Admiralty Islands
The US 7th and 8th Cav on Manus capture Lorengau airfield, their main objective. The airfield is considered too small for use by US aircraft and another will have to be built. The Americans are engaged with the Japanese defenders on Los Negros and take some of their positions.
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]Air Operations, Bismarcks
US Army ground forces occupy the Gasmata airfield on New Britain.
[ | ]Air Operations, Carolines
VII Bomber Command B-24s attack Ponape Island.
[ | ]Air Operations, CBI
BURMA- 24 7th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s and 12 459th Fighter Squadron P-38s attack supply dumps in the Chin Hills. More than 30 490th Medium Bomb Squadron B-25s and 10th Air Force P-51s and A-36s attack bridges at Shweli and others spanning the Irrawaddy River, and supply dumps and Japanese Army ground positions in the Kamaing area. 2 B-25s attack an oil facility at Chauk. 18 10th Air Force A-31s attack Japanese Army ground positions and occupied villages in the Chin Hills. 22 A-31s attack Japanese Army ground troops near Thaungdut. 37 P-40 fighter-bombers attack the airfield at Myitkyina. Other fighters conduct numerous sorties against a wide range of targets.
- 5 341st Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack boatyards at Vinh and sawmills at Ben Thuy.
| ]Air Operations, East Indies
380th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack the naval base at Soerabaja, Java.
[ | ]Air Operations, Europe
200 US 15th Air Force bombers raid industrial targets in Vienna.
RAF BOMBER COMMANDEvening Ops:
- 28 Mosquitos are sent to Cologne and 2 to Aachen, and 1 Mosquito makes an RCM sortie without a loss.
FRANCE:
- The VIII Figher Command dispatches 135 P-47s from the 78th, 353rd, 359th, and 361s Fighter Groups to deliver low-level strafing attacks against Luftwaffe airdromes in France. Weather disrupts several of the planned attacks, but all four groups do end up delivering attacks of one sort or another.
- 2 78th Fighter Group P-47s and their pilots are lost
FRANCE:
- 70 IX Bomber Command B-26s attack a marshalling yard at Creil.
AUSTRIA:
- 15th Air Force B-24s are dispatched to attack several Bf-109 component factories near Vienna, at Fischamend Markt and Schwechat. Weather forces 125 B-24s bound for Fischamend Markt to abort, and the 192 B-24s bound for Schwechat drop 379 tons of bombs through solid clouds simply by estimating their time of arrival over the target. Miraculously, many of the bombs strike an industrial area.
| ]Air Operations, New Guinea
- Nearly 100 V Bomber Command B-24s, B-25s, and A-20s attack targets in the Wewak area. B-25s attack targets in the Alexishafen-Madang area. V Fighter Command P-38s attack targets in the Hansa Bay area.
- US Army ground forces overrun the Lorengau airfield at Manus, but the facility is found to be inadequate for use as a USAAF base, and so a search for a new airfield location is begun.
| ]Air Operations, Solomons
A Japanese night heckler drops bombs on Torokina Island. This first such attack in more than a month kills a member of Marine Air Group 24 and wounds 7 others.
[ | ]Bougainville
The Japanese carry out more attacks on the defensive perimeter of the Cape Torokina beachhead in the area held by the US 129th Inf. They succeed in making a few small breaks in the American positions, but are then driven back.
[ | ]Burma
There are heavy Japanese air attacks on the the Chindits' landing ground at Broadway. Several of the supporting Spitfires are destroyed on the ground.
Lord Mountbatten presses Churchill and Roosevelt to urge Chiang Kai-shek to send Chinese reinforcements into Burma.
[ | ]CBI
The SEAC commander, Adm Lord Louis Mountbatten, sends a message to Prime Minister Churchill and President Roosevelt requesting that the two leaders appeal to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek to release another Chinese division to Burma.
[ | ]Diplomatic Relations
The Finnish Government, which has recently been approached by Moscow about signing a separate peace, fails to get the guarantees from London that it asks for, and formally rejects the proposal.
[ | ]
Eastern Front
Troops of the 1st Ukraine Front advance to the southwest of Rovno, Poland, taking the important road and rail junction of Dubno.
SOUTHERN SECTORThe 60th Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front takes Dubno, while elements of the 2nd Tank Army reach the Dniestr at Yampol.
[ | ]Italy
Units of the New Zealand Corps penetrate into the eastern part of Cassino and capture the railway station, but the resistance of the German paratroopers prevents them from advancing furthers.
Over the next couple of days the New Zealand and Indian troops mount unsuccessful attacks toward the southwest of the town and along Snake's Head Ridge to Point 593. The Germans similarly fail in efforts against Castle Hill and Hangman's Hill.
[ | ]Mediterranean
U-371 sinks the US troopship Dempo off Algiers. 498 are killed.
[ | ]Images from March 17, 1944
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