Adolph Hitler met with Rundstedt and Walter Model at the Adlerhorst and ordered them to hold the Western Allies back as long as possible.
"Sgt. Clarence Pfeifer, Jordan, Montana, (with machine gun) and Pfc. Sherman Maness, Searcy, Ark., (driver) bring in two German prisoners captured near Longchamps, Belgium. 15 January, 1945. HQ Company, 63rd Armored Infantry Battalion, 11th Armored Division. Photographer: T/5 S. Slevin, 167th Signal Photo Co."
It was his last visit to the Western Front. Most of the rest of the war he would spend in his bunker in Berlin.
"2nd Lt. Charles Pettit, of Bardstown, Kentucky, left, and Lt. Col. Benjamin J. Butler of Milton, Kentucky, read a copy of the Trimble County Democrat. 15 January, 1945. 168th Infantry Regiment, 34th Infantry Division." The Colonel is is wearing a M1943 Field Jacket with a combat infantryman's bad and his overseas stripes (18 months) affixed, which is unusual. Note also the sheepskin hat.
Heinrich Himmler, who by this point had a more realistic view of how the war was going to turn out, ordered the evacuation of Auschwitz and its sub-camps to the West. All evidence of the existence of the camps was ordered to be destroyed, which would prove to be impossible.
Arthur Otto Beyer performed the actions that lead to his being awarded the Medal of Honor.
He displayed conspicuous gallantry in action. His platoon, in which he was a tank-destroyer gunner, was held up by antitank, machinegun, and rifle fire from enemy troops dug in along a ridge about 200 yards to the front. Noting a machinegun position in this defense line, he fired upon it with his 76-mm. gun killing 1 man and silencing the weapon. He dismounted from his vehicle and, under direct enemy observation, crossed open ground to capture the 2 remaining members of the crew. Another machinegun, about 250 yards to the left, continued to fire on him. Through withering fire, he advanced on the position. Throwing a grenade into the emplacement, he killed 1 crewmember and again captured the 2 survivors. He was subjected to concentrated small-arms fire but, with great bravery, he worked his way a quarter mile along the ridge, attacking hostile soldiers in their foxholes with his carbine and grenades. When he had completed his self-imposed mission against powerful German forces, he had destroyed 2 machinegun positions, killed 8 of the enemy and captured 18 prisoners, including 2 bazooka teams. Cpl. Beyer's intrepid action and unflinching determination to close with and destroy the enemy eliminated the German defense line and enabled his task force to gain its objective.
Beyer's parents were immigrants from Luxembourg. After the war, he moved to rural Buffalo, North Dakota, and worked as a farm hand, eventually acquiring a farm. He married Marian Hicks in 1962, and passed away in 1965 at age 55.
The 1st Ukrainian Front took Kielce, Poland. the 2nd Belorussian Front crossed the Pilica and attacked toward Radom, Łódź and Posen. The Germans commit their reserves.
The HMS Thane, an escort carrier was sunk by the U-484 off of the Firth of Clyde.
And, what the heck?
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Labels: 1940s, 1945, actors and actresses, Battle of the Bulge, Burma, China Burma India Theater, Eastern Front, German Wehrmacht, Railroads, Siege of Budapest, U.S. Air Force, World War Two
