February 6th, 1945 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Corvette HMCS Owen Sound departed Londonderry as escort for Convoy ON-283 to Halifax.
Submarine HMS Alderney laid down.
FRANCE: William Herbert Eaton, Brig. Gen USAAF, is killed in the crash of a B-25 near Vichy. He is survived by his wife, Louise, and daughter Patricia, my mother, (Drew Halevy)
GERMANY: Himmler's attempt, under the influence of his masseur Felix Kersten, to transfer some Jews from German camps to Switzerland is foiled when Hitler bans all evacuations.
U-2536 commissioned.
NORWAY: U-1302 sails on her first and final patrol.
POLAND: The Soviets cross the Oder near Breslau.
HUNGARY: The Soviets have pushed back the Germans from Budapest and surrounded the town of Sashegy.
Conditions for the defending German troops were catastrophic - at this point they were existing on one slice of bread and some horsemeat per day, with most supplementing their diet with food taken from the local civilian population. Distribution of supplies was wellnigh impossible, fuel was scarce, the streets were only passable at night and only on foot, as rubble and shell craters had made roads impassable to vehicles.
The Germans’ situation was deteriorating fast. The hungry population attempted to plunder the supply canisters dropped by German aircraft, an act for which summary execution was quickly imposed. Hungarian and German soldiers frequently fought amongst themselves for access to supply canisters - although only those containing food. In field hospitals soiled bandages were reused on the newly wounded.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Manila: General Douglas MacArthur tonight claimed that the recapture of Manila was imminent, as house-to-house fighting continued in the Philippine capital and US troops fought fire started deliberately by the retreating Japanese. MacArthur accused them of "general sabotage and destruction", saying that they had "wantonly set fire to the downtown business district."
Since the US 1st Cavalry took Manila's Santo Tomas prison camp three days ago, freeing 3,700 PoWs, US XIV Corps troops have fought for every street in their downtown advance. The Japanese commander, Admiral Iwabuchi, defying General Yamashita's orders to evacuate, believes that his 16,000 men can hold out for weeks from inside the walls of the old city.
INDIAN OCEAN: At 1640, the unescorted US Liberty Ship Peter Silvester was hit by two torpedoes from U-862 SW of Australia. Both torpedoes struck on the starboard side at the #3 hold, but it was reported that one went straight through the ship while the other detonated in the hold, rupturing the deck forward of the bridge, blew off the hatch cover and caused the flooding of the hold and the engine room. As the ship settled by the bow, she was hit at 17.10 hours by two more torpedoes on the starboard side at the traverse bulkhead between holds #2 and #3. The eight officers, 34 crewmen, 26 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in, one 3in and eight 20mm guns) and 107 US Army troops abandoned ship in four lifeboats and six rafts. Shortly thereafter, the vessel was hit by a coup de grāce at the #1 hold, causing her to break in two just forward of the superstructure. The forward section sank immediately, while the after section stayed afloat and was last seen deep in the water in the evening of 8 February.
CANADA: HMC ML 094 of the 77th Flotilla paid off.
U.S.A.:: Submarine USS Runner commissioned.
Minesweeper USS Roselle commissioned.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-1017 attacked Convoy TBC-60 SE of Durlston Head and claimed hits on two 6000 tons freighters. However, the only ship hit was Everleigh. Six crewmembers were lost. The master, 42 crewmembers and seven gunners were picked up by landing craft HMS LCI-33 and landed at Portland.