Tokyo, Japan • January 8, 1941 On this date in 1941 the Tokyo Gazette published the Imperial War Department’s newly adopted Japanese Field Service Code. It advised soldiers in part, “Do not give up under any circumstances, keeping in mind your responsibility not to tarnish the glorious history of the Imperial Army with its tradition…
Saipan Island, Northern Marianas • January 7, 1945 In early October 1944, nearly 3 years into the Pacific War, the U.S. high command decided that, after securing the Philippine island of Leyte (done before the end of December), Gen. Douglas MacArthur was to liberate neighboring Luzon Island, while Fleet Adm. Chester Nimitz, from his station in…
Washington, D.C. • January 6, 1941 Three days after Adolf Hitler had sent his Wehrmacht (German armed forces) into neighboring Poland on September 1, 1939, Great Britain and France declared war on Nazi Germany. Nine months later, following France’s surrender to the Wehrmacht in June 1940, the British government, which since 1939 had been paying for…
Bardia, Eastern Libya • January 5, 1941 In June 1940 Italian dictator Benito Mussolini declared war on Great Britain and France and began building up forces in his North African colony of Libya. That September the Italian Tenth Army under Gen. Rodolfo Graziani invaded Egypt, a British colony to the east of Libya, threatening British…
Rabaul, Island of New Britain • January 4, 1942 The Battle of Rabaul was fought from January 23 to late February 1942 on the island of New Britain, part of Australia’s League of Nations-mandated Territory of New Guinea (1921 to 1941) lying roughly 660 miles/1,062 km northnorthwest of Australia. More forward observation post than anything else, the 1,400‑strong…
Bastogne, Eastern Belgium • January 3, 1945 Beginning on this date and the next in January 1945 the German Wehrmacht (armed forces) began a risky, last-ditch attack on the U.S. garrison at Bastogne in Eastern Belgium. Adolf Hitler, in planning his massive onslaught against Anglo-American forces via the densely forested Ardennes region shared by Belgium,…
London, England • January 2, 1945 In the 19th century the Bavarian city of Nuremberg, long associated with gingerbread, sausages, handmade toys, and Christkindlmaerkte (Christmas markets), had become an important industrial center with companies such as engineering and manufacturing giants Siemens and MAN. Both firms contributed mightily to Germany’s war effort—Siemens by producing everything from…
SHAEP HQ, Versailles, France • January 1, 1945 Nazi Germany’s position on the Western Front had declined precipitously after the D-Day landings of Allied troops on June 6, 1944. Gen. George S. Patton’s Third U.S. Army was driving rapidly into the enemy’s rear. The German High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht) was aware that German troops were…
Washington, D.C. • December 31, 1943 By this date in 1943 Boeing delivered its 92nd B‑29 Superfortress to the U.S. government after the giant bomber began rolling off the assembly line the previous September. Even before the country was at war and government funds had been allocated, Boeing had produced a prototype of the long-range…
Tacloban, Leyte Island, Philippines • December 30, 1944 The island of Leyte, the first island in the Philippine archipelago captured by returning GIs, was securely in U.S. hands by this date in 1944. It only remained for Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of the Southwest Pacific Area, to announce the end of organized Japanese unit resistance,…