Air Operations, East Indies

90th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack port facilities and shipping at Amboina Island.

Air Operations, Europe

• 143 aircraft including 130 Lancasters, 7 Stirlings and 6 Halifaxes are sent to Bremen.
• 129 planes bomb through the clouds, but no photographs are taken because of the clouds. Results are unknown.
• There are no losses.

Air Operations, Mediterranean

During the afternoon, 82nd Fighter Group P-38 pilots down 9 Luftwaffe multi-engine aircrafte between Sicily and Bizerte.

Air Operations, New Guinea

V Bomber Command A-20s attack Japanese Army-occupied villages.

Air Operations, Tunisia

• NASAF (Northwest African Strategic Air Forcce) B-25s attack the rail yards at Gafsa.
• Because of rain and fog, only 2 P-39s attack German Army ground forces.

Battle of the Atlantic

• Over the next 5 days the Convoy ON-166 is attacked and loses 14 ships of 85,000 tons. On this day U-92 torpedoes the British steamer Empore Trader (9990t) which will be scuttled later by the Canadian corvette Dauphin. The US Coast Guard cutter Campbell (WPG-32), British corvette Dianthus and Canadian corvette Dauphin, with help from flying boats, temporarily drive off U-332, U-454 and U-753 threatening the Convoy.
• The US freighter Rosario (4659t), steaming in Convoy ON-167, is torpedoed and sunk by U-664. 30 of the 44-man crew and 3 of the 17 Armed Guard sailors are lost in the attack. The survivors are picked up by the British ship Rathlin.
• Liberator 'T' of No 120 Squadron RAF is patrolling over convoy ON-166 when U-623 is sighted nine miles from the aircraft. The aircraft released six depth charges from 50 ft. They all explode alongside the conning tower eventually sinking the U-boat.

U-623

The American steam merchant Rosario, torpedoed and sunk 21 February 1943, one of the victims in this convoy.

American Merchant Ship Rosario

Burma

British Commandos raid Akyab and withdraw after attacking Japanese positions.

Eastern Front

Von Manstein's Army Group South launches a counteroffensive against the left flank of the Russian Southwest Army Front under Gen Nikolai Vatutin and against the Voronezh Front under Gen Filipp I. Golikov. The German XXX Corps advances towards Krasnoarmeyskoye from the area of Stalino. The 1st Panzer Army, with the XL and III Panzer Corps, make for Andreyevka and Izyum; the 4th Panzer Army, with the XLVIII and LVII Panzer Corps, attacks towards Pavlograd and Lozovaya. From the north the II SS Panzer Corps and the Kemps Operational Group converge on Pavlograd, while the Raus Panzer Corps advances from Poltava eastwards and northeastwards, towards Kharkov and Belgorod.

Despite the German offensive, the Soviets are still pushing west: the 3rd Tank Army enters Lyubotin, and the 6th Army reaches Sinelnikovo. But Manstein's forcesare also making gains, with the 4th Panzer Army advancing on Pavlograd, XXX Corps attacking Krasnoarmieskoye, the 1st Panzer Army advancing toward Izyum, and the SS Panzer Corps and Corps Raus advancing from the north. Suddenly, Soviet forces south of Kharkov are in danger of being encircled. The Luftwaffe flies 1,145 sorties in support of Manstein's forces.[MORE]

North Africa

Rommel is at the front urging 10th Panzer on in its advance toward Thala, about 40 miles northwest of Tebéssa, but the British armor holds out well during the day despite inferior tanks and by the evening the front is still three miles south of the town. A detachment of 15th Pzr is sent on a diversionary move toward Tehessa, but it too is held by units of US 1st Arm Div. The Sbiba attack achieves nothing.

During the night a fierce fight develops in the British position before Thala in which both sides lose heavily. Also during the night an American arty regt under Gen S. LeRoy Irwin arrives in support after an 800-mile march from Oran accomplished in four days. At dawn this new support and a small counter-attack by the British convince Rommel that the Allied reserves are arriving too quickly, and in the afternoon he pulls back. Rommel's attack has come very close to a major success, and it is interesting to speculate what might have been achieved if his own, less expected, plan had been chosen. The German troops have been astonished at the lavish scale of equipment of the American units they have overrun. Although the inexperience of the Americans has been very obvious, it is clear that they are learning very quickly, and already their artillery is formidably well organized.

One factor in the battle which is to recur in other campaigns is the difference in the Allied performance from February 22 onward when the weather improves for flying. The British system for controlling air support has been well worked out and is adopted by the Americans from now on - another example of the American's ability to learn quickly from experience.

On the Axis side the operation has been hampered by divided command and the desert veterans of 15th and 21st Pzr Divs have proved less able than usual in the unfamiliar mountain terrain. Rommel is certainly worn out and perhaps they are too.

Gen Alexander orders Gen Montgomery to apply pressure to the enemy's southern flank as a diversion for the British 1st Army.

In the British 8th Army area, Gen Montgomery, who is now planning for an assault on the Mareth Line, is not yet ready for large-scale operations but decides to risk sending small forces forward along the coast and to move a French force under Gen Leclerc, called L Force, which has recently joined the British 8th Army and driven from Nalut to Ksar Rhilane, northward from Ksar Rhilane.

In the British 1st Army area, the French XIX Corps halts a probing thrus toward Sbiba with assistance from newly arrived Churchill tanks. In the US II Corps area, strong enemy forces continue their attack from Kasserine Pass toward Thala and are barely contained short of this objective after hard fighting. Nicholson's forc defending Thala is augmented by the 2nd Hamshires and 2 field artillery battalions of the US 9th Div, which just arrived from western Algeria after a 4-day forced march. A limited enemy thrust toward Tébessa is contained by Combat Command B, 1st Armored Div, reinforced by elements of the 16th Regimental Combat Team, 1st Div.

Pacific

• The US submarine Thresher (SS-200) attacks a Japanese convoy northeast of Soembawa, N. E. I., damaging the Japanese army cargo ship Kuwayama Maru (5724t). The Japanese ship sinks the next day due to the damage received from Thresher.
• The Dutch submarine O-24 sinks the Japanese coaster Bandai Maru (165t) off Salang Island, Malaya.

Solomons

In Operation CLEANSLATE troops from Gen John H. Hester's 43rd Div occupy Banika and Pavuvu in the Russell Islands without resistance from the Japanese. By the end of the month there are 9,000 American troops on these islands. These moves are designed to cut off the Japanese naval and air base at Rabaul, New Britain, in a wider pincer operation called Operation CARTWHEEL. Operation CLEANSLATE is also the first element in General MacArthur and Admiral Nimitz's plan to re-conquer the Pacific by working up from the south and east through Japanese-held territory in a systematic island-hopping strategy.