Admiralty Islands

After the usual bombardment by aircraft, ships and artillery units of 7th and 8th Cav Regts or the 1st Cav Div are landed on the north coast of Manus Island near Lugos Mission. They take this village and advance toward Lorengau by 2 routes, one along the coast and the other inland. On Los Negros Island units of the 5th Cav advance to the west in the southern part of the island. By taking the Admiralty Islands, the US will further isolate Japanese forces in New Britain and New Guinea.

Air Operations, Bismarcks

A VMF-222 F4U downs an A6M2-N 'Rufe' float plane over New Ireland at 1730 hours.

Air Operations, CBI

• 31 7th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s and more than 20 RAF Wellingtons and Beaufighters attack dumps and targets of opportunity around Rangoon. 24 10th Air Force A-31s and RAF aircraft attack Japanese Army ground positions in the Arakan coastal region. 10th Air Force fighters and fighter-bombers attack a broad range of targets throughout Burma.

• 8t 7th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack a barracks near Bangkok.

Air Operations, Europe

• 863 aircraft are sent to bomb Stuttgart. In this total are 617 Lancasters, 230 Halifaxes and 16 Mosquitos.
• The bomber force flies over France nearly as far as the Swiss border before turning northeast for the approach to Stuttgart. This tactic delays the German fighters from contacting the bomber stream until just before the target is reached. Many air combats ensue. Adverse winds delay the opening of the attack and the same winds may have caused the Pathfinder marking to fall back well short of the target, despite the clear weather conditions. Some of the early bombing hits the center of Stuttgart but most falls in the open country southwest of the city. The Akademie is damaged in the center of Stuttgart and some houses are destroyed in the southwest suburbs.
• 27 Lancasters and 10 Halifaxes are lost.
• 140 aircraft including 94 Halifaxes, 38 Stirlings and 8 Mosquitos, attack the railway yards at Amiens.
• 2 Halifaxes and 1 Stirling are lost.
• 22 Lancasters of No. 5 Group are sent to an aircraft engine factory at Woippy, near Metz. Bombing is abandoned because of heavy cloud cover.
• There are no losses.

• 17 Mosquitos are sent to 5 German targets and 10 to airfields in Holland, there are 2 RCM sorties, 11 Serrate patrols and 18 OTU sorties, 2 Stirlings lay mines off Trexel, and 31 aircraft are on Resistance operations.
• 1 Serrate Mosquito is lost.
• Allied bombers obliterate Cassino town, dropping 1,107 tons of bombs.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• More than 200 5th Air Force B-24s, B-25s, A-20s, P-38s, P-40s, and P-47s attack numerous targets in and around Wewak.
• In conjunction with a naval and artillery bombardment, 36 345th Medium Bomb Group B-25s organized into several waves attack Japanese Army ground positions on Manus Island as elements of the US 1st Cavalry Division mount their invasion of the island from neighboring Los Negros Island. Hereafter, nearly all ground-support missions in the Admiralty Islands will be undertaken by RAAF P-40s and, from the last week of March, RAAF Spitfires.
• 8th Fighter Group P-38s, 35th Fighter Group P-47s, and 49th Fighter Group P-40s down 9 Japanese fighters over the Wewak area between 1015 and 1115 hours.
• During the night, 2 Japanese bombers mount an ineffective attack against Gusap. One of the bombers is shot down.

Air Operations, Solomons

Japanese Army ground forces renew their attack against the Piva Uncle and Piva Yoke airfields on Bougainville, but US Army ground forces are able to retake lost ground with the aid of more than 50 combat sorties by AirSols bombers and fighters.

Bougainville

The Japanese renew their attacks against the American lines near the Piva runways, make a little progress, and then are drive back by an American counterattack with tank support. The Cape Torokina beachhead in Empress Augusta Bay is not endangered, but it is certainly less secure than it was a week after the landing.

Burma

In the northeast the Chinese and Americans advance to within 3 miles of Jambu Bum Ridge. The main effort of the Japanese offensive begins in the northwest with crossings of the Chindwin by 15th and 31st Divs in several places north of Tamu and south of Homalin. The Indian Army forces are at a disadvantage. Farther to the north, the Japanese 31st Div begins a three-pronged assault toward Kohima.

Eastern Front

Konev's forces have quickly crossed the Bug and now capture Vapnyarka cutting the Odessa-Zhmerinka rail line. Farther north near Vinnitsa Kalinkova falls to the Russians.

At this date the very long German front in the Soviet Union stretches from the Barents Sea, across Finland to Karelia; from the south shore of the Gulf of Finland, along the Narva and Lake Peipus, to the south, west of Vitebsk and Mogilev; then south, buttressed by the Pripet marshes, enters Poland and turns southeastward, following the line of the Bug, except for the salient recently opened by the Russians west of Uman, and down to the Black Sea west of Kherson. The German 17th Army has for some time been cut off in the Crimea. Thus the Wehrmacht has been driven back all the way to the line it held at the beginning of 1941, a few days after the invasion.

German troops mass along the Hungarian border, preparing to occupy the territory of their shaky ally.

The 6th Tank Army breaks out from its Bug bridgehead and takes Vapnyarka. Other elements of the front cut the railway line between Odessa and Zhmerinka near Vinnitsa.

Italy

Once more the Allied forces attack Cassino. The massive preliminary bombardment, lasting 5 and one half hours, 1,400 tons of bombs from planes and 190,000 shells, is mostly directed against Cassino town. The New Zealand Div moves in to attack the town at 3:30p.m. with 4th Indian Div ready to follow up against the monastery. The advance of the Allied tanks is hampered by the mass of rubble created by the bombardment. The German Div is very tenacious and well directed, but nevertheless some gains are made by the attacks in the town and on the lower slopes of the mountain at Castle Hill and Hangman's Hill.

Meanwhile the Allies are preparing Operation STRANGLE, aimed at 'strangling' enemy movements in their rear areas so as to prevent supplies from reaching the front. With the return of fine weather British and American aircraft bomb and machine-gun streets, bridges, railways and stations and every form of transport used by the enemy behind the lines; all this in addition to the normal bombing of towns and factories in central north Italy. The Germans are only able to move by night, so that very few reinforcments and supplies can reach the front line.

Solomons

The Japanese make another abortive effort against the American positions on Bougainville.

Images from March 15, 1944

The Combined Air and Artillery Barrage on Cassino which Begins a further Allied Assault, 15 March 1944

The town of Cassino shrouded in black smoke during the Allied barrage on 15 March 1944. Over 1,250 tons of bombs were dropped on this occasion

Town of Cassino Shrouded in Black Smoke

A New Zealand 6-pdr Anti-tank Gun in Action against Enemy Positions at Cassino, 15 March 1944

The first Stick of Bombs Falls on Cassino, 15 March 1944

'Action Stations' on Anti-aircraft Gun as Enemy Aircraft Approach the Cassino Front, Italy, 15 March 1944

The heavy Allied assault on Cassino was witnessed in the early stages by American Red Cross nurses who made a strictly off-duty visit to the ruined town of Cevaro, 15 March 1944

Witnessing the Assault on Cassino

General Leese, commanding Eighth Army with his corps commanders watching an Allied bombing raid on Cassino, 15 March 1944

Gen Leese Watching the Allied Bombing Raid

A section of the Cassino Front, Italy, as seen by R F Dale waiting behind the sights of his anti aircraft gun, 15 March 1944

Waiting Behind an Anti-aircraft Gun

Civilian families in an area close to the Cassino Front, Italy, outside the cave in which they now live after their homes had been demolished by the Germans, 15 March 1944

Civilian Families Now Living in Caves

American Medium Bombers on Way to Join Allied Attack on the Monte Cassino Front, Italy, 15 March 1944