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• RAF Bomber Command began to deploy the new GEE radio navigation device. ww2dbase [TH]
• USS Enterprise departed from Pearl Harbor for Wake Island. ww2dbase [Enterprise | CPC]
• The British Royal Navy riverboat HMS Li Wo, evacuating military personnel from Java, ran into part of the Japanese invasion fleet and was blasted to pieces by destroyers. In a last desperate show of defiance, the little boat rammed one of the enemy transports (which would sink on the following day) before going down. Only 13 of the 120 aboard Li Wo survived. The commander, Lieutenant Thomas Wilkinson, who went down with his vessel, was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross in 1946. ww2dbase [Dutch East Indies Campaign, Java | AC]
• The British submarine Thrasher survived an attack off Crete with two unexploded bombs lodged in its deck casing. Lieutenant Peter Roberts and Petty Officer Thomas Gould took 40 minutes to remove the explosives, squeezed in the narrow confines knowing the submarine might by forced to dive at any moment, leaving them trapped to drown. They both received the Victoria Cross. ww2dbase [AC]
• British Deputy Chief of Air Staff informed the RAF Bomber Command that "the primary object of your operations should be focused on the morale of the enemy civilian population." ww2dbase [Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | CPC]
• USS Juneau was commissioned into service with Captain Lyman K. Swenson in command. ww2dbase [Juneau | CPC]
• Japanese submarine I-23 was lost somewhere south of Oahu, US Territory of Hawaii, to unknown reason. ww2dbase [CPC]
• USS Swordfish sank Japanese transport Amagisan Maru 91 miles east of Davao, Mindanao, Philippine Islands. ww2dbase [Swordfish | CPC]
• British submarine P38 sank Italian ship Ariosto in the Mediterranean Sea without realizing that of the 410 aboard, 294 of them were Allied prisoners of war. 252 survivors of the sinking were rescued by Italian destroyer Premuda and torpedo boat Polluce. ww2dbase [CPC]
• USS Skipjack attacked a Japanese oiler east of Borneo; both torpedoes missed. ww2dbase [Skipjack | CPC]
• No. 94 Squadron RAF, flying Kittyhawk fighters, arrived at the front in North Africa. ww2dbase [CPC]

• German submarine U-576 sank British catapult armed merchant (CAM) ship Empire Spring southeast of Nova Scotia, Canada at 0337 hours, killing all 53 aboard. ww2dbase [Second Happy Time | U-576 | CPC]
• Alpino Bagnolini sighted an aircraft in the Atlantic Ocean at 1001 hours; she dove to avoid detection. ww2dbase [Alpino Bagnolini | CPC]

• 18 G4M1 Type 1 land attack aircraft of the Japanese Takao Air Group arrived at Vunakanau Airfield near Rabaul, New Britain. ww2dbase [Lexington (Lexington-class) | Rabaul, New Britain | CPC]

• Indian 17th Infantry Division was ordered to defend against the Japanese advance toward Rangoon, Burma at the Bilin River. ww2dbase [Invasion of Burma | CPC]

• Japanese submarine I-166 sank British freighter Kamuning 2 miles east of Ceylon at 0817 hours; 6 were killed, 63 survived. ww2dbase [CPC]
• HMS Hermes arrived at Colombo, Ceylon. ww2dbase [Hermes | Colombo | CPC]

• 360 paratroopers of Japanese 1st Airborne Division landed at Pangkalanbenteng airfield near Palembang, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies; in response, ABDA command sent 5 cruisers and 11 destroyers to transport troops to Palembang; Dutch destroyer HNLMS Van Ghent in this force ran aground on Bamidjo reef in the Stolze Strait, forcing USS Stewart to back her engines to avoid colliding into her. Meanwhile, the British ship Vyner Brooke, escaping from Singapore with 300 on board, was bombed off Sumatra; around 100 survivors, including 22 Australian nurses, reach shore on Banka island; the men were marched away by the Japanese and bayoneted and shot, the wounded were bayoneted where they laid, and the nurses were herded into the sea and machine gunned; one, Sister Vivian Bulwinkel, was wounded but survived to tell of the atrocity; she died in 2000, aged 85. ww2dbase [Stewart | Dutch East Indies Campaign, Sumatra | Palembang | AC, CPC]
• HMS Kuala was sunk by Japanese aircraft off Pompong island, Dutch East Indies. Many survivors made it to land nearby. ww2dbase [Kuala | Pompong, Riau | HM]

• US submarine Sargo delivered 1 million rounds of .30 caliber ammunition to Mindanao, Philippine Islands. Upon departure, the submarine evacuated 24 US Army personnel (ground crews for the 14th Bombardment Squadron). ww2dbase [Sargo | Panang, Mindanao | CPC]

• Soviet Union began a national labor conscription. ww2dbase [TH]

• Despite being wounded, Adnan bin Saidi continued to retire from his forward position in Singapore. When his position was finally taken by Japanese troops, he was tied to a tree and bayoneted to death. ww2dbase [Adnan bin Saidi | Singapore | CPC]
• While Japanese troops penetrated the lines manned by the 1st Malay Brigade at Singapore and reached the Alexandra Barracks Hospital, where 323 hospital staff and patients would soon be brutally massacred, Archibald Wavell rejected Arthur Percival's request to surrender Singapore. ww2dbase [Invasion of Malaya and Singapore | Singapore | CPC]

• Allied convoy PQ-11 departed Kirkwall, Scotland, United Kingdom. ww2dbase [Arctic Convoys | Kirkwall, Scotland | CPC]

• Submarine Wahoo was launched at Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, California, United States, sponsored by the wife of William C. Barker, Jr. ww2dbase [Mare Island Navy Yard | Wahoo | Vallejo, California | CPC]

14 Feb 1942 Interactive Map