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• Air Group 80 flew 2 strikes against Iwo Jima and fighter squadron 80 flew 1 strike against Chichi Jima and Haha Jima (both groups from USS Hancock); 1 aircraft was lost. ww2dbase [Hancock | DS]
• John Basilone passed away. ww2dbase [John Basilone | CPC]
• USS Sea Cat damaged a small Japanese ship with her deck gun. ww2dbase [Sea Cat | CPC]
• German 1st Infantry Division, 3rd Panzer Army, and 4th Army launched a counter attack in East Prussia, Germany, which was spearheaded by a captured Soviet T-34 tank. It opened a corridor between Königsberg and Pillau. The troops would hold this corridor open until early Apr, allowing thousands of civilians to be evacuated by German Navy ships. ww2dbase [East Prussian Offensive | TH]
• Heinrich Himmler made his first contact with Swedish Count Folke Bernadotte regarding a separate peace. ww2dbase [Heinrich Himmler | CPC]
• US troops landed on Samar and Capul in the Philippine Islands. ww2dbase [Philippines Campaign, Phase 2 | CPC]
• Units of the US 8th Division began encircling German troops trapped within the Siegfried Line/Westwall. ww2dbase [Advance to the Rhine | CPC]
• USS Mingo departed Fremantle, Australia, resuming her seventh war patrol. ww2dbase [Mingo | CPC]
• USS Missouri bombarded Iwo Jima, Japan. ww2dbase [Missouri | CPC]
• James Lacey scored his final kill of his career as he shot down a Japanese Ki-43 aircraft, bringing his confirmed kills count to 28. ww2dbase [James Lacey | CPC]
• Soviet 52nd Army and Soviet 3rd Guards Tank Army secured the flanks of Soviet 4th Tank Army near Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland), thus ending the counter-offensive mounted by German Panzerkorps "Großdeutschland" and German XXIV Panzer Corps. ww2dbase [Silesian Offensive and the Siege of Breslau | CPC]

• A partially inflated Japanese Fu-Go balloon was recovered near Takla Lake, British Columbia, Canada. Separately on this date, 13 RCAF fighters were scrambled in British Columbia on reports of the Fu-Go balloon in flight. It turned out to be the planet Venus. ww2dbase [Takla Lake, British Columbia | DS]
• A partially inflated Japanese Fu-Go balloon was recovered near Takla Lake, British Columbia, Canada. Separately on this date, 13 RCAF fighters were scrambled in British Columbia on reports of the Fu-Go balloon in flight. It turned out to be the planet Venus. ww2dbase [Fu-Go | Takla Lake, British Columbia | DS]

• Jack Heyn boarded troop transport USS General A. E. Anderson at Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea. ww2dbase [Jack Heyn | Hollandia, Dutch East Indies | CPC]

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

• At 0905 hours, the first of 30,000 US Marines landed on Iwo Jima, Japan after heavy naval bombardment. ww2dbase [Battle of Iwo Jima | Iwo Jima | CPC]
• 119 American B-29 bombers attacked the port and urban areas of Tokyo, Japan. ww2dbase [Bombing of Tokyo and Other Cities | Tokyo | CPC]
• USS Wasp's aircraft provided aerial cover for the Iwo Jima, Japan invasion. ww2dbase [Wasp (Essex-class) | Iwo Jima | CPC]
• Ira Hayes landed on the southern beach on Iwo Jima, Japan via Haskell-class attack transport USS Talladega. ww2dbase [Ira Hayes | Iwo Jima | CPC]

• USS Bailey arrived at San Pedro Bay, Leyte, Philippines. ww2dbase [Bailey | San Pedro Bay, Leyte | DS]

• US B-24 bombers based in the Philippine Islands attacked Koshun Airfield, Takao Prefecture, Taiwan. ww2dbase [Koshun Airfield | Koshun, Takao | CPC]

• German V-2 rocket hit Bawn's factory at Blackhorse Lane in Walthamstow, London, England, United Kingdom at 1420 hours. It wrecked 12 houses, damaged 500 houses, killed 18, seriously injured 53, and lightly injured 150. ww2dbase [V-Weapons Campaign | Vergeltungswaffe 2 | London, England | CPC]

19 Feb 1945 Interactive Map