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1933:     GERMANY:      The Enabling Act is passed. All control of the Reich budget, approval of treaties, and the initiation of constitutional amendments is handed by the Reichstag to the Reich cabinet for a period of four years. i.e., Chancellor Adolf Hitler is given a legal instrument to move forward. Hitler promises that the Enabling Act will not deter from the powers of the president or affect the position of the Reichstag. None-the-less, the Enabling Act makes Hitler dictator. 

March 23rd, 1939 (THURSDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: The musical play by Ivor Novello, the Dancing Years, opens at the Drury Lane Theatre, in London's West End. More....


CZECHOSLOVAKIA: German Chancellor Adolf Hitler signs the "Treaty of Protection" in Prague and calls for German control of the Czech economy. 

POLAND:  Poland warns Germany that any attempt to seize Danzig as they have seized the Memel Territory would mean war. 

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23 March 1940

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March 23rd, 1940 (SATURDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM:

Devon: IRA prisoners stage a riot in Dartmoor prison.

Heston airfield: The Lockheed 12A civil aircraft, registration code G-AGAR, leaves on a south-east heading. At the controls is Hugh MacPhail, Sidney Cotton's personal assistant. MacPhail and Cotton are to carry out aerial reconnaissance of the Soviet oilfields in the Caucasus as directed by F.W. Winterbotham, the Chief of MI6. After intermediate landings at Malta and Cairo, the Lockheed will reach RAF Habbaniya where its identifying marks will be painted over and the several high-powered hidden cameras that it carries will be inspected.

 

GERMANY: Field Marshal Göring orders a halt to transports of Jews in eastern Europe, but is ignored.

Commerce raider 'Atlantis' leaves harbour in Suederpiep to begin her first war patrol. She is masquerading as a Norwegian freighter. (Alex Gordon)

PACIFIC:  The British Royal Navy forms the "Malaya Force" to shadow 17 German merchant ships trapped in Netherlands East Indies ports. 

U.S.A.: The 30-minute radio show “Truth or Consequences” makes its debut this Saturday night on CBS radio at 2145 hours Eastern Time sponsored by Ivory Soap. The radio show was originally heard on only four CBS stations but in August, NBC picked up the show where it eventually became the most popular of all radio quiz shows. Hosted by Ralph Edwards, the show ran for 16 years. Supposedly a quiz show, contestants were paid only US$15 for right answers (= US$197 in 2003 dollars); for wrong answers, guests were required to perform outrageous stunts--pushing walnuts across the stage with their noses, howling like a dog, collecting hundreds of thousands of pennies, digging for buried treasure, and a wide range of other pranks. Some of the shows more elaborate setups took months to arrange: A New Jersey woman, for instance, was taken to a New York theater and told to play the violin for 1,500 unsuspecting people who had turned up to see a European musician promoted for weeks as the Great Yiffniff. It only took a moment for the audience to realize they'd been had; after an explanation by the show's host, they were treated to a real concert, though not by the fictional Yiffniff. 
 

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March 23rd, 1941 (SUNDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: RAF Bomber Command: 2 Group: 82 Sqn. attack five ships off the Ems Estuary and claim a destroyer damaged.

MALTA: Luftwaffe Ju 87 Stuka dive-bombers, with a fighter escort, conduct a raid on Malta. A total of 13 German planes are shot down while the British lose two fighters. British authorities decide to withdraw all bombers and flying boats from Malta as a result of the raid.  (Jack McKillop

YUGOSLAVIA: Belgrade: Anti-Nazi demonstrations sweep Yugoslavia as Hitler presses the government to join the Axis.

The German Minister in Belgrade is summoned by the Prince Regent to be told that the Germans had now imposed a deadline after which the special terms for joining the Axis would be withdrawn. The Prince Regent maintained that Yugoslavia would fight to the last.

GREECE: Athens: The Athens news agency Athinaiko Praktoreio reports:

A Greek government spokesman says that the Italians have carried out three days of armoured attacks on the central front, but that lethal Greek artillery fire has forced them to retreat.

ALBANIA: after dark an Italian night attack on the Bubesi front twice manages to break into the Greek positions, but both times the Italians are driven out with grenades and bayonets in fierce Greek counterattacks. This will be the last significant episode of the failed Italian "spring offensive." Never in the two weeks of fighting was the Greek line in serious danger of being broken. In future days Cavallero, the Italian Chief of the General Staff and principal author of the abortive attacks, will attempt to portray this dismal failure as having saved Italian honour. But despite the terrible losses endured by the long-suffering Italian soldiers, the whole sorry affair will only serve to heighten impressions of Italian military ineptitude, and to make obvious their inability to defeat the Greeks without German help. (Mike Yaklich)

ATLANTIC OCEAN: Armed trawler HMS Visenda sinks German submarine U-551 about 93 miles southeast of the south coast of Iceland by depth charges. All 45 crewmen on the submarine are lost.

U.S.A.: The United Press Agency reports:

Lord Forbes, the national export union president, declared that Brazilian scientists have succeeded in finding a new use for their coffee surpluses. After extensive experimentation it is now possible to produce a substance called "cafelite" from coffee. Lord Forbes said that it is highly durable and possesses extraordinary physical properties. In fact the substance is of such high quality that it can be used to manufacture airplane parts, if not even in the construction of entire planes. (16)

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23 March 1942

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March 23rd, 1942 (MONDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM:

Minesweeper HMS Brave laid down.

Minesweeper HMS Bootle commissioned.

Frigate HMS Gould laid down.

FRANCE: During the night of the 23rd/24th, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 12 Hampdens, three Stirlings and two Manchesters on a minelaying mission off Lorient without loss. This was the first time that Stirlings of No. 3 Group participated in the minelaying campaign. 

GERMANY: Fearing a second front in western Europe, Hitler orders tighter defence of coastal areas.

U-237 laid down.

U-265 launched.

U-619 commissioned.

U.S.S.R.: Soviet submarine SC-401 mined and sunk.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: The Second Battle of Sirte. The British convoy consisting of four merchant ships and Royal Navy warships that is en route from Alexandria, Egypt, to Malta, is approaching the island. The ships come under concentrated air attack and one freighter, MS Clan Campbell, is sunk 50 miles (80 kilometer) from the island and a second damaged. Two freighters make it safely in to the port of Valleta but air attacks against the docks at Valletta made it very difficult to unload. 

At 0255, U-565 fired a spread of two torpedoes at Convoy TA-36 about 35 miles east-northeast of Sidi Barrani and observed a hit in the stern of a freighter after 4 minutes 5 seconds. The ship developed a list and stopped. At 03.01 hours, another spread of two torpedoes was fired and a detonation was heard after 4 minutes 15 seconds, followed by a heavier explosion. U-565 reported two ships sunk, but only the Kirkland was hit and sunk. One crewmember was lost. The master, 15 crewmembers and six gunners were picked up by armed trawler HMS Falk and landed at Mersa Matruh.

U-565 was attacked in the Mediterranean by a British aircraft with three bombs. The boat suffered slight damage.

SOUTH AFRICA: The Union of South Africa severed diplomatic relations with France.
 

ANDAMAN ISLANDS: A Japanese landing force occupies the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal without opposition.

BURMA:

Magwe, Burma
The AVG evacuated the airfield this AM. Only 4 serviceable AVG P-40s remaining. 3 men wounded from strafing and bombs. Mechanic John Fauth died last night 2 others being sent to India for treatment of wounds and bomb blast. No air raid warning until Jap bombers over head. (Chuck Baisden, AVG Veteran)

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: On Bataan, American and Filipino  troops dig in for the next round. The I Corps fields 32,000 men and 50 guns on the west, while II Corps has 28,000 men and about 100 guns on the east, including 31 naval guns up to 3-inch (7.62 centimeter). Troops have been trained in jungle warfare, trenches and dugouts built, mines laid, and a 12-foot (3,7 meter) palisade of bamboo erected across the front. The Japanese are having ration trouble, too, as the 14th Army has cut rations from 62 ounces to 23 (1,76 kilogram to 652 grams); about 13,000 Japanese troops are in the hospital. But General HOMMA  Masaharu, commanding the Japanese 14th Army, enjoys an edge: two Army bomber regiments comprising 60 heavy bombers, plus naval air force units. Homma plans to seize the dominant Mount Samat, centerpiece of the American line, then drive southeast to Limay, ringing the mountains to turn west towards Mariveles, the peninsula's base. The attack will be led by the newly-arrived 4th Division and the 65th Brigade. Meanwhile, Japanese aircraft drop beer cans tied with ribbons, asking Wainwright to surrender. The appeal is ignored. 

NEW BRITAIN: The Tol plantation is the scene of a massacre of 150 Australians at they attempt to flee Rabaul. (Daniel Ross)
 

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: Army aviation engineers begin work on the secret Otter Point Airfield on the 675 square mile (1748 square kilometer) Umnak Island separated from Unalaska Island, site of Naval Operating Base Dutch Harbor and Fort Mears, by Unmak Pass. By the end of the month, a 100 by 5,000 foot (30 by 1524 meter) runway has been completed using Marston matting. 

CANADA: Trawler HMS Manitoulin launched Midland, Ontario.

U.S.A.: Charles Lindbergh meets with Henry Ford in Detroit. Ford was too old, too powerful and too rich to worry about the FDR Administration and offered Lindbergh a job in getting the gigantic Willow Run plant organized and running. The U.S. government had spent $200 million to build Willow Run to enable Ford to built B-24 Liberator bombers and Ford had to produce.

In California, the first 1,000 Japanese-Americans arrive at the Manzanar Relocation Camp For Ethnic Japanese. The camp is located in the Owens Valley on the west side of U.S. Highway 395 about 50 miles (80 kilometres) south of Bishop and 12 miles (19 kilometres) north of Lone Pine. Today, this is a National Historic Site. 

ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 2053, the unescorted Lammot Du Pont was torpedoed by U-125, while proceeding on a nonevasive course at 9.5 knots about 500 miles SE of Bermuda. The torpedo struck on the port side between the #4 hatch and the engine room. The explosion blew the booms at the #4 and #5 hatches onto the deck and threw a large column of water and linseed in the air. The ship rapidly listed to port and within five minutes rolled completely on her side. The nine officers, 36 crewmen and nine armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in and two .30cal guns) began to abandon ship in one lifeboat and three rafts. Four men went down with the ship and two left on a broken raft. The other survivors tried to reach these men in the heavy seas, but they drifted away and were never found. Eight crewmembers and seven armed guards on two rafts were picked up after two days by the Swedish MS Astri and were transferred on 8 May to light cruiser USS Omaha, which brought them to Recife on 11 May. The 31 crewmembers and two armed guards in the lifeboat drifted for 23 days before being rescued by destroyer USS Tarbell after being spotted by an aircraft about 40 miles from San Juan, but seven crewmembers and one armed guards already died of fever and three other crewmembers later died in a San Juan hospital.

At 1120, the unescorted Reinholt (Master Hans Nielsen) was attacked by U-752 with gunfire for about 20 minutes. The U-boat fired about 40 rounds of which 20-25 hit, but had then to break off the attack because two destroyers were spotted. Reinholt had returned fire with 14 rounds from the stern gun without success. One man was killed and two were injured, which were transferred after about seven hours to a destroyer and were brought to a hospital in Brooklyn. The Reinholt had caught fire, which was brought under control by the crew after 20 minutes and reached New York the next day. She was repaired and returned to service after 17 days. The master was awarded the Krigskorset, the highest Norwegian war medal. 15 other men received Krigsmedaljen.

Corvette HMCS Sorel joins escort for Convoy ON-88.

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March 23rd, 1943 (TUESDAY)

TUNISIA: El Guettar: The US 1st Armoured Division avenges its defeat at the Kasserine Pass by beating off the 10th Panzer Division, destroying 32 tanks.

DENMARK: In the first, and  so far only, free elections to be held in Nazi-occupied Europe, the national coalition Government Party wins 143 seats, with the remaining five going to the Danish Nazis and the Pro-Nazi Peasant Party.

German-occupied Denmark holds its regularly scheduled parliamentary election, for both Folketinget and Landstinget today. "Dansk Samling" (Danish Gathering), an anti-German party, took part and got 4 seats in government. The DNSAP, the Danish nazi-party, expanded its vote from 31,000 to 43,000 but remained at 4 seats. The nazi-controlled German minority party "Slesvigsk Parti" abstained from taking part because, as they said: "We are too busy fighting". The pro-nazi "Frie Folkeparti Bondepartiet" (Free Peoples Party - Farmers Party) had its vote halved from 51,000 to 25,000.

The nazis had campaigned vigorously, and had counted on expanding their number of seats to maybe 10. As it was, they increased the vote by 50%, but didn't get any more seats, and subsequently the party fragmented. Just before the election a section in all but name of the Germanic SS had been set up in Denmark, and now it was rapidly expanded by the Germans at the cost of the DNSAP. (Henrik Krog)

MEDITERRANEAN SEA:Luftwaffe attackers sink the British troopship WINDSOR CASTLE off Algeria.

ITALY: Maddelina: Cdr. John Wallace Linton, RN (b.1905, died). He had sunk over 100,000 tons (31 ships, including a cruiser) as a submarine commander from the outbreak of war. (Victoria Cross)

GERMANY: Berlin: Himmler's statistician, Dr Richard Korherr, reports that 1,419,467 European Jews have been killed since the outbreak of the war.

Scharnhorst carries out exercises with Tirpitz, and Lützow in Altenfiord until July. (Navy News)

U.S.A.: Cornelia Fort, an instructor in the Civilian Pilot Training Program, joined the WAFS. Today the BT-13 (Vultee Valiant) she is ferrying collides with another aeroplane and she becomes the first American woman pilot killed in the line of duty.

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March 23rd, 1944 (SUNDAY)

EASTERN FRONT: The 1st Ukranian Front drives between Proskurov and Tarnapol threatening to split the 1st and 4th Panzer Armies, and surrounding the Red Army headquarters at Tarnopol.

GREECE: The Germans begin deporting Greek Jews to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

ITALY: Monte Cassino: The unsuccessful Allied assault, spearheaded by the New Zealand Corps, is called off.

Italian partisans kill 28 SS-Polizei men with a bomb on Via Rasella in Rome. Subsequently an order is received from Hitler to kill 10 Italians for each German soldier. Chief of the Rome SIPO, SS-Obstbf., Herbert Kappler, together with Pietro Caruso, the chief of the Italian police, is responsible for selecting the victims. People arrested on the spot, political prisoners and Jews are sent to the Ardeatine Caves near Rome, shot in the neck in small groups, and buried under the sand; the entrances are then sealed by exploding charges. Altogether 335 Italians are murdered, among them 78 Jews. (Russell Folsom)

ROMANIA: Bucharest: In the wake of their occupation if Hungary, the Germans today strengthened their position in Romania, which was occupied in October 1940. The dictator, Marshal Ion Antonescu, a longtime admirer of Hitler, was told that 500,000 German troops were being sent in to safeguard communications and protect the oil-wells for Germany.

With the Red Army on his borders, Antonescu was less than enthusiastic. Hitler was unmoved. Four Panzer and several infantry divisions have already moved in. Romania's foreign policy has been largely determined by resentment at the territorial depredations of her neighbours. In June 1940 Romania was forced to hand over Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to Stalin. Romanian troops retook them a year later, after they had joined Hitler in the German attack on the USSR.

In August 1940 the "Vienna Award" gave North Transylvania to Hungary. This week, when Germany occupied Hungary, two Romanian divisions joined in. As Sovet troops advance into Bessarabia, the BBC today broadcast a warning to Romanians: abandon the Nazis or face retribution from the Allies.

GERMANY: Every minute for 24 hours to noon today more than four tons of explosive were dropped by Allied airmen on Germany and occupied Europe. This new intensive onslaught dropped 3,000 tons of bombs on Frankfurt, in the most concentrated attack of the war, after diverting from Schweinfurt. Mines were laid off Kiel, leaflets were dropped over France and minor diversionary raids made all over Germany. The variety of targets reflects a change of tactics, dispersing attacks to make defence more difficult. In daytime raids today the USAAF hit Brunswick and targets in France.

BURMA: Over 100 A-31s, B-24s, B-25s, P-38s, P-40s and P-51s at Japanese positions in Burma. 

Air Commando Combat Mission N0.36 3:15 Flight Time Hailakandi, Assam to Indaw, Burma. Bombed Japanese supply dumps. Bad weather forced us to land at Broadway. Had to roll 55 gallon gasoline drums through dens elephant grass and refuel using a hand pump. Spent the night on the plane.

Note: As our missions were low level we had not been carrying any oxygen (none of my crew even had oxygen masks) and could not get over the weather front between Burma and Assam. It was a bit spooky as us fly boys were down and parked some 150 miles behind enemy lines and the night (noises )?. I think the Chindit grunts got a big kick out of our concerns. (Chuck Baisden)

EUROPE: Almost 1,000 USAAF bombers based in England bomb targets in Germany and France. Airfields in Germany are bombed by 767 B-17s and B-24s of the Eighth Air Force while over 200 B-26s of the Ninth Air Force bomb marshalling yards and airfields in France in morning and afternoon missions.

NEW GUINEA: Nearly 100 A-20s, B-24s, B-25s and P-47s hit numerous targets in the Aitape, Wewak, Alexishafen and Hansa Bay areas.

WAKE ISLAND: Seventh Air Force B-24s operating from Kwajalein Island in the Marshall Islands, bomb Wake Island.

PACIFIC: Japanese submarine I-42 is sunk by USS Tunny (282) east of the Philippines. (Mike Yared)(144 and 145)

U.S.A.: US Navy Motor Torpedo Squadron 2 is re-commissioned and assigned to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) landing personnel and supplied in occupied Europe.

 

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March 23rd, 1945 (FRIDAY)

GERMANY: The British 2nd Army and Canadian 1st Army begin Operation Plunder to cross the Rhine.

Speyer: An infantry unit of the US 12th Armoured Division is tasked with taking the city. As they approach a bridge over the Rhine they were ambushed by anti-tank rockets and machine gun fire. The rocket fire appeared to be coming from a nearby warehouse. Private Edward A. Carter volunteered to lead a four man squad to take out the warehouse, which was 150 yards of open terrain away. Two of Carter's men were killed almost immediately; the third was severely injured.

Carter alone got within striking distance, but took five bullets and three pieces of shrapnel before he was able to take cover. Carter waited there for two hours, until the Germans, thinking he was dead, sent out an eight-man patrol to make sure. Carter engaged them single-handedly with his Thompson .45, killing six and capturing two, whom he used as human shields to get back to his company. Carter refused immediate medical treatment, and instead took his commanding officer up to an observation spot where he pointed out several German machine gun nests.

General Vietinghoff takes over in Italy from Field Marshall Albert Kesselring.

FRANCE: Paris: de Gaulle announces a limited form of self-government for Indochina, but insists that Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia remain French colonies or protectorates.

EUROPE: The Allied ground offensive across the Rhine River begins. Supporting the offensive are 2,000 bombers of the Eighth and Ninth Air Forces attacking targets in Germany. The Eighth Air Force has 1,206 B -17s and B-24s attacking 14 marshalling yards and other targets. Over 800 Ninth Air Force A-20s, A-26s and B-26s bomb seven communications centers, a factory and targets of opportunity. The Fifteenth Air Force has 658 B-17s and B-24s bombing an oil refinery, three marshalling yards and a tank factory in Austria and a marshalling yard in Czechoslovakia.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-1003 type VIIC/41 is scuttled 8-10 miles north of Inistrahull beacon, Malin Head after ramming with HMCS New Glasgow on the 20th. March. 18 of the U-Boat crew are dead, but 31 of them survive. (Alec Gordon)

FORMOSA: 47 Fifth Air Force B-24s 

RYUKYU ISLANDS:
A destroyer assigned to Task Group 58.4 rams and sinks a Japanese submarine. Task Force 58 aircraft attack preinvasion targets on Okinawa.

BONIN ISLANDS: Iwo Jima: The USAAF 21st Fighter Group arrives on the island.

ULITHI ATOLL: After much discussion and indecision, Royal Navy aircraft carriers forming Task Force 57 sortie from Ulithi Atoll in the Caroline

Islands to join Task Force 58 supporting the upcoming invasion of Okinawa. The four carriers, HMS Indomitable, HMS Victorious, HMS Illustrious and HMS Indefatigable are formed into Task Group 57.2.

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