January 21st, 1943 (THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: London: The first daylight raid on the British capital for six months killed 38 children and six teachers at a girls' junior school at Catford, in south-east London, yesterday. The school was demolished by a bomb from a German raider that dived out of low cloud before a warning had sounded. Most of the children were aged between five and seven.
Rescue work went on all night under flares. Teachers, soldiers and city workers helped to dig for survivors. "The building just fell to pieces," said an eye-witness. "After that it was a pitiful sight, passing the dead and injured children." A Royal Artillery gunner dug with bare hands for his two daughters.
Light cruiser HMS Newfoundland commissioned.
GERMANY:
U-321 laid down.
U-364 launched.
U-959 commissioned.
U.S.S.R.: The Russians complete the isolation of the German 6th Army with the capture of Gumrak airfield. Hitler cables Paulus: "Surrender is out of the question."
Voroshilovsk, in the Caucasus, falls to the Red Army.
POLAND: Warsaw: In an astonishing turn of events, Jews here have staged an armed revolt against their captors. A column of deportees heading down Nicka Street to the railway station, and the train to Treblinka, suddenly turned on its Nazi escorts with handguns and grenades.
The Jewish freedom fighters, led by Mordechai Anielewicz, then barricaded themselves into a nearby house, snipers keeping German reinforcements at bay. Eventually the Nazis set the house on fire; the resisters continued shooting to the last bullet. Only one survived the blaze; 12 Germans had been killed.
SS General Jurgen Stroop, ordered by Himmler to liquidate the ghetto by 13 February, is surprised by the strength of Jewish resistance.
He underestimated the bitterness that has been fermenting for the last three years, expressed in the chant: "Jews will live to settle scores, Jews have lived and will endure" and popular songs with lyrics like:
When we had nothing to eat
They gave us a turnip, or a beet
Here, take food, take fleas
Have some typhus, die of disease
Starvation has killed the weakest, and deportations have sent all the older people and most of the children to their deaths, mostly at Treblinka. Those still left behind are mainly stronger, young single men and women who realize that "resettlement" means death. For months the Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa [Jewish Fighting Organisation] has been smuggling arms into the ghetto; now, the moment for using them has come. As well as fighting the Germans, the Jews are also doing battle with the hated force of Nazi-controlled Jewish police, made up of their own people, who have committed atrocities in exchange for meagre privilages.
Today, German grenades hurled through windows were answered by a hail of bullets from every rooftop; the Germans have withdrawn. With their limited resources, it would be unrealistic to expect the Jews to do more than delay their seemingly inevitable fate.
But pride and hope have returned to the downtrodden, persecuted people of the ghetto. As Tuvia Boryskowski says: "The battle on Niska Street encouraged us. For the first time since the occupation we saw Germans clinging to walls, crawling on the ground, running for cover, hesitating before making a step in the fear of being hit by a Jewish bullet. The cries of the wounded caused us joy, and increased our thirst for battle."
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: U-301 sunk in the Mediterranean west of Bonifacio, in position 41.27N, 07.04E by torpedoes from submarine HMS Sahib. 45 dead and one survivor.
FRENCH MOROCCO: The Casablanca Directive concerning the strategic bombing of Europe is issued. This directive directs the US 8th Airforce to continue daylight bombing. The British came to Casablanca determined to push the Americans into joining their night bombing campaign. General Eaker presented two papers for Churchill's consideration. The item that might have caught his attention: "8. American could ignite obscure targets by day, which the RAF could fight at night by the light of the fires." (with Jack McKillop)
NEW GUINEA: US and Australian troops join up at Sanananda.
U.S.A.: New York: Jewish leaders have received a plea from the Warsaw Ghetto-dwellers, who say that they are "poised at the brink of annihilation". It says:
"We notify you of the greatest crime of all times, about the murder of millions of Jews in Poland ..."
"Brothers - the remaining Jews in Poland live with the awareness that in the most terrible days of our history you did not come to our aid. Respond, at least, in the last days of our life."
WAVES arrive at Seattle NAS (Naval Air Station) Sand Point.
Destroyer escort USS Sloat launched.
Aircraft carrier USS Yorktown launched.
Destroyer USS Eggesford commissioned.