February 12th, 1945 (MONDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Frigate HMS Loch Tralaig launched.
GERMANY: Berlin: German women aged between 16 and 60 are to be called up as auxiliaries to the Volkssturm [people's front]
U-3032 commissioned.
YUGOSLAVIA: SLOVENIA: Frankolovo: A group of partisans of Partisan Brigade Mirko Bracic ambush a small German motorised column on the road in Celje-Maribor in a small valley near Stranic. They kill Toni Dorfmeister, a county councillor from Celje (Ger.Cilli). For revenge the Germans bring 100 Slovenian civilians who were imprisoned in Cilli gaol. 99 of them are hanged from the apple trees along the road, one is shot trying to escape. (Janez Vezalka)Whilst at anchor at in the Adriatic at Spalato (now Split), cruiser HMS Delhi is attacked by four German Linssen EMB’s. One turns back, two are dealt with by gunfire from the defences, but the fourth one finds its target striking the cruiser right aft causing damage to the rudder head as well as inflicting much other damage. Delhi was not repaired and remained in situ until 1948 when she was sold for breaking up. She is one of only two British warships to have been “sunk” by this weapon. (Alex Gordon)(108)
GREECE: Athens: after all-night talks in a provincial schoolroom, a weary Harold Macmillan, the British minister resident in the Mediterranean, was able to report to London this morning that the civil war in Greece is over. The communist-backed ELAS rebels have agreed to hand in their arms to a newly-formed national guard. More than 40,000 rifles together with 108 heavy guns and 315 heavy machine guns are to be surrendered under the peace treaty. A former premier and revolutionary leader, General Gonatas, remains doubtful. "The treaty ... does not contain sufficient guarantees for the future," he said.
BURMA: The 20th Indian Division takes a bridgehead
over the Irrawaddy River west of Mandalay, Burma.
BONIN ISLANDS: 21 B-29s of the USAAF 313th Bombardment Wing (Very Heavy) expended 84 tons of bombs in a shakedown mission against pinpoint targets on Iwo Jima: gun emplacements on Suribachi Yama, the formidable rock at the southern tip of the island, Anti-Aircraft positions, and radar and radio installations.
PACIFIC OCEAN: Japanese submarine RO.113 is sunk by the USS Batfish (SS-310) north of Luzon. This is the third Japanese submarine sunk by the Batfish in four days. (Mike Yared)(144 and 145)
Submarine USS Silversides ends her 12th war patrol at Midway.
Submarine USS Peto tops off with fuel at Saipan.
AUSTRALIA: Submarine USS Croaker ends her third war patrol at Fremantle.
U.S.A.: Submarine USS Lancetfish commissioned.
Submarine tender USS Nereus launched.
ECUADOR declares war on Germany. (Gene Hanson)