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WWII On This Day: January 23

What happened on January 23 during World War II? This date brings together 2 events from 1945, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1945
Men of the 101st Airborne Division moving toward Bastogne on 19 December 1944 as Allied reserves enter the Ardennes battle.
101st Airborne Division on the road between Bastogne and Houffalize, 19 December 1944 · US Army Signal Corps SC 329953 · NARA · Public domain · Source
The Battle of the Bulge

St Vith is retaken

American troops re-entered St Vith on 23 January after fighting through the eastern part of the salient. The road centre that had delayed Fifth Panzer Army in December was now again behind the Allied line. The recapture did not restore the exact tactical geometry of 15 December everywhere. Units were still fighting toward the original frontier positions and the German army continued withdrawing into prepared ground closer to the West Wall. St Vith nevertheless provides a useful late-campaign marker because the same road network appears at both ends of the…

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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

Himmler arrives to command the northern gap

The newly created Army Group Vistula was ordered to connect the lower Vistula with the Oder and protect the widening northern flank. Himmler arrived without an experienced army-group staff, reliable communications or enough formations to build the front his orders described.

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