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• German troops entered Romania. ww2dbase [CPC]
• US Navy established the Support Force Atlantic Fleet for the purpose of providing protection for merchant shipping. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Bulgarian Prime Minister Bogdan Filov signed the Tripartite Pact, which gave Germany the option of invading Greece through Bulgaria. Bulgaria was promised territories lost to Yugoslavia and Greece after WW1. ww2dbase [The Tripartite Pact | TH]
• Bread rations in Italy was halved in order to increase food export to Germany. ww2dbase [TH]
• Free French forces from Chad captured Kufra in southeastern Libya. The Italians suffered 3 killed (all 3 were Libyan colonial troops), 4 wounded, and 282 captured (29 Italians, 273 Libyan colonial troops); the French suffered 4 killed and 21 wounded. ww2dbase [Battle of Kufra | CPC]
• German cruiser Admiral Scheer entered the South Atlantic from the Indian Ocean. ww2dbase [Admiral Scheer | CPC]
• British minesweeping trawler HMT St. Donats collided with destroyer HMS Cotswold and sank 45 miles east of Grimsby, England, United Kingdom. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Larissa, Greece suffered a 6.3 magnitude earthquake. ww2dbase [CPC]

• In Port Sudan, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, as HMS Formidable waited for mine clearing operations to complete in the Suez Canal, she launched 5 Albacore aircraft to bomb Massawa, Eritrea, Italian East Africa, causing little damage. ww2dbase [Invasion of Italian East Africa | Port Sudan | CPC]

• German submarines U-95, U-147, and U-552 operated against Allied convoy HX-109 170 miles northwest of Outer Hebrides, Scotland, United Kingdom. After sundown, the 12,062-ton British steam tanker Cadillac, built in 1917, was on route from Aruba for Avonmouth, England, United Kingdom carrying a cargo of 17,000 tons of aviation spirit when she was torpedoed by U-552. The highly flammable cargo immediately caught fire, causing a massive explosion and when the #8 tank blew up on the port side after about four minutes it illuminated all ships in the vicinity. With the ship settling by the bow and blazing furiously on the port side a lot of the crew perished being unable to leave the ship, 35 crew were lost from a total crew of 42. Meanwhile, U-95 sank the ship Pacific; 34 were killed, 1 survived. ww2dbase [HM]

• Hiroshi Nemoto was named the commanding officer of the 24th Division in China. ww2dbase [Hiroshi Nemoto | CPC]

• Hans-Joachim Marseille was promoted to the rank of Oberfähnrich. ww2dbase [Hans-Joachim Marseille | CPC]

• Two battalions of Indian 4th Division and 2 Free French battalions reached Mescelit Pass 15 miles northeast of Keren, Eritrea, Italian East Africa; lacking artillery, the force's goal was only to tie down Italian forces in the region. On the same day, Italian submarines Gauleo Ferraras, Perla, and Archimede departed Massawa, Eritrea for the long journey around Africa for Europe. ww2dbase [Invasion of Italian East Africa | Keren | CPC]

• Lieutenant General Hiroshi Takahashi was named the chief of staff of the Japanese Chosen Army in occupied Korea. ww2dbase [CPC]

• The 2,112-ton merchant steamer Huldra (2,112-tons), in service on the coast of Norway and under German control from May 1940, struck a mine on and sank at Hustadvika, Norway in the shipping route between the towns of Molde and Kristiansund. ww2dbase [Hustadvika | HM]

• Heinrich Himmler paid his first visit to Auschwitz Concentration Camp. During the visit, he ordered Commandant Rudolf Höss to expand the current camp to hold a total of 30,000 prisoners, expand the camp to Birkenau with capacity for 100,000 prisoners, supply 10,000 prisoners to work for the nearby I.G. Farben factory, and to expand the camp's agricultural and industrial output. ww2dbase [Heinrich Himmler | Auschwitz Concentration Camp | Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Oswiecim | CPC]
• Rudolf Höss and his family hosted Heinrich Himmler for dinner during Himmler's inspection of Auschwitz Concentration Camp in occupied Poland. ww2dbase [Auschwitz Concentration Camp | Rudolf Höss | Oswiecim | CPC]

• Lieutenant General Takaji Wachi was named the chief of staff of the Taiwan Army. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Construction for new US military facilities at Chaguramas, Trinidad began. ww2dbase [Chaguramas | CPC]

• Mr. John Winant, the new United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, was greeted by the Duke of Kent on his arrival by air. On his way to London by rail he was met and welcomed by His Majesty the King. ww2dbase [John Winant | AC]

1 Mar 1941 Interactive Map