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• Lieutenant Jack L. Knight of Mars Task Force led an attack up a 400-foot only to find at the summit that they had entered a horseshoe shaped Japanese strongpoint. Wounded several times and with carbine ammunition exhausted, Knight organized another attack and was finally killed whilst tackling a sixth bunker. For his gallantry, Knight would ultimately be awarded a posthumous Medal of Honor, the only such infantry award made in the China-Burma-India theatre of war. ww2dbase [Jack Knight | CPC, AC]
• French troops captured Colmar, France. ww2dbase [Advance to the Rhine | TH]
• Soviet 1st Byelorussian Front reached the Oder River, near Frankfurt, Germany. On the same day, the Soviet Stavka in Moscow, Russia declared the Vistula-Oder Offensive complete. ww2dbase [Vistula-Oder Offensive | TH]
• Churchill and Roosevelt completed a three-day meeting at Malta; Churchill noted that Roosevelt's health was not at its best. ww2dbase [Franklin Roosevelt | CPC]
• Nazi German Gauleiter Karl Hanke announced the formation of new Volkssturm militia units at Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland). On the same day, Major General Hans von Ahlfen was named the commanding officer of the Fortress City of Breslau. ww2dbase [Silesian Offensive and the Siege of Breslau | CPC]

• Anglo-Indian troops captured Kangaw, Burma. ww2dbase [Third Battle of Arakan | kangaw | CPC]

• With the Russian arrival at the outskirts of Stargard in Pommern, Germany (now in Poland), the Germans gave orders to evacuate the Stalag IID prisoners of war camp. The Allied prisoners, which include a large contingent of Canadians captured following the disastrous Dieppe Raid in August 1942, would march westward for 44 days along snow covered roads until eventually, at the end of April, their guards fled and the column having been strafed on the road by RAF fighters were finally liberated by an advance reconnaissance unit from the Royal Staffordshire Regiment. ww2dbase [East Prussian Offensive | Stargard, Pommern | AC]

• The keel of landing ship No. 175 was laid down by Kawanami Kogyo. ww2dbase [No. 101/103-class | CPC]

• The Japanese Army SB craft formerly known as Navy landing ship No. 115 was sunk by US aircraft in the Luzon Strait north of Luzon, Philippine Islands. ww2dbase [No. 101/103-class | Luzon Strait, Philippine Sea | CPC]

• USS Luce began escorting transport ships between Subic Bay and San Pedro Bay in the Philippine Islands. ww2dbase [Luce | CPC]

• Isai Babich authorized the arrest of Soviet Captain Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn for his private criticism of Joseph Stalin. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Lieutenant General Mikhail Krivenko was named the head of the Soviet Main Directorate for Prisoners of War and Interned Persons (GUPVI), replacing Ivan Petrov. ww2dbase [CPC]

• German V-2 rocket hit Deptford, London, England, United Kingdom, killing 24. ww2dbase [V-Weapons Campaign | Vergeltungswaffe 2 | London, England | CPC]

• USS Franklin departed Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington, United States. ww2dbase [Franklin | Puget Sound Navy Yard | Bremerton, Washington | CPC]
• Battleship USS Tennessee departed Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. ww2dbase [Puget Sound Navy Yard | Tennessee | Bremerton, Washington | DS]
• A Japanese Fu-Go balloon was found near Laurens, Iowa, United States, including pieces of a paper envelope, rigging, and the ballast dropping apparatus. ww2dbase [Laurens, Iowa | DS]
• A Japanese Fu-Go balloon was found near Laurens, Iowa, United States, including pieces of a paper envelope, rigging, and the ballast dropping apparatus. ww2dbase [Fu-Go | Laurens, Iowa | DS]

2 Feb 1945 Interactive Map