Diary February 17, 1944

02-1944, Diary WW2, War Diary, Year 1944 / 1 minute of reading

Japanese shipping under air attack on the first day of the Truk Raid.

WW2 War Diary for Tursday, February 17, 1944:

Sea War

Pacific – THE TRUK RAID: 9 carriers of Admirals Mitscher’s TF 58 launch massive air strikes (February 17 and 18) against Truk – great Japanese naval and air base in Central Pacific. 30 ships sunk and 250 planes destroyed. Battleships Iowa and New Jersey (Admiral Spruance) sink cruiser Katori and 2 destroyers. Japanese torpedo planes damage carrier Intrepid.
US warships bombard Rabaul and Kavieng (night February 17-18).
Mediterranean: HMS Penelope torpedoed by U-boat U-410 off Anzio (second, fatal, attack February 18).

Eastern Front

Southern Sector: Germans break out from Korsun Pocket by sacrificing their whole artillery and leaving their wounded soldiers back in this operation. 31,000 front line soldiers out of approx. 50,000 encircled troops reach the German relief columns in deep mud.

Air War

Mediterranean: Ceaseless Allied raids on German spearheads at Anzio.

Home Fronts

USA: Bomber crashes into US Navy barracks in San Diego, California (34 casualties).

About The Author

Kretaner

My name is Norman 'Kretaner' and since my childhood I am interested in history and strategy games. Later, I have learned programming and the development of computer games, and finally with the Internet, also web design. I'm in the fortunate position to combine all my interests with my work and to live on a place of my choice, on Crete. All information, figures, specifications and statistics used here had been compiled from a variety of sources and the large, over decades collected, library of the author about military history, WW2 and weapons.