Diary WW2

Monday, January 29, 1940 Finland Winter War: Battle of Kuhmo begins. Finns encircle Russian 54th Division at Kuhmo, in the ‘Waist’. Heavy Russian air raids on Finnish ports. Politics Russia […]

Monday, January 29, 1945 Russian Front Poland: Zhukov encircles large German garrison in Poznan. Sea War Baltic: German heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen and destroyers bombard advancing Russian forces on East

Sunday, January 28, 1940 Home Fronts Britain: Director of Censorship permits newspapers belatedly to reveal details of Britain’s (MAIN EVENT) the coldest winter since 1894: River Thames and Southampton Docks

Sunday, January 28, 1945 China First supply convoy reaches China via Ledo Road. Western Front Ardennes: US 1st Army attacks east of St Vith. Air War Europe: 1,000 bombers of

Saturday, January 27, 1940 Home Fronts Britain: Winston Churchill (uneasy at slow increase in war production) speaks at Free Trade Hall, Manchester: ‘each to our station … there is not

Saturday, January 27, 1945 Russian Front Zhukov‘s forces now only 161 km from Berlin; Memel falls. Sea War Atlantic: 5 ships sunk by U-boat U-1232 off Halifax during January.

Friday, January 26, 1940 Home Fronts France: Paul Ferdonnet, the ‘Radio Traitor’ – notorious for his pro-Nazi broadcasts in French language from Stuttgart – is tried in absentia by a

Friday, January 26, 1945 Russian Front Rokossovsky breaks through the Gulf of Danzig, virtually isolating German forces in East Prussia. Western Front Lieutenant Audie Murphy, most decorated US soldier of

Thursday, January 25, 1945 Sea War Baltic – GREATEST EVACUATION IN HISTORY: 1,500,000­ – 2,000,000 German troops and civilians rescued by May 8 from East Prussia, Pomerania and Courland in

Thursday, January 25, 1940 Occupied countries Poland – ‘Goring-Frank Circular’: all material resources and manpower to be ruthlessly exploited for the immediate benefit of the Reich (copies of this top-secret

Wednesday, January 24, 1945 Sea War Indian Ocean: British Pacific Fleet carriers attack Pladjoe and Soengi-Gerong oil refineries at Palembang, Sumatra (January 24 and 29): Pladjoe plant severely damaged and

Wednesday, January 24, 1940 Finland Winter War: Fierce fighting northeast of Lake Ladoga. Finns repel all attacks.

Tuesday, January 23, 1940 Home Fronts Britain: Large number of road accidents in the ‘black-out’ necessitates reduction in speed limit from 30 mph (ca. 48 km/h) to 20 mph (ca.

Tuesday, January 23, 1945 Russian Front Konev‘s forces reach river Oder on 64-km front. Zhukov captures Bromberg. Himmler takes personal command of ‘Army Group Vistula‘. Home Fronts France: Charles Maurras,

Monday, January 22, 1945 Sea War North Sea: German E-boats attack convoy north of Dunkirk. German 8th S-boat Flotilla penetrates into Thames Estuary.

Monday, January 22, 1940 Finland Winter War: Finnish authorities announce the formation of a Foreign Legion, including British volunteers.

Sunday, January 21, 1904 Air War Finland: Finnish Blenheim bombers raid Kronstadt naval base, near Leningrad (today St Petersburg). Russians bomb Oulu, northwest Finland. Sea War North Sea: RN destroyer

Sunday, January 21, 1945 Russian Front East Prussia: Rokossovsky captures Tannenberg.

Saturday, January 20, 1945 Russian Front 3rd Belorussian Front (Chernia­khovsky) captures Tilsit, East Prussia. Politics Armistice between Pro­visional National Government (Communists) of Hungary and the Allies: war declared on Germany

Saturday, January 20, 1940 Politics Britain: Churchill broadcasts appeal to neutral States to join Britain and France in resisting Nazi aggression. He compares their timid conduct with the crocodile’s victims