23 February 1939

UNITED KINGDOM: Lord Halifax repeated British pledge of Feb 6. Because the Axis press cast doubts on its seriousness.

GERMANY: Berlin: Jews ordered to hand over all precious stones and metals to the government.

UNITED KINGDOM: RAF Bomber Command: Leaflets and Reconnaissance - Prague - Pilsen. 77 Sqn. Two aircraft. No opposition.

In a victory parade celebrating the destruction of the German pocket battleship Graf Spee in the battle of the River Plate, 700 officers and men of the cruisers HMS Ajax and HMS Exeter march through cheering crowds to Guildhall in London.

NORTH SEA: The German Leberecht Maas and Max Schulz are sunk in the North Sea. These ships had been attacked in error by German aircraft and whilst attempting to evade, had strayed into British mines that had been laid to foul the swept channel. (Alex Gordon)

Minesweeping trawler HMS Benvolio mined and sunk off Spurnhead.

FINLAND: Helsinki: Finland repeats its request to Sweden and Norway to grant transit rights to foreign troops.

U.S.S.R.: Moscow: The Soviet government today sent its "final" peace terms to Finland, with Sweden acting as intermediary. The terms are even harsher than the demands whose refusal led to the war. The USSR wants the whole of the Kerelian isthmus including Viipuri, Finland's second largest city; the naval base at Hango, which the Finns regard as the key to their country; and all the land round Lake Ladoga. The Russians will evacuate the territory they have seized around Petsamo in the far north if the Finns agree to a treaty guaranteeing the security of the Gulf of Finland against external threats. It is still not certain if the Finns will accept these demands, but there is one more card they can play: they can invite the Allies to intervene. But Sweden seemed to rule that out today by banning Allied troops from moving across its territory.

GIBRALTAR: U.S. freighter SS Lehigh is detained for several hours at Gibraltar by British authorities, but is allowed to proceed the same day.

TURKEY: A state of emergency is declared following the alleged crossing of the Caucasian border by a Soviet detachment.

CANADA: Bangor-class minesweepers HMCS Cowichan, Malpeque, Ungava, Mahone, Chignecto, Outarde, Wasaga, Minas, Quinte, Chedabucto, Miramichi, Bellechasse, Clayoquot, Quatsino ordered. The RCN originally intended to build Bramble-class sloops (990 tons, 250 feet), a dual-purpose design capable of both escort and minesweeping duties. However, sloops were regarded in Canada as being too large for minesweeping and were quite expensive at £175,000 each. With the advent of the cheaper Flower-class corvette (950 tons, 205 feet, £90,000 each), the RCN decided to split the functional requirement and go with two classes of ships to satisfy the need for anti-submarine escorts and minesweepers. The Bangor-class (650 tons, 180 feet) was chosen as the minesweeper. Many of the escort features of the sloops were deleted from the Bangor-class, such as Asdic and depth charges. However, in 1940 this was reconsidered and they were added back into the design, which resulted in significant delays in delivery. As the war in the Atlantic progressed, the most urgent requirement was for escort vessels and the Bangors were pressed into this role. Their plumb bows and shortness made them even worse seakeepers than the Flower-class corvettes. They also had significantly lower endurance (3,450 at 12 knots versus 2,950 at 11.5 knots). But, their minesweeping duties meant they had been fitted from the outset with a gyrocompass that gave them the most accurate Asdic set in early Canadian escorts. Eventually, it was realized that the Bangors were too small to function effectively as minesweepers, which was due mainly to the new requirements for influence sweeping equipment for use against magnetic mines. The Algerine-class minesweepers, which also spent most of their careers in escort work, were designed to meet the requirement for a larger minesweeper. At 990 tons and 225 feet in length they approached the size of the original Bramble-class sloops. However, with only 4,500 miles of endurance at 11.5 knots they could not match the 6,000 miles at 12 knots of the Brambles. Meanwhile, sloops emerged as the pre-eminent escort vessel design of the interwar period, even outperforming fleet destroyers in anti-submarine efficiency, endurance, and seakeeping. Eventually, the Flower-class corvette design was modified to make it a better ocean escort. The Castle-class ended up with dimensions almost identical to a sloop - 1,060 tons, 250 feet, 6,200 miles endurance at 15 knots.

U.S.A.: The motion picture "Northwest Passage (Book I - Roger's Rangers)," is released. Directed by King Vidor, this story about Colonial America based on Kenneth Roberts' book on Roger's Rangers in colonial America, it stars Spencer Tracy, Robert Young, Walter Brennan and Ruth Hussey.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: Destroyer HMS Gurkha on passage south of the Faeroes encounters and sinks U-53 in the mid-Orkneys, in position 60.32N, 06.14W, by depth charges, as she returns from operations in the Western Approaches. 42 dead (all hands lost).

EGYPT: Cairo: Wavell decides against the projected bombing of the Ploesti oilfields as 1. it would necessitate violating Turkish airspace, and 2. it would attract the attention of the Germans to a British presence in Greece that we are trying to keep secret.

ITALIAN SOMALILAND: The main Italian forces defending the line of the Juba River have been defeated. The troops of General Alan Cunningham, Commander in Chief East Africa Command, are now advancing very rapidly toward Mogadishu.

At 2242, HMS Manistee was hit by one torpedo from U-107 south of Iceland, while escorting Convoy OB-288. The damaged ship continued and sank in 58°55N/20°50W after the U-boat hit her with two further torpedoes at 0758 on 24 Feb.

SS Svein Jarl lost the Convoy OB-288 in very bad weather and went missing. 19 Norwegians, 1 Swede and 1 Briton perished with the ship. Sunk by U-69 at 59.30N, 21W.

At 2327, SS Anglo-Peruvian in Convoy OB-288 was torpedoed and sunk by U-96 SW of Iceland. The master, 26 crewmembers and two gunners were lost. 17 crewmembers were picked up by the British SS Arberton and landed at Halifax on 4 March.

UNITED KINGDOM: Prime Minister Winston Churchill informs Australian Prime Minister John Curtin that the convoy carrying the Australian 6th and 7th Divisions will proceed to Australian after refuelling at Colombo, Ceylon.
HQ of the USAAF’s VIII Bomber Command is established at Daws Hill Lodge, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England; Major General Ira C Eaker assumes command.

NORTH SEA: Submarine HMS Trident (Cmdr. Sladen) sights KMS Prinz Eugen and fires three torpedoes, one of which hits aft, damaging Prinz Eugen's rudder and blowing away 30 feet of her stern. She is taken into Lo Fjord at Drontheim, and temporary repairs (including the fitting of two jury rudders) is completed by the beginning of May (1942). (Alex Gordon)

GERMANY: During the night of the 23-24th RAF Bomber Command dispatches 23 Hampdens on minelaying mission off Wilhelmshaven and Heligoland. One aircraft lost.

U.S.S.R.: Soviet troops capture Dorogobuzh on the Dniepr River. German reports that day say that a partisan camp of more than 500 men armed with heavy machine guns and anti-tank guns, is located east of Minsk. In the Cherven region, partisans "have strict orders not to start any action, only to attack and destroy German search parties."

ITALY: Italian dictator Benito Mussolini delivers a speech in Rome stating, "We call bread bread and wine wine, and when the enemy wins a battle it is useless and ridiculous to seek, as the English do in their incomparable hypocrisy, to deny or diminish it."

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: U class submarine P.38 is depth charged and sunk by Italian surface units North of Tripoli. Submarine HMS P-38 left Malta on 16 February 1942 to intercept a convoy off Tripoli. By today she is in position as the convoy hove into view. Amongst the convoy was the Italian torpedo boat Circe. At 0800 Circe reported a contact with a submarine and that she turned in to attack. A periscope was sighted but was quickly replaced by bubbles as the submarine dived realizing it had been spotted. At 1050 after a flurry of attacks P-38 rose stern first out of the water, her propellers turning wildly, before crashing back beneath the waves. A large patch of oil appeared on the surface as well as debris, clear evidence of the submarine’s destruction. (Alex Gordon)(108)

MIDDLE EAST: General Claude Auchinleck, Commander in Chief Middle East Command, revises the plans for defence of the Northern Front, instructing the British Ninth and Tenth Armies to impose maximum delay on the enemy in the event of Axis offensive.

BURMA: Rangoon: The demolition today of a key bridge across the broad Sittang river in southern Burma has resulted in heavy loss to the 17th Indian Division which was fighting against Japanese troops advancing towards Rangoon.

Unfortunately, Japanese intelligence overheard the radioed order to withdraw and moved swiftly cross-country to the bridge.

The 17th Division held its ground at the bridge as engineers prepared to destroy the only escape route. If the Japanese should capture the bridge, Rangoon would be at their mercy.

The charges were detonated at dawn (0530 hours), cutting off the British and Indian troops of the 16th and 46th Brigades on the east side of the river, but preventing the Japanese from using it. All who could be spared from fighting off the Japanese began improvising rafts. Amid chaos and confusion, hundreds of men threw away their arms, equipment and clothing and plunged into the river which became a mass of bobbing heads. Many were swept away and drowned. The battle of the Sittang bridgehead is disastrous for the Indian 17th Division; they can only muster 80 officers and 3,404 enlisted men, of whom only 1,420 still have their rifles and the 46th Brigade must be broken up to provide replacements. In Rangoon, British authorities move to push supplies up to China or destroy them on the spot to prevent the Japanese from seizing them. Exploding fuel tanks and ammunition dumps tell yet another story of Allied failure against the Japanese. The British send the 7th Armoured Brigade to Rangoon to try and restore the situation.

NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: The Japanese report that the conquest of Ambon Island is complete.
     On Dutch West Timor, the Australian 2/40th Battalion surrenders to the Japanese after four days of fighting. The battalion had run out of food and water and 132 men were ill or seriously wounded.
     On Portuguese East Timor, the Australian 2/2 Independent Company begins to reorganize and deploy as a guerrilla force. This guerrilla warfare continued until January 1943.
     On Java, Allied forces begin an evacuation of the island. Major General George H. Brett, deputy commander of the ABDA Command, flies from Java, which is in imminent danger, to Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.

AUSTRALIA: Major General Lewis H Brereton, Commanding General USAAF 5th Air Force, departs for India after issuing an order terminating HQ 5th Air Force. Until 3 September 1942, units of the 5th Air Force will be initially under control of the American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) Command and later the Allied Air Forces.

BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: Six USAAF B-17 Flying Fortress fly their first mission against Rabaul on New Britain Island. Operating out of Townsville, Queensland, Australia, the force suffers mechanical trouble and runs into bad weather and only one B-17 manages to bomb the target. After this mission, the 12 B-17s at Townsville are placed under the operational control of the RAAF.

U.S.A.: Shells fall on the US mainland for the first time in the war. Japanese submarine HIJMS I-17 fires 25 rounds of 5.5-inch (14 cm) shells from a range of 2,500 yards (2286 meters) at the Bankline Oil Refinery at Ellwood, California, 12 miles (19 kilometres) west of Santa Barbara. One shell makes a direct hit of the rigging causing minor damage.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt was giving a fireside radio chat to the nation at the time of the attack above; the purpose was to calm fears that the attack on Pearl Harbor has left the country defenseless. Quoting Revolutionary War firebrand Thomas Paine, he says "these are the times that try men's souls," and adds "tyranny, like hell is not easily conquered."

"Immediately after this war started, the Japanese forces moved down on either side of the Philippines to numerous points south of them -- thereby completely encircling the (Islands) Philippines from north, and south, and east and west.

"It is that complete encirclement, with control of the air by Japanese land-based aircraft, which has prevented us from sending substantial reinforcements of men and material to the gallant defenders of the Philippines. For forty years it has always been our strategy -- a strategy born of necessity -- that in the event of a full-scale attack on the Islands by Japan, we should fight a delaying action, attempting to retire slowly into Bataan Peninsula and Corregidor.

"We knew that the war as a whole would have to be fought and won by a process of attrition against Japan itself. We knew all along that, with our greater resources, we could ultimately out-build Japan and ultimately overwhelm her on sea, and on land and in the air. We knew that, to obtain our objective, many varieties of operations would be necessary in areas other than the Philippines.

"Now nothing that has occurred in the past two months has caused us to revise this basic strategy of necessity -- except that the defence put up by General MacArthur has magnificently exceeded the previous estimates of endurance, and he and his men are gaining eternal glory therefore.

" MacArthur's army of Filipinos and Americans, and the forces of the United Nations in China, in Burma and the Netherlands East Indies, are all together fulfilling the same essential task. They are making Japan pay an increasingly terrible price for her ambitious attempts to seize control of the whole (Atlantic) Asiatic world. Every Japanese transport sunk off Java is one less transport that they can use to carry reinforcements to their army opposing General MacArthur in Luzon.

"It has been said that Japanese gains in the Philippines were made possible only by the success of their surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. I tell you that this is not so.

"Even if the attack had not been made your map will show that it would have been a hopeless operation for us to send the Fleet to the Philippines through thousands of miles of ocean, while all those island bases were under the sole control of the Japanese.

"The consequences of the attack on Pearl Harbor -- serious as they were -- have been wildly exaggerated in other ways. And these exaggerations come originally from Axis propagandists; but they have been repeated, I regret to say, by Americans in and out of public life."

    Three days ago, the Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS) announced that no Allied forces would be evacuated from Java. Today, the CCS orders General Sir Archibald Wavell, Command in Chief ABDA Command, to move his headquarters from Java to Australia.
     A Master Mutual Aid Agreement is signed between Australia, New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S.
     The USN’s Bureau of Aeronautics outlines a comprehensive program which became the basis for the wartime expansion of pilot training. In place of the existing seven months course, the new program required 11 months for pilots of single or twin-engine aircraft and 12 months for four-engine pilots, and is divided into three months at Induction Centers, three months in Primary, three months in Intermediate and two or three months in Operational Training, depending on the type aircraft used.

CARIBBEAN SEA: At 0643, the unescorted armed US merchant ship SS Lihue was torpedoed by U-161 about 275 miles west of Martinique. One torpedo struck on the port side forward of the #1 hold. About 15 minutes later, the U-boat surfaced and fired a few shots from its deck gun until the armed guards returned fire with her armament of one 3in, four .50cal and two .30cal guns, forcing the U-boat to submerge. The ship then evaded two torpedoes at 1839 and 1854; the U-boat ceased the attack, because U-161 thought that the Lihue was a U-boat trap. But after the unsuccessful attack in the evening, the crew of eight officers, 28 crewmen and nine armed guards abandoned ship in two lifeboats and three rafts. They were all picked up four hours later by the British steam tanker British Governor, after a US Navy aircraft had directed the ship to the lifeboats. A salvage party from AMC HMCS Prince Henry boarded Lihue in an attempt to save her, but the ship sank on 26 February while being towed to St Lucia by minesweeper USS Partridge

An unarmed tanker Sun is torpedoed by U-502 about 54 miles (87 kilometres) north of Aruba, and although initially abandoned is reboarded. She is ultimately repaired and returned to service; there are no casualties among the 36-man crew.

SS Lennox (1,904 GRT), Canada Steamships Line bulk canaller was sunk in position 09.15N, 058.30W, in the Caribbean off British Guyana by U-129. She was on route from Paramaribo, Dutch Guyana, to Trinidad with a load of bauxite for transshipment. Two men were lost from her crew of 20 men. The merchantman SS Athelril rescued the survivors.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: Steam tanker WD Anderson torpedoed and sunk by U-504 at 27.09N, 79.56W. The sole survivor apparently spotted the torpedo coming for the ship, dove into the sea and swam away as the ship exploded behind him.

UNITED KINGDOM: London: De Gaulle asks General Giraud to declare a Free French Republic in North Africa.

U-53 (TypeVIIB) is sunk in the North Sea in the mid Orkneys, position 58.50N, 02.58W, by depth charges from the British destroyer HMS Gurkha. 42 dead (all hands lost). (Alex Gordon)

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: At 1250, the unescorted SS Fintra was torpedoed and sunk by U-371 NE of Algiers. The master, 21 crewmembers and one passenger were saved. Seven crewmembers and five gunners were lost.

U-443 sunk in the Mediterranean near Algiers, in position 36.55N, 02.25E, by depth charges from the British escort destroyers HMS Bicester, Lamerton and Wheatland. 48 dead (all hands lost).

LIBYA: Rommel moves up to command Army Group Africa. Messe replaces him as commander of the Italian 1st Army. (Jeff Chrisman)

U.S.A.: The first USN Curtiss Wright C-46 transport is delivered to LaGuardia Airport in New York City.

CARIBBEAN SEA: At 2217, U-202 fired a spread of four torpedoes at Convoy UC-1. The first struck the Murena and the second the British Fortitude; both tankers were able to continue their voyage, though in a damaged condition. The third torpedo failed and the last hit the Empire Norseman, which had been already damaged by U-382 was later sunk by a coup de grâce from U-558. At 2221, U-202 fired the stern torpedo and sank Esso Baton Rouge. The torpedo struck Esso Baton Rouge in station #43 on the starboard side between the engine room and aft bunkers. The explosion carried away the bulkhead between the tanks and the engine room, filled the latter compartment with burning oil, killed one officer and one man on watch below and stopped the engines. Debris flew over 50 feet in the air and one armed guard was killed. As the ship started to settle by the stern, the eight officers, 35 men and 25 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in, one 3in and eight 20mm guns) abandoned ship in three lifeboats, after three rafts were carried away, because the ship still had headway. Within 90 minutes all survivors were picked up by sloop HMS Totland. The tanker finally sank by the stern about 0400 the next morning. Two crewmembers and one armed guard, all seriously burned from flaming oil, were treated on the sloop and put ashore at Antigua on 4 March. The remaining survivors were transferred to the Dutch steam merchant Maaskerk and arrived in Trinidad on 6 March. At 2345, the drifting wreck of the Empire Norseman was sunk by a coup de grâce from U-558. The master, 41 crewmembers and eleven gunners from the Empire Norseman were picked up by HMS Totland, transferred to the Dutch merchantman Maaskerk and landed at Trinidad.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: The German Falke acoustic torpedo scores its first operational success when a U-boat sinks a tanker from convoy UC-1.

U-522 (Type IXC) is sunk in the mid-Atlantic south-west of Madeira, Portugal, position 31.27N, 26.22W, by depth charges from the British coastguard cutter Totland. 51 dead (all hands lost). (Alex Gordon)

At 0735, U-186 fired a spread of three torpedoes at Convoy ON-166 about 310 miles south of Cape Race and observed one hit after 2 minutes 32 seconds on the ship in station #12, the Hastings, which was erroneously reported as Hassop. A second hit, after 2 minutes 35 seconds was possibly on the same ship, which sank within seven minutes. After 2 minutes 41 seconds a third hit was heard but not observed. At 0740 hours, U-186 fired a spread of two stern torpedoes and heard two detonations on different targets, but only the Eulima was hit, the second detonation being a depth charge from USCGC Spencer. At 1130 hours, the drifting wreck of the Eulima was sunk by a coup de grâce and gunfire from U-186. The master, 52 crewmembers and nine gunners from the Eulima were lost. The third officer J. Campkin was taken prisoner by U-186, landed at Lorient on 5 March and taken to the POW camp Milag Nord near Bremen. A lookout on the Hastings spotted a torpedo just before it struck the port side at #5 hold. The explosion flooded the engine room, sprung bulkheads between the #4 and #5 holds, destroyed the steering gear and cut the power of the ship. The ten officers, 31 crewmembers, 20 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in, two .30cal and four 20mm guns) and one passenger on board began to abandon ship in three lifeboats and two rafts. The ship sank stern first after 7 minutes. One officer and eight crewmen were lost. The remaining survivors were picked up after 20 minutes by corvette HMCS Chilliwack and landed at St John's.

At 0210 one of the four diesel engines broke down in rough weather and the Winkler in position 63 of the ON-166 reduced to 8 knots for repairs. She had become the last ship of the convoy and was damaged at 0714 by a FAT torpedo from U-628. The ship spent about 1 hour to rescue survivors from the Norwegian tanker Glittre (The tanker was damaged in the same attack from U-628 and was later sunk by U-603). At 0800 corvette HMS Dianthus arrived, ordered the Winkler back to the convoy, picked up the survivors and followed. At 0842 three torpedoes from U-223 struck the ship and sank her within 45 seconds, taking 14 crewmembers and 5 Armed Guards with her. HMS Dianthus got Asdic contact but was unable to drop depth charges, because U-223 dove under the survivors. So she picked up 32 survivors (19 crewmembers and 13 Armed Guards) and landed them at St John's three days later.

At 1438, the unescorted and neutral SS Kyleclare was hit by two torpedoes from U-456 and disappeared in the explosions.

At 0741, SS Athelprincess, a straggler from Convoy UC-1, was hit by two torpedoes from U-522 and sank west of Madeira. One crewmember was lost. The master, 42 crewmembers and seven gunners were picked up by sloop HMS Weston, transferred to destroyer USS Hilary P. Jones and landed at San Juan, Puerto Rico.

At 0714, U-628 fired FAT torpedoes at Convoy ON-166 in grid BD 4564. One torpedo damaged Winkler, which was later sunk by U-223 and another struck Glittre on the port side in the engine room. Glittre became a straggler and was sunk by two torpedoes from U-603 at 0842 the same day. Two men died in the engine room and the cook was killed in his cabin. The survivors were picked up by HMS Dianthus.

Convoy rescue ship SS Stockport torpedoed and sunk by U-604 at 45N, 44W.

U-522 sunk in the mid-Atlantic SW of Madeira, Portugal in position 31.27N, 26.22W, by depth charges from sloop HMS Totland. 51 dead (all hands lost).

UNITED KINGDOM: Chelsea, London: Mr. Anthony Smith (1899-1964), Heavy Rescue Service, dug a man out of the basement of a bombed and blazing block, and helped save another in a building next door. (George Cross)

GERMANY: A Mosquito of No. 692 Squadron RAF dropped a 4,000-lb bomb on Düsseldorf. This is double the original bombload of the Mk IV. To carry this large device, the bomb-bay is bulged. (22)

ITALY: General Lucian Truscott takes full command of VI Corps at Anzio, replacing General Lucas.

MARIANAS ISLANDS: Units of the US 5th Fleet attack the Marianas Islands. Including Saipan, Tinian, Rota and Guam.

Norton-class tugs HMCS Riverton, Mawellton, Clifton ordered.

Yard craft HMC HC 304, 305, 306, 307, 308, 309, 310, 311, 312, 313, 314, 315, 316 ordered.

Boom defense vessels HMC HC 288, 289, 294, 295, 299 ordered.

U.S.A.:

Destroyer escort USS Haas laid down.

Destroyer USS Alfred A Cunningham laid down.

Submarine USS Sea Poacher laid down.

Destroyer escort USS Creamer launched.

Destroyer USS Samuel N Moore launched.

Minesweeper USS Gladiator commissioned.

Destroyer USS Richard P Leary commissioned.

Destroyer escort USS Osmus commissioned.

U-257 is sunk in the North Atlantic, in approximate position 47.19N, 26.00W, by depth charges from frigates HMCS Waskesiu and HMS Nene. 30 dead and 19 survivors. According to a crewmember on the HMCS Waskesiu the HMS Nene only participated in picking up survivors while the Canadian frigate dropped the depth charges, after both frigates had picked up an ASDIC signal that the Canadians insisted was a U-boat, which sank the boat.

BELGIUM: Capt Edwin Swales (b.1915), SAAF, who had hit his target despite severe damage to his Lancaster, told his crew to bale out just before the plane plummeted to earth, killing him. (Victoria Cross)

GERMANY: The US 1st and 9th Armies begin heavy attacks along the Rühr, especially in the Jülich and Düren areas. The US 7th and 3rd Armies also attack.

Roer River: In a single days fighting, Lt-Gen William Simpson's Ninth Army has put 28 infantry battalions across the Roer. Seven tank-bearing bridges are almost complete. Bright moonlight made a smoke-screen necessary for the assault, Operation Grenade began, at 3.30am. Simpson took the Germans off balance by attacking after they had sent some troops to the Reichswald. No serious counter-attack has yet been made, and Simpson will now head towards Dusseldorf.

POLAND: Poznan falls to the Russians. The Festung [Fortress City] in western Poland is 100 miles behind the Russian front line. Assault troops scaled rope-ladders and climbed over the walls of the inner citadel while sappers dashed forward with dynamite to blast open the defences. The garrison finally surrendered after its commander shot himself. The capture of Poznan's railway network will make it much easier for Zhukov to build up his forces to attack Berlin.

TURKEY: Diplomatic relations between Ankara and Berlin are suspended today. (Mike Yared)

IWO JIMA: Mt. Suribachi on Iwo Jima is captured. The flag raising atop Mt. Suribachi is pictured around the world. Inspite of the capture of this extinct volcano, the fight for the island continues.

This picture became the model of the statue commemorating the event built after the war in Washington, DC. US Secretary of the Navy Forrestal is quoted as saying: "This picture will assure the existence of the US Marine Corps."

After four days of exceptionally fierce fighting that has cost 2,500 American lives, US marines today managed to raise the Stars and Stripes on top of Mount Suribachi, the vantage point controlling the southern end of Iwo Jima.

The event was greeted with shouts and whistles from below as the 30,000 men of the 4th and 5th Marine Divisions were able to raise their heads. They had been pinned down flat on their bellies by intense enemy artillery since landing on this barren volcanic rock of an island. The flag was raised at 10.20 am today by a group from the 28th Regimental Combat Team of the 5th Marines, using a discarded drainpipe for a flagpole. Shortly afterwards several Japanese soldiers emerged from hidden tunnels. They were killed by the marines, who had clawed and fought their way up the 550-foot summit.

But the fight for Iwo Jima, just four miles by two in size, is not over yet. Despite the American capture of one airfield on the first day, two more are still held by the Japanese. They are just as keenly aware as the Americans of Iwo's strategic value as a stepping stone for intensifying the B-29 bombings of Japan. Prior to Iwo's invasion, Japan's military chiefs in Tokyo - 650 miles away - even contemplated how much explosive it would take to sink the island into the sea. Instead it opted for Iwo's 21,000 defenders to be dug into an elaborate 11-mile network of caves and tunnels that has already survived 75 days of aerial bombardment and a three-day naval softening-up bombardment in which 40,000 shells were fired.

CAROLINE ISLANDS: The British Pacific Fleet, renamed Task Force 57, sails for Okinawa.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: 125 men from the 11th US Airborne Division, 511th PIR, B Co., is dropped at Los Banos in Luzon to rescue prisoners. With the aid of Filipino guerillas attacking from the outside they rescued 2,000 emaciated prisoners.

Struggling to survive when the 11th Airborne jumped in was 29-year-old Jesuit priest James Reuter from Elizabeth, New Jersey, USA.

"They [the troops] did pick up a communiqué that we were supposed to be executed," Reuter said.
"We were eating things that you wouldn't normally eat," such as banana skins and corncobs, he said.
Reuter described the atmosphere when the American troops finally stormed the prison.

"Bullets were whistling through the barracks, and all of our guards were killed in about 15 minutes," he said. "The planes kept circling . and we didn't know who they were. . We thought it was Japanese war games or something."

ATLANTIC OCEAN: Ju-88 bombers sink the SS Henry Bacon of convoy RA-64. This will be the last Allied merchant ship sunk by German aircraft.

SS Point Pleasant Park (7,136 GRT), Captain Owen Owen, Master, Canadian Park Steamship Co. freighter was sunk by a torpedo and gunfire from U-510, Kptlt Alfred Eick, Knight's Cross, CO, off Cape Town, South Africa, in position 29.42S, 009.58E. She had detached from a convoy a day earlier and was proceeding alone to a South African port. Nine of her crew of fifty-eight men was lost. The survivors were adrift for nine days before a fishing vessel and SAS Africana rescued them. U-510 was enroute to Germany with a load of tungsten from the Far East when she encountered Point Pleasant Park. After a successful patrol in Brazilian waters, U-510 left Lorient on her second patrol assigned as one of the Monsun boats. Eick operated for a few months in the Indian Ocean before heading back in Jan 45 with a load of important goods (tin, quinine, etc.) on board. After being supplied with oil southeast of Madagascar by KKpt Oesten's U-861, who was short of fuel herself, U-510 ran out of fuel in the North Atlantic, but somehow managed to reach base at St. Nazaire. Alfred Eick was in French captivity from May 45 to 26 Jul 47. After his release, he studied business management at the University of Hamburg later worked as a tax adviser.