World War II Database

• Home
• » Events
• » WW2 Timeline
• » 8 Feb 1944

• The Red Army captured Nikopol, Ukraine. Meanwhile, the German troops surrounded at Korsun were invited to surrender. ww2dbase [TH]
• The RAF used its new 6-ton "Tall Boy" bomb on the Gnome-Rhone factory at Limoges, France. ww2dbase [TH]
• Major William Sidney, 1st Viscount de L'Isle, led an attack on enemy positions at Anzio, Italy. Although wounded, he refused medical treatment until his objectives had been made secure. For this he would be awarded the Victoria Cross (following in the footsteps of his father-in-law, Field Marshal Lord Gort who had also been badly wounded whilst winning the same medal during the 1914-1918 war). ww2dbase [AC]
• Laffey (Allen M. Sumner-class) was commissioned into service. ww2dbase [Laffey (Allen M. Sumner-class) | CPC]
• The British Royal Navy's Second Escort Group (Captain F. J. Walker CB, DSO and three bars) sank the German submarine U-762. ww2dbase [AC]
• Cruisers USS Minneapolis, USS San Francisco, and USS New Orleans escorted by USS Bailey departed the Kwajalein area bound for Majuro Lagoon, Marshall Islands. ww2dbase [Bailey | DS]

• Patrol Boat No. 102 departed Tarakan, Dutch East Indies at 0800 hours and arrived at Bongao, Tawi-Tawi, Philippines at 1825 hours. ww2dbase [Stewart | Tarakan, Borneo | CPC]

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

• USS Rock departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for her first war patrol. ww2dbase [Rock | Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]
• Submarine USS Growler arrived at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on her way further west. ww2dbase [Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Growler | Pearl Harbor, Hawaii | DS]

• US troops began an major assault toward Monte Cassino, Italy. ww2dbase [Battle of Monte Cassino | Cassino, Lazio | CPC]

• Landing ship No. 102 was launched. ww2dbase [No. 101/103-class | CPC]

• USS Snook attacked a Japanese convoy with four torpedoes in the East China Sea. Three of them hit, sinking Lima Maru and damaging freighter Shiranesan Maru. ww2dbase [Snook | East China Sea | CPC]
• Submarine USS Saury departed her patrol aera north of Okinawa on a track to return to base. ww2dbase [Saury | DS]

• UIT-25 departed Singapore. ww2dbase [Luigi Torelli | Singapore | CPC]
• UIT-24 departed Penang for Bordeaux, France. ww2dbase [Comandante Cappellini | Penang | CPC]

• In Istanbul, Turkey, British MI6 agent Nicholas Elliott staged the kidnapping of German Abwehr officer Erich Vermehren (British code name: Precious) and his wife Elisabeth as a cover for their defection to the United Kingdom. ww2dbase [Erich Vermehren | Istanbul | DS]

• USS Ranger arrived at the Boston Navy Yard and entered Drydock #3 to replace damaged port propeller. ww2dbase [Ranger | Boston Navy Yard | Boston, Massachusetts | DS]

8 Feb 1944 Interactive Map