Wednesday, February 16, 1944. Explanations.

Wyoming's Senator Mahoney was reported as having said that victory in the Second World War was closer than most imagined, and the country should be prepared to rapidly convert to a peacetime economy.

The optimistic Mahoney was a Democrat who served four terms as a U.S. as  Wyoming's Senator, first from 1934 to 1953 and then again from 1954 to 1961.  Orginally from Massachusetts, he moved to Wyoming in 1916 as a writer for the Cheyenne State Leader, which was owned by John B. Kendrick. When Kendrick became Senator, he accompanied him there as a staff member, and graduated from Georgetown with a Bachelors of Law in 1920.  He was considered as a running mate in 1944.  He lost his seat when Dwight Eisenhower won the Presidential election in 1954, but regained a position of Senator upon the suicide of Lester Hunt.

The prior day's raid on Monte Cassino already drawing controversy, Lord Chancellor John Smith appeared before the House of Lords and defended the raid.  He claimed that most of the destroyed abbey's structures dated to the 19th Century, and most of the artwork had already been removed.

German ground attacks at Anzio resumed, supported by Luftwaffe close air support.  Sarah Sundin, in her blog, reports this as the first use of Panther's in the west by the Germans. She also reports that mud defeated them.

New Zealand forces continued their attacks at Monte Cassino.

Goebbels went on the radio in Germany and exaggerated damages from an Allied air raid on Berlin that occured this day, in hopes that would draw the Allies off re bombing the city.

German forces trapped in the Korsun pocket launched their final, and somewhat successful, breakout attempt just before midnight.

Stalin replied to Roosevelt's letter of February 7 and stated that the Polish government was anti-Soviet and incapable of friendly relations with the USSR, and also that "The basic improvement of the Polish government appears to be an urgent task."

A Finnish diplomat arrived in Stockholm to receive peace terms from the Soviets.

 Commander Rieter demonstrating calculator for firing, atop of turret #3 on board USS Quincy February 16, 1944.