February 1945

February

• 02

  • The destruction of the Singapore dockIn early February 1945 B-29s from India sank the great floating dock at the Singapore naval base, depriving the Japanese fleet of another base.
• 03

  • Key eventThe Battle of Manila beginsOn 3 February 1945 US cavalry drove into Manila and freed the internees at Santo Tomás. Japanese sailors held the city for a month, murdering civilians.
  • The raid on Berlin of 3 February 1945Around a thousand American B-17s bombed central Berlin. German figures put the dead at nearly 2,900, among them the judge Roland Freisler.
• 04

  • Key eventThe Yalta ConferenceOn 4–11 February 1945 at Yalta Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin agreed on the occupation of Germany, Poland’s borders and government, UN rules and war on Japan.
  • Belgium free of GermansIn early February 1945 the Americans drove the Germans from the last scraps of eastern Belgium. The country was free, but V-2s were still falling on Antwerp.
• 09

  • The elimination of the Colmar PocketOn 9 February 1945 the Germans blew the Rhine bridge at Chalampé. The French First Army and the US XXI Corps had eliminated the Colmar Pocket in Alsace.
• 10

  • The East Pomeranian offensive beginsOn 10 February 1945 Rokossovsky’s 2nd Belorussian Front struck into East Pomerania to remove the threat to Zhukov’s flank on the Oder.
• 13

  • The end of the siege of BudapestOn 13 February 1945 the last units in Buda surrendered. Of 28,000 soldiers in the breakout of 11 February, only some 700 reached the German lines.
  • Key eventThe bombing of DresdenOn the night of 13/14 February 1945 the RAF, and by day the USAAF, bombed Dresden. A firestorm destroyed the old city; up to 25,000 people were killed.
  • The siege of Breslau beginsOn 13 February 1945 troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front closed the ring around Breslau (Wrocław). The siege of Festung Breslau lasted until 6 May.
• 14

  • The bombing of PragueOn 14 February 1945 B-17s bound for Dresden bombed Prague by navigational error. 701 people died and the Emmaus Monastery was among the buildings destroyed.
• 15

  • Latin America declares war on the AxisIn February 1945 Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela and Uruguay declared war on the Axis to become founders of the new organisation in San Francisco.
• 16

  • The landing on CorregidorOn 16 February 1945 US paratroopers dropped on Topside and infantry landed below Malinta Hill. The battle for the fortress lost in 1942 had begun.
  • Carriers over TokyoOn 16–17 February 1945 aircraft from Mitscher’s carriers struck airfields and aircraft plants around Tokyo – the first carrier attack on Japan’s capital.
• 19

  • Key eventThe landing on Iwo JimaOn 19 February 1945 the 4th and 5th Marine Divisions landed on Iwo Jima. By evening 30,000 Marines were ashore, and losses had reached some 2,400 men.
• 21

  • The Battle of Monte CastelloOn 21 February 1945 the Brazilian 1st Division took Monte Castello in the Apennines, contested since November. The US 10th Mountain took the nearby peaks.
• 22

  • Operation ClarionOn 22–23 February 1945 US and British aircraft struck some 200 transport targets all over Germany, including small towns that had so far been spared.
• 23

  • The flag on SuribachiOn 23 February 1945 Marines raised the US flag on the summit of Suribachi on Iwo Jima. Joe Rosenthal’s photograph of the second flag became a symbol of the war.
  • Turkey declares war on GermanyOn 23 February 1945 the Turkish Grand National Assembly unanimously declared war on Germany and Japan to secure a place among the founders of the UN.
  • The raid on Los BañosOn 23 February 1945 US paratroopers, amphibious tractors and Filipino guerrillas freed 2,147 internees from the Japanese camp at Los Baños.
  • The end of the Battle of PoznańOn 23 February 1945 the Citadel, the last pocket of Festung Posen, surrendered. Its commandant Gonell took his own life; Mattern gave up what was left.
  • The raid on PforzheimOn the evening of 23 February 1945 RAF bombers burned Pforzheim in 22 minutes. Some 17,600 died – proportionally the deadliest single raid on a Reich city.
• 24

  • Egypt declares war on the AxisOn 24 February 1945 Egypt's parliament backed war on Germany and Japan. Moments later Prime Minister Ahmad Mahir was shot dead in the parliament building.
• 25

  • The incendiary raid on Tokyo of 25 FebruaryOn 25 February 1945 over 170 B-29s dropped incendiaries on Tokyo through a snowstorm. Some 2.6 km² of the city burned – a foretaste of the night raids.
• 26

  • The recapture of CorregidorOn 26 February 1945 the Japanese blew up an arsenal at Monkey Point and the Americans reached the island's eastern tip. The fight for Corregidor was over.
• 27

  • The restoration of the Philippine Commonwealth governmentOn 27 February 1945 at Malacañang Palace MacArthur handed civil authority to President Sergio Osmeña. The Commonwealth government returned to a ruined Manila.
  • Syria and Lebanon declare war on the AxisOn 26 and 27 February 1945 Syria and Lebanon, formally independent since 1941, declared war on Germany and Japan in order to become founders of the UN.
• 28

  • The landing on PalawanOn 28 February 1945 the US 186th Infantry landed unopposed at Puerto Princesa on Palawan and found traces of the December 1944 massacre of prisoners.