A U.S. A-20G bomber of the 3rd Attack Group bombs a Japanese merchant ship off New Guinea, March 1943. Click for details.
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.
Gen Hans-Jürgen von Arnim’s Fifth Panzer Army launches a five-day counterattack in northern Tunisia on February 26, gaining some ground. British Eighth Army commander, Gen. Bernard Montgomery, issues the plan for “Operation Pugilist,” intended to smash the Axis’s Mareth defensive line in southern Tunisia. In Poland, the Auschwitz concentration camp receives its first shipment of Romani (gypsies) deported from Germany.
In Germany, Gen. Heinz Guderian on February 27 is appointed Inspector-General of Armored Troops and is given wide-ranging powers to strengthen the Wehrmacht’s tank arm. On the civilian front in the Third Reich, “Operation Factory Action” begins as the last 8,000 Jews in Berlin are to be gathered up for deportation. Most are factory workers, who until now had been exempted from deportation. Within 24 hours, those rounded up are on their way to Auschwitz.
SS United Victory, the first Victory Ship class of cargo vessel, is launched in Portland, Oregon, on February 28. Nine Norwegian commandos successfully climb down the steep gorge on one side of the German “heavy water” plant at Telemark, Norway, and work their way up a 500-foot, almost-sheer rock face to reach the plant on the other side of the gorge. Undetected, they gain entrance to the facility and successfully set and detonate their explosives, ruining the plant. All the commandos escape safely, without taking or inflicting any casualties. Germany’s atomic-weapons development program is set back years by the attack.
On March 1, the Allies launch “Operation Cartwheel,” a two-pronged assault on Japan. One prong, led by Adm. Chester Nimitz, will push through the central Pacific, while the other, under Gen. Douglas MacArthur, will maintain the pressure on New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. The plan is that the two prongs will isolate and neutralize the powerful Japanese base at Rabaul, on New Britain, and will come together in the Philippines and Formosa. In the U.S., the Office of Price Administration begins rationing canned and bottled fruits, vegetables, soups, baby foods and dehydrated fruits. Canned meats and fish are already generally unavailable. The Royal Air Force and the U.S. Army Air Forces conduct a 30-minute bombing raid on Berlin, killing 486 people and injuring over 370 others.
A major Japanese effort to reinforce troops at Lae, New Guinea, is dealt a shattering blow on March 2 at the Battle of the Bismarck Sea. A convoy of eight transports and four destroyers — carrying 6,900 soldiers (a division) — is mostly destroyed by U.S. and Australian land-based bombers and attack aircraft; the USAAF’s B-25 Mitchell bombers are especially effective. Only around 1,200 Japanese soldiers reach New Guinea. In Berlin, 1,500 Jewish men, women and children are deported to Auschwitz concentration camp; 1,350 of them are executed upon arrival.
On March 3, at 8:17 a.m., air-raid sirens sound throughout London. While trying to enter the Bethnal Green Underground (subway) station — a designated air-raid shelter — 173 Londoners are killed in a crush on the blacked-out stairwell. In the darkness, a woman carrying a baby trips and falls three steps from the bottom. Unable to see, people following her fall over them until there is a tangled pile of over 300 bodies. Those on the bottom, mostly women and children, are crushed and asphyxiated. Another 90 are seriously injured. It is believed to be the largest single loss of civilian lives in the United Kingdom during the war.
The 50th trainload of Jews departs from France for the Majdanek and Sobibór concentration camps in Poland on March 4. In Los Angeles, the 15th Academy Awards ceremony is held. The movie “Mrs. Miniver” is named Best Picture, and its star, Greer Garson, wins the Oscar for Best Actress.
