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• Roosevelt created the War Refugee Board in response to political pressure that demanded action to help Jews in occupied Europe. ww2dbase [Franklin Roosevelt | CPC]

• Submarine USS Bowfin returned to Australia early for replacement torpedoes after several malfunctions. She put into Darwin where Rear Admiral Ralph Christie, submarine commander for the aera, came aboard to sail with Bowfin and watch the torpedo performance first hand. ww2dbase [Bowfin | Darwin | DS]

• Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Part of CASU-30 departed. ww2dbase [Barbers Point Naval Air Station | Ewa, Oahu | DS]

• Adolf Hitler ordered that the Gustav Line in Italy was to be held at all costs. Meanwhile, French forces attacked north of Monte Cassino and US 34th Infantry Division attacked across the Rapido River north of Cassino. ww2dbase [Battle of Monte Cassino | TH, CPC]
• At Anzio, Italy, Private George Mitchell charged alone through intense machine-gun fire, jumped into the weapon pit and killed the crew. Shortly afterwards, he similarly assaulted a second position, killing six of the enemy and taking 12 prisoners. He was killed moments later when one of the Germans who had supposedly surrendered snatched up a discarded rifle and shot him. Mitchell was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross medal. ww2dbase [Anzio, Lazio | AC]
• German forces in the Anzio, Italy region increased to over 40,000 men. ww2dbase [Battle of Anzio | Anzio, Lazio | CPC]
• Junio Valerio Borghese was released from imprisonment in Italy. ww2dbase [Junio Valerio Borghese | CPC]

• Destroyer USS Shaw stopped for one night at Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides while on her way to the United States for repairs. ww2dbase [Shaw | Segund Channel, Espirtu Santo | DS]

• USS Whale spotted a Japanese submarine and gave chase, but a trim pump fire forced her to abandon chase. ww2dbase [Whale | CPC]

• Violette Szabo made her will, witnessed by Vera Atkins and Major R. A. Bourne Paterson of Special Operations Executive, naming her mother Reine as executrix and her daughter Tania as sole beneficiary. ww2dbase [Violette Szabo | Vera Atkins | CPC]

• Task Group 21.14 (TG 21.14) was reformed at Norfolk, Virginia as an anti-submarine Hunter-Killer group centered around escort carrier USS Card with the TBF-1C Avengers and FM-2 Wildcats of Composite Squadron VC-55 embarked and with escorts of destroyers USS Livermore, Jacob Jones, and Hammann and destroyer escorts USS Robert E. Peary and Blair. TG 21.14 departed Norfolk bound for the Central Atlantic that same day. ww2dbase [Norfolk Navy Yard | Card | Norfolk, Virginia | DS]

24 Jan 1944 Interactive Map