1941: General Cunningham's 'Southern Force' invades Italian Somaliland from Garissa and Bura in Kenya.

1942: German troops of Army Group Centre, recapture Sukhinichi near Kaluga.

1942: More reinforcements arrive at Singapore to boost its defenses as the British 18th Division is landed.

1942: Japanese troops land at Balikpapan in Dutch Borneo. Four US destroyers and some submarines attack a Japanese convoy in the Macassar Strait between Borneo and Celebes, sinking 1 destroyer and four transports, while only suffering damage to one of their destroyers. This action delays the impending Japanese invasion of Java.

1943: Russians take Starobelskiy, near the Donets River in the eastern Ukraine, more than 250 miles to the West of Stalingrad. Hitler orders no surrender in Stalingrad. The offensive by the Soviet Trans-Caucasian Front toward the Kuban bridgehead is stopped at Novorossiysk and Krasnodar.

1943: Fighting in Papua is officially reported as over.

1943: President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill concluded a wartime conference in Casablanca, Morocco.

1944: Hitler orders that German troops in Italy hold the ‘Gustav Line’ at all costs. The French attack to the North of Cassino. Allied patrols from Anzio beachhead are halted by the Germans.

1944: Chinese forces make further advances in the Hukawng Valley.

1944: In response to political pressure to help Jews under Nazi control, Roosevelt creates the War Refugee Board.

1945: German forces begin evacuating Slovakia. The 1st Ukrainian Front captures Oppeln and Gleiwitz in Upper Silesia.

1945: The Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm carrier planes destroy the Japanese oil refinery near Palembang, on Sumatra. U.S. troops capture Clark Field, the main Japanese airbase on Luzon.

1945: A German attempt to relieve the besieged city of Budapest is finally halted by the Soviets.

This Day in WWI

Western Front

1916: German offensive near Nieuport (Yser).

1918: Great aerial activity in Flanders.

1918: Courtrai, Ledeghem and Douai bombed.

1918: Air raids into Germany on Mannheim, Treves and Thionville.

1918: French repulse raids north of Aisne river and at Caurieres Wood.

Eastern Front

1917: Further German advance in hard fighting near Lake Babit. Russians fall back.

Southern Front

1916: Italians lose ground near Gorizia.

1918: Italians occupy Austrian advanced post at Capo Sile.

Asiatic and Egyptian Theatres

1916: Russians advance on forts of Erzerum.

Naval and Overseas Operations

1915: The German cruiser Blücher is sunk by a British squadron in the Battle of Dogger Bank.

1915: Maritz and Kemp repulsed at Upington.

1917: German force of 289 officers and men surrenders at Likuju (German East Africa).

1918: Naval aircraft continue to bomb "Goeben".

1918: Enemy post at Pamuni Hill (East Africa) taken.

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