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• » 8 Feb 1943

• Soviet troops captured Kursk, Russia. ww2dbase [TH]
• With German permission, the Council of Jewish Elders was established in Czechoslovakia, succeeding the Jewish Religious Congregation which was dissolved on 29 Jan 1943. ww2dbase [CPC]
• USS Tunny fired two torpedoes at Japanese freighter Kusayama Maru; both torpedoes missed, and the freighter returned fire. The second volley of two torpedoes also missed. The third volley of three torpedoes all scored, sinking the freighter 20 minutes later. This was Tunny's first confirmed kill. ww2dbase [Tunny | CPC]
• Gefreiter (Private) Werner Wrangel of the German Panzerjager Battalion 183 became the only person to be awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class, Iron Cross 1st Class, and the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross at the same time. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Subhash Chandra Bose departed Germany for Japan via submarine. ww2dbase [Subhash Chandra Bose | CPC]

• Off the Canary Islands, German submarine U-521 (Kapitänleutnant Klaus Heinrich Bargsten) fired a spread of torpedoes at convoy Gibr-2. One of the torpedo hit the large 760-ton Hill-class anti-submarine warfare trawler HMS Bredon (T 223), commanded by T/Lt. John Reginald Fradgley, at 0757 hours. She sank in two minutes, killing Fradgley, two officers, 40 ratings. Bargsten claimed to have sunk a tanker and a corvette with a further ship damaged, although Bredon was the only loss. ww2dbase [HM]

• Brigadier Orde Wingate's first Chindit expedition departed from Imphal in India. The expedition's mission was to create havoc through ambush and sabotage behind the Japanese lines in Burma. The operation was entrusted to the 77th Infantry Brigade, comprising the 13th King's (Liverpool) Regiment, 3/2nd Ghurka Rifles, 142 Commando Company, 2nd Burma Rifles, eight RAF sections, a Brigade Signal section and a mule transport company. ww2dbase [Operation Longcloth | Imphal, Manipur | AC]

• Shokaku entered drydock and remained there through the month. ww2dbase [Shokaku | CPC]
• Tatsuta Maru departed Yokosuka, Japan at 1600 hours, escorted by destroyer Yamagumo. At 2215 hours, at 42 miles east-southeast of Mikura Jima in the Izu Islands south of Tokyo, US submarine USS Tarpon sank her with about four torpedoes. Tatsuta Maru sank at 2237 hours, killing 1,223 passengers and 198 crew. Destroyer Yamagumo failed to find any survivors in the darkness and in the rough seas. ww2dbase [Tatsuta Maru | CPC]

• Colonel Frank Armstrong, commander of the 306th Bomb Group and the base at RAF Thurleigh, was promoted to Brigadier General. ww2dbase [RAF Thurleigh | Thurleigh, England | DS]

8 Feb 1943 Interactive Map