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WWII On This Day: January 3

What happened on January 3 during World War II? This date brings together 2 events from 1941 and 1945, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1941
Italian artillery fires on Allied positions during the Battle of Bardia on 3 January 1941.
Italian artillery fires on Allied positions during the Battle of Bardia on 3 January 1941. Archivio Centrale dello Stato, Italy · photographer unknown · public domain in Italy / PD-1996 Source
Operation Compass

The Australians breach Bardia

At 05:30 the artillery barrage opened on the western perimeter. Engineers blew gaps in the wire, cleared mines and prepared crossings over the anti-tank ditch while the 2/1st Australian Battalion secured a bridgehead for the Matildas. Within an hour the infantry had its first objectives and the tanks were moving through. By 08:30 the 16th Australian Brigade had captured about 8,000 prisoners. Naval guns, RAF attacks and land artillery supported the assault against a fortress holding about 45,000 men and more than 400 guns.

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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

The counterattack begins

On 3 January First Army began its major attack south from the northern shoulder while Third Army continued pressing north. The operational aim was now to reduce the salient rather than merely stop further German movement west. Weather and terrain again constrained the tempo. Deep snow, fog, frozen roads and wooded ridges made the Allied advance slow, while German formations defended the same road junctions and villages they had previously tried to seize in the attack. The shift of initiative did not turn the rest of the campaign into a…

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