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http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/22.htm

March 22nd, 1941

UNITED KINGDOM: The government agrees to let US grain ships deliver an emergency cargo of flour to Vichy France.
Plymouth: Fire appliances are sent from all over the south-west to relieve the city’s exhausted firemen.

RAF Bomber Command: 2 Group: A Blenheim of 107 Sqn. sinks a 2,000-ton ship off Norway.

London:

Churchill sends a personal letter to Cvetkovic telling him that Hitler and Mussolini faced certain defeat. If Yugoslavia stooped to the fate of Romania, or committed the crime of Bulgaria and became accomplice in the attempted assassination of Greece, her ruin would be certain and irreparable.

ALBANIA: Italian Army chaplains climb Monastery Hill under a flag of truce, trying to arrange a cease-fire in order to bury the many dead of the Puglie and Bari Divisions which cover the slopes. The Greeks refuse when the Italians cannot guarantee that the cessation of hostilities will apply to the entire front of the offensive. (Mike Yaklich)

YUGOSLAVIA: Belgrade: The British Minister passes on to London the contents of the secret sections of the Yugoslav agreement to join the Axis. They include opt out clauses so that Yugoslavia does not have to give military assistance to any other Axis power. Yugoslavia would not be required to come into the war against Greece. The opt out clause could be made public if the Yugoslavs thought it necessary ‘for compelling domestic reasons’ such as to calm any unrest about joining the Axis.

ETHIOPIA: In the advance west of Jijiga the Allied forces overrun another defensive position at the Babile Pass. The Italians evacuate Harar, west of Jijiga, and declare it an “open city” and in western Ethiopia, Belgian colonial troops capture Gambela. (Jack McKillop)

ATLANTIC OCEAN: The German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau reach French waters and enter Brest after a 20-day cruise. As well as the dispersing convoys found, one other ship has been sunk, bring the total to 22 ships of 115,600 tons. Considerable disruption to the British convoy system has been caused. (Jack McKillop)

HMS Ark Royal re-establishes air patrols in the hope of relocating Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. During the day a catapult malfunction destroys a Fairey Swordfish; flinging the fuselage into the sea ahead of the carrier. Unable to stop, Ark Royal ran over the Swordfish and is overhead when the aircraft’s depth charges detonate. Ark Royal needs to return to Gibraltar for repairs.

U.S.A.: Actor James Stewart is inducted into the U.S. Army at Fort MacArthur. (Jack McKillop)

Washington: The United Press News Agency reports:

The US Credit Commission has published a report which General Marshall read at a secret session on March 5. The report explains that at the end of February the USA received further precise data about the Panzer divisions that Germany deployed last year in its armoured drive to the English Channel. The US Army is going to form eight armoured divisions of this kind. At the moment it has only two.

ANTARCTICA: An emergency evacuation of East Base, U.S. Antarctic Service, Marguerite Bay, is carried out. Two Curtiss R4C Condor flights (Aviation Chief Machinist’s Mate Ashley C. Snow and Radioman First Class Earl B. Perce, naval aviation pilots) bring out the entire complement of 24 people to Mikkelson Island, the emergency landing field 25 miles (40 kilometres) northeast of Adelaide Island, whence they are taken on board miscellaneous auxiliary USS Bear (AG-29), which soon sails for Punta Arenas, Chile, to rendezvous with Interior Department motorship MS North Star.

The two R4C-1s used for the Antarctic exploration were former U.S. Marine Corps aircraft. The R4C-1 was a Curtiss Model AT-32E Condor, a twin-engine biplane transport that was really an anachronism when it flew on 30 January 1933. Newer, faster monoplanes like the Boeing 247 and Douglas DC-1 were being designed or produced but Eastern Air Transport and American Airways (later Eastern Airlines and American Airlines) bought them. The two Marine aircraft served with Marine Utility Squadron Six (VJ-6M), Aircraft One, Fleet Marine Force, based at Quantico, Virginia and VJ-7M, Aircraft Two, Fleet Marine Force, based at San Diego, California during the late 1930s.

Both aircraft were abandoned in Antarctica, the first on 3 January 1941 and the second on 22 March 1941. It would be nice if someone would dig down and see how these aircraft fared over the last 69 years.

Anyone wishing to see a photo of one of these two birds can go to:

http://oldairplanepictures.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=679

(Jack McKillop)