February 1943

February 1, 1943 (Monday)

• The 442nd Infantry Regiment, whose soldiers were Nisei, was created by order of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. "No natural citizen of the United States," said the President, "should be denied the democratic right to exercise the responsibilities of his citizenship, regardless of his ancestry." Most Nisei in the mainland United States were still kept in internment camps at the time.
• Japanese forces on Guadalcanal began the actual withdrawal phase of Operation Ke. The Americans mistakenly believed the naval activity signaled a new offensive and put up little opposition.
• Vittorio Ambrosio replaced Ugo Cavallero as supreme commander of Italian forces.
• The American destroyer De Haven was bombed and sunk east of Savo Island by Japanese aircraft.

  February 2, 1943 (Tuesday)

• The Soviet Union announced that the 163-day Battle of Stalingrad had ended after the last of the German Sixth Army forces surrendered.
• Born: Akhtar Raza Khan, Muslim scholar, and Grand Mufti of India; in Bareilly, United Provinces, British India
• Died: Sir Rao Ganga Singh, 62, British Indian General, the only non-white member of the Imperial War Cabinet constituted by Britain during World War One, and the penultimate Maharaja of Bikaner

  February 3, 1943 (Wednesday)

• The U.S. troop transport, with 904 men on board, was torpedoed 150 miles off of the coast of Greenland by the German submarine U-233. Among the 605 people who died were the "Four Chaplains"— Methodist minister George L. Fox, Reformed Church in America minister Clark V. Poling, Roman Catholic priest John P. Washington, and Rabbi Alexander D. Goode— who helped others evacuate into lifeboats, gave up their lifejackets, and then went down with the ship. Other victims died of hypothermia in the icy waters. Another 299 were saved by the U.S. Coast Guard cutters Escanaba and Comanche. The "retriever" method of rescue was used for the first time, as swimmers from the Escanaba donned wet suits to reach those victims who were too exhausted to climb aboard rescue lifeboats.
• The German submarine U-265 was sunk in the Atlantic Ocean by a B-17 of No. 220 Squadron RAF.
• The Howard Hawks-directed war film Air Force premiered in New York City.
• Born: Blythe Danner, American film, TV and stage actress, in Philadelphia

  February 4, 1943 (Thursday)

• With the British Eighth Army's success in its African campaign, the remaining German forces in modern-day Libya, along with their commander, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, withdrew across the border into French Tunisia, where they would be defeated in May.
• The German submarine U-187 was depth charged and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean by British destroyers.
• Died: Frank Calder, 65, President of the National Hockey League since its founding in 1917

  February 5, 1943 (Friday)

• Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini fired his Foreign Minister, Count Galeazzo Ciano, who was also Mussolini's son-in-law, along with most of the other cabinet ministers. The new Foreign Minister was Mussolini himself, who also held the posts of Interior Minister, War Minister, and Air Minister.
• U.S. Army Air Forces Lt. General Frank M. Andrews was named as the new commander of all U.S. forces in Europe, taking over a command formerly held by Lt. General Eisenhower, who had also commanded U.S. forces in Europe and North Africa. Lt. General Andrews would be killed in a plane crash less than three months later, on May 3, 1943.
• At a meeting between shoe manufacturers and U.S. Army generals, Lt. Col. Georges Doriot persuaded General George Marshall to approve the acquisition of a more durable type of combat boot for American soldiers. At the time, the average lifespan of the existing U.S. Army boots was only 13 days.
• Born:
• *Nolan Bushnell, American video game pioneer; in Clearfield, Utah
• *Michael Mann, American film director, writer, and producer; in Chicago
• *Craig Morton, American NFL quarterback; in Flint, Michigan
• Died: W. S. Van Dyke, 53, American film director

  February 6, 1943 (Saturday)

• The arrest of 600 students was conducted on campuses across the Netherlands by the occupying German forces, after a fatally wounded Nazi officer said that he had been shot by students. The 600 were deported to the Herzogenbusch concentration camp near Vught. Another 1,200 were arrested and deported a few days later.
• Field Marshal Erich von Manstein flew to see Adolf Hitler seeking permission to fall back on the Eastern Front. Hitler agreed to allow German forces to withdraw to new defensive positions along the Mius River.
• Lt. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was named commander of the Allied armies in the African theater of operations, based on a decision made by President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill at Casablanca. Previously, Eisenhower's command was limited to U.S. forces in North Africa.
• The Canadian corvette Louisburg was bombed and sunk off Oran, Algeria by Italian aircraft.
• A Los Angeles court acquitted the movie star Errol Flynn of three rape charges.
• Born: Fabian, American singer and teen idol; in Philadelphia

  February 7, 1943 (Sunday)

• Operation Ke was completed when the remaining 10,000 Japanese troops on the island of Guadalcanal were secretly evacuated to rescuing ships "before U.S. forces realized what had occurred". The "Japanese Dunkirk" during the Guadalcanal Campaign was accomplished by deceiving U.S. intelligence into believing that the ships were arriving to bring in reinforcements for a new attack.
• German Führer Adolf Hitler brought top-ranking officials of both Germany and the Nazi Party to his headquarters to reassure them despite the devastating defeat suffered on the Russian front. One of Hitler's aides, Nicolaus von Below, would later recall that Hitler's speech was so inspiring that the officials were "obviously relieved" and came away believing that Germany could still win World War II. Records of the meeting showed that Hitler said, "Either we will be the master of Europe, or we will experience a complete liquidation and extermination," and pledged a total war against the remaining Jewish people in Germany, and the "international Jews" who, in his view, forged an alliance between capitalists and Communists.
• The American troopship USS Henry R. Mallory was torpedoed by the U-402, a German U-boat, killing 272 Americans.
• The German submarines U-609 and U-624 were both lost in the Atlantic Ocean to enemy action.
• Born: Gareth Hunt, English television actor; in Battersea, London
• Died: Howard W. Gilmore, 40, American U.S. Navy Commander, in an act for which he posthumously received the Medal of Honor. Gilmore was in the conning tower of the submarine USS Growler when it came under attack from the Japanese gunboat Hayasaki. Wounded by gunfire, and unable to climb down the hatch, Gilmore ordered the submarine to submerge, despite the certainty that he would drown, in order for his shipmates to escape destruction.

  February 8, 1943 (Monday)

• After touring Germany as a guest of the Third Reich to give anti-British speeches, Indian nationalist Subhas Chandra Bose and his assistant, Abid Hasan, were given safe passage from Kiel by the German submarine U-180.
• The U.S. Territory of Hawaii, under American military authority since the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, was partially restored to civilian control by its Military Governor, Lt. General Delos Emmons, with the decree taking effect on March 10. The Territorial Legislature, absent its nine Japanese-American members, reassembled on February 17 for the first time in more than a year.
• German forces, retreating from the Soviet Union, liquidated the remaining Jews in the Byelorussian S.S.R. city of Slutsk. Commander Eduard Strauch directed his soldiers from Minsk to oversee the deportation of the remaining 4,000 Jews.
• Nazi forces in Belarus began Operation Hornung, a counterattack against Belarusan partisans.
• The 60th Army of the Soviet Voronezh Front captured Kursk.
• U.S. Economic Stabilization Director James F. Byrnes ordered a temporary ban on the sale of shoes until Tuesday, when rationing would begin. Starting February 10 and at least through June 15, one pair of shoes could be purchased only by using "Stamp No. 17 in war ration book No. 1", which previously applied only to sugar and coffee. House slippers, ballet slippers and baby shoes were exempt from the order because their production was not affected by the limited supply of leather.
• Wiley B. Rutledge was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as a new Justice of the United States Supreme Court by voice vote, despite the opposition of Senator William Langer of North Dakota. Rutledge would serve for only six years before dying of a stroke at the age of 55 in 1949.
• Born:
• *Creed Bratton, American actor and musician; in Los Angeles
• *Valerie Thomas, American scientist and inventor; in Baltimore

  February 9, 1943 (Tuesday)

• "Tokyo Express no longer has a terminus on Guadalcanal" was the nine-word message sent by U.S. Army Major General Alexander Patch to U.S. Navy Admiral William Halsey, Jr., as the strategic South Pacific island was recaptured from Japan. During the six month fight, the Japanese lost 24,000 killed, while the U.S. sustained 1,653 deaths.
• With 1,481 people aboard, the Japanese Imperial Navy ship Tatsuta Maru, an ocean liner converted to military use, was torpedoed and sunk east of Mikura-jima, by the American submarine USS Tarpon.
• The Rue Sainte-Catherine Roundup took place in the Jewish section of the French city of Lyon, as Klaus Barbie directed the Gestapo's arrest of 86 Jews for deportation to the Drancy internment camp. Of the 86 arrested, only six survived to return home.
• U.S. President Roosevelt issued an Executive Order establishing "a minimum war time work week of 48 hours" in 32 American cities that had shortages of employees. However, employees would still receive "time and a half" for more than 40 hours work in a week. Larger cities affected were Baltimore, Buffalo, Detroit, Las Vegas, Portland, Oregon, San Diego, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., but the order also applied to places like Manitowoc, Wisconsin, Pascagoula, Mississippi and Somerville, New Jersey.
• Born:
• *Joe Pesci, American film actor known for Raging Bull, Goodfellas and My Cousin Vinny; in Newark, New Jersey
• *Joseph E. Stiglitz, American economist, 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics laureate; in Gary, Indiana