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• » 22 Feb 1944

• USS Tang sank Japanese transport Fukuyama Maru with four torpedoes. ww2dbase [Tang | CPC]
• General Rodion Malinovsky's troops captured the mining area near Krivoi Rog, Ukraine. ww2dbase [TH]
• American aircraft bombed the Dutch towns of Nijmegen, Arnhem, Enschede, and Deventer by mistake due to weather, killing 800 civilians. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Japanese aircraft attacked US Naval Task Force 58 approaching the Mariana Islands but suffered heavy losses. Meanwhile, another Allied forces operating around Rabaul and Kavieng encountered no Japanese aircraft, hinting that Japanese resources were now becoming scarce. ww2dbase [Marshall Islands Campaign | CPC]
• Stalin announced that 75% of Soviet territory occupied by the German invaders had now been liberated. ww2dbase [Joseph Stalin | AC]
• Filipp Golikov was awarded the Order of Kutuzov. ww2dbase [Filipp Golikov | CPC]
• USS Guitarro completed her transit down the Mississippi River (towed in a drydock by Minnesota) and arrived at New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. ww2dbase [Guitarro | CPC]
• USS Pompon departed Darwin, Australia for her fourth war patrol. ww2dbase [Pompon | CPC]
• USS Puffer sank Japanese transport Teikyo Maru off Singapore, hitting her with 4 of 6 torpedoes fired. ww2dbase [Puffer | CPC]
• USS Flying Fish departed for her ninth war patrol. ww2dbase [Flying Fish | CPC]
• USS Cero attacked a Japanese transport north of Dutch New Guinea; all four torpedoes missed. ww2dbase [Cero | CPC]
• In Italy, 650 Italian Jews were embarked onto a train at the Fossoli transit camp near Carpi, Modena for Auschwitz; many of them would be sent to the gas chambers upon arrival on 26 Feb 1944. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | CPC]
• USS Wasp departed Trinidad. ww2dbase [Wasp (Essex-class) | CPC]

• Japanese Colonel Tanahashi, his troops beginning to starve while attacking Sinzweya, Burma, refused to make further attacks until food and supplies arrived. ww2dbase [Second Battle of Arakan | Sinzweya, Arakan | CPC]
• The 3rd Battalion of US 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional) arrived at Ningbyen, Burma. Joseph Stilwell met with Frank Merrill and ordered him to reach Walawbum, 15 miles south of Maingkwan on the Kamaing Road, by 3 Mar, which was when the Chinese 22nd and 38th Divisions and the Chinese 1st Provisional Tank Group was supposed to attack Walawbum from the opposite direction. ww2dbase [Frank Merrill | Battle of Myitkyina | Joseph Stilwell | Ningbyen | CPC]

• Pan Yukun was made the commanding officer of Chinese 50th Division as the division was transferred from Chinese 54th Army to the Chinese Expeditionary Army to Burma. ww2dbase [Pan Yukun | CPC]

• USS Ray laid naval mines off Saigon, French Indochina. ww2dbase [Ray | Saigon, Cochinchine | CPC]

• The USAAF 306th Bomb Group flying from RAF Thurleigh launched a bombing raid against Bernburg, Germany. ww2dbase [Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | RAF Thurleigh | Bernburg | DS]

• Japanese submarine I-37 sank British merchant ship British Chivalry in the Indian Ocean as the latter sailed between Melbourne, Australia and Abadan, Iran. The crew of I-37 killed 13 survivors by rifle fire. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Mark Clark replaced John Lucas with Lucian Truscott at Anzio, Italy. ww2dbase [Battle of Anzio | Anzio, Lazio | TH, CPC]

• USS Yorktown (Essex-class) launched raids on enemy airfields and installations on Saipan, Mariana Islands. That same day, she cleared the area on her way back to Majuro, Marshall Islands. ww2dbase [Yorktown (Essex-class) | Saipan | DS]

• Nijmegen, the Netherlands was heavily bombed by American planes, causing great damage to the city center and killing 800 civilians. ww2dbase [Bombing of Cities in France and Low Countries | Nijmegen | TH]

• USS Alabama patrolled in waters southeast of Saipan, Mariana Islands. ww2dbase [Alabama | CPC]
• US Navy Destroyer Squadron 23, consisted of five destroyers under the command of Captain Arleigh Burke, attacked a Japanese convoy carrying military evacuees from Rabaul, New Britain. Repair tug Nagaura was sunk and submarine chaser CH-38 was damaged. 150 survivors of Nagaura refused to be rescued by the Americans. ww2dbase [New Guinea-Papua Campaign, Phase 3 | CPC]

• Auschwitz III commandant SS-Hauptsturmführer Schwarz ordered that night shift workers not be assigned to do any day shift work, the prisoners be given seven to eight hours of rest per day, and roll call be limited to five to ten minutes; his motivations were to maintain a high level of productivity from the forced laborers in his camp. On this date a total of 73,669 prisoners were in the Auschwitz Concentration Camp; Auschwitz I housed 17,177 male prisoners, Auschwitz II housed 18,378 male and 24,637 female prisoners, and Auschwitz III housed 13,477 male prisoners. ww2dbase [Auschwitz Concentration Camp | Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Oswiecim | CPC]

• Boris Shaposhnikov was awarded the Order of Suvorov. ww2dbase [Boris Shaposhnikov | CPC]
• Kliment Voroshilov was awarded the Order of Suvorov 1st Class. ww2dbase [Kliment Voroshilov | CPC]

• US Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau declared in a press release that the United States would stop purchasing gold from countries that had not broken relations with Axis nations, for fear that the gold might be looted from conquered nations; he also announced that a similar declaration would soon be made by the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union. ww2dbase [US Department of Treasury Policy on Axis Looted Gold | CPC]

22 Feb 1944 Interactive Map