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WWII On This Day: February 11

What happened on February 11 during World War II? This date brings together 4 events from 1940, 1942, 1944 and 1945, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1940
Finnish ski troops moving through forest during the Winter War.
Imperial War Museums, HU 52936 · Public domain · Source
The Winter War

The Mannerheim Line is penetrated at Lähde

The Soviet main assault on 11 February broke deeply into the Finnish position in the Summa-Lähde sector after prolonged artillery preparation and repeated attacks against the same defensive system. Soviet troops widened the penetration over the following days as Finnish units fought to hold adjoining sectors and organise a withdrawal. The breach threatened the coherence of the main position across the western Isthmus. On 15 February the Finnish command ordered the main forces back toward the intermediate position. The strategic question shifted from preserving the Mannerheim Line to preserving an…

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1942
Burmese refugees fleeing along the Prome Road toward India, 31 January 1942.
James Jarche / British Ministry of Information, Imperial War Museums JAR 1240 · Public domain (UK Government)
The Fall of Burma

The Bilin River line is held and outflanked

On 11 and 12 February 1942, at Kuzeik near Pa-an, a battalion of the 10th Baluch Regiment faced a Japanese force of about five times its strength, and fewer than a third of its men survived. From 14 to 19 February the 17th Indian Division held the Bilin River. The Japanese method, repeated through the campaign, was to engage the defenders on the road and send detachments through the jungle on either flank to block the road behind them. On the Bilin these movements forced the division back each time…

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1944
A Dakota of No. 177 Wing RAF climbs away after dropping supplies near Sinzweya to the trapped 7th Indian Division during the second Arakan campaign.
A Dakota of No. 177 Wing RAF climbs away after dropping supplies near Sinzweya to the trapped 7th Indian Division during the second Arakan campaign. Imperial War Museums, CI 602 · UK Government public domain Source
The Arakan and the Chindits

Air supply sustains the Admin Box

By 11 February the RAF had established sufficient control of the air to sustain the encircled force by parachute drop. Dakotas delivered ammunition, food, fuel and medical stores into dropping zones inside the defended area. Royal Armouries gives about 1,600 tons delivered during the battle. Air supply allowed the 7th Indian Division to keep fighting with its heavy weapons while the Japanese force, operating through jungle routes, faced an increasingly difficult supply position of its own. This was the practical reversal of earlier Burma battles. A cut road no longer…

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1945
People displaced by war wait beside their belongings for onward transport in Berlin, June 1945.
Unknown photographer / Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1977-124-30 · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE
Refugees, Expulsion and Postwar Displacement

The Yalta powers agree on the return of liberated citizens

On 11 February 1945 the United States and Soviet Union signed a reciprocal agreement concerning their nationals liberated by each other’s forces. Liberated citizens were to be separated from enemy prisoners and maintained at collection points until handover to the appropriate authorities. The agreement was made while the war continued. It placed rapid repatriation at the centre of Allied administration, although some Soviet citizens who later entered Allied custody feared security screening or reprisals after returning home.

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