21 March 1939

March 21st, 1939 (TUESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Destroyer HMS KANDAHAR is launched.

Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain proposes to France that the two countries, Germany, and Poland form a mutual support pact.

GERMANY: For the third time since 24 October 1938, Germany renews its harsh demands on Poland, i.e., (1) the free city of Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland) be restored to Germany,
(2) the construction of a road and railway from Germany and East Prussia across the Polish Corridor and
(3) long-term guarantees of the new territorial boundaries.

Prior to 1919, Danzig was the provincial capital of German West Prussia but with the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, Danzig became a free city with its own legislature. In order to give the newly reestablished nation of Poland a seaport, Danzig was included in the Polish customs territory and was placed under a high commissioner appointed by the League of Nations. The Treaty of Versailles also created the Polish Corridor, a strip of land 20 to 70 miles (32-112 kilometres) wide containing the lower course of the Vistula River, except the area constituting the Free City of Danzig, and the towns of Toru, Grudziz, and Bydogoszcz. Free German transit was permitted across the corridor, which separated East Prussia from the rest of Germany. Although the territory had once formed part of Polish Pomerania, a large minority of the population was German-speaking and this arrangement caused chronic friction between Poland and Germany. For the third time, the Poles reject the German demands.

U.S.A.: A song, written by Irving Berlin in 1918 as a tribute by a successful immigrant to his adopted country, was recorded by Kate Smith for Victor Records on this day. Ms. Smith had introduced the song on Armistice Day, 11 November 1938, at the New York World’s Fair. It was a fitting tribute to its composer, who gave all royalties from the very popular and emotional, "God Bless America" to the Boy Scouts. The song became Kate Smith’s second signature after "When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain" and the unofficial national anthem of the United States during World War II.

21 March 1940

March 21st, 1940 (THURSDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: London: Two days ago, two emigré German scientists, Otto Fritsch and Rudolf Peierls, presented a paper to Sir Henry Tizard, the government scientific adviser, arguing that it would be possible to build a super bomb through nuclear chain reaction. This would need just a few pounds of uranium isotope. The government is taking the matter seriously.

Portslade, Sussex: Mr. Gerald Winter (1900-71) a farm worker, rescued an RAF airman from a burning plane which had crashed on a hill. He also tried to pull out the pilot and navigator, but failed owing to the heat. For this he was awarded the Empire Gallantry Medal.

Corvettes HMS Gloxinia and Violet laid down.

Anti-Aircraft cruiser HMS Royalist laid down.

Light cruiser HMS Trinidad launched.

Rescue tug HMS Hendon commissioned.

FRANCE: Paris: Paul Reynaud, has succeeded Edouard Daladier as Prime Minister. He is expected to fight the war with more vigour.

The fall of Daladier happened when he went to the Chamber for a vote of confidence. He got it by 245 votes, but with 294 deputies abstaining. The abstainers did not want him to go, but were infuriated by his insistence on retaining the portfolios of national defence and foreign affairs as well as being Prime Minister. He chose to take the abstentions as votes of no confidence.

Reynaud is a tiny man with hunched shoulders, a deeply lined face and a nasal, tinny voice. He is though, one of the most respected speakers in the Chamber. Before becoming a minister he was a leading Paris lawyer. He is also an expert on finance, and was Minister of Finance until last night. He has taken a keen interest in defence, and is one of the backers of those officers, like Colonel Charles de Gaulle, who urge that France must rely less on the defensive Maginot Line and more on attack.

The government orders a consignment of “heavy water” from Norway for atomic research.

Submarine FS Beveziers assigned to escort of Convoy HX-29.

Corvette FS La Malouine launched.

GERMANY: Peenemunde: Static firing tests of the basic motor intended for the A4 rocket (V2) begin today.

U-66 laid down.

DENMARK: Copenhagen: The 4,947 ton German steamer Heddernheim was torpedoed off the Danish coast by the British submarine HMS Ursula. Though the steamer is not large, her sinking represents the first coup in a major step-up in British efforts to cripple Germany's vital iron-ore supplies.

Germany's armaments depend on imported iron ore. No less than nine million tons come from Sweden, much of it brought through Narvik, a Norwegian port which is ice-free all year round. The Royal Navy is now moving in destroyers and submarines to make the route dangerous if not impossible.

SYRIA: British and Turkish delegations hold a secret meeting.

CANADA: Ammunition lighter HMC NAD 01 completed Halifax , Nova Scotia.

U.S.A.: New York: The Queen Mary sails for a secret destination.

Corvette USS Ready launched.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-19 sank SS Bothal and Viking.

ANTARCTICA: The USN miscellaneous auxiliary USS Bear (AG-29) and Interior Department motorship MS North Star (U.S. Antarctic Service) depart Bay of Whales for the U.S. Staying behind are the men who will spend the long winter night at East and West Bases in the Antarctic.

21 March 1941

March 21st, 1941 (FRIDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM:

Opening of the Luftwaffe's spring blitz on London: Buckingham Palace targeted; St Paul's Cathedral survives.

Plymouth was also bombed. So many incendiaries were dropped during the city's fiercest raid of the war that they sounded like hail bouncing off the roofs. The bombers arrived shortly after the King and Queen had completed a visit to the shipyards. The bombs wrought havoc in residential areas and shopping streets. Many fires are started and Plymouth is still burning the next day.

Clydeside: Two men are rescued after being buried for a week in a wrecked tenement.

London:

Prime Minister to Minister of Food:

I hope the term "Communal Feeding Centres" is not going to be adopted. It is an odious expression, suggestive of Communism and the workhouse, I suggest you call them "British Restaurants". Everyone associates the word "restaurant" with a good meal, and they may as well have the name if they cannot get anything else.

Prime Minister to First Lord of Admiralty:

...No effort to destroy the Focke-Wulfs should be spared. If we could employ Radar methods to find their positions and direct long-range fighters or ship-borne aircraft to the attack. ...Might it not be feasible to place a Radar station on Rockall?

Minesweeping trawler HMS Asama Sunk by German aircraft off Plymouth.

Corvette HMS Dahlia commissioned.

Minesweeping trawler HMS Fluellen commissioned.

GERMANY:

U-205, U-569, U-570 launched.

U-562 commissioned.

U-258 laid down.

YUGOSLAVIA: Belgrade: Prince Paul's decision to sign up with the Axis powers led to a major cabinet crisis tonight, when three ministers resigned and a fourth threatened to do so.

Paul, the regent of Yugoslavia, tried to refuse the resignations; but the ministers were adamant that in no circumstances would they accept Germany as an ally or agree to German military rail transports crossing Yugoslavia.

The cabinet crisis threatens to delay the signing of the pact. Ministers who were due in Vienna today to meet Hitler have postponed the visit.

GREECE: 1st Armoured Brigade reaches its forward positions in the plain between the river Axios and the Olympus-Vermion mountain range, with orders to fight a delaying action there, and to cover the preparation of demolition's.

Mussolini flies back to Italy from the Albanian front. (Mike Yaklich)

Cruiser HMS York is attacked by Italian MT explosive torpedo boats in Suda Bay harbour, Crete which blow open the side of the ship and flood both engine and boiler rooms. Settling in 1,5 metres of water, she is subsequently damaged repeatedly by German air attacks and by 22 May is beyond salvage. (Alex Gordon)(108)

LIBYA: Jarabub: the longest siege so far in this desert war came to a quiet, though abrupt, end at this tiny outpost in the very heart of the Libyan desert today. For political reasons - Jarabub is sacred to the Senussi sect - neither the Italian garrison nor the British besiegers were anxious to upset the Arab people by desecrating the shrine. After 15 weeks of observation by a small detachment of British and Australian troops, the Allies moved in and took Jarabub with little or no resistance. No damage was done to either the shrine or the sacred relics, according to Allied sources.

Italian General Italo Gariboldi is named Governor-General of Libya and Commander in Chief of Italian forces in North Africa replacing General Rodolfo Graziani. Graziani had asked Mussolini on 8 February 1941 to be replaced.

BRITISH SOMALILAND: Troops of the 11th African Division attack Italian positions in the Marda Pass west of Jijiga. After some resistance the Italians fall back despite the strength of their positions.

U.S.A.: The motion picture "The Sea Wolf" premieres aboard the SS America cruising off the California coast. Directed by Michael Curtiz, the psychological drama based on a Jack London novel stars Edward G. Robinson, John Garfield, Ida Lupino, Gene Lockhart and Barry Fitzgerald.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-106 damaged SS Meerker in Convoy SL-68.

A Fairey Fulmar from HMS Ark Royal comes across Scharnhorst and Gneisenau at Sea. Because of a radio malfunction, the crew have to return to Ark Royal to report, by which time the German ships have escaped under fog.

21 March 1942

March 21st, 1942 (SATURDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Woburn, England: A story passed to London by British agents in occupied Europe is causing satisfied chuckles among "Leeper's Sleepers" who work at the Duke of Bedford's seat, Woburn Abbey, requisitioned for the duration. Apparently German troops conducted a house-to-house search in Bucharest, looking for a Romanian freedom radio station. They did not find it - in fact the station operates from Woburn Abbey.

It is just one of several clandestine transmitters directed at Hitler's Europe, supposedly operated by anti-Nazis but actually run by a secret government agency, camouflaged as a department of the ministry of economic warfare, which until five days ago was run by Hugh Dalton. Churchill dubbed Dalton "minister of ungentlemanly warfare". Dalton appointed an old hand at the intelligence game, Rex Leeper, and told him that he would back him an any kind of dirty tricks he could work up.

Some are fiendishly simple. As one agent confessed: "It's wonderful the chaos you can cause by switching destination labels on railway wagons."

Subversive slander is another handy and potent weapon, although it can backfire. Rumours of orgies, degeneracy or luxury living by Nazi leaders while the people suffer have been set off by agents in casual conversation in Europe, only to surface later as hard intelligence.

Forged identity cards and fake German newspapers with gloomy reports are routine at Woburn Abbey. One of the most successful operations is run by Sefton Delmer, a former Daily Express correspondent in Berlin. His Gustav Siegfried Eins radio station, supposedly run by disgruntled German soldiers, likes to tell German soldiers at the front that back home foreign workers are going to bed with their wives and infecting them with VD.

The Gloster factory rolls out its final Hawker Hurricane. (22)

Destroyer HMS Rotherham launched.

GERMANY: Berlin: Severe penalties including sentences in concentration camps, are announced to deter people from making unnecessary journeys by rail.

Intent on gearing the German war industry up to the highest possible levels of production, Hitler today appointed former merchant sailor and early Nazi street fighter, Fritz Sauckel as Reich Plenipotentiary-General for Labour Mobilisation, to seize forced labourers from occupied Europe. Labour shortages are the greatest impediment to increased production at the moment. Sauckel is to use whatever methods are necessary to obtain sufficient numbers of workers: they may be snatched from the streets or from their homes. They are then to be transported, without food, water or sanitation, to their places of work. Krupp, the manufacturer of guns, tanks and ammunition, is expected to be one of Sauckel's best customers.

Able-bodied men and women from occupied countries are ideal employees from the German point of view. They can be worked unpaid until they drop, and their keep costs almost nothing. Forced labour camps are carefully sited to suit the needs of German industry. There were 21 million foreign workers in Germany at the beginning of this year plus 1.5 million PoWs working in German industry or agriculture. Both figures are expected to grow dramatically as a result of today's move.

The RAF Bomber Command dispatches a Wellington to Essen during the day but it returns due to lack of cloud cover.

U-960 laid down.

U.S.S.R.: In the northern sector south of Lake Ilmen, thirteen divisions of the German 16th Army and 2nd Armeekorps in a salient at Demyansk kessel begin to withdraw. The route is partially subject to interdiction artillery fire but is not completely cut. The winter thaw holds them up and it is not until 21 April that the divisions make contact with German troops. The salient resembles a mushroom lying on its side, with the corridor at the base being about 10 kilometres wide. The number of divisions inside the salient varies as some are relieved and others are sent in.

"At the beginning of March 1942 such a relief attack had been planned and significant reinforcements shuttled into the Staraya Russa area to carry it through. Hitler entrusted the operation to General Walther von Seydlitz-Kurbach, who received command of the Tenth Army Corps and its specially beefed-up force consisting of the 5th and 8th Jäger Divisions, and the 122nd, 127th, and 329th Infantry Divisions. Seydlitz’s attack against the Soviet forces between 10th Armeekorps and the pocket was scheduled for 7:30am, March 21." (p.223).[*]

This was known as "Operation GANGWAY" (Unternehmen ‘Fallreep’). It took nearly a month of heavy combat from without and within the kessel to enable the link-up to, and eventual exit of the besieged German troops from the Demjansk pocket. Sydnor notes:

"On April 22, seventy-three days after the encirclement of German forces around Demjansk, the bridgehead was secure enough for Seydlitz to begin ferrying supplies across the river by barge; the siege had officially ended." (p.226). (257)

(Jack McKillop, Russ Folsom, Pat and Diane McTaggart & Jeff Chrisman)

ITALY: The Second Battle of Sirte. The Axis, now aware of the British supply convoy sailing from Alexandria, Egypt, to Malta, dispatch Vice Admiral Angelo Iachino from Taranto with the battleship Littorio and four destroyers; Rear-Admiral Angelo Parona also sets sail from Messina with the heavy cruisers Gorizia and Trento, the light cruiser Bande Nere and four destroyers.

MALTA: In a repeat of Force H's mission on 7 March 1942, 16 more Spitfires are delivered to Malta.

LIBYA: The British Eighth Army continues raids on forward landing grounds of Axis forces as a diversion for a convoy to Malta. The raids are partially successful drawing off part of the enemy's aircraft.

INDIA: New Delhi: Sit Stafford Cripps, the lord privy seal, arrives here next week armed with new constitutional proposals for India. Although he declined to reveal what these proposals would be before leaving London, there seems little doubt that some sort of independence will be offered. The Labour Party is committed to Indian independence and Churchill, a doughty champion of British rule, has been pressed strongly by President Roosevelt to offer India self-government after the war.

With the possibility of a Japanese threat to India, the millions of Indians who are serving with Allied forces will expect nothing less, whatever the ultimate problems of reconciling the Hindu majority and Moslem minority.

The Assam-Burma-China Ferry Command is activated. It consists of 25 Pan-American World Airways DC-3 transports, which are soon diverted from mission of taking supplies to China in order to supply forces withdrawing from Burma.

BURMA: The Japanese open a 24-hour air operation against Magwe Airdrome in Burma where the American Volunteer Group's (AVG's) 3d Fighter Squadron and RAF units are based. AVG pilots down two Nakajima Ki-27 Army Type 97 Fighters (Allied Code Name "Nate") at 1430 hours. The Japanese attack destroys nine RAF Bristol Blenheims and three AVG H87s on the ground and three RAF fighters are shot down.

The Burma 1st Division, upon being relieved on the Toungoo front by the Chinese 200th Division, Chinese 5th Army, begins a movement to the Irrawaddy front, leaving a large area south of Toungoo undefended. Lieutenant General Joseph Stilwell, Commanding General American Army Forces, China, Burma and India and Chief of Staff of the Chinese Army, now in Burma, issues orders for Chinese participation in the defence of the line Toungoo-Prome. The Chinese 5th Army is charged with the defence of Toungoo; its 200th Division is reinforced by attachment of the Temporary 55th Division (T-55th ) of the Chinese 6th Army, which is to move to Pyawbwe. In army reserve, the Chinese 22d Division is directed to Taungdwingyi, where it is to be prepared to assist the British in the Prome area while the Chinese 96th Division is to move to Mandalay.
Japanese bombers and fighters open as 24-hour operation against Magwe Airdrome. Pilots of the 3d Fighter Squadron, American Volunteer Group (AVG, aka, “The Flying Tigers”), shoot down two Nakajima Ki-27, Army Type 97 Fighters (later assigned the Allied Code Name “Nate”) at 1430 hours. The Japanese attack the airfield and destroy nine RAF Blenheim Mk. IV bombers and three AVG P-40s on the ground and three RAF Hurricane Mk. IIs in the air.

JAPAN: In THE JAPAN TIMES newspaper, Rear Admiral SOSA Tanetsuga warns the Japanese people of American bases in Alaska and the Aleutians that could threaten the Homeland.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: US forces start a retreat to the heavily fortified island of Corregidor in Manila Bay.

Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright, as commander of U.S. Forces in the Philippines (USFIP), which supersedes U.S. Army Forces, Far East (USAFFE), establishes headquarters on Corregidor Island and appoints Major General Lewis Beebe his chief of staff. Major General Edward P. King, Jr., is named commander of Luzon Force.

NEW GUINEA: The first four Curtiss Kittyhawks Mk. IAs of RAAF No. 75 Squadron arrive at Seven Mile Airdrome at Port Moresby. As Flight Lieutenant Turnbull leads his flight of four aircraft at low level in the approach to the runway at the Seven Mile aerodrome, one of the Anti-Aircraft gunners opens fire . Immediately other guns go into action and the firing continues until Turnbull had actually landed and the other three pilots had lowered their under-carriages.

Three of the four aircraft were damaged, one of them so severely that it was never flown again, and Jeffrey escaped death by a margin of no more than an inch or two when a bullet ripped through the cushion behind his head.

The remainder of the squadron arrives two hours later.

Of the squadron's twenty-one pilots only four had been in combat.

Two—Jackson and Turnbull—had flown against German and Italian aircraft in the Middle East ; another, Flight Lieutenant Anderson, was a survivor from the interception of the Japanese attack on Rabaul by Wirraways of No 24 Squadron, and the fourth, Flying Officer Woods, had served as second pilot of a Hudson operating from Port Moresby.

This lack of combat experience was not to last long ; in fact, for two of them—Flying Officers Cox and Wackett—no longer than one hour. Within that time a report was received that an enemy bomber was approaching Port Moresby on the routine daily reconnaissance the defenders had come to know well. Cox and Wackett were immediately ordered to intercept.

Climbing through cloud they surprised the enemy aircraft at 10,000 feet.

Cox made the first attack and put the bomber's port engine out of action. Wackett followed with a starboard attack and put a burst of gunfire into the other engine causing it to lose height rapidly until, at a height of about 500 feet, it exploded and crashed into the sea near the entrance, through the reef, to Port Moresby Harbour. It was a spectacular first "kill" for the squadron and, achieved so soon after their arrival and in full view of the garrison, it did much to raise the defender's and the squadron's spirits. Wackett and Cox shared the credit equally.

Port Moresby radio station "jammed" the bomber's operational frequency while the interception was made, to prevent the bomber's crew from giving away the secret of the arrival of No 75 Squadron, and listeners had the satisfaction of hearing the enemy base operator calling in vain for some time after the aircraft had been destroyed.

(Jack McKillop and Daniel Ross)

AUSTRALIA: Lieutenant General George H. Brett, Commanding General of U.S. Army Forces in Australia, assumes command of all Allied air forces in Australia.

Late in the afternoon, General Douglas MacArthur"> MacArthur's train reaches Kooringa, 80 miles (129 kilometres) north of Adelaide, South Australia. One of his staff officers, Colonel Dick Marshall, who had been sent on ahead, boards the train and tells the general that there are fewer than 32,000 Allied troops, American, British, and Australian, in the whole country, most of them service forces. There is not a single tank in the nation and the only combat-ready force is one brigade of the Australian 6th Division. If the Japanese land, the Australians intend to withdraw to the "Brisbane Line," holding the settled southern and eastern coasts, abandoning the northern ports to the Japanese. Supply lines to the rest of the Allied world, committed to defeating Germany first, are long. "God have mercy on us," MacArthur whispers. It is, he writes, his greatest shock and surprise of the whole war. In Adelaide, MacArthur swaps his little train for a luxurious private car provided by the Commissioner of the South Australian Railways. The press is there to greet him and seek a statement. MacArthur scrawls on the back of an envelope, "The President of the United States ordered me to break through the Japanese lines ...for the purpose, as I understand it, of organizing the American offensive against Japan, a primary object of which is the relief of the Philippines. I came through and I shall return." (Though he had reputedly said effectively the same speech at Terowie the previous day, according the eue witnesses) (Jack McKillop and Daniel Ross)

One of the great myths of the war in Australia. The "Brisbane Line" was simply a statement of fact - if the the task was to defend "vital assets" and population then the line from just north of Brisbane to just west of Port Augusta contained the bulk of the population, assets, logistics and military infrastructure (with a separate defended locality around Perth). It had be a pre-war staff study that gave rise to the myth (when it was "discovered" by the media after prompting by Eddie Ward (ALP) as a means to put Menzies (UAP) to the political sword).

At no time were there defence preparations on the basis of this study - troops, supplies and equipment was deployed as far forward as Darwin.

Mac did not "end it" because it did not really exist.

See The Brisbane Line Controversy by Paul Burns Allen and Unwin, 1998, paperback, 254pp ISBN: 1864485396

Also http://www.defence.gov.au/army/AHU/REVIEWS/brisbaneline-rev.htm

(Daniel Ross)

CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Courtenay commissioned.

U.S.A.: The motion picture "Secret Agent of Japan" opens at the Globe Theater in New York City. Directed by Irving Pichel, this spy thriller, the first film to include the Pearl Harbor attack in the plot, stars Preston Foster and Lynn Bari.

The United States agrees to provide US$500 million in aid to China. (With inflation, US$500 million in 1942 is equal to US$5.5 trillion in year 2002 dollars.)

President Roosevelt"> Roosevelt signs Public Law 77-503, which makes it a federal crime for a person ordered to leave a military area to refuse to do so. (Scott Peterson) More...

Submarine USS Mingto laid down.

Destroyer USS Buchanan commissioned.

Corvette USS Temptress commissioned.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: German submarine U-124 torpedoes two U.S. merchant tankers off the coast of North Carolina, U.S.A.: (1) The first is an unarmed tanker about 70 miles (113 kilometres) off Wilmington. The ship breaks in two and the aft end is towed to Morehead City. (2) The second is an armed tanker off the Beaufort Lightship, but little damage is inflicted and the ship reaches Beaufort without further incident.

U-652 sank HMS Heythrop.

U-71 sank SS Oakmar.

21 March 1943

March 21st, 1943 (SUNDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Churchill broadcasts to the nation on his vision for Britain after the war, which strikes some listeners as surprisingly socialist.

GERMANY: U-483, U-929 laid down.

Today is Heroes' Memorial Day, (a holiday honoring German World War I dead), Maj. Gen. Henning von Tresckow has selected Col. Freiherr von Gersdorff to act as a suicide bomber at the Zeughaus Museum in Berlin, where Hitler is to attend the annual memorial dedication. With a bomb planted in each of his two coat pockets, Gersdorff is to sidle up to Hitler as he reviewed the memorials and ignite the bombs, taking the dictator out-along with himself and everyone in the immediate vicinity. Schlabrendorff supplied Gersdorff with bombs-each with a 10-minute fuse.

Once at the exhibition hall, Gersdorff was informed that the Fuhrer was to inspect the exhibits for only eight minutes-not enough time for the fuses to melt down.

BALTIC SEA: CO of U-957 was lost during a diving accident in the Baltic Sea. [Oberleutnant zur See Franz Saar]

INDIA: Sloop INS Godavari launched.

AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Gladstone commissioned.

U.S.A.: Minesweeper USS Density laid down.

Submarine USS Cod launched.

Minesweepers USS Craig and Cruise launched.

Destroyers USS Owen and Erben launched.

Destroyer escort USS Frost launched.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: In the last three weeks at least 50 Allied merchant ships have been sunk by U-boats in the North Atlantic. Grand Admiral Dönitz, who has continued to direct the U-boat campaign since he succeeded Grand Admiral Raeder as the German naval commander-in-chief, has been concentrating on the full eastbound convoys. The U-boats strike in the mid-Atlantic gap which only very-long-range Allied aircraft can reach, and there are simply not enough of them

In the last few days this policy has led to one of the most devastating U-boat successes of the war. In the stormy seas, with winds up to gale force ten, the fast-moving HX-229 convoy caught up with the slow moving SC-122. Between them they presented a hug target, a small fleet of 90 merchant ships supported by 16 escorts.

Dönitz was given details of the convoy's course by his intelligence service, and designated 38 U-boats to track them down. But the Germans were as hampered as the Allies by the bad weather. They found the convoys more by luck than by judgement, and for much of the time did not know if they were dealing with one convoy or two. By this morning 21 merchant ships had been sunk for the loss of one U-boat. But yesterday Allied Liberators arrived from Northern Ireland and Iceland and began pounding the U-boats. Many are believed to have been damaged, and Dönitz has called off his pack.

U-441, U-527 and U-631 were all attacked by Sunderland aircraft in the North Atlantic. All three U-boats suffered slight damage.

After sinking the steamer Mariso, U-518 took the first officer and the radio operator as prisoners.

U-608 had to return to base due to major technical difficulties.

U-516 sank SS Nortun.

U-518 sank SS Mariso.

U-81 sank SS Bourghieh and Mawahab Allah.

21 March 1944

March 21st, 1944 (TUESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Sloop HMS Lapwing commissioned.

GERMANY: U-3501 laid down.

BURMA: Air Commando Combat Mission N0. 34 2:50 Flight time. Hailakandi, Assam to Meza, Burma. Bombed Meza bridge. It was successful. (Chuck Baisden)

NEW GUINEA: Over 140 Fifth Air Force A-20s, B-24s, B-25s, P-38s and P-40s attack targets in the Hansa Bay-Tadji-Wewak-Schouten Islands area.

CANADA: Frigate HMCS Springhill commissioned.

U.S.A.: Destroyer escort USS Whitehurst laid down.

Minesweeper USS Towhee laid down.

Destroyer escort USS Walton laid down.

Escort carrier USS Shipley Bay commissioned.

Destroyer escort USS Eversole commissioned.

Destroyer escort USS Lloyd E Acree launched.

21 March 1945

March 21st, 1945 (WEDNESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: There are currently 745 Avro Lancasters ready for operations on Bomber Commands books and 296 in Operational Conversion Units. (22)

GERMANY: US 3rd Army clears the west banks of the Rhine north of Mannheim.

Patton's US 3rd Army captures Mainz.

Hohenlychen: Guderian fails to get Heinrich Himmler to go with him to Berlin to persuade Hitler to seek an armistice.

DENMARK: Copenhagen: Allied airmen broke open another Gestapo prison today, but at a terrible cost. In the basement of the Shell building, Danish resistance fighters were being tortured. On the top floor another 32 prisoners were being held. RAF bombs had to destroy the remaining floors. They did. Around 100 Nazis died for the loss of six prisoners. Others escaped and the Gestapo's planned arrests of the banned Danish Freedom Council were thwarted. But one of the six aircraft that crashed set fire to a school. Other pilots bombed this, believing it to be the target. A total of 112 Danish civilians were killed, including 86 children and 17 teachers. The aircraft were Mosquito VIs of No. 464 Squadron. (22)

More (in Dansk)

USAAF Operations:

EUROPE: Over 2,500 USAAF bombers hit targets in Germany and Austria from bases in England and Italy. The Eighth Air Force dispatches 890 B-17s and 610 B-24s to bomb ten jet fighter bases in northwestern Germany plus a tank factory at Plauen and a marshalling yard at Reichenbach. The Ninth Air Force dispatches 580-plus A-20s, A-26s and B-26s to bomb six communication centers and a marshalling yard east of the Rhine River in an interdiction campaign to obstruct enemy movement. The Fifteenth Air Force dispatches 660-plus B-17s and B-24s to bomb targets in Austria and Germany. The German targets is the Neuburg an der Donau Airfield: Austrian targets include marshalling yards at Villach, Klagenfurt, Graz, Bruck an der Mur, and Pragersko; three oil refineries; and a supply depot at Vienna.

ARCTIC OCEAN: Destroyer HMCS Sioux arrived Kola Inlet with Convoy JW-65.

BURMA: Lt. Claud Raymond (b.1923), Royal Engineers, led his patrol through Japanese defences under savage fire. He died next day, having insisted his wounds be treated last. (Victoria Cross)

CHINA: Japan launches a fresh offensive aimed at capturing the strategic US air bases at Laohokow and Ankong.

JAPAN: In the Kurile Islands, Task Force 92's attempt to bombard Suribachi on Paramushiru Island is thwarted due to heavy sea ice. TF 92 consists of the light cruisers USS Concord (CL-10), USS Richmond (CL-9) and USS Trenton (CL-11) plus accompanying destroyers.

The first operational use of the Yokosuka MXY7 rocket-powered suicide plane occurs today.

PACIFIC OCEAN: Task Force 58 has now withdrawn to an area between the Ryukyu and Bonin Islands. The Japanese mount numerous small attacks and carrier based Navy and Marine F6F and F4U fighter pilots shoot down 54 Japanese aircraft between 0336 and 1500 hours. Marine F4U pilots shoot down a Yokosuka P1Y, Navy Bomber Ginga (Milky Way) (Allied Code Name "Frances") and a Nakajima J1N, Navy Type 2 Reconnaissance Plane (Allied Code Name "Irving") between 1030 and 1045 hours and two Mitsubishi J2M, Navy Interceptor Fighter Raiden (Thunderbolt) (Allied Code Name "Jack") at 1420 hours.

USS Independence (CVL-22) with Light Carrier Air Group Forty Six (CVLG-46) joins TF 58. Also joining is Task Group 50.8, the At Sea Logistics Support Group, which includes:

Task Unit 50.8.13, the Covering Unit, with USS Shamrock Bay (CVE-84) and Composite Squadron Ninety Four (VC-94),

Task Unit 50.8.14, the Covering Unit, with USS Makassar Strait (CVE-91) and VC-97, and Task Unit 50.8.4, the Carrier Transport Unit, with USS Admiralty Islands (CVE-99), USS Attu (CVE-102), USS Bougainville (CVE-100) and USS Windham Bay (CVE-92).

U.S.A.: A Fourth Air Force Bell P-63 Kingcobra from Walla Walla AAFld, Washington, intercepts a Japanese balloon near Redmond, Oregon and shoots it down near Reno, Nevada.

Bureau of Aeronautics initiates rocket-powered surface-to-air guided missile development by awarding contract to Fairchild.

ATLANTIC OCEAN:

U-968 sank HMS Lapwing and SS Thomas Donaldson in Convoy JW-65.

U-995 torpedoed SS Horace Bushnell in Convoy JW-65. Total loss.

U-326 had to return to Bergen (Norway) due to severe technical difficulties.

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