January 23
Eastern Front, East Prussia
The Soviet 2nd Belorussian Front cuts all road and rail crossings across the Vistula River, isolating German units on the east bank.

Eastern Front, Poland
The Soviet Second Guards Tank Army, part of the 1st Belorussian Front, storms the fortified town of Bromberg, an important strongpoint in the German Poznan Line.

January 27
Eastern Front, Poland
The Red Army liberates the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. The SS has evacuated the camp nine days previously, taking 20,000 weak inmates with them. Those left number a few hundred disease-ridden inmates in the camp's hospital block.

Far East, Burma
Units of the Allied Y Force, pushing across the Shweli River at Wanting, reopen the Burma Road supply route into China.

January 28
Western Front, Ardennes
The last vestiges of the German 'bulge' in the Ardennes are wiped out. The total cost to the Germans in manpower for their Ardennes offensive has been 100,000 killed, wounded, and captured. The Americans have lost 81,000 killed, wounded, or captured, and the British 1400. Both sides have lost heavily in hardware - up to 800 tanks on each side. The Germans have also lost around 1000 aircraft. However, whereas the Americans can make good their losses in just a few weeks, for the Germans the military losses are irreplaceable.

January 28-February 1
Western Front, Ardennes
Two corps of General Courtney Hodges' US First Army and one from General George Patton's US Third Army try to penetrate the German defenses northeast of St. Vith, which lies astride the Losheim Gap. Snow and ice inhibit progress, and the Germans manage to fight back hard, thereby slowing the rate of the US advance.

January 29
Pacific, Philippines
Major General Charles Hall's US XI Corps lands unopposed on the west coast of Luzon just to the north of the Bataan Peninsula.

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