Air Operations, Bonin and Volcano Islands

• 10 VII Bomber Command B-24s attack Ototo Jima.
• 9 B-24s attack Iwo Jima.
• During the night, 8 VII Bomber Command B-24s conduct snooper raids against Iwo Jima.

Air Operations, CBI

• 25 10th Air Force B-25s and 86 10th Air Force P-47s and 459th Fighter Squadron P-38s attack Japanese Army troops, anti-aircraft batteries, and supplies in the Lashio area.
• 4 P-38s attack a bridge at Mong Tong.
• 14th Air Force fighter-bombers attack Mekong River traffic between Wan Mai-Lo and Nguen.

• 20 14th Air Force P-51s attack the airfield at.
• Numerous fighter-bombers attack rail and traffic and many other targets in the Chingmen, Hsiangcheng, Ichang, Suchow, Tsingpu, Wuhu, and Yungning areas.
• A 311th Fighter Group P-51 downs a Ki-43 'Oscar' fighter near Paoting at 1250 hours.

Air Operations, East Indies

XIII Bomber Command B-24s and XIII Fighter Command P-38s attack the Manggar and Sepinggang airfields on Borneo.

Air Operations, Europe

• 35 aircraft of No. 5 Group (Nos. 9 and 617 Squadrons) are sent to attack viaducts at Bielefeld and Altenbeken, but are recalled because of bad weather.

Air Operations, Formosa

During the night, 63rd Heavy Bomb Squadron SB-24s attack several airfields.

Air Operations, Philippines

• FEAF B-24s attack artillery positions on Corregidor.
• 19 494th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s based on Angaur attack Corregidor.
• FEAF B-24s and V Bomber Command B-25s attack coastal areas and shipping.
• B-25s and V Fighter Command P-38s attack Echague and a Japanese Army camp.
• A-20s attack the Fabrica airfield on Negros, Caballo Island, and support US 6th Army ground forces in the Nichols Field area of Luzon.
• USMC SBDs attack Japanese Army rocket positions endangering Manila’s main water-filtration plant.

Eastern Front

Fighting rages in East Prussia and in the cities of Poznan and Budapest, still tenaciously defended by the Germans. Southeast of Breslau the Soviet forces begin to push out of their bridgehead over the Oder. Hundreds of thousands of panic-stricken German civilians flee westward, many into the 'safe' city of Dresden.

A counterattack by the 8th SS Cavalry Division toward Sashegy Hill founders after heavy losses. On the hill itself, the defending force is compelled to surrender, having run out of food and ammunition.

Italy

Units of IV Corps from 5th Army take Gallicano in a brief offensive designed to improve the Allied positions on either side of the Serchio Valley.

Philippines

On Luzon violent air and artillery bombardments of the Japanese positions at Muñoz, which are surrounded, and of Zigzag Pass, where a regiment of US infantry succeeds in making a small penetration. The US XIV Corps mops up the northern part of Manila, north of the Pasig River, while the 11th Airborne Div advancing from the south, digs in on the outskirts of the city.

Some 510 Allied POWs, many taken captive by the Japanese in Bataan in 1942, are freed following a dramatic raid on a POW camp by US Rangers and Filipino insurgents. More than 200 Japanese guards are killed.

Western Front

While the offensive to break through the defenses of the Siegfried Line continue on the American 1st and 3rd Army fronts, to the south of the line the French 1st Army starts the final stage of the operations to take out the Colmar pocket. In the US XXI Corps sector the 3rd Div takes the old fortress fo Neuf-Brisach; some units of the French 2nd Arm Div advance south between the Rhine-Rhone Canal and the Rhine River toward the French I Corps. The 75th Div reaches the canal south of Neuf-Brisach and the US 12th Arm Div, with the French 5th Arm Div, eliminated the pockets cut off in the Vosges. In the French I Corps sector infantry units of the 2nd Moroccan Div cross the Ill River in the Meyenheim-Reguisheim area and advance east of the Rhine Canal to take Hirtzfelden; the 9th Colonial Div completes the capture of Ensisheim and sends some units in the direction of Baldersheim, north of Mulhouse, and the 4th Moroccan Motorized Div blocks the escape routes from the Vosges, where any kind of organized resistance has come to an end.

Images from February 6, 1945

Men of the 36th Infantry Division push a CMP truck up a muddy slope on the road to Mandalay, February 1945.

Pushing a Truck

Men of the 6th Gurkha Rifles go into action at Singu on the Irrawaddy bridgehead, with Sherman tanks in support, February 1945.

6th Gurkha Rifles at Singu

Australian casualties being tended in the 31st/51st Battalion Regimental Aid Post during the fighting on Tsimba Ridge, 6 February 1945

Treating the Casualties

Ammunition, rations, and medical supplies are dropped from C-47 transport planes to the 38th Infantry Division on Bataan in the Philippines, 6 February 1945

Supply Drop on Bataan

Soldiers of the 2nd Guards Taman Division enter the town of Eylau in East Prussia. February 6, 1945

Soviets Entering Eylau

Troops from Company F, 395th Infantry bring up supplies in a sled made of a coffin on skis, February 6, 1945

Bringing Up Supplies

Ford B-24L-5-FO Liberator of the 564th Bomb Squadron, 389th Bomb Group, 8th Air Force, crashlanded at Ashwellthorpe, Norfolk, England on February 6, 1945 after returning from mission to Magdeburg, Germany

B-24 in a Crash Landing

The city of Brig (Brzeg), Poland after the Russian assault on February 6, 1945. This Hummel belonged to 16th Panzer Division

Brig (Brzeg) After Russian Assault