http://www.etherit.co.uk/month/0/18.htm
January 18th, 1945 (THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Winston Churchill today gave MPs his most confident and sparkling report of the whole war - now in its 65th month. He appealed for unity at home while the Allies use the overwhelming forces which are now poised to crush Nazi Germany. The prime minister warned the Germans that giving in now will be easier for them than enduring what the Allies have in store for them.
Minesweeper HMS Liberty commissioned.
NETHERLANDS: NETHERLANDS: Fusilier Dennis Donnini (b.1925), Royal Scots Fusiliers, despite a head wound, drove the Germans from a house, firing until he was killed soon after. (Victoria Cross)
GERMANY: Oberst Karl-Heinz Sieber, the commandant of Stalag IX-B Bad Orb, orders the segregation of American Jewish-PoWs from non-Jews.
After a brief protest and the beating of the U.S. Man of Confidence (_Vertrauensmann_, or MOC), Sergeant Johann “Hans” Kasten, the new POWs complied with the order. Except for those who hid their identity, most Jews were placed in a separate compound surrounded by a barbed-wire fence.
U-2533 commissioned
U-2363 launched.
POLAND: Warsaw: The Soviet puppet government arrives from Lublin to take over the reins of government.
Auschwitz-Birkenau: The Germans order the inmates to evacuate the camp immediately for transport - on foot or by train - concentration camps in Germany.
CANADA:
HMS LST 3543 ordered from North Vancouver Ship Repairs Ltd.
Corvette HMCS Summerside completed repairs Halifax and departed for workups Bermuda.
U.S.A.:
Frigate USS Milledgeville commissioned.
Destroyer USS Hollister laid down.
Interesting too. The article notes a single air raid of 1900 Brit and American bombers and 500 fighters. They went after German oil production.
This one raid delivered more ordinance of target than the entire V-2 rocket program did, despite spending about the same amount of money as the Manhattan project. And we could do it a few times a week.
U-2533 Commissioned.
This was the boat that perhaps could have won the war in the Atlantic for the Germans had she been in the water maybe 2 years earlier. She was the first real combat submarine that was meant to dwell in the deep and not just retreat to it once in danger.
These boats had much better crew facilities than previous classes, much more silent underwater, freezer for foodstuffs, a shower and a basin and little things like that. Also they had hydraulic torpedo reload system that enabled the commander to reload all 6 tubes in something like 10 minutes which was even less than it took to reload one tube on the VIIC normally.
3-times the electrical power of the VIIC gave the boat enormous underwater range compared to the older types and this boat could submerge far beyond the Bay of Biscay from the French bases so the Valley of Death was a thing of the past for them really. It took the boat 3-5 hours to re-charge the batteries with the Schnorchel once every 2-3 days if travelling at moderate 4-8 knots and was thus much less in danger from aircraft which sank about 56% of all U-boats lost in the war.
If the boat carried TMC mines she could also carry 14 torpedoes.
