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• In an effort to stop Spain from supplying Germany with war materials and to withdraw her troops from the Russian Front, the US and Britain announced an oil embargo. This embargo will last about 4 months until Franco finally gave in. ww2dbase [TH]
• Several German divisions were cut off and surrounded near Cherkassy, Ukraine. ww2dbase [TH]
• USS Pompon arrived at Darwin, Australia, ending her third war patrol. ww2dbase [Pompon | CPC]
• USS Flying Fish ended her eighth war patrol. ww2dbase [Flying Fish | CPC]
• USS Seahorse began an 80-hour chase of a Japanese convoy off the Palau Islands. ww2dbase [Seahorse | CPC]
• Kamoi was damaged by five torpedoes from USS Bowfin in the Makassar Strait at 2200 hours; she was beached to avoid sinking. ww2dbase [Kamoi | CPC]
• At Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Admiral Chester Nimitz and Rear Admiral James Kauffman, Commander Destroyers Pacific, came aboard USS Nicholas and presented the ship’s company with a Presidential Unit Citation for their performance in the action at Kula Gulf, 5-6 July 1943. ww2dbase [Nicholas | Mare Island Navy Yard | DS]
• At sea, cruisers USS Honolulu and USS St. Louis met with cruisers USS Montpelier, USS Cleveland, and USS Columbia and conducted fleet exercises. Honolulu and St. Louis then departed for Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides. ww2dbase [Daihatsu-class | Montpelier | St. Louis | Honolulu | DS]

• Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru departed Truk, Caroline Islands. ww2dbase [Hikawa Maru | Truk | CPC]

• Patrol Boat No. 102 departed Balikpapan, Dutch East Indies at 0600 hours for a patrol. ww2dbase [Stewart | Balikpapan, Borneo | CPC]

• 677 RAF aircraft (432 Lancaster, 241 Halifax, and 4 Mosquito) attacked Berlin, Germany; 46 aircraft were lost. ww2dbase [Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | Berlin | CPC]
• Canadian prisoner of war Lieutenant Bill Millar hid underneath a Germany truck at the Oflag IV-C camp at Colditz Castle in Germany during an air raid and was able to escape the camp later when the truck was driven out of the camp. His fate after the escape was unknown, however. ww2dbase [Colditz Castle | Colditz, Sachsen | CPC]

• Destroyer USS Shaw stopped for one night in the Fongafale Anchorage at Funafuti in the Ellice Islands (now Tuvalu) while on her way to the United States for repairs. ww2dbase [Shaw | Funafuti | DS]

• Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Part of Task Group 19.18 departed. Part of ACORN-21 departed. Part of GROPAC-4 departed. ww2dbase [Barbers Point Naval Air Station | Ewa, Oahu | DS]
• USS Grayback departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for her tenth war patrol. ww2dbase [Grayback | Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]

• German Field Marshal Albert Kesselring ordered a counterattack against the Allied beachhead at Anzio, Italy. ww2dbase [Battle of Anzio | Anzio, Lazio | CPC]

• Light carrier Ryuho exited the drydocks at Innoshima, Hiroshima, Japan and moved to Kure, Japan. ww2dbase [Ryuho | Kure, Hiroshima | CPC]
• The keel of landing ship No. 103 was laid down by Osaka Zosen. ww2dbase [No. 101/103-class | CPC]

• Polish AK resistance fighters planned an assassination of German SS commander Franz Kutschera in Warsaw, Poland, but the operation was called off when the target failed to appear as expected. ww2dbase [Operation Kutschera | Warsaw | JR]

• Allied convoy JW-56A arrived at Arkhangelsk, Russia. ww2dbase [Arctic Convoys | Arkhangelsk | CPC]

• Escort carrier USS Bogue arrived in Glasgow, Scotland at the King George V Dock. ww2dbase [Bogue | Glasgow, Scotland | DS]

• The US government released news of the Bataan Death March and Japanese atrocities committed in the Philippine Islands. ww2dbase [Invasion of the Philippine Islands | CPC]

28 Jan 1944 Interactive Map