This day in the war in Europe 65 years ago

[Hugh Spencer]

14th March 1943
13 Wellingtons were minelaying in the Frisians without loss.

[Njaco]

MEDITERRANEAN: In Italy during the night, RAF Liberators under the operational control of the IX Bomber Command, hit the harbour at Naples.
....The submarine HMS 'Turbulent' was lost with all hands (62 casualties). She may have been mined or the victim of a depth charge attack by a Ju 88 and the Italian destroyer 'Arditi' in the Bay of Naples or mined somewhere along the east coast of Sardinia.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: A six day series of sea battles began. Convoys 'HX 229' and 'SC 122' were attacked by a large wolfpack of 20 German U-Boats. Through B Dienst, the Germans had enough intelligence to find the convoys and sink 21 ships. Almost half of the U-Boats participating in this, "The Biggest Convoy Operation of the War - Against HX 229 and SC 122" - as it is titled in the Germany Naval History - scored results and only one U-Boat was lost. The German claim was for 32 ships sunk totaling 136,000 tons, comparing with the British record of only 21 ships but aggregating 141,000 tons plus the A/S trawler 'Campo Bello'. The British Admiralty Monthly A/S reported, "The Germans never came so near to disrupting communication between the New World and the Old as in the first twenty days of March 1943."

NORTH AFRICA: Weather cancelled all missions except Northwest African Air Force fighter recon in the Enfidaville-Sfax area and between Tunisia and Sicily. Fighters flew cover and swept over the battle area. The US 85th and 87th FS of the US 79th FG flew their first combat mission when 12 P-40s escorted 11 B-25s on a mission against the Mareth Line.

EASTERN FRONT: Major Hubertus von Bonin's III./JG 52 moved from Nikolayev to Kertsch IV.

[Hugh Spencer]

15th March 1943
11 Venturas bombed La Pleine airfield in Brittany. 1 Ventura was lost in the sea.

[Njaco]

EASTERN FRONT: The Germans recaptured the city of Kharkov after bitter street fighting. A special communique from Hitler's HQ last night claimed that 3 picked divisions of Waffen SS - the 'Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler', the 'Totenkopf' and the 'Das Reich', strongly supported by the Luftwaffe - had retaken the city in an encircling attack from the north and west. One of the first actions of the German troops on entering Kharkov was the murder of 200 people in a hospital. Afterwards they set fire to the building.
....The German successes stemmed from the counter-offensive launched by von Manstein on 22 February when he caught the Russians by surprise while they were overextended in their great advance to the west following their victory at Stalingrad. North of Kharkov, a new German attack was developing against Byelgorod, the fortress town on the railway to Kursk and there was every indication that the Germans intended to try and recapture Kursk.
....After achieving his 47th victory while flying a Fw 190A-4, Fw. Otto Kittel of 2./JG 54 made an emergency landing 60 km behind Russian lines. After landing on an open, icy field, he immediately set out for some woods he saw in the distance. Sitting in the woods for a short break, he searched his pockets and found 3 'drops' and 2 cigarette packets but no matches. He also had a gun, a clock and a compass. In his haste to leave his landing site, he had forgotten his supplies and his gloves. Bitterly cold and underclothed, he crossed the frozen Ilmen Lake and after 3 days without food, reached the German lines.
....At StG 1, Oblt. Gustav Pressler was made Geschwaderkommodore in place of Oblt. Walter Hagen.

WESTERN FRONT: The Canadian owned, British registered CPR passenger liner SS 'Dutchess of York' was heavily damaged off Cape Finisterre when she was bombed by Luftwaffe aircraft. She was sunk later in 1943 in another air attack in the same general area.

NORTH AFRICA: In Tunisia, B-25s, escorted by P-40s of the US 79th FG (the group's first operation in the theatre) bombed Zarat. Fighters also flew strafing and bombing raids against ground targets. Northwest African Strategic Air Force B-26s with fighter escort, attacked the landing ground at Mezzouna. B-25s followed with an attcak on the same target. Fighters of the Northwest African Tactical Air Force flew recon over the battle area as the units of the US II Corps prepared to attack east from the Gafsa area. In the Mediterranean, B-17s with fighter escort, hit shipping off northern Tunisia.
....After II./JG 2 had 150 kills for a loss of 18 aircraft, the unit began to withdraw from the North African theatre and took its Fw 190s to France.
....Lt. Cobb of the US 31st FG claimed a Bf 109. Surprisingly, Lt. Cobb observed the Messerschmitt crash-land and the German pilot, wearing khaki shorts, got out and waved.

[Hugh Spencer]

16th March 1943
16 Mosquitoes attacked railway workshops at Paderborn, nearly 200 miles inland from the coast, and scored direct hits. 1 'Mossie' lost.
12 Wellingtons went minelaying in the Frisian Islands without loss.

[Njaco]

EASTERN FRONT: Armoured Waffen SS units of Heeresgruppe Sud (von Manstein) finished the recapture of Kharkov. Kharkov changed hands for the third time in the war as German forces destroyed organized resistance in the shattered city. Meanwhile further north, Red Army forces captured Kholm and Zharkovskiy, as Heeresgruppe Mitte continued its withdrawl.
....The Staffelkapitan of 9./JG 3, Lt. Wilhelm Lemke, destroyed a Russian LaGG 5 to bring his score to 100 kills. Lt. Udo Cordes of 9(Eins)./KG 3, again under foul weather conditions, destroyed 6 locomotives and a complete fuel train.

NORTH AFRICA: Montgomery's Eighth Army began probing the approaches to the Mareth Line as it prepared to open its main offensive in Tunisia. General Montgomery made no attempt to follow up his recent success at Medenine. The Mareth Line was his objective and no one doubted this was going to be a tough nut to crack. P-40s flew fighter-bomber operations against German positions as British ground forces conducted limited attacks preliminary to the main assault against the Mareth Line.
....Further north General George S. Patton, new commander of US II Corps, assembled his staff for a last briefing in a dimly lit schoolroom that served as II Corps HQ. Patton's message left his officers speechless, "Gentlemen, tommorrow we attack. If we are not victorious, let no man come back alive." At 57, Patton was already a legend among the American soldiers. He successfully used a combination of showmanship, bravado, and severity to galvanize the sloppy Americans into a trim and effective fighting force. The British Command still harboured doubts that the Americans were capable of mounting a major offensive against the Axis so II Corps was tasked with drawing the Axis forces away from the Mareth Line while Montgomery tried to break through it.
....The objective for II Corps was a string of towns and hill masses beginning at Gafsa, 180 miles south of Tunis and 105 miles northwest of Mareth, where the British Eighth Army was pounding Rommel's line. The US advance began that night. At first, the Americans met almost no resistance, arriving at Gafsa. The Italian garrison had pulled out and retreated into the hills beyond El Guettar.

[Njaco]

EASTERN FRONT: The Gruppenkommandeur of JG 54, Hptm. Hans Philipp reached the 200 kill mark, becoming only the second Luftwaffe pilot to reach this score behind Hermann Graf at this time.

GERMANY: Oblt. Horst von Riesen was appointed Geschwaderkommodore of KG 1 in place of Major Heinrich Lau.

WESTERN FRONT: Major Martin Kastner's II./KG 40 moved from Soesterberg to Gilze Rijen and in late May 1943 began conversion to Me 410 destroyers.

NORTH AFRICA: In Tunisia, P-40s flew scramble and fighter-bomber missions and sweeps over Sedjenane, Cap Serrat and the Sidi Nsir area and attacked ground forces east of Gafsa.
....Spearheaded by Major General Orlando Ward's US 1st Armoured Division, Patton's II Corps took Gafsa but were denied the satisfaction of victory when the Axis forces withdrew without a fight. Urging on his tankers and their attached 60th Regimental Combat Team, Patton was soon raging at the enemy's alliance with "General Mud"; heavy rains stopped his tanks and trucks for two days.
....The British continued to probe the Mareth Line defenses during the night. On one such mission the 201st Guards Brigade ran into a minefield and then got involved in hand-to-hand fighting with the Germans. The 6th Battalion of the Grenadier Guards lost 24 officers and 300 men in this struggle.

[Hugh Spencer]

18th March 1943
12 Venturas attacked an oil refinery at Maasluis but their bombs just missed the target. 12 further Venturas turned back from raids to targets in France. No aircraft were lost.

[Njaco]

GERMANY: Reichsmarschall Goring summoned the aircraft manufacturers Professor Willy Messerschmitt, Ernst Heinkel and Claude Dornier to a conference and accused them of their inability to develop a fighter to counter-act the RAF Mosquito. He decided that a special anti-Mosquito unit must be formed and started searching for the appropriate officer to lead the group. The seeds of a little known Luftwaffe unit, JG 50, were born.
....During the morning, Lt. Heinz Knoke and Lt. Dieter Gerhardt of I./JG 1, practiced a new tactic for the defending German fighters. Flying Bf 109s loaded with a 100lb bomb, the Leutenants practiced dropping the bombs on a sack being towed by a Ju 88 off Heligoland. Lt. Gerhardt's third bomb scored a direct hit and it was decided that the next time the Americans sent bombers to Germany, they would be in for a surprise.
....It didn't take long for an oppourtunity. US Eighth AF Mission No. 45 was 76 B-17s of the US 1st BW and 27 B-24s of the US 2nd BW sent against the submarine yards at Vegesack and the Bremen Vulkan Schiffbau shipbuilding yards on the Weser near Bremen, dropping 268 tons of bombs on the target. This mission marked the first successful combat use of automatic flight control linked with bombsights.
....The pilots of I./JG 1 at Jever - including Lt. Knoke and Lt. Gerhardt who were unable to load their Bf 109s in time with bombs - were ordered to scramble and intercepted the bomber formations. Lt. Knoke led his flight in a head-on attack and badly damaged a B-24 from the US 93rd BG. Banking around, Lt. Knoke continued to attack until the Liberator exploded. It was Lt. Knoke's 5th kill. Lt. Gerhardt destroyed his first B-24 off Heligoland. Shortly after the B-24 fell from the sky, Lt. Gerhardt was shot down into the sea. He managed to bail out but died of his wounds, floating in his liferaft. The U-Boat pens were heavily damaged from the raid, destroying 7 U-Boat hulls and demolishing much of the shipyard.

EASTERN FRONT: Von Manstein's attack came to a close as the 'Grossdeutchsland' Division attacked Byelgorod northeast of Kharkov and the spring thaw and its accompanying sea of mud took over. During von Manstein's offensive, the overextended Red Army suffered 40,000 casualties and lost at least 600 tanks and the Germans succeeded in stabilizing the southern half of the Eastern Front. However the blow was nowhere near as devastating as the attacks in the summer of 1941. The Soviet Army was coming of age and able to fight with the Germans on a more level field.
....Hermann Kiworra of JG 52 was killed in action. He had downed a total of 27 enemy aircraft during his wartime flying career.
....Fw. Otto Kittel of 2./JG 54 reached German troops. After he returned to his Gruppe, he was promoted to Oberfeldwebel and recieved the German Cross In Gold.

NORTH AFRICA: Elements of Patton's US II Corps finished capturing Gafsa and advanced toward El Guettar.
....On the British battlefront in front of the Mareth Line, Montgomery put his plan of attack into action. The Mareth Line ran from Wadi Zigzaou - a deep trench 22 miles from the sea - to the Matmata hills. The Wadi and the Matmata Hills were formidible barriers but a stretch of open desert called the Dahar lay west through a narrow pass, the Tebaga Gap, toward El Hamma and Gabes. The line was built by the French - against the Italians in Lybia - and consisted of minefields, anti-tank ditches, barbed wire and carefully concealed artillery positions stretching from the sea to the Matmata Hills. Although told Dahar was impassable, Monty's men had found a way with the Long Range Desert Group which had patrolled through Wilder's Gap, past Tebaga and into the El Hamma plain.
....The Wadi Zigzaou defenses were manned by the Italians who had the 164th Light Division on one side of them and the 19th Light Division on the other. The 15.Panzerdivison was 5 miles behind the wadi with 50 panzers.
....The attack was a combination of frontal attack on the line and a flanking movement west of the Matmata Hills. The plan called for XXX Corps - Monty's 'Right Hook' - to attack on the eastern flank with 3 divisions to draw Rommel's reserves to this part of the line. The New Zealanders and other units - the 'Left Hook' - would sweep around to the west to break through the German line behind the Matmata mountains. Montgomery had amassed 27,000 men of the 2nd New Zealand Division and attached units and 200 tanks on the southern flank of the Eighth Army. Monty felt he was ready and with the Americans starting their show, his would begin.

[Hugh Spencer]

18th March 1943
An unsuccessful night raid was made on Norwich, England.

[Njaco]

EASTERN FRONT: German troops of the 'Grossdeutchsland' Division reached Byelgorod but were still battling with Soviet resistance in the northern approaches to Kharkov.
.,.. The pilots of 7./JG 26 encountered the Russian Air Force when they engaged LaGG-3s near Leningrad. No fighters were lost on either side in this engagement. But another Eastern Front Geschwader did lose a pilot when Fw. Helmut Friese of 7./JG 52 was killed in combat. He had shot down 8 enemy aircraft.

WESTERN FRONT: A night-fighter belonging to 11./NJG 3 ditched in the North Sea off Hanstholm. The Ju 88C-6 sank and the crew drowned. Oblt. E. Hosel abd radio operator Obgefr. A Kaffl were found washed ashore near Thyboron and were laid to rest in Lemvig cemetary. Obfw. P. Keyer was found washed ashore in Norway and laid to rest in that country.

NORTH AFRICA: In Tunisia, the 2nd New Zealand Division - Montgomery's 'Left Hook' - began moving in a 200 mile march toward Ksar Rhilane in preparation for Monty's attack on the Mareth Line. With numerous wadis along their way, the advance soon narrowed to a one tank front. Soon the hills gave way to soft, powdery sand which sank the trucks up to their axles. The long column crawled slowly northward, leaving a wake of billowing dust. The Germans took notice.
....Whilst at anchor in port at Tripoli, the destroyer HMS 'Derwent' was hit by a Motobomba (circling torpedo) launched by an Italian aircraft. She was beached with her engine room flooded and although salvaged and returned to England, she was never repaired. Chief Officer George Preston Stronach evacuated the fuel and ammunition laden SS 'Ocean Voyager' after it was bombed and braved flames to save 4 men.

[Hugh Spencer]

20th March 1943
12 Mosquitoes went to Louvain and Malines railway yards but only Louvain was reached.
1 Lancaster bombed Leer near Emden. This flight was carried out by Squadron Leader C. O'Donoghue of 103 Squadron. He decided to make this lone flight after a major Bomber Command effort planned for the previous night was cancelled. The Lancaster attacked Leer soon after dawn and its bombs fell close to the railway station.
12 Wellingtons and 4 Lancasters went minelaying off Biscay ports but the Wellingtons were recalled. No losses.

[Njaco]

EASTERN FRONT: During take-off from Gatschina airfield, Oblt Mietusch, Staffelkapitaen of 7./JG 26, suffered engine failure of his Fw 190A and crashed, overturning on the field. He was out of action for 2 months. In his place, Obfw. Heinz Kemethmuller was transferred from 9./JG 26 to the staffel.
....Another loss suffered by the Luftwaffe this day was Wolf-Dieter von Coester, of JG 52 who was reported missing in action and presumed dead. He had 5 victories against the Allies.

NORWAY: Fw. Friedrich Hammesfahr of 14(Jabo)./JG 5 was shot down and wounded by Soviet AA near Severomorsk, north-east of Murmansk, becoming the first Fw 190 of the jabostaffel lost on operations. He recovered from his injuries and later returned to the unit, eventually serving with the Focke-Wulf company, fyling all Fw 190 variants up to the Fw 190F-9 and the Ta 152.

MEDITERRANEAN: 2(F)./122 dispatched a sortie to the Straits of Sicily but one Ju 88D-1 failed to return after combat with P-38s of the US 82nd FG and was lost. Four crewmen were killed.
....Oblt. Paul Sommer serving in Stab II./JG 27, flying a Bf 109G, shot down a Spitfire 6km from cap Scaramia.

NORTH AFRICA: As night fell, Montgomery's long awaited attack on the Mareth line began with a massive AA barrage on Italian positions along the coast. With his 'Left Hook' ready to press through the Tebaga Gap, Monty's 'Right Hook' began moving forward as sappers went first followed by the British 50th Northumbrian Division, the 4th Indian and the 51st Highland. The Germans had discovered the New Zealands of the 'Left Hook', so the orders were off and they were told to go as fast as they could to the north. The 2nd New Zealand Division marched to their flanking position to the west and finally reached the Tebaga Gap.
....The Germans were looking over their shoulders at the Americans at Gafsa as Monty began his frontal assault. Near the coast, the British infantry attacked the Italian Young Fascists Division and put a bridgehead through. But from the beginning the attack was crippled. The sappers in front of the 50th Northumbrian, the lead division, couldn't hear the ping of their mine detectors, the bombardment was so loud. Undiscovered mines began to take a toll on the attackers. Then at Wadi Zigzaou, torrential rains had turned it into a moat of muddy water. Engineers tried to bridge the ravine but only 4 tanks crossed before the causeway was swallowed up in the mud. The Germans were so little impressed that they regarded this as only a diversion and did not attack with the 15.Panzerdivision.
....The infantry fared better than the armour in crossing the wadi and by morning the next day, had won a bridgehead on the far bank. Although the infantry had succeeded in getting a foothold in the enemy lines, they were concentrated in a relatively small area and were coming under heavy fire from German flak. As dusk fell over Mareth, Monty was preparing a fresh attack.
....A few miles past El Guettar, the Americans had to pause. There, as they entered a vast green valley rimmed by ridges, the road leading east split in two, both branches disappearing through narrow passes on the high hills that blocked other exits from the valley. The Axis had converted these passes into fortified funnels sown with wide belts of mines backed up by aprons of barbed wire. The cliffs above them sprouted AA and light and heavy machine guns.
....The Americans recognized that a steep slope rising to the crest of a hill overlooking one of the passes might be climbed by a column of men moving in single file. If they were able to gain the crest, they would be staring at the backs of the Italians whose guns were trained down on the pass. So during the night a column spearheaded by 500 men of Lt. Col. William O. Darby's Rangers set out over the path. They could not carry any sizable weapons, the terrain was too difficult. The success of their mission would depend instead on stealth, surprise and shock. They marched in silence, picking their way painfully over a carpet of loose stone and struggling through crevaces. At intervals their progress slowed to a crawl as they scaled 20 foot cliffs, passing their equipment up from hand to hand. It was near dawn when at last the Rangers reached the rocky plateau that overlooked the Italian guns.
....Six Spitfires of the Us 309thFS/31st FG got into a dogfight with 8 Bf 109s, claiming 3 damaged while Lt. Barber had to crash land. Oblt. Dietrich Kasten of 2./JG 53 claimed the Spitfire for his 17th victory. JG 53 also lost Oblt. Gunther Hess of 6./JG 53 when the 9 victory pilot was listed as missing in action in his Bf 109G-4/trop.

[Njaco]

NORTH AFRICA: Italian forces defending Tebaga Gap in Tunisia put up a surprisingly determined defense, stopping the 2nd New Zealand Divison's flank attack. Meanwhile the 'Right Hook' attack on the Mareth Line by British forces had in the morning established a small force across the natural ant-tank obstacle of the Wadi Zigzaou but ground conditions prevented a further buildup. Engineers worked feverishly to build a more substantial causeway across the ravine. Once this was done, the British commander made a costly mistake. Instead of sending AA guns across, he opted to send lightly armed Valentine tanks instead. 42 tanks made it across before the causeway was churned into a hopeless mess and bacame impassable again.
....The Americans covered the 28 mile distance to Sened and took their second objective, this time against light opposition. Again in high gear, Ward's tankers pushed on 20 miles to Maknassy only to see enemy troops evacuate the villiage. Continuing east, Ward soon found determined opposition in hills around the village and stopped his column to await stronger support. While the tankers rushed eastward, the infantrymen found themselves in a major battle 40 miles back to the west at El Guettar. As Allied planners hoped, Kesselring had released 10.Panzerdivision for a counterattack on II Corps. As the German attack pleased strategists waiting for an enemy diversion from the south, the troops of Major General Terry Allen's 1st Infantry Division - who had to face it - saw nothing to celebrate.
....The US 31st FG escorted A-20s to Kairouan and encountered 17 Ju 87 Stuka dive-bombers with Bf 109 escorts. The temptation was too great and the 309th FS went after them. The result was 4 Stukas shot down and 4 damaged and one Bf 109 damaged. One Spitfire, flown by Lt. Langberg, was lost. He bailed out, was captured by Italian troops but then was released and returned on the 23rd. The US 52nd FG lost one Spitfire that day also. Three pilots from II./JG 51 and Oblt. Siegfreid Freytag from Stab II./JG 77 claimed 4 Spitfires.

GERMANY: Another attempt was made to assassinate Hitler, this time by a suicide bomber, on Heroe's Memorial Day (a holiday honoring German WWI dead). Tresckow selected Col. Rudolph Christoph von Bersdorf ( who had provided the faulty bomb in the 13 March attempt) to act as a suicide bomber at the Zeughaus Museum in Berlin where Hitler was to attend the annual dedication. While Hitler was visiting the exhibit at the museum, von Bersdorf planned to detonate a bomb planted on himself while standing near the Fuhrer. Von Bersdorf was to sidle up to Hitler as he reviewed the memorials and ignite the bombs, taking the dictator out - along with himself and everyone in the immediate vicinty. Von Bersdorf had wanted to use an instantaneous detonator but could only obtain an acid-based 10 minute delay fuse. With a bomb planted in each of his coat pockets, all went as planned as von Bersdorf set the fuse going at the end of Hitler's speech and joined the tour group, inching toward the Fuhrer. But shortly after starting the tour, Hitler moved off, ignoring the exhibit and left the area. the Colonel was informed that Hitler was to inspect the exhibits for only 8 minutes - not enough time for the fuses to melt down. Von Bersdorf was forced to rush to the men's room to flush the acid detonator down the toilet before it blew up.

EASTERN FRONT: Hptm. Helmut Bennemann's I./JG 52 moved from Kursk to Poltawa.

[Hugh Spencer]

22nd March 1943
189 Lancasters, 99 Halifaxes, 63 Stirlings and 6 Mosquitoes attacked St Nazaire. 1 Lancaster was lost.
3 Group sent out a recall order to its Stirlings and only 8 carried on to bomb the target. Accurate marking led to a concentrated attack by 283 aircraft on the port area of St Nazaire.
6 Wellingtons laid mines off Texel without loss.
12 Venturas attacked Maasluis oil refinery but again failed to hit the target. 12 further Venturas turned back from French targets. No losses.
Mosquitoes shoot down 2 Ju 88 over the Bay of Biscay.