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• King George VI approved the name Ark Royal to be used on a new Audacious-class Carrier which had not yet even been laid down. ww2dbase [AC]
• The Japanese infiltrated across the Salween River in Burma cutting the defenders of Martaban River, 3/7th Gurkhas with a company of the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry under command, from the 46th Indian Brigade headquarters base at Thaton. The Gurkha's Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel H. A. Stevenson, knowing that his position was now untenable led a bayonet charge to clear the road block. The subsequent retreat from Martaban (over difficult terrain with no food) of more than 50 miles in two days was a terrible ordeal and a foretaste of things to come. ww2dbase [Invasion of Burma | AC]
• British destroyers HMS Zulu and HMS Lively sank Italian trawler Grongo and small ship Aosta in the Mediterranean Sea near Malta. ww2dbase [CPC]
• A little known British brigadier, Orde Charles Wingate, was summoned to India at General Archibald Wavell's behest. Although initially he did little more than reconnoitre northern Burma, his ideas for a long range penetration force would ultimately lead to the establishment of the Chindit Brigade who, supplied by air, would later do so much damage in the Japanese rear areas. ww2dbase [Orde Wingate | AC]
• Kamoi refueled destroyers Mochizuki, Mutsuki, Yayoi, and Yunagi at 0620 hours. ww2dbase [Kamoi | CPC]

• Japanese submarine I-25's floatplane conducted a reconnaissance mission on Sydney, Australia. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Japanese aircraft attacked Palembang, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies, destroying 34 RAF aircraft. ww2dbase [Dutch East Indies Campaign, Sumatra | CPC]
• Japanese submarine I-55 sank Dutch passenger ship Van Cloon 30 miles north of Java; all 187 aboard survived. American yacht USS Isabel and a PBY Catalina aircraft counterattacked in failure. ww2dbase [CPC]
• USAAF B-17 bombers from Java, Dutch East Indies unsuccessfully attacked Japanese shipping off Balikpapan, Borneo, Dutch East Indies. ww2dbase [Dutch East Indies Campaign, Borneo | CPC]

• Irako arrived at Hashirajima, Japan and disembarked 80 tons of sugar from Saipan, Mariana Islands. ww2dbase [Irako | CPC]

• Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru arrived at Wotje, Marshall Islands to tend to personnel wounded on an American strike on 1 Feb. ww2dbase [Hikawa Maru | CPC]

• German troops halted the Soviet offensive northwest of Leningrad, Russia. ww2dbase [Siege of Leningrad | CPC]

• Allied convoy PQ-11 departed Loch Ewe, Scotland, United Kingdom. ww2dbase [Arctic Convoys | CPC]
• The first of the new Avro Lancaster bombers to be written off in RAF Bomber Command occurred when Flight Sergeant D. F. Nicholson of 44 Squadron, approaching RAF Skellingthorpe in Lincolnshire, England, United Kingdom realized that he had misread the wind direction. Rather than going around again he attempted to turn onto the correct runway, but lost control and skidded into a frozen snow bank which caused the undercarriage to collapse. ww2dbase [Lancaster | AC]

7 Feb 1942 Interactive Map