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• Soviet units reached the Oder River in the Silesia region of occupied Poland. ww2dbase [Vistula-Oder Offensive | TH]
• In fighting at Brachterbeek, the Netherlands, Lance Corporal Henry Harden, a medic attached to the Commandos, sprinted 100 yards under fire over open ground to attend three wounded men. He carried one back to safety and, despite being hit, insisted on returning for the others. As he hoisted the second wounded man onto his back, he was shot and killed. He was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. ww2dbase [AC]
• USS Sennet attacked Japanese patrol boats off the Bonin Islands, sinking one and damaging another with 1 of 6 torpedoes fired. ww2dbase [Sennet | CPC]

• Anglo-Indian troops captured Myinmu, Burma. The last Japanese survivors drowned themselves in the Irrawaddy River to avoid capture. ww2dbase [Battle of Meiktila-Mandalay | Myinmu | CPC]

• USS Wake Island arrived at Ulithi, Caroline Islands for repairs. ww2dbase [Wake Island | Ulithi | CPC]

• USS Barb attacked a Japanese convoy near Nanguan Island ("Namkwan harbor"), Zhejiang Province, China at 0405 hours, firing eight torpedoes and recording eight hits. At 1130 hours, Commander Eugene Fluckey sent Sino-American Special Technical Cooperative Organization (SACO) chief Commander Milton Miles a radio message, thanking him for the intelligence about the attack location. In Jun 1991, Fluckey was able to visit the fishing village of Huang Qi where several eyewitnesses of the attack still lived; the Chinese recalled seeing 4 Japanese ships sinking and 3 heavily damaged. ww2dbase [Barb | Nanguan, Zhejiang | CPC]

• Helmuth von Moltke was executed at the Plötzensee Prison in Berlin, Germany. ww2dbase [Helmuth von Moltke | Berlin | CPC]
• Kriegsmarine units began the evacuation of German civilians from Ostpreußen (East Prussia) and Danzig (Operation Hannibal). Meanwhile, Soviet troops reached Elbing, Danzig-Westpreußen, Germany (now Elblag) on the Baltic coast. ww2dbase [East Prussian Offensive | TH]
• Emden departed Königsberg, Germany (now Kaliningrad, Russia) with the remains of Paul von Hindenburg aboard. ww2dbase [Emden | Königsberg, Ostpreußen | CPC]

• A UKR official attached to Soviet 2nd Ukrainian Front reported that between 1 Jan 1945 and 20 Jan 1945, 2 German counterintelligence personnel, 39 German intelligence personnel, and 7 Hungarian intelligence personnel were arrested in Hungary. ww2dbase [Budapest Strategic Offensive Operation | CPC]

• B-24 bombers of No. 159 Squadron RAF from Kharagpur in eastern India mined the Penang Strait. ww2dbase [Penang Strait, Penang | CPC]

23 Jan 1945 Interactive Map