President Roosevelt asked Stalin not to allow the Polish border issue to undermine future international co-operation. Roosevelt proposed that the Polish Prime Minister accept the desired territorial changes and then be allowed to alter the makeup of his government without any evidence of foreign pressure.[7]
With the Red Army approaching Estonia's borders, Prime Minister Jüri Uluots broadcast a speech over the radio calling on the Estonian people to fight alongside the Germans against the bigger perceived threat to Estonian freedom.[8]
The German prisoner transport ship Petrella was sunk off Crete with the loss of 2,670 Italian POWs aboard.
The Japanese troopship Lima Maru was torpedoed and sunk southeast of the Gotō Islands by the American submarine USS Snook. The ship sank quickly and as many as 2,765 lives were lost.[9]
During the Battle of Anzio, German forces captured Aprilia from the British 1st Infantry Division which continued to hold "The Factory".[11]
German submarines U-238 and U-734 were both sunk southwest of Ireland by British warships.
Bishop of ChichesterGeorge Bell started a debate in the House of Lords over the morality of the bombing of European cities when he made a speech questioning the practice. "I recognize the legitimacy of concentrated attack on industrial and military objectives, on airfields and air bases, in view especially of the coming of the Second Front," the Bishop said. "I fully realize that in attacks on centres of war industry and transport the killing of civilians when it is the result of bona-fide military activity is inevitable. But there must be a fair balance between the means employed and the purpose achieved. To obliterate a whole town because certain portions contain military and industrial establishments is to reject the balance ... How can there be discrimination in such matters when civilians, monuments, military objectives and industrial objectives all together form the target? How can the bombers aim at anything more than a great space when they see nothing and the bombing is blind?"[12]
German submarine U-424 was depth charged and sunk southwest of Ireland by British sloops Wild Goose and Woodpecker.
Sermon denouncing racial prejudice at Saint Louis University, a Catholic, Div 1 research school in Missouri, delivered by Father Claude H. Heithaus, S. J.[14] Fr. Hiethaus was promptly, forcibly transferred out of state, but less than 6 months later, the first 5 negroes enrolled at SLU in summer of '44. SLU became the first historically white institution of higher learning in a former slave state to admit persons of color.[15]
The German steamboat Oria sank in a storm sailing from Rhodes to Piraeus with over 4,000 Italian prisoners of war aboard. It was one of the worst disasters of all time in the Mediterranean Sea.
The British troop ship Khedive Ismail was torpedoed and sunk in the Indian Ocean with the loss of 1,297 people by Japanese submarine I-27, which was then sunk by British warships.
Japanese submarine Ro-110 was depth charged and sunk in the Bay of Bengal by Allied warships.
Died:Kenneth Gandar-Dower, 35, English sportsman, explorer and author (killed in the sinking of the Khedive Ismail); Margaret Woodrow Wilson, 57, eldest daughter of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and First Lady after her mother's death
The Norwegian cargo ship Henry and passenger ship Irma were controversially sunk off Kristiansund by two ships of the Royal Norwegian Navy, who claimed the Irma and Henry were without lights or national markings.
Action of 14 February 1944: In one of the few naval engagements in the Asian and Pacific theater to involve German and Italian forces, the British submarine Tally-Ho sank the German-commanded U-boat UIT-23 (formerly the Italian submarineGiuliani).
The United States declared neutrality in the border dispute between Poland and the Soviet Union.[2]
800 Allied aircraft raided Berlin. In his post-raid report, Joseph Goebbels attempted the unusual tactic of exaggerating the damage done in the hope that the Allies might think that the capital was no longer an important target.[17]
Lord Chancellor John Simon appeared before the House of Lords and made a speech defending the British bombing campaign. Referring specifically to the monastery at Monte Cassino, he said that most of the buildings there dated from the nineteenth century and that the most valuable art treasures and manuscripts had been moved elsewhere weeks and months earlier.[2][18]
Stalin responded to Roosevelt's message of February 7 by saying the Polish government was made up of elements hostile to the Soviet Union and was incapable of friendly relations with the USSR. Stalin advised that "The basic improvement of the Polish government appears to be an urgent task."[7]
Operation Hailstone ended in United States victory. The Japanese lost 3 cruisers, 4 destroyers, 3 auxiliary cruisers, 2 submarine tenders, 3 smaller warships, 32 merchant ships and 270 aircraft at Truk.
The Allies launched "Big Week", a six-day strategic bombing campaign against the Third Reich.
Erwin Rommel completed a four-day inspection tour of the Atlantic Wall. He reported to Adolf Hitler that the German coastal defenses were up to all requirements.[21]
The British destroyer Warwick was torpedoed and sunk in the Bristol Channel by German submarine U-413.
Churchill advised Stalin that the Polish government-in-exile was ready to accept the Curzon Line as a basis for talks and assured him that by the time they resumed diplomatic relations with the Soviets, their government would only consist of members willing to co-operate with Moscow. Stalin remained unconvinced.[7]
Hideki Tojo became Chief of Staff of the Japanese Army.[2]
Churchill gave a speech in the House of Commons aimed at dispelling Soviet distrust. Churchill said he supported the Soviet border demands in Poland as reasonable and stated that Britain had never guaranteed any Polish border.[24]
The British oil tanker British Chivalry was sunk by Japanese submarine I-37 in the Indian Ocean. I-37 circled the sinking ship indiscriminately shooting at the survivors, for which Lieutenant-Commander Nakagawa Hajime was tried and found guilty of a war crime in 1948.
The Japanese cargo ship Tango Maru was torpedoed and sunk in the Java Sea by the American submarine Rasher, killing 3,500 Japanese labourers and hundreds of Allied prisoners of war. Rasher sank the Japanese transport ship Ryūsei Maru that same day, killing some 5,000 Japanese soldiers.
The British destroyer Inglefield was sunk by a German glide bomb off Anzio.
The U.S. Office of Strategic Services began Operation Ginny I with the objective of blowing up railway tunnels in Italy to cut German lines of communication, but the mission was aborted when the OSS team landed in the wrong place and could not locate the tunnel.
The American submarine Grayback was sunk off Okinawa by Japanese aircraft.
German aviator Hanna Reitsch visited Hitler in Berchtesgaden to receive a second Iron Cross. While there she suggested the creation of a squad of suicide bombers who could fly specially designed versions of the V-1 flying bomb, and volunteered to become one such suicide pilot herself. Hitler was not receptive to the idea, believing it to be an inefficient use of resources, but he would investigate the prospect of designing such aircraft.[29]
The Battle of Ist was fought in the Adriatic Sea between Free French destroyers and a Kriegsmarine force. The result was a Free French victory as two German ships were sunk and one torpedo boat severely damaged.
^Williams, David L. (2012). In the Shadow of the Titanic: Merchant Ships Lost With Greater Fatalities (ebook). The History Press Ireland. ISBN978-0-7524-7713-8.
^Belmessous, Saliha (2013). Assimilation and Empire: Uniformity in French and British Colonies, 1541–1954. Oxford University Press. p. 197. ISBN978-0-19-165102-1.
^Kersten, Krystyna (1991). The Establishment of Communist Rule in Poland, 1943–1948. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. p. 44. ISBN978-0-520-06219-1.