13 March 1939

1933: GERMANY: Dr. Joseph Goebbels becomes Minister of Propaganda.

March 13th, 1939 (MONDAY)

GERMANY: In a hastily arranged meeting in Berlin with recently deposed Premier Monsignor Tiso of Czechoslovakia, Chancellor Adolf Hitler claims that, “Czechoslovakia owed it only to Germany that she had not been mutilated further.” The point is that if Hitler can show that Slovakia wants to be independent, then he has just cause for applying pressure on the Czechoslovakian government to give in.

ITALY: The submarine Reginaldo Giuliani is launched. This will later serve in the German navy after the Italian capitulation. (Alex Gordon)

U.S.A.: Tanker (later CVE) Sangamon laid down.

13 March 1940

March 13th, 1940 (WEDNESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: London: Sir Michael O'Dwyer, the former governor of the Punjab, is assassinated by an Indian Nationalist.

Corvette USS Impulse (ex-HMS Begonia) laid down.

FINLAND: The Peace Treaty ending the Winter War is signed at Moscow at 1.00 am (Finnish time). The hostilities are to end at 11 am (Finnish time).

Despite the coming of peace, the war rages on in the early hours of the morning. Fighting is the most fierce at Viipuri, where the Red Army has reached the eastern suburbs, and at the western shore of the Bay of Viipuri. The ferocity of fighting is intensified by the belief common among the defenders that the post-war border shall be drawn where the front line runs at the end of the war. The Finns defend every inch in the belief that the shape and size of the post-war Finland depends on them. By the coming of dawn the men receive the word that war will end at 11 am, and even the Red Army shows signs of taking the last hours easy. But as the last half an hour begins, the Red Army artillery suddenly begins to fire a tremendous barrage at the Finnish positions. It goes on until the last minute of the war. Then it all ends. The 105 days of the Winter War are over. Finnish Army still stands, battered but intact. Nowhere in Karelia has the Red Army been able to reach the new border.

Maj. Lasse Varko's detachment has fought in the bitter battles on the western shore of the Bay of Viipuri. In his message to his troops telling of the coming of peace, Maj. Varko instructs that "by 11 am as many Russians as possible has to be killed without incurring any own losses." In his daily order to his troops after the end of the war, commander of the IInd Corps Lt. Gen. Harald Öhquist adds the uncompromising words: "One can never in any situation trust in our arch-enemy."

The war leaves behind an immense legacy of bitterness. Molotov's statement that the Soviet Union sees no reasons why its relations with Finland could not be good, rings hollow in Finnish ears. It is feared, and with a good reason, that Stalin only waits an opportunity to start a new war to take the rest of Finland. Foreign Minister Väinö Tanner, in a radioed speech to stunned nation, says: "In last reckoning our only fault was that we were too small a people." The peace is already known in Finland as the interim peace (välirauha), everybody expects another war to follow, in the form of another Soviet invasion.

For the home front the severity of the Peace Treaty is a bolt out of blue. The strict censorship has kept it unaware of how desperate the situation actually was, and people was confidently waiting for the Allied help. Now a peace has been made, an unexpectedly harsh peace. Everywhere in the country flags are flying half-mast, often accompanied by black ribbons of mourning. The mood ranges from disbelief to anger. The Finnish popular opinion has always cherished the idea of Finland as the bulwark of the West against the Soviet communism. But Finland had to fight alone. Sweden and Norway denied the access to the Allied troops. Was the situation really so desperate as to warrant accepting so unbelievably harsh treaty? The coming of spring could have made the terrain easier to defend, and the Allied help would have arrived sooner or later... Thus began the historical debate that has continued to our days, intensified by the politicians who originally disagreed with the making of the peace. But the fact is, as shown IMO beyond dispute by historian Lasse Laaksonen in his recent book 'Todellisuus ja harhat' ('Reality and Illusions'; from which I have drawn much of my material for these postings), that the Finnish Army was only days from collapse. Sooner or later the Red Army would had managed to effect the decisive breakthrough, and there's no telling how and if the Finnish front could have been reconstituted afterwards.

But there's no doubt that the war has entered in the Finnish national consciousness. It's the 'One Hundred and Five Days of Glory', when the nation unanimously fought against the Soviet invasion and saved the nation from the horrors of communism. The Legend of Winter War has born.

Regarding the last day of battle, March 13, Colonel of the Guards Viktor M. Iskrov writes:

"All of a sudden there was a phone call, Senior Lieutenant Vnukov, our battery commander, called me. He said: "Viktor, are you still fighting the war there? Are you planning to shoot?" "Yes!" - was my answer. I was in a very high spirit: the Mannerheim Line had been broken, I could see Vyborg burning. I can very well remember that. On our left we could see both fire and smoke coming out of the city. "So, the war is over,"b he told me. I answered: "No way! Let's go for Vaasa! We have just broken such a strong line, now we just have to go and capture Vaasa and other places!" Battalion commander Sokolov did not know anything about the end of hostilities either. Senior Lieutenant Vnukov told me over the phone: "You want to fight the war there, Viktor, but I am here at the firing positions, and I will not permit a single mine to be fired. The war is over, they signed an armistice yesterday." More...

The armistice went into effect at noon. In this way, the Finnish troops around Vyborg were surrounded, severely bombed, lost their main supply line, and abandoned half of the city completely. However, they occupied the island castle and the western bank of the river on the city's edge right up to the armistice. (Hal Smith)

* a modern day map of Viipuri city center; Patterinmäki (Batarejnaja

Gora) is on the eastern edge of the map:

http://www.viipurikeskus.fi/kartta.html

* a rough map of Viipuri as it was in 1939; Patterinmäki is on the

right center of the map:

http://www.luovutettukarjala.fi/pitajat/viipuri/viipurikart%201939.htm

* a Finnish map of Viipuri and its eastern environs dating from

1939; city is on the left edge of the map, and Patterinmäki is the

unbuilt region between city center and southern suburbs:

http://www.maanmittauslaitos.fi/images/527.jpg

(248)

NEWFOUNDLAND: An agreement is reached for the Canadian Army to provide coastal guns to protect Bell Island off the northeastern coast of Newfoundland.

CANADA: Submarine FS Side Ferruch departed Halifax escort for Convoy HX-27.

PUERTO RICO: The USN’s Fleet Landing Exercise (FLEX) No. 6, which began on 11 January, concludes at Culebra. The Fleet Marine Force makes progress in developing techniques for rubber boat landings, getting heavy combat materiel ashore, and improving ship-to-shore supply.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-44 is hit by a mine, in minefield No. 7, laid by the destroyers HMS EXPRESS, HMS ESK, HMS ICARUS and HMS IMPULSIVE. The boat is lost with all 47 hands. (Alex Gordon)

13 March 1941

March 13th, 1941 (THURSDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Glasgow and Clydeside suffer their first major Luftwaffe raid tonight; 236 aircraft drop 272 tons of high explosive and 59,400 incendiaries. In the shipbuilding town of Clydebank only seven houses were left undamaged, and three-quarters of its population were made homeless. The raid leaves 1,100 dead and 1,000 injured. 13 bombers are claimed.

Merseyside is also raided and in Cardiff the Royal Infirmary is hit.

RAF Bomber Command: Raids on Hamburg.

NETHERLANDS: Dutch radio societies are disbanded on orders of the German occupation forces.

GERMANY: Berlin: Germany repeats its demand that Yugoslavia join the Axis.

Hitler issues a directive for the invasion of the Soviet Union. He appoints Alfred Rosenberg minister of the eastern occupied territories; he gives administrative control of future eastern conquests to Himmler; Göring is to exploit the Soviet economy to serve Germany.

U-79, U-561 commissioned.

ALBANIA: Tiranë: With the Duce himself present the Italian High Command ordered his soldiers to attack at all costs. The costs were high, despite the courage of Mussolini's blackshirts who fought furiously to regain vital heights in the Temepeleni region.

They attacked the heights in close-packed waves, but tonight their offensive stopped leaving thousands dead on the mountainside.

A Greek statement insisted that no ground had been taken. The Italians dropped leaflets among their own men, stressing the presence of the Duce to maintain flagging morale.

(Mike Yaklich adds): Bari Division replaces the Puglie in renewed heavy assaults on Monastery Hill. Despite a sophisticated artillery fire plan featuring a rolling barrage, the first attack suffers severe losses without reaching its objective. After dark the Bari tries again with a night attack that reaches the summit briefly but is quickly driven back.

LIBYA: General Erwin Rommel, commander of the Afrika Korps, moves his headquarters forward to Sirte and orders the occupation of Mirada, about 60 miles (97 kilometres) south of Aghelia.

CHINA: Ichang: Chinese Nationalist forces have successfully repulsed Japan's latest offensive in western Hupeh after a week of heavy fighting in which the Japanese are thought to have suffered at least 4,000 casualties.

The Nationalist counter-attack, which has driven the Japanese back to their old positions at Ichang, has been a mix of guerrilla attacks and conventional flanking movements by the River defence Force, which has managed to penetrate behind enemy lines.

NEWFOUNDLAND: HMS Burin (ex-MMS 141) and Cottel (ex-MMS 142) ordered Steers Shipbuilding St John's.

U.S.A.: It is reported that at present there are 32 strikes going-on in the defence industries. This does not include the number in the allied industries. Chairman of the House naval affairs committee, Carl Vinson, estimated that 1940 strikes wasted enough labour to manufacture 325 bombers. Vinson is urging the government to bring in a measure to curb strikes in plants producing defence materials. He reported that the loss during 1940 and to the middle of last February totalled 7,817,360 man-hours.

The government freezes Hungarian assets in the U.S.

Destroyer USS Ericsson commissioned.

13 March 1942

March 13th, 1942 (FRIDAY)

BELGIUM: During the night of the 13th/14th, two RAF Bomber Command aircraft bomb the port area at Ostend.

FRANCE: Ten of 11 RAF Bomber Command Bostons attack the Hazebrouck marshalling yard without loss during the day. During the night of the 13th/14th, seven of the 20 aircraft dispatched bomb the port area at Boulogne (a Wellington is lost); one aircraft bombs the port area at Calais; 11 of 19 Wellingtons dispatched bomb the port area at Dunkirk (two aircraft are lost); and five of seven Hampdens dispatched drop leaflets.

NETHERLANDS: During the night of the 13th/14th, one RAF Bomber Command bomber attacks Schipol Airfield.

GERMANY: During the night of the 13th/14th, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 135 aircraft of 6 different types to attack Cologne; 112 aircraft bomb the target and a Manchester is lost. This can be considered the first successful Gee-led raid. Although there was no moon, the leading crews carrying flares and incendiary-bomb loads locate the target and much accurate bombing follows. It is later estimated that this raid was five times more effective than the average of recent raids on Cologne. There were 237 separate fires and casualties were 62 killed and 84 injured. One aircraft visually bombs Bonn while five Hampdens lay mines in the Frisian Islands.

U-536 laid down.

POLAND: Belzec: The second Nazi death camp opens with a transport of 6,000 Jews from Mielec.

U.S.S.R.: The Soviet Army launches an attack against German 11th Army, Army Group South from the Kerch peninsula in the eastern Crimea to relieve Sevastapol. The Soviets lose 130 tanks in three days.

INDIA: The first detachment of U.S. troops (USAAF personnel) to reach the China-Burma-India Theater arrive at Karachi, having been diverted from Java, Netherlands East Indies.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: The two motor torpedo (PT) boats carrying General Douglas MacArthur"> MacArthur, his family, Rear Admiral Francis W. Rockwell and their staffs, PT-34 and PT-41, arrive at Cagayan on Mindanao Island in the early morning. Later in the day, a third boat, PT-35, arrives at Cagayan. The three boats had made the 560-mile (901 kilometres) voyage in heavy to moderate seas in two days. The next leg of MacArthur’s journey to Australia is to be by B-17 Flying Fortresses but only one B-17 has reached Del Monte Field and it had wheezed in to a wobbly landing. MacArthur, furious, will allow no one to board the "dangerously decrepit" aircraft, and demands the “three best planes in the U.S. or Hawaii," manned by “completely adequate, experienced” airmen be flown to Del Monte. Unfortunately, Major General George Brett, Commanding General U.S. Army Forces in Australia, has neither. The party must now await the arrival of three additional B-17 Flying Fortresses from Australia.
The submarine USS Permit (SS-178) arrives at Tagauayan Island and finds the fourth motor torpedo (PT) boat involved in the evacuation of the MacArthur party, PT-32, there. The PT boat is not seaworthy and the submarines takes the boat’s crew aboard and PT-32 is destroyed by gunfire.

NEW GUINEA: The Japanese, having gained firm positions in the Lae-Salamaua area, replace infantry with naval forces.

BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: A Japanese force from the 4th Fleet sails from Rabaul, New Britain Island, for Buka Island, Solomon Islands, which is eventually seized together with other positions in the northern Solomons.

PACIFIC OCEAN: Submarine USS Gar (SS-206) torpedoes and sinks a Japanese victualling stores ship between 6 and 10 miles (10 and 16 kilometres) southwest of Mikura Jima, south of Tokyo Bay.

NEW ZEALAND: Japanese submarine HIJMS I-25 launches a Yokosuka E14Y1, Navy Type 0 Small Reconnaissance Seaplane (later assigned the Allied Code Name "Glen"), to recconnoiter Auckland.

U.S.A.: Julia Flikke became the first female Colonel in the US Army (Nurse Corps). (Michael Ballard)

HQ USAAF activates HQ XII Bomber Command at MacDill Field, Tampa, Florida.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-404 sinks an unarmed Chilean freighter, SS Tolten, about 28 miles (45 kilometres) east southeast of Asbury Park, New Jersey at 40.10N, 73.50W; there is one survivor from 21 crew.

At 0441, the unarmed and unescorted Colabee was hit by a torpedo from U-126, while she steered a nonevasive course about 10 miles off Cape Guajaba, Cuba. The torpedo was fired on the surface not more than 800 yards away and struck the starboard side at the after end of #2 hold. The explosion created a large hole, blew off the #2 hatch covers and extensively damaged the bridge, killing the master and one man. After the vessel was stopped, the crew of eight officers and 29 men abandoned the ship in panic, because one of the two lifeboats was destroyed and no rafts were aboard. Only ten men get away with the boat, the others jumped overboard and many drowned. U-126 picked up one man, helped him into the lifeboat and questioned the survivors. The ship went aground shortly afterwards. The boat landed on a small Island off Key Verde, Cuba, where the Cuban steam merchant Oriente picked up these 11 survivors and took them to Nuevitas on 15 March. The first engineer and two men stayed with the ship and were taken off the next day at 21.30 hours by American steam tanker Cities Service Kansas. Four officers and 19 men died. Later the Oriente pulled the Colabee off the shoal and was anchored. The Cuban Navy towed her into port, where she was repaired and put back into service.

At 0505, the unescorted tanker John D. Gill was torpedoed by U-158 about 25 miles east of Cape Fear, North Carolina. The vessel on her second voyage had stopped zigzagging for about 20 minutes off Frying Pan Shoals, flashed the running lights and then continued on a zigzag course at 15 knots. One torpedo struck on the starboard side amidships under the mainmast in the #7 tank. The tanker seemed to lift out of the water and move sideways, but the explosion did not ignite the cargo. The oil was ignited when a seaman tossed a life ring with a self-igniting carbide light overboard. The ship and sea was turned in a blazing inferno, forcing the eight officers and 34 crewmen to abandon ship within eight minutes, followed by the seven armed guards (the ship was armed with one 5in, two .50cal and two .30cal guns) seven minutes later. While lowering one of the after boats, the lines became fouled and the occupants were spilled into the sea. At least two of them were killed by the still turning prop. The survivors left the ship in only one of the four lifeboats and one of the six rafts. After abandonment, the tanker was rocked by a series of explosions as one tank after another ignited and exploded. The burned out vessel sank after nine hours. Eight crewmembers and three armed guards were picked up by the US Coast Guard patrol boat #4405, transferred to USCGC Agassiz and landed at Southport, North Carolina. 15 survivors in the lifeboat were picked up by the Robert H. Colley and taken to Charleston, South Carolina. Six officers, 13 crewmen and four armed guards were lost and many of the survivors were badly burned.

U-332 sinks a U.S. schooner about 510 miles (821 kilometres) east of Miami, Florida; there are no survivors; The unarmed and unescorted four-masted schooner Albert F. Paul was reported missing after 11 Mar 1942. On 13 March U-332 spotted a four-masted schooner, which must have been the Albert F. Paul. Liebe considered using his deck gun to sink the ship, but the heavy seas prevented this. A first torpedo passed under the bowsprit, but at 0720 a second torpedo struck under the third mast and the schooner sank immediately.

SS Trepca sunk by U-332 at 37N, 73.25W.

13 March 1943

March 13th, 1943 (SATURDAY)

GERMANY: Hitler escaped an assassination attempt when a bomb failed to explode on his airplane. (Michael Ballard)

Back in the summer of 1941, Maj. Gen. Henning von Tresckow, a member of Gen. Fedor von Bock's Army Group Center, was the leader of one of many conspiracies against Adolf Hitler. Along with his staff officer, Lt. Fabian von Schlabrendorff, and two other conspirators, both of old German families who also believed Hitler was leading Germany to humiliation, Tresckow had planned to arrest the Fuhrer when he visited the Army Group's headquarters at Borisov, in the Soviet Union. But their naivete in such matters became evident when Hitler showed up-surrounded by SS bodyguards and driven in one of a fleet of cars.

They never got near him.

Tresckow would try again today in a plot called Operation Flash.

This time, Tresckow, Schlabrendorff, et al., were stationed in Smolensk, still in the USSR. Hitler was planning to fly back to Rastenburg, Germany, from Vinnitsa, in the USSR. A stopover was planned at Smolensk, during which the Fuhrer was to be handed a parcel bomb by an unwitting officer thinking it was a gift of liquor for two senior officers at Rastenburg. All went according to plan and Hitler's plane took off--the bomb was set to go off somewhere over Minsk. At that point, co-conspirators in Berlin were ready to take control of the central government at the mention of the code word "Flash."

Unfortunately, the bomb never went off at all-the detonator was defective.

U-764 launched.

U-1197, U-1198 laid down.

U-239, U-282, U-390, U-763 commissioned.

POLAND: SS troops start to dismantle the ghetto at Krakow, dispersing 14,000 Jews.

FINLAND: Finnish Air Force receives the first 16 Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-2 fighters purchased from Germany. They are a considerable improvement to the Air Force fighter plane -inventory.

U.S.S.R.: Smolensk: German army officers plotting the assassination of Hitler planted a bomb made from British plastic explosive aboard his plane when he left Smolensk after a military conference. The bomb should have gone off as the plane passed over Minsk, but two hours later Hitler landed safely at his Rastenburg HQ.

Fabian von Schlabrendorff, a junior officer in the plotters' circle, retrieved the bomb from the plane and discovered that the corrosive chemical had worked, eating away a wire which had then released a striker. The striker had duly hit the detonator - which had proved to be a dud.

SOLOMON ISLANDS: Japanese forces ended their attack on American troops on Hill 700, Bougainvillea. (Michael Ballard)

U.S.A.: Henri Rene And His Orchestra's record of "Tap The Barrel Dry" makes it to the Billboard Pop Singles chart. This is their first single to make the charts and it stays there for 1 week reaching Number 16.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 2322, SS Keystone was torpedoed by U-172 about 450 miles west of the Azores. The ship had been in Convoy UGS-6, but straggled on 12 March about 15 miles behind the convoy due to engine problems and an destroyer remained with the freighter all night, but left the next morning to rejoin the convoy. The U-boat reported the vessel under her former name Sage Brush. One torpedo struck on the port side aft of the #5 hatch. The explosion blew a hole in the hull between #5 hold and the poop deck, destroyed the steering engine and steering gear, buckled the deck, disabled the 4in stern gun, flooded the shaft alley and killed one armed guard and a fireman on watch below. Five minutes after the hit a fire started and one of the aircraft carried on deck caught fire. The engines were secured and most of the eight officers, 35 crewmen, 27 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in and nine 20mm guns) and two passengers (US Army) abandoned ship in good order in four lifeboats. After the crew cleared the vessel, a coup de grâce was fired at 2355 hours, which struck at the #3 hold and broke the ship in two. Both parts sunk until 00.27 hours on 14 March. The survivors were picked up after seven hours by the Portuguese steam merchant Sines and landed at Horta in the Azores on 16 March.

At 0458, U-68 attacked Convoy GAT-49 about 200 miles NW of Curaçao and torpedoed the Cities Service Missouri. 30 minutes later two torpedoes struck the Ceres, the first under the bridge and the second under #5 hatch, causing the ship to sink fast. The crew and the passengers immediately abandoned ship and were picked up by an escort vessel. Cities Service Missouri in station #23 was the last ship in the second column and was struck by one torpedo at the stem on the starboard side. The explosion ripped a ten-foot hole in the side and vented upward, damaging the bridge and wheelhouse. The vessel stopped to determine the damage and the master thought she could be saved if they shift the ballast. At 0610 a second torpedo struck the port side in the engine room and demolished the engines, just as they had brought the tanker on even keel. U-68 surfaced about 1300 yards from the tanker and the armed guards (the ship was armed with one 5in and two .50cal guns) fired three rounds on her but all missed. By this time, water had risen to the base of the gun and 30 minutes later the master ordered the ship abandoned. All eight officers, 35 crewmen and 11 armed guards left the tanker in three lifeboats and one raft. At 07.40 hours the ship plunged stern first with her bow straight in the air. Three hours later, destroyer USS Biddle picked up the survivors. A boatswain drowned trying to get on the destroyer and a machinist died of wounds and burns on board. The survivors were later brought to Curaçao.

At 0530, U-107 attacked Convoy OS-44 190 miles west of Cape Finisher and reported hits on three ships. In fact, four ships were sunk, Clan Alpine, Marcella, Oporto and Sembilangan. Clan Alpine was later scuttled by sloop HMS Scarborough with depth charges. The master, 59 crewmembers and nine gunners were picked up by the sloop, transferred to the British SS Pendeen and landed at Gibraltar. The master, 34 crewmembers and nine gunners from Marcella were lost. The master, 35 crewmembers and seven gunners from the Oporto were lost. Four crewmembers were picked up by HMS Spiraea and transferred to HMS Gentian and landed at Gibraltar. A torpedo hit the Sembilangan and the ammunition exploded. The 4th engineer was thrown overboard and was the only survivor when he was later picked up by an escort vessel.

Canadian-owned, British registered passenger liner SS Empress of Canada was sunk. For the first three and a half years of the war she had escaped enemy destruction so successfully that the Germans referred to her as "The Phantom". Her trooping duties had taken her all over the world. In Aug 41, she took part in a raid on the Norwegian Island of Spitzbergen, and travelled as far north as Archangel on the edge of the Arctic Ocean. At the time of her loss, she was en route from Durban, South Africa to Takoradi, on the Gold Coast of West Africa, with 1,346 passengers. The passengers were a very mixed group that included Italian POW's, military personnel from the German-occupied countries of Poland, Norway, and Greece, plus a small number of British government officials. Just before midnight on the 13th, the Italian submarine Leonardo Da Vinci torpedoed the ship. The liner started to sink quickly, and her master, Capt George Goold, gave the order to abandon ship. A second torpedo hit the ship during the evacuation. The survivors were rescued by HMS Boreas, Crocus and Petunia, which arrived from Freetown, Sierra Leone, on the evening of the 15th. HMS Corinthian followed them the next morning. Attacks by barracuda and sharks took large toll on the people in the water. A total of 392 people, 44 of them crewmembers, were lost.

Corvettes HMCS Napanee and Prescott sank U-163 Kkpt Kurt-Eduard Engelmann CO, Bay of Biscay, of U-163's crew of 57 there were no survivors. U-163 was en route from Lorient to a rendezvous SW of Iceland with the German blockade- runner Regensberg when she encountered the Gibraltar to UK convoy MKS 9. At 2149, Prescott was stationed five miles on the convoy's starboard bow when she obtained a contact at a range of 3700 yards on her new 271 radar. She closed the contact to 1500 yards and saw a U-Boat submerging. Prescott continued to close and obtained an Asdic contact at 1200 yards but at the same instant, saw what she presumed to be a second submarine surface close on her port bow and making for the convoy. She reversed course and engaged the submarine with her gun. When the range had closed to 700 yards the submarine submerged. Prescott attacked with depth charges but lost contact. Napanee joined and the ships began a systematic search of the area. At 2319, Prescott gained Asdic contact and re-attacked with depth charges. This time contact was lost again and could not be regained. Post-war record reconstruction established that U-163, which was the only submarine in the area, was destroyed in Prescott's second attack.

13 March 1944

March 13th, 1944 (MONDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Arrived Plymouth assigned - (1) 31st Minesweeping Flotilla a. HMCS Cowichan b. Caraquet c. Malpequet (2) 32nd M/S Fl, later to 14th M/S Fl, and then 31st M/S Fl. a. HMCS Vegreville.

U.S.S.R.: Russian forces take Kherson.

Moscow: The USSR and Italy re-establish diplomatic links.

BURMA: Japan attacks the Chindit airstrip at "Broadway"

Air Commando Combat Mission N0. 20 2:55 Flight Time. Hailakandi, Assam to Wuntho, Burma. The Chindits had established a road block at Wuntho and through radio directions and targeting the area with colored smoke, we were able bomb the Japanese position although no results were noted.

Note: Our missions were very short ones and we usually had an idea of the munitions required before taking off. When working with the Chindits on close support we usually carried fragmentation cluster bombs. There were two types; a 20 pound cluster of 6 per station we dropped from a minimum of 2000 feet (not sure if I have the altitude right) or a parachute type which came in clusters of 3. We could drop these flying from a very low altitude as the chutes delayed the bombs from detonating, giving the aircraft time to get clear. One of my missions included flying with another pilot, this hot shot put 57 fragments into the bottom of our plane when he dropped the load too low. Claimed it was from flak hits but we knew better. (Chuck Baisden)

Lt. George Albert Cairns (b.1913), Somerset Light Infantry, killed an officer who had cut off his arm and used the sword to fell more Japanese. He died of his wounds. (Victoria Cross: last VC of war gazetted [1949]).

SOLOMON ISLANDS: Fierce fighting continues on Bougainville. Heavy US counterattacks begin to blunt the recent gains by the Japanese. Japanese forces end their attack on Hill 700. (Mike Ballard)

CANADA:

HMC MTB 743 commissioned.

Corvette HMCS Galt departed Halifax for refit New York City.

U.S.A.: The New York based Emergency Committee, devoted to urging the Allies to do more to save the Jews in Europe, hosts an all-star Show of Shows at Madison Square Garden.

More than 20,000 people attend, including 150 servicemen whose tickets are paid for by the famous Jewish boxer (and serviceman), Barney Ross.

The evening was a combination of pleasant entertainment and bitter reality.

On the one hand, it featured skits and comedy routines by Bob Hope, as well as by Gracie Fields, Jimmy Durante, Ethel Merman, Zero Mostel, Molly Picon, and others. Milton Berle served as master of ceremonies. Musical numbers were performed by Paul Robeson, Perry Como, the Andrews Sisters, the Xavier CugatBand, and the Count Basie Band, among others.

But the evening also included a dramatic reading by Helen Hayes of a Ben Hecht poem about the Nazi massacres.

Emergency Committee chairman Dean Alfange (a leader of the American Labor Party), in a stirring address, declared that it was the duty of the Christian world to help these stricken people in this black hour of their misery and distress. Bergson (the chairman of the Emergency Committee) also spoke, appealing to Allied officials and Jewish community leaders to “brush aside political considerations at a time when thousands of us are dying daily.

According to the New York Times, the Show of Shows netted $80,000--quite a sum for that era and an important boost to the rescue campaign. While other entertainers used their talents simply to gain personal wealth and fame, Bob Hope and his colleagues had demonstrated that they were a cut above the rest. The participants in the Show of Shows took the risk of associating with a controversial group, for the sake of the vital humanitarian cause of rescuing Jews from the Holocaust. (William L. Howard)

Destroyer escorts USS Riley and Willmarth commissioned.

Destroyer USS Rowe commissioned.

Destroyers USS Charles S Sperry and Porter launched.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-575 (type VIIC) is sunk north of the Azores, in position 46.18N, 27.34W, by depth charges from the Canadian frigate HMCS Prince Rupert, the US destroyer USS Hobson, destroyer escort Haverfield, and by depth charges from a British Wellington and Fortress aircraft (Sqdns. 172/B and 206/R and 220/J) and Avenger aircraft of the US escort carrier USS Bogue. 18 dead and 37 survivors.

U-575 was located by Bogue's a/c and was soon joined by Haverfield. Prince Rupert was detached from the passing convoy ON 227 to join the action. Both ships attacked with depth charges and hedgehog but with no result. They were joined by USS Hobson, which began slow creeping attack that forced the submarine to the surface. Amidst a hail of fire from all three ships and an 'Avenger' a/c from Bogue, the submarine crew abandoned ship as she sank. OLtzS Bohmer was among the survivors. (Alex Gordon and Dave Shirlaw)

At 1940, the unescorted Peleus was hit by two torpedoes from U-852 and sank rapidly about 500 miles north of Ascension Island. The U-boat tried to destroy all evidences of the sinking by shooting at debris and rafts from the ship. During this action some survivors were killed and only four men were alive when the U-boat left the area. One of them later died, the remaining three survivors were picked up by the Portuguese SS Alexandre Silva on 20 April and taken to Lobito, Angola.

13 March 1945

March 13th, 1945 (TUESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: SS Taber Park (2,878 GRT), Canadian merchantman, was sunk in the North Sea off England's NE coast in position 52.22N, 001.53E, by either a mine or a German midget submarine. Only four members of the crew of 32 men survived.

Submarine HMS Alliance laid down.

GERMANY: U-1407 commissioned.

NORWAY:

U-396 sailed from Norway on her final patrol.

U-905 sailed from Norway on her final patrol.

ITALY: RAF Wellington bombers of No. 40 Squadron raid Treviso. (22)

NETHERLANDS East Indies: No. 25 Squadron RAAF bombs Mapin on Sumbawa, staging through Truscott airbase. (Mike Mitchell)

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

PERU: Peru declares war on Germany. (Mike Ballard)

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