13 February 1945

Frigate HMCS Orkney collided with SS Blairnevis which sank. There is no record of loss of life in this incident. Orkney proceeded to Dunstaffnage, Scotland, for repairs. Orkney was part of Escort Group 25, which was engaged in escorting merchant shipping into Liverpool when the accident occurred. The weather the time of the accident was foul with heavy rain that further reduced visibility. Blairnevis was a new merchant ship, loaded with valuable bauxite. She had to be grounded to avoid her sinking and blocking the swept channel in the Mersey River estuary. Following the collision, Orkney's repairs lasted until Apr 45 when she proceeded to Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, for a refit to modify her for tropical duty in preparation for the invasion of Japan.

GERMANY: Berlin: General Walther Wenck, Guderian's chief of staff, is appointed to command the German offensive on Soviet positions east of Berlin.

The Establishment of Flying Courts-Martial
(Fliegender-Gerichtstdnde)

With the express permission of the Reichsfuhrer-SS, the Commander of Wehrkries III (Berlin) has made the following arrangements on the establishment and competence of Summary Courts in the area under his
command:

1) Summary Courts for dealing with crimes committed by members of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS will be set up at selected points in the patrol area.

2) Summary Courts will only pass sentences of death or grant acquittals.
Cases that do not call for a death sentence, or require further investigation will be referred to normal courts-martial.

3) Summary Courts will have a Wehrmacht judge as President, and two soldiers as assessors.

4) By virtue of the powers vested in me by RFSS and Commander of the Replacement Army, all sentences passed by a Summary Court are subject to confirmation by me.

5) Such confirmation must be obtained immediately, if necessary over the telephone, so that death sentences can be carried out without delay.

6) Death sentences will be carried out in the vicinity of the Court, normally by a firing squad, but in the case of particularly base scoundrels, by hanging.

Troops from General Sir Henry Crerar's First Canadian Army have almost won a desperate hide-and-seek battle for the Reichswald, 50 square miles of close-growing evergreen firs on a hogsback between the Maas and the Rhine river south of Nijmegan. The town of Cleve has been taken by the 43rd Division of Lt-Gen Sir Brian Horrocks's XXX Corps, after it broke free of a snarlup of tanks and lorries churning around in rain-sodden roads.

Von Rundstedt brought up reserve Panzers too late to prevent the 43rd striking for Goch and Udem. Though held by no more than 10,000 poorly-trained troops, the Reichswald has offered limitless opportunities for the enemy's assault guns to fire down the rides - or avenues - and for snipers. General Meindl's First Parachute Army has also provided more hardened opposition as the Allies pressed forward. Some strongpoints were taken only after bayonet charges.

The forest is the Germans' last strong defensive point in this area, and the Allies' Operation Veritable to clear the lower Rhine paid a high price to gain it from nine German divisions. But when the Americans attack further south, they will face a greatly weakened enemy.

Private William J. Shapiro of the US 28th Infantry Division, along with another 349 G.I.'s selected for slave labour, arrives at Berga Elster concentration camp 40 miles from Leipzig. He was 19, like most of the rest of the group, he was captured at the Battle of the Bulge. On the first day of the battle, December 16, 1944, Shapiri was knocked unconscious by an artillery shell.

He woke up, vision blurred, at the first-aid station in Clervaux, Luxembourg. No bones were broken. Shapiro lay there watching fellow medics carrying wounded men on litters. It seemed quiet outside. But by evening, German machine-gun fire was audible. Shapiro heard somebody say they were surrounded and must surrender.

"I was groggy," he recalled, "but I also heard someone say, 'If you're a Jewish G.I., throw your dog tags away because there are SS troops here."

Shapiro, obeying without thinking, threw his dog tags marked with the "H" for Hebrew into a potbellied stove in the middle of the room.

Shapiro walked out of the aid station with his hands above his head. The Germans searched him. They took a gold ring he had been given by his brother for his bar mitzvah. Shapiro was left with an International Red Cross card, that for now, without his dog tags, was his only means of identification. (Personal recollection of William J. Shapiro and Mordecai Hauer, The Lost Soldiers of Stalag IX-B, by Roger Cohen, New York Times, 27 February, 2005)

HUNGARY: Budapest, the strongest of Hitler's "satellite" capitals, fell today to the Red Army after a bloody siege lasting 50 days. The German commander, General Pfeffer-Wildenbruch, was caught hiding in a sewer. According to Moscow, more than 49,000 German and Hungarian soldiers fell in the battle. Hitler made desperate efforts to hold on to the Hungarian capital, sending General Herbert Gilles's 4th SS Panzer Corps to its relief. Gilles got to within 12 miles of the city, but was then stopped in his tracks. Now, says Moscow radio, "a major obstacle has been removed and the way to Vienna is open."

The Soviet's Budapest Group has suffered such high losses that from the end of January it has been recruiting Hungarian PoWs, promising not to send them to Siberia if they joined up. By today twenty independent companies have been formed from 3100 Hungarians.

ARCTIC OCEAN: Whilst escorting the last merchant ship of convoy JW.64 into Kola Inlet, frigate HMS Denbigh Castle is torpedoed by U-992 (Oberleutnant zur See Hans Falke) She is taken in tow but as the torpedo had struck right forward, the bow began to submerge and she had to be beached. Shortly after, she capsized and slid off into deeper water. Location: 69 20N 33 33E. (Alex Gordon)(108)

INDIAN OCEAN: Frigate USS Corpus Christi picked up 15 survivors from the American Liberty ship Peter Silvester that was torpedoed on 6 February by U-862 in position 34.19S, 99.37E. The survivors were landed at Fremantle on the 18th.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: US forces capture the Cavite naval base and Nicholls Field airbase, near Manila.

CANADA: The following AP report was released to the newswires: Sinking of a German U-boat, probable sinking of another and attacks on other undersea raiders in North Atlantic battles in which speed torpedoes were launched at Canadian ships were announced here today by Navy Minister Angus MacDonald. He said corvette St. Thomas recently sank a U-boat in the North Atlantic.

Destroyer USS Benner commissioned.

USS YMS-433 commissioned.

Destroyer USS Steinaker launched.

Destroyer USS Brownson laid down.