Air Operations, Bismarcks

9 42nd Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack Rabaul's Vunakanau airfield. 10 42nd Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack the Keravat airfield at Rabaul. 4 US Navy PVs attack buildings on Cape St. George. 4 XIII Bomber Command B-24s attack Japanese Army bivouacs. XIII Fighter Command P-38 fighter-bombers mount their first dive-bombing mission of the Rabaul campaign, an attack against the Rabaul town area.

Air Operations, Carolines

VII Bomber Command B-24s attack Kusaie and Ponape islands.

Air Operations, CBI

• 14 7th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack the airfields at Akyab and Dabaing. 3 490th Medium Bomb Squadron B-25s and 12 10th Air Force P-51s attack a radio station at Man Pang. 4 10th Air Force P-51s attack warehouses at Chantha. 4 14th Air Force P-40s attack the airfield at Lashio.

• 4 341st Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack shipping in the Gulf of Tonkin and rail facilities at Van Trai.

Air Operations, Europe

• 17 Mosquitos are sent to Düsseldorf, there are 2 Serrate patrols and 3 OTU sorties.
• There are no losses.
• A Mosquito of 692 Squadron on the Düsseldorf raid is the first Mosquito to drop a 4,000lb bomb. The Mosquitos of the Light Night Striking Force regularly carry such heavy bombs during the remaining months of the war to targets as far distant as Berlin.

Air Operations, Marianas

The crews of 4 VT-25 TBMs down a Ki-49 'Helen' heavy bomber at sea at about 1400 hours.

Air Operations, Marshalls

VII Bomber Command B-24s attack the Jaluit Atoll. 41st Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack the Taroa airfield on Maloelap. 15th Fighter Group P-40 fighter-bombers attack the Mille Atoll.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• Nearly 50 V Bomber Command B-24s and A-20s attack the airfield at Wewak and nearby antiaircraft batteries.
• 3 17th Reconnaissance Squadron B-25s orbit at low level over Manus and Los Negros islands for 90 minutes without drawing fire. This leads to speculation regarding a possible Japanese withdrawal from the islands, and so Gen Douglas A. MacArthur orders a ground reconnaissance to be undertaken as soon as possible.

Burma

2 regiments of the Chinese 22nd Div occupy Yawngbang, from which the Japanese have already retired. In the British 14th Army sector, after trying hard but in vain to overcome the resistance of the 7th Indian Div at Sinzweya, the Japanese withdraw. It is the first time the British had defeated the Japanese in battle.

Eastern Front

In the north the Red Army takes Strugi Krasnyye, midway between Luga and Pskov. It also begins to attack Dno southwest of Lake Ilmen.

Italy

Gen Lucian K. Truscott, for some time deputy, takes full command of VI Corps at Anzio, replacing Gen John P. Lucas. Somewhat ironically the battle has now settled down to the sort of careful position warfare that Lucas is probably well fitted to control.

Marianas

(Rear-Adm Mitscher's Task Force?)The carriers of Frederick C. Sherman's TG 58.3 and Alfred E. Montgomery's TG 58.2 attack Rota, Tinian, Guam and Saipan. They sink 20,000 tons of Japanese shipping and a great number of enemy aircraft are destroyed on the ground or in combat.

Marshalls

The fighting for Parry comes to an end and with it the battle for the whole Eniwetok Atoll. The US losses are 300 dead and 766 wounded. Typically, the Japanese garrison has fought practically to the last man. There are 66 prisoners out of a force of 3,400(2,600?).

New Britain

More American fighter squadrons arrive at Cape Gloucester.

Soviet Union, Home Front

The NKVD begins the mass deportation of Chechens and Ingush from their homelands following Stalin's accusation that they have aided the Germans (who is encouraged in his paranoia by NKVD chief Lavrenti Beria). Some 362,000 Chechens and 134,000 Ingush old men, women and children are rounded up and packed on to 180 train convoys in the space of just over a week. Some 20,000 NKVD Troops are used, most families being given 5-10 minutes to pack up their belongings and food for the trip (no food is supplied). Tens of thousands die during the journeys which last up to two months (bodies are often left in overcrowded cattle wagons for weeks). In sub-zero temperatures, the survivors are dumped in Siberia or on the Kazak steppes. Around half of all those deported will die.

United States, Home Front

Dr Leo Hendrik Baekeland, Belgian-born inventor of 'bakelite' dies at age 80.

Images from February 23, 1944

Russian Dignitaries and General Salute US Flag in Algiers, Algeria, 23 February 1944

Rescue Squad Working in the Wreckage of the Orleans Club, February 1944

Damage to King Street, St James's, February,1944

23 February 1944: Londoners adjust to a nightly ‘Blitz’ Women war workers use magnets to salvage nails from amongst the debris of a bomb-damaged factory, somewhere in Britain.

Women War Workers Use Magnets to Salvage Nails

Two Marines take cover behind the body of a Japanese soldier, during fighting on Parry Island, Eniwetok Atoll, 22-23 February 1944.

Taking Cover on Eniwetok

King Street, St James's SW1, February 1944

Two Marines watch a freshly blasted enemy position ready to shoot any Japanese who emerge, on Parry Island, Eniwetok Atoll, 22-23 February 1944.

Watching an Enemy Position

A Japanese bomber explodes as it crashes into the sea near Belleau Wood, during an attack on Task Group 58.2 off the Mariana Islands, 23 February 1944.

Japanese Bomber Crashes into the Sea