28 February 1945

UNITED KINGDOM: Westminster: A Commons motion expresses regret that the Yalta Conference did not allow the Poles to choose their own destiny is defeated by 396 votes to 25.

307,201 members of the Empire's armed forces have been killed in action since war broke out; in the same period, 60,585 British civilians were killed by enemy bombs.

ENGLISH CHANNEL: The Canadian-owned, US-registered merchantman Soreldoc (1,926 GRT) was torpedoed and sunk by U-1302, Kptlt. Wolfgang Herwartz, CO, in position 52.15N, 005.35W. Soreldoc was on route from Liverpool to Swansea. Fifteen of her 36 crewmembers were lost. The survivors were rescued by the fishing vessel Loyal Star and were landed at Milford Haven, Wales. Soreldoc was acquired by the US War Shipping Administration in 1943 and was registered in Panama at the time of her loss. The crew was American.

GERMANY: The US 1st Army crosses the river Erft, only just over six miles from Cologne, but meets strong resistance.

Rhineland: Along a 150 mile front fromt Trier in the south to Udem in the north, US, Canadian and British troops have launched Operations Lumberjack and Undertone to drive the Germans back to the Rhine. A British unit found four miles of the river at Calcar clear of the enemy. Units of the US 9th Army have been moving forward so fast that a security blackout has been imposed on their positions. The 9th was last reported two miles from Mönchen-Gladbach, the gateway to Düsseldorf. Köln, now just ten miles from the front, is being shelled by American 155mm Long Toms.

POLAND: Danzig: This great Baltic port is the scene of an amazing evacuation. Some two million people are being shipped to the west to escape the "red terror" being visited on the German people by the advancing Russians.

The Soviet soldiers are inflamed by the writing of the propagandist Ilya Ehrenburg, who tells them: "Break the racial pride of these Germanic women. Take them as your lawful booty. Kill. As you storm onwards, kill, you gallant soldiers of the Red Army."

The slogan "Blood for blood. Bread for bread" has been drummed into them, and as they roll through the villages of East Prussia they are exacting a terrible revenge. The men are shot, and for the women the order "Frau Komm" means certain rape and probable death. Homes are looted of everything, with furniture being strapped onto tanks by drunken soldiers.

So the people are fleeing, stumbling across the icy fields. carrying what they can, prepared to leave everything behind to escape the rampaging Russians.

Those who reach the safety of the ports fight to get on board the evacuation ships. Babies are being thrown to be used by another member of the family as a means to get aboard. At sea there is danger from mines, but the ships are getting through and anything is better than facing the rampant terror of the Red Army.

ROMANIA: Bucharest: The government resigns, and the USSR appoints a Soviet commissar to wield influence over Romanian affairs.

ITALY: L/Cpl David Russel (b.1911), 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force was executed. he had escaped from a PoW camp, lived with peasants and contacted other ex-PoWs before being caught and fruitlessly tortured. (George Cross)

SAUDI ARABIA: Riyadh: Saudi Arabia today became one of the last countries in the Middle East to declare war on Germany. Two days ago Syria joined the Allies, while Iraq and Iran declared a state of belligerence last year. The recent worldwide rush to join the Allies seems to have been caused by an announcement that only states which declare war before 1March will be invited to a conference in San Francisco on the proposed post-war "United Nations" organization. However, only Iran, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia of the Middle East nations have declared war on both Germany and Japan.

BURMA: After an 80-mile advance from the Irrawaddy, "bumping" one Japanese roadblock after another, the 17th Indian Division and its accompanying 255th Indian Tank Brigade has enveloped Meiktila. The town, a landscape of temples reflected in lakes, is the bottle-neck of all communications to the Japanese 33rd and 15th Armies. If Major-General "Punch" Cowan's column can take the town, the bulk of the Japanese army in Burma will be "in the bag". To defend it Maj-Gen Kasuya has onlly 3,500 rear-echelon troops, but he is preparing a tenacious defence, even arming his walking wounded with bamboo spears.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Puerto Princesa: US Forces land on Palewan, the fifth largest and westernmost of the Philippines. The first wave of 41st Division troops, riding ashore in armed amphibious trucks, met no opposition; driving rapidly inland they took Puerto Princesa and two disused airstrips. Hopes of rescuing 150 US PoWs thought to be on Palewan vanished, however, after five who had escaped said that the Japanese had burnt the rest alive in a dug-out in December.

MacArthur claimed that the lack of opposition was another indication of the enemy's failure to "diagnose our plans". Palawan is only 800 miles from China and 250 miles from Japanese-controlled oilfields in North Borneo. With an anchorage deep enough for Liberty ships, it will serve as a base for harassing enemy shipping en route to Japan from the Dutch East Indies.

U.S.A.: The motion picture "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" premieres at the Roxy Theater in New York City. Directed by Elia Kazan, this drama about tenement life, based on a Betty Smith novel, stars Dorothy McGuire, Joan Blondell, James Dunn, Lloyd Nolan, Peggy Ann Garner and James Gleason.

Submarine USS Carp commissioned.

Destroyer escort USS Joseph E Connolly commissioned.

Minesweeper USS Reform commissioned.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 2300, U-1022 fired a spread of three torpedoes at Convoy UR-155 and heard detonations and sinking noises from two ships. In fact only the Alcedo (Master Marius A. Kolster, age 53) in position 22 was hit by one torpedo on the starboard side between #3 and #4 hatches. The force of the explosion sheared off the mainmast and it fell to port. The propeller shaft was broken stopping the engine and the #4 hold was immediately flooded. This caused the ship to sink by the stern after 25 minutes in 64.00N/22.46W. An Able Seaman had been caught in the safety net hanging over the starboard side and was trapped and drowned when the ship sank. Another AB fell into the hole on deck, which was caused by the explosion. A messman went down with the ship when he refused to jump overboard to be picked up by a lifeboat. In all three crewmembers died and eight were injured out of her complement of 32 crewmembers (3 Americans and 15 other nationalities), 5 US Naval armed guard and one navy security officer. The remaining survivors abandoned ship in two boats and two rafts and were picked up at 0140 by HMS Home Guard and landed in Reykjavik about four hours later. The Danish Master Marius A. Kolster (Age 53) survived.

MS Norfolk Coast was torpedoed and sunk by U-1302 SW of Strumble Head. Six crewmembers and one gunner were lost. The master, four crewmembers and one gunner were picked up by HMCS Moose Jaw and landed at Fishguard.