Soviet machine-gunners near Detskoye Selo railway station in Pushkin, January 21, 1944 during the Leningrad Novgorod offensive.
By Phil Kohn
Dedicated to the memory of his father, GM3 Walter Kohn, U.S. Navy Armed Guard, USNR, and all men and women who have answered the country’s call in time of need. Phil can be contacted at ww2remembered@yahoo.com.
On January 14, 1944, attempting to break the German blockade of Leningrad, Russia (the siege began on September 8, 1941), the Soviet Second Shock Army attacks from the Oranienbaum bridgehead to the west of the city, while the Soviet Fifty-Ninth Army attacks toward Novgorod, located south of Leningrad. On New Britain, in the Bismarck Archipelago, fighting continues around Cape Gloucester, held by the U.S. 1st Marine Division. In London, the Polish government-in-exile states that it refuses to accept unilateral decisions about Polish territory and that it is approaching the governments of the U.S. and the U.K. to mediate “all outstanding questions….” (The U.S.S.R. has stated it wants Poland’s borders moved westward.)
The Soviet Forty-Seventh Army on January 15 attacks the Germans from Pulkovo Heights, south of Leningrad. The government of Peru announces its discovery of Axis-backed conspirators plotting a coup. In Italy, the U.S. II Corps captures Monte Trocchio, about 4 miles southeast of Cassino. In Yugoslavia, the Germans begin a new offensive against Tito’s anti-Nazi Partisans; Tito is forced to move his headquarters 65 miles farther west, deeper into the mountains of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
U.S. Army Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower on January 16 formally takes up his duties as commander-in-chief, Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), at Bushy Park, Teddington, London.
In Italy, the Battle of Monte Cassino begins as the British X Corps (part of the U.S. Fifth Army) launches attacks on the defensive positions of Gen. Fridolin von Senger und Etterlin’s XIV Panzer Corps (part of the German Tenth Army), along the Garigliano River on January 17. Two of X Corps’ three divisions gain bridgeheads over the river, but the offensive is finally repulsed. The U.S.S.R. rejects the Polish government-in-exile’s proposal for negotiations over the locations of the Polish frontiers. In Australia, meat rationing comes to an end.
On January 18, the German 3rdPanzer Army of Army Group Center repels repeated Red Army attacks in the area of Vitebsk, Belorussia, about 300 miles northeast of Minsk, the Belorussian capital, and about 510 miles southwest of Moscow. The Soviets open a narrow corridor south of Lake Ladoga into the besieged city of Leningrad.
The three Soviet Armies around besieged Leningrad (Second Soviet Shock, Fifty-Ninth and Forty-Seventh) link up near Krasnoe on January 19 and continue on the offensive to break the siege. German forces are surrounded in Novgorod, 100 miles to the south of Leningrad, but manage to break out. British troops capture Minturno, Italy, 75 miles southeast of Rome.
The RAF makes its heaviest raid on Berlin on January 20, with 700 bombers dropping more than 2,300 tons of armaments in just over 30 minutes during the 11th raid of the “Battle of Berlin.” The Red Army recaptures Novgorod, Russia, which sits astride the road between Leningrad and Moscow. In Italy, the U.S. II Corps (part of the U.S. Fifth Army) begins attacks across the Rapido River toward the Liri Valley and Monte Cassino. German forces successfully hold their positions. In London, Winston Churchill meets with representatives of the Polish government-in-exile to try to break the impasse with the Soviets over Polish issues. From Paris, some 1,000 Jews are sent off to Auschwitz.
