March in WW2
This page gives a daily diary snapshot of March in WW2.
WW2 was a global conflict that raged from September 1939 to August 1945; almost six long years. The change of seasons brought with it changes in the pace of the war. Spring generally meant new offensives, while winter could mean stalemate or a winter offensive – such as those made by the Russians on the eastern front, or the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardenne.
1 March 1944: Chindit 16th Brigade marches into Burma
2 March 1941: Bulgaria joins the Axis alliance as German Forces enter the country in preparation for the invasion of Greece
3 March 1944: US President Roosevelt announces that the Italian Naval Fleet is to be distributed equally between Britain, the US and the USSR
4 March 1944: First B29 bombers land on Iwo Jima
5 March 1945: Allies capture Cologne, Germany
6 March 1945: German panzers launch heavy attack at Lake Balaton, Hungary
7 March 1945: US First Army crosses the River Rhine at Remagen Bridge
8 March 1941: US Senate passes the Lend-Lease Bill
9 March 1941: Italians launch an offensive in Albania
10 March 1945: US B29 bombers carry out a fire-raid on Tokyo, Japan. Estimates of those killed range from 84,000 to 200,000; more than those killed during the dropping of the A-Bomb
11 March 1940: RAF Blenheim bomber sinks the German U-boat U-31 in the North Sea
12 March 1942: General Douglas MacArthur arrives in Darwin, Australia having been evacuated from the island fortress of Corregidor on the 8th March by fast PT boats
13 March 1940: Russo-Finish Peace Treaty signed in Moscow
14 March1945: US Third Army crosses the River Moselle in Germany
15 March 1942: Japanese Forces launch an artillery attack on Manila Bay, Phillipines
16 March 1941: Hitler predicts that Britain will fall by 1942, no matter how much help it recieves from the USA
17 March: US Third Army captures Koblenz, Germany, where the Moselle and Rhine rivers meet
18 March 1944: Over 3000 tons of bombs dropped by RAF bombers during a raid on Hamburg, Germany
19 March 1941: Germany issues an ultimatum to Yugoslavia
20 March 1943: An attempt to assasinate Hitler fails, when he leaves an exhibition early, before the concealed bomb goes off
21 March 1942: US Forces start a retreat to the heavily fortified island fortress of Corregidor in Manila Bay, Phillipines
22 March 1945: Russians besige Danzig and Gdynia, Poland
23 March 1941: Anti-NAZI demonstrations sweep Belgrade, Yugoslavia
24 March 1944: Colonel Wingate, commander of the Chindits killed in a plane crash. 1945: 14,000 British and US airborne troops drop at Wesel
25 March 1941: Yugoslavia signs the Tripartite Pact
26 March 1945: Japanese survivors on Iwo Jima launch a last ‘Banzai’ attack and are devestated
27 March 1945: US First and Third Armies link near Koblenz, Germany
28 March 1940: Britain and France pledge not to agree to a peace deal separately
29 March 1945: US Navy begins to bombard Okinawa, Japan
30 March 1941: German warships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau bombed by the RAF whilst in port at Brest, France
31 March 1945: General Eisenhower broadcasts to German Forces, demanding their surrender
Bibliography
Chonicle of the Second World War; Longman. On this day in history, and other sources
