Admiralty Islands

Advance guards are sent to scout landing places on Manus Island. One unit lands on Butjo Luo offshore and takes heavy punishment from the Japanese defenders.

Air Operations, Bismarcks

RAAF fighters relieve the 8th Fighter Group�s 35th and 80th Fighter squadrons at the Cape Gloucester airfield on New Britain, and the 2 USAAF squadrons (in P-40s and P-38s, respectively) transfer to the Nadzab airfield on New Guinea.

Air Operations, CBI

• 2 490th Medium Bomb Squadron B-25s and more than 70 10th Air Force P-51, P-40, and A-36 fighter-bombers attack road targets, fuel and ammunition dumps, artillery batteries, and targets of opportunity at Gahtawng, Laban, Mogaung, Pandaw, Saungka, and Shaduzup.
• 459th Fighter Squadron P-38s down 12 Japanese fighters and one unidentified airplane over Aungban at 0800 hours. 1 P-38 and its pilot are lost.

• 10 14th Air Force P-40s attack Ha Coi, barges at Campha, and buildings on Weichow Island (China).

Air Operations, Central Pacific

VII Bomber Command B-24s based on Kwajalein attack Wake Island. This is the first land-based attack against that isolated target.

Air Operations, Europe

US bombers raid Toulon, Padua and Florence.

• 47 Mosquitos are sent to hit 6 German cities, the largest being 20 to Hamburg, there are 4 Serrate patrols and 21 OTU sorties, 43 aircraft lay mines in the Frisians and off Brest and the Biscay ports, and 22 aircraft are on Resistance operations.
• 1 mine-laying Stirling is lost.

• 34 B-24s ot the 2nd Bomb Division's 44th and 93rd Heavy Bomb Groups attack a V-weapons site at Wizernes with 127 tons of bombs.
• Escort was to have been provided by 213 P-47s of the 352nd and 353rd Fighter Groups, but the fighters, which abort due to bad weather, undertake low-level sweeps.
• 3 P-47s are lost and 2 of the pilots

• All 124 8th Air Force B-17s dispatched attack marshalling yards at Munster and nearby targets of opportunity.
• 1 B-17 is lost
• Escort is provided by 90 P-47s and 50 P-51s from three fighter groups.
• 2 355th Fighter Group P-51s and their pilots are lost

• 114 IX Bomber Command B-26s are dispatched against V-weapons sites in northern France. 61 are able to attack the assigned targets while 53 abort due to bad weather.
• 36 352nd Fighter Group P-47s equipped with a single 500-pound bomb apiece attack the submarine pens at St.-Nazaire en masse at wave-top height from the direction of the Bay of Biscay, then make their withdrawal across the Brittany Peninsula to the English Channel. The German defenses are caught by surprise by the wave-top skip-bombing attack, but results are unknown. During the withdrawal, P-47 pilots strafe targets of opportunity all across Brittany.
• 1 P-47 and its pilot are lost, 1 battle-damaged P-47 crashes in the English Channel, 3 P-47s are badly damaged

• 12th Air Force B-25s and B-26s attack marshalling yards at three locations.
• XII Air Support Command A-36s, P-40s, and P-47s attack rail and tactical targets in and around the battle areas.

• 15th Air Force B-24s attack the harbor and naval base at Toulon.
• Escort for this mission is provided by 1st Fighter Group P-38s which down 7 Luftwaffe fighters.

• 15th Air Force B-24s attack the Iesi Airdrome and marshalling yards at two locations.
• 15th Air Force B-17s attack a marshalling yard at Padua.
• Escort is provided by 325th Fighter Group P-47s whose pilots down 11 Luftwaffe fighter around Padua between 1120 and 1230 hours.
• 3 P-47s are lost

Air Operations, New Guinea

• 7 V Bomber Command B-24s mount low-level strafing and bombing attacks against Japanese Army ground positions near Lorengau (Manus Island) while 12 41st Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack the town itself. RAAF P-40s based at the Momote airfield on Los Negros also attack ground targets.
• More than 80 V Bomber Command B-24s, B-25s, and A-20s attack the airfield at Boram.; 40 A-20s and V Fighter Command P-39 fighter-bombers attack the Madang area. P-47s attack ground targets around Hansa Bay.
• 348th Fighter Group P-47s down 14 Japanese fighters over Wewak between 1045 and 1105 hours. 35th Fighter Group P-47s down 6 Japanese fighters over the Wewak area at 1250 hours, and 3 fighters over the Wewak area at 1405 hours.

Air Operations, Solomons

A Japanese Army ground attack toward the Piva Uncle and Piva Yoke airfields on Bougainville is barely contained by US Army ground forces with the aid of AirSols light bombers and fighters. 4 XIII Bomber Command B-24s and 63 XIII Fighter Command P-40s attack Japanese ground troops and bivouacs in several outlying areas of Bougainville.

Algeria, Home Front

Pierre Pucheu, former Vichy Minister of the Interior, is sentenced to death by a military court in Algiers. He is the first of the collaborators to be tried.

Atlantic

The German submarines U-380 and U-410 are sunk off Toulon, France by US Army aircraft.

Battle of the Atlantic

UIT-22, formerly the Italian submarine Alpino Bagnoli, is employed as a cargo-carrier between Europe and the Far East. The U-boat is bombed and sunk by South African aircraft of No 226 and 279 Squadrons.

UIT-22

Bougainville

The 2nd Battalion, 148th Infantry Regiment, 37th Infantry Division, supported by artillery fire attacks to recapture Hill 700, but fails to gain ground.

The Japanese reinforce Hill 260 and press he American defenders to a perimeter around North Knob. A counterattack by the 182nd Infantry, Americal Division, with flamethrowers allows the six trapped Americans to escape but makes no further progress to capture South Knob on Hill 260.

During the night, the Japanese attack teh 129th Infantry Regiment, 37th Infantry Division, defending positions west of Hill 700. This position is strongly defended and the Japanese make no gains.

Burma

The Japanese 33rd Div as well as attacking 17th Div is infiltrating behind 20th Div but their advances in this sector are held near Witok. More Chindit forces are flying in to central Burma and are already disrupting Japanese communications with the forces facing Stilwell's Chinese and American troops. In the Arakan Buthidaung falls to the 7th Indian Div. The Japanese fortress at Razabil also falls to the Allies.

Eastern Front

Troops of 3rd Ukraine Front take Berislav north of the Dniepr east of Kherson.

The 1st Ukrainian comes under heavy attack from the XLVIII Panzer Corps at Cherny Ostrov, temporaritly halting the Russian advance. However, Zhukov is about to swing his main thrust south toward the Dniestr to pin the 1st Panzer Army against the river. Heavy fighting rages from Tarnopol, through Volochisk and on to Proskurov.

The 2nd Ukrainian Front pushes its 2nd Tank Army across the Bug River at Dzhulinka while the 6th Tank Army crosses at Gayvoron. Manstein orders the 8th Army to pull back to prevent its disintegration and isolation on the east bank of the Bug. On the southern flank the 28th Army takes Berislav after bitter fighting with the XXIX Corps of the 6th Army.

Italy

In the Anzio sector units of the US VI Corps begin preparations for a new offensive around the Albano road.

Mediterranean

• U-410 is bombed and sunk while alongside at Toulon during a USAAF raid on the port.

U-410 Class Type VIIC CO Oberleutnant zur See Horst-Arno Fenski Location Mediterranean, Toulon Cause Air attack Casualties None Survivors 51

U-380 Class Type VIIC CO Kapitänleutnant Albrecht Brandt Location Mediterranean, SE of Anzio Cause Depth charge Casualties 1 Survivors 50

• U-380 is bombed and sunk while alongside at Toulon in the same USAAF raid on the port as was U-410.

New Britain

As the 3/5 Marines land on the Willaumez Peninsula beachhead, patrols seek to locate the Japanese.

Pacific

• The Japanese submarine RO-110 is sunk by the Indian Navy sloop Jumna and the Australian minesweepers Ipswich and Launceston 17 miles south of Vizagapatam, India.
• The US submarine Bowfin (SS-287) sinks the Japanese army cargo ship Tsukikawa Maru (4470t) west of Halmaher Island.

Images from March 11, 1944

Japanese Infiltrating US Lines at Night

11th Field Hospital, Bucciano, Italy

A 75-mm Cannon Mounted on a Hill

Empty Charge Cases at Cassino