from the Rapido in Italy, January 1944. (US Army Center of Military History)

80 Years Ago—Jan. 20, 1944: US Fifth Army makes first attempt to cross the Rapido River in Italy with heavy casualties, forms a small bridgehead north of Sant’ Angelo.

US poster, WWII

80 Years Ago—Jan. 19, 1944: ANZAC Conference begins in Canberra, Australia: Australia and New Zealand discuss postwar relations with US and UK.

British X Corps makes 14 failed attempts to cross the upper Garigliano River in Italy, thus failing to protect US Fifth Army’s left flank for Rapido crossings the next day.

US government returns railways to control of owners after wage dispute is settled.

Poster for US Fourth War Loan Drive, 1/18/44-2/15/44

80 Years Ago—Jan. 18, 1944: US Fourth War Loan Drive begins, runs through February 15; sales made in pharmacies are designated for C-47 ambulance planes. Read more: “World War II War Bonds.”

US Navy PBY Catalinas based in Morocco carrying Magnetic Anomaly Detection (MAD) gear begin barrier patrols across the Straits of Gibraltar to detect U-boats transiting submerged at night.

Metropolitan Opera House in New York City holds its first jazz concert, featuring Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Artie Shaw, Roy Eldridge, and Jack Teagarden.

British X Corps shuttling ambulances across the Garigliano River, January 1944 (US Army Center for Military History)

80 Years Ago—Jan. 17, 1944: British X Corps crosses lower Garigliano River in Italy, officially beginning the Battle of Cassino.

US Army and Marines secure Arawe area on New Britain in the Solomons.

Cdr. Frank Erickson, USCG & Dr. Igor Sikorsky, Sikorsky Helicopter HNS-1 C.G. #39040, 14 August 1944 (US Coast Guard photo 232-8)

80 Years Ago—Jan. 16, 1944: Countdown to D-day: Gen. Dwight Eisenhower assumes command of SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Forces) in London for Operation Overlord (D-day).

Japanese make final counterattack on New Britain in the Solomons, but fail.

Lt. Stewart Graham of the US Coast Guard becomes the first person to make a helicopter takeoff and landing aboard a ship underway—in a Sikorsky HNS-1 on British cargo ship Daghestan in the North Atlantic.

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, 31 Dec 1943 (US National Archives: USA C-2182)

Lt. Gen. Ira Eaker, 1945 (US Army Air Force photo)

80 Years Ago—Jan. 15, 1944: The Allied Winter Line campaign in Italy is complete as the Germans retreat over the Rapido River to the Gustav Line.

Lt. Gen. Ira Eaker assumes command of Mediterranean Allied Air Forces (US Twelfth & Fifteenth Air Forces, as well as RAF, Italian, and French air units in the Mediterranean).

New songs in Top Ten: “My Ideal” and “Star Eyes.”

US recruiting poster for the Navy Seabees, WWII

80 Years Ago—Jan. 14, 1944: Countdown to D-day: Gen. Dwight Eisenhower arrives in London for planning of Operation Overlord (D-day).

Eligibility for the draft is restored for Japanese-American Nisei, causing mixed reactions in internment camps.

US Navy Seabees in camps in US get a sneak preview of John Wayne’s movie The Fighting Seabees.

US War Relocation Authority Center at Manzanar, CA, 3 July 1942 (Photographer: Dorothea Lange; US National Archives: 538128)