Status - John Skinner - USS St. Croix
The St. Croix was approaching Guadalcanal by February 15th. John was returning to a very familiar area that was now a staging area for the fighting further west. St. Croix arrived at the island on the 16th.
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Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met at the Yalta Conference in Crimea from the 4th to the 11th. Roosevelt's health by this time had weakened considerably, and he was taxed by the long travel and a full week of high-level meetings. At Yalta it became clear that Stalin intended that the Soviet Union would control all of eastern Europe, and free elections would not be allowed; Roosevelt was criticized then and after for essentially agreeing to this. He would later say something along the lines of "it wasn't a good deal, but it was the best deal I could get".
Soviet forces continued to advance through central Poland, and crossed the Oder River. In the west, the Allies were attacking west of the Rhine River. Dresden was bombed starting on February 13th.
The Japanese army had mostly abandoned Manila, and it fell to the Allies on the 6th. The Japanese navy gave some resistance to the Allied forces in the city. Preparations were under way for the invasion of Iwo Jima.
More Information:
- Official Navy Chronology, pp. 617-623.
- The Liberation of the Philippines, Samuel Eliot Morison, pp. 194-210
- Victory in the Pacific, Samuel Eliot Morison, pp. 19 24
- USS_Saint_Croix
- Events of February, 1945
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