Posted on 03/18/2011 5:14:40 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1941/mar41/f18mar41.htm
Ethiopians threaten Italians
Tuesday, March 18, 1941 www.onwar.com
In East Africa... Ethiopian tribesmen attempt to surround the Italian garrison at Debra Marcos.
In Cyprus... The British foreign minister, Anthony Eden, meets the Turkish foreign minister.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/19.htm
March 19th, 1941
UNITED KINGDOM:
London: Free French officials set up their own central banking system.
Mass produced vegetable rissoles are to be sold at 8d a pound.
London: Exiled German socialist groups join together to form the Union of German Socialists, pledged to work for a “democratic and socialist future for Germany.”
London: A massive German raid by 479 bombers leaves 750 people dead after they drop 122,292 incendiaries.
London: The ‘BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC’ Committee of all Ministers and heads of the armed services has its first meeting.
London: Churchill’s fears of the havoc which German raiders could cause on the North Atlantic sea lanes causes him to ask Roosevelt for assistance in tracking German ships. Although Churchill refrains from asking the President to escort American supply convoys to Britain, he does say:
“It would be a very great help if some American warships and aircraft could cruise about this area [central North Atlantic] as they have a perfect right to do without any prejudice to neutrality.
VICHY FRANCE: The government in the form of Admiral Darlan announces that “vowing that Frenchman shall eat. Serves notice that its naval ships would convoy merchantmen if the British persist in their blockade of France.
If the British continue this blockade, ... I will be obliged to ask permission to provide arms and protection for our merchantmen. I will let nothing stand in the way of the French People’s eating. The Germans are more generous and more comprehensive of the needs of humanity than the English.”
GERMANY: A German ultimatum gives Yugoslavia 5 days to accept the German terms.
Rommel flies to Hitler’s HQ to report and obtain fresh instructions. Field-Marshal von Brauchitsch told him that there was no intention of striking a decisive blow in Africa in the near future, and he could expect no reinforcements. After the arrival of the 15th Panzer Division at the end of May, he was to attack and destroy the British units around Agedabia. Benghazi “might perhaps be taken.”
The Wehrmacht High Command announced:
On March 16, German reconnaissance aircraft attacked a powerful formation of enemy war vessels consisting of 2 heavy units, 6 cruisers and 2 or 3 destroyers, in the Mediterranean 23 miles west of Crete. each of the 2 heavy units was struck by one air-launched torpedo.
The entire coal-mining industry and the coal trade in Germany have been amalgamated into a giant cartel known as the Reich Coal Union. it is hoped that, with centralised control, this vital industry will be able to increase its production beyond the 246 million tons achieved this year. A significant boost is necessary if the increase in arms production demanded by the government is to be possible and the German people are to be able to buy fuel.
ALBANIA: Good weather allows the Italians to mount fresh attacks, supported by armor, artillery, and some of the heaviest tactical air strikes yet experienced in this theatre. But the Greeks are ready and these new efforts have no success. The continued Italian assaults are apparently an effort to keep the Greeks on the defensive, bolstering Cavallero’s assertion that this failed offensive has somehow saved Italian “honour” and forestalled further Greek advances. (Mike Yaklich)
GREECE: The British Military Mission to Greece reports that Greek morale is high and fortifications are well prepared although there is a severe shortage of reserves with the oldest class of reservists about to by called up.
AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Deloraine laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
CANADA: Ottawa: in an agreement signed by Adolf Berle, the assistant US secretary of state, and William Mackenzie King, the Prime Minister of Canada, the Great Lakes will soon become the biggest shipbuilding area in the world - the ships to be built on the Canadian side, with power and finance from the US side.
“The extent to which intensified submarine and air attacks on convoys necessitate an expansion in the programme is still unknown,” said President Roosevelt, but he estimated that the number of ships needed would be “several times” those now available.
Minesweeper (ex-whaler) HMCS Suderoy VI commissioned.
Minesweeper HMCS Thunder launched Toronto, Ontario.
Corvette HMCS Dundas laid down Victoria, British Columbia. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: Washington: Roosevelt responds to Churchill’s protest about leaks in the blockade of Germany. He is deliberately vague in an attempt to walk a tightrope between British problems and America’s conciliatory policy toward Vichy.
Jimmy Dorsey And His Orchestra record one of their biggest musical successes, “Green Eyes” featuring vocalists Helen O’Connell and Bob Eberly. The record became one of Decca Records’ all-time greats. This record was on the Pop Charts for 21 weeks and was Number 1 for four weeks. (Jack McKillop)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: HMS MALAYA sustains serious damage from a torpedo from U-106 while escorting a convoy. She goes to New York City for repairs, the first major British warship to receive such help. (Jack McKillop)
U-105 sank SS Mandalika in Convoy SL-68. (Dave Shirlaw)
HMS Ark Royal locates three ships captured by prize crews from the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, two scuttle themselves while the third SS Polykarp is recaptured.
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 565 March 18, 1941
At 4 AM, U-105 attacks convoy SL-68 West of Senegal. British SS Medjerda, laden with 6450 tons of iron ore, is hit with 1 torpedo and sinks in 30 seconds (all 52 crew and 2 gunners lost).
Battle of Keren, Eritrea. British and Indian troops hold onto Fort Dologorodoc in the face of Italian counterattacks and shelling from across the Dongolaas Gorge. The road through the Gorge is blocked by rocks blasted from the hillsides. Indian sappers and miners determine that they can reopen the road in 48 hours, if the Italian shelling and machinegun fire is suppressed.
Libya. Rommel flies back to Germany to confer with Hitler. British armed boarding vessel Rosaura sinks on a mine off Tobruk, carrying Italian POWs back to Alexandria (14 crew, 5 guards and 59 POWs lost). Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers from Fleet Air Arm 830 Naval Air Squadron, Malta, bomb the harbour at Tripoli (1 Swordfish shot down, 2 aircrew taken prisoner).
British bombers return to the Albanian port of Vlorë and sink Italian torpedo boat Aldebaran.
In mid-Atlantic 1050 miles Southwest of Cape Verde Islands, German armed merchant cruiser Kormoran and U-124 finally find calm waters to transfer 7 torpedoes to U-124.
German 1st S-boat Flotilla (6 Motor Torpedo Boats) raids shipping on the East coast of England, sinking French steamer Daphne II off the Humber Estuary.
Bump for later reading
"The initial deployment of Panzer Group 3 for the attack is difficult. Hoth is casting his eyes beyond the Dnepr and Dvina from the very outset and is paying scant attention to the possibility of attacking and defeating enemy forces which stand and fight somewhat farther forward" - Field Marshal Fedor von Bock
Meanwhile, across the pond Patton is making good headway with his 2nd Armor Division. He writes General Malin Craig on the subject:
"We really have a very fine division with and excellent spirit...The thing I try to impress on them is that all members of the Armored Force...must be imbued with a desprate determination to get forward and must not permit themselves to be stopped by any obstacle. If I can get this across, we will be very hard to beat."
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