F4U Corsairs arrived at Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, their first combat deployment. The first actual combat would take place two days later.
While a carrier plane, the Corsair was at first deployed from land airstrips out of concerns that the high angle at which it sat when on its tail would make carrier operations difficult. This was rapidly proven a false fear, as the Royal Navy put their Corsairs to carrier operations immediately.
The Marine Corps announced the formation of the Marine Corps Women's Voluntary Reserve.
There was a fair amount of resistance to the women's branch of the Marines within the Marine Corps itself, at first, even though this had also been done in World War One.
Sarah Sundin noted the anniversary of World War Two female marines on her blog:
Today in World War II History—February 13, 1943: US Marine Corps Women’s Reserve is officially established. Boston Navy Yard is awarded the Army-Navy “E” Award for excellence in production.
She also noted that the Germans required Tunisian Jews to pay a fine for being, basically, Jewish, showing how the German war effort was more and more focused on the Jews, rather than winning the war, which of course they were losing.
The Germans won the Battle of Krasny Bor outside of Leningrad.
