February 3rd, 1945 (THURSDAY)
NORTH SEA: U-1279 Kl. VIIC/41 is sunk north-west of Bergen, in approximate position 61. 21N, 02. 00E, by depth charges from the British frigates HMS Bayntun, HMS Braithwaite and HMS Loch Eck. 48 dead (all hands lost). (Alex Gordon)
Minesweeping trawler HMS Arley sank while under tow in the North Sea after mine damage.
FRANCE: Colmar is captured by US and French First Army troops.
GERMANY: USAAF aircraft drop 3,000 tons of explosives on Berlin.
U-2361 commissioned.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Fighting gets fiercer north of Manila, and US reinforcements are landed on Tagaytay Ridge.
The 511th Parachute Inf Regt, 11th Abn Div (US) jumped on to Tagaytag Ridge near Manila. The first 915 paratroopers were flown in forty-eight Douglas C-47s of the 317th Troop Carrier Group. The first serial of eighteen aircraft dropped their troops with pinpoint accuracy on the selected drop zone. The second serial of thirty aircraft dropped its planeloads early five miles from the drop zone. At noon that same day, the mistake was repeated again as another serial of fifty-one planeloads of paratroopers jumped early onto the same spot five miles short of the drop zone. In spite of the confused parachute drop, the paratroopers managed to successfully link-up at 1500 hours that afternoon with the 187th and 188th Glider Regiments of the 11th Airborne Division attacking north toward Manila. (Ernesto Sassot)
U.S.A.:
Destroyer USS Frank E Evans commissioned.