January: American troops cross the Siegfried Line into Germany.

January 1: Germany begins Operation Bodenplatte, an attempt by the Luftwaffe to cripple Allied air forces in the Low Countries

January 5: Australia recognizes the Polish Committee of National Liberation as the government of Poland.

January 7: British General Bernard Montgomery holds a press conference at Zonhoven describing his supporting role at the Battle of the Bulge.

January 12: The Soviet Union begins the Vistula-Oder Offensive in Eastern Europe against the German Army.

January 13: A day after beginning the Vistula-Oder Offensive, the Soviets launch the East Prussian Offensive to eliminate German forces in East Prussia.

January 16: In Berlin Adolf Hitler takes residence in the Führerbunker.

January 17: A Soviet patrol arrests Raoul Wallenberg in Hungary. - The Soviet Union occupies Warsaw, Poland.

January 20: The evacuation of Auschwitz concentration camp begins. - Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated to an unprecedented fourth term as President of the United States. No president before, or since, has even reached a third term in office.

January 23: Hungary agrees to an armistice with the Allies.

January 26: Infantry action at Holtzwihr, France, for which Audie Murphy is awarded the Medal of Honor.

January 27: The Red Army liberates the Auschwitz and Birkenau death camps.

January 28: Supplies begin to reach China over the newly-reopened Burma Road.

January 30: Wilhelm Gustloff, with over 10,000 mainly civilian Germans from Gotenhafen (Gdynia) in the Gdansk Bay, is sunk by three torpedoes from the Soviet submarine S-13 in the Baltic Sea; up to 9,400 are thought to have died - the greatest loss of life in a single ship sinking in war action in history. - Raid at Cabanatuan: 121 American soldiers and 800 Filipino guerrillas free 813 American POWs from the Japanese-held camp at Cabanatuan City, Philippines. - Adolf Hitler gives his last speech.

January 31: Eddie Slovik is executed by firing squad near Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines for desertion, the first American soldier since the American Civil War, and last to date, executed for this offense. (source: Wikipedia)