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• Douglas MacArthur ordered Major General Verne Mudge of the US 1st Cavalry Division to conduct a rapid advance on Manila, Philippine Islands. ww2dbase [Douglas MacArthur | CPC]
• About 500 Allied prisoners of war were rescued at Cabanatuan, Luzon, Philippine Islands by a raid conducted by the US Army. ww2dbase [Philippines Campaign, Phase 2 | CPC]
• German passenger liner Wilhelm Gustloff was attacked and sunk by a Soviet submarine off Gotenhafen (Gdynia), occupied Poland, killing 8,000 of the 9,000 passengers onboard. ww2dbase [East Prussian Offensive | CPC]
• USS Kete arrived at Guam, Mariana Islands, ending her first war patrol. ww2dbase [Kete | CPC]
• Otto Skorzeny was ordered to join the Army Group Vistula on the Eastern Front. ww2dbase [Otto Skorzeny | CPC]
• Albert Speer noted to Adolf Hitler that, having lost the Silesia region to Soviet forces, Germany had now lost an important source of coal and steel, the war was now lost. ww2dbase [Albert Speer | CPC]

• While transporting civilians from Ostpreußen (East Prussia), Germany, German Navy passenger ship Wilhelm Gustloff was sunk by Soviet submarine S-13, under the command of Captain 3rd Class Alexander Marinesko, taking somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 lives, possibly making it the greatest loss of life in a maritime disaster in history. ww2dbase [Alexander Marinesko | Wilhelm Gustloff | CPC]

• Barbers Point Naval Air Station: The first WAVE officer reported for duty this date. ww2dbase [Barbers Point Naval Air Station | Ewa, Oahu | DS]
• Submarine USS Tinosa arrived at Pearl Harbor at the end of her eighth war patrol. Although Tinosa encountered no enemy shipping and conducted no attacks during this patrol, it was still deemed a successful patrol based on Tinosa's valuable intelligence gathering of mined channels and harbor entrances in and around the Nansei Shoto Islands. ww2dbase [Tinosa | Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Pearl Harbor, Oahu | DS]

• USS Bergall sank a Japanese transport in the South China Sea, hitting her with 1 of 1 torpedo. ww2dbase [Bergall | South China Sea | CPC]

• USS Luce departed for Mindoro, Philippine Islands. ww2dbase [Luce | CPC]

• Russian monarchist Vasili Shulgin, who had been arrested in Yugoslavia in Dec 1944, was brought to Lubyanka Prison in Moscow, Russia. ww2dbase [Lubyanka Building | Moscow | CPC]

• The British Government called on every firm and factory to cut the use of gas and electricity by 10 percent without jeopardising essential war work. ww2dbase [AC]

• Executive Officer Commander John T. Corwin relieved Captain Charles E. Coney as the commanding officer of the cruiser USS Nashville while the ship was under repairs. ww2dbase [Nashville | Bremerton, Washington | DS]
• A ship's party for all hands from USS St. Louis was held at the Long Beach Municipal Auditorium. ww2dbase [St. Louis | Long Beach, California | DS]

• USS Spot arrived at Midway Atoll, ending her first war patrol. ww2dbase [Spot | Midway Bases | Midway | CPC]

30 Jan 1945 Interactive Map