Air Operations, Europe

1 Wellington is sent to Essen but returns due to lack of clouds.

Battle of the Atlantic

After mistakenly firing upon and damaging the US destroyer Dickerson (DD-157), the US freighter Liberator (7720t) is torpedoed and sunk by U-332 three miles west of the Diamond Shoals Buoy. The US tug Umpqua (AT-25) rescues 30 of the 35-man crew.

Burma

British Gen William Slim arrives in Burma to take operational command of the British forces now to be organized as I Burma Corps. Stilwell will command the Chinese 5th and 6th Armies. This is the first time in history Chinese troops will be led by a foreigner. In the Sittang valley the Japanese advance on Toungoo, which is defended by the Chinese 200th Div.

Diplomatic Relations

Pres Ismet Inonu of Turkey vows that his country will remain neutral and that 'we will maintain our contractual relations with the belligerents, and we mean to carry on those relations... with a straight heart and with loyalty.'

Eastern Front

Russian pressure in the central and southern sectors continues. In the northern sector, Army Group North launches a vigorous counterattack to relieve the II Corps of its encirclement in the area of Kholm and Staraya Russa.

The 18th Army launches a furious counterattack on the Volkhov, closing the net around the 2nd Shock Army and encircling 130,000 men.

The Germans prepare to launch a relief attack toward the II and X Corps at Demyansk from Staraya Russa. A shock group under Gen Seydlitz-Kurzback, with the 5th and 8th Light and the 122nd, 127th and 329th Infantry Divisions, aims to fight their way through the waist-deep snow along the southern shores of Lake Ilmen to effect a junction with the pocket.

Indian Ocean

The Indian armed patrol trawler Sophie Marie (1138t) sinks on a mine off the Andaman Islands with the loss of 2 crewmen. The rest of the crew are rescued.

Bombing of Malta from dawn 19 March 1942 to dawn 20 March: 345 High Explosive Bombs in 24 Hours.

Island of Malta Bombed

LUFTWAFFE RECORD OF ATTACKS ON MALTA 19 MARCH 1942

Occupied Soviet Union

Operation MUNICH is launched. Joined by a Luftwaffe, German troops attack partisan bases around Yelnya and Dorogobuzh. Another anti-partisan sweep, Operation BAMBERG, commences near Bobruisk. In these actions SS police troops attack Russian villages and German security forced burn many dwellings, killing 3,500 people. Both operations succeed only in alienating the local population and swelling the ranks of the partisans. The diary of the 3rd Panzer Army records: 'There are indications that the partisan movements in the region of Velikiye Luki, Vitebsk, Rudnya and Velizh is now being organized on a large scale. The fighting strength of the partisans, hitherto active, is being bolstered by individual units of regular Red Army troops.'

Rumania, Home Front

Michel Antonescu, Vice-Premier, makes vehement anti-Hungarian speech in Bucharest, concerning the disputed province of Transylvania.