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WWII On This Day: January 22

What happened on January 22 during World War II? This date brings together 4 events from 1941, 1942, 1943 and 1945, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1941
Men of C Company, 2/11th Australian Infantry Battalion regroup after penetrating Tobruk's outer defences on 22 January 1941.
Men of C Company, 2/11th Australian Infantry Battalion regroup after penetrating Tobruk's outer defences on 22 January 1941. Frank Hurley / Australian War Memorial 005392 · public domain Source
Operation Compass

Tobruk falls with its harbour largely usable

By 15:45 the last organized strongpoint had surrendered. The captures included about 25,000 prisoners, 208 field and medium guns and 87 tanks. XIII Corps casualties were just over 400, including 355 Australians. The harbour mattered immediately. Mine clearance and repairs allowed shipping to enter on 24 January, shortening a supply line that had been stretched from Egypt by road. The next phase of Compass depended on turning captured ports into logistics bases.

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1942
Leningrad evacuees cook beside railway wagons during a halt on the route toward Lake Ladoga, 18 July 1942. The photograph represents the evacuation system rather than the first January departures.
Leningrad evacuees cook beside railway wagons during a halt on the route toward Lake Ladoga, 18 July 1942. The photograph represents the evacuation system rather than the first January departures. Georgy Konovalov · Public domain in Russia Source
The Siege of Leningrad

Evacuation across Ladoga expands

The State Defence Committee allocated vehicles and resources for a broader evacuation of children, dependants, the ill and industrial workers. More than 550,000 civilians crossed during the first ice-road season, alongside wounded personnel and industrial equipment.

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1943
Red Army soldiers carrying a Soviet flag through the ruins of Stalingrad in 1943.
Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R76619 · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE · Source
Battle of Stalingrad

Gumrak falls and regular landed supply collapses

During the night of 21–22 January Soviet forces took Gumrak as the western perimeter broke toward Stalingrad. The field had become the principal landing ground after Pitomnik’s loss, and its capture ended the remaining regular transport-aircraft operation inside the pocket. Some aircraft could still use improvised strips briefly and supplies continued to be dropped, but the organised system of landing, unloading and evacuating wounded personnel was effectively collapsing. German formations withdrew into the city and its immediate western approaches under continuing Soviet pressure. The pocket was now much smaller and…

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1945
Soviet armour advancing across Poland, January 1945.
Soviet armour in Poland, January 1945 · RIA Novosti archive · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Photograph pending verification
The Vistula–Oder Offensive

Konev reaches the Oder

The left wing of 1st Ukrainian Front reached the Oder. During the following days Soviet forces closed to a long section of the river and established crossings above and below Breslau. The first Soviet arrival at the Oder in this operation therefore occurred in Silesia, nine days before Zhukov's forces reached the river north of Küstrin.

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