14 March 1939

1936: GERMANY: Hitler told a crowd of 300,000 that Germany's only judge was God and itself. (Mike Ballard)

March 14th, 1939 (TUESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Boom defense vessel HMS Burgonet launched.

CZECHOSLOVAKIA: Hitler occupies Bohemia and Moravia, leaving Slovakia independent at this time, basically ending Czechoslovakia's status as an independent republic. The stage for this had been set the previous year with the signing of the Munich Pact, stripping Czechoslovakia of what many consider to be her best defensive line (in the Sudentenland). (Mike Ballard)

SOUTH AFRICA: The "Timeless" Test between South Africa and England in Durban ends - it started on March 3 - because the England players have to rejoin their ship.

14 March 1940

March 14th, 1940 (THURSDAY)

FRANCE: Angers: The Polish government in exile published a white paper today giving a general view of Poland's relations with Germany between May 1933 and October 1939. One of its most interesting revelations - which will not please Stalin - is that Hitler tried to involve Poland in a plot to attack the Soviet Union.

It was proposed by Göring during a visit to Warsaw in February 1935. In a discussion with the Polish leader, Marshal Pilsudski, he suggested that Poland and Germany should mount a joint invasion of the Ukraine. The Poles insist that they gave the Germans no encouragement whatsoever.

Paris: The French government learns from its spies in Turkey that the Soviets had commissioned American experts to assess "whether and how a fire in the Baku oil fields, arising from a bomb attack could be combated successfully." Allegedly the US experts replied that given the output of the oil fields so far, the ground would be so saturated with oil that a blaze would be bound to spread instantly to the entire neighbouring region; it would be months before the fire could be put out, and years before oil production could be resumed.

At the same time foreign embassies in Moscow reported that at the beginning of March, the Soviet High Command transferred troops into the Caucasus, on 6 March, Voroshilov, the People's Commissar for defence, paid a visit to the Caspian Sea area.

Destroyer depot ship HMS Hecla launched.

Escort carrier HMS Dasher laid down.

GERMANY: Göring decrees that all articles made of copper, bronze, nickel and other useful metals be given up for the war effort.

U-375 laid down.

FINLAND: 470,000 Finns evacuate the area ceded to Russia.

The President of the Republic of Finland Kyösti Kallio gives a Mannerheim radio speech to the nation. "I dare to hope that the necessity of a Scandinavian defensive alliance has became clear during this war also to our neighbours."

CHINA: 27 out of 30 Chinese fighter planes are shot down by the Japanese over Chengtu.

AUSTRALIA: The Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, forms a coalition cabinet.

U.S.A.: The motion picture "Road to Singapore" premieres in New York City. Directed by Victor Schertzinger, the film stars Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, Bob Hope, Charles Coburn, Anthony Quinn, Jerry Colonna and Monte Blue. This is the first of the Crosby and Hope "Road" pictures.

14 March 1941

March 14th, 1941 (FRIDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM:

RAF Bomber Command: 2 Group: An aircraft of 139 Squadron on patrol off Norway scores a near miss on an 800-ton ship.

London: Churchill orders Eden to remain in the Middle East until the deepening crisis has 'matured'.

Destroyer HMS Rocket laid down.

Submarine HMS Trusty launched.

ALBANIA: Italian offensive in Albania continues, as new attacks on Monastery Hill meet the same fate as earlier attempts. Two Allied planes* strafe the mountain on which Mussolini is observing the battle. Though never really in danger (as the bullets fall hundreds of yards away) he is the last man to enter the shelter. Renewed attempts by the Giulia alpini division on the Golico heights south of the Vojussa river suffer heavy casualties, so much so that in the coming week there will be instances of the Giulia alpini refusing to advance on further attacks. (NOTE: the Giulia Division was involved in some of the toughest fighting of the Greek campaign, from the very first day, and proved their mettle in difficult circumstances, but they have also demonstrated an alarming independence of thought when they disagreed with Fascist policies or Army orders). On the other flank of the offensive, the Pusteria alpini also sustain painful losses in a fresh push. In five days of fighting, the Italians have lost 12,000 men killed or wounded while gaining nothing. This forces Mussolini to consider ending the offensive, a course urged by his Chief of the General Staff, Cavallero. (Mike Yaklich)

EGYPT:

Cairo: HQ RAF ME to Air Ministry:

...we consider that air attacks now on vulnerable points on L of C Bulgaria would not have far-reaching effect on immediate military situation. ... Air effort we could produce would be far less than enemy retaliation against air bases.

ETHIOPIA: Major Orde Wingate and Haile Selassie establish new headquarters at Burye. The main Italian force in their area is now at Debra Markos. The Italians are negotiating with a local chief called Ras Hailu and are preparing an attack with him.

INDIAN OCEAN: The German merchant ship COBURG (ca. 9000 tons) which had been sheltering in the Italian held port of Massawa on the Red Sea was intercepted off the island of Mauritius while trying the run the British blockade. She is scuttled and the crew taken prisoner. (Greg Kelley)

JAPAN: Tokyo: The territorial difficulties between Siam and Indochina have been settled. French Indochina handed over one of her largest rice-producing areas under a Japanese-mediated peace. It is stated that Siam acquired over 21,000 square miles of territory in Cambodia and Laos, areas she lost to Indochina in 1904 and 1907.

AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Mildura launched.

U.S.A.:

President Roosevelt promised increasing aid to Allies for a total victory.

Destroyer USS Monssen commissioned.

14 March 1942

March 14th, 1942 (SATURDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: HMC ML 070 commissioned.

Submarine HMS Safari commissioned.

Destroyer HMS Ulysses laid down.

GERMANY: Berlin: Adolf Hitler intends to revive German morale, dented after the failure to take Moscow last year, by promising a new offensive against his former Russian ally this summer. He will outline his plans at a ceremony to commemorate Germany's war dead here tomorrow, but the military preparations have been under way for some time.

Where the Wehrmacht will strike, however, is by no means clear. Analysis of the situation shows that the Russians are now very strong in front of Moscow. Hitler may well turn again to the Caucasus, its oilfields and the road to the Middle East.

U-221 launched.

U-177 and U-260 commissioned.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: U-133 sunk in Mediterranean outside Salamis (Saronic Gulf), Greece, in position 37.50N, 23.35E by a mine. 45 dead (all hands lost).

AUSTRALIA: Japanese aircraft bomb Horn Island located 10 miles (16 kilometres) off the northern coast of Queensland. Horn Island, in the Torres Strait between Queensland and New Guinea, will become the main tactical base for Allied air operations in the Torres Strait. The island will be subject to nine Japanese air raids during WWII.

US forces begin to arrive in large numbers.

A convoy brought 30,000 American troops who are to serve in Australia and New Caledonia. After a brief stay in Australia the New Caledonia Task Force of some 14,000 officers and men arrived in Noumea on 12 March.

The first US troops came in an eight-ship convoy which was headed for the Philippines when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Two more American divisions are on their way here, and one Australian division is due to arrive back here this month. A concentration of ground forces is now assured.

Minesweeper HMAS"> HMAS Tamworth launched.

CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Westmount launched Levis, Province of Quebec.

U.S.A.: Washington: The US chiefs of staff decide to build up American forces in Britain for an attack on Germany, while fighting a defensive war in the Pacific.

German submarines have sunk so many tankers during the past two months that the War Production Board orders gasoline deliveries be cut 20 percent in 17 eastern states and the District of Columbia.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt asks the 48 state governors to set speed limits at 40 mph (64 km/h) to conserve tyres.

Submarine USS Haddock commissioned.

Destroyer escort USS Austin and Edgar G Chase laid down.

Submarine USS Whale launched.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 0758, the unescorted and unarmed U.S. collier SS Lemuel Burrows was torpedoed by U-404 about five miles SSW of the Brigantine Gas Buoy off Atlantic City after spotting the silhouette of the collier against the bright lights of the city. The U-boat had earlier missed with two torpedoes before hitting with the third on the starboard side between the #2 and #3 holds, followed by a another torpedo at 0815 on the port side amidships. The most of the eight officers and 26 crewmen abandoned ship in two lifeboats, just before the ship was hit at 0828 hours by a coup de grâce on the starboard quarter, causing the ship to lift and then sink, swamping the nearby lifeboats. All survivors were thrown into the icy water. Only eight men managed to cling to the overturned boat, but two eventually slipped into the water and drowned, while other survivors swam to two rafts, which had floated free. The U-boat surfaced and questioned the survivors before leaving the area. After drifting for six hours, eight survivors were picked up by the American SS Sewalls Point and seven others by a boat from the American SS James Elwood Jones. Four officers and 16 crewmen were lost. All survivors were landed at New York, where one survivor died in the Marine Hospital at Staten Island. (Dave Shirlaw and Jack McKillop)

At 0200, the unescorted motor tanker Penelope was hit in the bow by one of two fired torpedoes from U-67 after being hunted for three and a half hours. The ship caught fire, stopped and the crew abandoned ship in three lifeboats and one raft. A coup de grâce fired at 0219 hit near the funnel and caused the tanker to sink, while the oil was still burning on the surface. The U-boat went to a lifeboat, questioned the survivors and gave them the course to Dominica before leaving the area.

At 2118, the unescorted motor tanker British Resource was torpedoed by U-124 north of Bermuda, caught fire and burned until she sank the next day. The master, 41 crewmembers and three gunners were lost. One crewmember and three gunners were picked up by corvette HMS Clarkia and landed at Hamilton, Bermuda.

14 March 1943

March 14th, 1943 (SUNDAY)

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: The British submarine HMS THUNDERBOLT the salvaged HMS Thetis of June 1939 fame) is located and depth charged by the Italian destroyer Cicogna off Cap San Vito, Sicily. There are 62 casualties, none of the crew surviving this sinking. Thunderbolt was discovered again 9 November 1995 covered in fishing nets and wires, with a large hole on the port side forward of the conning tower. Her identification was confirmed by a bronze tally on the 4 inch gun which read “Thetis No. 1027” (1027 being Cammell Laird’s yard number for Thetis). (Alex Gordon)(108)

Submarine HMS Turbulent is lost with all hands (62 casualties). She may have been mined or the victim of a depth charge attack by a Ju.88 and the Italian destroyer Ardito in the Bay of Naples on 6 March, or mined somewhere along the East coast of Sardinia. (Alex Gordon)(108)

NEW GUINEA: Australian and US troops attack Japanese positions, forcing a slow retreat.

U.S.A.: The motion picture "The Moon is Down" premieres in New York City. Directed by Irving Pichel and starring Cedric Hardwicke and Lee J. Cobb and based on the John Steinbeck novel, the film is about the relationship between the mayor of a Norwegian town and the commander of the German forces occupying the town.

Minesweeper USS Threat commissioned.

Destroyer escort USS Fiske launched.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: A 6 day series of battles begins. Convoy HX-229 and SC-122 are attacked by a large wolfpack of 20 German U-Boats. Through B Dienst, the Germans have enough intelligence to find the convoys and sink 21 ships.

A total of 40 U-Boats were assembled for an attack on the convoy presumed to be SC 122. First contact was made in the morning of 16 March by the "Raubgraf" group, and during that day and the following night, 8 U-Boats made contact and claimed 14 ships sunk, and 6 damaged.

On the night of 16 March, a second convoy was reported 120 miles ahead of the first, this second being identified as an SC ( in fact, SC122) and it was at this point it was realised that the first convoy already under attack was actually an HX (HX229).

Almost half of the U-Boats participating in this: "The Biggest Convoy Operation of the War- Against HX 229 and SC 122" as it is titled in the German Naval History, scored results, and only one U-Boat was lost. The German claim was for 32 ships sunk totalling 136 000 tons, comparing with the British record of only 21 ships but aggregating 141 000 tons, plus the A/S trawler "Campo Bello".

The British Admiralty Monthly A/S report: "The Germans never came so near to disrupting communication between the New World and the Old as in the first twenty days of March 1943."

(Alex Gordon)

Canadian-owned, British-registered CPR passenger liner SS Duchess of York heavily damaged off Cape Finisterre when she was bombed by Luftwaffe aircraft. She was sunk later in 1943 in another air attack in the same general area.

14 March 1944

March 14th, 1944 (TUESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Frigate HMCS Valleyfield departed Horta escorting damaged HMCS Mulgrave under tow of HMS Dundee to Clyde.

GERMANY: Peenemunde: Wernher von Braun and two assistants are arrested, accused of diverting resources from military rocket projects to peaceful ones, such as the movement of mail by rocket.

U-1014 commissioned.

BURMA: Air Commando Combat Mission N0.28-2:40 Flight Time Hailakandi, Assam to Meza, Burma. Bombed Meza railroad bridges with excellent results. Two direct hits on the bridge and one on tracks just short of the bridge. The fighter dive bombed a truck pontoon bridge a few hundred yards away. Both bridges destroyed.

Note: On a number of these missions we had a combat photographer on the flight who took color 16 mm movie film. Several years ago these films were located and a video of many of these actions were put together. I was lucky enough to have received a tape and got quite a few goose bumps looking at things we did so many years ago. (Chuck Baisden)

CHINA: The Communist Eighth Route Army captures Chinhsien, in Hupeh province.

AUSTRALIA:

Minesweeper HMAS Strahan commissioned.

U.S.A.: Presidential Election begins with the primary election in New Hampshire. Wendell Wilkie and Franklin D. Roosevelt win for their respective parties.

Minesweeper USS Clamour commissioned.

Destroyer USS Meredith commissioned.

Submarine USS Lizardfish laid down.

Corvette HMCS Kamsack completed forecastle extension refit Baltimore.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-852 torpedoed the Greek SS Peleus. In a unique case among U-boats, they machine-gunned wreckage in the waters in an attempt to remove traces of their victim and to cover their tracks.

14 March 1945

March 14th, 1945 (WEDNESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: The ace crews of RAF Bomber Command's 617 ("Dambuster") Squadron have today added to their list of successes, this time with a new weapon. Their target was the Bielefeld viaduct; the means was the largest bomb so far used in the war, the 22,000 pound "Grand Slam".

To carry it some of 617's Lancasters have had to be specially adapted with cutaway bomb bays, strengthened undercarriages and four 1,280hp Rolls Royce Merlin engines. To save weight two of the crew are dispensed with. Fourteen Lancasters took off from their base at Woodhall Spa shortly after lunch. All but one, piloted by Sqn-Ldr Jock Calder DSO DFC, carried 12,000-pound "Tallboy" bombs. Calder had a "Grand Slam" and attacked the viaduct from just under 12,000 feet, scoring a direct hit. This destroyed over 200 feet of the viaduct. At the moment of release of the bomb, Calder's Lancaster shot up some 500 feet, giving the crew some knocks; but they soon forgot these in the realization that they had scored a bull's-eye.

Submarines HMS Saga and Ace launched.

Boom defense vessel HMS Barcarole launched.

NORTH SEA: U-714 (type VIIC) is sunk near the Firth of Forth, in position 55.57N, 01.57W, by depth charges from the South African frigate HMSAS Natal and the British destroyer HMS Wivern. 50 dead (all hands lost).

Her trials completed, HMSAS Natal - launched in 1944 as HMS Loch Cree - was granted a two-day postponement of her scheduled sailing-date. Her commanding officer, Lt-Cdr D A `Stoker' Hall, DSC - had asked for this on grounds that his crew needed more time to familiarise themselves with this class of vessel. Most crew members - all volunteers - had not served in purpose-built warships before. They had come off tiny whale catchers and trawlers, converted in South African ports to serve as a/s vessels or minesweepers. About 0900 on March 14, 1945, HMSAS Natal sailed from the Tyne, bound for Scapa Flow in the Orkneys and then for the anti-submarine training base at Tobermory, Isle of Mull. Four hours later, with the crew still shaking-down and finding their way around their new ship, a southbound vessel, Sheaf Crown, signalled urgently that a merchantman had just been torpedoed and sunk in her vicinity.

This was off the east coast of Scotland, and the position given by Sheaf Crown showed that the sinking had occurred just five miles to the north of HMSAS Natal, off the fishing harbour of St Abbs near the Firth of Forth. The frigate arrived there to find survivors of the sunken vessel - later identified as the Danish cargo vessel Magne - bobbing about in a lifeboat and several life rafts. A veteran Royal Navy V and W destroyer, HMS Wivern, was on the scene, and while Lt-Cdr Hall was offering the assistance of his newly-commissioned vessel, the frigate made a positive submarine contact off the port beam, using her new-type `sword' Asdic scanning equipment (Set 147B) which allowed for a vertical as well as a lateral fix to be made. Loch-class frigates had also been fitted with `Squid' - a top secret ahead-firing weapon using depth-charge mortars - and this was now used with devastating effect, with the firing of two salvos of six mortars each. These brought up a quantity of light diesel oil and pieces of wreckage. HMSAS Natal suddenly lost Asdic contact after the second attack - in which more oil and a metal tank surfaced - and it was assumed the U-boat had gone straight to the bottom. This was later confirmed when a hunter-killer group, sent from the Tyne and led by HMS Ascension, depth-charge blasted the sea-bed at the exact position of the attack - 55.57N, 01.57W - and brought a considerable quantity of U-boat flotsam to the surface. This included a hand-carved shield depicting a diving U-boat - a memento that was sent to `Natal' by C-in-C Rosyth who, with a Board of Admiralty headed by Admiral of the Fleet Sir Andrew Cunningham, sent signals to the frigate congratulating her on her early `kill'. HMS Wivern claimed a share in the kill, on the basis of a depth-charge `attack' she made later that day on an oil-slick 10 miles south of Natal's encounter with U-714. But this was discounted by naval authorities. It was later learnt that the destroyer, with her outdated equipment, had at no stage been able to make Asdic contact with the submerged U-boat and that her depth-charge `attack' on an oil-slick later in the day had produced no wreckage. All the recognised authorities have credited HMSAS Natal solely with this successful attack. HMSAS Natal's feat so soon after commissioning was described at the time as "unique in the annals of the Royal Navy". The ship received an RN battle honour (`North Sea 1945'), and a number of individual decorations were awarded, including a Bar to Lt-Cdr Hall's DSC, won for gallantry in the Mediterranean. (Daniel Ross)

GERMANY: The US XII Corps of the Third Army begins attacks southeast over the Moselle from Koblenz.
Heavy fighting around the Remagen bridgehead. The German 7th Army is counterattacking.

The heaviest bomb of WW II, the 22,000-lb "Grand Slam", is dropped by Lancaster (PD 112) of RAF Dambuster Squadron 617 piloted by Sqn. Ldr. C. C. Calder, on the Bielefeld Railway Viaduct in Germany. (Michael Ballard)

Adolf Eichmann">Eichmann declares: "I shall go to my grave happy in the knowledge that I have helped to kill six million Jews."

Second Lieutenant Stephen R. Gregg is presented with the Medal of Honor by Lt. Gen. Alexander M. Patch, commander of the 7th US Army for his actions of 27 August, 1944. (John Collins)

U-4704 commissioned.

BURMA: The last rail line for the Japanese into Mandalay is cut by the 62nd Indian Brigade when they take Maymo.

U.S.A.: Destroyer USS Arnold J Isbell laid down.

Destroyer USS Harold J Ellison launched.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-1021 (type VIIC) is listed as missing since today in the North Atlantic south of the Bristol Channel in approximate position 50.34N, 05.07W. 43 dead (all hands lost). Probably sunk in the British mine barrages A1 or ZME 25.. (Alex Gordon)

1947: U.S.S.R.: Moscow announced that 890,532 German POWs were still being held in the USSR. (Mike Ballard)

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