2 Feb 1945
  • Lieutenant Jack L. Knight of Mars Task Force led an attack up a 400-foot only to find at the summit that they had entered a horseshoe shaped Japanese strongpoint. Wounded several times and with carbine ammunition exhausted, Knight organized another attack and was finally killed whilst tackling a sixth bunker. For his gallantry, Knight would ultimately be awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor, the only such infantry award made in the China-Burma-India theatre of war. ww2dbase [Jack Knight | CPC, AC]
  • French troops captured Colmar, France. ww2dbase [Advance to the Rhine | TH]
  • Soviet 1st Byelorussian Front reached the Oder River, near Frankfurt, Germany. On the same day, the Soviet Stavka in Moscow, Russia declared the Vistula-Oder Offensive complete. ww2dbase [Vistula-Oder Offensive | TH]
  • Churchill and Roosevelt completed a three-day meeting at Malta; Churchill noted that Roosevelt's health was not at its best. ww2dbase [Franklin Roosevelt | CPC]
  • Nazi German Gauleiter Karl Hanke announced the formation of new Volkssturm militia units at Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland). On the same day, Major General Hans von Ahlfen was named the commanding officer of the Fortress City of Breslau. ww2dbase [Silesian Offensive and the Siege of Breslau | CPC]
Burma Germany
  • With the Russian arrival at the outskirts of Stargard in Pommern, Germany (now in Poland), the Germans gave orders to evacuate the Stalag IID prisoners of war camp. The Allied prisoners, which include a large contingent of Canadians captured following the disastrous Dieppe Raid in August 1942, would march westward for 44 days along snow covered roads until eventually, at the end of April, their guards fled and the column having been strafed on the road by RAF fighters were finally liberated by an advance reconnaissance unit from the Royal Staffordshire Regiment. ww2dbase [East Prussian Offensive | Stargard, Pommern | AC]
Japan
  • The keel of landing ship No. 175 was laid down by Kawanami Kogyo. ww2dbase [No. 101/103-class | CPC]
Pacific Ocean Philippines
  • USS Luce began escorting transport ships between Subic Bay and San Pedro Bay in the Philippine Islands. ww2dbase [Luce | CPC]
  • Casablanca-class escort carrier USS Steamer Bay and her task group transited the Surigao Strait in the Philippines bound for Ulithi, Caroline Islands. ww2dbase [Steamer Bay | Surigao Striat | DS]
Russia
  • Isai Babich authorized the arrest of Soviet Captain Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn for his private criticism of Joseph Stalin. ww2dbase [CPC]
  • Lieutenant General Mikhail Krivenko was named the head of the Soviet Main Directorate for Prisoners of War and Interned Persons (GUPVI), replacing Ivan Petrov. ww2dbase [CPC]
United Kingdom United States Photo(s) dated 2 Feb 1945
German troops on retreat in the Upper Silesia region, Germany (now Poland), 2 Feb 1945; note SdKfz. 10 half-track vehicles towing 7.5 cm PaK 40 gunsGerman Volkssturm troops in Ratibor, Germany (now Racibórz, Poland), 2 Feb 1945; note Kar98k rifles and PanzerfaustUSS ABSD-1 with USS P. H. Burnett in the dock, Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides, 2 Feb 1945US President Franklin D Roosevelt surveying troops on Malta in Dwight Eisenhower
See all photos dated 2 Feb 1945

2 Feb 1945 Interactive Map

Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, Hugh Martyr, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis




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Famous WW2 Quote
"The raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next 500 years."

James Forrestal, Secretary of the Navy, 23 Feb 1945


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