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February 22nd, 1939 (WEDNESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: The government authorises the formation of a "British Expeditionary Force" to go to France in the event of war with Germany.

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UNITED KINGDOM: RAF Fighter Command: North Sea trawlers are attacked by Luftwaffe aircraft. Little damage is done to the trawlers, the bombers are driven off by the trawlers'^[1] machine guns, and two are shot down by fighters.

RAF Bomber Command: Leaflets and Reconnaissance of Vienna. 102 Sqn. Two aircraft from Villeneuve. No opposition over Austria, some en-route.

Six type 34 destroyers DD Friedrich Eckholdt (Z-16) flying the flag of Fregattenkapitan Berger, commander of Zestroyer Flotilla 1, DD Richard Beitzen (Z-4), DD Theodor Riedel (Z-6), Leberecht Maass (Z-1), Max Schultz (Z-3), and Erich Koellner (Z-13)sailed from Schilling Roads with the intent of raiding the British North Sea fishing fleet. While transiting a German minefield, the force sighted, and was sighted by a German two-motor bomber. 

ATLANTIC OCEAN:

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February 22nd, 1941 (SATURDAY)

The unescorted ships were "empties" returning to the USA. When the German ships were spotted, the merchantmen began to scatter, and sent out radio signals, they ignored the initial warning shots so by 1100 the firing began in anger. During the next two hours, Gneisenau sank two ships totalling 7962 tons, and Scharnhorst despatched a 6000 ton tanker. At 1600 Gneisenau sank a 6200 ton freighter and the Scharnhorst went off in pursuit of another tanker whch escaped. It was known that a 5500 ton cargo ship "Harlesden" was about 50 miles away so a seaplane from Gneisenau was sent off to locate track her, and brought down her radio antenna which attracted some machine gun fire. Harlesden was sighted on radar and sunk by 2300.

The score for the day amounted to 25 000 tons with a considerable expenditure of ammunition as the firing took place at very long range. 

During this operation, 180 merchant seamen were rescued, and later, on 26 February transferred to the supply tanker "Ermland"; only 11 lives having been lost from the crews of all the merchantmen sunk.

(Alex Gordon)

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February 22nd, 1942 (SUNDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Air Marshall Arthur Harris, aged 49, is appointed Head of Bomber Command for the RAF.

He first went to war against the Germans with the 1st Rhodesian Regiment in South-west Africa in 1915. He has 20 years experience of bombing. He learnt the hard way - flying worn-out Bristol Fighters on punitive raids against the tribesmen of the North-West Frontier, and Vickers Vernon transports fitted with bomb racks against Iraqi rebels. He has since commanded No. 4 Bomber Group and, for a year of the war, No 5 Bomber Group.

Known to his friends as "Bert", he is a prickly individual and no respecter of authority. It is possibly for this reason that he has caught the eye of Churchill. He believes in strategic bombing and can be relied on to carry out Bomber Command's new orders to attack German civilian morale. He faces opposition, however, from those who regard his command as a costly diversion of resources.

The first USAAF HQ in Europe is formed when HQ of U.S. Army Bomber Command, U.S. Army Forces, British Isles (USAFBI), is established under Major General Ira C. Eaker.

London: Hugh Dalton is appointed president of the board of trade.

Destroyers HMS Partridge and Albrighton commissioned.

BELGIUM:  During the night of the 22-23d, three RAF Bomber Command aircraft bomb the port area of Ostend.

GERMANY: During the night of the 22-23d, 36 RAF Bomber Command aircraft attempt to bomb the floating dock at Wilhelmshaven which the Germans might be using to repair the battleships Scharnhorst or Gneisenau. The area was cloud-covered and bombs were mostly released on the estimated position of the city. Three other aircraft bomb the city of Emden.
 

BURMA: Civilians flee as British forces retreat to the Sittang River.

The Japanese open a strong attacks against two brigades of the Indian 17th Division east of the Sittang River in the Mokpalin area before a withdrawal through the Sittang bridge bottleneck can be accomplished. In a murderous, daylong fight, the Gurkhas hold the bridge, allowing other Allied units to escape to the river's west bank. The Sitting River is the last barrier before Rangoon.

MALAYSIA: Parit Sulong: About 145 Australian troops, trapped by a Japanese roadblock trying to break through swamp and jungle to reach British lines. Before setting off, they leave their wounded at the roadside, "lying huddled around trees, smoking calmly, unafraid." The Japanese capture the men and shoot them. More  and more still.... (Mike Yared)

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES:  Submarine USS Swordfish (SS-193) disembarks Philippine President Manuel Quezon and his party at San Jose, Panay, to continue their journey out of the archipelago.

NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: On Java, Japanese aircraft destroy five USAAF 5th Air Force bombers on the ground, four B-17 Flying Fortresses at Pasirian Airdrome and an LB-30 Liberator at Jogjakarta Airdrome.
     On Bali, 5th Air Force bombers attack de Pasar Airdrome and destroy Japanese aircraft on the ground.

AUSTRALIA: Five Allied ships leave Fremantle, Western Australia, with 69 USAAF P-40s, motor vehicles and U.S. Army troops destined for Bombay, India. Two ships of the convoy are the seaplane tender USS Langley (AV-3, ex CV-1), carrying 32 assembled P-40s, and the merchant ship SS Sea Witch, carrying 27 crated fighters; these two ships are destined for Tjilatjap, Java.
 

Canberra: The Australian prime minister, John Curtin, blocks Churchill's plan to send Australian troops to Burma.

U.S.A.: President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur"> MacArthur, Commanding General U.S. Army Forces, Far East (USAFFE), to leave the Philippines.

CARIBBEAN SEA: At 0159, the unescorted and unarmed SS J.N. Pew was hit by one of two torpedoes fired by U-502 about 225 miles west of Aruba, while steaming completely blacked out on a zigzagging course at 11 knots. The torpedo struck on the port side between the main mast and the amidships pump room. The explosion sprayed oil over the entire length and set the amidships house afire. The burning tanker was sunk by four coup de grâce fired at 0235, 0242, 0254 and 0304. The eight officers and 28 crewmen tried to abandon ship in the rough seas, but two of the four lifeboats and two floats were destroyed by the fire. One lifeboat cleared the ship with only two men in it and reached shore about 35 miles east of Riohacha, Colombia on 25 February. Friendly Indians helped them reach Riohacha, from where they were taken to Barranquilla, Colombia. A second boat swamped when it hit the water and ten survivors managed to right the boat the next morning, but had to set sail without water, food and survival equipment. On 14 March, only one man was alive when the boat was found by a patrol aircraft off Cristobal, which directed the Panamanian motor merchant Annetta I to it. He was taken to the Coco Naval Base, where he was hospitalized for several weeks before he was able to be sent home. None of the officers survived the sinking.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 1151, the unescorted US tanker SS Cities Service Empire was hit by two torpedoes from U-128 about 25 miles north of Bethel Shoals off the Florida coast. The tanker had maintained a non-evasive course at 10 knots in moderate to heavy seas and had been missed by the first four torpedoes. The torpedoes struck the vessel amidships at the after pump room deep in the ship’s bowels on the starboard side. Fire broke out immediately and within seconds the ship and the water around the tanker were ablaze. The armed guards (the ship was armed with one 5in, two .50cal and two .30cal guns) were driven away from their guns and the master gave the order to abandon ship after 10 minutes. All lifeboats had been destroyed by the fire and only two rafts could be launched. Most of the crew of eight officers, 33 men and nine armed guards jumped overboard. USCGC Vigilant reached the burning ship and the commanding officer saw three men at the bow of the tanker. Nosing his ship up to the burning tanker, some men crawled aboard the ship and battled the flames until they rescued two of them. But before they could go back for the third, the tanker exploded, showered the cutter with unignited oil from stem to stern, broke in two and sank at 1210 hours. The master, three armed guards and ten crewmen died. The 34 survivors on the rafts were later picked up by USS Biddle and taken to Fort Pierce, Florida.

At 0455, the unescorted and unarmed Republic was hit by two torpedoes from U-504 about 3.5 miles northeast of Jupiter Island Lighthouse, Florida. The torpedoes hit on the port side 35 to 50 feet from the stern. The explosions destroyed the engine room, killed one officer and two crewmen on watch below and sprayed oil from the bunkers over the entire ship. As the tanker developed a starboard list and settled by the stern the survivors among the seven officers and 22 crewmen on board abandoned ship in two lifeboats. Two crewmen drowned. One boat with the master and 21 survivors rowed to shore, where they were taken care by residents before they were taken to Palm Beach by trucks. Seven others in the second boat were picked up by the Cities Service Missouri and taken to Port Everglades. The badly damaged Republic was located the next day by the USCG, but she drifted on to reefs about five miles due east of Hobe Sound, Florida and sank on the afternoon of 23 February.

An unarmed U.S. freighter, the SS West Zeda, is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-129 about 125 miles (201 kilometres) southeast of Trinidad, British West Indies at 09.13N, 59.04W.

At 0703, U-155 fired torpedoes at Convoy ONS-67 south of Cape Farewell and heard three detonations. CO Piening observed no effects after the first detonation, but saw explosions on two other ships. He claimed two ships with 15.000 tons sunk and another with 7000 tons damaged but in fact only the Adellen and Sama were hit and sunk. 29 crewmembers and seven gunners from the Adellen were lost. The master, nine crewmembers and two gunners were picked up by HMCS Algoma, transferred to British rescue ship Toward and landed at Halifax on 1 March. Sama was hit by a torpedo at 0703 in the stern and sank in 3-4 minutes in complete darkness. 20 survivors were picked up from debris by destroyer USS Nicholson and rescue ship Toward after two hours.

At 2257, the Kars was torpedoed by U-96 south of Halifax. The tanker had been in Convoy ONS-67, but lost the convoy and turned back. The ship caught fire and broke in two three days later. The forepart sank and the after part was towed to Halifax, where it was beached on 27 February and declared at total loss. The master, 45 crewmembers and four gunners were lost. Two crewmembers were picked up by minesweeper HMCS Melville and landed at Halifax.

The Torungen was lost with all hands. The crew consisted of 12 Norwegians, three Danes, one Swede, one Fin, one Dutchman and one Estonian. A 2/3 water-filled lifeboat with the body of the second engineer was later found off Lockport , Nova Scotia.

SS George L Torian (1,754 GRT) Canadian Upper Lakes Company bulk carrier was sunk in the Caribbean off British Guyana, in position 09.13N, 059.04W, by U-129, Kptlt Nicolai Clausen, Knight's Cross, CO. Torian was on route from Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana, to Trinidad with a load of bauxite for transhipment. A boat with fifteen of her crewmembers was questioned by the U-boat CO and then was provided with food, water, and directions to the nearest land. A USN PBY Catalina patrol aircraft rescued four other survivors.

 

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February 22nd, 1943 (MONDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Minesweeper HMS Persian launched.

GERMANY: Hans and Sophie Scholl, Martyrs of the anti-Nazi movement at Munich University, are beheaded by the guillotine. They were instrumental in organizing the resistance group known as the 'White Rose'. In one of their illegally printed pamphlets, she wrote 'Every word that comes from Hitler's mouth is a lie'. The graves of Hans and Sophie Scholl can be seen in the Perlach Forest Cemetery, outside Munich.

     The Judge for this trial was Roland Freisler.  It started at 1300 and by 1500 the condemned had been executed. (Denis Peck)

U-971 and U-972 launched.

BULGARIA: Sofia: The government agrees to deport the Jewish population (11,000) people from Thrace and Macedonia to Treblinka.

PORTUGAL: A Boeing 314A seaplane, the Yankee Clipper, approaches the lights of Lisbon while carrying seven USO entertainers. The plane crashes into the Tagus River near the end of its final approach. Two entertainers died - Tamara, a Russian singer, and Roy Rognan of the husband and wife dance team of Lorraine and Rognan. His wife, Jean Lorraine, was among the injured, along with one of the star singers of that time, Jane Froman, plus entertainers Gypsy Markoff and Grace Drysdale. The seventh member, a singer named Yvette, was not injured.

Jane Froman, like all of the injured in the accident, made a valiant and remarkable comeback.  Although her right leg was almost torn off, her left ankle crushed, her right arm broken, her back dislocated, and her pelvis cracked, she resumed her career as a night club singer, propped up on a small portable platform.  Before she did, though, Jane encountered one of the harsh realities for all of us who were USO entertainers.  The USO's accident insurance provided only a thousand dollars for medical expenses and fifty dollars a week as disability payments for a maximum of fifty-two weeks.  According to an article in Time Magazine a year later, Jane's accident cost her ninety thousand dollars.

"Jean Lorraine, in addition to losing her husband, had seven teeth knocked out, hurt her back, and crushed her right leg.  She had been  a comedy dancer with her husband, but after the tragedy she became a singing comedienne.  She changed her name to Lorraine Rognan to keep her husband's name alive.  She was on crutches for seven and a half months, but she showed the same kind of bravery as the men in her audiences.  She entertained at the Hollywood canteen while still on crutches, then went overseas again a year after the accident to fulfil her contract with the USO.  Her husband's death didn't meet the criteria spelled out in the literature, which said the life insurance was ''valid in case of death from all causes except airplane accident or act of war.'  In what surely must have been one of the cruellest blows of all, Time Magazine reported that Jean's accident cost her fourteen thousand dollars."

Of the other performers involved in the crash, "Yvette" (21-year old Elsa Harris of Birmingham, Alabama) appeared uninjured but suffered a delayed reaction and collapsed six months later; she eventually recovered and resumed her USO tour.  Grace Dysdale, a puppeteer and banjo player, suffered a broken leg and spent three months in hospital.  Gypsy Markoff, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, daughter of an Egyptian mother and a Bessarabian Gypsy father sustained multiple injuries requiring no fewer than seventeen operations; her professional return was in April of 1945. 

TUNISIA: Rommel breaks off the attack on Sbiba and Thala as British reinforcements start to arrive.

CANADA: Corvette HMCS Mimico (ex-HMS Bulrush) commissioned.

U.S.A.: Submarine USS Crevalle launched.

Destroyer escorts USS Coolbaugh, Cooner, Darby, Eldridge, Enright, Francis M Robinson, J Douglas Blackwood, Schmitt, Solar, Weber laid down.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 2220, U-606 (Type VIIC) attacked Convoy ON-166 and torpedoed three ships, the Empire Redshank, Chattanooga City and Expositor. The U-boat was lost after the attack. The Chattanooga City (Master Robert C. Forbes) was struck by one torpedo in the centre of #4 hold. The explosion bodily lifted the ship out of the water, blew off the hatch covers of the #3 and #4 holds, tore deck booms away and probably severed the main shaft. She quickly listed to starboard and settled rapidly. The order to abandon ship was given two minutes after the hit and water reached the well deck one minute later. The ship sank by the stern in about 15 minutes. The ten officers, 27 crewmen and 21 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in, one 12pdr and six 20mm guns) cleared the ship in four lifeboats and one raft. They were picked up three hours later by HMCS Trillium. The armed guard officer and ten of his men were transferred to the USCGC Spencer and landed in Argentia, Newfoundland on 27 February. The remaining survivors were landed at St John's on 26 February. At 23.50 hours on 22 February, the badly damaged Empire Redshank (Master John Houston Clinton) was sunk by gunfire by the Canadian corvette HMCS Trillium after the corvette had picked up the master, 39 crewmembers and seven gunners. The survivors were landed at St John's. Expositor was struck by one torpedo on the port side at the #3 hatch, causing the boiler to explode. The ship took an immediate list to starboard and then righted herself after settling by the stern. Most of the eight officers, 31 men and 21 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in, one 3in, two .50cal, two .30cal and four 20mm guns) abandoned ship in the single undamaged lifeboat and three rafts. Seven officers, 27 men and all armed guards were picked up by corvette HMCS Trillium. One officer died on the corvette and an engineer later in a hospital in St John's. Three hours after the attack, the corvette blew off the stern of the freighter with depth charges, but the ship remained afloat. U-606 sunk in same action at 47.44N, 33.43W, by depth charges from the USCGC Campbell and destroyer ORP Burza. 36 dead and 11 survivors.

At 0436, U-92 fired three FAT torpedoes at Convoy ON-166 and reported two ships sunk and a third as damaged, but the first and third FAT struck the NT Nielsen-Alonso in station #25 and the remaining torpedo missed. The ship was hit on the port side between engine and boiler room, the main engine was flooded, two port lifeboats destroyed and three men on watch below were killed. The crew soon abandoned her in four lifeboats. At 0729, U-753 fired two coups de grâce at the abandoned NT Nielsen-Alonso and hit her with one torpedo amidships, but the ship stayed afloat while the U-boat was chased away by a corvette. The survivors observed this attack, were later picked up by USCGC Campbell and transferred to ORP Burza, which scuttled the wreck at 1300 at 48°N/34°W and landed them in St John's on 27 February.

Whilst escorting convoy KMS.8, Flower class corvette HMS Weyburn strikes a mine laid by U-118 and sinks 4 miles W of Cape Spartel at 35 48N 06 02W. HMS Wyvern is damaged by her exploding depth charges whilst attempting to rescue survivors. (Alex Gordon)(108)

MS Roxborough Castle sunk by U-107 at 38.12N, 26.22W.

Motor tanker Thorsholm damaged by a mine laid on 1 February by U-118 15 miles off Cape Espartel. The vessel was towed to Gibraltar.

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February 22nd, 1944 (TUESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Frigate HMS Somaliland commissioned.

GERMANY:

"Big Week" 289 B-17s hit aircraft production centers at Aschersleben, Bernburg and Halberstadt plus targets of opportunity. 333 B-17s of the 3d Bombardment Division are dispatched to Schweinfurt but severe weather prevented the aircraft from forming properly and they were recalled. 74 of 177 B-24s dispatched hit targets in the Netherlands. 38 B-17s and 3 B-24s are lost.

One of the B-24 Groups bombs Nijmegen, the Netherlands, by mistake killing over 800 civilians. (Herman Kouters)

U-1010 and U-1102 commissioned.

SWEDEN: Soviet bombers attack Stockholm by mistake. There are no casualties. (Mikke Häärmeinen)

U.S.S.R.: German troops evacuate Krivy Rog.

GREECE: Athens: 400 German soldiers drowned when their train was blown into a flooded river here today by mines laid by Greek partisans. Hundreds more were injured. A general was amongst the dead. The ambush marks a new offensive in the Balkans, with British officers from the Special Operations Executive leading Andarte freedom fighters. Ten coaches plunged down a ravine on the main Athens to Salonika line. The surviving armoured coach was sprayed with machine gun fire before the partisans disappeared into the countryside.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: At 1213, U-969 fired a spread of three torpedoes at Convoy GUS-31 about 15 miles off Bône, Algeria and heard two detonations. The Peter Skene Ogden and George Cleeve were each hit by one torpedo and were both beached, but later declared total losses. George Cleeve in station #121 was hit by one torpedo on the starboard side amidships in the engine room. The explosion created a hole 21 feet long, killed the second assistant engineer on watch below and destroyed the engine and turned it over on its side. The blast forced its way into the #4 hold, blew scrap iron through the deck and enveloped the superstructure in steam and oil. A large crack appeared amidships and the master thought the ship would break in two. The vessel settled with a 20° list to port until the after deck was awash and the bow rose out of the water. About one hour after the attack, the eight officers, 33 men and 28 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in, one 3in and eight 20mm guns) were ordered to abandon ship in two boats and a raft. The survivors were picked up by the American SS William T. Barry after 30 minutes and landed in Oran on 25 February. One armed guard had been blown overboard and was picked up by a small boat from the other torpedoed ship. A salvage crew later boarded the Liberty ship, which was towed to Bône and beached. After her cargo was discharged, the vessel was declared a total loss and was later scrapped in Italy. Peter Skene Ogden, the ship of the convoy vice-commodore in station #111; was hit by one torpedo on the starboard side at the #5 hold. The explosion threw sand ballast; hatch beams and covers into the air, blew one of the after booms over the side, damaged the shaft and caused the propeller to drop off. When the ship began to settle by the stern, the eight officers, 33 crewmen, 28 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 5in, one 3in and eight 20mm guns) and eight naval staff members abandoned ship in four lifeboats and four rafts about two hours after the hit. They were picked up by a British escort vessel at 16.30 hours and landed at Bône, while the master and ten volunteers reboarded the Peter Skene Ogden to prepare her salvage. She was towed by tug HMS Hengist to Herbillon, Algeria where she was beached at 1800 on 23 February and later declared a total loss.

INDIAN OCEAN: U-510 made two attacks at the convoy PA-69 about 200 miles from Aden and reported two tankers and one freighter sunk, one freighter was left burning and sinking and one other freighter was damaged by one torpedo. Three tankers were hit, the San Alvaro, E.G. Seubert and Erling Brøvig. The last stayed afloat with a broken back and both parts were towed to port. It is not clear whether one ship was hit by two torpedoes. E.G. Seubert in station #21 was hit by one torpedo on the port side in the #10 tank and the cross bunkers. The explosion blew one of the after machine guns over the side and started a small fire. The steam smothering line quickly put out the flames. The engines were stopped, as the tanker settled rapidly with a list to port. Only one lifeboat could be launched before the ship suddenly capsized to port and sank by the stern, twelve minutes after the hit. The most of her crew of eight officers, 35 men and 27 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in, one 3in and eight 20mm guns) abandoned ship by jumping overboard and had to swim through fuel oil several inches thick. One officer, two men and three armed guards, including the commanding officer died. The survivors were picked up by minesweeper HMAS Tamworth and corvette HMIS Orissa and taken to Aden, arriving on 24 February. Erling Brøvig broke almost in two after she was hit by one torpedo amidships, but was taken in tow and beached near Aden, where her cargo was transferred to lighters and she was temporarily repaired. The crew reached Aden in lifeboats and was later taken to Capetown on the Panamanian merchant Sewall. On 16 September, the tanker got underway to Massawa, assisted by a tug, but after one day she broke in two behind amidships, both parts still floating. The tug continued with the forepart and the master sailed with the afterpart as far as Suez by her own power. A tug towed her through the canal and she arrived Italy safely, where she was subsequently laid up. After the war, the tanker was repaired in Genoa and reentered service as Bramora in 1946/47. Sold to China in 1960/61 and eventually broken up. San Alvaro was sunk at 13.46N, 48.49E.

MARIANAS ISLANDS: Units of the US 5th Fleet, Task Force 58, attack the Marianas Islands.

Glen Boren continues his diary:
The USS Bunker Hill kept up her tradition as the "Holiday Raider" today on Washingtons Birthday with a raid on Guam, Saipan and Tenian. Today the detachment from VFN-76 went along. They lost one pilot but accounted for 5 Japs. One pilot came back shot up pretty bad but accounted for 3 Zekes. Three divisions, the skipper's, Billo's and Runyon's, (12 planes) went to Guam and really shot up the place. They got 2 Betties in the air and 3 Douglas type transport planes, 4 betties and 2 zekes were destroyed on the ground. They say 40 or 50 planes were destroyed on the ground at Tenian by the complete task force. They reported that one VF-18 pilot was seen going in the water and was in a raft, We hope he was picked up by the subs.

Task Force 58, composed of two task groups, was involved in the raid on the Mariana Islands. The two task groups and the carriers and air groups assigned were:

Task Group 58.2 (TG 58.2)

USS Essex (CV-9) with Carrier Air Group Nine (CVG-9)

USS Yorktown (CV-10) with CVG 5

USS Belleau Wood (CVL-24) with Light Carrier Air Group Twenty Four

(CVLG-24)

Task Group 58.3 (TG58.3)

USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) with CVG-17 

USS Cowpens (CVL-25) with CVLG-22)

USS Monterey (CVL-26) with CVLG-30

The raids began with a dawn sweep by 48 Grumman F6F Hellcats; the Hellcats from TG 58.2 hit Guam and Saipan while the F6Fs of TG 58.3 hit Tinian and Rota. The attackers claim 168 Japanese aircraft destroyed in the air and on the ground plus several transports which are claimed sunk. 

Some of the victories scored by the Americans are:

0620 hours: A VF-25 pilot shoots down a Mitsubishi G4M Navy Type 1 Attack Bomber, Allied Code Name "Betty," near TF 58.

0645-0800 hours: 16 Mitsubishi A6M Navy Type 0 Carrier Fighters, Allied Code Name "Zeke" and Nakajima Ki-43 Army Type 1 Fighters Hayabusa

(Peregrine Falcon), Allied Code Name "Oscar;" four Bettys; and two Kawasaki Ki-48 Army Type 99 Twin-engined Light Bombers, Allied Code Name "Lily" are shot down over Saipan and Tinian.

0815-0835 hours: Five Zekes over Guam

0945 hours: One Zeke over Tinian

1245-1300 hours: Seven Zekes over Saipan

One VF-9 Hellcat driver, Ensign John M. Franks, Jr., becomes an ace when he shoots down a Zeke near Saipan at 0745 hours. A second pilot, Lt(jg) Donald E. Runyon of VF-18, downs a Betty near Orote Field on Guam at 0815 hours; this is his 11th victory.

Both task groups begin retiring toward Majuro Atoll in the Marshall Islands in the afternoon but they are attacked by four waves of land-based bombers between 2000 hours and 0900 hours the next day. AA fire and skilful manoeuvring prevent any damage to ships by the Japanese bombers.

MARSHALL ISLANDS: The Allies complete their occupation of Eniwetok Atoll and land on Parry Island.

JAPAN: Tokyo: The Japanese prime minister, General Hideki Tojo, today sacked the heads of the Japanese army and navy following last week's catastrophic losses to the Allies at Truk. Japan's strategic outlying defence base in the South-west Pacific.

General Tojo, who takes over as chief of the army general staff, succeeding the disgraced General Sugiyama, is being accused of running a one-man cabinet. In addition to being premier, he is minister of war, controller of munitions, minister of commerce and industry, and minister of education. A protest has been issued by one of the emperor's brothers, Imperial Prince Chichibu, and dissident general staff officers have nicknamed Tojo "Takauji"- a reference to a 14th century military upstart.

CANADA: Frigate HMCS Chebogue commissioned.

U.S.A.:

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February 22nd, 1945 (THURSDAY)

FRANCE: Eisenhower claims that 900,000 German prisoners are being held by the Allies.

GERMANY: The US XX Corps largely completes the fighting in the Saar-Moselle area.
US troops cross the Saar River.

NORWAY:

BURMA: British troops land near Kangaw.

Havildar Abdul Rahman (b.?), 9th Jat regt., rescued two men trapped under a Jeep which had hit a mine. He was helping a third when the Jeep's fuel tanks blew up, injuring him fatally. (George Cross)

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Corregidor: An estimated 2,000 Japanese soldiers commit suicide by blowing up a vast ammunition dump.

U.S.A.: Destroyer USS Wiley commissioned.

Montevideo: Uruguay declares war on Germany and Japan.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-300 is sunk west of Cadiz, in position 36.29N, 08.20W, by depth charges from British minesweepers HMS Recruit, Pincher and the yacht Evadne. 9 dead and 41 survivors. 

Flower class corvette HMCS Trentonian is attacked and sunk by U-1004 (Oberleutnant zur See Rudolf Hinze) East of Falmouth at 50 06N 04 50W. Although damaged aft, the flooding spread forward, and the ship sank 10 minutes later. There are 6 casualties. (Alex Gordon)(108)

At 1320, SS Alexander Kennedy in Convoy BTC-76 was torpedoed and sunk by U-1004 SE of Falmouth. One crewmember was lost. The master, 15 crewmembers and two gunners were picked up by the British SS Eskwood and Gateshead and landed at Plymouth. The master John William Johnson was awarded the Lloyd’s War Medal for bravery at sea.

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