December 31st, 1944 (SUNDAY)
Western Front: Rochefort, on the western end of the "Bulge" falls to the British XXX Corps.
Ardennes: The Americans have produced a simple, ruthless solution to the problem of Skorzeny's phoney GIs operating behind the Allied front. Three of the Germans captured in American uniforms have been executed by firing squad, and 15 more await the same fate. The Americans have given warning that should any more turn up they, too, will be shot. Lt-Gen Omar Bradley is telling how he was stopped at a road block for an identity check and asked a trick question: Who is Betty Grable's husband?*answer* He did not know. But the sentry still let him pass.
WESTERN EUROPE: During the night of 31 December/1 January, the USAAF Eighth Air Force flies Mission 773: eight B-24 Liberators and two B-17 Flying Fortresses drop leaflets in France, Germany and Belgium.
Weather grounds USAAF Ninth Air Force bombers. Fighters fly sweeps and armed reconnaissance, attacking numerous ground targets. The XIX Tactical Air Command supports the U.S. III, VIII, and XX Corps around Bastogne, Belgium, and between the Mosel and Saar Rivers; in Germany in the Merzig area.
BELGIUM: Due to atrocious conditions on the roads, British Major General Sir Francis "Freddy" de Guingand reaches Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery's headquarters at 4:30 P.M. He is carrying a message of great import to the career of the United Kingdom's senior field soldier but it is time for tea to which the two men attend. In keeping with the British Army's tradition of not discussing shop in the mess, the two men do not discuss the situation. When finished the they go into Monty's office where de Guingand tells him of Ike's intention. Monty is nonplussed - completely taken by surprise - and asks, "But who would they get to replace me?" When told that Alexander is their man, Monty knows that he is faced with a serious situation; the Americans like Alex. He is, perhaps, their favourite British soldier; outside of SHAEF that is. Monty asks Freddie what he should do. Freddie, ever the efficient staff officer, pulls out a draft of a letter for Monty to send to Ike. With a few changes the letter goes out informing Ike that he has no more loyal servant than Monty and please tear up his letter. (W. Jay Stone)
In the British Second Army's area, Rochefort, on the western end of the "Bulge" falls to the British XXX Corps after the Germans abandoned it yesterday.
In the U.S. Third Army VIII Corps area, elements of the 87th Infantry Division close in on Moircy. Combat Command R, 11th Armoured Division, drives to Pinsamont and Acul while Combat Command B attacks Chenogne. In the III Corps area, one 6th Armoured Division column secures the high ground near Wardin; another advances to the outskirts of Rechrival. The 35th Infantry Division is unable to relieve isolated forces in the Villers-la-Bonne-Eau, and they are presumed lost. The Germans still hold Lutrebois. The 26th Infantry Division repels a counterattack and reorganizes.
FRANCE: Versailles: Eisenhower orders Montgomery to abandon the strategy of
allowing the German army to exhaust itself and mount an attack on the north of
the Ardennes front.
In northern Alsace, the German Seventh Army begins Operation NORDWIND, an attack against the southern flank of the US Third Army that has reached the German border on the Saar river.
LUXEMBOURG: In the U.S. Third Army III Corps area, corps artillery places time on targets on Wiltz.
GERMANY: Capt. Glenn Rojohn, of the US Army 8th Air Force's 100th Bomb Group, was flying his B-17G Flying Fortress bomber on a raid over Hamburg. His formation had braved heavy flak to drop their bombs, then turned 180 degrees to head out over the North Sea. They had finally turned northwest, headed back to England, when they were jumped by German fighters at 22,000 feet. The Messerschmitt Me-109s pressed their attack so closely that Capt. Rojohn could see the faces of the German pilots. He and other pilots fought to remain in formation so they could use each other's guns to defend the group. Rojohn saw a B-17 ahead of him burst into flames and slide sickeningly toward the earth. He gunned his ship forward to fill in the gap. He felt a huge impact. The big bomber shuddered, felt suddenly very heavy and began losing altitude. Rojohn grasped almost immediately that he had collided with another plane.
A B-17 below him, piloted by Lt. William G. McNab, had slammed the top of its fuselage into the bottom of Rojohn's. The top turret gun of McNab's plane was now locked in the belly of Rojohn's plane and the ball turret in the belly of Rojohn's had smashed through the top of McNab's. The two bombers were almost perfectly aligned - the tail of the lower plane was slightly to the left of Rojohn's tailpiece. They were stuck together, as a crewman later recalled, "like mating dragon flies."
No one will ever know exactly how it happened. Perhaps both pilots had moved instinctively to fill the same gap in formation. Perhaps McNab's plane had hit an air pocket. Three of the engines on the bottom plane were still running, as were all four of Rojohn's. The fourth engine on the lower bomber was on fire and the flames were spreading to the rest of the aircraft. The two were losing altitude quickly. Rojohn tried several times to gun his engines and break free of the other plane. The two were inextricably locked together. Fearing a fire, Rojohn cuts his engines and rang the bailout bell. If his crew had any chance of parachuting, he had to keep the plane under control somehow.
The ball turret, hanging below the belly of the B-17, was considered by many to be a death trap - the worst station on the bomber. In this case, both ball turrets figured in a swift and terrible drama of life and death. Staff Sgt. Edward L. Woodall, Jr., in the ball turret of the lower bomber, had felt the impact of the collision above him and saw shards of metal drop past him. Worse, he realized both electrical and hydraulic power was gone. Remembering escape drills, he grabbed the handcrank, released the clutch and cranked the turret and its guns until they were straight down, then turned and climbed out the back of the turret up into the fuselage. Once inside the plane's belly Woodall saw a chilling sight, the ball turret of the other bomber protruding through the top of the fuselage. In that turret, hopelessly trapped, was Staff Sgt. Joseph Russo. Several crewmembers on Rojohn's plane tried frantically to crank Russo's turret around so he could escape. But, jammed into the fuselage of the lower plane, the turret would not budge. Aware of his plight, but possibly unaware that his voice was going out over the intercom of his plane, Sgt. Russo began reciting his Hail Marys.
Up in the cockpit, Capt. Rojohn and his co-pilot, 2nd Lt. William G. Leek, Jr., had propped their feet against the instrument panel so they could pull back on their controls with all their strength, trying to prevent their plane from going into a spinning dive that would prevent the crew from jumping out. Capt. Rojohn motioned left and the two managed to wheel the grotesque, collision-born hybrid of a plane back toward the German coast. Leek felt like he was intruding on Sgt. Russo as his prayers crackled over the radio, so he pulled off his flying helmet with its earphones. Rojohn, immediately grasping that crew could not exit from the bottom of his plane, ordered his top turret gunner and his radio operator, Tech Sgts. Orville Elkin and Edward G. Neuhaus, to make their way to the back of the fuselage and out the waist door behind the left wing. Then he got his navigator, 2nd Lt. Robert Washington, and his bombardier, Sgt. James Shirley to follow them. As Rojohn and Leek somehow held the plane steady, these four men, as well as waist gunner Sgt. Roy Little and tail gunner Staff Sgt. Francis Chase were able to bail out.
#Now the plane locked below them was aflame. Fire poured over Rojohn's left wing. He could feel the heat from the plane below and hear the sound of .50 calibre machinegun ammunition "cooking off" in the flames. Capt. Rojohn ordered Lieut. Leek to bail out. Leek knew that without him helping keep the controls back, the plane would drop in a flaming spiral and the centrifugal force would prevent Rojohn from bailing. He refused the order.
Meanwhile, German soldiers and civilians on the ground that afternoon looked up in wonder. Some of them thought they were seeing a new Allied secret weapon - a strange eight-engine double bomber. But anti-aircraft gunners on the North Sea coastal island of Wangerooge had seen the collision. A German battery captain wrote in his logbook at 12:47 p.m.: "Two fortresses collided in a formation in the NE. The planes flew hooked together and flew 20 miles south. The two planes were unable to fight anymore. The crash could be awaited so I stopped the firing at these two planes."
Suspended in his parachute in the cold December sky, Bob Washington watched with deadly fascination as the mated bombers, trailing black smoke, fell to earth about three miles away, their downward trip ending in an ugly boiling blossom of fire. In the cockpit Rojohn and Leek held grimly to the controls trying to ride a falling rock. Leek tersely recalled, "The ground came up faster and faster. Praying was allowed. We gave it one last effort and slammed into the ground." The McNab plane on the bottom exploded, vaulting the other B-17 upward and forward. It hit the ground and slid along until its left wing slammed through a wooden building and the smouldering mass of aluminium came to a stop.
Rojohn and Leek were still seated in their cockpit. The nose of the plane was relatively intact, but everything from the B-17's massive wings back was destroyed. They looked at each other incredulously. Neither was badly injured. Movies have nothing on reality. Still perhaps in shock, Leek crawled out through a huge hole behind the cockpit, felt for the familiar pack in his uniform pocket and pulled out a cigarette. He placed it in his mouth and was about to light it. Then he noticed a young German soldier pointing a rifle at him. The soldier looked scared and annoyed. He grabbed the cigarette out of Leek's mouth and pointed down to the gasoline pouring out over the wing from a ruptured fuel tank.
Two of the six men who parachuted from Rojohn's plane did not survive the jump. But the other four and, amazingly, four men from the other bomber, including ball turret gunner Woodall, survived. All were taken prisoner. Several of them were interrogated at length by the Germans until they were satisfied that what had crashed was not a new American secret weapon. (William L. Howard)
U-3030 launched.
U-2530 sunk at Hamburg, by bombs. Raised in January 1945. Sunk again during air attacks on Dock V on 17 Jan 1945 and 20 Feb 1945 (?). Wreck broken up.
The following AP report was released to the newswires - The Berlin radio claimed today that Nazi U-boats sank six Allied transports, aggregating 25,600 tons, off the British coast in the last few days.
: The USAAF Eighth Air Force flies Mission 772: 1,327 bombers and 785 fighters hit both strategic and tactical targets; they encounter about 150 Luftwaffe fighters, mostly in the Hamburg area, and claim 88.5-11-21 aircraft; 27 bombers and ten fighters are lost. The targets are (numbers in parenthesis indicate number of aircraft bombing and number lost, e.g., 97-1):
- Aircraft Assembly: Me 262 assembly plant at Wezendorf (62-0)
- Airfields: Stade (13-0) and Nordholz (8-1)
- Cities: Trier (35-0) and Munchen (11-0)
- Communications centres: Prum (37-0), Biwer (35-0), Blumenthal (33-0) and Gladbach at Munich (10-0)
- Marshalling yards: Neuss (109-0); Krefeld (83-0), Bingen (10-0) and Hamelin (9-0)
- Oil refineries: Grass-Rhen at Hamburg (142-8); Misburg at Hannover (101-2); and Rhenania (68-14) Wilhelms (27-0) at Hamburg.
- Railroad bridges: Guls (62-0) and Lutzel (50-0) at Koblenz (62-0), Kronprinz Wilhelm at Engers (58-0), Neuweid (56-0). Ludendorf at Remagen (53-0) and Euskirchen (29-0)
- U-boat yard: Blohm & Voss at Hamburg (72-2)
- Others: 71 aircraft hit targets of opportunity.
During the day, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 155 Lancasters to carry out a G-H raid on the marshalling yards at Vohwinkel, near Solingen; 153 aircraft bomb the target with the loss of two aircraft. A strong wind carries much of the bombing south of the target.
During the night of 31 December/1 January, 149 RAF Bomber Command Lancasters and 17 Mosquitos are dispatched to bomb the Osterfeld marshalling yard at Bottrop; 155 aircraft bomb the target with the loss of two Lancasters. The only details available are Bomber Command's estimates that the railway sidings are 35 per cent damaged and the facilitiesť 20 per cent damaged. In other missions, RAF Mosquitos bomb three targets: 69 attack Berlin, 12 bomb the I.G. Farben chemical plant at Ludwigshafen and one hits Hannover. .
NORWAY: During the day, 12 RAF Bomber Command Mosquitos set out to bomb the Gestapo Headquarters in Oslo. Eight aircraft actually bomb, in two waves, and hits are believed to have been scored.
During the night of 31 December/1 January, 28 RAF Bomber Command Lancasters attack German cruisers in Oslo Fjord but no hits are scored and one Lancaster is lost. Eight aircraft lay mines off Frederikstad.
ITALY: The U.S. Fifth Army has regained most of the ground lost by IV Corps in the Serchio Valley and positions are about the same as they were at the end of October.
The British Eighth Army has worked northward astride the Naviglio Canal between the Senio and Lamone Rivers in the V Corps zone to Granarole, but the Germans hold Granarole. Preparations are made for limited attacks to bring the entire army up to the Senio River.
USAAF Twelfth Air Force medium bombers hit the bridge at Bodrez, railroads at Piazzola Sul Brenta and near Padua, and a dump. XXII Tactical Air Command fighter- bombers destroy five and damage two railway bridges in the Po Valley, cut rail lines at numerous places, destroy several locomotives, and destroy or damage over 200 railway cars. A-20 Havocs on intruder missions during the night of 31 December/1 January, achieve excellent results on a motor park near Molinella and hit a marshalling yard near Milan.
POLAND: The Lublin-based and Russian sponsored Committee of National liberation assumes the title of Provisional Government of Poland. This assumes that theoretically, Poland now has two governments, the Lublin committee and that of Mr Arciszewski in London. The London Poles have made an "emphatic protest" against the action of the Lublin group, declaring that its unilateral assumption of the title of provisional government is illegal.
U-547 taken out of service (scuttled?) at Stettin
HUNGARY declares war on Germany.
Budapest: The Provisional National Government of Hungary, set up under Russian
control in the city of Debrecen, today declared war on Germany. The decision was
adopted unanimously by its cabinet, which said that only the victory of the
Allies could "strengthen the independence of Hungary."
Meanwhile the grim, bloody, struggle for Budapest continues, with the Germans and their Hungarian allies holding out against the encircling Russians. The defenders know that they can expect no quarter after two Russian officers, carrying terms for surrender under the protection of the white flag, were shot down with cold deliberation. The Russians have already fought their way into the city limits and captured several blocks of streets. Budapest is enveloped in smoke, lit up by the glow of burning buildings and the sudden explosions of shells from the Red Army's massed guns. The defenders will not easily be overcome, however, they are well entrenched; the streets are mined; machine-guns and mortars are set up in houses, snipers lurk on the roofs. They have orders to fight to the last man. After the murder of the Russian officers they will have no option.
CHINA: Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Sheik announces that his government will establish a constitutional government before the end of the war and make China a democratic republic.
Four USAAF Fourteenth Air Force B-24 Liberators claim a freighter sunk and another damaged off Hainan Island while 35 P-40s and P-51 Mustangs attack troops, horses, town areas, and railroad targets at or near Hankow, Saiping, Siangtan, Hengyang, Lingling, and Kweilin.
BURMA: In the Northern Combat Area Command (NCAC) area, the U.S. 475th Infantry Regiment (Long Range Penetration, Special), upon relief at Tonk-wa by the Chinese 50th Division, which is now operating in the centre, starts a march towards the Mong Wi area, where the 5332d Brigade (Provisional) is to assemble for its first operation as a brigade. The Chinese 1st Separate Regiment, which is to be a part of the 5332d Brigade, will be held in NCAC reserve. The 5332d Brigade consists of the 124th Cavalry Regiment (Special), the 475th Infantry Regiment (Long Range Penetration, Special), the 612th and 613th Field Artillery Battalions (75mm Pack Howitzer) and the Chinese 1st Separate Regiment. The Brigade is also known as the MARS Task Force. (
In the British Fourteenth Army's XXXIII Corps area, Kabo falls to the British 2d Division.
Twenty eight USAAF Tenth Air Force P-47 Thunderbolts strafe Laihka, Namsang, Aungban, Kunlon, and Heho Airfields; five P-47s damage a bridge at Namhkai; and 65 P-47s and P-38 Lightnings hit a Japanese division headquarters at Ongyaw and troop concentrations and supply areas at Mongmit, Nawngka, Kawngtawng, Pangnim, Mong Tat, Kutkai, and Man Namman. A few B-25 Mitchells fly night harassment missions against airfields.
Four USAAF Fourteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells damage two bridges and destroy or damage five buildings at Mong Ping.
SOUTHEAST ASIA: Twenty nine USAAF Fourteenth Air Force fighters on armed reconnaissance hit targets of opportunity at several points in northern French Indochina, eastern Burma, and southern China.
EAST INDIES: USAAF Far East Air Forces B-24 Liberators bomb Ambesia Airfield on Celebes Island, hit Dili on Portuguese East Timor, and attack airfields, shipping, antiaircraft guns, and various targets of opportunity on Halmahera Island and on northern Celebes Island.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Heavy fighting results from Japanese counterattacks in the northwest area of Leyte, Philippine Islands. They are defeated. The battle for Leyte has cost the Japanese 70,000 casualties. The US casualties have totalled about 15,000 KIA and WIA. The US 6th Army prepares to move on to Luzon while the 8th Army prepares to relieve it.
In the U.S. Eighth Army's X Corps area on Leyte Island, the 1st Cavalry Division repels several counterattacks against Villaba. In the XXIV Corps area, the 77th Infantry Division's 305th Infantry Regiment finishes clearing the Palompon road. The 3d Battalion and the Provisional Mountain Force make contact 2 miles (3,2 kilometres) northeast of San Miguel. The 77th Infantry Division estimates that, during the period 21-31 December, it has killed 5,779 Japanese at a cost of 17 killed.
On Mindoro Island, the Japanese continue air attacks on shipping, sinking a PT tender and badly damaging a destroyer. A platoon of Company F, 19th Infantry Regiment, 24 Infantry Division, lands at Bulalacao, on the south coast almost 25 miles (40 kilometres) southeast of San Jose.
USAAF Far East Air Forces B-24 Liberators and B-25 Mitchells bomb airfields in the central Philippine Islands and on Luzon and Mindanao Islands.
JAPAN: Tokyo: Emperor Hirohito questions his cabinet about the deteriorating situation on Leyte and Luzon.
VOLCANO ISLANDS: Nineteen USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberators from Guam bomb Iwo Jima airfields during the day. Ten B-24 bomb the island with individual harassment raids over a 6-hour period during the night of 31 December/1 January.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: On Bougainville, the Australian 9th Battalion, 7th Brigade, 3rd Division, resumes their attack and capture Pearl Ridge. Lieutenant General Stanley Savige, General Officer Commanding Australian II Corps, tells Brigadier John Stevenson, General Office Commanding Australian 11th Brigade, to conduct operations with the objective of destroying the Japanese garrisons and establishing control along the northwest coast of Bougainville.
U.S.A.: The Dow-Jones Industrial Average finished the year at 152.32 12.09% up on the year.
The remains of a Japanese Fu Go paper balloon including envelope, rigging and some apparatus, is recovered at Estacada, Oregon. It is estimated that the balloon landed between 27 and 31 December. Estacada is located about 22 miles (35 kilometres) southeast of Portland.
Top songs on the pop record charts are: "Don't Fence Me In" by Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters; "There Goes that Song Again" by Russ Morgan; "I'm Making Believe" by Ella Fitzgerald and The Ink Spots; and "I'm Waistin' My Tears on You" by Tex Ritter.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Destroyer HMS Zephyr damaged by U-1020 at 58.57N 04.00W. U-1020 later lost that day due to unknown reasons.
In the North Sea, the German submarine U-1020, with 52 crewmen, is listed as missing north of the Hebrides Islands, Scotland. No explanation exists for its loss.
In the North Sea, RAF Bomber Command aircraft lay mines: eight lay mines in the Kattegat, the broad arm of the North Sea between Sweden and Denmark and eight lay mines in the Skagerrak strait which runs between Norway and the southwest coast of Sweden and the Jutland peninsula of Denmark, connecting the North Sea and the Kattegat strait, which leads to the Baltic Sea.
* It was the trumpeter Harry James.