BELGIUM: As part of the advance of the 101st Airborne Division to the north and northeast of Bastogne, the 506th Parachute Infantry - with the 321st Glider Field Artillery in direct support - attacks at 0900. By 1630, after an all day fight, the 2nd Battalion has cleared Foy of Germans. By 1800 other elements of the regiment has seized Recogne. (Jay Stone)
Ardennes: The Germans opened the Ardennes gamble with around 250,000 men; a month later, fighting a grim rear-guard action, they have lost upwards of 120,000 killed, wounded and captured, and are facing a US force of 600,000. The Americans have 8,607 dead and 68,283 wounded or missing, and the British 1,400 dead.
For both the Germans and the Allies, the losses in weapons and equipment are considerable. The Germans lost about 600 tanks (compared with the Americans' 733) and 1,000 aircraft. For the Germans the losses are pretty well irreplaceable; yet the Allies will replace theirs within the next two weeks. The Germans fell far short of gaining their strategic objective, the port of Antwerp, though their V2 attacks to the city caused serious damage and loss of life.
GERMANY:
The following U.P. report was released to the newswires - Despite punishing Allied blows, the Nazis are still able to operate as many as one hundred U-boats in the Atlantic, constituting a continued serious menace to Allied supply lines, British naval circles said tonight. However, insofar as is generally known here, there is no evidence that the Germans ever have attempted to launch flying bombs from submarines, despite Vice Admiral Jonas H. Ingram's warning that the US Atlantic coast might be hit by V-bombs landed from U-boats. There is also a general tendency here to doubt the statement attributed to Admiral Ingram that the Nazis have three hundred submarines in the Atlantic. British naval spokesmen and commentators are more inclined to believe that Germany's overall submarine strength is three hundred - a force that probably would permit from fifty to one hundred undersea craft to be actually operative at one time. To keep a force of three hundred U-boats within the Atlantic operating zone, a total force of approximately one thousand submarines would be necessary, one spokesman said, and added that Germany's submarine strength at its peak was 1500. The spokesman said that although the Allies had captured or bottled up all of Germany's Bay of Biscay submarine bases, she still had more and better bases than during the first World War, when she launched a highly successful U-boat campaign. The latest improvement publicized is a device enabling U-boats to recharge batteries beneath the surface
U-275 sailed on her final patrol. (Dave Shirlaw)
NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: U-532 sailed from Jakarta on her final patrol. (Dave Shirlaw)
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: The carrier USS Salamaua is heavily damaged by Kamikazes.
The Casablanca-Class escort aircraft carrier USS Salamaua (CVE-96) with Composite Squadron Eighty Seven (VC-87) on board, departs Seeadler Harbor in the Admiralty Islands on 27 December 1944 and moves north. VC-87 is equipped with 14 Eastern Aircraft FM Wildcats and ten TBM Avengers. The ship, part of Carrier Division Twenty Nine (CarDiv 29), is assigned to Task Unit 77.4.1, the Lingayan Carrier Unit supporting the invasion of Luzon, Philippine Islands. On 6 January 1945, she arrives off the entrance to Lingayen Gulf, Luzon. Her planes began attacking enemy positions ashore and provide air cover for the approaching Allied invasion force. On 9 January, they provide air cover for the troops landing on the assault beaches; then continued that support until the 13th.
Just before 0900 hours local on 13 January, a kamikaze carrying two 250 kg. (551-pound) bombs crash USS Salamaua's flight deck killing 15 and wounding 80+. Damage is extensive; the flight deck, the hangar deck, and spaces below blazed with a multitude of fires. One of the bombs, failing to explode, punches through the starboard side at the waterline. Power, communications, and steering fail; one of her engine rooms floods and the starboard engine quits. But, by 0910 hours, her gunners had splashed two of the kamikaze's compatriots.
Temporary repairs enable the ship to return to San Francisco, California, arriving on 26 February. (Jack McKillop)
U.S.A.: The last Boeing B-29 Superfortress, (B-29-100-BW), USAAF s/n 45-21872, is ordered today. (Jack McKillop)
Heavy cruiser USS Bridgeport laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)