Main Nazi Line Cut – 2-3
All of Stalingrad Ruined by Battles (Shapiro) – 3
Italian Harbor Hit (Parr, Middleton) – 4
Many 2-Ton Bombs Blast U-Boat Base (Bracker) – 5
American Reporters in Britain Take Up High Altitude Flying (Post) * – 5-6
French Capture Height in Tunisia – 6
Krueger is In Line for New Command – 6
60 Tokyo Bombers Strike at Kweilin – 7
War News Summarized – 7
Australians in Final Assault that Took Buna (photos) – 8
Town is Wiped Out by Allied Bombers – 9
Religious Centers for A.E.F. Urged – 9
Navy Plane Hops Andes on Malaria Mission to Fight Colombian Outbreak Fatal to 5,000 (by Sgt. Chester D. Palmer, Jr., first-time contributor) – 9
Foe Busy in Pacific (by Hanson W. Baldwin) – 10
Turkey is Inclined to Side of Allies (by Harold Callender) – 10
The Texts of the Day’s Communiques on Fighting in Various Zones – 11-12
*Sadly, this is Robert P. Post’s final article.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1943/feb1943/f09feb43.htm
US captures Guadalcanal, Japanese escape
Tuesday, February 9, 1943 www.onwar.com
Japanese prisoners left after the evacuation of Guadalcanal [photo at link]
In the Solomon Islands... The US 161st and 132nd Regiments link up at Tenaro, too late to prevent the Japanese evacuation. The Japanese have lost 10,000 killed and the Americans have lost 1600 killed. Losses in ships and planes have been about equal. Guadalcanal has be a strategic defeat for the Japanese.
On the Eastern Front... Soviet forces capture Belgorod and the town of Shebekino to the southeast.
I liked reading the list of promoted generals to see if I recognized any of them. Only three caught my eye:
Macon will command 83rd Infantry Division, which will race the 2nd Armored to the Elbe in the dash across Germany in March-April 1945.
Walter Lauer will command the 99th Infantry Division in the Battle of the Bulge (and not capably by many accounts). It was a green division in its first combat, and had it not been paired with the veteran 2nd Infantry, it would likely have fared as badly as its neighbor, the 106th.
Norman Cota will be 2nd in command of 29th Infantry Division on D-Day (he was presumably played by Robert Mitchum in “The Longest Day”). He later commanded 28th Division when it was successively mauled in the Hurtgen Forest, sent to the Ardennes to rest, and mauled again in the Battle of the Bulge.