On this day during W.W. 2

Jan 30 1941 Derna in Libya was occupied by the advancing British Army columns, which then began pushing toward Benghazi.    Germany warned that ships of any nation carrying aid to Britian would be torpedoed.

1942 Britishforces were driven from the mainland of Malaya and withdrew to Singapore after destroying the connecting causeway.    A bitter fight developed for the control of Moulmein in Burma. Japanese forces seized the city’s airport.    Japanese forces invaded Amboina Island in the Dutch East Indies which controlled the southern approaches to the Molucca passage. Allied air and naval units had already pulled out under the pressure of air attacks.    Hitler spoke menacingly of ridding Europe of all Jews in a Berlinspeech making the ninth anniversary of Nazi rule in Germany.    The Irish Republic protested the arrival of U.S. troops in Northern Ireland as a violation of its neutrality.

1943 Soviet forces reoccupied the oil center of Maikop. German Army Group A was cut off as the Russians captured the rail center of Tikhoretsk. German Army Group Don was no longer an effective force. The Staligrad pocket was narrowed to a 300 yard perimeter.    Counterattacking German troops overran the faid pass in Tunisia.    The R.A.F. launched its first daylight attack of the war on Berlin. Mosquitos bombed the German capital in the midst of ceremonies marking the 10th anniversary of Hitler’s accession to power.    R.A.F.bombers began using H2S in a raid on Hamburg. The device was a simple radar set which displayed a rough picture of the ground below. It served primarily as an all weather bombing aid but also used for navigational purposes. The early models were notoriously unreliable.    The U.S. cruiser Chicago was sunk off the Solomans after being hit by an airborne torpedo.

1944 U.S. Rangers in the Anzio beachhead were ambushed and two Battalions were almost entirly eliminated in a drive to capture Cisterna.    Future action by the Luftwaffe in Italy was sharply limited when U.S. 15th Air Force planes attacked German air facilities in the Po valley.    The Chinese 22nd Division established complete control over the Taro plain in Berma.

1945 Hitler marked the 12th anniversary of his accession to power in a speech still filled with defiance. It was his last radio broadcast. Russian forces reached a point 70 miles from Berlin.

1933 Hitler was named chancellor of Germany. Hindenburg believed the appointment would end the diviseness which had plagued the country

1934 Hitler repeated German demans for arms equality " no threat and no force will ever move the German people to abandon those rights which cannot be denied to a sovereign nation"

1937 Hitler demanded a retun of all former German colonies, repudiated the war guilt clause of the Versailles treaty, and ended reparations payments for the management of the Reichsbank and the German railways. He declared that “peace is our dearest treasure” and offered to guarantee the neutrality of Belgium and the Netherlands.

1039 In a speech widely regarded as conciliatory, Hitler said “Germany has no territorial claims on England and France, except the return of her colonies”.    Hitler privately assured Mussolini of German support if any country interfered with Italy’s projected conquest of Albania.

Jan 31 1941 Churchill asked Turkey to grant permission to to station 10 R.A.F. squadrons on Turkish territory. ( Ankara eventually refused, saying it would break neutrality and join the Allies only if attacked by the Germans)

1942 Japanese aircraft began a steady series of raids on Singapore’s Kalang air base and dock facilities.    Moulmeim was evacuated by the British who were forced back over the Salween River.

1943 Paulus, promoted to field marshal the day before,surrendered at Stalingrad. When told of the surrender, Hitler said “Paulus did an about face on the threshold of immortality”.    British troops cleared Zwara in Libya and pressed toward the Tunisian frontier.    Indecisive but heavy fighting continued in Tunisia as the Allies attempted to retake the Faid Pass.    Donitz replaced Rarder as commander in Chief of the German Navy.

1944 U.S. forces invaded Kwajalein and other Islands in the Marshalls. Casualties were extremely light. The Islands were the first of Japan’s pre-war territories to fall.    Australia formed a commission to investigate Japanese war crimes

1945 The U.S. XVIII Corps advanced through the Bucholz Forest into German Territory at Neuhof.    The 25,000-ton German transport Wilhelm Gustloff was torpedoed and sunk while evacuating soldiers and civilians from East Prussia. Only 900 of the 6,ooo aboard survived.    In a further move to isolate Japanese units onLuzon, the U.S. 11th Airborne landed at the south entrance to Manila Bay.    French and U.S. forces reached the outskirts of Colmar.    A small force of Germans continued to fight in the western part of Budapest.    The U.S. 6th Army began its final drive toward Manila.    China was sliced in half as the Japanese captured Kukong, the last Chinese strongpoint on the Hankow railroad.

1932 A cease-fire and means to settle the fighting were arranged by the British and U.S. consuls in Shanghai, but the agreements quickly evaporated.

Feb 1 1940 In a conciliatory speech, Foreign Minister Haciro Arita said Japan was "anxious to see the development of China’s trade with other powers and would welcome foreign investments in China as long as they are of a purely economic chariter.    Russian forces launched another attack to break Finnish defenses on the Karelian Isthmus.

1941 The U.S. Navy created the Atlantic Fleet, to be commanded by rear Admiral Ernest J. King. Its work,essentially, would be convoy escort.      Italian forces in Albania launched a series of counterattacks against Greek positions along the entire front.    Agordat in Eritrea was captured by British forces who continued their advance to the Red Sea in pusuit of the retreating Italian forces.

U.S. warships attacked Japanese air and naval bases in the Gilbert and Marshal islands. The force of two Carriers, five Cruisers and ten Destroyers was the largest to go on the offensive. The American ships and planes inflicted severe damage. It was the first air attack of the war against Japanese positions.    In Libya British forces pulled back to a Gazala-Bir Hacheim defense line    Vidkun Quisling was proclaimed minister president of Norway. The appointment was made by the Reich commissar for the occupied country, Josef Terboven. Quisling proclaimed “Hitler’s victory is Norway’s victory.” A month later, when he failed utterly to win support, Quisling said "There’s no use appealing to the Norwegian people’s intelligence. In Norway it has become necessary to impose the new order by force.

1943 Svatovo, southwest of Kharkov, fell to the Russians, cutting the rail line fromKharkov to the Donets Basin    Allied area commanderes met in New Delhi and decided to launch a major campaign to retake all of Burma beginning in Nov. The ultimate objective was to clear the way into China which would be used as a base for direct action against Japan.

1944 The Gestapo chief in Poland was assassinated.    Kwajalein operations continued with virtually no Japanese resistance as U.S. Marines secuered all their initial objectives.    The U.S. 3rd Division in the Anzio beachhead abandoned efforts to take Cisterna and began preparing for German counterattacks. British efforts to expand the Garigliano bridgeheads continued in the face of determined German resistance.

1945 The U.S. 7th Army halted irs offensive actions, establishing defensive positions generally along the Moder River in northern Alsace.    Berlin was subjected to heavy Allied bombing, which continued on an almost round-the -clock basis.    The communications center of Torun on the Vistula in Poland was surrendered to the Red Army. Soviet armor units pressed to within 43 miles of Berlin on the Oder River.    U.S.forces advancedrapidly in their southward drive to recapture Manila.

Feb 2 1942 Major General Joseph W.Stilwell was named chief of staff to Chiang Kai-shek and instruced "to increase the effectiveness of United States assistance to the Chinese Government for the prosecution of war and to assist in improving the combat efficency of the Chinese Army.    Feodosia on the black Sea was reoccupied by the Russians.    British forces  were ordered to hold Tobruk as a supply center for future offensive operations by the 8th Army.

1943 All resistance at Stalingrad ended. About 147,200 Germans were killed in the extended and abortive campaign for the city, and another 91,000 surrendered, including 24 Generals. Only 34,000 men ever made it out on the airlift. A thousand Luftwaffe crewmen and 488 transport planes were lost in the resupply and evacuation effort.    The first group of Japanese troops was evacuated from Gaudlcanal.

1944 Russian forces crossed the Estonian border and captured Vanakula. The Ukranian front saw the Russians advancing on a 60 mile wide front west of the Dnieper.    Stalin agreed to permit American planes to use six Russian baseswhile involved in shuttle bombing operations.

1945 Roosevelt and Churchill met on Malta before proceeding to Yalta in the Crimea for conferences with Stalin. It was Churchill’s last and again unsuccessful attempt to win American support for a push into the Balkans.    The U.S. 1st Infantry and 82nd Airborne divisions assaulted the Siegfried line, breaching the West Wall and taking Udenbreth and Neuhof.    All combat operations ended on Leyte.

Feb 3 1941The German pocket battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst maneuvered through the Skagerrak and broke into the North Sea.    The battle of Keren began in Eritrea as the Italians consolidated their defense positions.    British forces pressed their Libyan offensive. In the battle of Beda Fomm, the Italian 10th Army was completely destroyed, and Benghazi was encircled.

1942 German troops in Libya fought their way back into Derna.    Japanese aircraft attacked Port Moresby and the Dutch naval base at Surabaya on Java.    Chiang Kai-shek and the British agreed on the deployment of Chinese troops in the defense of Burma.

1943 Berlin acknowledged the end of the fighting at Stalingrad, saying that" the sacrifices of the Army, bulwark of a historical European misson, were not in vain."Germany began a three day period of national mourning. Soviet forces advanced on all fronts in Russia

1944 U.S. warships shelled Paramushiru Island in northern Japan, the first Allied attack on the Japanese homeland.    Ten German divisions of the 8th Army were encircled by the Russians south of Korsun. Attempts to relieve the units forced the Germans to curtail offensive actions elsewhere.    German troops launched a counteroffensive at Anzio, directed against Campoleone salient which was held by the British 1st Division.

1945 U.S. 1st Calvalry Division units reached the northeast suburbs of Manila.    French forces liberated Colmar.    The U.S. 82nd Airborne Division turned back sharp German counterattacks along the Siegfried Line.    Japanese troops occupied Namyung in northern Kwangtung Province, China.

Feb 5 1940 Britian and France decided to send military aid to Finland

1942 4th The Japanese demanded the unconditional surrender of the British forces at Singapore.    Allied and Axis forces halted their fighting along a line between Gazzla and Mechili, regrouping and planning for the next round of action.
5th British reinforcements and supplies began arriving in Singapore. Air attacks, however, interfered with the effort. The Empress of the sea was sunk before reaching Singapore.

1943 Mussolini assumed controll of the Italian ministry of foreign affairs, ousting his son in law Ciano. It thus gave him, as Rome announced, "the entire burden for the conduct of political and military operations in this delicate phase of the conflict.

1944 4th Japan launched a major offensive in Burma on the Arakan front in an effort to force the British back to India.    Kwajalein was declaired secure. Japanese losses were 4,938 killed and 206 captured. U.S. casualties were 142 killed.    U.S. troops were forced back at Cassino. British forces yielded ground at Anzio.    Moscow announced the Gulf of Finland and the Novgorod-Leningrad railway were totallt secure.    China launched an attackin the Hukawng valley, in northern Burma.    Air and naval resupply efforts for the Allied forces at Anzio were further restricted by fresh German attacks.    Allied troops along the Cassino front and the Anzio pocket were forced to pull back in the face of heavy German counterattacks.    Five German divisions were trapped near Nikopol when the Russians captured Apostolovo,the rail junction which served as an outlet to the west.    British forces began pulling back on the Arakan front after being threatened by Japanese movements to drive a wedge between them.

4th A Regiment of the U.S. 9th Infantry Division reached the first of the dams on the Roer River in Germany.    The first full convoy from Ledo reached Kunming, China.    U.S. 8th Army units began their push into Manila from the south. 
5th  Soviet troops under Zhukov reached the Oder River at Kustrin, only 50 miles from Berlin.    Moroccan and U.S. forces linked up at Rouffach, cutting the Colmar pocket in two.    Australian forces landed on New Britian.    American forces drove into Manila from the north.

1932 Japan extended its military occupation of Manchuria, including those areas dominated by the soviet Union.    Latvia and the Soviet Union signed a nonaggression pact.

1935 Italy began mobilizing its reserves, calling up troops to place two divisions on a war footing. Shortly thereafter, units began sailing for Ethiopia.

Feb 6 1941 Erwin Rommel was named to command two German divisions, thge Afrika Korps, to help rescue the Italians in North Africa. It was a token force which grew into a legend.    British ans Australian forces swept into Benghazi.

1942 Britian and the U.S. established the combined Chiefs of staff, the highest level of Allied joint command, "to insure complete coordination of the war effort of Great Britian and the United States, including the production and distibution of war supplies, and to provide for full British and American collaboration eith the United Nations,    Borneo’s oil facilities at Samarinda were captured by the Japanese.

1943 The noose around the German Army Group A was further tightened as the Red Army reached the Sea of Azov at Yeysk. Russian forces advanced to within 5 miles of Rostov.

1945 The Vosges Mountians were secured as organized German resistance ended. All roads leading out of the region were blocked by Allied troops.    German defenses stiffened as the U.S. 3rd Army continued its assult on the Siegfried Line, but the fortifications were penetrated and Habscheid fell.    Most of Manila was cleared north of Pasig River. Four thousand Americans were released from Manila prisons.

Feb 7 1942 Roosevelt approved a congressional resolution authorizing up to $ 500 million in financial aid to China.    Japanese forces began a diversionary landing on the extreme eastern end of Singapore. The British commander, Lieutenant General A.E. Percival, declared the island would not surrender.    Defending troops launched a counterattack on Luzon. Japanese forces were forced to withdraw from the southwest coast

1943 Moscow announced that the Red Army had established complete controll over the south bank of the Don River. Azov was recaptured. The main highway between Orel and Kursk was cut.    Japanese destroyers began their final attempt to evacuate forces from Guadalcanal.

1944 German troops attacked Anzio in their biggest counterattack yet, accompanied by heavy air and artillery support.    Russian troops reached the outskirts of Nikopol.    The first German Schnorkel submarines began operating in the North Atlantic.    A British force was encircled on the Arakan front.

1945 The Germans blew up the floodgates of the schwammenauel Dam in an effort to halt the Allied advance.    The Belgian government resigned.    Japanese troops captured the Allied air base at Kanchow in China

1939 Ribbentrop outlined German policy as an effort to regain lost colonies and to fight communism. He said, "Towards the Soviets, we will remain adamant. We will never come to an understanding with Bolshevist Russia.

Feb 8 1941 The first of the German forces for north Africa, the 5th Panzer Regiment, left Naples by sea transport.    The British intercepted the Japanese merchant ship Yamafuji at the entrance to the Persian Gulf and confiscated all the mail it was carring. Protests were filed with the British.

1942 The main attack on Singapore was launched after dark as three Japanese Divisions crossed the narrow waters between Johore and the Island on small landing craft. A bridgehead was established without difficulty, and the Japanese set out for Tengah airfield, their immediate major objective.    Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma ordered a general pullback for all Japanese forces on the Bataan front. The Japanese were exhausted at this point and badly needed fresh troops before a final drive could be started.

1943 Kursk, held by the Germans since Nov. 11 1941 was reoccupied by Soviet troops. It had served as a key German base.    Finland, though the U.S., offered to negotiate an end to its war with Russia.    Major General Orde Windgate’s first Chindit group, made up of the 77th Indian Brigade, set off from Imphal to conduct irregular warfare behind Japanese lines in Burma. Supplied by air drops, the British, Indian and Ghurka troops trekked through the impossible junglr to cut Japanese communications    Japanese rear-gaurd units were evacuated from Guadalcanal. A total of 10,652 men were removed from the Island in a week, a remarkable feat in view of the American air and naval presence in the area.

1944 A six ton bomb, heavest used in the war to date, was dropped by an R.A.F. bomber on the Gnome-et-Rhone factory at Limoges, France.    The Germans trapped at Nikopol refused to surrender to the Red Army troops who pressed their encirclement to win total control of the important manganese center.

1945 The British XXX Corps launched an offensive to clear the erea between the Meuse and Rhine rivers, opening the battle of the Reichswald.    The Colmar pocket was reduced to four villages west of the Rhine.    Paraguay declared war on Germany and Japan.    British civilian casualties from the start of the war through this date were 57,468 killed and 79,178 injured.

Feb 9 1941 British warships attavked targets on the northern Italian mainland. Force H, operating out of Gibraltar, steamed into the Gulf of Genoa and bombarded factories and port facilities in the city of Genoa, hit the oil refinery at Leghorn, and Ark Royal aircraft mined La Spezia. The British force returned to Gibraltar without suffering damage of any kind.    El Agheila was occupied by the British, who had now penetrated about 500 miles into Libya. The advance was halted at this point as LOndon decided to pull out many of the units and send them to Greece.    In a radio broadcast to the United States, Churchill pleaded for arms support: " Give us the tools and we’ll finish the job."

1942 Tengah airfield on Singapore fell to the Japanese. Its capture permitted the quick resupply of the invading force and,if there was any remaining doubt on the outcome, sealed the fall of Singapore. Percival ordered all defenes be concentrated in the southern sector of the island,around the city of Singapore.    Japanese forces suffered heavy casualties in Luzon.    Chiang Kai-shek began a visit to India. He conferred with British officials and urged Indian nationalists leaders, particulary Jawaharlal Nehru to lay aside political differences and join in the military effort against Japan.    Roosevelt called on Vichy French government to reaffirm its position of neutrality. He noted reports of supplies being sent from France to Axis forces in North Africa.

1943 All organized Japanese resistance on Guadalcanal ended. The Americans were completely unaware of the pullout and were surprised when they realized late in the afternoon that no Japanese were left.    Belgorod was recapyured by the Russians, cutting the rail line to Kharkov.

1944 Allied forces at Anzio suffered more setbacks despite heavy naval and air support to keep the Germans from driving the Allies into the sea.    Roosevelt requested Chiang’s permission to send a U.S. military mission to the Chinese Communist base area and headquarters in Shensi Province.

1945 British and Canadian forces cracked the Siegfried line and reached the Rhine. U.S.87th Division units reached the north end of Schwammenauel Dam and seized the control house.    The Colmar was closed, with the German Nineteenth Army eliminated as a fighting force. It had lost about 25’000 men in the Alsace fighting. Allied forces now held the west bank of the Rhine from Strasbourg to the Swiss border.    Intense fighting continued in and around Manilia. U.S. units on the outer defenses of Nichols Field encountered intense opposition.    Ramree Island off the coast of Burma was secured by British Commonwealth forces.

Feb 10 1940 Germany and the Soviet Union concluded an expanding trade treaty involving increases in materials to be exchanged. By the time Germany invaded Russia, Moscow had delivered 1.5 million tons of grain, a million tons of mineral oil, and vast amounts of chrome and manganese. Germany procastinated during the 16 months the treaty remained in effect but did provide substantial amounts of raw materials and military goods, including the heavy Cruiser Lutzow.

1941 Britian broke off diplomatic relations with Rumania because of its territory was “being used by Germany as a military base in furtherance of her plans for prosecuting the war. These measures are bring taken without a word of disent from the Rumanian government.” About 680,000 German troops were soon to be stationed in Rumania.    British forces under the command of Lieutenant Sir Alan Cunningham began advancing into Italian Somaliland and Ethiopia from Kenya. A force made up of the South African 1st Division and two African divisions struck out for the Indian Ocean port of Kismayu

1942 The 82,423 ton liner Normandie which had been taken over by the U.S., burned and turned over on its side in New York, the apparent result of a welder’s carelessness. Berlin implied it was the result of Axis sabotage.    Wavell visited Singapore and ordered the Island to be held at all costs. All remaining R.A.F. personnel, however, were ordered evacuated.    French-Canadian M.P. Pierre Gauthier spoke out against a Canadian $ 1 Billion grant to Britian, saying “so-called patriots” supporting such aid would throw this country into the arms of the United States sooner than we expect.

1943 Russian troops advancing toward Kharkov took Chuguev and Volchansk.

1944 The pro-Allied Italian government was given administrstive control over Southern Italy, Sicily and Sardinia.    Hungary’s ambassador in Lisbon was instructed to inform the Western Allies that Budapest wished to surrrender unconditionally, but not to the Russians.    The Japanese abandoned Truk as a major naval base.    Australian forces completed their occupation of the Huon Peninsula on New Guinea.    Russian bombers attempted to bomb the Tirpitz in Kaafiord, Norway. 15 aircraft started out on the raid, but only 4 found the battleship. A one-ton bomb scored a near miss, but Tirpitz escaped major damage.

1945 A Soviet Sub sank the German transport General von Steuben in the Baltic. Of the 3,000 injured soldiers and civilian evacuees from East Prussia aboard, 300 survived.    A severe earthquake rocked Tokyo, followed almost immediately by a devistating raid by 90 B-29 bombers.    Germans flooded the Roer River valley, which was to frustrate the U.S. 9th Army’s planned offensive toward Dusseldorf. German forces were able to concentrate on defending positions between the Rhine and Meuse.    The East Prussian Port of Elbing was taken by the Russians.

1936 Italian forces launched a 200,000 man attack against Amba Aradam in Northern Ethiopia where defending forces had concentrated their greatest strenth, 60,000 men. Rome described the attack as the Italian “battle of annihilation.”    A law was enacted making the Gestapo a supreme Reich Agency, giving Heinrich Himmler, chief of the SS and the Gestapo, absolute control over German internal security.

1939 Poland declared it would not permit German road or Rail transit across the corridor.    Japanese forces occupied French-occupied Hainan Island in the South China Sea, giving them a base for Southern and Chinese operations.

Feb 11 & 12 1940
Intense fighting developed between thr Russians and the Finns on the Karelian front as the Red Army launched what was to become the decisive assult on the Mannerheim line. About 140,000 Russians attacked on a 12 mile front, a massive concentration of seven men each tard.
12th The Finnish cabinet authorized moves to end the wae against the Russians. It became apparent the Karelian defense line would not hold. Ay the same time, Finland requested aid from Sweden, which was regected.    The first contingent of ANZAC troops reached Egypt.

1941

11th Five merchant ships in a British convoy off the Azores were sunk by the Luftwaffe bombers.
12th German troops began landing in Tripoli.    Rommel flew to Tripoli to assume command of the German forces in North Africa.    German planes attacked Benghazi, the first action in Africa for the Luftwaffe.

1942 London claimed that during December and January 5,500 tons of gasoline and aviation fuel had been sent from France to German forces in Libya.    More Japanese forces crossedthe Salween River in Buma.    The Japanese issued an ultimatum for Singapore’s surrender.    Japanese planes bombed Samarai Island, 380 miles north of Australia. The Australian government called up all married men up to 35 years old, unmarrieds up to 40.    The U.S. granted China a 500 million $ loan.
12th The German battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and the cruiser Prinz Eugen ran the English Channel and the Dover Strait and broke into the North Sea from Brest.    A three ship British convoy for Malta from Alexandria was attacked and all ships were sunk.  Japanese forces continued pulling back in Luzon.    The Japanese began occupying Bandjarmasin, the capital of Borneo, and Makassar, capital of Celebes.

1943 12th The escape route for the Germans from Rostoz was narrowed as the Russians cut the main rail line at Krasnoarmeisk. Red Army units threatened encirclement of the German Corps defending Kharkov.

1944 11th Allied forces were repulsed in theirt efforts to stem the German pressures at Anzio.    New efforts were begun to break the Gustav Line at Cassino.
12th Germans forced Allied troops on the Anzio beachhead to fall back to the final defensive liune.    The first Allied assult on Monte Cassino in Italy was repulsed.    Allied planners set May for the cross Channel invasion of France.    U.S. Marines occupied Rooke Island at the western end of New Britian. Arno Atoll in the Marshalls was taken by the Marines, the begining of mopping-up operations to clear the many islands and atolls in the area.    The entire east bank of lake Peipus in the Soviet Union was cleared of German troops. Russian units reached a point within 45 miles of Pskov. The city controlled the approaches to Latvia.

1945 11th The German garrison in Budapest was reduced still further as the Russians occupied 45 city blocks. More than 15,000 Germans were killed trying to escape. Breslau was threatened with encirclement, posing a menance to Dresden 80 miles to the west. AllGerman resistance ended inside besieged Poznan.    Record raids were launched against Essen and Dortmund as 1,079 and 1,108 heavy bombers raided the cities with 5,000 and 5,487 tons of bombs respectively.
12th The 20th Indian Division crossed the Irrawaddy west of Mandalay, Burma.    The U.S. sub Batfish sank its third Japanese sub in four days off the Philippine coast.    Japanese troops inside Manila were totally isolated.    German women were pressed into Volkssturm service. All women between 16 and 60 were declared eligible.

Feb 13 1942 The Russian Army reentered Byelorussia. As the forward elements moved west, German defenses were srenthened.    Japanese forces began tightening their circle around the defenders of Singapore. The British began requisitioning even the smallest boats.    Premier Antonescu met with Hitler, who called for more Rumanian troops for service in Russia.

1943 Russian control was established over the entire rail line between Rostov and Voronezh.

1945 Budapest fell after a 45 day fight, about 35,000 Germans were captured. Breslau’s 150,000 man garrison was threatened by encirclement.    Organized German opposition ended in the Reichswald. Prum was captured after Allied units established bridgeheads, across the Our and Sauer rivers    Summary courts were established by Germany in the combat area for the Wehrmacht and Waffen SS troops, with death sentences to be carried out “normally by firing squad, but in the case of particularly base scoundrels by hanging.”    Nichols Field near Manila was secured by the 11th Airborne Division.
    13-14 In the most intense incendiary attacks of the war, R.A.F. and U.S. planes devisteted the German city of Dresden in raids which have become synonymous with the term “terror bombing”. At least 35,000 people were killed in the firestorms ( which were most vividly described by a P.O.W. witness, Kurt Vonnegut,Jr., in his novel Slaughterhouse Five). General George C. Marshall said the raids were in responce to a Russian request to “paralize” Dresden in support of their drive from Breslau. Churchill said "The destruction of Dresden remains a serious query against the conduct of Allied bombing.  General Slim launched a new drive toward Meiktila to cut off Lieutenant General Heitaro Kimura’s forces in the Mandalay area. The 7th Indian Division began the operation by crossing the Irrawaddy at Nyaungu.

Feb 14 1940 Britian began arming its merchant ships operating in the North sea.

1941 Hitler issued a virtual ultimatum to the Yugoslav minisers he had summoned to Berchtesgaden, demanding Yugoslavia’s participation in the Axis, rights of transit for the German troops and arms, economic cooperation, and passivity to the German occupation of Bulgaria. Roosevelt at the same time, sent a personal message to the Yugoslav regent, Prince Paul, warning against Yugoslav participation in the Axis.    The first German ground units landed at Tripoli.    The new Japanese ambassador to the United States, Admiral Kichisaburo Nomura, presented his credentials to President Roosevelt.

1942 14-16 The Japanese invaded the Island of Sumatra and quickly seized the oil-refining area of Palembang. About 360 paratroopers were used in taking the area.

1943 Red Army troops recaptured Rostov, the main outlet for the Germans retreating from the Causcasus. Kleist’s Army Group A had to withdraw to the Taman Peninsula between the sea of Azov and the Black sea. The first Panzer Army was the only force to get through to the north before Rostov fell. By retaking Rostov, the Russians eliminated the threat to the Caucasus and its oil riches.    German forces launched a powerfull counteroffensive from the Faid Pass in Tunisia and broke through to the Kasserine Pass. Allied forces began pulling back to the west toward Sbeitla.

1945 The U.S. XII Corps established a solid bridgehead beyond the Siegfried line.    U.S. Sixth Army forces reached the Bataan Peninsula. American P.T. Boats entered Manila Bay for night reconnaissance, the first U.S. naval units to operate in those waters since May 1942.    Chile declared war on Japan

1938 Britian’s Singapore naval base, under construction since 1928, was opened. Its guns were positioned to defend the facility from attack by sea, but not against a land invasion through Malaya.

Feb 15 1940 Germany declared any armed British merchant ship would be treated as a combatant

1942 Singapore and its garrison fell to the Japanese. A total of 64,000 British, Indian, and Australian defenderes on the Island surrendered after 9,000 had been killed in combat. General Percival had been directed to fight as long as possible but was given discretion in determining when further resistance was futile. Faced with an impossible military situation and a criticle water shortage, Percival elected to surrender. He personally met with General Tomoyuki Yamashita, commanding the Japanese  25th Army, and the armustice was signed at 6:10 pm. Singapore fell in 70 days. The Japanese thought it would take 100 when trhe campaign was being planned. Total Allied casualties in the entire Malayan campaign were 67,340 Indian, 38,496 British, 18,490 Australian, and 14,382 local volunteer troops. Japanese casualties were 9,824.    All Alied shipping in the Mediterranean halted because of severe losses.    Allied forces on Sumatra were ordered to the west coast for evacuation.

1943 Vichy France began drafting laborers for work duties.    Contrary to Hitlers orders to stand and fight, the II SS Panzer Corps withdrew from Kharkov

1944 The abbey atop Monte Cassino was heavily bombed by air and artillery. Roosevelt said such monuments could not be spared when American lives were at stake. Destruction of the heavliy fortified abbey, it was assumed, would deny German defenderes their commanding position over the countryside. Even though the abbey virtually leveled, the Allies still could not take it. Indian and New Zealand forces were repulsed in a frontal assult after the bombardment.    The London based Polish government said it would refuse to accept the Curzon line as the post war frontier between Poland and Russia.

1945 Martial law was proclamed in Germany with the establishment of summary courts. Death sentances were ordered for anyone found guilty of attempting to undermine German resolution or stiking power.    Ukrainian Front troops reached Brandedburg Province.    The 7th Indian Division consolidated its bridgehead over the Irrawaddy at Pagan in Burma.    U.S.38th Division elements landed on Mariveles, on the southern tip of Bataan.

1936 The Italians routed the Ethiopian force at Amba Aradam. 280 Italian guns fired 23,000 shells and about 170 planes dropped 396 tons of explosives, killing 6,000 Ethiopians. Italian aircraft pursued the retreating Ethiopian force for four days by dropping mustard gas. 6,000 moreEthiopian troops were killed this way, and the army of Ras Mulugeta was decimated

1939 Premier Imredy of Hungary was forced to resign because of his Jewish ancestry

Feb 16 1940 British raiders freed naval prisoners of war in Norwegian waters in the Altmarkepisode. Altmark was one of the German ships most sought after by the Royal Navy at this time. The tanker and supply ship had served the now scuttled Graf Spee. To the British it was a prison ship, for the Altmark was known to have hundreds of merchant seamen rescued from the nine ships destroyed by the Graf Spee. After a hemispheric search the Altmark was located at Trondheim, Norway, a neutral port. The British destroyer Cossack followed her out of Trondheim on the morning of the 16th when Altmark tried to break out, but she sought refuge in the Jossing Fjord on the southwest tip of Norway when pursued. Cossack entered the Fjord with five other men-of-war and demanded release of the prisoners. The Germans refused, and the Norwegian authorities insisted Altmark was unarmed and had been searched. Captain Philip Vian, commander of the fourth Floatilla Group, ordered an armed party from the Cossack to board the Altmark. The Germans were overpowered after a brief skirmish. The British found and freed 299 British prisoners and quickly steamed to Britian, leaving Altmark intact. What the British did may have been a violation of international law, but German and Norwegian protests were ignored. Hitler felt the incident was proof the British would not respect Norwegian neutrality and ordered accelerated planning for the occupation of Norway.

1941 Britian mined the waters of Singapore.    Kismayu in Italian Somaliland fell to the South African force from Kenya.    Turkey and Bulgaria signed a nonaggression pact, insuring Sofia a neutral Turkey in the projected campaign against Greece.

1942 German U-Boats shelled oil-refining facilities on Aruba and Curacao, off the west coast of Venezuela.    Hitler named Martin Bormann to replace Hess as second inline, behind Goring, in the Nazi line of succession.

1943 Kharkov was reoccupied by the Russian 40th and 3rd Tank armies. Hitler equated the loss of Kharkov to Stalingrad and vowed to retake Russias 4th largest city. The Russians had now advanced 375 miles west of Stalingrad.    U.S. and British forces suffered heavy losses in Tunisia, with the Germans advancing 25 miles northwest from Gafsa and to the southwest toward Feriana.    British 8th Army troops attacked the Mareth defense line in Tunisia at Ben Gardane.

1944 German forces launched their major attack on the Anzio beachhead. The 14th Army aided by the Luftwaffe which was more active than ever before in attacking the pocket, hoped to drive the Allies into the sea. The Germans made limited gains against the U.S. 3rd Division positions but suffered heavy personnel and tank losses    U.S. Army and Marine units converged at the Itni River, effectively securing all of the western part of New Britian.    R.A.F. bombers dropped 2,642 tons of explosives on Berlin in 39 minutes. It was the heaviest raid of the war on the German capital. 42 of the 806 aircraft were shot down.

1945 American paratroopers landed on Corregidor Island, followed by a boat-borne 34th Division infantrymen two hours later, completelysurprising the Japanese. A total of 4,215 Japanese died defending the Island, to the loss of 136 Americans.    An Indian brigade landed on the Arakan coast 62 miles south of Akyab to cut off the Japanese retreating toward Prome.    Breslau was totally surrounded by the Red Army.

Feb 17 1940
Finnish forces began pulling back from the Karelian defense line. The Russians now had assembled 35 divisions, and the Finn’s, with 15 depleted divisions, were on the defensive.    Britian announced that 400,000 more children would be evacuated from the larger cities and sent to the safer countryside.

1941
TheU.S. Senate began debating the lend-lease bill

1942 Auchinleck was ordered to release two more divisions for far east duty. Subsequently only one,the British 70th, actually left the middle east

1943 British forces captured Medenine in Tunisia, but U.S. and British units began falling back on the other fronts in the face of heavy German armor attacks. The Mark VI tanks were proving effective for the Germans since their introduction into combat.

1944 Soviet forces completed the “liquidation” of 10 German divisions trapped in the Ukraine. Moscow announced that 55,000 Germans were killed and 18,200 were taken prisoner in the Kanyew pocket.    American forces invaded Eniwetok Atoll without opposition.    More than 1,000 tons of bombs were dropped by Allied planes as part of a massive bombardment to prevent a German breakthrough to the sea at Anzio. Naval gunfire and Artillery barrages helped contain the Germans who had driven a wedge into the center of the U.S. 45th Division line.

1945 U.S. forces began operations to retake the Bataan peninsula.    Toyko area aircraft plants and airfields were attacked by U.S. naval planes.    In a disasterous attempt to clear beach defenses on Iwo Jima, 170 U.S. Navy Frogmen were killed.

1933 Hitler directed German police forces to work cooperatively with the Nazi SS and SA and in dealing with opposition forces " to make free use of their weapons whenever necessary"

I forgot one
1944 U.S. warships led by 6 battleships and planes from 9 carriers attacked the Japanese base at Truk in the Carolines. Most of the airsrips were destroyed and 2 cruisers,3 destroyers and 200,000 tons of merchant shipping were sunk. Because of the damage inflicted and the inability of the Japanese to use Truk as a forward base, the Allies were able to bypass the Island and neutralize it by keeping it isolated. The attacks on Truk and other important Japanese base, Palau, during Feb and Mar had a critical effect on the war. About 1/3 of all tankers assigned to the combined fleet of Japan were sunk, which was to impair future fleet operations of the ship poor Imperial Navy.

Feb 18 1942
The Japanese crossed the Bilin River in Burma, And the situation on all sectors began to deteriorate. British authorities ordered mass evacuations from Rangoon.

1943 Convoy ON  166 was intercepted by U-Boats in the North Atlantic. Over the next week, 15 of the Allied ships were picked off and sunk.    Tatahouine in Tunisia was occupied by the British.    German units of the German 16th Army began pulling back along Northern Russian front. Soviets tanks were 36 miles east of Zaporozhye.    Madame Chiang Kai-shek addressed a joint meeting of the U.S, house and senate.    British Chindits, the long-range penetration forces of General Orde Wingate, crossed the Chindwin River in Burma and eventually cut the Mandalay-Myitkyina rail line well behind Japanese lines.

1944 German forces made their deepest penetration into the Anzio beachhead, driving the U.S. 179th Infantry Regiment back to its final line. The U.S. military regarded this as the crucial day of the Anzio operation.    Little ground was taken in assaults on Monte Cassino. Both sides began regrouping along the Gustav Line.    German Army Group North began withdrawing from the Russian Narva-Newel front. Russian troops captured Staraya Russa.    London was subject to a new wave of bombing in the “little blitz”.    British and New Zealand aircraft bombed Amiens prison in France,  breaching the walls, and permitting 70 Resistance internees to escape. The prisoners had been scheduled to be executed.    Allied destroyers bombarded Rabaul and Kavieng.

1945 U.S. Third Army troops launched another drive to break through the Siegfried Line.    Russian General I.D. Chernyakhovsy, commander of the Third White Russian Front,died of wounds received in a battle outside Konigsberg. Only 39 when he died, Chernyakhovsky was one of the youngest and best generals in the Red Army. Troops under his command fought at Kursk, Captured Minsk, Vilna, and Kaunas, and battled their way into East Prussia.

1938 Italy declared its refusal to get involved in the Austrian dispute, easing Hitler’s deepest fear, that Rome would challenge Nazi domination of their mutual neighbor.

1939 French troops reoccupied east African territory which had been ceded to Italy in 1935, the result of Italy’s denunciation of the 1935 agreement.