February 21st, 1945 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Frigate HMCS Port Colborne departed Londonderry for tropicalisation refit.
GERMANY: Wörms, a rail centre 12 miles north of Mannheim, was one of 40 transport links hit in a major series of raids by the RAF and USAAF last night. Bomber Command's 349 aircraft dropped 1,116 tons of bombs on this town.
The US 8th Army Air Force sent 1,195 effective bombers, escorted by 650 fighters, to drop 400,000 incendiaries on Nürnberg. Recent targets in the same series included Dresden and Chemnitz and have raised some doubts about morality.
After Dresden an Associated Press correspondent wrote: "Allied air chiefs have adopted terror bombing of German populated centres ... to hasten Hitler's doom."
BURMA: Nyaungu: Seven days after crossing the Irrawaddy, Major General "Punch" Cowan's 17th Indian Division has broken out of the bridgehead and is racing to Meiktila, the main Japanese base in central Burma. The success of the crossing owes much to the British deception to persuade Lt-Gen Shihachi Katamura that the main crossing would be to the north of Mandalay. By striking south, Lt-Gen William Slim, the British 14th Army commander, aims to cut off Katamura's 15th Army and destroy it.
BONIN ISLANDS: Iwo Jima: Casablanca class carrier USS Bismark Sea is sunk, and the carrier USS Saratoga is damaged by Kamikaze attacks off Iwo Jima, between 1645 and 2030 hours. Other ships including USS Lunga Point (CVE-94) and an LST receive damage.
Two Japanese suicide planes hit Bismark Sea despite being heavily damaged by defensive gunfire. The kamikaze aircraft started uncontrollable fires that reached several ready use magazines and set off the ammunition. All efforts to save the ship were halted by the exploding ammunition and she sank 90 minutes after being hit. Three hundred and eighteen of her 860 crewmembers were lost in this incident.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Bataan falls to US troops in the Philippines. Corrigedor Island in Manila Bay and Manila City continue to hold out against the US forces.
CANADA: Corvette HMCS Nanaimo completed refit Esquimalt, British Columbia.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 0839, U-1064 attacked Convoy UR-155 about 25 miles out of Belfast and reported three ships totalling 17,000 tons sunk. In fact, only the Dettifoss was hit and sank within seven minutes, taking 15 lives (three of them passengers) with her. 29 survived the sinking, being rescued after an hour in the sea by HMS Fusilier and were taken to Scotland and from there to Iceland. The sinking of Dettifoss was a harsh blow so soon after the Goğafoss had been sunk by U-300 near Reykjavík on 9 Nov 1944. All public activities in Iceland were cancelled on 24 Feb 1945. U-1064 suffered slight depth charge damage after attack for Fusilier.