U.S. trucks on the Burma Road in World War II. Wikipedia.

By: Phil Kohn. Dedicated to the memory of his father, GM3 Walter Kohn, U.S. Navy Armed Guard, USNR, and all men and women who have answered the country’s call in time of need. Phil can be contacted at ww2remembered@yahoo.com.

On February 4, 1944, the U.S. Navy bombards the Kurile Islands, the northernmost islands of the Japanese homeland. Farther west, the 16^th Brigade of Brig. Gen. Orde Wingate’s British and Indian Chindits begins to move south from Ledo, India, toward Indaw, in northern Burma. The mission is threefold: 1) to assist Gen. Joseph Stilwell’s Sino-American advance on Myitkyina, Burma, by drawing off Japanese forces; 2) to create a favorable situation for the Chinese Yunnan armies; and 3) to inflict the maximum amount of damage and loss on the Japanese in northern Burma.

In Arakan, Burma, the Japanese on February 5 repel a British offensive and force a retreat.

The Germans begin a full-scale counterattack against the Allied beachhead at Anzio, in Italy, on February 6.

Despite desperate German resistance, Kirovgrad, Ukraine, falls to the Red Army’s 2^nd Ukrainian Front on February 7. In the U.S., Bing Crosby records “Swinging on A Star” in Los Angeles for Decca Records. Written for the movie “Going My Way,” the song hits the top of the U.S. musical charts in 1944 and wins the Academy Award for Best Original Song. The tune was inspired by one of Crosby’s sons, who didn’t want to go to school the next day. Songwriter Jimmy Van Heusen, visiting the crooner’s home, heard “Der Bingle” reply to the boy: “If you don’t go to school, you might turn out to be a mule.” The rest, as they say, is history.

The plan for “Operation Overlord,” the invasion of France, is confirmed on February 8. In Washington, Harry S. McAlpin becomes the first black reporter accredited to cover the White House. Off the island of Crete, in the Mediterranean Sea, the British submarine HMS Sportsman torpedoes and sinks the German transport ship SS Petrella even though the vessel is well-marked as a prisoner transport. Of the 3,173 Italian POWs aboard, 2,670 go down with the ship.

On the Eastern Front, the Luftwaffe makes renewed efforts on February 9 to bring supplies to German Army Group South troops enveloped by Red Army forces in the Korsun “pocket” on the Dnieper River in Ukraine. Large quantities of fuel and ammunition are delivered, while some of the German wounded are flown out.

U.S. and Australian troops link up at Saidor on February 10, completing their conquest of the Huon Peninsula in northeastern Papua-New Guinea. In the Pacific, the Japanese Combined Fleet leaves Truk for Palau, 1,180 miles to the west. Also, in the Pacific, New Britain is now under Allied control.