The four-day Malta Conference between
Franklin D. Roosevelt and
Winston Churchill ended with an agreement to withdraw two divisions from Greece and three from Italy to reinforce northwest Europe. They proceeded to
Yalta for a conference with
Joseph Stalin.[1]
Died:Adolf Brand, 70, German writer, anarchist and gay rights activist (killed in an Allied bombing raid);
Karl Friedrich Goerdeler, 60, German politician (hanged by the Nazis for treason);
Joe Hunt, 25, American tennis player (killed in a plane crash during a military training exercise)
Berlin suffered its worst air raid of the war when 1,500
USAAF bombers led by Lt. Col.
Robert Rosenthal[2] dropped more than 2,000 tons of bombs on the city.[3]
Black Friday: A force of Allied
Bristol Beaufighter aircraft suffered heavy casualties during an unsuccessful attack on the German destroyer Z33 and its escorting vessels.
Action of 9 February 1945: German submarine U-864 was sunk west of
Bergen,
Norway by the British submarine Venturer. To date this remains the only time in history one submarine has intentionally sunk another submarine while both were fully submerged.
Adolf Hitler viewed a post-war model of his hometown of
Linz,
Austria. He planned to have Linz surpass
Vienna as Austria's greatest city.
The German passenger liner General von Steuben was torpedoed and sunk in the Baltic Sea by Soviet submarine S-13, resulting in the loss of over 4,000 lives.
Died:Anacleto Díaz, 66, Filipino jurist and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (executed by the Japanese)
The
Yalta Conference concluded. Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin signed a joint declaration affirming guidelines for the end of the war and maintaining peace thereafter.[4]
The
Treaty of Varkiza was signed in which the Greek resistance agreed to disarm and relinquish control of all the territory it occupied in exchange for legal recognition, free elections, and the removal of Nazi collaborators from the armed forces and police.[4]
In one of the more controversial events of the war, the
bombing of Dresden began. Over the next three days a total of 3,900 tons of high-explosive bombs and incendiary devices were dropped on the city by Allied air forces.
U.S. Army Air Forces carried out the
Bombing of Prague. 701 people were killed and about 100 houses and historical sites were destroyed in what was attributed to a navigation mistake.
The British
Special Air Service executed
Operation Cold Comfort, a raid that began with a parachute drop north of
Verona, Italy with the objective of blocking the main rail lines through the
Brenner Pass by landslide. The operation would ultimately fail.
Died:John Basilone, 28, U.S. Marine and
Medal of Honor recipient (killed in the Battle of Iwo Jima),
Darrell S. Cole, 24, U.S. Marine and posthumous Medal of Honor recipient (killed in the Battle of Iwo Jima)
Japanese destroyer Nokaze was torpedoed and sunk north of
Nha Trang by the submarine
USS Pargo with the loss of 209 lives.
In the Atlantic Ocean, German submarine U-1276 sank the British corvette
HMS Vervain and was then sunk in turn by Royal Navy sloop
HMS Amethyst from the same convoy.
The war film God Is My Co-Pilot, starring
Dennis Morgan and based on the 1943 autobiography of the same name by
Robert Lee Scott, Jr., had its world premiere in Scott's hometown of
Macon, Georgia. The day had been proclaimed "Robert Lee Scott-God Is My Co-Pilot Day" throughout the state of Georgia, and a special War Bond rally was held in conjunction with the premiere.[16]
Died:Eric Liddell, 43, Scottish athlete and missionary (brain tumour)
Died:Ahmad Mahir Pasha, 56 or 57, Prime Minister of Egypt (assassinated in parliament immediately after announcing the Egyptian declaration of war on Germany)
Fighting ended on
Corregidor. More than 5,000 Japanese had been killed, including some trapped in collapsed tunnels all over the island.[17]
In the United States, a midnight curfew on bars, nightclubs and all other places of entertainment went into effect nationwide in order to save coal.[18]
Died:Ross F. Gray, 24, U.S. Marine and posthumous recipient of the
Medal of Honor (killed in action on Iwo Jima);
William G. Walsh, 22, U.S. Marine and posthumous recipient of the Medal of Honor (threw himself on a hand grenade to save the lives of his fellow Marines during the Battle of Iwo Jima)
Conservative MP
Maurice Petherick introduced a motion in the House of Commons expressing regret that the agreement at Yalta did not allow Poland to decide its own future. The motion was defeated, 396-25.[21]
Died:John Harlan Willis, 23, U.S. Navy hospital corpsman and posthumous recipient of the
Medal of Honor (killed in action on Iwo Jima)
References
^
abLeonard, Thomas M. (1977). Day By Day: The Forties. New York: Facts On File, Inc. p. 468.
ISBN0-87196-375-2.
^"100th Bomb Group Foundation - Personnel - LT COL Robert ROSENTHAL". 100thbg.com. 100th Bomb Group Foundation. Retrieved December 5, 2016. Dec 1, 1944-Feb 3, 1945 - 418th BS, 100th BG (H) ETOUSAAF (8AF) Squadron Commander, 55 hours, B-17 Air Leader 5 c/m (combat missions) 45 c/hrs (combat hours) 1 Division Lead (Berlin Feb 3, 1945, shot down, picked up by Russians and returned to England) Acting Command 4 Wing Leads, Pilot Feb 3, 1945 - BERLIN - MACR #12046, - A/C#44 8379
^Lowe, Keith (2007). Inferno: The Fiery Destruction of Hamburg, 1943. New York: Scribner. p. 330.
ISBN978-0-7432-6900-1.
^
abcdefghijk"1945". MusicAndHistory.com. Archived from
the original on September 23, 2013. Retrieved March 28, 2016.
^
abMercer, Derrik, ed. (1989). Chronicle of the 20th Century. London: Chronicle Communications Ltd. p. 617.
ISBN978-0-582-03919-3.
^Mitcham, Smauel W. (2006). Panzers in Winter: Hitler's Army and the Battle of the Bulge. Westport, CT: Praeger Security International. p. 169.
ISBN978-0-275-97115-1.
^Ford, Ken (2000). The Rhineland 1945: The Last Killing Ground in the West. Osprey Publishing. p. 85.
ISBN978-1-85532-999-7.
^Grazulis, Thomas P. (1993). Significant tornadoes, 1680–1991: A Chronology and Analysis of Events. St. Johnsbury, Vermont: Environmental Films. pp. 922–925.
ISBN1-879362-03-1.
^F. C. Pate (United States Weather Bureau) (October 1946).
"The Tornado at Montgomery, Alabama, February 12, 1945". Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. 27 (8). American Meteorological Society: 462–464. Retrieved 27 May 2023.
^Hewett, Ivan, "Rolling with the Punches", BBC Proms 2022, pp. 20–4