February 14th, 1945 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Rescue tug HMS Expert launched.
ENGLISH CHANNEL: Destroyer HMCS Assiniboine damaged in a collision with the merchantman SS Empire Bond. She was under repair in Sheerness until early March.
BELGIUM: HMC MTB 459, 461, 462, 465, 466 destroyed by fire at Ostend.
GERMANY: Dresden is
attacked by the RAF (773 bombers), during the night of the 13th-14th. The US 8th
AF follows up on the 14th and again on the 15th with raids exceeding 600 bombers
each day.
Eighth Air Force's 1st Air Division dispatched 461 B-17s to hit the marshalling
yard at Dresden; 311 hit the primary target dropping 771 tons of bombs; 124
others hit targets of opportunity.
Dresden, a city so rarely attacked that its citizens took no notice when air-raid warnings sounded, was devastated last night in the fiercest firestorm ever created by RAF Bomber Command. Over 18,000 people are confirmed dead in this city whose population of 700,000 had been swollen by as many as 500,000 refugees from the east. Conditions were perfect for Wing-Commander Maurice Smith and his 244 Lancasters. Most of Dresden's flak guns had been sent to the front, and the few available nightfighters did not arrive until too late.
The marker flares went down dead on target, then Smith ordered the destruction to start. High explosive bombs opened up the buildings; then the incendiaries went down and soon the city was ablaze. "That's good bombing," said the controller. The bombers wheeled away and then came another wave of 529 Lancasters. In all, 1,478 tons of HE and 1,182 tons of incendiaries were dropped. Then the firestorm started. People were sucked into the inferno like leaves into an autumn bonfire. Many took shelter in cellars, only to die of suffocation.
Why has such devastation been visited on Dresden, a city of great architectural but little military value? The attack stems from plans for Operation Thunderclap designed to precipitate Germany's surrender by a series of heavy raids on the railway network. Dresden is a transit centre for part of the eastern front, but last night's attack was also explicitly aimed at hastening the end of the war by destroying German morale. There was opposition to this plan, especially from the Americans, who called it "terroristic"; but it was ultimately endorsed on the grounds that it might help the Russians militarily, by attacking German communications, and politically, by being seen to support the Red Army. Thus, today the USAAF also played its part in the terror.
In response to a Red Cross inquiry concerning British and American prisoners of war who are too ill to march with others being evacuated from the camps at Sagan and Lamsdorf, Hitler personally decides, contrary to both the Geneva Convention and previous official German policy, that they are not to be left behind. They are to be brought back with the first available train returning after delivering supplies to the front. (175, p.73)(Peter Kilduff)
U-3039 launched.
ARCTIC OCEAN: Between 1247 and 1304, U-968 fired torpedoes at the convoy BK-3 off Kola Inlet and reported one Liberty probably damaged, one Liberty probably sunk, a tanker identified as Norness sunk and a Liberty damaged. However, the only ships hit at this time were Norfjell and the Horace Gray. This attack was probably misinterpreted by U-992, which herself attacked the convoy and claimed one tanker sunk. The Horace Gray in station #13 was hit by one torpedo on the port side at the bulkhead between the #4 and #5 holds, only minutes after the tanker ahead of her had been hit. The explosion blew the hatch covers off and opened a hole 20 feet by 60 feet in the port side and another 20 feet by 20 feet on the starboard side. The ship settled rapidly by the stern until water reached the after deck. 20 minutes after the hit the eight officers, 33 crewmen and 28 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 5in, one 3in and eight 20mm guns) abandoned ship in the four lifeboats and were picked up by two Soviet escort vessels. One hour after being hit, the master and some crewmen returned to the ship and after raising steam, a small Soviet tug towed her to Kola Inlet. While under tow a crack appeared on the starboard side and the vessel began to sink. Eight hours after being hit, the ship was beached at Tyuva Bay in 69°11.7N/33°36.5E and two days later declared a total loss after all holds were completely flooded. The Horace Gray had arrived Molotovsk on 19 January in convoy JW-64 from New York via Swansea, Wales. In 1959, the bow of the wreck of Horace Gray was fitted to Tbilisi, which had been badly damaged by U-956 (Mohs) on 30 Dec 1944. The Norfjell was hit by one torpedo in the engine room, killing two men on watch below and opening a hole of about 14 to 5 meters. The tanker remained afloat was taken in tow by the escort and beached near Tree Roochia in the Kola Inlet. The damage was temporarily repaired at Murmansk and she left in tow on 20 Oct 1945 to Stavanger for permanent repairs, arriving on 15 November. The Norfjell with 41 crew members and eight gunners had arrived North Russia in convoy JW-63 and was on the outbound voyage in convoy BK-3 in order to join convoy RA-64.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: USS YMS-48 sunk by USS Fletcher north of Corregidor at 14.24N, 120.33E, after being damaged by Japanese shore batteries.
AUSTRALIA: Frigate HMAS Lachlan commissioned.
CANADA: Destroyer HMCS Restigouche returned to Halifax for local duties.
U.S.A.: New York: William C. Colepaugh and Erich Gimpel, German spies who landed by U-boat on 29 November, are sentenced to death.
Peru, Paraguay, Chile and Ecuador join the United Nations.
Oiler USS Mispillion laid down.
Frigate USS Bayonne commissioned.
URUGUAY: Montevideo: The government declares war against Germany. (Gene Hanson)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-989
Kl.
VIIC
is
sunk
14 Feb, 1945
in the Northern Sea at the Faeroe Islands, in position 61.36N, 01.35W by depth
charges from the British destroyers HMS
Bayntun and Braithwaite and the British frigates HMS Loch Eck and Loch
Dunvegan. 47 dead (all hands lost).
[When the boat was sunk 2 men managed to escape from the boat. They both
died reaching the
surface, presumably from escaping the boat too deep. One of the
men was the commander, von Roithberg. He died on his 27th birthday.]
(Alex Gordon)