Admiralty Islands

After receiving some tank support Hauwei is completely overrun by the American landing force. Artillery is landed to support the coming operations on Manus.

Air Operations, CBI

• 2 490th Medium Bomb Squadron B-25s and more than 140 10th Air Force P-51s, P-40s, and A-36s attack Loilaw and Namti, a bridge and targets of opportunity around Shaduzup, and dumps near Seton and Warazup.
• Japanese aircraft attack an advance airfield used by 10th Air Force aircraft to support the British Army�s Chindit deep-penetration force.

• 8 308th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s and 4 51st Fighter Group P-40s attack the airfield and seaplane base at Kiungshan, Hainan. 16 14th Air Force P-40s attack a bridge at Puchi.
• P-40s with the 51st Fighter Group�s 26th Fighter Squadron down 3 Ki-44 'Tojo' fighters over the Kiungshan airfield at Hainan.

Air Operations, Europe

• 213 Halifaxes and 9 Mosquitos of Nos. 4, 6 and 8 Groups are sent back to Le Mans. Reports from the ground indicate the Maroc Station and 2 nearby factories are severely damaged, many lines are cut, 15 locomotives and 800 railway wagons are destroyed.
• 1 Halifax is lost.

• 39 Mosquitos are sent to 5 German targets, the largest raid being 26 planes to Frankfurt, there are 4 RCM sorties, 4 Serrate patrols and 21 OTU sorties, 25 Stirlings and 10 Halifaxes lay mines off French Channel ports, and 19 aircraft are on Resistance operations.
• 1 mine-laying Stirling is lost.

• A total of 271 8th Air Force B-17s and B-24s, escorted by 213 VIII Fighter Command P-47s, are dispatched against V-weapons sites around Pas-de-Calais, but bad weather is encountered and only 7 B-17s attack a target of opportunity near Poix with a total of 21 tons of bombs.
• 2 B-17s are downed by enemy fire, 74 are damaged, 1 is written off; 6 crewmen are killed, 1 wounded, 20 missing

• Of 77 IX Bomber Command B-26s dispatched, 40 attack V-weapons sites, but 37 abort due to bad weather.

• 12th Air Force B-25s attack marshalling yards at Perugia and Spoleto, and chokepoints around Terni.
• 12 Air Force B-26s attack rail lines and bridges between Florence and Rome, and a defended town.

• XII Air Support Command A-36s attack rail targets.
• XII Air Suppoort Command P-40s attack gun emplacements near the Anzio beachhead and a supply dump.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• More than 160 5th Air Force B-24s, B-25s, A-20s, P-47s, and P-40s attack targets in the Wewak area.
• 49th Fighter Group P-40s and a 35th Fighter Group P-47 down 5 Japanese fighters over the Wewak area between 1115 and 1140 hours.

Air Operations, Solomons

• A US Army counterattack forces Japanese Army ground forces to abandon their attack against the airfield on Bougainville.
• Throughout the day, 131 SBD sorties and 95 TBF sorties drop 123 tons of bombs on Japanese ground troops and artillery batteries. 27 XIII Fighter Command P-38s, P-39s, and P-40s attack Japanese Army supply dumps.

Battle of the Atlantic

• U-852 fires on the survivors of the torpedoed Greek ship Peleus. 32 of 35 are killed.
• In a combined operation using aircraft (VC-95) from the US escort carrier Bogue (CVE-9, the destroyer Hobson (DD-464), the destroyer escort Haverfield, a Canadian vessel and British aircraft, the German submarine U-575 is sunk in the North Atlantic area.

U-575

Bougainville

The 129th Infantry Regiment, 37th Infantry Division, supported by tanks, drives the Japanese and regains its original positions. The Japanese abandon Hill 700 and the 1st Battalion of hte 132nd Infantry fights the Japanese for control of the South Knob of Hill 260.

Burma

The Japanese 33rd and 15th Divisions advancing toward the Imphal plain in Operation U-GO take the British by surprise and threaten to cut them off. Gen Scoones authrorizes 17th and 20th Divs to withdraw from their advanced positions to Imphal. Gen Douglas D. Gracey with 20th Div has made better preparations for this move thatn Cowan with 17th. Scoones and his superiors Slim and George Giffard agree that reinforcements are needed and Mountbatten therefore sends requests to the highest level for the use of American aircraft (those normally used for ferrying supplies to the Chinese) to move 5th Div from the Arakan. The Japanese begin air attacks against the Chindits' 'Broadway' airfield which is used for bringing in supplies.

CBI

The 1st Battalion of the Marauders reaches Makuy Bum.

Diplomatic Relations

Italy and the USSR establish diplomatic relations.

Eastern Front

After crossing the lower Dniepr Kherson is taken by 3rd Ukraine Front after a hard struggle. They next move toward Nikolayev.

After heavy fighting the XLVIII Panzer begins a relief attack toward Tarnopol. The dual role of the attack is also to close the gap between the 4th and 1st Panzer Armies. Fierce, but ultimately unsuccessful fighting will rage for the next week. The 1st Panzer Army falls back across the Bug as its right wing is bent back by the 2nd Ukrainian Front. Kherson falls to the 28th Army on the extreme southern wing after a costly battle with the XLIV Corps.

Indian Ocean

The US tanker H. D. Collier is torpedoed and sunk by the Japanese submarine I-26 and is abandoned. 12 of the 28-man Armed Guard are lost in the attack.

Pacific

• The Japanese light cruiser Tatsuta is sunk by the US submarine Sandlance (DD-381) off Honshu, Japan.
• The US submarine Tautog (SS-199) sinks the Japanese army cargo ship Ruoa Maru (1925t) and transport Shojin Maru (1942t) about 20 miles west of Rashuwa Island, Kurils.

Solomons

On Bougainville powerful American counterattacks with tank and air support retake almost all the gains made by the Japanese in the last few days.

Images from March 13, 1944

A British Bren Gun Crew

Gen Maczek and Gen Montgomery Reviewing Polish Troops

Russian Soldiers Inspect a Panther

Aerial Photograph of Bovingdon Airfield

Rounding Up Civilians

No Vegetation on Hill 260

Child Trying to Wake His Mother

Lt-Gen Devers on the Front Lines

A Dead Japanese Soldier Lies in a Trench

The Greek Ship SS Peleus

Firing a Captured Japanese Naval Gun