Editing 1945 (section)

===January===
{{Main|January 1945}}
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-32279-007, KZ Auschwitz, Eingang.jpg|thumb|upright| [[January 27]] – The Soviet [[Red Army]] liberates [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz]].]]
* [[January 1]] – WWII:
** [[Nazi Germany|Germany]] begins [[Operation Bodenplatte]], an attempt by the ''[[Luftwaffe]]'' to cripple [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] air forces in the [[Low Countries]].<ref>{{Cite book  |last=Girbig  |first=Werner  |date=1975  |title=Six Months to Oblivion: The Eclipse of the Luftwaffe Fighter Force Over the Western Front, 1944/45  |publisher=[[Schiffer Publishing]]  |isbn=978-0-88740-348-4|page=74}}</ref>
** [[Chenogne massacre]]: German prisoners are allegedly killed by American forces near the village of Chenogne, Belgium.
* [[January 6]] – WWII:  A German offensive recaptures [[Esztergom]], [[Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)|Hungary]] from the Soviets.
* [[January 9]] – WWII: American and Australian troops land at [[Lingayen Gulf]] on western coast of the largest Philippine island of [[Luzon]], occupied by Japan since 1942.
* [[January 12]] – WWII: The [[Soviet Union]] begins the [[Vistula–Oder Offensive]] in Eastern Europe, against the [[German Army (Wehrmacht)|German Army]].<ref name=Duffy>{{cite book|authorlink=Christopher Duffy|last=Duffy|first=Christopher|url=https://archive.org/details/redstormonreichs00duff|title=Red Storm on the Reich: The Soviet March on Germany, 1945|publisher=Routledge|year=1991|isbn=0-415-22829-8}}</ref>
* [[January 13]] – WWII: The Soviet Union begins the [[East Prussian Offensive]], to eliminate German forces in [[East Prussia]].
* [[January 16]] – WWII: [[Adolf Hitler]] takes residence in the ''[[Führerbunker]]'' in Berlin.
* [[January 17]]
** WWII: The [[Soviet Union]] occupies [[Warsaw]], Poland.
** [[The Holocaust]]: Swedish diplomat [[Raoul Wallenberg]], who has saved thousands of Jews, is taken into custody by a Soviet patrol during the [[Siege of Budapest]] and is never again seen publicly.
* [[January 18]] – [[The Holocaust]]: The [[SS]] begins the evacuation of [[Auschwitz concentration camp]]. Nearly 60,000 prisoners, mostly Jews, are forced to march to other locations in Germany; as many as 15,000 die. The 7,000 too sick to move are left without supplies being distributed.
* [[January 19]] – [[The Holocaust]]: Soviet forces liberate the [[Łódź Ghetto]]; only 877 Jews of the initial population of 164,000 remain at this time.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/site/pp.asp?c=gvKVLcMVIuG&b=395095 |title=The Agony of the Łódź Ghetto, 1941–1944 |publisher=The Simon Wiesenthal Center |work=The Chronicle of the Łódź Ghetto, 1941–1944 by [[Lucjan Dobroszycki]], and The [[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]], Washington D.C. |date=1997 |access-date=25 March 2015 |author=Abraham J. Peck}}</ref>
* [[January 20]] – Germany begins the [[Evacuation of East Prussia]].
* [[January 21]]–[[January 22|22]] (night) – At the [[Zielonka Pasłęcka|Grünhagen]] railroad station, located in [[East Prussia]] at this date, two trains, heading for [[Elbląg|Elbing]], collide. At dawn the station is reached by [[Soviet Army]] infantry and tanks which destroy the station, killing between 140 and 150 people.
* [[January 23]] – WWII:
** Hungary agrees to an [[armistice]] with the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]].
** German Grand Admiral [[Karl Dönitz]] orders the start of [[Operation Hannibal]], the mass evacuation by sea of German troops and civilians from the [[Courland Pocket]], [[Evacuation of East Prussia|East Prussia]] and the [[Polish Corridor]], evacuating an estimated 800,000-900,000 German civilians and 350,000 soldiers from advancing Soviet forces.
** Evacuation of Germans from [[Zielonka Pasłęcka|Grünhagen]].
* [[January 24]] – WWII: [[Associated Press|AP]] [[war correspondent]] [[Joseph Morton (correspondent)|Joseph Morton]], nine [[Office of Strategic Services|OSS]] men, and four [[Special Operations Executive|SOE]] agents are executed by the Germans at [[Mauthausen concentration camp]] under Hitler's [[Commando Order]] of 1942, which stipulates the immediate execution of all captured Allied [[commando]]s or [[sabotage|saboteurs]] without trial, even those in proper uniforms. Morton is the only [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] correspondent to be executed by the [[Axis powers|Axis]] during the war.
* [[January 25]] – WWII: Hitler appoints [[Heinrich Himmler]] as commander of the hastily formed [[Army Group Vistula]] (''Heeresgruppe Weichsel'') to halt the Soviet [[Red Army]]'s [[Vistula–Oder offensive]] into [[Pomerania]], despite Himmler's lack of military experience.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kershaw|first=Ian|author-link=Ian Kershaw|title=Hitler: A Biography|publisher=Norton|location=New York|year=2008|isbn=978-0-393-06757-6|page=891}}</ref>
* [[January 26]] – WWII: 19-year-old U.S. Army Staff Sergeant [[Audie Murphy]] sees action at [[Holtzwihr]], France, for which is awarded the [[Medal of Honor]].
* [[January 27]] – [[The Holocaust]]: The Soviet [[Red Army]] liberates the [[Auschwitz concentration camp|Auschwitz]] and Birkenau concentration camps.
* [[January 30]] – WWII:
** {{MV|Wilhelm Gustloff}}, with over 10,000 mainly civilian Germans from Gotenhafen ([[Gdynia]]) is sunk in [[Gdańsk Bay]] by three [[torpedo]]es from [[Soviet submarine S-13|Soviet submarine ''S-13'']] in the [[Baltic Sea]]; up to 9,400, 5,000 of whom are children, are thought to have died – the greatest loss of life in a single ship sinking in history.
** [[Raid at Cabanatuan]]: 121 American soldiers and 800 Filipino guerrillas free 813 American [[prisoners of war]] from the Japanese-held camp in the city of [[Cabanatuan]], in the [[Philippines]].
** [[Adolf Hitler]] makes his last public speech, on broadcast radio, expressing the belief that Germany will triumph.
* [[January 31]] – WWII: The [[Battle of Hill 170]] in the Burma Campaign ends with the British [[3rd Commando Brigade]] defeating the [[54th Division (Imperial Japanese Army)|Imperial Japanese Army 54th Division]], causing the [[Twenty-Eighth Army (Japan)|Japanese Twenty-Eighth Army]] to withdraw from the [[Rakhine State|Arakan]] Peninsula.