February 20th, 1945 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Destroyer HMS Carysfort commissioned.
GERMANY: Starting tonight de Havilland Mosquitoes of the RAF Light Night Striking Force begin attacking Berlin. This will last for 36 consecutive nights.
Strategic Air Operations in WESTERN EUROPE:The Eighth Air Force flies 3 missions:
Mission 836: 1,264 bombers and 726 fighters are dispatched to hit the main station and marshalling yard at Nurnberg, Germany; the target is bombed visually and using H2X radar; they claim 49-1-21 Luftwaffe aircraft; 5 B-17s and 7 fighters are lost:
- 360 B-24s dispatched abandon the mission over Belgium due to weather conditions; one B-24 hits Steig, a target of opportunity. Escorting are 123 P-51s; they claim 2-0-0 aircraft; 1 P-51 is lost.
- 831 B-17s hit the primary target; targets of opportunity are Schiltach (16) and other (12); 5 B-17s are lost. The escort is 315 P-51s; they claim 8-0-2 aircraft on the ground; 5 P-51s are lost.
- 194 P-47s and P-51s strafe rail and road targets in the Nurnberg and Straubing areas; they claim 12-0-1 aircraft in the air and 35-1-20 on the ground; 7 fighters are lost.
- 28 P-51s fly a scouting mission without loss.
- 10 P-51s escort photo reconnaissance aircraft over Germany.
Mission 837: 10 B-24s drop leaflets in the Netherlands and Germany during the night without loss.
Mission 838: During the night of 20/21 February, 30 B-24s attack the Neustadt marshalling yard without loss and 6 of 7 B-24s fly CARPETBAGGER missions.
Tactical Air Operations in WESTERN EUROPE:Weather grounds the Ninth Air Force bombers but, in Germany, fighters fly armed reconnaissance east and west of the Rhine River, attack a bridge and defended area, and support the US VIII, XII, and XX Corps in the Lichtenborn area, west of the Prum River, and in the Saar-Mosel triangle.
U-4707 commissioned.
ITALY: Strategic Air Operations in Central and Eastern Europe: 520+ Fifteenth Air Force B-17s, with fighter escort, and B-24s bomb the Lobau, Vienna and Schwechat, Austria oil refineries and Floridsdorf marshalling yard at Vienna, steel works at Kapfenberg, Austria, harbor at Pula, Yugoslavia, and shipyards at Trieste and Fiume, Italy.
Tactical Air Operations in ITALY: Twelfth Air Force A-20s on night intruder missions during the night of 19/20 February, bomb targets of opportunity at over 30 points in the central Po Valley, several rail diversions, and marshalling yards at Villafranca in Lunigiana, Roncanova, Bovolone, Cerea, Legnago, Cittadella, Casa di David, Isola della Scala, Castelfranco Veneto, and Nogara; fighter-bombers devote their main effort to support the US Fifth Army offensive in the Monte Torraccia area; medium bombers bomb bridges at Montebello, Chiusaforte, Salzano, and Calcinato.
The Twelfth Air Force in Italy transfers the 27th and 86th Fighter Groups and an air service group to the First Tactical Air Force (Provisional) in France.
U.S.S.R.: Black Sea Fleet: (Sergey Anisimov)(69)Submarine loss. "TS-2" (ex- "S2 Marsuinul") - due to torpedo explosion at Poti base (Febr.28 raised and later went into service)
EGYPT: Cairo: President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, on their way back from the conference with Marshal Stalin in the Crimea, met for four hours here to plan the next phase of the war against Japan. Mr Churchill told the US president that his government was "determined to throw everything it had at the Japanese."
The prime minister and the president also conferred with King Farouk of Egypt, the emperor of Ethiopia, King ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia and other Arab leaders who were in Cairo for an Arab summit. King ibn Saud presented Mr Churchill with a gold-handled sword.
BONIN ISLANDS: 7 Seventh Air Force B-24s flying individual raids during the night of 20/21 February, bomb the town of Okimura and airfield on Haha Jima Island.
BORNEO: Far East Air Forces B-24s bomb runways and warehouse at Jesselton Airfield in Borneo.
BURMA:44 Tenth Air Force P-47s fly close support strikes in the Mongmit battle sector; 8 support ground forces in the Namhsan area; 13 P-38s severely damage a bridge at Mong Long; nearly 100 P-47s and P-38s pound troop concentrations, supply and ammunition dumps, and general targets of opportunity behind enemy lines. Large-scale transport operations continue.
Volcano Islands: Iwo Jima: Jack Lucas Pfc USMC Reserve, 1st Battalion, 26th Marines, 5th Marine Division, earns the Medal of Honor.
While creeping through a treacherous, twisting ravine which ran in close proximity to a fluid and uncertain frontline on D-plus-1 day, Pfc. Lucas and 3 other men were suddenly ambushed by a hostile patrol which savagely attacked with rifle fire and grenades. Quick to act when the lives of the small group were endangered by 2 grenades which landed directly in front of them, Pfc. Lucas unhesitatingly hurled himself over his comrades upon 1 grenade and pulled the other under him, absorbing the whole blasting forces of the explosions in his own body in order to shield his companions from the concussion and murderous flying fragments. Pvt Lucas lives until he is 80, dying in 2008.
CHINA: 34 Fourteenth Air Force P-51s attack locomotives, railroad cars, and other targets of opportunity at Tsingtao and Puchi; about 30 other fighter-bombers on armed reconnaissance hit targets of opportunity (mainly rail and river traffic) at scattered locations including Changsha, Lohochai, Tsingtao, Chukiatsi, north of Lingling, and between Siangsiang and Siangtan.
FORMOSA: Far East Air Force B-25s and fighters blast the town of Choshu, and also hit railroad yards, vehicles, railway rolling stock, and buildings.
PACIFIC OCEAN: 2 Guam-based Seventh Air Force B-24s on an armed reconnaissance flight bomb Marcus Island.
A Japanese destroyer and a merchant cargo ship are sunk by USN submarines. Two other Japanese merchant vessels are sunk by mines.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: 63 Far East Air Forces B-24s attack buildings at Puerto Princesa on Palawan Island and underground installation on Corregidor Island in Manila Bay.
US Army troops, covered by USMC aircraft, are landed on Biri Island to insure control of San Bernardino Strait.
U.S.A.: Oak Ridge, Tennessee: The Uranium plant K-25 has now produced enough weapon-grade uranium (U-235) to make an atomic bomb.
ATLANTIC OCEAN:
Flower
class corvette HMS Vervain is torpedoed, and sunk by U-1208
(Korvettenkapitan George Hagene) 20 miles S of Waterford at 51 47N 07 06W. (Alex
Gordon)(108)
U-1276 sunk south of Waterford in position 51.48N, 07.07W by depth charges from sloop HMS Amethyst. 49 dead (all hands lost).