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WWII On This Day: February 23

What happened on February 23 during World War II? This date brings together 3 events from 1942, 1944 and 1945, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1942
Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival and the British surrender party walking to the Ford Motor Factory in Singapore on 15 February 1942.
British official photographer / Imperial War Museums HU 2781 · UK Government public domain · Source
The Fall of the Southern Empires

The Sittang Bridge Is Blown with Troops Still East of the River

During the retreat toward the Sittang, the bridge was demolished on 23 February while a large part of the 17th Indian Division was still on the eastern bank. The demolition denied the crossing intact to the Japanese, but thousands of Allied soldiers had to get across the river without most of their vehicles, artillery and heavy equipment. The decision was made under the fear that Japanese troops would seize the bridge and cut the withdrawal entirely. It preserved a route west of the river at the price of much of…

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1944
A P-51B Mustang of the U.S. Army Air Forces in flight in early 1944.
U.S. Army Air Forces, 342-FH-3A16458-53135AC / NARA, NAID 204889474 · Public domain in the United States
Big Week and Air Superiority

The Eighth pauses; the Fifteenth keeps the offensive moving

Stormy weather grounded the Eighth Air Force's heavy bombers on 23 February. After three maximum-effort days, English-based crews and maintenance organisations had an enforced pause. The Fifteenth Air Force continued from Italy against aircraft-industry targets in Austria and southern Germany, including Steyr. Operation Argument therefore did not disappear simply because one launching area was closed by weather. The day exposes an important feature of Allied strength in 1944: Germany had to defend an industrial system that could be approached from more than one strategic direction, while its fighter units and…

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1945
Churchill tanks of 34th Tank Brigade at the start of the Reichswald battle, 9 February 1945.
Churchill tanks of 34th Tank Brigade at the start of the Reichswald battle, 9 February 1945 · Imperial War Museums B 14422 · IWM Non-Commercial Licence · Source
The Rhineland Battles

Grenade, a fortnight late

The water had fallen far enough. Ninth Army crossed the Roer in assault boats before dawn behind a barrage from around 2,000 guns, and found the far bank held far more thinly than expected, because the German reserves were fifty miles north fighting Veritable. The delay had cost two weeks and thousands of British and Canadian casualties. It had also, by accident, hollowed out the defence in front of the Americans.

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