Air Operations, Bismarcks

• 43rd Heavy Bomb Group B-17s attack Rabaul-area airfields.
• 90th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s mount individual attacks against Cape Gloucester and a shipwreck off Talasea.

Air Operations, CBI

• 6 B-24s of the 7th Heavy Bomb Group attack a bridge at Pazundaung.

Air Operations, East Indies

V Bomber Command B-24s and B-25s attack Fuiloro, Timor, and shipping at Amboina.

Air Operations, Europe

FW-190 fighter-bombers raid London. During the night there is another raid on Newcastle.

• 12 Mosquitos bomb an armaments factory at Liege and score direct hits.
• 1 Mosquito is lost.

• 457 aircraft are sent to Essen. Included in the total are 158 Wellingtons, 156 Lancasters, 91 Halifaxes, 42 Stirlings and 10 Mosquitos.
• Oboe is used to mark the target area which is right across the giant Krupps factory just west of the city center. Photograph assessment indicate that the Krupps factory receives 30 percent more damage that the previous raid from a week earlier.
• 8 Lancasters, 7 Halifaxes, 6 Wellingtons and 2 Stirlings are lost.

Large areas of Essen, like this one photographed after the raid of 12/13 March, were severley damaged by Bomber Command's improved marking techniques.

Damage in Essen

Further Damage to the Massive Krupps Factory in Essen

Fires Are Still Burning in this Picture Taken Some Time after the Raid

• 9 Stirlings lay mines in the Frisians and there are 7 OTU sorties with no losses.

Air Operations, Mediterranean

NASAF B-25s attack Axis ships at sea between Sicily and Tunisia, and 2 flying boats are downed by 82nd Fighter Group P-38 pilots near the Egadi Islands at 1345 hours.

Air Operations, New Guinea

V Bomber Command A-20s attack the airfield at Salamaua and the area around Guadagasal.

Air Operations, Solomons

• XIII Bomber Command B-24s attack airfields at Ballale, Bougainville, and New Georgia.
• 347th Fighter Group P-38s sink a small vessel off Rendova Island.

Air Operations, Tunisia

• 38 NASAF B-17s attack the port facilities and marshalling yard at Sousse. A 1st Fighter Group escort P-38 pilot downs a Bf-109 over Sousse at 1405 hours.
• NASAF B-26s attack supply dumps and bridges at Enfidaville. Fighters escorting the B-26s attack various ground targets of opportunity around Pichon and Pont-du-Fahs. 1 Bf-109 is downed by a 33rd Fighter Group pilot.
• A 31st Fighter Group Spitfire pilot downs 1 Bf-109 near Thelepte Airdrome during an early afternoon sweep.

Battle of the Atlantic

• The HMS Harvester is sunk by U-432, but the Free French corvette Aconit again, as the previous night, destroys the U-boat.
• The German submarine U-130 is sunk in the North Atlantic area by the US destroyer Champlin (DD-601).

U-130

Britain, Policy

The Murmansk convoys are abandoned for the summer by the British Admiralty following alarming reports that Scharnhorst has joined Tirpitz and Lützow in northern Norway.

Burma

Gen Stilwell, Chiang Kai-shek's adviser and Chief of Staff, worried by Japanese troop movements in northern Burma, sends Chinese reinforcements to Ledo, in Assam. In the Arakan sector the Japanese try to cut off the Indian units one by one by a series of enircling movements.

Diplomatic Relations

Eden confers on the Pacific War situation in Washington.

Eastern Front

While furious fighting continues in the streets of Kharkov, the Germans send a unit east to Chuguyev to cut off some of the Red Army forces south of the city. In the central sector the Germans are retreating on a wide front and the Soviets retake Vyazma without a fight.

The 5th Army retakes Vyazma as the XX Corps pulls back.

SS Das Reich reaches the main railway station in the heart of Kharkov while elements of Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler clears the Soviets from the south and southeast quarters. However, the greatest threat to the Soviet forece in the city comes from the SS Totenkopr Division as it pushes east and south from its positions north of the city. By nightfall Rogan has fallen and 3rd Tank Army is again in danger of isolation.

Italy, Home Front

In Turin 100,000 workers strike. Strikes follow immediately in Lombardy and Genoa. These are the first demonstrations against the regime, and bring war production to a halt. The feeble reaction of the Italian authorities infuriates Hitler, who bursts out, in the presence of his staff: 'It is inconceivable to me that work can be stopped . . . that anyone can have dared to hold it up . . . If you show the least weakness in cases like this, you are finished!'

Mediterranean

The British destroyer Lightning is sunk by the German motor torpedo boat S-55 north of Bizerte with the loss of 25 crewmen. The British destroyer Loyal rescues 170 survivors.

North Africa

The New Zealand Corps, consisting of the 2nd New Zealand Div and the 8th Arm Bde, begins to carry out Montgomery's plan to enircle the Axis forces on the left, or southern, flank. The plan is for the New Zealanders, after crossing the Matmata Hills, to push on northward toward Tebaga Gap and take the Italians and Germans in the rear of the El Hamma plain, having bypassed the Mareth Line. The troops are secretly moved south from Medenine, and begin to concentrate west of Wilder's Gap. Air attacks on Sousse and Tunis cause heavy damage to residential areas in both cities.

Guardsmen of the Scots Guards inspect a knocked-out German PzKpfw IV tank near Medenine, 12 March 1943.

A Knocked-Out German PzKpfw IV Tank

Guardsmen of the Scots Guards inspect a knocked-out German PzKpfw IV tank near Medenine, 12 March 1943.

A Valentine Tank Carries Infantry during an Exercise, 12 March 1943

The 18th Army Group succeeds in establishing a reserve force. The British 6th Armored and 78th Divs are designated reserves under the headquarters of the newly arrived IX Corps. The 6th Armored is in the process of being refitted with Sherman tanks. In the US II Corps area, the 60th Regimental Combat Team of the 9th Div is attache to the 1st Armored Div in preparation for the coming offensive.

United States, Planning

The Pacific Military Conference opens in Washington. Meetings will continue until the 15th. Gen Sutherland, MacArthur's Chief of Staff, submits a revised version of the ELKTON plan for the capture of New Britain and especially the vital Japanese base of Rabaul. The plan is for a coordinated effort by the Southwestern Pacific forces, under MacArthur, and the South Pacific forces, under Halsey. MacArthur's forces would invade New Britain from bases in New Guinea. Halsey's would tackle the Solomon Islands. The navy is much concerned with the shortage of shipping, which is holding up the transfer of new forces to the Far East. Once again there are evident differences between MacArthur's strategic ideas and those of Nimitz, Command-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet.