Air Operations, Australia

Japanese aircraft attack transports in Darwin loaded with troops bound for Koepang, Timor. Nearly all 10 of the 5th Air Force P-40s assigned for defense of the transports are lost.

Air Operations, East Indies

5th Air Forces aircraft based in Java attack Japanese transports landing troops on Bali. 2 A-24s are lost, but 5 hits on a Japanese cruiser are claimed in the attack. 2 P-40s are also lost in the action.

Air Operations, Pacific

Lt 'Butch' O'Hare in a Wildcat from the Lexington shoots down 6(5?) Mitsubishi G4M bombers in about 10 minutes near the Gilbert Islands.

Battle of the Atlantic

• The Italian submarine Torelli sinks the British steamer Scottish Star (7224t) east of Barbados. 4 of a crew of 73 are lost.
• U-129 sinks the Norwegian steamer Nordvangen (2400t) near Trinidad with the loss of her entire crew of 24.
• U-96 sinks the American steamer Lake Osweya (2398t) off Halifax with the loss of the entire crew of 39.
• U-156 badly damages the American steamer Delplata (5127t) 60 miles west of Martinique. The crew of 54 is picked up the next day by the American minesweeper Lapwing. After is is determined the ship cannot be salvaged, she is sunk by gunfire.
• The German steamer Jason (1025t) sinks on a mine near Calais.

Burma

The evacuation of the civilian population of Rangoon is ordered within 48 hours.

Caribbean

From this date until March 24 the Italian submarine group Da Vinci consisting of 4 boats, will sink 14 merchantmen in the Caribbean.

East Indies

Portugese Timor, north of Australia, is invaded by the Japanese, which for the past month has had a small Allied garrison. Australia is now directly threatened. The Japanese will complete their occupation on the 24th.

Paratroopers of the Yokosuka 3rd Special Naval Landing Force drop onto a maize field 10 miles east of Kupang, Dutch Timor on February 20, 1942.

Japanese Paratroopers Landing on Dutch Timor

Eastern Front

Hitler receives a report on the staggering number of German casualties suffered thus far in the Russian campaign: 199,448 dead, 708,351 wounded, 112,627 cases of severe frostbite of which 14,357 have required amputations, and 44,342 missing.

He is nonetheless optimistic saying, 'Now that January and February are past, our enemies can give up hope of our suffering the fate of Napoleon. . . . Now we're about to switch over to squaring the account. What a relief!'

The Demiansk Airlift begins. A force of 40 Ju-52s maintains the trapped German 16th Army in the Demiansk 'Cauldron', north of Smolensk. By May 300 aircraft will be involved. During this time the Germans will lose 262 aircraft.

Since February 17 the Soviets have landed nearly 7,000 paratroopers west of Yukhnow but have been contained by the Germans.

Indian Ocean

I-65 sinks the British steamer Bhima (5280t) southwest of the Indian coast. All 70 on board are rescued.

Pacific

• The aircraft carrier USS Lexington, escorted by cruisers and destroyers, attempts to attack Rabaul, New Britain, but is driven off by extremely heavy air attacks by the Japanese. The Japanese losses are extremely heavy in repulsing this threat, and now have to postpone their proposed action against New Guinea.
• The British steamer Koolama (4068t) is sunk by Japanese bombing off Wyndham, West Australia.
• The Dutch steamer Tobelo (983t) is sunk by Japanese bombing off Kupang, East Timor.

Philippines

In the Bay of Manila Japanese guns pound the fortified islands off Luzon, including Corregidor. President Quezon of the Philippines and many of his officials are evacuated in the American submarine Swordfish (SS-193).

United States, Policy

The US Government grants a loan of 1 billion dollars to the Soviet Union.

Vichy France

(2/19?)The Vichy French Supreme Court, sitting at Riom, near Clermont-Ferrand, examines former Prime Ministers Daladier and Blum, Gen Gamelin and others on charges of being 'responsible for the defeat of France'. The accused will later be deported to Germany and the Court dissolved on June 13, 1942.