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.

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.

Bougainville

In an attack supported by tanks the American succeed in recapturing almost all the positions occupied by the Japanese since their offensive began, apart from a few which still constitutre a threat to the beachhead.

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.

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.

Pacific

The Japanese light cruiser Tatsuta is sunk by the US submarine Sandlance (DD-381) off Honshu, Japan.

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 in a Trench at Anzio, Italy, 13 March 1944

Gen Maczek and Gen Montgomery Reviewing Polish Troops, Galashiels, Scotland, 13 March 1944

Russian Soldiers Inspect a Panther

13 March 1944, Russian soldiers, ankle deep in mud, inspect a Panther Ausf.A left behind by the Germans in Uman, Ukraine. this vehicle has the rare tow coupling introduced in November 1943. The distinctive horizontal ‘Zimmerit’ indicates it is a rarely photographed Demag vehicle. Uman was a popular site for Russian propagandists, and a harbinger of the German retreats to follow in the summer of 1944.

Aerial photograph of Bovingdon airfield looking north , the technical site with four T2 hangars is at the southeast of the airfield, the bomb dump is to the west, 13 March 1944. Photograph taken by 7th Photographic Reconnaissance Group

Aerial Photograph of Bovingdon Airfield

German Troops and Italian Collaborators Round-up of Civilians in front of the Palazzo Barberini, Rome, March 1944

Three weeks of brutal combat razed every bit of vegetation on the top of Hill 260. This view, looking south, shows American soldiers busy atop the hill, re-organizing defenses and disposing of refuse and bodies. (Source: National Archives)

No Vegetation on Hill 260

Child Trying to Wake His Mother

March 1944: A child in the Ozarichy hostage holding camp tries to wake up his mother, who has been murdered by the Germans. Ozarichy in Kalinkovichy region of Belarus was large fenced-in area on the German front line holding local civilians as human shields against Soviet attacks. The hostages were left without shelter, food, and water and were decimated by exposure, gunfire, and hunger. When Soviet troops finally defeated the Germans in the area, they found 15,960 children among the hostages.

Lt-Gen Devers on the Front Lines in Italy, 13 March 1944

A Dead Jap Lies as he was found in a Trench, with a Machine Gun Clip Clutched in his Hand, Bougainville. 13 March 1944

The Greek Ship SS Peleus, Most of the Crew Survived the Sinking but Were Killed on their Life Rafts by U-852

US soldier Fires a Captured Japanese Naval Gun on an Island in the Admiralties; Papua New Guinea, March 1944