Admiralty Islands

The Japanese batteries at the entrance to Seeadler Bay are bombarded once again by Adm Crutchley's 3 cruisers and 4 destroyers. American advance guards capture Papitalai and the eastern part of Seeadler Harbor in Los Negros Island. B-25 aircraft are able to make emergency landings on Momote airfield.

Air Operations, Bismarcks

• RAAF bombers and 80th Fighter Squadron P-38s attack Talasea in support of US Marine Corps ground operations against the base.
• AirSols fighters pass through Nissan airfield in the Green Islands as they attack Kavieng for the first time.

Air Operations, Carolines

VII Bomber Command B-24s attack Kusaie Island.

Air Operations, CBI

• 2 490th Medium Bomb Squadron B-25s attack Japanese Army ground forces near Shaduzup. 1 B-25 attacks a bridge and barges near Shwebo. More than 20 10th Air Force P-51s and A-36s attack targets of opportunity while sweeping the area between Walawbum and Shaduzup.

Air Operations, Europe

Allied bombers attack the marshalling yards in Florence and Rome.

• 304 aircraft are sent to Le Mans. Included in this total are 242 Halifaxes, 56 Lancaster and 6 Mosquitos of Nos. 3, 4, 6 and 8 Groups.
• The target is covered in cloud but heavy damage is believed to have been caused to the railway yards where about 300 bombs fell. 250 railway wagons are destroyed, many railway lines are cut, a turntable is put out of action and 6 locomotives damaged.
• There are no losses.

• 15 Mosquitos are sent to 4 German targets, there are 4 RCM sorties, 1 Serrate patrolm and 6 OTU sorties, and 51 aircraft are involved in Resistance operations.
• There are no losses.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• V Bomber Command B-24s and B-24s attack the airfield at Bioram and Japanese Army ground troops on Los Negros Island. Only 5 of 17 B-25s assigned to attack islands in Seeadler Harbor are able to complete their mission in the face of bad weather.
• A damaged V Bomber Command B-25 lands at the Momote airfield on Los Negros, which is declared operational during the day.

Burma

The Chinese and Americans concentrate for the occupation of Walawbum where there are still substantial forces in the vicinity. About 2,000 Japanese are surrounded in the Hukawng Valley.

In Operation U-GO the 33rd Div of Lt-Gen Renya Mutaguchi's 15th Army launches a major offensive across the Chindwin River. The goal of the operation is to spoil any Allied offensive moves in central Burma by crossing into India, pushing Allied forces out of Burma in the process, cutting the Assam-Burma railway used for supplying Stilwell's Myitkyina offensive, and also occupying Imphal and Kohima and the flat territory between. The first part of the offensive involves the Japanese 33rd Div advancing out and cutting the Tiddim-Imphal Road, a major Allied supply route to Imphal, and trapping the 17th Indian Div based between Tiddim and Tongzang.

Diplomatic Relations

Moscow says it considers the Curzon line unacceptable as the postwar border between Russia and Poland, holding that the frontier should be farther west.

Eastern Front

The 1st Ukrainian Front advances rapidly. The 60th, 1st Guards and 3rd Guards Tank Armies approach Tarnopol, Chernyi and Ostrov. The 38th Army advances upon Starokonstantinovka. Hitler orders Tarnopol held to the last man, even if encircled.

Germany, Home Front

Members of the Nazi organization for women are making house-to-house calls to recruit females between the ages of 17 and 45 to work 'in the service of the community'. This is to bolster Germany's depleted labor force.

Solomons

The Japanese have at last assembled large forces around the US beachhead on Bougainville and are preparing a major attack. On the Green Islands the Allied forces have now completed the construction of an airfield.

Images from March 7, 1944

BA3 #3a 'Black Magic'. On 7 March 1944 it crashed on take-off on Borio Bobi Strip, Dobodura after the undercarriage was retracted too soon by the RAAF crew training with the 43rd Bomb Group

Training Accident

Amphibious Training Exercises at Avila Beach, California, 7 March 1944

Japanese Troops on the Attack between Homalin and Thaungdut in Their Efforts to Cut the Imphal to Kohima Road in Burma

Hans-Caspar Kreuger, a Swedish Volunteer in the Waffen SS, & Driver in Narva after the Soviet Bombing Raid, March 1944