Despite the official decision to discontinue their offensive, the Italians launch seven separate attacks south of the Vojussa river. The Italian Primavera Offensive has been officially suspended on 18 March 1941. However, local Italian commanders, full of spirit and wishing to impress Mussolini no doubt, launch a number of attacks south of the Vojussa River anyway. As with offensives launched before the suspension, these attacks do not succeed, but they do get a lot of soldiers on both sides killed.
The main activity is in the air, with the Allies bombing Italian installations at the ports of Valona and Durazzo. They sink Italian torpedo boat Aldebaran.
British armed boarding vessel Rosaura, carrying Italian prisoners of war, hit a mine and sank off Tobruk, Libya. 14 crew, 5 guards, and 59 Italians were killed.
C-in-C Middle East reports to the Admiralty outlining the impossibility of sending naval forces to operate out of Yugoslavian ports to attack the Adriatic coast of Italy. They have insufficient forces as they must be used to cover the transfer of troops to Greece and even so the Yugoslav ports are wide open to air attack from aircraft based on the Italian mainland.
In east-central Abyssinia, the Italian defenses are oriented around Debre Marqos (Mankorar). It is a major Italian fortification. Naturally, that makes it a prime target for the British. Gideon Force and Ethiopian Arbegnoch (Resistance Fighters), spurred on by the presence relatively nearby of Emperor Haile Selassie, approach the town to isolate it. This is an old hat for the native troops, who previously besieged the town in 1938. Only determined counterattacks by General Ugo Cavallero, supported by 60,000 troops, tanks and planes had crushed the native uprising.
Italian troops bombarded Fort Dologorodoc near Keren, Eritrea, Italian East Africa, which British and Indian had only recently gained. General Raimondo Lorenzini, technically only the commander of the 2nd Colonial Brigade, but also the de facto tactical commander for the most important sector of the defenses of Keren (Italian East Africa) is killed. He had previously been placed in command of the four colonial brigades, including his own, which had defended Agordat. Lorenzini was killed while personally leading one of several (unsuccessful) counterattacks (they eventually numbered seven in a five-day period) aimed at recapturing the key position of Fort Dologorodoc, whose fall proved the turning point in the 57-day British/Commonwealth battle to take Keren and the precipitous pass leading up to it. Lorenzini, considered one of the best and brightest of the younger generation of colonial commanders, had previously fought in the original conquest of Ethiopia, and his brigade had been heavily involved in the tough fight for Tug Argan pass during the Italian capture of British Somalia in August 1940.
The British basically are stymied again. They have taken some ground on both sides of the strategic Dongolaas Gorge, including the important Fort Dologorodoc to the right of the gorge. However, the Italians still occupy the high ground overlooking all of the British positions and are counter-attacking furiously. Major-General Lewis Heath, commander of the Indian 5th Infantry Division that now is in possession of Fort Dologorodoc, now feels that another attempt should be made to force the gorge, that is, simply attack straight up the gut in the hope that the Italians may have neglected their defenses there.
Accordingly, the British begin surveying the gorge itself. Heath has his troops escort engineers into the gorge. They find that the Italians have dumped rocks and debris into it, blocking the way. The engineers make a start to clearing the way. However, the small parties come under heavy Italian defensive, and the effort must be abandoned.
Heath, though, has learned something from the attempt. He sees that the most effective Italian fire is coming from two features called the “Railway bumps” which overlook the gorge. This area is accessible from Cameron Ridge on the left of the gorge by following a railway line that goes through a tunnel beneath the ridge. General Platt and Heath decide to discontinue the current attacks, simply hold what has been achieved so far, and prepare an attack on the Railway bumps. This, the theory goes, would give the engineers enough time to clear the gorge and make it possible for British forces to get through it.
Erwin Rommel departed North Africa for a meeting with Adolf Hitler. They are to plan offensive operations for the growing German presence in North Africa. Hitler tells Rommel to wait for reinforcements before attacking.
Adolf Hitler met with Wilhelm Keitel, Alfred Jodl, and Erich Raeder; Raeder urged Hitler to convince Japan to attack Singapore and recommended Hitler to reveal the plans of the Soviet invasion to Japan.
The Germans reorganize coal mining and distribution. The German railway system, upon which all major Wehrmacht movements depend, relies on coal. It is the only energy source that is in relatively plentiful supply in wartime Germany.
The Pilgrims Society, an organization designed to promote Anglo/U.S. relations, has a major luncheon at London’s Savoy Hotel. Attending are all the bigwigs of London wartime society: Prime Minister Winston Churchill, U.S. Ambassador John Winant, and many ministers. One of those ministers is Lord Woolton, the Minister of Food. Woolton has a surprise for the guests: Woolton Pie. This is a brand new culinary creation that Woolton has asked the hotel’s chef to create. Basically, it is a vegetarian pie composed of potato, cauliflower, swedes, carrots, spring onions seasoned with a teaspoonful of vegetable extract. Churchill hates it and tells the waiter to bring him some beef.
Lord Woolton says that Britain should be ready for much greater restrictions and that she would have to go back to days of simpler living. He declares that the greatest need was in the animal protein group — bacon, eggs, cheese, and meat. he was greatly concerned about the shortage of some of these commodities, particularly of cheese. He says that England was so short of cheese that, if he week to ration it, the people would have a cube of one inch, per person, per week.
Visiting Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies continues his tour of northern England. He visits the recently bombed Old Trafford Cricket Grounds and notes, “Hole in pitch. Stands ruined.” He also notes, “In Manchester, as much as 3 blocks adjoining completely destroyed.”
Douglas Bader receives a promotion to Acting Wing Commander. He commands RAF Nos. 145, 610, and 616 Squadrons at Tangmere.
The Free French establish their own bank in London.
Spain annexes Tangier. The international zone had been established in 1923 and 1924 by the Tangier Convention between France, Spain and the U.K. providing for permanent neutralization of the area and government by an international commission. International administration was restored on 11 October 1945. Officially, Tangier is a condominium jointly governed by France, the UK, and Spain, but during wartime, nobody wishes to complain. In a way, this benefits the Allies, as the annexation essentially takes the strategically useful territory, which otherwise is basically surrounded by French territory, out of play. This will be reversed immediately after the war when nobody cares any longer about offending Franco.
Finland received a $5,000,000 credit from the Export-Import bank today to relieve its food shortage. The Finnish government has been negotiating for food relief almost since the end of its war with Russia. In the meantime arrangements were made for the Red Cross to take care of some of the most urgent Finnish needs. Today, Jesse H. Jones, federal loan administrator announced that the Export-Import bank had made a maximum of $5,000,000 worth of credits available to the Finns “primarily for the purchase of food within the next few months.”
Everyone on both sides know that Turkey potentially holds the balance of power in the Balkans and the Middle East. So far, neither side has made much headway in convincing the Turks to repeat their error of World War I and enter the conflict. However, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill does not like taking “no” for an answer, so today he had Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden meet Turkish Prime Minister Sukru Saracoglu in Cyprus.
German submarine U-105 attacked Allied convoy SL.68 west of Senegal, French West Africa at 0400 hours, sinking British ship Medjerda, killing the entire crew of 52 and 2 gunners.
German armed merchant cruiser Kormoran transferred 7 torpedoes to submarine U-124 1,050 miles southwest of Cape Verde Islands.
German cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau meet in the mid-Atlantic as planned to refuel from supply ships Uckermark and Ermland. They also transfer hundreds of prisoners to the supply ships. Admiral Lütjens intends to follow orders and make for the French port of Brest in the morning.
Battleship Bismarck entered the Baltic Sea for trials.
German 1st S-boat Flotilla (with 6 motor torpedo boats) raided shipping on the east coast of England, United Kingdom, sinking French ship Daphne II off the Humber Estuary.
The Luftwaffe bombed Liverpool and Birkenhead. The Luftwaffe switches its target from Bristol. It bombs several cities lightly. The night’s major raid, though, is Hull, which is hit with 378 bombers. The weekly Home Security Situation Report states:
“On the 18th/19th March: Hull suffered most, but other places in the East Riding were involved, noticeably Scarborough, which was bombed intermittently for four hours. This seems incongruous in comparison with the value of other objectives in the district. Some bombing took place in the North Midlands, Eastern Regions, London, the South and South-East Counties and Folkestone.”
RAF Bomber Command: Day of 18 March 1941
11 Blenheims on sweeps of enemy coasts; all aircraft bombed ships but scored no hits. No losses.
RAF Bomber Command: Night of 18/19 March 1941
Kiel
99 aircraft — 40 Hampdens, 34 Wellingtons, 23 Whitleys, 2 Manchesters; none lost. Kiel reports this as its heaviest raid so far, with special mention of increased incendiary attack. Damage was caused in the Deutsche Werke U-boat yard and in many city-centre-type buildings — large shops, banks, hospital & 5 people were killed and 10 injured.
Wilhelmshaven
44 Blenheims; 1 was lost.
Rotterdam
19 aircraft; no losses.
British bombers attacked Valona (Vlorë), Albania, sinking Italian torpedo boat Aldebaran.
British Swordfish torpedo bombers of Fleet Air Arm 830 Naval Air Squadron based in Malta bombed the harbor at Tripoli, Libya; 1 Swordfish aircraft was shot down, with its crew of 2 taken prisoner.
U-105, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Georg Schewe, sank British steamer Medjerda (4380grt) from convoy SL.68 at 17N, 21W. At 0418 hours on 18 March 1941 the unescorted Medjerda (Master Charles Edward Banks), a straggler from convoy SL.68, was hit on the starboard side underneath the bridge by one G7e torpedo from U-105 and sank immediately after breaking in two within 30 seconds about 90 miles east of the Cape Verde Islands. The master, 34 crew members and four gunners were lost. The 4,380 ton Medjerda was carrying iron ore and was bound for Middlesbrough, England, United Kingdom.
German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau refueled at sea three hundred miles northwest of the Azores from tankers Ermland and Uckermark. Some four hundred prisoners were transferred to the supply ships.
Heavy cruiser HMS Norfolk departed Scapa Flow for Reykjavik. The cruiser refueled in Iceland and patrolled in the Denmark Strait with two armed merchant cruisers. The cruiser returned to refuel at Reykjavik on 27 to 29 March.
Light cruiser HMS Arethusa departed Scapa Flow on escort duties. The cruiser arrived back at 1610/22nd.
Battlecruiser HMS Hood, refitting at Rosyth since 13 January, departed Rosyth for Scapa Flow.
The German 1st Motor Torpedo Boat Flotilla with S.26, S.29, S.39, S.55, S.101, and S.102 sortie against British shipping on the British east coast. British steamer Daphne II (1970grt) was badly damaged by S.102 in 59 Buoy, off the Humber. The ship was taken in tow and beached south of Bull. The ship broke in two and sank.
Italian submarine Emo attacked British steamer Clan Maciver (4500grt) in 58N, 24W.
German steamer Bremen (51, 731grt) was lost due to an explosion at Bremen.
German steamer Widar (5972grt) was sunk by an aerial torpedo off Borkum.
Battleships HMS Barham and HMS Valiant and destroyers HMS Jervis, HMS Janus, HMS Nubian, HMS Mohawk, HMS Greyhound, and HMS Havock arrived at Alexandria at 0530. Light cruisers HMS Bonaventure and HMS Gloucester arrived soon afterwards.
Light cruiser HMS Gloucester embarked General Blamey, Commanding the Australian Corps, and 1087 troops. The cruiser departed Alexandria, escorted by destroyer HMS Hasty, for Piraeus.
Armed boarding vessel HMS Rosaura (1552grt) was sunk on a mine 146° from Mersa Tobruk. Fourteen crewmen, including P/T/Surgeon Lt J. F. Roberts RNVR, five military guards and 59 prisoners of war were lost.
Swordfish of 830 Squadron attacked Tripoli Harbor. A Swordfish was shot down and its crew of A/Sub Lt (A) D. Grant and Leading Airman W. E. J. Thomson were made prisoners of war. They were repatriated in November 1942.
Three Albacore aircraft from 826 Squadron from aircraft carrier HMS Formidable operating ashore torpedoed Italian steamer Labor (510grt) and destroyed two lighters at Buerat el Hsur. The steamer was able to arrive at Tripoli on the 19th. One Albacore and its crew of Sub Lt J. J. C. Coe and A/Sub Lt C. P. Bailey were lost.
Italian torpedo boat Aldebaran was sunk by British bombing at Valona.
Light cruiser HMS Diomede damaged her port propeller while passing through the Panama Canal.
Convoy AG.7 of Armed boarding vessels HMS Chakla and HMS Fiona, supply ship Breconshire, three Greek, and one other ship departed Alexandria, escorted by light cruiser HMS Carlisle and destroyers HMAS Voyager and HMS Wryneck. Troopship Ulster Prince embarked Army personnel at Tobruk and joined the convoy on the 19th. The convoy arrived at Piraeus late on the 20th.
Convoy AN.21 of seven British, four Greek, and two other ships departed Alexandria escorted by destroyers HMS Decoy and HMAS Waterhen and corvette HMS Hyacinth. Anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Coventry joined the convoy from Suda Bay. On the 21st, British tanker Marie Maersk (8271grt), formerly of AG.5 and joined from Suda Bay, was damaged by German bombing off Crete. Six crew members were killed, eight missing, and four were taken prisoner of war. Australian destroyer Waterhen put a party aboard the ship and got the fire under control. The tanker was brought into Suda Bay under her own power by a Royal Navy navigating party, escorted by anti-submarine trawler HMS Amber. The convoy arrived at Piraeus on the 22nd.
Convoy AS.20 of one British, one Greek, and four other ships departed Piraeus escorted by anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Calcutta, destroyer HMAS Vendetta, sloop HMS Grimsby, and one Greek destroyer. Destroyer Vendetta attacked a submarine contact at 1715/18th in 37-29N, 24-05E. The convoy arrived at Alexandria on the 21st and Port Said on the 22nd.
Convoy BS.20 departed Suez, escorted by sloop HMS Clive. The sloop was detached the next day. On the 21st, sloop HMS Auckland joined, on the 22nd, light cruiser HMS Capetown; both were detached on the 25th when sloop HMAS Parramatta joined. The convoy was dispersed on the 26th.
In Washington today, President Roosevelt received Dr. Thomas Parran, Surgeon General of the Public Health Service, and Milo Warner, national commander of the American Legion. He proclaimed April as National Cancer Control Month. He said he would set up tomorrow a super mediation board to handle labor disputes in defense industries, announced that he had asked Secretary Wickard and Dr. Parran to devise a program for sending foodstuffs and agricultural products to Great Britain and other countries opposing the Axis powers and said he planned to leave tomorrow for a fishing holiday off the Florida coast.
The Senate was not in session. Its Appropriations Committee approved the $3,446,000,000 Navy Appropriation Bill and conferees reached an agreement on two naval base authorization bills.
The House debated the $7,000,000,000 appropriation bill for the Lend-Lease program and adjourned at 6:22 PM until noon tomorrow. The Judiciary Committee heard Merrill C. Meigs of the Office of Production Management on defense labor problems.
With less than a quarter of the membership present and passage a foregone conclusion, the House today heard the ranking Republican and Democratic members of its Appropriations Committee urge prompt approval of the nation’s biggest peace time appropriation bills $7,000,000,000 for help to England, Greece and other nations which resist the axis powers. “This act will be a transfusion of new life to the beleaguered democracies of the world,” said Representative Woodrum, Virginia Democrat. “The world will see America, with its unconquerable spirit, its vast and limitless resources, turn on its great industrial power in a 100 percent capacity effort to supply effective material aid to the defenders of freedom in the world. With this all-out America effort there can and there will be only one result and that is the ultimate downfall of the dictators.”
A nation beset for years by the problem of unemployment heard from two government officials yesterday that a serious shortage of skilled workers exists and that there is a threatened scarcity of farm hands. Discussing the skilled worker situation, Robert P. Patterson, undersecretary of war, told a Washington conference on labor problems that the shortage was delaying a vast expansion of defense production. He advised manufacturers to undertake immediately a program of training less experienced men for more responsible jobs than they now hold. Paul V. McNutt, federal security administrator, said in a statement in Washington that thousands of workers formerly engaged in agricultural pursuits had migrated to the cities to take jobs in defense factories. He expressed the view however that “no serious difficulty” would be encountered in gathering this year’s crops if farmers, workers and state unemployment offices cooperated closely.
The America First Committee charged yesterday that the statement of policy issued Monday by the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies contained recommendations that would get the United States into war.
“Wild Bill” Donovan returns to the United States after his lengthy “fact-finding” mission to Europe. Ending a trip that covered 25,000 miles in fourteen weeks and took him to England, Eire, Spain and most of the countries of Northern Africa and the Balkans, Colonel William J. Donovan, former commander of the Fighting Sixty-ninth and reportedly the personal representative of President Roosevelt, arrived at La Guardia Field yesterday morning aboard the Yankee Clipper.
A speeding up of combatant ship construction for the Navy, ascribed to the employment of additional shifts in the work and the prompt delivery of materials, is shown in “construction progress” reports of the building yards. If the present rate of acceleration is maintained ships of all categories will go into commission months ahead of contract schedules. The Iowa and New Jersey, first of the 45,000-ton battleships to be laid down, are now scheduled to go into commission about thirteen months ahead of time and a further gain in time is expected. The Iowa is being built at the New York Navy Yard and the New Jersey at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. The battleships South Dakota and Massachusetts, sister ships of the North Carolina and Washington, which go into commission this Spring, are each about four months ahead of schedule. The South Dakota is being built by the New York Ship Building Corporation, Camden, New Jersey, and the Massachusetts by the Bethlehem Steel Company of Quincy, Massachusetts. The Indiana and Alabama are the only battleships under construction. which are not ahead of schedule. But both are on schedule at the Norfolk Navy Yard and the yard of the Newport News Ship Building and Dry Dock Company at Newport News, Virginia.
The U.S. and Canada declared a joint defense pact, which included cooperation in ship building efforts on the Great Lakes.
President Roosevelt has requested a group of officials, headed by Secretary Wickard and Dr. Thomas Parran, Surgeon General, to develop a program for supplying food and vitamins in new forms to Great Britain and her allies.
Despite the reports that a German submarine raider is on its way to North American waters, President Roosevelt will leave Washington tomorrow for Port Everglades on the Florida East Coast, where the Presidential yacht Potomac is waiting to take him fishing for a week or ten days.
A District of Columbia grand jury investigation of the German-American Bund, the Communist party and other foreign-controlled organizations, will be asked by Representative Dies, chairman of the Committee to Investigate un-American activities.
The award of a $3,735,890 contract to Vultee Aircraft Inc., for an undisclosed number of planes to be manufactured at the company’s Nashville, Tennessee, plant was announced today by the war department.
Leaders of building trades unions of the American Federation of Labor whose members are on strike at Wright Air Field have been unofficially told through War Department sources that unless their dispute with the C.I.O. is settled by tomorrow the Army will take over the contract and seek to have it completed with employees from the Civil Service lists.
Mayor La Guardia, warning that the Bus strike in Manhattan was no longer a simple labor dispute, told leaders of the Transport Workers Union and officials of the New York Omnibus Corporation and the Fifth Avenue Coach Company yesterday that unless they arbitrated their differences he would appoint a fact-finding board to report publicly on the issues.
Harry Bridges, C.I.O. labor leader on the Pacific Coast, was refused today a request to postpone the coming deportation hearing against him for three weeks or more until he attended a convention of the International Longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union, which he heads.
U.S. Navy Rear Admiral William R. Furlong breaks his flag as Commander Minecraft Battle Force.
The U.S. military and Canadian military have been coordinating defense efforts. Today, they make it official with a joint defense pact. This includes enhanced efforts at cooperation in shipbuilding on the Great Lakes.
Uruguay is in the midst of a government crisis that is expected to lead to revision of the constitution. President Alfredo Baldomir is determined to end collaboration of the Nationalist party in the Cabinet because it has continued stubbornly to deadlock all government measures in Congress.
Subhas Chandra Bose, having escaped from India, is traveling under an assumed name as an Italian Embassy official. He is in Afghanistan and departs from Kabul today. He is seeking sanctuary in the Soviet Union and, ultimately, Europe.
At the continuing Battle of Shanggao, the Japanese breach the Chinese first line of defenses after vicious fighting. The Chinese 19th Army Group’s 9th War Area holds against further Japanese penetrations by the Japanese 11th Army around Kuchuao and Huamento. After that, the fighting dies down as both sides recover and bury their dead.
Fast new bombers and pursuit planes figured in a Japanese air attack on Chungking today. It was the first raid since late October of last year. It is reported that nine bombers protected by nine fighters carried out the raid, which was directed at a suburban district along the Kialing River.
A group of Chinese engineers left Chungking Tuesday for Southern Sikang Province to begin surveys for a highway from Ningyuan across some of the highest mountains in the world to Sadiya, Assam, India. If constructed, the 1,000-mile highway would open a new back door to China and connect the upper Yangtze River with a railway running northward in India from Chittagong. The route would cross mountains 20,000 feet high and the construction would be one of the most daring and difficult highway jobs ever undertaken. The Chungking engineers are expected to determine the feasibility of the projected road.
Light cruiser HMS Dauntless arrived at Singapore.
Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka, en route to Berlin and Rome, will pause in Moscow two days, it was announced today, for talks that observers believed would vitally affect Japan’s role in Axis plans for a new world order.
Japan’s new Fascist-like party called the Imperial Rule Assistance Association, which has been meeting opposition from politicians and capitalists, received definite support from the army today when regimental commanders were instructed that reservists should join the association and become its “propelling force.”
The U.S. Marine Corps 7th Defense Battalion arrived at American Samoa. Rear Admiral Newton’s cruiser force there prepares to depart for its visit to Sydney, Australia.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 123.92 (+0.46)
Born:
Wilson Pickett, American R&B singer and songwriter (“In The Midnight Hour”; “Funky Broadway”), in Prattville, Alabama (d. 2006).
Frank McRae, American actor (“Dillinger”; “1941”; “Rocky II”; “Love’s Abiding Joy”), in Memphis, Tennessee (d. 2021).
Pat Jarvis, MLB pitcher (Atlanta Braves, Montreal Expos), in Carlyle, Illinois.
Sammy Weir, AFL wide receiver (Houston Oilers, New York Jets), in Moxie, Arkansas.
Wolfgang Bauer, Austrian playwright known for “Magic Afternoons”, in Graz, Austria (d. 2005).
Naval Construction:
The U.S. Navy YMS-1-class yard minesweeper USS YMS-3 is laid down by Henry B. Nevins Inc. (City Island, New York, U.S.A.).
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type XIV U-boat U-464 is laid down by Deutsche Werke AG, Kiel (werk 295).
The U.S. Navy Gleaves-class destroyers USS Cowie (DD-632) and USS Knight (DD-633) are laid down by the Boston Navy Yard (Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.).
The Royal Navy Bangor-class (Turbine-engined) minesweeper HMS Rothesay (J 19) is launched by William Hamilton & Co. (Port Glasgow, Scotland); completed by White.
The U.S. Navy Barnegat-class small seaplane tender USS Matagorda (AVP-22) is launched by the Boston Navy Yard (Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.).
The Royal Navy “T”-class (Second Group) submarine HMS Thorn (N 11) is launched by Cammell Laird Shipyard (Birkenhead, U.K.).
The Royal Navy Fairmile B-class motor launch HMS ML 198 is commissioned.
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