January 24th, 1944 (MONDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: MAC carrier Empire Macdermott launched.
U.S.S.R.: 1st and 2nd Ukraine Fronts begin a major offensive. Capturing Pushkin and Pashovsk in the Ukraine.
ARCTIC OCEAN: German submarines attack Murmansk-bound convoy JW 56A. U.S. freighter SS Penelope Barker is torpedoed and sunk by U-278 about 115 miles (185 kilometres) from North Cape, Norway; 15 crewmen are killed.
ITALY: Anzio: Luftwaffe aircraft attack and sink the British hospital ship ST. DAVID; they also damage destroyer USS PLUNKETT (DD-431) and minesweeper USS PREVAIL (AM-107); an aerial torpedo damages destroyer USS MAYO (DD-422); Allied troops pause, giving Germany time to bring up reinforcements.
Anzio: Capt. Jenkin Robert Oswald Thompson (b.1911), RAMC, after four years of gallant service on hospital ships, went down with the ST. DAVID while trying to save a trapped patient. (George Cross)
During a Luftwaffe air raid on Allied shipping at Naples, U.S. freighter SS F.A.C. Muhlenberg is damaged by bomb and by near-miss of bomb; the ship's crew and port firefighting crews extinguish the fires. Seven crewmen are killed.
The Battle of Cassino begins. The US 100th Infantry Battalion fights in the first two assaults. (Gene Hanson)
NEW BRITAIN: Over 200 US aircraft, including USMC TBF Avengers, supported by a large concentration of RNZAF, USAAF, USMC and USN fighters, raid Japanese shipping at Rabaul, in the Bismark Archipelago, destroying 83 Japanese planes - one of many such raids which are now being launched by the four carrier groups now at the disposal of the US Admiral Spruance.
They sink the water tanker Koan Maru, aircraft transport Lyon Maru (previously rendered un-navigable on 17 January) and army cargo ships Taisho Maru and Yamayuri Maru, in position 04.13S, 152.22E.
NEW GUINEA: Japanese planes bomb U.S. shipping in Dreger Bay, damaging freighter SS John Muir with one direct hit and at least four near-misses that injure 16 men.
CANADA:
Patrol vessel HMCS Sans Peur departed Esquimalt, British Columbia for Halifax, Nova Scotia.
U.S.A.:
Destroyer escorts USS Coates, Daniel, Garfield Thomas and Hollis commissioned.
Destroyer escort USS Lloyd E Acree laid down.
Aircraft carrier USS Hancock launched.