February 9th, 1943 (TUESDAY)
U.S.S.R.: The Red Army liberates Bielograd.
Polar Fleet and White Sea Flotilla: HS "Hydrolog" - lost in a storm, in Kolskii Gulf (Sergey Anisimov)(69)
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Flower class corvette HMS Erica is sunk in a minefield laid by submarine HMS Rorqual in July 1942(?), but whose existence had not been plotted! Fortunately, there are no casualties, the entire 73 man crew being rescued by HMS Southern Maid. Location: between Beghazi and Derna at 32 48N 21 01E. (Alex Gordon)(108)
Submarine HMS Unbending sinks Italian minelayer Eritrea (2517 BRT) east of Monopoli, Italy.
Italian submarine Malachite torpedoed and sunk near Cape Spartivento, Sardinia, Italy in position 38.42N, 08.52E by the submarine HNLMS Dolfijn.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: 1st Battalion of the US Armies 164th Regiment meets a patrol from the 2nd Battalion of the US Army's 132nd Regiment at the village of Tenaro, on the western end of Guadalcanal about 1650 in the afternoon. These two units of the Americal Division have confirmed that organized Japanese resistance on Guadalcanal has ended.
General AA Patch, USA radios: "Total and complete defeat of Japanese forces on Guadalcanal effected 1625 today. ... Tokyo Express no longer has a terminus on Guadalcanal."
Japanese stragglers on Guadalcanal will continue. The last known survivor will surrender in 1947.
AUSTRALIA: Submarine USS Gar departed Fremantle for her sixth war patrol.
PACIFIC OCEAN: Submarine USS Tarpon torpedoes and sinks the Japanese troop transport Tatsuta Maru (16975 BRT) some 42 miles east of Mikura Jima in position 33.45N, 140.25E.
U.S.A.: Washington: As a step towards a second front in Europe, a minimum working week of 48 hours was decreed today by President Roosevelt, but it will apply only in 32 "labour shortage areas". Wages and prices are also being kept down by government order.
USS SC-1285 laid down.
Net tender USS Stagbush laid down.
Destroyer USS Haggard launched.
USS YMS-348 launched.
Destroyer USS John Rodgers commissioned.
USS SC-727 commissioned.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Twenty U-boats have launched a sustained attack on a slow-moving Atlantic convoy, SC-118, over the last five days. Thirteen merchant ships have been sunk from the original 63, despite the presence of ten escort vessels and long-range air cover. Three more U-boats were sunk and two more are believed to have been seriously damaged in a battle where the long winter nights helped protect the U-boats from Allied aircraft. Admiral Dönitz has concentrated a large force near the "black gap" which Allied aircraft cannot reach, off the coast of Greenland.