February in WW2

This page gives a daily diary snapshot of February in WW2.

1 February 1945: US Sixth Army reaches the Siegfried Line

2 February 1943: Fieldmarshal Von Paulus surrenders the German 6th Army to the Russians at Stalingrad

3 February 1945: USAAF launches a 1000 bomber raid on Berlin, escorted by 900 fighters

4 February 1945: Yalta Conference opens

5 February 1945: US troopes enter Manila

6 February 1941: Erwin Rommel appointed commander of the Afrika Corps

7 February 1942: Japanese troops land on Singapore Island

8 February 1941: Lend –Lease Bill passed by US House of representatives

9 February 1943: US troops link up at Tenaro, Gudalcanal and discover that the Japanese have evacuated the island

10 February 1945: US First Army captures the Schwammanuel Dam

11 February 1942: The Channel Dash: German warships Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen escape up the Channel from Brest

12 February 1945: Canadian troops capture Kleve, Germany

13 February 1945: RAF bombing causes a firestorm in Dresden in a `severe case of over bombing`. Estimates vary between 135,000 and 250,000 dead

14 February 1941: German units start to arrive in Tripoli

15 February 1942: Singapore surrenders to the Japanese. (1944) Massive air and artillery bombardment destroy the abbey at Monte Cassino

16 February 1940: HMS Cossack rescues British prisoners from the prison ship Altmark in Norwegian waters

17 February 1943: Norwegian Commandos parachute into Norway, intent on destroying the heavy water plant at Norsk Hydro

18 February 1943: Well behind Japanese lines the Chindits cut the railway line between Mandalay and Myitkina, Burma

19 February 1945: US Marines land on Iwo Jima, Pacific

20 February 1945: President Roosevelt is sworn in for a forth term, with Harry S truman as Vice-President

21 February 1940: Work begins on a new concentration camp in Poland near Oswiecim ( Auschwitz)

22 February 1941: General Mc Arthur ordered to leave the Philippines

23 February 1945: US Marines take Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima

24 February 1944: USAAF bombers raid Schweinfurt in Germany

25 February 1943: Allied troops recapture the Kasserine Pass

26 February 1945: Operation Blockbuster; Canadian units drive into Holland

27 February 1945: US marines take IWO Jima airfield

28 February 1943: Norwegian Commandos destroy the heavy water plant at Norsk Hydro, the basis for the film ‘The Heroes of Telemark’

29 February 1944: US troops land on the Admiralty Islands