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WWII On This Day: January 27

What happened on January 27 during World War II? This date brings together 5 events from 1943, 1944 and 1945, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1943
A German Messerschmitt Bf 110 attacks B-17F Flying Fortresses of the 91st Bomb Group over Europe in January 1944.
U.S. Army Air Forces / National Archives, NAID 204888701 · Public domain in the United States · Source
The Combined Bomber Offensive

The Eighth Air Force bombs Germany for the first time

Six days after Casablanca, the Eighth Air Force mounted its first heavy-bomber mission against a target in Germany proper. Ninety-one heavy bombers set out and fifty-three bombed the Wilhelmshaven area. The raid was still within relatively short reach of Britain. The deeper Pointblank targets that followed would expose the daylight force to a much harder problem: repeated fighter interception after escort protection ended.

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1944
Order of the Military Council of the Leningrad Front announcing the complete liberation of Leningrad from the enemy blockade on 27 January 1944, reproduced in Leningradskaya Pravda the next day.
Order of the Military Council of the Leningrad Front announcing the complete liberation of Leningrad from the enemy blockade on 27 January 1944, reproduced in Leningradskaya Pravda the next day. Military Council of the Leningrad Front · Official Soviet document · Public domain Source
The Siege of Leningrad

Leningrad declares the blockade lifted

The Military Council of the Leningrad Front announced that German forces had been driven far enough from the city for the blockade to be declared completely lifted. At 20:00, twenty-four volleys from 324 guns marked the end of the 872-day siege.

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1945
Child survivors of Auschwitz, wearing adult-size prisoner jackets, stand behind a barbed wire fence.
USHMM
The Holocaust: Timeline and Evidence

Soviet troops liberate the Auschwitz camp complex

Red Army soldiers reached Auschwitz and found approximately 7,000 surviving prisoners, many of them seriously ill. The SS had destroyed the gas chambers and crematoria at Birkenau and removed most prisoners, but extensive documentary, material and human evidence remained.

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Auschwitz prisoners photographed in January 1945 during the period of Soviet liberation. The source identifies the month and liberation context, not 27 January itself.
Auschwitz prisoners photographed in January 1945 during the period of Soviet liberation. The source identifies the month and liberation context, not 27 January itself. Photographer unrecorded / Auschwitz Memorial and Museum archival reproduction · public domain (Poland, per Commons record) Source
The Vistula–Oder Offensive

Auschwitz is liberated

On 27 January 1945 soldiers of the 60th Army, 1st Ukrainian Front, reached Auschwitz I, Birkenau and Monowitz. They found roughly 7,000 prisoners alive in the principal camp complex, many desperately ill; the SS had already marched tens of thousands west. About 7,000 prisoners remained in Auschwitz, Birkenau and Monowitz, with approximately 500 more liberated in nearby sub-camps before and soon after 27 January.

Continue in The Vistula–Oder Offensive →
Red Army combat engineers building a pontoon bridge across the Oder beside a destroyed bridge, photographed 22 January 1945.
Semyon Alperin / RIA Novosti RIAID 42325 · Public domain (per Commons file record)
The Vistula–Oder Offensive

The Silesian escape route is left open

As Soviet armour advanced around Upper Silesia, the remaining German forces were able to withdraw through a narrowing opening to the south. Soviet armies nearly enclosed Upper Silesia but deliberately left the southern outlet open while armour moved behind the German flank. Seventeenth Army withdrew between 28 and 30 January. The manoeuvre brought the coal and industrial region under Soviet control without a destructive final battle inside every plant.

Continue in The Vistula–Oder Offensive →