Today in WWII History
World War II History for January 27
27 JAN 1941 - Ambassador Grew advised Washington of reports circulating in Tokyo of a Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor being planned by the Japanese military in case of “trouble” with the US. Grew wrote that “the attack would involve the use of all the Japanese military facilities. My colleague (a member of the US embassy and the source of the reports) said that he was prompted to pass this on because it had come to him from many sources, although the plan seemed fantastic.” [3]
27 JAN 1941 - Matsuoka told a budget committee of the Japanese Diet that Japan must “dominate” the western Pacific if it were to achieve its goals” “My use of the word ‘dominate’ may seem extreme and while we have no such designs, still in a sense we do wish to dominate and there is no need to hide the fact. Has America any right to object if Japan does dominate the western Pacific? As Minister of Foreign Affairs, I hate to make such an assertation, but I wish to declare that if America does not understand Japan’s rightful claims and actions, then there is not the slightest hope of improvement of Japanese-American relations.” [4]
27 JAN 1942 - The British began their retreat to Singapore across the causeway from Johore Baharu.[5]
27 JAN 1942 - The US Submarine Seawolf arrived at Corregidor, delivering ammunition and evacuating all available pilots.[6]
27 JAN 1942 - Soviet forces captured the rail center of Lozovaya on the Donets front.[7]
27 JAN 1942 - Free France agreed to open French possessions in the Pacific as Allied military bases.[8]
27 JAN 1943 - During World War II, the first all American air raid against Germany took place when about 50 bombers attacked the Wilhelmshaven port.
On this day, 8th Air Force bombers, dispatched from their bases in England, fly the first American bombing raid against the Germans, targeting the Wilhelmshaven port. Of 64 planes participating in the raid, 53 reached their target and managed to shoot down 22 German planes-and lost only three planes in return.
The 8th Air Force was activated in February 1942 as a heavy bomber force based in England. Its B-17 Flying Fortresses, capable of sustaining heavy damage while continuing to fly, and its B-24 Liberators, long-range bombers, became famous for precision bombing raids, the premier example being the raid on Wilhelmshaven. Commanded at the time by Brig. Gen. Newton Longfellow, the 8th Air Force was amazingly effective and accurate in bombing warehouses and factories in this first air attack against the Axis power. [1]
27 JAN 1944 - The Soviet Union announced that the two year German siege of Leningrad had come to an end.
On this day, Soviet forces permanently break the Leningrad siege line, ending the almost 900-day German-enforced containment of the city, which cost hundreds of thousands of Russian lives.
The siege began officially on September 8, 1941. The people of Leningrad began building antitank fortifications and succeeded in creating a stable defense of the city, but as a result were cut off from all access to vital resources in the Soviet interior, Moscow specifically. In 1942, an estimated 650,000 Leningrad citizens perished from starvation, disease, exposure, and injuries suffered from continual German artillery bombardment.
Barges offered occasional relief in the summer and ice-borne sleds did the same in the winter. Slowly but surely a million of Leningrad’s young, sick, and elderly residents were evacuated, leaving about 2 million to ration available food and use all open ground to plant vegetables.
On January 12, Soviet defenses punctured the siege, ruptured the German encirclement, and allowed more supplies to come in along Lake Ladoga. The siege officially ended after 872 days (though it is often called the 900-day siege), after a Soviet counteroffensive pushed the Germans westward. [2]
27 JAN 1945 - Soviet troops liberated the Nazi concentration camps Auschwitz and Birkenau in Poland.
[1] “Americans bomb Germans for first time,” The History Channel website, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=6692 (accessed Jan 27, 2009).
[2] “Siege of Leningrad is lifted,” The History Channel website, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=6693 (accessed Jan 27, 2009).
[3-8] Goralski, Robert. World War II Almanac 1931-1945: A Political and Military Record. New York, NY: Perigee Books, 1981.
1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, Pearl Harbor, Ambassador, Japan, Singapore, Submarine, Seawolf, Soviet, Germany
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