This day in the war in Europe 65 years ago

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ATLANTIC: Two U.S. merchant ships are sunk off the U.S. coast by German U-boats:
(1) an unarmed bulk carrier is torpedoed, shelled, and sunk by U-432 about 55 miles (89 kilometers) east-northeast of Cape Hattaras, North Carolina.
(2) an armed tanker is torpedoed by U-578 5 miles (8 kilometers) off Sea Girt, Delaware.

CANADA: Prime Minister MacKenzie King orders the evacuation of all persons of Japanese ancestry from the coastal regions of British Columbia.

FRANCE: During the night of the 25/26th, two RAF Hampdens drop leaflets
on Paris.
1000 Jews have already been arrested in Paris on General StŸlpnagel's orders. Adolf Eichmann cables Lischka to arrange to deport as a preliminary measure resulting from the Wannsee conference.

GERMANY: During the night of the 25/26th, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 49 aircraft, 33 Wellingtons, ten Hampdens and six Halifaxes, to attack the floating drydock at Kiel; 26 aircraft bomb the target. Crews claimed good results in clear weather with bombs close to the floating dock.
A high-explosive bomb scored a direct hit on the bows of the battleship
Gneisenau, causing severe damage and killing 116 men in the crew. This proved to be the end of Gneisenau as a fighting unit. Bombing in the town of Kiel destroyed several houses and killed 16 people. Two Wellingtons and a Halifax are lost. Individual aircraft bomb Flensburg and Husum.

LIBYA: The 13 Corps is responsible for defenses organized in depth over 36-mile (58 kilometer) area from Gazala to Bir Hacheim. 30 Corps prepares defensive positions on the frontier and has a detachment at Giarabub.

U.K.: Prime Minister Winston Churchill exhorts General Claude Auchinleck, Commander in Chief Middle East Command to launch an offensive against the German and Italian forces that are gathering in front of the Gazala line. He reminds Auchinleck that the longer he waits, the more time General Erwin Rommel will have to rebuild his strength. To this General Auchinleck replies that his intention is to first build up an armored striking force as quickly as possible and strengthen the defenses of the Gazala line. Only then would he mount a major offensive, which he advised Churchill would be in early June.
The British government outlines a building plan to boost employment and provide cheap housing for all after the war.

U.S.: Soviet Ambassador to the U.S. Maxim Litvinov demands the Allies open a second front. He states that "only by simultaneous offensive operations on two or more of the fronts can Hitler's armed forces be disposed of."

U.S.S.R.: The Soviet Army engages the German 16th Army near Starya Russa, inflicting heavy casualties.

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France: In a daring raid on France tonight British Parachute Regiment soldiers seized top-secret German RDF (radar) equipment. The paras had been trained for this operation, jumping at night into snow near the clifftop target at Bruneval, near Le Havre.
The leader, Major John Frost, blew four blasts on his whistle to signal the attack and charged with four men through the front door of the enemy chateau overlooking the site, shooting as he went. Royal Engineers, guarded by paratroopers, tore out the aerial and other essential parts of the Wurzburg tracking device with crowbars. Enemy bullets hit the equipment as they worked. For a time afterwards it seemed as if the escape route down a cliff to a beach rendezvous was blocked by a clifftop machine-gun post, whose bullets hit Sergeant-Major Strachan in the stomach.
Then a team of paras which had landed off the drop zone joined the fight after a forced march. Hit by crossfire - and a Gaelic battle cry as the enemy attacked - the German gunners fled.
On the beach, survivors of the raid waited, but at first no-one responded to Frost's signals calling in the boats. As his men prepared to fight to the last round, the word was passed: "The ruddy Navy's here!" The paras embarked with the secret equipment and, as instructed, brought with them a captured RDF operator. They lost three dead and six captured.

GERMANY: RAF Bomber Command fly three missions during the night of
the 27th-28th: 68 aircraft, 33 Wellingtons, 17 Manchesters and 18
Hampdens, are dispatched to bomb the drydock at Kiel; the area is completely cloud-covered and only 50 aircraft bombed the approximate position of Kiel but, although Kiel reports hearing the planes, no bombs dropped in the town. No aircraft were lost. (2) In a second mission, 33 aircraft are dispatched to bomb the battleship Scharnhorst, which is believed to be at Wilhelmshaven, but the cloud was present here also; 26 aircraft
drop their bombs but Wilhelmshaven reports only three bombs exploding, in
the water of the harbor; three Whitleys are lost. (3) In the final mission, 11 Hampdens and four Manchesters lay mines in the Frisian Islands without loss.

U.S.: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an executive order
authorizing the creation of the Joint Mexican-U.S. Defense
Commission.

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Small addition to the raid on Bruneval. There was one Royal Engineer who identified and stripped out the vital components. Due to an amazingly stupid senior officer, the Engineer had to wear army uniform and wasn't allowed to dress or carry papers that would have made him look like another para. As a result, he stood out like a sore thumb and had an escort who had orders to shoot him if he looked like he was to be captured, as he was trained in British radar.
It take courage to go on a mission like that, but to go when you know your own side will shoot you to stop you being captured, is something very special.

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Apologies, it was an RAF Radar expert, Flight Sergeant C.W.H. Cox. not a Royal Engineer.
To add to the drama he had never been in a boat or an aircraft before the raid.

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ATLANTIC: At the first light of dawn, German submarine U-578 fires a spread of torpedoes at destroyer USS Jacob Jones (DD-130) operating about 38 miles (61 kilometers) east-northeast of Ocean City, Maryland. The first torpedo strikes just aft of the bridge and apparently exploded the ship's magazine; the resulting blast sheered off everything forward of the point of impact, destroying completely the bridge, the chart room, and the officers' and petty officers' quarters. As she stopped dead in the water, unable to signal a distress message, a second torpedo struck about 40 feet (12 meters) forward of the fantail and carried away the after part of the ship above the keel plates and shafts and destroyed the after crew's quarters. Only the midships section was left intact.
All but 25 or 30 officers and men were killed by the explosions. Jacob Jones remained afloat for about 45 minutes, allowing her survivors to clear the stricken ship in four or five rafts; only 12 men are rescued.

BELGIUM: Six RAF Bomber Command Blenheims, with a fighter escort, bomb
the port area without loss.

CARIBBEAN: An unarmed U.S. tanker is torpedoed, shelled, and sunk by
German submarine U-156 about 170 miles (274 kilometers) northwest of San
Juan, Puerto Rico; the crew of U-156 machineguns the tanker crew trying
to launch one of the lifeboats, killing six men. A total of 30 men survive the sinking.

GERMANY: The use of cars, in Germany, other than for war work is banned.

POLAND: 10,000 Jews from Lodz, Poland were gassed at Chelmo this week, while 4,618 Jews have died of starvation in the Warsaw ghetto.

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GERMANY: German General Halder issues a staff analysis that German losses in
the war with the USSR have already reached 1.5 million.

ATLANTIC: A PBO-1 Hudson of Navy Patrol Squadron Eighty Two (VP-82)
based at NAS Argentia, Newfoundland, that was flying support for convoy
ON.72, bombs and sinks German submarine U-656 (Type VIIC) about 35
miles south of Cape Race, Newfoundland position 46.15N, 53.15W. All 45 hands on the U-boat are lost. The Hudson PBO-1 was one of 20 Lend-Lease Hudson IIIA's used by the USN to equip one squadron. These aircraft sank the first 2 U-boats sunk by the USN, U-656 on 1 March, 1942 and U-503 on 15 March.

CANADA: The Canadian Women's Army Corps is granted full Army status
as "a Corps of the Active Militia of Canada."

U.K. Concerned with the Japanese naval success, and the possibility of the Japanese establishing a base on Madagascar, Churchill today informs Roosevelt of the British intention to take Diego Suarez, Madagascar's main harbour.

U.S. The owners of the major league baseball clubs consider the question of whether players in the military can play for the clubs if they are on furlough or based near a game site? The owners decide against it.

U.S.S.R. The people of Leningrad are in a pitiable condition. More than 100,000 died of starvation last month, and there is no sign of the siege being lifted. There are fears that their rations will be cut even further with the coming of the spring thaw. With great ingenuity the defenders have laid a light railway across the frozen surface of Lake Ladoga.
Supplies are now coming in by the railway and by truck convoys across the ice from Tiklvin, on the eastern side of the lake, which was recaptured by the Red Army on 8 December after ferocious fighting. When the ice melts, however, this life-line will disappear and the besieged city will have to relay on small ships running the gauntlet of the Stukas in almost perpetual daylight.
Another worry for the authorities is that when the thaws come thousands of bodies hastily buried in snow drifts - because the ground is frozen too hard to dig graves - will be exposed and bring epidemics to people already suffering from the diseases of malnutrition.
Some 300,000 of the strongest people have been organized into gangs to clean up the city once the ice melts. The Leningraders are determined that their city will come to life again. It must be emphasised that the real heroes of this siege are the ordinary people who, by tremendous courage, are managing to survive an almost impossible ordeal.
The Soviet advance comes to a halt during March and the battle line remains about the same throughout month, despite continued fighting on all fronts. The Germans are unable to relieve their isolated II Corps, Sixteenth Army, southeast of Staraya Russa, but succeed in withdrawing the salient southwest of Kaluga. The Germans also contain Soviet attacks on the southern front, which are extended to region east of Kharkov.

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USSR: Minsk: The Germans shoot dead 5,000 Jews.

HUNGARY: The government breaks diplomatic relations with Brazil.

NETHERLANDS: Four RAF Bomber Command Bostons attacked ships off Den
Helder without loss.

TURKEY: The government closes the Dardanelles to all ships without Turkish captains.

U.K.: The second U.S. Army increment (8,555 personnel) of the MAGNET
Force, the movement of the first U.S. forces to Northern Ireland, arrives in Belfast in a 21-ship convoy plus escorts which sailed from Brooklyn, New York on 19 February. Among the arriving troops is the 34th Infantry Division headquarters and parts of the 133d and 168th Infantry. American strength in Northern Ireland on this date is reported as 10,433
(including 534 officers, 70 nurses, and 2 warrant officers).

U.S.: Regularly scheduled operations by the U.S. Naval Air Transport Service are inaugurated with an R4D Skytrain flight from NAS Norfolk, Virginia, to NRAB Squantum, Massachusetts.

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ATLANTIC: An unarmed U.S. freighter is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-129 about 250 miles northeast of Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana.

FRANCE: RAF Bomber Command dispatches 235 aircraft, 89 Wellingtons, 48 Hampdens, 29 Stirlings, 26 Manchesters, 23 Whitleys and 20 Halifaxes to bomb the Bellincourt Renault Factory during the night of the 3rd-4th.
The Renault factory, in the town of Boulogne-Billancourt just west of the center of Paris, was making an estimated 18,000 trucks a year for the German forces. The aircraft were dispatched in three waves, the crews of the leading wave being selected for their experience. The plan called
for the massed use of flares and a very low bombing level so that crews could hit the factory without too many bombs falling in the surrounding town.
There were no Flak defences. The target was bombed by 223 aircraft which caused serious damage to production facilities; unfortunately, some bombs fall off target, hitting nearby houses, killing 500 Frenchmen, including whole families. Only one Wellington is lost. The main raid
lasted 1 hour and 50 minutes. One aircraft bombed the port area at Dieppe while two Whitleys drop leaflets over Paris. "We were returning with Robert Rey from dining near the Opera', wrote Galtier-Boissi� re, 'when the antiaircraft opened up violently, making the ground shake. Away to the west there was a terrific raid. The Pont Neuf was crowded with bystanders who watched the bombing as they would have done a firework display on July 14.' This, the first
massive air-raid on Paris, was targetted on the Renault factory at Boulogne-Billancourt, where tanks were being made for the Heer. The bombing was inaccurate; some 500 killed and three times as many wounded.

GERMANY: Four RAF Bomber Command Wellingtons jettisoned their bombs over Emden during the night of the 3rd/4th; one Wellington was lost. Four Lancasters fly a minelaying mission in Heligoland Bight; this was the
first Lancaster mission of the war.

Poland: Chelmno: An estimated 3,200 Jews from Zychlin are gassed.

U.K. The new Lancaster bomber makes its operational debut, on a mining mission with No.44 Squadron.

U.S.: The Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS) take under consideration a recommendation to continue Operation SUPERGYMNAST, the projected plan to combine the US and British plans for the seizure of Dakar, Casablanca and Tunisia, as an "academic study" only. Thus the proposed Northwest African venture (Operation GYMNAST) ceases to affect the USAAF 8th Air Force until it is revived later as Operation TORCH.
The War Production Board decrees that suits for men and boys no longer will have trouser cuffs and pleats, vests and patch pockets.

VICHY FRANCE: The government announces that 'official' German figures put the number of French arrested in 1941 at 5,390 and executions at more than 250.

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U.K.: The first 40 Canadian Cruiser Tank Mk.I Rams arrive in England.

U.S. Tarpon Springs, Florida: Petro Botzis, owner of the
Central pharmacy here, was advised Monday night by his parents that his younger brother, Anthony Botzis, was lost last week when a tanker was sunk off the eastern coast. Young Botzis was 21 and had been serving as a member of the crew aboard the tanker less than two months. He visited here about five years ago at the time of his brother's marriage and returned several years ago for a short visit.

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ATLANTIC: Two unarmed U.S. freighters are sunk by German U-boats:
(1) the first, straggling from convoy HX 178, is torpedoed and sunk by U-404 43 miles southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia;
(2) the second is torpedoed and sunk by U-126 47 miles north of Grand Turk Island in the Turks and Caicos Islands. There are no survivors from the 36-man crew of the second ship.

U.K.: Admiral of the Fleet Sir Dudley Pound is replaced by Field Marshall Sir Alan Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, as Chairman of the British Chiefs of Staff Committee. This appointment improves relations between Prime Minster Winston Churchill and the Committee as Admiral Pound was noted for a strictly maritime point of view.
Winston Churchill proposes to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt that a U.S. division be sent to New Zealand on the condition that the New Zealand Expeditionary Force remains in the Middle East.
Civil servants' pencil sharpeners are withdrawn to conserve pencils.

U.S.: The Air Force Combat Command activates HQ XII Interceptor Command
at Drew Field, Tampa, Florida.
The Civil Air Patrol (CAP) begins flying antisubmarine patrols off the east coast.

U.S.S.R.: Moscow announces recapture by the Soviet Army of Yukhnov,
northwest of Kaluga, on the central front.

YUGOSLAVIA: Chetnik guerrillas commanded by Chetnik leader Major
General Draza-Dragoljub Mihajlovic, rout Italian forces in
Montenegro.

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ATLANTIC: German submarine U-129 torpedoes and sinks an unarmed U.S. freighter about 130 miles northeast of Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana, and takes the sole survivor captive.

MALTA: British aircraft carrier HMS Eagle brings 18 Spitfires to Malta. Seven Blenheim bombers are also sent to aid in the defense of the island and offensive actions against Axis convoys.

NORWAY: The German battleship Tirpitz sets sail from her base in Trondheim to intercept the ships of convoys QP-8 and PQ-12 sailing from Iceland to Archangel, U.S.S.R. Despite information sent to the British aircraft carrier HMS Victorious, no contact is made between the forces. The British Admiralty draws criticism because of its inaction.

RUMANIA: The government breaks diplomatic relations with Brazil.

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ATLANTIC: Three Allied ships are torpedoed and sunk by German
submarines in the Western Hemisphere today:
(1) U-126 sinks an unarmed U.S. freighter about 9 miles NNW of West Tortuga Island, Haiti.
(2) U-126 later sinks an unarmed U.S. freighter about 5 miles WNW of San Nicholas Mole, Haiti.
(3) U-155 sinks an unarmed Brazilian steamship about 110 miles east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, U.S.A.

FRANCE: During the night of the 7th/8th, RAF Bomber Command flies two
missions:
(1) 15 aircraft bomb the submarine pens at St Nazaire and
(2) 11 Hampdens lay mines off Lorient; one Hampden is lost.

GIBRALTAR: Force H, consisting of the aircraft carriers HMS Argus and Eagle and supported by a number of destroyers, sets sail for Malta with a number of Spitfires on board. Fifteen Spitfires were flown off when Force H comes within range of the island.

U.S.: The practicability of using a radio sonobuoy in aerial anti-submarine warfare was demonstrated in an exercise conducted off New London, Connecticut, by nonrigid airship (or blimp) K-5 and submarine USS S-20
(SS-125). The buoy could detect the sound of the submerged submarine's
propellers at distances up to 3 miles, and radio reception aboard the blimp was satisfactory up to 5 miles.
The Tuskegee flying school graduates its first cadets. This US school was segregated for Black students. They joined the 99th Pursuit Squadron. Names: Capt. Ben Davis Jr.; 2LT Mac Ross, Charles DeBow, LR Curtis, and George Roberts.

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BELGIUM: RAF Bomber Command dispatches six Blenheims to attack the
port area at Ostend during the night of the 8th/9th; four aircraft bomb
the target.

FRANCE: 24 RAF Bomber Command Bostons, with much support from RAF
Fighter Command, carry out a series of raids against targets in France.
Twelve Bostons of No. 88 and 226 Squadrons make a low-level attack on
the Ford truck factory at Poissy, near Paris, a target beyond the range
of fighter cover. Two further formations, each of six Bostons, carry out
Circus operations to the Abbeville railway yards and Comines power-station at times which would divert German fighter attention from the Poissy
raid.
During the night of the 8th/9th, 13 Wellingtons and Stirlings bomb the port area at Le Havre, three Manchesters lay mines off Lorient, and a Hampden drops leaflets.

GERMANY: RAF Bomber Command dispatches 211 aircraft, 115 Wellingtons,
37 Hampdens, 27 Stirlings, 22 Manchesters and 10 Halifaxes, the leading
aircraft equipped with the Gee navigational aid, to attack the Krupps factories in Essen during the night of the 8th/9th. It was a fine night but industrial haze over Essen prevents accurate bombing with only 168 aircraft attacking the target and the raid was a disappointment. Gee could only enable the aircraft to reach the approximate area of the target. Photographic evidence showed that the main target, the Krupps factories, was not hit but some bombs fell in the southern part of Essen. Essen reports only a 'light' raid with a few houses and a church destroyed, ten people killed and 19 missing. Individual aircraft bomb Dortmund, Duisburg, Dusseldorf, Gelsenkirchen and Oberhausen.

MIDDLE EAST: Lieutenant General Neil Ritchie, General Officer Commanding Eighth Army, is ordered by General Sir Claude Auchinleck, Commander in Chief Middle East Command, to provide a diversion in Libya for passage of convoy to Malta. The supply situation on Malta is very serious.

NETHERLANDS: RAF Bomber Command dispatches six Blenheims to attack
airfields during the night of the 8th/9th; two bomb Soesterberg Airfield.

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1942: ATLANTIC: A Brazilian steamship is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-94 about 130 miles east of Atlantic City, New Jersey, U.S.

BELGIUM: During the night of the 9th/10th, nine RAF Bomber Command
Wellingtons and Stirlings are dispatched to bomb the port area of Boulogne;
only two aircraft bomb the target.

FRANCE: Six RAF Bomber Command Bostons on a Circus raid bomb the
Mazingarbe fuel depot during the day; there are no losses.

GERMANY: During the night of the 9th/10th, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 187 aircraft, 136 Wellingtons, 21 Stirlings, 15 Hampdens, ten
Manchesters and five Halifaxes, to continue the series of heavy Gee-guided
raids on Essen. One hundred forty three aircraft bomb but thick ground
haze leads to scattered bombing and only two buildings are destroyed in
Essen but 72 are damaged. Four other aircraft attack Duisburg and individual aircraft bomb Emmerich and Oberhausen. Two Welingtons and a Halifax
are lost.
Five RAF Bomber Command Hampdens lay mines in the Frisian Islands.

NETHERLANDS: Individual RAF Bomber Command aircraft bomb Schipol and
Soesterburg Airfields during the night of the 9th/10th.

U.S. Admiral Harold Stark relieves Admiral Ghormley as Commander US Naval Forces in European Waters.
A major U.S. Army reorganization, implementing an Executive Order of 28 February, becomes effective today. General Headquarters is abolished and three autonomous commands, Army Ground Forces under Lieutenant General Lesley J. McNair, Army Air Forces under Lieutenant General Henry H. "Hap" Arnold, and Services of Supply (later designated as Army Service Forces) under Major General Brehon B. Somervell, are given responsibility for Zone of Interior (ZI) functions under General George C. Marshall as Chief of Staff. The field forces remain under control of the War Department General Staff. The Air Corps and the US Army Air Force Combat Command, which previously had made up the Army Air Forces (AAF), are discontinued.

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ATLANTIC: A U.S. tanker is torpedoed and sunk by German
submarine U-588 about 2 miles east of Barnegat, New
Jersey, U.S.

FRANCE: Two RAF Bomber Command aircraft bomb the Boulogne port area during the night of the 10th/11th.

GERMANY: During the night of the 10th/11th, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 126 aircraft, 56 Wellingtons, 43 Hampdens, 13 Manchesters, 12 Stirlings and two Lancasters to bomb Essen; this was the first participation
by Lancasters in a raid on a German target. This was another disappointing raid with unexpected cloud being the main cause of poor bombing; only 85 crews claimed to have bombed Essen. The report from Essen shows that only two bombs fell on an industrial target - railway lines near
the Krupps factory - and a house was destroyed and two damaged in residential areas. Five Germans were killed and 12 injured and a Polish worker was killed by a Flak shell which descended and exploded on the ground.
Individual aircraft bomb Bochum, Duisburg and Gelsenkiurchen.
In Berlin, a strange part of the propaganda war takes place
when U.S. born Jane Anderson, a Georgia socialite makes one of her "Georgia Peach" broadcasts to the US on Deutsche Rundfunk shortwave. Anderson, married to a Spanish grandee, and a fanatical anti-Communist, has
been broadcasting English-language propaganda aimed at the US, denouncing Jews and the U.S. media, and praising Adolf Hitler, in an increasingly hysterical and incoherent manner. Today, to embitter her American listeners with news concerning the delicacies to be found in Germany's fine restaurants, she reports on how Berlin nightclubs and teashops offer Turkish cakes laden with marzipan, chocolate, and champagne. Sweets and cookies and champagne, not bad! The U.S. Office of War Information
rebroadcasts the descriptions of Berlin high life back into the Reich to anger the average German, who is eating ersatz chocolate and drinking ersatz coffee, and enduring "one-meal Sundays." The counter-broadcasts in turn outrage the Rundfunk, and Anderson is bounced off the air.

IRAN: Iran is declared eligible for U.S. lend-Lease.

NETHERLANDS: One RAF Bomber Command aircraft bombs the Rotterdam port area during the night of the 10th/11th.

U.K.: Prime Minister Winston Churchill bluntly warns that if the U.S. Navy can't stop German U-boat depredations in the Caribbean, he'll order British tankers to remain in port.

U.S.: The House of Representatives votes to increase the
U. S. national debt from US$65 billion to US$125 billion. (Considering inflation, that is from US$792 billion to US$1.524 trillion in 2002 dollars.)