March 1944

[March 1], 1944 (Wednesday)

• The Kingisepp–Gdov Offensive ended in Soviet victory.
• In Papua New Guinea, the Battle of Sio ended in Allied victory.
• As part of the Battle of Narva, the Soviets began the second Narva Offensive.
• The Vatican was bombed for the second time during the war.
• The Huon Peninsula campaign in Papua New Guinea ended in Allied victory.
• A massive strike began in the Italian Social Republic, for reasons that included resentment of producing for the Germans and the loyalty that many factory workers retained for Socialist and Communist ideologies. Estimates of the number of workers who participated in the strike range from 500,000 to 1.2 million.
• Three Japanese heavy cruisers began the Indian Ocean raid.
• At the Wolf's Lair, Adolf Hitler received leaders of the Independent State of Croatia to discuss current political issues.
• German submarines U-358, U-603 and U-709 were all sunk in the Atlantic Ocean by Allied warships.
• Born: John Breaux, politician, in Crowley, Louisiana; Roger Daltrey, singer and front-man of The Who, in Hammersmith, London, England

  [March 2], 1944 (Thursday)

• A second landing in the Admiralty Islands saw 1,000 men of the U.S. 5th Cavalry Regiment arrive at Los Negros while the previous landing group took Momote Airfield.
• The 16th Academy Awards were held at Grauman's Chinese Theater, marking the first time the ceremony was held in a large public venue. Casablanca won Best Picture.
• The Balvano train disaster occurred over the night of March 2/3 when some 426 people illegally riding a freight train in southern Italy died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
• Born: Uschi Glas, actress, in Landau an der Isar, Germany; Leif Segerstam, conductor, composer, violinist and musician, in Vaasa, Finland
• Died: Egon Mayer, 26, German fighter ace

  [March 3], 1944 (Friday)

• Joseph Stalin rejected British proposals to negotiate over the Polish-Soviet border.
• A night attack by the Japanese garrison on Los Negros was repulsed by the Americans.
• The Order of Nakhimov and Order of Ushakov military decorations were established in the Soviet Union.
• On the Anzio’s beachhead, the 3rd Infantry Division repelled a German counter-attack in the locality of Ponte Rotto.
• In Rome, a protest of women, demanding the release of their husbands detained in a German station, ended tragically. Teresa Gullace, seven months pregnant, was killed by a German soldier while she tried to pass a sandwich to her husband. The story was later reenacted in a famous episode of Rome open city.

  [March 4], 1944 (Saturday)

• The second Narva Offensive ended in another German defensive victory.
• Former Vichy French Interior Minister Pierre Pucheu went on trial on Algiers.
• China and Afghanistan signed a treaty of friendship.
• German submarine U-472 was sunk in the Barents Sea by Fairey Swordfish of 816 Naval Air Squadron.
• The Philadelphia Phillies baseball team announced a uniform change for the coming season: the addition of a new sleeve patch depicting a blue jay perching atop the familiar "Phillies" lettering. The logo was the winning entry in a contest that received over 5,000 entries with a $100 war bond offered as a prize. Fans were confused because the Phillies did not actually officially change their name to Blue Jays, but this alternate nickname would never really catch on anyway and the blue jay sleeve patch was dropped in 1946.
• "Bésame Mucho" by Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra hit #1 on the Billboard singles charts.
• Born: Harvey Postlethwaite, aerodynamicist and engineer, in Barnet, England ; Bobby Womack, singer and songwriter, in Cleveland, Ohio
• Died: Louis Buchalter, 47, Jewish-American mobster

  [March 5], 1944 (Sunday)

• The Red Army began the Uman–Botoșani Offensive.
• Soviet forces took the Ukrainian cities of Iziaslav and Yampil.
• Operation Thursday: The 77th Indian Infantry Brigade, otherwise known as the Chindits, flew by Hadrian glider from India into the heart of Burma.
• German submarine U-366 was depth charged and sunk in the Arctic Ocean by Fairey Swordfish of 816 Naval Air Squadron.
• Born: Peter Brandes, painter, sculptor, ceramic artist and photographer, in Assens, Denmark
• Died: Max Jacob, 67, French artist and writer

  [March 6], 1944 (Monday)

• American heavy bombers mounted the first-ever, full-scale daylight raid on Berlin.
• Soviet forces took Volochysk.
• Finland rejected a Soviet peace offer, objecting to the Soviet condition that all German troops in the country be interned and the 1940 borders be restored.
• German submarine U-744 was depth charged and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean by Allied warships.
• German submarine U-973 was depth charged and sunk in the Arctic Ocean by Fairey Swordfish of 816 Naval Air Squadron.
• Born: Kiri Te Kanawa, soprano, in Gisborne, New Zealand; Mary Wilson, singer and founding member of the Supremes, in Greenville, Mississippi

  [March 7], 1944 (Tuesday)

• The Japanese began the offensive code-named Operation U-Go on the Indian-Burman border.
• Born: Townes Van Zandt, singer and songwriter, in Fort Worth, Texas
• Died: Emanuel Ringelblum, 43, Polish-Jewish historian and social worker

  [March 8], 1944 (Wednesday)

• The Battle of Imphal began in northeast India.
• The Second Battle of Torokina began on Bougainville Island, a Japanese counteroffensive against the American foothold there.
• The British government announced plans to build 300,000 houses after the war.
• The general strike in the Italian Social Republic ended after eight days. The Germans had arrested and deported about 1,200 workers.
• The war film The Purple Heart starring Dana Andrews and Richard Conte was released, dramatizing the "show trial" of a number of American airmen by the Japanese during World War II.
• Born: Buzz Hargrove, labour leader, in Bath, New Brunswick, Canada ; Carole Bayer Sager, singer, songwriter and painter, in New York City

  [March 9], 1944 (Thursday)

• The U.S. 5th Marine Regiment took Talasea in New Britain unopposed.
• American destroyer escort Leopold was torpedoed and heavily damaged in the North Atlantic by German submarine U-255. The 28 survivors of the 191 crew were rescued and Leopold was abandoned to sink the next day.

  [March 10], 1944 (Friday)

• Ireland rejected a U.S. request to expel Axis diplomats from the country.
• The Kriegsmarine lost four U-boats to enemy action in a single day.
• The leftist Political Committee of National Liberation, commonly known as the "Mountain Government", was established in Greece.
• The war film The Fighting Seabees starring John Wayne and Susan Hayward was released.

  [March 11], 1944 (Saturday)

• British forces took Buthidaung in Burma.
• German military officer Eberhard von Breitenbuch took a concealed pistol to a military briefing with Hitler at the Berghof with the intention of assassinating him. However, SS guards barred Breitenbuch from the room where Hitler met with higher-ranking officers and so the assassination attempt never went forward.
• Pierre Pucheu was sentenced to death.
• In Paris, police discovered casually, in the house of Dr. Marcel Petiot, the remains of at least ten bodies and a large amount of clothing. The doctor, who had killed and robbed dozens of people under the cover of his Resistance activity, managed to escape.
• In Padua, the Church of the Eremitani was half-destroyed by an American bombing. The Ovetari chapel was razed to the ground and its frescoes, work by Andrea Mantegna, were forever lost.
• German submarines U-380 and U-410 were bombed and sunk at Toulon in an American air raid.
• Born: Graham Lyle, musician and producer, in Bellshill, Scotland; Don Maclean, actor and comedian, in Birmingham, England
• Died: Irvin S. Cobb, 67, American author and humorist

  [March 12], 1944 (Sunday)

• U.S. Marines occupied Wotje Atoll without opposition.
• Soviet forces of the 2nd Ukrainian Front reached the Bug River at Gayvoron.
• Pope Pius XII asked the belligerent powers to spare the city of Rome from fighting and destruction.
• Hitler ordered Operation Margarethe, the German occupation of Hungary.
• Died:
• *Romolo Murri, 73, Italian priest and later politician, exponent of Catholic modernism
• *Silvio Trentin, 58, Italian jurist and antifascist militant

  [March 13], 1944 (Monday)

• The Soviet 28th Army captured Kherson.
• On Bougainville Island, Japanese troops ended their assault on American forces at Hill 700.
• Italy and the Soviet Union restored diplomatic relations with one another.
• German submarine U-575 was depth charged and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean by Allied ships and aircraft.
• Japanese cruiser Tatsuta was torpedoed and sunk off Hachijō-jima by the American submarine Sand Lance.
• Died: Lev Shestakov, 38, Russian fighter ace

  [March 14], 1944 (Tuesday)

• Winston Churchill told the House of Commons that the Allies intended to completely isolate Ireland to prevent military secrets leaking to the Axis, hinting that the border with Northern Ireland would soon be closed.
• 30 RAF planes were sent to attack Düsseldorf overnight.
• The Republican Party presidential primaries began in the United States.

  [March 15], 1944 (Wednesday)

• During the Battle of Monte Cassino the Allies dropped 992 tons of bombs on Monte Cassino Monastery and fired 195,000 rounds of artillery. British, Indian and New Zealand forces tried to storm the building but were unable to dislodge the Germans.
• German submarine U-653 was depth charged and sunk in the North Atlantic by British sloops Starling and Wild Goose.
• British submarine Stonehenge was lost in the Indian Ocean on or around this date, presumably to a naval mine.
• State Anthem of the Soviet Union replaced The Internationale as the new anthem of the Soviet Union.
• Born: A. K. Faezul Huq, politician, lawyer and columnist, in Calcutta, British India