February 14th, 1943 (SUNDAY)
GERMANY: No. 15 Squadron RAF tonight operate the Short Stirling Mk III in it's first operation when they attack Cologne. (22)
ITALY: 142 RAF bombers attack Milan tonight.
U.S.S.R.: Soviet troops re-occupy Voroshilovgrad and Rostov-on-Don.
TUNISIA: Axis forces
launch an offensive, taking Sidi Bou Zid and driving a wedge into the Allies.
The 10th and 21st Panzer Divisions attack the US II Corps west of Faid.
Battle of the Kasserine Pass
On this day, German General Erwin Rommel and his Afrika Korps launch an offensive against an Allied defensive line in Tunisia, North Africa. The Kasserine Pass was the site of the United States' first major battle defeat of the war.
General Erwin Rommel was dispatched to North Africa in February 1942, along with the new Afrika Korps, to prevent his Italian Axis partner from losing its territorial gains in the region to the British. Despite his skill, until this point Rommel had been unable to do much more than manage his own forces' retreats, but the Battle of Kasserine Pass would finally display the "Desert Fox's" strategic genius.
In the Battle of El Alamein in August 1942, British General Bernard Montgomery pushed Rommel out of Egypt and into Tunisia, behind the Mareth Line, a defensive fortification built by Vichy French forces. After taking several months to regroup, Rommel decided on a bold move. Rommel set his sites of Tunis, Tunisia's capital and a key strategic goal for both Allied and Axis forces.
Rommel determined that the weakest point in the Allied defensive line was at the Kasserine Pass, a 2-mile-wide gap in Tunisia's Dorsal Mountains, which was defended by American troops. His first strike was repulsed, but with tank reinforcements, Rommel broke through on February 20, inflicting devastating casualties on the U.S. forces. The Americans withdrew from their position, leaving behind most of their equipment. More than 1,000 American soldiers were killed by Rommel's offensive, and hundreds were taken prisoner. The United States had finally tasted defeat in battle.
BURMA: The Chindits cross the Chindwin River at Auktaung and Tonha.
PACIFIC OCEAN:
Submarine USS Trout torpedoes and damages the Japanese auxiliary gunboat Hirotama Maru at south entrance to Makassar Strait in position 04.11S, 117.45E. Trout surfaces to sink the ship with gunfire but 7 of her crew were wounded by gunfire from the Japanese ship. Trout then finished off the Japanese ship with a torpedo.
U.S.A.:
USS PC-1201 launched.
Fleet tug USS Chippewa commissioned.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: SS Duchess of York Canadian-owned, British-registered CPR passenger liner was heavily damaged off Cape Finisterre when she was bombed by Luftwaffe a/c. She was sunk later in 1943 in another air attack in the same general area.