January 16th, 1945 (TUESDAY)
BELGIUM: The 506th Parachute Infantry, working with Combat Command B, 11th Armored Division, attacked north and northeast. The 11th Armored Division seized Houffalize to close off the German salient in the Ardennes. The 506th attacked with three battalion abreast. The 2nd Battalion crossed to the east side of the Bastogne - Houffalize road and seized Rachamps, three kilometres northeast of Noville by 1400. Soon after the Germans shelled the village heavily. The 3rd Battalion attacked and seized its objective in the Neuf Moulin area, 3.2 kilometres south of Houffalize. The 3rd Battalion seized the high ground between the 1st and 3rd Battalions. On this, its last day in the Bastogne area, the regiment took 49 casualties, including 6 officers and 11 enlisted men killed. (Jay Stone)
USS Herndon (DD-198), was commissioned as HMS Churchill (I-45) on 9 Sep. 1940; transferred to Russia as Dyatelnyi on 30 May 1944; is torpedoed and sunk by U-956 today, while escorting a White Sea convoy. This is the last war loss of the class and the only one of the destroyers transferred to Russia to be lost. (Ron Babuka)
Frigate HMS St Brides Bay launched.
GERMANY: Berlin: Hitler leaves the FHQu "Adlerhorst" near Bad Neuheim in the Taunus mountains and returns to the Berlin Reichskanzlei for the final time by special train (Führersonderzug). He moves permanently into the concrete Berlin Bunker located underground at the Reich Chancellery. (Gene Hanson and Russ Folsom)
U-2358, U-2359, U-2524 commissioned.
POLAND: Warsaw is encircled by Russian troops.
FINLAND: The United States establishes a Special Mission in Helsinki. Foreign Service officer Maxwell M. Hamilton is appointed Minister at the Mission.
MARIANAS ISLANDS: USAAF 314th Bombardment Wing (Very Heavy) arrives on the islands.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Soviet destroyer Dejatelnyj (ex-HMS Churchill) sunk by U-956.
U-248 sunk in the North Atlantic in position 47.43N, 26.37W, by depth charges from destroyer escorts USS Hayter, Otter, Varian and Hubbard. 47 dead (all hands lost).