6 March 1939

Yesterday Tomorrow

March 6th, 1939 (MONDAY)

FRANCE: Destroyer FS Volta commissioned.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: RADM Thomas C Hart appointed to command the Asiatic Fleet. (Marc Small)

U.S.A.: Destroyer USS Livermore laid down.

6 March 1940

March 6th, 1940 (WEDNESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: RAF Fighter Command: Two Norfolk lighthouses and two convoys are bombed and machine-gunned by German aircraft. Little damage is caused.

FRANCE: France and Italy conclude a trade agreement in Paris providing for an increase in the volume of trade between the two countries.

Battleship FS Jean Beart launched.

GERMANY: Chancellor Adolf Hitler changes his plans for the invasion of the west. At a military conference in Berlin, he decides to adopt the plan put forward by General Gerd von Rundstedt, Commander in Chief Army Group A, and his former chief of staff, General Erich von Manstein, Commander of the XXXVIII Corps, for the Ardennes option. Code-named “Fall Sichelschnitt,” it calls for the attack against the Low Countries to go ahead, but with slightly fewer forces, in order to draw the allies forward, while the decisive thrust will be mounted through the Ardennes. Holding attacks would be made against the Maginot line.

FINLAND: The Finnish government decides on the delegation that goes to Moscow. It's composed of Prime Minister Risto Ryti, Foreign Minister Väinö Tanner, Juho Paasikivi (Minister without Portfolio), Commander-in-Chief's representative Major Gen. Rudolf Walden and Member of Parliament Väinö Voionmaa.

PARAGUAY: River Plate: The wreck of the Graf Spee is boarded by a British technical team, after they purchased it for £14,000 through a nominee. (Peter Beeston)

6 March 1941

March 6th, 1941 (THURSDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Churchill issues his BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC directive. Catapult armed merchantmen (CAM) are to be fitted out, merchant ships to be given AA weapons as a first priority, and more Coastal Command squadrons formed and fitted with radar. Port and dockyard congestion is to be dealt with and the defence of ports greatly improved. These and numerous other matters are to dealt with as a matter of the very highest priority. The survival of Britain depends on them. Overall direction is to be exercised by a BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC Committee chaired by the Prime Minister himself.

Glasgow: The workers at John Brown's shipyards go out on strike.

Westminster:

Captain Margesson, the Minister of War, reports to the Commons that German air losses from all causes and in all theatres (except the Mediterranean), since the war began, amounted to 5,346 planes and that the total British losses were 854.

Corvette HMS Hepatica completed fitting out Greenock and left for workups.

Destroyer HMS Puckeridge launched.

ENGLISH CHANNEL: Minesweeping trawler HMS Kiryado mined and sunk.

Tug HMS Sun VII lost due to unknown reasons.

GERMANY:

U-567, U-568 launched.

U-560 commissioned.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Italian submarine 'Anfitrite' attacks a troop convoy GA-8 east of Crete and is sunk by escorting destroyer HMS Greyhound.

EGYPT: German planes lay mines in the Suez Canal, blocking the British supply route to Greece and North Africa.

Cairo: Churchill telegrams to Eden agreeing that the situation in Greece had worsened - so much so that he War Cabinet found it difficult to believe that Greece could be saved unless Turkey or Yugoslavia came in on the allied side, which now seemed most unlikely.

Eden replies later in the day: "...we are unanimously agreed that ... the right decision was taken in Athens..."

ETHIOPIA: Burye: the first Ethiopian guerrillas to enter Burye wore a hybrid mixture of captured Italian uniforms and tribal robes. There was no resistance. Bombed by the RAF and besieged by the Sudanese and Ethiopians, the 6,000-man garrison slipped out in the night; Ethiopia's "Patriots" have won their first victory. The Italians had resisted for a week, but an attack on their communications by the guerrilla leader Haile Yusuf forced them to withdraw. However, they did destroy one Ethiopian battalion blocking the retreat.

The American United Press Agency reported:

The East African war has turned into a race to Addis Ababa between the army of Abyssinian volunteers and the mechanised South African troops who stand in such remarkable contrast to each other. The South African troops are advancing from Mogadishu toward Harar, which lies about 30 miles from the Djibouti-Addis Ababa railway line.

CHINA: Ichang: Fierce fighting has broken out on the western bank of the Yangtze river in western Hupeh, as Japanese troops today launched a new offensive aimed at driving the Chinese back into the mountains, west towards the Kuomintang capital of Chungking.

The offensive - the first in the region since November - began at 0530 hours as Japanese artillery shelled Chinese positions to provide cover for three regiments which advanced and took the Chinese stronghold at Chang-kang-ling. At the same time, on another flank, between 600 and 700 Japanese infantry, with aerial and artillery support, took Fan-chia-hu.

AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Ipswich laid down.

CANADA: Patrol vessels HMCS Talapus and Kuitan ordered.

U.S.A.: U.S. sculptor Gutzon Borglum dies following complications after surgery; he carved the heads of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt on Mount Rushmore, South Dakota. His son, Lincoln, finished the project later that year, just prior to the start of WW II.

The government asks the Italian government to close their consulates in Newark, New Jersey, and Detroit, Michigan, and to provide information about the movements of Italian military, and naval personnel.

The US government also creates an administrative action to place a hold on certain licenses issues to Japan for 5 million barrels of high grade petroleum (gasoline) and rich crude oils. (Edward S, Miller)

ATLANTIC OCEAN: Scharnhorst and Gneisenau meet with U-124 (Lieutenant Wilhelm Schulz). (Navy News)

6 March 1942

March 6th, 1942 (FRIDAY)

GERMANY: When AT&T started transatlantic radiotelephone in the 1920s, it scrambled the calls to protect against interception.

The Deutsche Reichspost, which handled telecommunications, realised that the calls might provide useful intelligence. Kurt Vetterlein, one of the young engineers of the Forschungsanstalt, cryptanalysed the privacy system. Today, the German postal minister, Wilhelm Ohnesorge (party number 42), writes to his Führer to report this success. He appends an intercept of 7 September 1941 between two British officials.

The Reichspost set up an intercept post in a youth hostel on the Dutch coast near Noordwijk, later moving it to a brick-and-concrete bunker at the intersection of Nieuwe Waalreseweg and De Hazelaar streets in Valkenswaard.

The unit intercepted no fewer than 30 calls a day, and sometimes as many as 60. A half dozen interpreters listened to them and chose the most valuable.

Most talks were between medium- and high-level officials.

But Churchill liked the telephone and rang Roosevelt at all hours. They and a few other high officials were not given the warnings about telephone insecurity that other officials were, which the Germans took as an indication that an important person was coming on the line. The speakers were sometimes indiscreet.

But allusions and incomplete references made it hard for the Germans to gain much intelligence from the talks. The most pregnant sentences in a conversation between Churchill and Hopkins were "Can you give me any hopeful answer?" and "Yes."

Roosevelt-Churchill conversations told the Germans only that the cross-Channel invasion was coming closer and hardened the German decision to get troops into Italy after the collapse of Mussolini’s government. None provided any extraordinary insight into Allied plans. As a German Foreign Office official disappointedly noted on a sheaf of intercepts, "There is in general not much to be gotten from them."

Nevertheless, the Americans, aware of the weakness of the AT&T scrambler, developed a much superior system, codenamed SIGSALY. It provided the acoustic equivalent of the one-time pad – the only theoretically and practically unbreakable cryptosystem. Requiring bays of electronic equipment and many phonographic disks of random sound that were destroyed after one use, SIGSALY terminals served the White House through an extension, Churchill’s underground offices also through an extension, and other Allied headquarters worldwide. High officials used it, and it seems never to have been intercepted, much less solved, though the older AT&T system seems to have c0ontinued in use.

The president and the prime minister also communicated using written messages over the transatlantic cable. These were encrypted. (Ed Miller)(235 pp. 554-557, 449-500)(236 pp. 172-176)(237)(238, pp. 70-80)

U-535 laid down.

NORWAY: The German battleship Tirpitz sets sail from her base in Trondheim to intercept the ships of convoys QP-8 and PQ-12 sailing from Iceland to Archangel, U.S.S.R. Despite information sent to the British aircraft carrier HMS Victorious, no contact is made between the forces. The British Admiralty draws criticism because of its inaction.

ROMANIA: The government breaks diplomatic relations with Brazil.

SPAIN: Madrid severs diplomatic relations with Norway.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: HMS Eagle ferries 18 Spitfires to Malta, while seven Blenheim bombers fly in from North Africa.

BLACK SEA: SMYSHLENY, Soviet Destroyer, Mined in the Kerch Straits.

BURMA: The newly arrived British 63d Brigade, under command of the Indian 17th Division, makes a futile effort to clear the block on the Rangoon-Pegu road and relieve the Pegu garrison, which is isolated. Lieutenant General Sir Harold Alexander, General Officer Commanding Burma Army, orders Rangoon evacuated since the situation in lower Burma is deteriorating rapidly; a denial program is to be put into effect at 0001 hours tomorrow.

CHINA: U.S. Lieutenant General Joseph Stilwell, Commanding General American Army Forces, China, Burma, and India, confers for the first time with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek in Chungking.

NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: On Java, the Japanese advance has sealed the Australian, British, Dutch and U. S. defenders into two pockets, one in the central highlands, the other near Surabaya, the Dutch naval base.

JAVA SEA: JAN VAN AMSTEL, Dutch Minesweeper, Sunk in Madura Strait by surface action

PIETER DE BITTER, Dutch Minesweeper, Scuttled at Soerabaja

ELAND DUBOIS, Dutch Minesweeper, Scuttled in Gili Genteng Roads, Java

(James Paterson)

CANADA:

Minesweeper HMCS Canso commissioned.

HMC ML 066 commissioned.

U.S.A.: The motion picture "To Be or Not to Be" opens at the Rivoli Theater in New York City. Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, this comedy about Poland in World War II stars Jack Benny, Carole Lombard and Robert Stack. This was Lombard's last film.

Submarine USS Scamp laid down.

Submarine USS Amberjack launched.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: German submarine U-129 torpedoes and sinks an unarmed U.S. freighter SS Steel Age about 130 miles (209 kilometres) northeast of Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana, at 06.45N, 53.15W, and takes the sole survivor captive. 33 crewmembers are lost.

Motor tanker Sydhav sunk by U-505 at 04.47N, 14.57W.

U-587 erroneously reported the name of the ship as Hawse Gude, but it must have been Hans Egede, which was reported missing in Canadian waters on 4 March.

At 2306, steam trawler Rononia was hit amidships by one torpedo from U-701, broke in two and sank within a few seconds.

6 March 1943

March 6th, 1943 (SATURDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM:

Frigate HMS Byard launched.

Boom defense vessel HMS Barleycorn launched.

GERMANY: A new combination of RAF bombing aids and techniques has been used to devastating effect on Essen, the home of Krupp's. It was the first raid of Bomber Command's new offensive, the "Battle of the Ruhr".

Out of a force of eight Pathfinder Mosquitoes equipped with Oboe guidance, five made it to drop yellow flares as approach markers 15 miles north of Essen. They then marked the Krupp complex with red target indicators. The next layer of attack comprised 22 Pathfinder heavy bombers which put down green markers on the initial red.

The main force, 157 Lancasters, 94 Halifaxes, 52 Stirlings and 131 Wellingtons, hit the markers with the greatest bomb load yet assembled. A total of 1,070 tons of high explosive and incendiaries was dropped in 38 minutes. At intervals the heavy Pathfinders refreshed the green target markers. Sir Arthur Harris, Bomber Command's chief, believes that an area two miles wide was set alight. Of the 442 aircraft that took off, 362 claimed to have attacked Essen, but photographs are expected to confirm that only 153 dropped their bombs within three miles of the target.

Even so this was a vastly more accurate attack than any previous raid. About 160 acres of factory space were destroyed, causing damage which in some cases will take years to repair. Fourteen bombers did not return. Harris is to be promoted soon to Air Chief Marshal.

U-1302 laid down.

U-284, U-471, U-472 launched.

U-739 commissioned.

U.S.S.R.: Moscow: The Supreme Soviet awards Stalin the rank of marshal of the Soviet Union, hailing him as "the greatest strategist of all times and all peoples."

NORTH AFRICA: Erwin Rommel, with a mixed German/Italian force, launched an expected attack on the Mareth Line near Medenine, Tunisia, North Africa. There were four thrusts by Rommel toward Medenine, which were repulsed by the British Eighth Army. It was conceived as the second phase of a counter-attack which began with the Battle of the Kasserine Pass last month. But it was delayed in northern Tunisia, and this gave Montgomery time to build up his forces.

By the time Rommel had his extra divisions, Monty had even more: Allied strength quadrupled in the last ten days, and tonight this appears to have given 8th Army a decisive strength in the battlefield. Rommel had no more than 160 tanks against his enemy's 400, and with three fighter wings operating from forward airfields the Allies had air superiority, too. The Desert Fox could not even surprise the Allies; they had broken his coded messages and seen his tanks on the move.

When the attack came the morning, Montgomery was waiting in well-sited defensive positions. The Germans were soon pinned down and subjected to withering assault from tanks and the air. Rommel lost about 50 tanks during the attack and was forced to withdraw. After the battle, Rommel would return to Germany because of ill health, never to return to North Africa. (Michael Ballard)

BURMA: The flutterings of 10,000 jungle birds, frightened by the sound of explosions, proclaim the cutting of three key railway bridges in the Bongyaung area of Japanese-held Burma by the Chindits. The 3,000 Gurkhas, Burmese and Liverpudlians are not elite troops, but they have been trained meticulously and ruthlessly by their commander, Brigadier Orde Wingate, as jungle-fighting guerrillas supplied from the air, and are able to beat the Japanese at their own game.

PACIFIC OCEAN: Japanese aircraft bomb the Russell Islands.

SOLOMON ISLANDS: A US naval task force bombards Japanese airfields at Munda and Vila, sinking two enemy destroyers.

MINEGUMO, IJN, Japanese Destroyer, sunk at 1am off Vila, Kula Gulf by 6in Gunfire from the US cruisers Monpelier and Cleveland

MURASAME, IJN, Japanese Destroyer, sunk in the company of Minegumo by 6in gunfire from Cleveland and Denver and torpedoes from the US Destroyer Waller. Only 49 men survive from both ships

(James Paterson)

CANADA:

Frigate HMCS Wentworth launched Esquimalt, British Columbia.

Fairmile depot ship HMCS Sambro renamed HMCS Venture II

AMC HMCS Prince Henry arrived Burrard Dry Dock for conversion to infantry landing ship

Minesweeper HMCS Transcona completed engine repairs Halifax and left for workups.

U.S.A.: "I've Heard That Song Before" by Harry James and his Orchestra with vocal by Helen Forrest reaches Number 1 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in the U.S. The song is from the motion picture "Youth On Parade" starring John Hubbard. This song, which debuted on the charts on 30 January 1943, was charted for 20 weeks, was Number 1 for 13 weeks and was ranked Number 1 for the year 1943.

Light cruiser USS Little Rock laid down.

Destroyer USS Uhlmann laid down.

Destroyer USS Luce launched.

Light cruiser USS Astoria launched.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-boats attack the Allied convoy SC-121.

MS Thorstrand sunk by U-172 at 41.23N, 42.59W

At 1520, U-410 attacked Convoy KMS-10 west of Gibraltar and reported two ships damaged and one possible hit on a third ship. In fact, the Fort Battle River was sunk and the Fort Paskoyac was damaged. The master, 45 crewmembers, 10 gunners and nine passengers (army personnel) from Fort Battle River were picked up by corvette HMCS Shediac and the British SS Empire Flamingo and landed at Gibraltar.

6 March 1944

March 6th, 1944 (MONDAY)

FRANCE: RAF bombers devastate Trappes railway yard as part of the plan to disable communications in Europe in the build-up to the invasion of Europe.

GERMANY: 730 USAAF B-17's and B-24s are dispatched on Mission 250 to hit the Berlin area as follows: 248 of 262 1st Bombardment Division B-17's dispatched hit Berlin, the secondary target. 198 of 226 2d Bombardment Divsion B-24's dispatched hit targets of opportunity at Templin, Verden, Kalkeberge, Potsdam, Oranienburg and Wittenberg. Groups participating are the 44th, 93d, 389th, 392d, 445th, 446th, 448th, 453d and 458th Bombardment Groups (Heavy). The primary targets were industrial areas in the suburbs in Berlin. 226 of 242 3d Bombardment Divsion B-17's hit the primary, the Genshagen industrial area, the secondary, Berlin and a target of opportunity, Potsdam.

Fighter escort for the mission, which included four Ninth Air Force groups, was 86 P-38's, 615 P-47's and 100 P-51's. The bombers claimed 97-28-60 Luftwaffe aircraft; the fighters claimed 81-8-21 Luftwaffe aircraft in the air and 1-0-12 on the ground. USAAF losses were 34 B-17's, 35 B-24's, 1 P-38, 5 P-47's and 5 P-51's; 9 aircraft were damaged beyond repair and 353 damaged. US casualties were 17 KIA, 33 WIA and 697 MIA.

The first American bombers and fighters appear over Berlin. The raid had been canceled because of weather. One group proceeded to the target with fighter escort.

Göring later said, "When I saw the american fighters over Berlin I knew the jig was up." (Hal Turrell)

BURMA: Air Commando Combat Mission 19 2:30 Flight Time Hailakandi to Inywa, Burma. Bombed warehouses and oil storage depot using incendiary and fragmentation cluster bombs. Fifteen P-51B fighters escorted nine B-25H s. Each fighter loaded with two five hundred pound bombs and six 4.5 inch bazooka-type rockets. Huge explosions and fires started.

Note: from USAF Sources These were the first rockets used in combat by the US, a new development from Wright Field, Ohio, which Colonels Cochran and Alison brought in the theater. (Chuck Baisden)

U.S.A.:

Corvette HMCS Wetaskiwin completed forecastle extension refit Galveston, Texas.

Submarine USS Dragonet commissioned.

Destroyer escort USS Hubbard commissioned.

Frigate USS Rockford commissioned.

Submarine USS Atule launched.

Destroyer minelayer USS Henry F Bauer laid down.

Destroyer escort USS Johnnie Hutchins laid down.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-744 (type VIIC) is sunk at 1830hrs in position 52.01N, 22.37W, after being torpedoed by the British destroyer HMS Icarus, then after unsuccessful attempts at towing the boat to port, by depth charges from Icarus, the Canadian frigate HMCS St. Catherines, corvettes Fennel and Chilliwack and destroyers Chaudiere and Gatineau and the British corvette HMS Kenilworth Castle. 12 dead and 40 survivors.

HMCS Gatineau, Chaudiere, St Catharines, Chilliwack, Fennel, HMS Icarus and Keniworth Castle after 32 hours of attack U-744 OLtzS Heinz Blischke, CO, was forced to surface, at 52-10N 23-37W in the North Atlantic. Of the crew of 51, 4 senior ratings, 33 junior ratings survived. Members of Chilliwack boarded U-744 prior to her sinking, OLtzS Blischke, was among those lost in this action. U-744 was considered to be one of the classic U-boat hunts of the war. The C2 support group was searching 4 miles ahead of the 63-ship convoy HX 280, en route from New York City for Liverpool. Icarus obtained an HF/DF bearing and Gatineau obtained a sonar contact at 1000. U-744 was a captained by a highly competent commander who proved to be a very wily opponent. Blischke repeatedly avoided attacks and evaded effectively in the disturbed water caused by depth charge explosions. The attackers expended every weapon in their inventory, including over 290 depth charges and there seemed to be no solution other than waiting for the U-boat to surface. After 32 hours of depth charge attacks, the German crew was at the extreme limit of their endurance and the submarine was seriously damaged. U-744 surfaced and the crew unsuccessfully attempted to scuttle her. Members of Chilliwack boarded the boat and gathered papers and documents. ICARUS torpedoed U-744 but she did not sink. Then, after unsuccessful attempts at towing the boat to port, U-744 was sunk by shallow-set depth charges. (Alex Gordon and Dave Shirlaw)

U-973 sunk NNW of Narvik, in position 70.40N, 05.48E, by rockets from an RN 816 Sqn Swordfish from escort carrier HMS Chaser. 51 dead and 2 survivors.

U-737 damaged an RAF 120 Sqn Liberator that was destroyed when forced to crash land.

6 March 1945

March 6th, 1945 (TUESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Whilst dived and calibrating instruments, miniature submarine XE-11 collides with a BDV in Loch Striven, Scotland and sinks to the bottom. 2 of the crew are able to escape using DSEA, but the remaining 3 are casualties. (Alex Gordon)(108)

Frigate HMCS Sussexvale arrived Londonderry to join EG-26.

NETHERLANDS: Resistance fighters ambush and attempt to execute SS General Hans Rauter, the arch-persecutor of the Dutch.

GERMANY: The entire front of the US 9th Army has now reached the Rhine River.

Cologne: Tanks and infantry of the US First Army drove into Cologne today to reach the Rhine in the cathedral district. A Panzer hit by an American shell was burning up in front of the cathedral, its ammunition exploding in erratic bursts. The infantry pushed into the southern suburbs, where remains of the city's defenders are on the retreat to Bonn.

About three-quarters of the city has been destroyed by bombing and shell-fire. Remarkably, the 13th-century Gothic cathedral is hardly damaged; a priest and a Franciscan monk have continued to hold regular services in the vestry. Of the city's peacetime population of almost a million, fewer than 150,000 remain.

Z.28 German Destroyer, Sunk at 11pm in Sassnitz Roads by RAF air raid. (James Paterson)

U.S.S.R.: Submarine USSR SC-307 received the Red Banner Award. Her commander M.S. Kalinin received the honourable rank of The Hero of the Soviet Union.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: General Mac Arthur meets his wife Jean and son Arthur in Manila Harbor aboard the Columbia Express.

VOLCANO ISLANDS: Iwo Jima: VII Fighter Command, United States' Seventh Air Force bases the 15th Fighter Group with P-51Ds at South Field.

CANADA: HMS LST 3555, 3556, 3557, 3558, 3559 ordered in Canada. Cancelled 18 Aug 45.

Canadian Park Steamship Company freighter SS Green Hill Park caught fire and exploded while loading cargo in Vancouver, British Columbia. In explosion two crewmembers and six longshoremen were Lost. The ship was declared a Constructive Total Loss but was sold to a Greek owner who had the hulk repaired and operated under the name Phaeax II.

U.S.A.: Florida:

DAV resolutions will endorse rest camps

CLEARWATER - Resolutions will be offered tomorrow night at a meeting of Clearwater chapter, Disabled American Veterans, for the group's endorsement of the proposed use of state parks and game preserves as rest camps for returned veterans who are discharged as a result of battle strain. Commander Roy F. Mains will outline the program to the chapter. (William L. Howard)

Toothpaste tubes will be diverted to troops

CLEARWATER - Local druggists have been advised by salesmen for wholesale firms that toothpaste in tubes may disappear entirely before the beginning of summer. The reason, they said, was the heavy use of tubes to pack all sorts of ointments and other supplies issued to troops before embarkation to battle zones. The GI issues include a special ointment to be used in gas attacks. According to the drug salesmen, each soldier gets five tubes - with the result that nearly all dental cleaners soon will consist of powders or liquids packed in cardboard cartons or glass bottles. (William L. Howard)

ATLANTIC OCEAN:U-681 shot a T-5 at an ASW trawler, but missed.

SS Empire Geraint damaged by U-775 at 51N, 05W.

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