March 1943

March

• 01

  • Guderian becomes Inspector General of Armoured TroopsOn 1 March 1943 Heinz Guderian, removed from command in December 1941, returned to service as Inspector General of Armoured Troops with sweeping powers.
• 02

  • Key eventThe Battle of the Bismarck SeaOn 2–4 March 1943 Allied aircraft destroyed a convoy from Rabaul to Lae. Eight transports and four destroyers were sunk and nearly 3,000 Japanese killed.
  • The Chindits cross the IrrawaddyIn early March 1943 Wingate’s Chindits blew up the railway in northern Burma and crossed the Irrawaddy. At the end of the month they were ordered back to India.
• 05

  • Manstein's counter-offensiveIn early March 1943 Manstein’s counter-stroke shattered the armies of the South-Western Front and the 3rd Tank Army. The SS Panzer Corps advanced on Kharkiv.
  • The Battle of the Ruhr beginsDuring the night of 5–6 March 1943 the RAF bombed Essen, opening the Battle of the Ruhr. On 8–9 and 9–10 March bombers struck Nuremberg and Munich.
• 06

  • The Battle of MedenineOn 6 March 1943 three German panzer divisions attacked the Eighth Army at Medenine and lost dozens of tanks in a single day. Rommel’s last battle in Africa.
• 09

  • Operation Creek in GoaOn the night of 9–10 March 1943 volunteers from Calcutta attacked the German ship Ehrenfels in neutral Goa. The crews of four Axis ships scuttled them.
• 10

  • The Fourteenth Air Force formed in ChinaOn 10 March 1943 the US Fourteenth Air Force was activated at Kunming under General Claire Chennault, former commander of the Flying Tigers.
• 12

  • The liberation of KarditsaOn 12 March 1943 the Italian garrison left Karditsa in Thessaly and ELAS partisans entered. Greeks call it the first free town in Europe.
• 13

  • Key eventThe liquidation of the Kraków GhettoOn 13–14 March 1943 the Germans liquidated the ghetto in Kraków's Podgórze. Those fit to work were driven to Płaszów; some 2,000 were killed on the spot.
• 14

  • The Germans retake KharkivOn 14 March 1943, after four days of street fighting, the divisions of the II SS Panzer Corps took Kharkiv. Four days later the Germans retook Belgorod too.
• 16

  • The discovery of the Katyn gravesIn March 1943 the German Secret Field Police examined mass graves of Polish officers in the Katyn Forest. The world learned of them only in April.
  • Stalin demands a second frontIn March 1943 Congress extended Lend-Lease, and on 15–16 March Stalin warned Churchill and Roosevelt against further delay to an invasion of France.
• 17

  • Key eventThe battle for convoys HX 229 and SC 122On 16–20 March 1943 some 40 U-boats attacked convoys HX 229 and SC 122 in the Atlantic air gap and sank 22 ships for the loss of one submarine.
• 20

  • The Battle of the Mareth Line beginsOn the evening of 20 March 1943 the Eighth Army attacked the Mareth Line. The frontal assault over the Wadi Zigzaou failed; the New Zealanders swung west.
• 23

  • The Battle of El GuettarOn 23 March 1943 the US 1st Infantry Division beat off two attacks by the German 10th Panzer Division at El Guettar – the first clear US success in Tunisia.
• 26

  • Breaking the Mareth LineOn 26 March 1943 the New Zealanders and 1st Armoured Division, backed by aircraft, broke through at the Tebaga Gap. Messe’s army had to quit the Mareth Line.
  • The Battle of the Komandorski IslandsOff the Komandorski Islands a weaker US Navy force fought a 3.5-hour gunnery duel with the escort of a Japanese convoy. The Japanese turned back.
  • Action at the ArsenalOn 26 March 1943 scouts of the Grey Ranks Assault Groups freed Jan Bytnar “Rudy” and 20 other prisoners from the Gestapo in Warsaw.