CBI - China: Day 23 of 41 of the 1st Battle of Shanghai.
1933 — , February 19
CBI - China: Day 50 of 142 of the 1st Battle of Hebei.
1937 — , February 19
Spain: Day 218 of 985 of the Spanish Civil War.
1938 — , February 19
Spain: Day 583 of 985 of the Spanish Civil War.
CBI - China: Day 228 of 2,987 of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War.
Day 13 of 124 of the Battle of Henan.
1939 — , February 19
Spain: Day 948 of 985 of the Spanish Civil War.
CBI - China: Day 593 of 2,987 of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War.
1940 — , February 19
Atlantic: Destroyer HMS DARING is torpedoed, 157 are killed.
Finland: Day 82 of 105 of the Russo-Finnish War. Finnish troops defeat and disperse the Soviet 18th Division northeast of Lake Ladoga.
CBI - China: Day 958 of 2,987 of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War.
Day 97 of 381 of the Battle of South Guangxi.
Day 23 of 67 of the Battle of Wuyuan.
1941 — , February 19
ETO - UK: Day 167 of 258 of the Blitz.
East Africa: Day 255 of 537 of Italy's East African campaign in the lands south of Egypt.
East Africa - Eritrea: Day 15 of 56 of the Battle of Keren.
CBI - China: Day 1,324 of 2,987 of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War.
Day 21 of 31 of the Battle of South Henan.
CBI - Thailand: Day 142 of 221 of the Franco-Thai War (Vichy France vs Thailand).
1942 — , February 19
USA: President Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, authorizing the Secretary of War to prescribe certain areas as military zones "from which any or all persons may be excluded," clearing the way for the relocation of 120,000 Japanese-Americans to internment camps, 11,000 people of German ancestry and 3,000 of Italian decent.
Spotlight...
19 Feb 42: FDR signs Executive Order 9066. Although supported by the Justice Department and sanctioned by the Supreme Court, EO 9066 was in stark contradiction to the Bill of Rights. The "military necessity" it asserted proved to be groundless.
(photo is actually of Roosevelt signing declaration of war, 8 Dec 41)
Since Korea had been under Japanese rule since 1910, people of Korean decent were subject to relocation, too. Jewish refugees from Germany were also included, since the US government did not differentiate between ethnic Jews and ethnic Germans; "Jewish" being defined as a religious practice, not as a race. A few members of ethnicities of other Axis countries were also interned.
An official notice of exclusion and removal, this one dated May 3, 1942.
Oakland, California, Mar 42. A large sign reading "I am an American" placed in the window of a store, at 13th and Franklin streets, on 8 Dec 41, the day after Pearl Harbor.
The store was closed following orders to persons of Japanese descent to evacuate from certain West Coast areas. The owner, a University of California graduate, will be housed with hundreds of evacuees in War Relocation Authority centers for the duration of the war.
Dates related to civilian internment...
12 May 40: UK begins internment of German civilians
14 Jan 42: Japanese-Canadians ordered to vacate BC
14 Jan 42: FDR orders all aliens to register with government
19 Feb 42: FDR signs Executive Order 9066
02 Mar 42: Gen DeWitt issues Public Proclamation No 1
11 Mar 42: Office of the Alien Property Custodian created
Atlantic: Day 37 of 169 of Germany's Second "Happy Time," during which U-boats sink 609 Allied ships with little risk.
ETO - France: General Gamelin, Leon Blum and Paul Reynaud are put on trial at Riom by the Vichy French government, charged with being responsible for the French defeat of 1940.
Russian Front - North: Day 165 of 872 of the Siege of Leningrad.
Russian Front - North: Day 12 of 102 of the Battle of the Demyansk Pocket, another failed attempt to break the siege at Leningrad.
Russian Front - North: Day 28 of 103 of the Battle of the Kholm Pocket. Another attempt to break the siege at Leningrad.
Russian Front - Center: Day 43 of 103 of the Battle of Vyazma, Russia.
Russian Front - Center: Day 43 of 103 of the Battle of Sychevsk, Russia.
Russian Front - South: Day 113 of 248 of the Siege of Sevastopol, Crimean Peninsula. All German attacks against Sevastopol are stopped for the winter.
CBI - Burma: Day 68 of 164 of Japan's Invasion of Burma.
CBI - Burma: Day 1 of 5 of the Battle of Sittang Bridge. Being outflanked, the 17th Indian Division begins to withdraw across the river Sittang.
CBI - China: Day 1,689 of 2,987 of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War.
Day 58 of 99 of the 3rd Battle of Changsha.
PTO - Borneo: Day 66 of 107 of the Battle of Borneo.
PTO - Australia: Japanese air raids on Darwin begin as they bomb it twice in one day. This is the first of 59 such bombings at Darwin.
PTO - Dutch East Indies: Day 2 of 3 of the Naval Battle of Badung Strait off Bali. US 5th Air Force warplanes attack the landing vessels at Bali but fail to stop the landings.
PTO - Malaya: Day 1 of 357 of the Battle of Timor Island, a long guerrilla war ending in Japanese victory.
PTO - Philippines: Day 74 of 152 of the 1st Battle of the Philippines. 5th Air Force provides air support.
1943 — , February 19
ETO - France: US 8th Air Force: Flying Spitfires, the 4th Fighter Group fly defensive patrols over the Channel and an offensive sweep around St Omer.
Russian Front - North: Day 530 of 872 of the Siege of Leningrad.
Russian Front - North: Day 10 of 51 of the USSR's Operation POLAR STAR, a failed offensive north of Leningrad, hoping to take the southern shore of Lake Ladoga, Russia.
Russian Front - North: Day 291 of 658 of the Siege of the Kholm Pocket, USSR lays siege to the Kholm Pocket but the Germans hold out for a about a year and a half.
Russian Front - South: Day 1 of 25 of the 3rd Battle of Kharkov, Ukraine. USSR briefly takes and holds Kharkov, but will lose it again.
MTO - Tunisia: Day 95 of 178 of the Battle of Tunisia.
MTO - Tunisia: Day 1 of 7 of the Battle of Kasserine Pass. Germans attack the US troops. Bad weather prevents air support.
CBI - Burma: Day 61 of 104 of the 1st Battle of Arakan. US 10th Air Force provides air support.
CBI - Burma: Day 12 of 79 of the Allied Operation LONGCLOTH.
CBI - China: Day 2,054 of 2,987 of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War.
PTO - Alaska: Day 258 of 435 of the Battle of Kiska, Aleutian Islands.
1944 — , February 19
ETO - Germany: Day 94 of 135 of the Battle of Berlin (RAF bombing campaign). The RAF saturates Leipzig.
ETO - Denmark: Danish saboteurs attack the rail lines near Aarhus.
Russian Front - North: Day 656 of 658 of the Siege of the Kholm Pocket. USSR lays siege to the Kholm Pocket but the Germans hold out for a about a year and a half.
Russian Front - North: Day 37 of 48 of the Battle toward the Narva River, Estonia. This drive helped lift the Leningrad siege and goes on to liberate Narva.
Russian Front - North: Day 18 of 191 of the Battle of the Narva Isthmus, Estonia.
Russian Front - South: Day 58 of 113 of the USSR's Dnieper-Carpathian Offensive in southwestern Ukraine.
Russian Front - South: Day 21 of 31 of the Battle of Nikopol, Ukraine.
MTO - Italy: Day 34 of 123 of the Battle of Monte Cassino. RAF and US Air Forces provides air support for the Allied ground troops.
MTO - Italy: Day 29 of 136 of the Battle of Anzio. RAF and US Air Forces provides air support for the Allied ground troops.
CBI - Burma: Day 52 of 99 of the 2nd Battle of Arakan.
CBI - Burma: Day 15 of 19 of the Battle of the Admin Box. US 10th Air Force provides air support.
CBI - China: Day 2,419 of 2,987 of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War.
CBI - Indochina: US 14th Air Force attacks shipping in between the Formosa Straits and French Indochina.
PTO - Marshall Islands: Day 4 of 8 of the Battle of Eniwetok. US 7th Air Force provides air support.
PTO - New Guinea: Day 154 of 219 of the Battle of Shaggy Ridge. 5th Air Force provides air support.
PTO - New Guinea: Day 151 of 162 of the Battle of the Huon Peninsula. 5th Air Force provides air support.
PTO - New Guinea: Day 67 of 597 of the Battle of New Britain. US 13th Air Force provides air support.
PTO - Solomon Islands: Day 111 of 295 of the Battle of the Bougainville Islands. US 13th Air Force provides air support.
1945 — , February 19
PTO: Day 1 of 36 of the Battle of Iwo Jima, in the Volcano Islands 750 miles south of Tokyo. Of the 30,000 US Marines landing on the first day, 2,420 are killed or wounded.
Spotlight...
"Hell's Volcano" US Marines hit the beach and charge over a dune on Iwo Jima during the start of one of the deadliest battles of the war against Japan
(AP Photo / Joe Rosenthal)
The Battle of Iwo Jima, or Operation DETACHMENT, had the goal of capturing the entire island, including its three airfields (including South Field and Central Field), to provide a staging area for attacks on the Japanese main islands. The five-week battle comprised some of the fiercest and bloodiest fighting of the War in the Pacific.
Yet despite the severe casualties on both sides, Japanese defeat was assured from the start. American overwhelming superiority in arms and numbers as well as complete control of air power, coupled with the impossibility of Japanese retreat or reinforcement, permitted no plausible circumstance in which the Americans could have lost the battle.
Related dates...
19 Feb 45: 1 of 36 of the Battle of Iwo Jima
23 Feb 45: Marines raise the US flag atop Mt Suribachi
ETO - France: Day 203 of 284 of the Battle of Brittany.
ETO - France: Day 158 of 236 of the Siege of Dunkirk.
ETO - Germany: Day 12 of 16 of Operation GRENADE, the US drive into Germany. US 9th Air Force provides air support.
ETO - Germany: Day 12 of 17 of Operation VERITABLE, the British and Canadian drive into Germany.
ETO: Day 31 of 66 of the Battle to the Rhine. US 9th Air Force provides air support.
ETO - Germany: US 8th Air Force B-17s and B-24s hit a number of oil, industrial and rail targets.
Russian Front - Finland: Day 158 of 223 of the Lapland War. Finland and Russia have joined forces to kick the Germans out of Finland's most northern province.
Russian Front - Center: Day 128 of 206 of the Battle of the Courland Pocket in Latvia.
Russian Front - Center: Day 26 of 75 of the Battle of Königsberg, East Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). The Germans have re-establish communications between Königsberg and the port of Pillau and resume evacuating refugees by ships.
Russian Front - Center: Day 25 of 63 of the Battle of the Heiligenbeil Pocket in East Prussia.
Russian Front - Center: Day 10 of 54 of the Battle of East Pomerania, Germany.
Russian Front - Center: Day 12 of 17 of the USSR's Lower Silesian Offensive (Poland).
Russian Front - Center: Day 7 of 83 of the German Siege of Breslau (today Wroclaw, Poland).
Russian Front - Center: Day 19 of 31 of the Battle of Schwedt, Germany.
MTO - Italy: RAF and US Air Forces provide air support for the Allied ground units.
CBI - Burma: Day 32 of 61 of the Battles of Meiktila and Mandalay. The US 10th Air Force provides air support.
CBI - Burma: Day 30 of 39 of the Battle of Ramree Island. The US 10th Air Force provides air support.
CBI - Burma: Day 16 of 99 of the Battle of Pakokku and Irrawaddy River operations in central Burma. The US 10th Air Force provides air support.
CBI - China: Day 2,785 of 2,987 of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War.
US 14th Air Force attacks targets in China.
PTO - Alaska: US 11th Air Force B-24s bomb Kurabu Cape Airfield on Paramushiru Island in Kurile Islands.
PTO - Formosa: US 13th Air Force B-24s bomb the airfields at Koshun, Heito and Takao while B-25s attack a large number of targets including trains, parked aircraft and coastal vessels.
PTO - Japan: US 20th Air Force B-29s bomb the port and urban area of Tokyo hoping to draw air reinforcements away from the Iwo Jima invasion.
PTO - New Guinea: Day 420 of 597 of the Battle of New Britain.
PTO - New Guinea: Day 304 of 481 of the Battle of Western New Guinea.
PTO - Philippines: Day 123 of 299 of the 2nd Battle of the Philippines, aka the Liberation of the Philippines or the Philippines Campaign.
PTO - Philippines: Day 67 of 244 of the Battle of Luzon. 5th Air Force provides air support.
PTO - Philippines: Day 20 of 22 of the Battle of the Bataan Peninsula. 5th Air Force provides air support. Except for a few small isolated pockets, US troops capture the whole of the Bataan Peninsula.
PTO - Philippines: Day 17 of 29 of the Battle of Manila.
Day-By-Day listings for February 19 were last modified on Friday, February 23, 2018
Spotlight...
