Francisco Franco, leader of Spain, and his wife, Carmen Polo. Wikipedia. Franco had divided loyalties between the Allies and Hitler, forcing the Allies to threaten him until he stopped aiding Germany. Wikipedia.
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.
In Leningrad, Russia, a salute of 324 guns on January 28, 1944, announces to the people of the city that the blockade by the German Army has been lifted after 872 days. Some 830,000 civilians died during the siege, which began on September 8, 1941, when the last road into the city was severed. The United States and Great Britain — to make clear their displeasure about ongoing assistance to the Nazi war effort by Francisco Franco — announce a total oil embargo against Spain. (Holding out at first, but with Spanish life grinding to a virtual standstill, Franco finally agrees to cease supplying the Germans with critical war materials.) The British warn Joseph Stalin that “the creation in Warsaw of another government other than that now recognized, as well as [causing] disturbances in Poland, would confront Great Britain and the United States with a problem, which would preclude agreement among the great powers.”
American troops land in the Admiralty Islands, part of the Bismarck Archipelago, north of Papua-New Guinea, on January 29. The Luftwaffe drops 40 tons of bombs on London, while 800 USAAF bombers drop 1,800 tons of bombs on the German cities Frankfurt am Main and Ludwigshafen. The RAF hits Berlin for the 14th time. U.S. Navy Task Force 58, under Adm. Marc Mitscher, bombs and shells Japanese targets on Roi, Namur, Maloelap and Wotje in the Marshall Islands.
In the Pacific, “Operation Flintlock” begins on January 30 as U.S. troops invade Majuro, in the Marshall Islands — the first assault on pre-war territory held by the Japanese. The strategy is to concentrate on key islands and their airbases. Once these are taken, enemy garrisons on smaller islets will be bypassed and starved into submission. In Italy, the British 5th Division of X Corps, U.S. Fifth Army, breaks through the German Gustav Line. In Berlin, Adolf Hitler addresses the public via radio on the eleventh anniversary of the Nazis’ coming to power. Der Führer gives few details about the war, instead spending most of his speech emphasizing that Germany remains Europe’s only bastion against communism.
American forces on January 31 land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands, including Roi and Namur, in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands. The landing on Roi makes rapid headway. The assault on Namur meets heavy Japanese resistance. Meanwhile, some 300 miles to the northwest, the Allies capture and occupy Majuro, also in the Marshall Islands. Some 17 miles northwest of the major Japanese base at Truk Lagoon (1,100 miles northeast of Papua-New Guinea), the American submarine USS Trigger torpedoes and sinks the Japanese transport ship Yasukuni Maru. There are only 43 survivors of the 1,231 aboard.
In the Pacific, Roi and Namur islands are declared secured on February 1. Elsewhere on Kwajalein Atoll, battles continue. Almost all 3,700 Japanese defenders of Roi and Namur have been killed. American casualties: 740 killed and wounded. In Europe, Stalin agrees to let the U.S. Army Air Forces use air bases in the Soviet Union.
American planes on February 2 bomb Eniwetok Island, in the Marshall Islands, later to become a major B-29 base. In Italy, an Allied attempt to break out of the Anzio beachhead ends after an advance of just three miles in three days. The Germans prepare for their first counterattacks against the troops at Anzio.
Kwajalein, the world’s largest coral atoll and formerly a major Japanese naval base, is declared secured on February 3. U.S. Marine casualties are 486 killed and 1,495 wounded; the Japanese suffer 8,386 killed, wounded and missing.
