Air Operations, Bismarcks

• AirSols SBDs, escorted by many AirSols fighters, attack the Tobera airfield atRabaul. XIII Bomber Command B-24s, escorted by many AirSols fighters, attack the Lakunai airfield at Rabaul.
• VMF-212, VMF-215, and VMF-218 F4Us down 7 A6M Zeros, mostly over Rabaul's Tobera airfield, between 1150 and 1230 hours. 347th Fighter Group P-38s down 4 Zeros near Rabaul's Lakunai airfield at 1345 hours. A VF-17 F4U downs 1 Zero over the Rabaul area at 1350 hours
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• VMF-218, in F4Us, makes its combat debut over Rabaul.
• V Bomber Command B-25s and V Fighter Command P-39s attack shipping in the Bismarck Sea and barges along the New Britain coast.

Air Operations, CBI

• 16 459th Fighter Squadron P-38s attack military targets along the road between Prome and Taungap. 16 10 Air Force P-51s attack a Japanese Army bivouac at Sawnghka. 1 490th Medium Bomb Group B-25 and 14 A-36s attack Japanese Army ground troops at Kumnyen and Lalawng Ga.

Air Operations, Europe

• 7 Mosquitos are sent to Krefeld, 4 to Dortmund and 3 to Cologne, there are 6 RCM sorties, 1 Serrate patrol, 35 aircraft lay mines off French Channel and Atlantic ports, and there are 4 OTU sorties.
• There are no losses.

Air Operations, Marshalls

Task Group 58.3 carrier aircraft continue to pound targets in the Eniwetok Atoll. 15th Fighter Group P-40 fighter-bombers attack the Mille Atoll.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• 58 V Bomber Command B-24s and 62 B-25s, escorted by 66 V Fighter Command fighters, attack Wewak-area airfields with nearly 200 tons of bombs and nearly 1,000 parachute-fragmentation bombs and bomb clusters. A-20s attack Alexishafen and Hansa Bay. B-25s and P-39s attack motor vehicles near Erima.
• 348th Fighter Group P-47s down 8 Japanese fighters over Wewak between 1115 and 1140 hours. 475th Fighter Group P-38s down 6 Ki-48 'Lily' bombers near the But and Dagua airfields at 1155 hours. 1 49th Fighter Group P-40 downs a Ki-43 'Oscar' fighter near Dagua's airfield at noon.
• Unveiled in the Wewak attack is a new “crisscross” tactic in which the B-24s knock out all but one runway and B-25 strafers operating at low level attack Japanese aircraft being refueled shortly after they have landed on the one serviceable runway.

Eastern Front

The encirclement of the Korsun pocket is announced and celebrated in Moscow by 20 salvoes from 224 guns. After five days of ferocious fighting in the Korsun-Shevchenkosky area, troops of the 1st and 2nd Ukraine Fronts link up and converge south of the town to encircle 2 corps of 10 divisions of the German 8th Army. Desperate efforts are made by the Germans to save their forces, and to enable reinforcements to be sent every other initiative in the sector is reduced to a minimum. Hitler has, as usual, ordered no retreat and von Manstein is trying to assemble sufficient panzer forces to break through in relief.

South of Leningrad Army Group North is still heavily engaged with the forces of the Leningrad and Volkhov Fronts and the 2nd Baltic Front.

Efforts by the 2nd Shock Army to cross the Narva are repelled by the III SS Panzer Corps after heavy fighting. German counterattacks near Utorgozh isolates 2 divisions of the 59th Army but are unable to destroy them. The Russian units resist for nearly two weeks until they rejoin the main combat line.

The III Panzer Corps begins a relief attack toward the Korsun pocket, deploying the 2 panzer divisions. This latest attack again meets ferocious resistance so to strengthen the attack force Hitler re-routes the 1st SS Panzer Divisoin to this sector. However, the 24th Panzer Division, also earmarked for the counterattack, is waylaid by Hitler and sent to Nikopol to aid the 6th Army. Heavy fighting continues on the south and southwest perimeters of the Korsun pocket as the 2nd Ukrainian Front tries to prevent German movement toward the relief forces. More territory is voluntarily given up from the north and east as Stemmerman pulls in to a shorter line.

Italy

Von Mackensen's 14th Army troops begin limited attacks against the British 1st Div's salient around Campoleone in the Anzio bridgehead. The attacks are made east and west of the Aprilia 'model farm', the 'Factory'. Gen Alexander, Commander-in-Chief of the XV Army Group, orders the New Zealand 2nd Div and the 4th Indian Div to be placed under the command of Gen Bernard Freyberg as commander of a New Zealand Corps. This corps joins the order of battle of 5th Army and prepares to join the fighting in the Cassino sector.

Marshalls

Adm Nimitz, seeing that the operations on Kwajalein and the other islands are going to be completed sooner, and with smaller forces than expected, decides to bring forward the invasion of Eniwetok. Adm Samuel P. Ginder's TG 58.4 attacks Eniwetok with its carrier planes. Landings are made on Burton Island, one of the smaller islands of the Kwajalein group, by units of the 7th Div. They meet with tenacious defense while 2 other islets are occupied without trouble.

Meanwhile the American advance continues on Kwajalein. Japanese night counterattacks are repulsed, and they are prevented from taking the Americans by surprise by powerful searchlights set up in front of the American positions.

Pacific

US warships shell Paramushiru Island in northern Japan, the first Allied naval attack on the Japanese homeland.

Images from February 3, 1944

The USS Indiana (BB-58) at Majuro Atoll for repairs on 3 February 1944. She had collided with USS Washington (BB-56) during the night of 1 February, while taking part in the Marshalls operation. Damage to her starboard hull side is visible below her after 16-inch gun turret. USS Washington, whose bow was wrecked in the accident, is in the left background, alongside USS Vestal (AR-4).

USS Indiana (BB-58) at Majuro Atoll

Marines of the 4th Division mop up after taking Roi-Namur Island at Kwajalein Atoll, February 1944