17 February 1939

GERMANY: A Führer order institutes a new service decoration for loyal service in the German civil custom service.

Helmut Rosenbaum takes command of the Type IIA training submarine U-2 at the age of 25.

UNITED KINGDOM:
RAF Bomber Command: Daylight Reconnaissance - Heligoland area. 77 Sqn. Two aircraft. One returned early U/S with low oil pressure and has to fly back on one engine, the other sighted eight warships escorted by twelve destroyers. Heavy opposition.

The government plans to evacuate 400,000 children from the larger cities to rural areas.

GERMANY: Manstein and Hitler review plans for the armoured attack through the Ardennes.

NORWAY: Strong British, Norwegian and German protest notes are exchanged over the Altmark incident where the British removed British prisoners from the ship in neutral Norwegian waters.

SWEDEN: Stockholm: The Swedish government rejects Finnish requests for assistance.

FINLAND: The USSR has completed its conquest of the Mannerheim Line, with Timoshenko's 54 Red Army divisions facing 15 depleted Finnish divisions.
[At the start of the war the Finnish Army had nine divisions. During the war, one more division (the 9th) was formed out of independent units, and two more (the 21st and 23rd) from replenishment troops, bringing the total at the end of the war to 12. ]

Marshal Mannerheim has ordered his troops to abandon the first line of the Mannerheim Line and fall back to a second line of defences up to 10 miles away. The Finns have performed bravely, fighting off attack after attack for 16 days under a storm of cannon fire and bombs.
Yet now, tied to their defences, their is little they can do except hope to survive. Casualties are severe. Some regiments have lost two-thirds of their strength. Untrained recruits and veterans of the National Civil Guard have been thrown into the line where men have literally disappeared, blown away by the force of the bombardment.
General Timoshenko has concentrated his attack on the Summa area where the forest opens out into fields and there is room for his tanks to manoeuvre. The Russian soldiers, now well-led and well-trained, are showing themselves to be hardy and brave - and there are may more of them than of the Finns. A spokesman for the Finnish General Staff said last night that there were enormous heaps of Russian dead in front of the Finnish positions. He added: "Yet in spite of these losses we always feel that there are tens of thousands of Russians to be sent in. We need men and material, especially planes. So far the Finnish army has been able to hold its own, but we need the civilized nations to aid us to the utmost."

U.S.A.: President Franklin D. Roosevelt sends Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles on a "fact-finding" tour of Europe and appoints Myron C. Taylor as his "personal representative" to the Vatican.
United States Lines sells the liner SS President Harding and seven cargo ships to a Belgian concern in an attempt to circumvent the ban on U.S. sea borne trade with Europe, imposed by the Neutrality Act.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 0205, the unescorted SS Kvernaas (Master Ivar Sørensen) was hit by one torpedo from U-10 and sank within five minutes four miles NW of Schouwen Bank, Netherlands. The crew abandoned ship in two lifeboats and was picked up after 4 hours by the Dutch Oranjepolden. The vessel was en-route to London, but turned back and landed the men at the pilot station in Hoek van Holland the next day. The maritime hearings were held in Rotterdam (it was thought that the ship struck a mine) and a couple of weeks later the crew travelled to Amsterdam. From there they were flown to Sweden, then travelled on to Norway by train.

At 1553, SS Pyrrhus in Convoy OG-18 was hit by one torpedo from U-37 NW of Cape Finisterre and broke in two. The afterpart sank immediately and the forepart two days later. Eight crewmembers were lost. She was the ship of the vice-commodore Rear-Admiral R.A. Hamilton RN. The master, the vice-commodore, five naval staff members and 70 crewmembers were picked up by the British SS Uskside and Sinnington Court and landed at Gibraltar.

At 0008, SS Gairsoppa, a straggler from Convoy SL-64, was torpedoed and sunk by U-101 about 300 miles SW of Galway. The master, 81 crewmembers and two gunners were lost.

At 0633, tanker SS Edwy R. Brown, a straggler from convoy HX-107, was torpedoed and sunk by U-103 SW of Iceland. The master, 47 crewmembers and two gunners were lost.

MS Siamese Prince sunk by U-69 at 59.53N, 12.12W.

UNITED KINGDOM: The House of Commons holds a debate on the escape of the German ships from Brest, France. Prime Minister Winston Churchill announces the formation of a commission of inquiry under Mr. Justice Bucknill.

NORTH SEA: Five Bostons of RAF Bomber Command fly an uneventful shipping search off the Dutch coast.

FRANCE: During the night of the 17-18th, three RAF Bomber Command Hampdens drop leaflets over Paris.

GERMANY: During the night of the 17-18th, 12 RAF Bomber Command bombers are sent on a roving commission over northwestern Germany but visibility is poor and most bombing results are unobserved; eight other aircraft bomb the city of Essen.

U-533 is laid down.

NORWAY: RAF Bomber Command dispatches one Whitley during the night to drop leaflets over Oslo.

U.S.S.R.: In Russia, the Soviet Army struggles to push the German lines back near Rhzev, on the Moscow front. The Soviet Air Force drops 7,373 Soviet paratroopers behind German lines amid fog; more than a quarter fall directly onto German lines and are taken prisoner.

MIDDLE EAST: General Sir Claude Auchinleck, Commander in Chief Middle East Command, is ordered to release two more divisions for action in the Far East, the British 70th and the Australian 9th. The Australian 9th Division is subsequently allowed to remain in Middle East.

BURMA: The Japanese maintain pressure against the Indian 17th Division along the Bilin River and continue outflanking attempts.

SOCIETY ISLANDS: (Which are located in the western portion of French Polynesia) Task Force 5614 with almost 5,000 troops arrives at Bora Bora Island. This force consists of the 102d Infantry Regiment (minus the 3d Battalion), the 198th Coast Artillery Regiment (Antiaircraft) and the Bobcat Detachment of the First Naval Construction Battalion. This is the first operational deployment of the Seabees. Bora Bora is to be used as a refuelling base to support the Southern Lifeline to Australia.

PACIFIC OCEAN: Off JAPAN, the submarine USS Triton (SS-201) torpedoes and sinks Japanese gunboat No. 5 Shin'yo Maru off Nagasaki.

Destroyer HNLMS Van Nes sunk by aircraft from aircraft carrier Ryujo in position 03.27S 106.38E while escorting Dutch passenger ship Sloet van Beele which carried a detachment of troops from Billiton to Batavia. 68 of her crew went down with the ship.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: On Bataan, the I Corps completely restores the main line of resistance without opposition as the Japanese continues to withdraw.

NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: Eight USAAF 5th Air Force P-40s stage through Batavia Airdrome on Java to mount a low-level bombing and strafing attack against Japanese shipping at Palembang, Sumatra. The P-40s are attacked by Japanese fighters before they reach the target and the pilots of five aircraft jettison their bombs to defend themselves. The P-40 pilots claim five Japanese aircraft and three of the P-40 pilots are able to release their bombs among a group of landing barges. No P-40s are lost.

On Sumatra, about 2,500 RAF airmen, 1,890 British troops, 700 Dutch soldiers and some 1,000 civilian refugees had embarked in twelve various sized vessels at Oosthaven and escape the island.

AUSTRALIA: The Australian Prime Minister, John Curtin, cables British and New Zealand government officials requesting that all Australian troops then in transit or about to sail for the East Indies be diverted to Australia, and that the 9th Division and other Australian Imperial Force units in the Middle East be recalled at an early date.

CANADA: Minesweeping training ship HMCS Dalehurst (ex-HMCS Glendale V) requisitioned. Former fishing boat.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 2217, MS Empire Comet, a straggler from Convoy HX-174, was torpedoed and sunk by U-136 west of Rockall. The master, 37 crewmembers and eight gunners were lost.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: U-205 sunk in the Mediterranean near the northernmost point of Cyrene, in position 32.56N, 22.01E, by depth charges from destroyer HMS Paladin assisted by a South African Bisley (Blenheim) aircraft. 8 dead and 42 survivors.

INDIAN OCEAN: The unescorted SS Deer Lodge was spotted and followed on the surface by U-516 about 60 miles east of Port Elizabeth. Lookouts saw the U-boat and the master attempted to escape by zigzagging, but the steering gear broke. At 0224, the now submerged U-516 fired one torpedo, which struck on the port side at the #2 hold. The explosion threw up a tremendous column of water, tore up the decks, blew the deck cargo off the ship and flooded the hold. 20 minutes later a second torpedo struck at approximately the same location, breaking the ship in two. The engines were stopped and her crew of ten officers, 29 men and 18 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in and six 20mm guns) abandoned ship in three lifeboats and three rafts. One seaman died when the davit from the #4 lifeboat broke off and fell on him and a steward failed to leave the ship. The U-boat surfaced beneath the boats and Wiebe questioned the survivors. The Deer Lodge sank bow first with a slight list to port at 0420. The following morning the survivors redistributed into three boats and one raft. 13 men were picked up by minesweeper SAS Africana. The London trawler Havorn rescued another 32. These two ships brought the men to Port Elizabeth. On 20 February, the remaining ten men were picked up by the British hospital ship Atlantis and landed at Capetown.

BURMA: The 55th Indian Brigade attacks Donbaik, but fails to penetrate Japanese positions.

PACIFIC OCEAN: Japan, the submarine USS Sawfish (SS-276) accidentally sinks Soviet cargo ship Ilmen off the east coast of Kyushu.

U.S.A.: Baseball’s Joe DiMaggio, earning US$43,500 (US$453,000 in year 2002 dollars) from the New York Yankees, trades in his salary for the US$50 a month as an Army enlisted man. DiMag, in his customary quiet style, gives no notice to the club.

U-69 (Type VIIC) Sunk in the North Atlantic east of Newfoundland position 50.36N, 41.07W by depth charges from the British destroyer HMS Fame. 46 dead (all hands lost).

U-201 (Type VIIC) is sunk in North Atlantic, position 50.50N, 40.50W, by depth charges from the British destroyer HMS Viscount. 49 dead (all hands lost).

Previously on13 Dec, 1941 An explosion in Brest (France) harbor killed 1 man, Maschinenobergefreiter Josef Zander. (Alex Gordon)

The unescorted SS Llanashe was torpedoed and sunk by U-182 south of Cape Saint Francis, Cape Colony. The master, 27 crewmembers and five gunners were lost. The chief officer, SP Lloyd, seven crewmembers and one gunner were picked up after 11 days adrift by the Dutch merchantman Tarakan; later transferred to AMC HMS Carthage and destroyer HMS Racehorse and landed at Capetown on 4 March.

Kiev: The Red Army claims that it wiped out some 52,000 German soldiers last night when the 60,000-strong German force trapped in the Korsun pocket 75 miles south of Kiev tried to break out. While the III Panzer Korps tried to batter its way into the pocket from the outside, the German commander in the pocket, General Wilhelm Stemmermann, plotted the breakout. As dawn broke the Germans neared Lysyanka, thinking they had escaped; then Russian tanks and Cossack cavalry loomed out of the mist. It was a massacre. Despite Russian claims, it is possible that as many as 30,000 got away; but there is not doubt that the Wehrmacht has suffered another costly defeat. The Luftwaffe has also lost 45 Ju52 transports.

BURMA: An unlikely array of Allied troops - clerks, cooks, pay corps orderlies and staff officers - have halted the Japanese offensive, Operation HA-GO, launched earlier this month. Japanese troops cut the lines of the 7th Indian Division to attack the XV Indian Corps from the rear. But they have been stoutly resisted by XV Corps' forward administrative area at Sinzweya, now besieged in the "admin box" and being supplied entirely by air.

Maj. Charles Ferguson Hoey (b.1914), Lincolnshire Regt., advanced under devastating fire and, already fatally wounded, seized a strongpoint. (Victoria Cross)

PACIFIC OCEAN:
(1) the destroyer USS Nicholas (DD-449) sinks Japanese submarine HIJMS I-11 northwest of the Marshalls;
(2) the submarine USS Cero (SS-225) sinks Japanese transport Jozan Maru between Truk and New Ireland in the Bismarck Archipelago;
(3) the submarine USS Sargo (SS-188), in an attack on a Japanese convoy about 150 miles (241 km) northeast of the Palau Islands, sinks ammunition ship Nichiro Maru and damages oiler Sata;
(4) the submarine USS Tang (SS-306) attacks a Japanese convoy, sinking army cargo ship Gyoten Maru and merchant tanker Kuniei Maru about 130 miles (209 km) west-northwest of Truk, and survives depth-charging by the convoy escorts;
(5) USN SBD Dauntlesses and TBF Avengers bomb Japanese shipping in Keravia Bay, near Rabaul on New Britain Island, Bismarck Archipelago, sinking minesweeper W.26 (which had been damaged previously, 2 November 1943, and had been beached at that time to prevent her loss), guardboat No.2 Fuku Maru, and army cargo ship Iwate Maru;
(6) USAAF B-25 Mitchells attack Japanese ships going to the aid of convoy attacked north of New Hanover Island in the Bismarck Archipelago the day before, damaging Kashi Maru and forcing her to be run aground to prevent sinking;
(7) USAAF P-40s attack Japanese shipping at Jaluit Atoll in the Marshall Islands, damaging cargo ship Chosen Maru; and
(8) the Japanese merchant tanker Zuih Maru is damaged by mine downstream from Woosung, China.

The aircraft carrier USS INTREPID is struck by an aerial torpedo on her starboard quarter, 15 feet below her waterline, flooding several compartments and jamming her rudder hard to port. By racing her port screw and idling her starboard engine, Captain Sprague keeps her on course. (Skip Guidry)

CANADA: Destroyer HMCS Algonquin (ex-HMS Valentine) commissioned. Algonquin and her V-class sister Sioux, ex-HMS Vixen, are often incorrectly referred to as Tribal-class destroyers. It has been pointed out that the designation of these two destroyers with Tribal names was deliberate attempt to deceive the enemy. In fact the V-class was the 8th Flotilla of the British Emergency War Program and was significantly different from the pre-war Tribal-class. Marginally shorter than the Tribals, the V-class carried a significantly improved secondary AA armament, which had been one of the major weaknesses of the earlier type. The twin 4.7-inch turrets of the Tribals, which had been highly prized by prewar Canadian naval planners who viewed them as 'mini-cruisers', were abandoned in favor of single-gun mountings. The V-class also carried 100 tons more fuel than the Tribals, which marginally improved the poor endurance of the older destroyers.

Frigate HMCS New Glasgow arrived Halifax from builder Esquimalt, British Columbia.

NEWFOUNDLAND: Frigate HMCS Outremont departed St John's to join EG-6 in Londonderry.

NORTH SEA: U-1278 is sunk north-west of Bergen, Norway in position 61.32N, 01.36E, by depth charges from the British frigates HMS Bayntun and Loch Eck. 48 dead (all hands lost). (Alex Gordon)

U-1273 sunk in the Skaggerak in Oslofjord near Horten, in position 59.24N, 10.28E by a mine. 43 dead and 8 survivors.

Two clear signs of German disarray in the face of the Russian onslaught have emerged this week. Five days ago a decree issued by Martin Bormann drafted women into servive in the Volkssturm. As military difficulties increased, so have the numbers of women working to support the armed forces. Until 12 February, however, they had always been volunteers. The second sign of what the Allies will see as panic came today when the Soviet offensive forced the Germans to evacuate the rocket expert Wernher von Braun and other top scientists from their top-secret V-weapon station at Peenemunde.

At 1015, U-968 fires one LUT torpedo at a destroyer of the Groznyj class and observes a hit after 6 minutes and 20 seconds. Whilst minesweeping ahead of convoy RA.64 which had just cleared the Kola Inlet, sloop HMS Lark takes a hit from a Zaunkönig fired by U-968 (Oberleutnant Otto Westphalen) and has her stern blown off. Towed back to the Inlet she was surveyed, but found to be so badly damaged that it was not worth making local repairs and towing her back to the UK Consequently, she was stripped of everything useful and as a gesture of “goodwill” transferred to the USSR as of 13 June. Her ultimate fate is uncertain. Some say she was stripped, others that she was recommissioned into the Soviet Navy. Location: Kola Inlet 69 30N 34 33E.

US Liberty Ship Thomas Scott, in Convoy RA-64, was sunk by U-968 at 69.30N, 34.42E.

Whilst escorting convoy RA.64, Flower class corvette HMS Bluebell takes a hit from a Zaunkönig fired by U-711 (Kapitanleutnant Hans-Gunther Lange). The initial explosion is followed by a second massive explosion as Bluebell’s depth charges explode and when the smoke cleared Bluebell had disappeared. Survivors 1 (2)??? Location: Arctic 8 miles NE of Kola Inlet at 69 36N 25 29E. (Alex Gordon)(108)

U-425 is sunk near Murmansk, Russia, in position 69.39N, 35.50E, by depth charges from the British sloop HMS Lark and the corvette Alnwick Castle. 52 dead and 1 survivor. (Alex Gordon)

ITALY: Trieste: RAF bombers sink the Italian battleships CONTE DI CAVOUR and IMPERO, and a German destroyer.

EGYPT: Cairo: Churchill unwittingly drinks an aphrodisiac at a banquet for King ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia.

VOLCANO ISLANDS: Iwo Jima: The weather clears, visibility is excellent, and aircraft from the Jeep carriers of TG 52.2 fly 336 sorties against airfield defenses. Surface ships move in to bombard the island with a complex schedule of round-the-island firing which must be co-ordinated with the work of under-water demolition teams (UDTs).

42 Seventh Air Force B-24s return to bomb from 5,000 feet (1,524 meters). They drop 832 260-pound frag clusters on defence installations just north of Suribachi's crater. Results are rated "good".

JAPAN: The US Navy's Task Force 58 under Vice Admiral Marc A. Mitscher, attack airfields, aircraft factories and shipping in the Tokyo and Yokohama areas for the second time in two days, and launches the final wave of the bombardment of Iwo Jima before landings commence. Tokyo targets include the Musashi factory. Weather is so bad in the area that a third strike, provisionally scheduled for tomorrow, is cancelled and the task force moves south to cover the landings at Iwo Jima.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: The light cruisers USS Phoenix (CL-46) and USS Boise (CL-47), along with three destroyers, provide call-fire support for continuing operations on Corregidor Island in Manila Bay. Light cruiser USS Cleveland (CL-55) and destroyers USS O'Bannon (DD-450) and USS Taylor (DD-468) bombard the Ternate area on the south shore of Manila Bay.

PACIFIC OCEAN: 13 Japanese ships are sunk by USN surface vessels, RN and USN submarines and USAAF and USN aircraft.

TERRITORY OF HAWAII: Pearl Harbor: During diving operations in West Loch on the wreckage of tank landing ships (LSTs) sunk in the ammunition explosions in that area in 1944, Boatswain's Mate Second Class Owen F. P. Hammerberg risks his own life to save two fellow divers trapped while tunnelling under a wrecked LST. Although Hammerberg's efforts are successful, he suffers mortal injuries in a cave-in, to which he succumbs 18 hours later. For his heroism, Hammerberg is awarded the Medal of Honor, posthumously.

Destroyers USS James C Owens and Harlan R Dickson commissioned.

Heavy cruiser USS St Paul commissioned.

Minesweeper USS Peregrine launched.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 1100, U-300 fired two spreads of two torpedoes at the convoy UGS-72 27 miles from Gibraltar and hit US Liberty Ship Michael J Stone in station #43 and tanker SS Regent Lion. Michael J. Stone was struck by one torpedo on the starboard side at the bulkhead between the #4 and #5 holds. The explosion damaged 650 square feet of the hull. The ship began to slowly settle by the stern as both holds and the steering room was flooded. The crew managed to bring the vessel under own power to Gibraltar until 1800 by steering manually, drawing 40 feet aft. Salvage tug HMS Behest towed her into the port, where the ship was drydocked and repaired. All eight officers, 34 crewmen, 27 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in, one 3in and eight 20mm guns) and four passengers survived. The badly damaged Regent Lion was taken in tow by the Admiralty dockyard tug HMS Rollicker and HMS Arctic Ranger on 19 February and was later grounded on Perl Rock, one mile south of Carnero Point. She was declared a total loss. Seven crewmembers were lost. The master, 40 crewmembers and four gunners were picked up by Arctic Ranger and destroyer USS Robinson and landed in Gibraltar.