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• German report noted that the total number of prisoners in concentration camps was 714,211; there were about 40,000 guards at the camps. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | CPC]

• 36 US Navy F4U fighters and several New Zealand fighters took off from Green Islands east of Australian Papua and attacked the Toboi wharf area of Rabaul, New Britain and the nearby floatplane anchorage. 7 aircraft were lost to poor weather en route back to Green Islands. ww2dbase [New Guinea-Papua Campaign, Phase 3 | CPC]

• Adolf Hitler ordered Panzerkorps Grossdeutschland to move from East Prussia, Germany to Poland to counter the Soviet Vistula-Oder Offensive. This counterattack would be repulsed by the Soviet 1st Byelorussian Front. ww2dbase [Vistula-Oder Offensive | CPC]
• Adolf Hitler departed the Adlerhorst headquarters in Wetterau, Germany, returning to Berlin. ww2dbase [Adolf Hitler | CPC]
• Roza Shanina reached Eydtkuhnen, Ostpreußen (East Prussia), Germany (now Chernyshevskoye, Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia). ww2dbase [Roza Shanina | CPC]
• Libelle was renamed Jagd. ww2dbase [F1 | CPC]

• USS Whale arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii, ending her tenth war patrol. ww2dbase [Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Whale | CPC]

• Allied aircraft attacked Japanese shipping in Hong Kong. ww2dbase [CPC]

• USS Sunfish departed Majuro, Marshall Islands for her tenth war patrol. ww2dbase [Sunfish (Gato-class) | CPC]

• USS Ticonderoga launched Air Group 80 aircraft for strikes on Taiwan, hitting Kaneka Soda Company chemical plant (mis-identified as a magnesium plant) in Tainan, among other targets. 1 aircraft was lost on this day. ww2dbase [Raid into the South China Sea | Ticonderoga | DS, CPC]

• The Inrin Temporary Prisoners of War Camp in central Taiwan was closed. ww2dbase [CPC]
• USS Yorktown (Essex-class) launched raids on Formosa (Taiwan) and Canton (Guangzhou) in China. ww2dbase [Raid into the South China Sea | Yorktown (Essex-class) | DS]

• German V-2 rocket hit Rainham, London, England, United Kingdom at about 2345, killing 14 and seriously injuring 4. ww2dbase [V-Weapons Campaign | Vergeltungswaffe 2 | CPC]

• USS Iowa arrived at San Francisco, California, United States. ww2dbase [Iowa | CPC]

15 Jan 1945 Interactive Map