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This Week in World War II: 75 Years Ago

Workers assemble water-cooled machine guns, part of the Lend Lease Act.

Workers assemble water-cooled machine guns, part of the Lend Lease Act.

By: Phil Kohn. Dedicated to the memory of his father, GM3 Walter Kohn, U.S. Navy Armed Guard, USNR, and all men and women who have answered the country’s call in time of need. Phil can be contacted at ww2remembered@yahoo.com.

In the North Atlantic west of Ireland on March 7, 1941, the British destroyer HMS Wolverine sinks the German submarine U-47 in a convoy engagement. The German vessel is commanded by highly decorated Lt. Günther Prien. Under Prien, U-47 since 1939 had sunk over 30 Allied vessels, registering nearly 200,000 gross tons, including the British battleship HMS Royal Oak. Prien is the first of three leading U-boat captains that will be killed, captured or lost over the next few weeks, staggering the German U-boat command.

On March 8, the U.S. Senate passes the Lend Lease Bill by a vote of 60–13. The House of Representatives had already approved the bill in February. In the North Atlantic a 55-ship convoy (SL 67) en route from Freetown, Sierra Leone, to Liverpool, England, escapes attack from the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau because the British battleship HMS Malaya is among the eight escorting vessels. (Hitler had ordered that the two ships were not to engage, if possible, if there was risk of damage to them.)

Italian forces in Albania on March 9 launch an offensive involving 12 divisions against Greece. Mussolini himself travels to the front to supervise the attack. Greek intelligence has been aware of the assault plan, however, and defenders are well-placed. Over England, German planes bomb London, damaging Buckingham Palace.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Lend Lease bill into law.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Lend Lease bill into law.

Since taking Mogadishu, Somalia, on February 25, Commonwealth troops under Lt. Gen. William Platt have advanced northward for 600 miles into Ethiopia and only come into contact with Italian forces on March 10, at Dagabur, in the eastern part of the country. On the same day in Tokyo, Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Combined Fleet, is given the first draft of a plan to attack the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

On March 11, President Franklin Roosevelt signs the Lend Lease Act into law. Important amendments to the legislation have been made by Congress on the bill’s way to the president’s desk, however. A time limit has been imposed: the Act is valid only until June 1943. On the other hand, a previous restriction in the House version of the bill forbidding U.S. warships from providing convoy protection to foreign shipping has been removed. Also to be allowed are the transfers of ships to other nations solely on presidential authority without requiring the approval of Congress. The legislation also mandates that Great Britain must pay cash for goods for as long as it can, nor can it export anything containing materials provided under Lend-Lease.

The next day, March 12, President Roosevelt presents to Congress an appropriations bill for Lend Lease in the amount of $7 billion.

In Albania on March 13 the Italian attacks continue on the key Klisura Pass, among other objectives, but the Greek defenders — who captured the pass in January — are comfortably holding off the offensive. At Scheveningen, Occupied Netherlands, 15 members of the Dutch resistance are executed by a German firing squad.

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