With Red Army forces about to cross the Polish border, the Polish government-in-exile issued a declaration describing itself as "the only and legal steward and spokesman of the Polish Nation" and calling for the Soviet Union to respect the rights and interests of Poland. The statement also proposed the re-establishment of a liberated republic in Poland as quickly as possible as well as the negotiation of an agreement between the Polish government-in-exile and the Soviet Union that would permit the co-ordination of Polish resistance actions with the Red Army.[8][9][10]
The Verona Trial ended with five death sentences. Tullio Cianetti was the only defendant spared from execution, in light of his having written a letter of apology to Mussolini. He was given a 30-year prison term instead.
The Russians took Lyudvipol, 12 miles inside the 1939 Polish border.[2]
The Soviet Union responded to the Polish declaration of January 5 with a statement through TASS. The Soviet government disputed Polish territorial claims and insisted that the Soviet-Polish border had been determined through "the plebiscite carried out in 1939 on a broad democratic basis". The statement also accused the Polish government-in-exile of being "incapable of establishing friendly relations with the USSR, and has also shown itself incapable of organizing active resistance against German invaders inside Poland. Moreover, by its erroneous policy it has often played into the hands of German invaders."[10][12]
Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle began a two-day conference in Marrakesh, Morocco centered on the co-operation of a French expeditionary force in the Allied invasion of Europe and the administration of France after the invasion.[15]
The director of the United States Typhus Commission warned that Naples faced a serious threat "and the menace can be expected to extend to Southern Italy. No cases have yet been reported among the military forces, but the growing typhus rate is a potential menace to the Allied military effort."[17]
The Japanese destroyer Sazanami was torpedoed and sunk southeast of Yap by the submarine USS Albacore.
The Polish government-in-exile reiterated its refusal to accept unilateral decisions made about Polish territory, but said it was approaching the British and U.S. governments to mediate "all outstanding questions, the settlement of which should lead to friendly and permanent co-operation between Poland and the Soviet Union. The Polish Government believes this to be desirable in the interest of the victory of the United Nations and harmonious relations in post-war Europe."[9][18]
The San Juan earthquake devastated the province of San Juan in Argentina. Some 10,000 people were killed and one-third of the province's population was left homeless.
The U.S. II Corps in Italy captured Monte Trecchio.[6]
German submarine U-377 made her last radio report before being lost in the Atlantic Ocean to an unknown cause, possibly sunk by the British destroyer Wanderer and frigate Glenarm on January 17.
Three divisions of the British X Corps launched an attack across the Garigliano. The river was crossed on the left flank but the Germans held fast on the right.[6]
German submarine U-305 sank in the Atlantic Ocean from an unknown cause.
The Soviet Union rejected Poland's proposal for negotiation over the Polish frontier.[4]
A diplomatic incident occurred when The Soviet newspaper Pravda published a report claiming that representatives of Britain and Germany had met somewhere on the Iberian Peninsula to discuss making a separate peace.[19] The British Foreign Office swiftly denied the rumor in an official message sent to the Soviet government.[20]
Winston Churchill met with representatives of the Polish government-in-exile in an effort to break the diplomatic impasse with the Soviets. Churchill pressed the Poles to accept the Curzon Line as a basis for discussion, explaining that the Soviets' need for security as well as their enormous battlefield sacrifices to liberate Poland from the Germans entitled them to ask for revision of Polish frontiers. Churchill promised in return to challenge Moscow's demand for changes in the Polish government.[8]
The Luftwaffe began Operation Steinbock, a night-time strategic bombing campaign against southern England. On the first day, only 96 of 270 German aircraft reached their targets and some were shot down.[6]
648 aircraft of the RAF were sent to bomb Magdeburg overnight.[22]
The Battle of Anzio began with an Allied amphibious landing in the region of Anzio and Nettuno, with the objective of outflanking German forces at the Winter Line and setting up a drive on Rome.
The British hospital ship St David was bombed and sunk off Anzio despite being well-marked and lit in accordance with laws of war. 96 perished of the 229 aboard.
The Red Army lifted the Siege of Leningrad after 2 years, 4 months, 2 weeks and 5 days.
Nearly 500 Allied bombers raided Berlin in very bad weather. The greatest threat was not anti-aircraft fire or the Luftwaffe which didn't show up, but the danger of collisions in poor visibility.[6]
German submarines U-271 and U-571 were both sunk in the Atlantic Ocean west of Ireland by Allied aircraft.
A British telegram to Joseph Stalin warned that "the creation in Warsaw of another government other than that now recognized, as well as disturbances in Poland, would confront Great Britain and the United States with a problem, which would preclude agreement among the great powers."[10]
At Anzio, the British 5th Division of 10th Corps broke through the Gustav Line and captured Monte Natal.[29]
British destroyer Hardy was crippled in the Arctic Sea by a torpedo from German submarine U-278 and had to be scrapped.
German submarine U-314 was depth charged and sunk in the Norwegian Sea by British destroyers Meteor and Whitehall.
Adolf Hitler made a radio address from his headquarters on the eleventh anniversary of the Nazis coming to power. He spent little time talking about the war situation and mostly spoke about Germany being Europe's only bulwark against communism.[30]
^ abScholz, Albert August (1964). Silesia: Yesterday and Today. Springer Science+Business Media. pp. 40–41.
^ abcKersten, Krystyna (1991). The Establishment of Communist Rule in Poland, 1943–1948. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. pp. 39–41. ISBN978-0-520-06219-1.
^Sicker, Martin (2002). The Geopolitics of Security in the Americas: Hemispheric Denial from Monroe to Clinton. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers. p. 101. ISBN978-0-275-97255-4.
^Belmessous, Saliha (2013). Assimilation and Empire: Uniformity in French and British Colonies, 1541–1954. Oxford University Press. p. 197. ISBN978-0-19-165102-1.