January 31, 1944 - Monday - 80 years ago today

Status - John Skinner - USS Daly: 

USS Daly (DD-519) -New Guinea

January 28th: Anchored all day.  Temperatures 80s, light winds.

January 29th: Anchored all day.  Temperatures 80s, light winds. 

January 30th:  Anchored all day.  Temperatures 80s, light winds.

January 31st: Anchored until 8 PM, then underway.  Temperatures 80s, light winds.  Daly with other destroyers is escorting a new group of transports.

------------------------- 

In the final days of January, US carrier air forces destroy Japanese air power in the Marshall Islands, and on the 30th, bombardment of Kwajalein Atoll and Majuro Island begin, followed on the 31st by Marine and Army landings on the islands.

Fighting continues in Italy at the Anzio beachhead and at  Monte Cassino.  Forces from the Anzio beachhead break through the Gustav Line.

-------------------------

More Information:

• Official Navy Chronology, pp. 434-437. 
• Aleutians, Gilberts and Marshalls, Samuel Eliot Morison, pp. 187-240.
• Breaking the Bismarcks Barrier, Samuel Eliot Morison, pp. 400-414.
• War at the End of the World, James P. Duffy, pp, 275-278.
  
• Events of January, 1944
• Logbooks of the US Navy at the National Archives, USS Daly, DD-519, January 1944
  

NEXT POST: FEBRUARY 4TH

January 31, 1864 - Sunday - 160 years ago today

Status - John Baer - 40th Indiana Regiment - Granger's Corps - Sheridan's Division - Wagner's Brigade

General Schofield on the 28th is given overall command in East Tennessee, replacing General Foster.  Sheridan's division remains at Loudon, TN.  Longstreet's Confederates are reported at Dandridge, TN, and the Union forces are concentrating near Maryville.

As the situation is still in doubt near Knoxville, veteran regiments that had been slated for a month's leave on re-enlistment for the duration, are temporarily retained in the area.  The 40th Indiana has not yet been granted leave but will be soon.

Sherman  continues to organize his Mississippi expedition, and numerous parts of the army in Western Tennessee and Mississippi are in motion.

More Information:

• Link: War Operations, see Volume XXXII, Chapter XLIV, Part II, Correspondence, pp. 244-306.
• The Civil War Day by Day, John S. Bowman, Ed. p. 140.
• The Civil War, A Narrative, Vol 1I, Fredericksburg to Meridian, Shelby Foote, pp. 862-923.
• Decision In The West, The Atlanta Campaign of 1864, Albert Castel, pp, 1-38.
  
• Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, pp. 442-462.
• Memoirs of General William T. Sherman, pp. 396-418.
  
• Events: 1864
  

NEXT POST:  FEBRUARY 4TH