Air Operations, Asia

Only 3 of 30 Chinese fighters escape destruction in a battle with a squadron of 12 Japanese Zeros over Chengtu. The Japanese suffer no losses.

Australia, Politics

Prime Minister Robert G. Menzies forms a new coalition Cabinet to improve the direction of the war effort.

Finland

The evacuation of 470,000 people from lost territories begins (completes Mar 26).

Besides losing Vyborg, her most important port, Finland was forced to lease to Russia the peninsula of Hangoe, key to the Gulf of Finland. The lease was to run for thirty years at a yearly rental of about $150,000. The evacuation of the ceded areas began on March 14 and from Hangoe alone some 11,000 Finns departed, taking with them only such goods as they could carry. Above is the dramatic moment when three Russian soldiers first face a Finnish sentry across the new boundary. Finns and Russians Meet at Hangoe

Germany, Home Front

Göring demands that all useful metals - especially copper, bronze and nickel - be given up for the war effort.