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• German submarine U-432 sank US bulk carrier Marore 20 kilometers off North Carolina, Virginia, United States. To the north, 20 kilometers east of Barnegat, New Jersey, United States, German submarine U-578 sank US tanker R. P. Resor, killing 47 of 49 aboard. Far out to sea, 230 miles east of Florida, United States, U-504 sank Dutch tanker Mamura at 1913 hours, killing all 49 aboard. ww2dbase [Second Happy Time | CPC]
• An irritable Churchill took General Auchinleck to task over lack of offensive spirit in North Africa. ww2dbase [Claude Auchinleck | AC]
• Allied Middle East command decided to transfer the veteran Australian 6th Division from North Africa to Greece. Newly-formed Australian 9th Division was to be sent to North Africa as the replacement. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Reinhard Heydrich wrote a letter to Martin Luther of the German Foreign Office, enclosing the meeting minutes of the Wannsee Conference and requesting the Foreign Office to engage in discussions on carrying out the Final Solution to the Jewish Question. ww2dbase [Wannsee Conference | CPC]
• Major General John "Jock" Campbell VC, GOC 7th Armoured Division, was killed when his jeep overturned in North Africa. ww2dbase [AC]
• Lieutenant-General Hutton signaled GHQ(I) recommending that the sick Smyth be removed from command of 17th Indian, and recommending Major General David "Punch" Tennant Cowan as the replacement. ww2dbase [AC]
• Lieutenant Philip Cabell Evans was named the commanding officer of HMCS Trillium. ww2dbase [Trillium | CPC]

• The floatplane from Japanese submarine I-25 conducted a reconnaissance mission over Melbourne, Australia. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Australian Wing Commander Dick Cohen led several Catalina aircraft in a night attack on Rabaul, New Britain; Cohen used his own Catalina aircraft as a dive bomber. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Allied ABDA Command warships departed Surabaya, Java, Dutch East Indies in search of a detected Japanese invasion fleet; the search would be uneventful. ww2dbase [Dutch East Indies Campaign, Java | CPC]

• 49 British RAF bombers attacked Gneisenau in the drydock at Kiel, Germany. A bomb penetrated the armored deck, triggering a detonation in the forward turret which caused great damage to entire bow section of the ship; 112 were killed, 21 were wounded. ww2dbase [Deutsche Werke Kiel | Gneisenau | CPC]

• USS Grayback shook off the Japanese submarine that had been pursuing her in the Pacific Ocean for the past four days. ww2dbase [Grayback | CPC]

• The US Federal Bureau of Investigation began to relocate Japanese-American civilians living in East San Pedro, Los Angeles, California, United States. ww2dbase [Internment of Japanese-Americans and Japanese-Canadians | CPC]

26 Feb 1942 Interactive Map