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• Some time during this month, Oberleutnant Otto Wermuth took command of German submarine U-530. ww2dbase [U-530 | CPC]
• Fregattenkapitän Frotz-Henning Brandes took command of cruiser Köln. ww2dbase [Köln | CPC]
• Captain Chuzaburo Yamazumi was named the chief of staff of the Japanese Navy 3rd Air Fleet. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Heinz Guderian requested Adolf Hitler to allow reinforcements to be sent to German units in Hungary and Poland. ww2dbase [Heinz Guderian | CPC]
• Léon Degrelle was promoted to the rank of SS-Obersturmbannführer. ww2dbase [Léon Degrelle | CPC]

• German submarine control requested a position report from U-869 which was operating in the Atlantic Ocean; the crew did not respond. ww2dbase [U-869 | CPC]

• USS Pintado arrived in Brisbane, Australia, ending her third war patrol. ww2dbase [Pintado | Brisbane, Queensland | CPC]

• German troops began a withdrawal from the Ardennes Forest in the Belgian-German border region. Meanwhile, in retaliation for the Malmedy massacre, US troops massacred 80 SS prisoners at Chenogne, Belgium. In the air, the German Luftwaffe launched Unternehmen Bodenplatte, which consisted of 800 aircraft conducting low-level strikes against snow-bound Allied airfields in the Netherlands and Belgium. They destroyed 220 aircraft, mainly on the ground, but lost 188 aircraft of their own, as well as many experienced pilots who could not be replaced. This operation failed to achieve its goal of wiping out Allied air power based in the region. ww2dbase [Battle of the Bulge | TH]

• Escort carrier USS Bogue and her task group departed Bermuda for a week of anti-submarine exercises against friendly Italian submarines RIN Atropo and Tito Speri. ww2dbase [Bogue | Port Royal Bay | DS]

• Fragments from an envelope of a Japanese Fu-Go balloon bomb were found near Stony Rapids, Saskatchewan, Canada. ww2dbase [Fu-Go | Stony Rapids, Saskatchewan | DS]

• US Army troops landed on Fais Island in the Caroline Islands to capture and destroy a Japanese radio station. ww2dbase [Fais | CPC]
• USS Wake Island arrived at Kossol Roads, Palau Islands, loaded ammunition and other supplies, and departed for the Philippine Islands. ww2dbase [Wake Island | Kossol Roads, Palau | CPC]
• Casablanca-class escort carrier USS Steamer Bay departed Kossol Roads in the Palau Islands on her first combat sortie of the war bound for Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines. ww2dbase [Steamer Bay | Kossol Raods, Palau | DS]

• Xiao Yisu was awarded the Order of Blue Sky and White Sun. ww2dbase [Xiao Yisu | CPC]
• Chiang Kaishek made a special radio announcement on the occasion of a New Year's Day, noting that the past 8th year of the war of resistance against the Japanese was the most perilous, but the tide was about to turn. The coming 9th year would be the decisive year in the war against Japan. ww2dbase [Chiang Kaishek | CPC]

• Fairey Firefly Fighters from the No. 1770 Squadron FAA, recently arrived in Ceylon to join the British Pacific Fleet, attacked the Japanese-held oil refineries at Pangkalan Brandan, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies using rocket projectiles (RP). ww2dbase [Firefly | Pangkalan Brandan, Sumatra | AC]
• Destroyer USS Saufley arrived at Hollandia, Humboldt Bay, Dutch New Guinea (now Jayapura, Yos Sudarso Bay, Indonesia), picked up some secret intelligence material, refueled, and departed to rendezvous with a convoy at sea. ww2dbase [Saufley | Hollandia, New Guinea | DS]

• Japanese convoy HI-84 departed Quy Nhon, Annam, French Indochina at 0057 hours. ww2dbase [Stewart | Kaiyo | Awa Maru | Quy Nhon, Annam | CPC]

• When his 9 Squadron Lancaster bomber from Bardney was hit and set on fire in a raid on the Dortmund-Ems canal, wireless operator RAF Flight Sergeant George Thompson gallantly braved the flames to save his mid-upper and rear gunners who were trapped in the inferno. The rear gunner later recovered but Thompson's burns were so severe that three weeks later he developed pneumonia and died in a hospital. He was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. ww2dbase [AC]
• Otto Skorzeny departed Cologne, Germany to return to the field headquarters of German Armored Brigade 150. ww2dbase [Otto Skorzeny | Köln, Köln-Aachen | CPC]
• Ferdinand Schörner was awarded diamonds to his Knight's Cross the Iron Cross medal. ww2dbase [Ferdinand Schörner | CPC]
• Two BQ-7 drones were launched against the power station in Oldenburg in northern Germany. Both drones were shot down by anti-aircraft fire. ww2dbase [Operation Aphrodite and Operation Anvil | Oldenburg, Weser-Ems | CPC]
• The USAAF 306th Bomb Group flying from RAF Thurleigh launched a bombing raid against Magdeburg, Germany but the group became divided and bombed two targets of opportunity, Kassel, Germany and Limburg, Netherlands. ww2dbase [RAF Thurleigh | Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | Kassel | DS]
• Togo departed Königsberg, Germany (now Kaliningrad, Russia). ww2dbase [Togo / Coronel | Königsberg, Ostpreußen | CPC]

• 19 American B-24 bombers based in Saipan, Mariana Islands struck Japanese positions at Iwo Jima. ww2dbase [Battle of Iwo Jima | Iwo Jima | TH]
• USS Kete began lifeguard duty in the Ryukyu Islands in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. ww2dbase [Kete | Okinawa | CPC]
• Five Japanese submarines departed Inland Sea, Japan with Kaiten submarines aboard. I-36 sailed for Ulithi in the Caroline Islands, I-48 for Hollandia in New Guinea, I-53 for Palau Islands, I-56 for the Admiralty Islands, and I-58 for Guam in the Mariana Islands. ww2dbase [Kaiten-class | I-58 | CPC]

• US aircraft attacked Japanese airfields on Negros Island, Philippine Islands. ww2dbase [Philippines Campaign, Phase 2 | Negros | CPC]
• US aircraft attacked Clark Field on Luzon Island of the Philippine Islands. ww2dbase [Clark Field | Philippines Campaign, Phase 2 | Angeles, Pampanga | CPC]

• 100 male and 100 female Polish prisoners of the Gestapo from block 11 in Auschwitz I camp were transferred by SS doctor Fritz Klein to the chief of Auschwitz II-Birkenau Crematorium V Erich Muhsfeldt. Muhsfeldt's men executed these police prisoners by firing squad. ww2dbase [Auschwitz Concentration Camp | Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Oswiecim | CPC]

• HMS Cumberland under refit by HM Dockyard Simonstown, South Africa. ww2dbase [Cumberland | Simonstown | DS]

• Air Vice Marshal J. W. Baker became the commanding officer of the No. 12 Group RAF. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Andrew Geddes was mentioned in despatches. ww2dbase [Andrew Geddes | CPC]

• A group of German prisoners of war, having escaped from Camp Papago Park in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, were captured 30 miles north of the US-Mexico border. ww2dbase [Camp Papago Park | Arizona | CPC]

1 Jan 1945 Interactive Map