Today in
World War II History

80 Years Ago—Jan. 13, 1944: Germans make large-scale arrests of Danish resistance members.

Chinese gain control of Tarung River line, driving back the Japanese in the Hukawng Valley in northern Burma.

Strike photo of Kwajalein, Marshall Islands taken by aircraft from USS Enterprise, 30 Jan 1944 (US National Museum of Naval Aviation)

80 Years Ago—Jan. 12, 1944: Germans arrest 74 members of the Solf Circle, a resistance group of German intellectuals; most will be executed.

US begins pre-invasion air strikes on Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands, as US Navy PB4Y Liberators bomb the island.

B-17G of the 94th Bomb Group at Bury St. Edmunds, England, showing damage sustained over Brunswick Germany, 11 January 1944 (USAF Historical Research Agency)

80 Years Ago—Jan. 11, 1944: In a US Eighth Air Force raid on Brunswick, the 94^th Bomb Group makes a rare second run on the target and receives the Distinguished Unit Citation.

Col. James Howard of the US 354^th Fighter Group shoots downs 8 German Bf 110 fighters and earns one of only six Medals of Honor awarded to Army Air Force fighter pilots in WWII, also becomes the first P-51 Mustang ace in the European Theater.

TBF Avenger aircraft from escort carrier USS Block Island severely damage German U-boat U-758 with the first use of forward-firing rockets by the US Navy.

Rocket attack on German submarine U-758 by TBF Avengers from USS Block Island northeast of the Azores, 11 Jan 1944 (US Navy photo: 80-G-222841)

Count Galeazzo Ciano, 1936, and Edda Mussolini Ciano (both photos public domain via Wikipedia)

80 Years Ago—Jan. 10, 1944: Eighteen Italian Fascist leaders are sentenced to death for opposing Mussolini, including Count Galeazzo Ciano, husband of Mussolini’s daughter, Edda; they will be executed the next day; Edda Ciano escaped to Switzerland the day before with Ciano’s war diaries; she will be secretly interned in a convent, and the diaries will be published.

Flight nurses of the 807th MAETS show their worn-out shoes after their two-month trek through Albania, 9 January 1944 (US Air Force photo)

80 Years Ago—Jan. 9, 1944: Flight nurses and medics from the US 807th Medical Air Evacuation Transport Squadron who crash-landed in Albania in November 1943 arrive back in Italy after two months behind enemy lines.

Lockheed XP-80A Shooting Star “Gray Ghost,” 1944 (USAF photo)

80 Years Ago—Jan. 8, 1944: First flight of US Lockheed XP-80 Shooting Star jet fighter at Muroc Army Air Base, CA, but it won’t be ready for combat until the war is over.

Gen. Sir Henry Maitland Wilson officially replaces Gen. Dwight Eisenhower as Supreme Allied Commander, Mediterranean.

US Douglas C-47 transport plane taking off near Man Wing, Burma (US Army Center of Military History)

80 Years Ago—Jan. 7, 1944: In Second Arakan Campaign in Burma, RAF & US Tenth Air Force begin air supply to isolated West African troops.

Former First Lady Lou Henry Hoover dies of a heart attack, age 69.

Lt. Gen. James Doolittle and Maj. Gen. Curtis LeMay at a US Eighth Air Force airfield in Britain, 1944 (USAF photo)

80 Years Ago—Jan. 6, 1944: Soviets cross the Polish border near Olevsk.

Maj. Gen. James Doolittle assumes command of the US Eighth Air Force in England.

US Navy Task Force 58 is established under Rear Adm. Marc Mitscher; with 6 carriers, 6 light carriers & 700 aircraft, it’s the largest fleet in the world at the time.

B-17G Flying Fortress Shoo Shoo Baby of the 91st Bomb Group (USAF Museum)

80 Years Ago—Jan. 5, 1944: The 91^st Bombardment Group becomes the first bomber group in the US Eighth Air Force in England to complete 100 missions.

Gregorio Diamare and the ecclesiastical authorities of Monte Cassino abbey giving German Luftwaffe troops permission to remove artwork to Germany, 4 Jan 1944 (German Federal Archive: Bild 101I-729-0005-25)

80 Years Ago—Jan. 4, 1944: Church authorities at the Abbey of Monte Cassino in Italy give the Luftwaffe permission to remove artwork to Germany.

Mussolini’s Fascist government in northern Italy seizes Jewish assets and forbids Jews from owning land or stock.

Future Nobel Laureate Ralph Bunche becomes the first African-American officer in the US State Department, appointed to a post in the Near East and African Section.