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WWII On This Day: January 31

What happened on January 31 during World War II? This date brings together 3 events from 1942, 1943 and 1945, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1942
Immediate aftermath of the 31 January withdrawal: Australian anti-tank gunners overlook the Johor Causeway on 1 February 1942.
Immediate aftermath of the 31 January withdrawal: Australian anti-tank gunners overlook the Johor Causeway on 1 February 1942. G. Bottomley / Australian War Memorial 012449 · Public domain Source
The Fall of the Southern Empires

The Last Commonwealth Troops Leave Malaya

The last Commonwealth troops crossed from Johor onto Singapore Island on 31 January and engineers demolished the causeway behind them. The campaign on the peninsula had ended with the 25th Army standing across the strait from the naval base it had been advancing toward since 8 December. The withdrawal saved men who would otherwise have been cut off in Johor, but it also stripped Singapore of the geographical depth for which the base had been designed. The defenders now had to cover a long shoreline with tired and uneven formations…

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1943
Friedrich Paulus, Arthur Schmidt and Wilhelm Adam after their capture, arriving at 64th Army headquarters at Beketovka on 31 January 1943.
Friedrich Paulus, Arthur Schmidt and Wilhelm Adam after their capture, arriving at 64th Army headquarters at Beketovka on 31 January 1943. Bundesarchiv Bild 183-F0316-0204-005 / probably Georgi Lipskerov · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE Source
Battle of Stalingrad

Paulus and the southern group surrender

On 30 January Hitler promoted Paulus to field marshal as the southern pocket collapsed around the city centre. The promotion did not provide Sixth Army with a new operational option. By the morning of 31 January Soviet troops had reached the command post in the Univermag basement and the headquarters could no longer direct organised resistance across the southern group. Paulus, his chief of staff Arthur Schmidt and other officers were taken into Soviet custody and brought to 64th Army headquarters at Beketovka. Units around the southern pocket surrendered in…

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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

Zhukov reaches the Oder

After passing Poznań, elements of 1st Belorussian Front reached the Oder north of Küstrin and established bridgeheads on the western bank. The front had covered more than 250 miles without an operational pause. Küstrin itself and its German bridgehead remained obstacles on the direct route toward Berlin.

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