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WWII On This Day: January 8

What happened on January 8 during World War II? This date brings together 3 events from 1943 and 1945, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

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

Don Front offers surrender terms before Operation Ring

On 8 January Don Front delivered surrender terms to Sixth Army before opening the final offensive. The offer promised food and medical treatment to prisoners and preservation of officers’ rank and personal effects under Soviet terms. Paulus rejected the ultimatum in accordance with orders from Hitler’s headquarters. Inside the pocket, combat strength had been reduced by hunger, cold, sickness, losses and the declining airlift, yet the army still occupied an extensive perimeter with artillery and organised units capable of resistance. Rokossovsky’s Don Front proceeded with Operation Ring. The plan called…

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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

Hitler authorises withdrawal from the tip

By early January the German high command no longer expected the Ardennes operation to achieve its original objective. On 8 January Hitler authorised limited withdrawals from the western tip of the salient. The order did not produce an immediate general retreat to the German frontier. Formations withdrew through successive positions while other units continued defending Bastogne approaches, Houffalize, St Vith and the eastern road network. This is the clearest command boundary between the failed offensive and the battle to extract what remained of the attacking force. The problem was now…

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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

The Hubertus withdrawal is approved by Guderian

Army Group A proposed leaving the exposed Vistula sectors before the offensive, shortening the line and moving reserves beyond the expected artillery zone. Guderian approved the proposal and carried it to Hitler. The plan would have surrendered ground but preserved a mobile reserve for the operational battle.

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