CBI - China: Day 118 of 154 of the Japanese Invasion of Manchuria.
1933 — , January 13
CBI - China: Day 13 of 142 of the 1st Battle of Hebei.
1935 — , January 13
Germany: In a plebiscite, the Saar region decides to unite with Germany.
1937 — , January 13
Spain: Day 181 of 985 of the Spanish Civil War.
1938 — , January 13
Spain: Day 546 of 985 of the Spanish Civil War.
CBI - China: Day 191 of 2,987 of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War.
Day 36 of 54 of the Battle of Nanking.
Day 32 of 50 of the Rape of Nanking.
1939 — , January 13
Spain: Day 911 of 985 of the Spanish Civil War.
CBI - China: Day 556 of 2,987 of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War.
1940 — , January 13
USA: FBI arrests 17 members of anti-Semitic, pro-Nazi "Christian Front" for plotting to "overthrow, put down and destroy by force the Government of the United States" and planning to steal weapons and ammunition to do so. All will later be acquitted.
Finland: Day 45 of 105 of the Russo-Finnish War.
CBI - China: Day 921 of 2,987 of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War.
Day 60 of 381 of the Battle of South Guangxi.
1941 — , January 13
ETO - UK: Day 130 of 258 of the Blitz. The Luftwaffe launches a heavy attack against Plymouth.
MTO - Bulgaria: Hitler demands that Bulgaria join the Tripartite Pact, but the Bulgarians play for time.
MTO - North Africa: Day 36 of 63 of the UK's Operation COMPASS, their campaign in North Africa against the Italians in Egypt and Libya.
East Africa: Day 218 of 537 of Italy's East African campaign in the lands south of Egypt.
CBI - China: Day 1,287 of 2,987 of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War.
CBI - Thailand: Day 105 of 221 of the Franco-Thai War (Vichy France vs Thailand).
1942 — , January 13
Germany: A shrinking male workforce causes the regime to reconsider the Nazi doctrine, fostered since 1933, that a woman's place is firmly at home. The idea of employing more women is opposed by senior Nazi Party leaders.
Spotlight...
Women making barrage balloons in a German factory, 1943
While in Britain the number of women in full-time or part-time work increased 45% in the course of the war, the number of German women mobilized remained practically unchanged. German women were told by Hitler that their sacred duty was to produce more pure Aryan children to fight in future wars.
Most women working in German factories were forced laborers taken from concentration camps, but as the war erupted, many German women did find themselves in military support roles, in the SS as guards and were even given combat duties shooting down Allied warplanes.
The Reich realized too late that their dwindling male workforce needed to be supplemented with women and were therefore unable to utilize them effectively enough to change the course of the war.
Atlantic: German U-boat offensive begins along the US east coast.
ETO - UK: The Allied conference in London pledges to punish axis war criminals after victory.
Germany: Test pilot Helmut Schenck became the first person to escape from an aircraft using an ejection seat when the control surfaces iced up on his He-280 jet and became inoperative.
Russian Front - North: Day 128 of 872 of the Siege of Leningrad.
Russian Front - North: Day 5 of 29 of the Battle of Toropets, Russia. A failed attempt to break the siege at Leningrad.
Russian Front - Center: Day 6 of 103 of the Battle of Vyazma, Russia.
Russian Front - Center: Day 6 of 103 of the Battle of Sychevsk, Russia.
Russian Front - South: Day 76 of 248 of the Siege of Sevastopol, Crimean Peninsula. All further German attacks against the Crimean fortress of Sevastopol are stopped for the winter.
CBI - Burma: Day 31 of 164 of Japan's Invasion of Burma.
CBI - China: Day 1,652 of 2,987 of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War.
Day 21 of 99 of the 3rd Battle of Changsha.
CBI - Malaya: Day 37 of 55 of the Battle of British Malaya.
PTO - Borneo: Day 29 of 107 of the Battle of Borneo.
PTO - Philippines: Day 37 of 152 of the 1st Battle of the Philippines. A Japanese attack just to the east of Mount Natib begins to pose a threat to the left flank of the US-Filipino 2nd Corps.
1943 — , January 13
USA: Verdicts in the Los Angeles "Sleepy Lagoon" trial convicts nine of seventeen Mexican-American defendants of second-degree murder. The case is considered a precursor to the Zoot Suit Riots that will erupt on 31 May 43.
[+] show related dates
Zoot Suit Riots related dates...
13 Jan 43: Sleepy Lagoon trial verdicts become precursor
31 May 43: Day 1 of 9 of the Los Angeles Zoot Suit Riots
03 Jun 43: Day 4 of 9 of the Los Angeles Zoot Suit Riots
07 Jun 43: Day 8 of 9 of the Los Angeles Zoot Suit Riots
16 Jun 43: Eleanor Roosevelt comments on the Riots
21 Jun 43: Calif looks for Nazi subversion in riots, finds none
ETO - France: US 8th Air Force B-17s attack targets at Lille.
ETO - Holland: Camp Vught, one of four major concentration camps set up during the Nazi occupation, receives its first of 31,000 prisoners. A small camp under direct command of the SS, "only" 749 men, women and children will die there before the camp is liberated on 26 Dec 44. The rest will be shipped off to other death and labor camps.
Russian Front - North: Day 493 of 872 of the Siege of Leningrad.
Russian Front - North: Day 56 of 59 of the Battle of Velikiye Luki, near Leningrad. This stalemate does help ease the siege a little, but mostly it keeps German troops from being sent to other fronts.
Russian Front - North: Day 2 of 19 of USSR's Operation ISKRA (Operation SPARK) on the southern shore of Lake Ladoga, north of Leningrad. This Soviet victory will help ease the siege at Leningrad a little bit more.
Russian Front - North: Day 254 of 658 of the Siege of the Kholm Pocket, USSR lays siege to the Kholm Pocket but the Germans hold out for a about a year and a half.
Russian Front - South: Day 145 of 165 of the Battle of Stalingrad, bloodiest battle in human history.
Russian Front - South: Day 33 of 69 of the USSR's Operation LITTLE SATURN. A successful drive into the Northern Caucasus and the Donets Basin pushing the Axis troops out.
MTO - Libya: RAF and US Air Forces provide air support.
MTO - Tunisia: Day 58 of 178 of the Battle of Tunisia. RAF and US Air Forces provide Allied air support.
CBI - Burma: Day 24 of 104 of the 1st Battle of Arakan. US 10th Air Force provides air support.
CBI - China: Day 2,017 of 2,987 of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War.
PTO - Alaska: Day 221 of 435 of the Battle of Kiska, Aleutian Islands.
PTO - Malaya: Day 329 of 357 of the Battle of Timor Island, a long guerrilla war ending in Japanese victory.
PTO - New Guinea: Day 56 of 66 of the Battle of Buna-Gona. 5th Air Force provides air support.
PTO - Solomon Islands: Day 160 of 187 of the Battle of Guadalcanal. US 13th Air Force provides air support.
1944 — , January 13
ETO - Germany: Day 57 of 135 of the Battle of Berlin (RAF bombing campaign). Small raids are made on Essen, Duisburg, Aachen, and Koblenz by 25 Mosquitos. One aircraft is lost.
ETO - France: US 9th Air Force B-26s bomb V-weapon bases.
Russian Front - North: Day 858 of 872 of the Siege of Leningrad.
Russian Front - North: Day 619 of 658 of the Siege of the Kholm Pocket. USSR lays siege to the Kholm Pocket but the Germans hold out for a about a year and a half.
Russian Front - South: Day 21 of 113 of the USSR's Dnieper-Carpathian Offensive in southwestern Ukraine.
Russian Front - South: Day 21 of 22 of the Battle of Zhitomir, Russia. This will create a 70 mile gap in the German line.
Russian Front - South: Day 9 of 12 of the Battle of Kirograd, Ukraine.
MTO - Yugoslavia: US 12th Air Force fighters attack shipping along the Dalmatian coast at Sibenik and in the Krka River.
MTO - Italy: RAF and US Air Forces provides air support for the Allied ground troops.
CBI - Burma: Day 15 of 99 of the 2nd Battle of Arakan.
CBI - Burma: The Chinese strengthen their position in the Hukawng Valley in northern Burma. US 10th Air Force provides air support.
CBI - China: Day 2,382 of 2,987 of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War.
US 14th Air Force strike a number of targets in southern China.
PTO - Marshall Islands: US 7th Air Force attacks several areas in the Marshalls.
PTO - New Guinea: Day 117 of 219 of the Battle of Shaggy Ridge. 5th Air Force provides air support.
PTO - New Guinea: Day 114 of 162 of the Battle of the Huon Peninsula. 5th Air Force provides air support.
PTO - New Guinea: Day 30 of 597 of the Battle of New Britain. US 13th Air Force provides air support.
PTO - Solomon Islands: Day 74 of 295 of the Battle of the Bougainville Islands.
1945 — , January 13
ETO - Norway: The Jorstad Bridge is blown up by the Norwegian resistance, killing 70 Germans.
ETO - France: Day 166 of 284 of the Battle of Brittany.
ETO - France: Day 121 of 236 of the Siege of Dunkirk.
ETO - Belgium: Day 29 of 41 of the Battle of the Bulge. US 1st Army attacks the Germans between Stavelot and Malmedy. US 9th Air Force provides air support. American soldiers encounter a German Panzer tank with US markings and destroy it.
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A German Panzer with US markings
ETO - Belgium: Day 14 of 26 of Operation NORDWIND, the last major German offensive of World War II on the Western Front.
ETO - Germany: Day 117 of 145 of the Battle of Hürtgen Forest.
ETO - Germany: US 8th Air Force heavy bombers hit marshalling yards and rail bridges along the Rhine river.
Russian Front - Finland: Day 121 of 223 of the Lapland War. Finland and Russia have joined forces to kick the Germans out of Finland's most northern province.
Russian Front - Center: Day 91 of 206 of the Battle of the Courland Pocket in Latvia.
Russian Front - Center: Day 84 of 99 of the Siege of Memel, a border town of Lithuania and East Prussia. The Soviets begin an offensive toward Pillkallen in East Prussia and quickly meet stiff resistance from the 3rd Panzer Army.
Russian Front - Center: Day 2 of 23 of the Battle along the Vistula and Oder Rivers in central Poland and eastern Germany. This will put the Soviets in position to kick off their drive to Berlin.
Russian Front - South: Day 77 of 108 of the Battle of Budapest, Hungary.
MTO: German forces of Army Group E complete their withdrawal from Greece and Albania.
MTO - Italy: US and Royal Air Forces provides air support for the Allied ground units.
CBI - Burma: Day 288 of 302 of the Chinese Salween Offensive. British troops make further gains in central Burma and are now only 30 miles from Mandalay. US 10th Air Force provides air support.
CBI - China: Day 2,748 of 2,987 of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War.
US 14th Air Force strikes targets inside China.
PTO - Japan: US 7th Air Force B-24s bomb the airfields on Iwo Jima during the day.
PTO - New Guinea: Day 383 of 597 of the Battle of New Britain.
PTO - New Guinea: Day 267 of 481 of the Battle of Western New Guinea.
PTO - Philippines: Day 86 of 299 of the 2nd Battle of the Philippines, aka the Liberation of the Philippines or the Philippines Campaign.
PTO - Philippines: Day 30 of 244 of the Battle of Luzon. 5th Air Force provides air support.
Day-By-Day listings for January 13 were last modified on Monday, March 12, 2018
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