US troops and vehicles in Bastogne, which resisted
all German assaults in December 1944
and January 1945

The US 7th Fleet prior to the assault on LUzon.
The Consolidated Catalinas are from the
Air-Sea Rescue Squadron

January 1
Eastern Front, Czechoslovakia
The Soviet 2nd and 4th Ukrainian Fronts begin an offensive against the German Army Group Center in Czechoslovakia. The German-held area contains the last foreign industrial resources under the control of the Third Reich. The Soviet Fronts between them have 853,000 men, 9986 guns, 590 tanks, and 1400 combat aircraft. German forces total 550,000 men, 5000 guns, and 700 combat aircraft. Despite German fortifications and resistance, the Red Army makes good progress.

January 1-21
Western Front, France
In a follow up to the attack in the Ardennes sector, General Johannes von Blaskowitz's Army Group G attacks the US Seventh Army in Alsace and Lorraine, forming the so-called Colmar Pocket. The Americans retreat, although General Dwight D. Eisenhower, commander-in-chief of Allied forces in Europe, orders Strasbourg to be held after the leader of the Free French, General Charles de Gaulle, expresses concern that the loss of the city would affect French morale. The fighting is bitter. It costs the US 15,600 casualties, and the Germans, 25,000.

January 1-27
Far East, Burma
The Chinese units of Lieutenant General Daniel Sultan's Northern Combat Area Command and Marshal Wei Lihuang's Y Force link up in northern Burma in the face of significant resistance from the Japanese 56th Division.

January 2
Technology, united states
An American Sikorsky helicopter is used in convoy escort duties for the first time.

January 3-4
Pacific, Ryukyus
The US 3rd Fleet attacks Japanese targets on Formosa, destroying 100 enemy aircraft.

January 3-16
Western Front, Ardennes
The last German attack against Bastogne is defeated. The Allied counterattack begins: on the northern flank the US First Army attacks the northern sector of the 'bulge,' while the southern sector is assaulted by the US Third Army. In the 'bulge' itself, Hitler orders a German withdrawal to Houffalize on the 8th. However, in the face of overwhelming Allied superiority in men and hardware the Germans are forced to retreat farther east, and the US First and Third Armies link up at Houffalize on the 16th.

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