Air Operations, Bismarcks

• 32 42nd Medium Bomb Group B-25s, escorted by more than 60 AirSols fighters, attack Rabaul's Lakunai airfield, after which the airfield is attacked by 19 XIII Bomber Command B-24s, escorted by nearly 50 AirSols fighters.
• VF-17 F4Us and VF-38 F6Fs down 10 Japanese fighters over the Rabaul area between 1105 and 1120 hours. VMF-217 and VMF-218 F4Us down 3 A6M Zeros over the Rabaul area between 1100 and 1130 hours.
• V Bomber Command B-24s and B-25s mount light attacks against Talasea and artillery batteries at Cape Dampier.

Air Operations, CBI

• 12 10th Air Force P-51s attack Wuntho.

• 11 14 Air Force P-40s attack Yangtze River traffic between Puchi and Yoyang.

• 6 341st Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack bridges and trains.

Air Operations, Europe

200 Russian planes attack Helsinki.

Air Operations, Marshalls

Task Group 58.4 carrier aircraft continue to pound targets in the Eniwetok Atoll. VII Bomber Command B-24s attack the Maloelap and Wotje atolls. 531st Fighter-Bomber Squadron A-24s and 15th Fighter Group P-40 fighter-bombers attack the Mille Atoll. VII Fighter Command P-39s attack the Jaluit Atoll.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• V Bomber Command B-25s attack Bunabun and Madang as well as coastal targets between Bogia and Cape Croisilles. A-20s attack Kairiru and Muschu islands. V Fighter Command P-39s attack barges near Nubia.
• ;90th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack Madang after encountering heavy weather on their way to bomb targets in the Admiralty Islands, but 24 43rd Heavy Bomb Group B-24s and 24 V Fighter Command P-38s are able to attack targets on Los Negros Island.
• 49th Fighter Group P-40s down 4 Japanese fighters over the Wewak area between 0925 and 0950 hours and a 49th Fighter Group P-40 downs a Ki-46 'Dinah' reconnaissance aircraft over Hansa Bay at 1220 hours.

Air Operations, Solomons

US Navy PVs and XIII Fighter Command P-39s attack barges in the Green Islands.

Battle of the Atlantic

The German submarine U-177 is sunk by US naval land-based aircraft (VB-107) in the South Atlantic area.

Burma

British forces begin pulling back on the Arakan front after being threatened by Japanese movements to drive a wedge between them. The Japanese look like surrounding the 7th Indian Div. From Ledo, in Assam the advance guards of the 'Special Force' under Gen Orde Wingate, commander of the Chindits, move into Burma. They comprise 2 Indian brigades, the 77th and the 111th, and 3 independent brigades of the British 70th Div, the 14th, the 16th and the 23rd, supported by a US air force group.

Wingate's columns have the task of dislodging Japanese troops from the Myitkyina and so facilitating the dispatch of Gen Joseph Stilwell's Chinese troops from Yunnan, while inflicting the greatest possible losses on the Japanese in northen Burma.

Eastern Front

The 3rd Ukraine Front under Malinovsky captures Manganets, east of Nikopol. A wide breach is opened in the German lines in the area northeast of Krivoy Rog and Nikopol. 5 German divisions are trapped near Nikopol. More significantly, the area west of the town Apostolovo also falls, threatening a further encirclement.

In the northern sector the Germans are driven back across the Narva River. The coast of the Gulf of Finland is now firmly in Russian hands.

The III Panzer Corps abandons its relief attack. The XLVII Panzer Corps is finding it equally difficult to move in the face of fierce Russian resistance.

Farther south the 8th Guards Army breaks through the 6th Army and storms across the Ingulets River near Shirokoye.

Italy

The fighting in the hills just north of Cassino continues, with the American forces striving to recapture recently lost ground.

Marshall Islands

The occupation of the smaller islands of Kwajalein atoll continues.

Images from February 6, 1944

US Army and Captured German Medics Attend to a Wounded German Soldier, 6 February 1944

Soldiers of B Company 14 Sherwood Foresters prepare a dugout in front of the ruins of the ‘Factory’ at Aprilia after its final capture. These buildings were the scene of a fierce battle and the point from which the Germans launched their most serious attack which nearly resulted in the collapse of the bridgehead in February.

British Soldiers Prepare a Dugout

Belgian Commandos Parade in a Village at the Toot of Mt Camino, 6 February 1944

78th's Action 6 February 1944 at Chartres Airfield in France

The Cassino castle is on the small hill in the foreground and the Benedictine monastery is on the summit.

Town of Cassino, Italy, 6 February 1944

Troops of Indian 7th Division at Sinzweya, Burma 6 February 1944

Curtiss P-40's of the 35th FS 8th FG parked on an airstrip at Cape Gloucester, New Britain. 6 February 1944

Kü.Fl.Gr. 406, Shot Down by a Mosquito of 333 Sqn near Bremanger, Norway, 6 February 1944