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• Construction began on the first full-scale plutonium production reactor in the world at Hanford, Washington, United States. ww2dbase [Operation Trinity and Manhattan Project | CPC]
• Oyodo was commissioned into service. ww2dbase [Oyodo | CPC]
• Admiral Hipper was decommissioned from service. ww2dbase [Admiral Hipper | CPC]
• Douglas MacArthur's staff completed a plan calling for a more deliberate advance in the Southwest Pacific. ww2dbase [CPC]
• HMS CUMBERLAND experienced extreme weather conditions during which HMS SHEFFIELD had to return to Scapa Flow after sustaining serious structural damage. ww2dbase [Cumberland | DS]

• Submarine USS Growler was floated out of South Brisbane Drydock and returned alongside sub tender USS Fulton at Capricorn Wharf, Brisbane, Australia for further repairs. She would be drydocked twice more before repairs were complete. ww2dbase [Growler | Brisbane, Queensland | DS]

• Japanese convoy Operation 81 assembled at Rabaul, New Britain and readied for departure scheduled for the next day. The convoy was consisted of 6 transports (carrying 6,000 troops and supplies), 1 old navy supply ship (carrying 600 Special Naval Landing Force troops), and 1 small freighter (carrying 1,650 drums of aviation gas); it was escorted by 8 destroyers. ww2dbase [Solomon Islands Campaign | Rabaul, New Britain | CPC]

• Satoru Anabuki, flying Ki-43 fighter "Fubuki", shot down a Hurricane and a Blenheim aircraft over Akyab (now Sittwe), Burma, increasing his score to 23. ww2dbase [Satoru Anabuki | Akyab | CPC]

• Werner Ehrhardt was named the commanding officer of German cruiser Prinz Eugen. ww2dbase [Prinz Eugen | CPC]
• 712 RAF aircraft (457 Lancaster, 252 Halifax, and 3 Mosquito) attacked Berlin, Germany; 20 aircraft were lost. ww2dbase [Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | Berlin | CPC]

• USS Flying Fish arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii, ending her fourth war patrol. ww2dbase [Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Flying Fish | Pearl Harbor, Oahu | CPC]

• Six newly arrived Norwegian agents of the British Special Operations Executive (code named Gunnerside) joined the four agents already in place since Oct 1942 (code named Grouse) in sabotaging the Norsk Hydro-Elektrisk Vemork heavy water production plant in Telemark, Norway, thereby depriving German atomic weapons scientists of 500 kilograms of heavy water and near-future heavy water production capability. ww2dbase [Vemork Heavy Water Plant | Tinn, Telemark | AC, CPC]

• A mistake in record-keeping at Auschwitz Concentration Camp caused registration information of the women's camp in Birkenau to be in a state of confusion. All female prisoners of Birkenau camp were gathered for a prolonged roll call which lasted the entire day to re-confirm camp records; at the same time, a selection also took place among the women, which condemned some of them to the gas chambers. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Auschwitz Concentration Camp | Oswiecim | CPC]

• Submarine Ray was launched at Manitowoc, Wisconsin, United States, sponsored by the wife of S. C. Loomis. ww2dbase [Ray | Manitowoc, Wisconsin | CPC]
• Henry Arnold suffered his first heart attack and was hospitalized at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington DC, United States for several days. ww2dbase [Henry Arnold | Washington | CPC]

• USS Whale departed Midway Atoll for her third war patrol. ww2dbase [Midway Bases | Whale | Midway | CPC]

28 Feb 1943 Interactive Map