Poland, January 17th, 1945
The Soviet 1st Byelorussian front pushed the Germans out of Warsaw. Or the ruins of Warsaw since the Germans in the months after the Polish uprising had systematically demolished large parts of the city. The next day the Soviet sponsored provisional government of Poland would move itself to the Polish capital. The Western allies would continue to recognize the Polish government in exile in London as the legitimate government of Poland. On the 19th with Lotz and Krakow liberated and the Germans almost entirely driven out of Poland the Polish Home Army would dissolve itself in an attempt to avoid conflict with the Soviet forces now in control of Poland...
East Prussia, January 20th, 1945
With East Prussia now cutoff from the rest of German controlled areas, the Germans start evacuating troops and civilians from the area. The evacuation carried by the Kriegsmarine for the most part would be hampered by Soviet and Swedish submarine and air attacks but still evacuate nearly 2 million people till it was over in March.
Burma, January 22nd, 1945
The Allied offensive kept gaining ground with the British IV Corps liberating Htilin and Indian troops taking Muinmu the next day. By January 27th British troops would link up with Chinese forces.
Berlin, January 24th, 1945
The new Army Group Vistula was organized in hopes of better defending against the continuing Soviet offensive of Poland. Conveniently for the Soviets Hitler would install as its commander Heinrich Himmler despite the latter's lack of any serious military experience...
Western Europe, January 25th, 1945
The German Ardennes offensive was officially over. The Germans had inflicted on the Allied Forces over 80,000 casualties in addition to over 800 tanks and about a thousand aircraft. But they had failed to achieve any of their strategic objectives and had suffered similar levels of casualties themselves. And while the Americans and British could replace their material losses with ease, and personnel losses with some more strain, the same was not true any more for Germany who had to virtually scrap the bottom of the barrel to find men and properly equip them...
Piraeus, February 1st, 1945
Prime Minister Stratos, waited in quay as the USS Quincy escorted by a quartet of Greek destroyers entered the harbor. The Mediterranean was clear of German submarines for some months but no chances were being taken, not when the American heavy cruiser had president Roosevelt, in the first official visit of a US president to Greece aboard. Roosevelt would fly out of Athens for the Soviet Union two days later.
Yugoslavia, February 3rd, 1945
Novi Sad was liberated by the British 10th Army. The Germans were still holding most of Bosnia and Croatia and the entirety of Slovenia but despute an energetic defense their position in Yugoslavia was slowly but surely eroding particularly since the Allies were starting to overcome their supply issues. American led engineering troops had fully repaired the Yugoslav railway network by now and were busy extending the double line railway north from Thessaloniki into Yugoslavia, reaching Stalac 187 km from Belgrade by the end of January.
Philippines, February 3rd, 1945
A week before the US 8th Army had landed in southern Luzon. Now US and Filippino forces attacked Manilla, which was defended mostly by Japanese navy men in addition to a smaller contingent of army soldiers. Thr battle despite initial American hopes would continue for weeks at massive civilian cost.
Constantinople, February 4th, 1945
Stalin had refused to hold the second conference between allied leaders in either Malta or Athens as proposed by his western allies proposing instead Yalta. Churchill who had already agreed to come to go to Moscow the previous years and was starting to get increasingly apprehensive at continuing Soviet demands had indicated he was willing to agree but due to health reasons he could not come by air and instead he was taking HMS Lion, the latest and heaviest Royal Navy battleship to Yalta. That had been enough to awaken Soviet paranoia as it would be creating a precedent of Western capital ships entering the Black Sea and thus compromise had been reached at the conference taking place in Constantinople instead. Over the next week the big three, Stalin had adamantly refused French participation and had been backed by the Americans, would hash out once more the fate of post war Europe. Agreement would be reach about the broad outlines of the fate of Germany and its post war occupation by Soviet, American and French troops, the French occupation zone to be carved out of the American and British ones the Polish eastern border being moved to the Curzon line, with Stalin promising free elections would be held in Poland. The exact whereabouts of the border and whether they would follow to Curzon line B or not were left open with Churchill trying to tie them up with the final status of the straits and Constantinople where Stalin was insisting on direct Soviet annexation of the Channak area, already occupied by the Soviet army, though not Constantinople itself and Churchill openly claiming that the Western Allies should have the right to dispose of their occupation zones in Constantinople as they saw fit, in other words giving it to Greece...
Germany, February 5th, 1945
Soviet forces crossed the Oder. Is the West continuing Allied offensives were reaching the Rhine at places but had failed to cross it yet.
Hungary, February 13th, 1945
Budapest was captured by Soviet and Romanian forces. The seven week siege had cost the Soviets over 100,000 casualties. German ans Hungarian casualties were even higher reaching 137,000 men while large sections of the city had been destroyed with thousands of civilians killed.
Dresden, February 13th, 1945
Hundreds of RAF heavy bombers hit the city in nighttime. They were followed by the USAAF in the morning of February 14th and a further raid the next day. By the time the bombing was over much of the city lay in ruins and 25,000 civilians had been killed. German propaganda would exaggerate the figure of dead to 200,000 and the necessity of the bombing would remain controversial over the next several decades.
