Air Operations - East Indies

• Japanese aircraft destroy 3 5th Air Force B-17s on the ground at the advance depot at Bandoeng, Java.
• 5th Air Force bomber crews claim the sinking of 2 Japanese ships off Makassar, Celebes and 17th Provisional Pursuit Squadron P-40 pilots shoot down 2 Japanese bombers over Java around 1000 hours.

Atlantic

The US destroyer Truxton and the naval transport Pollux are reported wrecked in a gale off the St Lawrence River. 189 are missing.

Axis Diplomacy

Franz Von Papen, German Ambassador in Turkey, narrowly escapes an assassination attempt.

Vichy France reaffirms her neutrality following a US protest against incidental aid given to the German Afrika Korps.

Battle of the Atlantic

• U-94 sinks the British steamer Empire Hail (7005t) east of St John's, Newfoundland with the loss of all 49 of her crew.
• In attacks on Convoy ON-67 U-558 sinks the British tanker Inverarder (5578t) southeast of St John's, Newfoundland and the Norwegian tanker Eidanger (9432t) in the same area. The entire crews of both ships survive the sinkings. U-158 sinks the British tanker Empire Celt (8032t) 420 miles south-southeast of St John's with the loss of 6 of her crew. 47 survivors are picked up by the Canadian rescue ship Citadelle and the British anti-submarine trawler St Zeno. In further attacks on the convoy U-558 sinks the British tankers Anadara (8080t) and Finnanger (9551t) and the steamer White Crest (4365t) east of Halifax. The crews of all 3 ships are lost: 62 on Anadara; 39 on the Finnanger; and 47 on the White Crest.

Black Sea

The Russian submarine Shch-213 sinks the decrepit Bulgarian SS Struma carrying 764 Rumanian Jews. There is only 1 survivor. Turkish authorities had earlier forced the vessel's crew to put to sea because none of the passengers had visas.

The Struma

Canada, Home Front

The War Measures Act authorizes the relocation of Japanese Canadians to internment camps.

Diplomatic Relations

Vichy France responds to Roosevelt's note of the 9th stating its desire to remain neutral and not assist belligerents in any theater of operations.

East Indies

Japanese paratroops land on Kupang airfield, Timor.

Eastern Front

The German resistance to Russian attacks grows firmer, but in the northern sector the Russians have surrounded II Corps of the German 16th Army just south of Lake Ilmen in the Demyansk area. Air supply, which can average of 270 tons a day, will enable this unit to hold out until relieved in April. In the central sector the Germans contain the Russian pressure on Smolensk. In the south they offer firm resistance as the Russians try to break out into the great bend of the Dniepr River

German infantry waiting in the snow beside their guns in readiness for an attack

German Infantry Ready to Attack

Russian Sappers Clearing a Passage Through Enemy Wire

On 23 February, the twenty-fourth anniversary of the creation of the Red Army, Russian forces launched an offensive on the Central Front and on the same day the High Command announced the capture of Dorogobuzh, fifty miles east of Smolensk. Farther north, where the Russians were striving desperately to break the German ring around Leningrad, Soviet troops, on the 24th, successfully accomplished the encirclement of the German 16th Army at Staraya Russa, ten miles south of Lake Ilmen. After the refusal of the German commander to surrender, the Russians began an attack in which two German infantry divisions and the crack S.S. "Death's Head" Division were smashed and 12,000 Germans were killed. Nevertheless, the enemy, heartened by promises of airborne reinforcements, clung desperately to their positions.

Occupied Holland

L. E. Bisser, President of Netherlands High Court of Justice until removed by the Germans in 1940, dies at age 70. He was also active in Jewish welfare work.

Occupied Norway

Norwegian bishops resign their offices in collective protest against the Nazi-Quisling oppression.

Pacific

• The Panamanian steamer Snark (4488t) sinks on a mine near Amedee Lighthouse after departing Sydney for Noumea.
• The Dutch steamer Kota Radja (7117t) is sunk by Japanese bombing at Surabaya, Java.

Wake Island

An American task force, consisting of the aircraft carrier Enterprise, 2 cruisers, and 7 destroyers and led by Vice-Adm Halsey, shells and bombs installations on Wake Island.