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• US Navy Admiral Ernest King said to US President Franklin Roosevelt "we cannot in honor let Australia and New Zealand down". ww2dbase [Ernest King | CPC]
• German battleship Tirpitz, escorted by destroyers, departed for the Arctic Ocean to intercept Allied convoys in Operation Sportpalast. ww2dbase [Tirpitz | CPC]
• British submarine HMS Thorn sank Italian auxiliary patrol vessel AS91/Ottavia with her deck gun off Kefalonia island, Greece. ww2dbase [CPC]
• British submarine HMS Uproar sank Italian merchant ship Marin Sanudo 18 miles west of Lampedusa island, Italy; Italian torpedo boats Cigno and Procione counterattacked with depth charges in failure. ww2dbase [CPC]
• British Admiral Sir Geoffrey Layton was appointed Commander-in-Chief Ceylon. ww2dbase [AC]
• Kamoi refueled destroyers Mochizuki, Mutsuki, and Yayoi with heavy oil at 0650 hours. Between 0722 hours and 1150 hours, she refueled light cruiser Yubari. Between 0916 hours and 1159 hours, she refueled minelayer Tsugaru with heavy oil. ww2dbase [Kamoi | CPC]

• German submarine U-404 sank US ship Collamer off Nova Scotia, Canada at 1135 hours. Later that day, U-126 sank US ship Mariana 30 miles north of the Turks and Caicos Islands east of Cuba at 2244 hours, killing all 36 aboard. Finally, at 2307 hours on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean off Sierra Leone, British West Africa, U-505 sank British ship Benmohr; all 56 aboard survived. ww2dbase [Second Happy Time | CPC]
• The Norwegian motor tanker O. A. Knudsen of 11,007 tons full of petrol and fuel oil was torpedoed by German submarine U-128 (Kapitänleutnant Ulrich Heyse) at 1533 hours when sailing east of Abaco Island, Bahamas. The torpedo hit in tank #6, and the ship took on a list after the engines were stopped. Eight men stayed on board the ship after the rest of the crew got away in a lifeboat and the motorboat, the remaining men managed to start up the engines and turn the ship towards land. However, a second torpedo hit, killing the British deckboy. The other the left the ship only to return once more to set up a new antenna and contact a shore station. As they made plans to get the ship under way the submarine started to shell the vessel which set fire to the fuel. The master and 5 of the men who had been with him were injured during the shelling, taking the lifeboat in tow the motorboat made it to the coast that evening but could not find a suitable place to land, the following morning a schooner took them under tow to Cornwall on Abaco Island. One of the wounded seamen died on March 10th in hospital and was buried on Abaco Island. ww2dbase [Second Happy Time | St George's Channel | HM]
• The lone survivor of Panamanian cargo steamer Bayou, which was the victim of German submarine U-129 on 28 Feb 1942, was found on a raft. ww2dbase [HM]
• German Type IXC U-Boat U-505 torpedoed and sunk the British freighter Benmohr off British West Africa (Sierra Leone). All 56 men abaord were rescued. ww2dbase [U-505 | Second Happy Time | DS]

• US 8th Pursuit Squadron, flying P-40 fighters, was sent to Melbourne, Australia. ww2dbase [Melbourne, Victoria | CPC]

• Japanese troop transports Yokohama Maru, China Maru, Kongo Maru, Tenyo Maru, and Kokai Maru departed Rabaul, New Britain, Bismarck Islands for New Guinea; the transports were escorted by six cruisers and eight destroyers. ww2dbase [New Guinea-Papua Campaign, Phase 2 | Rabaul, New Britain | CPC]
• Tenryu arrived at Rabaul, New Britain and departed for Australian New Guinea island later in the day. ww2dbase [Tenryu | Rabaul, New Britain | CPC]

• Hauptmann Hansgeorg Bätcher, commanding officer of 1. Staffel of I./KG 100 of the German Luftwaffe, flying a He 111 bomber, damaged a Soviet submarine with five SD 50 bombs in the Black Sea. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Japanese 2nd Division captured Batavia on the island of Java, the capital of Dutch East Indies. ww2dbase [Dutch East Indies Campaign, Java | Java | CPC]
• Kaga launched aircraft in support of operations in Tjilatjap in central Java, Dutch East Indies. ww2dbase [Kaga | Java | CPC]
• Tanikaze covered carriers during the raid on Tjilatjap, Java, Dutch East Indies. ww2dbase [Tanikaze | Dutch East Indies Campaign, Java | Tjilatjap, Java | CPC]

• British submarine HMS Torbay sank Italian merchant ship Maddalena G. in the harbor at Corfu, Greece at 0730 hours. ww2dbase [Corfu | CPC]

• The British government announced that, according to information shared with the United Kingdom by the Japanese government, there were 5,072 British, 1,689 Canadian, 3,829 Indian, and 357 men of other nationalities currently under captivity in Hong Kong as prisoners of war. ww2dbase [Battle of Hong Kong | CPC]

• Shokaku left drydock at Yokosuka, Japan. ww2dbase [Shokaku | Yokosuka Naval Arsenal | Yokosuka, Kanagawa | CPC]
• Katori exited the drydocks at Yokosuka Naval Arsenal in Japan. ww2dbase [Yokosuka Naval Arsenal | Katori | Yokosuka, Kanagawa | CPC]

• USS Grayback sank a Japanese transport and an escort vessel in the Philippine Sea off Guam, Mariana Islands, hitting them with 2 of 3 torpedoes. ww2dbase [Grayback | Philippine Sea | CPC]
• USS S-38 transited the Lombok Strait in the Dutch East Indies. ww2dbase [S-38 | Lombok Strait | CPC]

• USS S-44 departed Naval Base Coco Solo, Panama Canal Zone. ww2dbase [S-44 | Coco Solo | CPC]
• USS S-43 departed Coco Solo, Colón, Panama Canal Zone (now Cativá, Panama). ww2dbase [S-43 | Colón | CPC]

• Conscription in Britain was extended to include men aged between 41 and 45. ww2dbase [AC]

• A change to include a threaded barrel end to accept a big five-port muzzle brake was introduced to the 37 mm Gun M3 anti-tank gun design; the new designation of M3A1 was assigned. The muzzle brakes would be removed when M3A1 guns were deployed to combat areas, however. ww2dbase [37 mm Gun M3 | CPC]

5 Mar 1942 Interactive Map