11 Mar 1886
- Edward Rydz-Śmigły was born.
» In-depth article
11 Mar 1904
Korea
Korea
- Lieutenant General Kensai Haraguchi was named the commanding officer of the Japanese Chosen Army in occupied Korea.
11 Mar 1907
- Helmuth von Moltke was born.
» In-depth article
- Heinz Brandt was born in Charlottenburg, Berlin, Germany.
» In-depth article
11 Mar 1916
- Nevada was commissioned into service.
» In-depth article
11 Mar 1917
- In Petrograd, Russia the soldiers in the Pavlovskiy barracks mutinied, and by the following morning 20,000 of them were protesting on the streets.
11 Mar 1927
China
China
- He Yingqin was made a committee member of the Chinese government.
» In-depth article
11 Mar 1932
- James Doolittle set a new world record in air speed.
» In-depth article
11 Mar 1937
Photo(s) dated 11 Mar 1937
Photo(s) dated 11 Mar 1937
11 Mar 1938
- Adolf Hitler formally issued a directive for the invasion of Austria, to be taken place on the following day.
» In-depth article
11 Mar 1939
- In response to Czechoslovakian President Emil Hácha's sudden moves to consolidate power within Czechoslovakia, thus threatening German attempts to divide the nation, Adolf Hitler issued a ultimatum for Czechoslovakia to hand over Bohemia and Moravia, moving up the German schedule for the occupation of the remainder of Czechoslovakia. At 2200 hours, Austrian Nazi leader Arthur Seyß-Inquart visited Slovakian leaders, demanding them to proclaim independence immediately, otherwise Germany would no longer support their movement.
» In-depth article
11 Mar 1940
- French battleship Bretagne and cruiser Algerie, escorted by destroyers Vauban, Aigle, Maille Breze, departed Toulon carrying 2,379 bars of gold totaling 147 tons. The gold from the French gold reserves were to be sent to Canada for safekeeping.
- 5 Soviet tanks reached Tammisuo Station in northeast Viipuri, Finland while Finnish delegates in Moscow negotiated peace terms. At 1800 hours, the two sides came to an agreement that would be signed into a peace treaty on the following day.
» In-depth article - British and French governments dispatched troops to Sweden in an attempt to capture Swedish iron mines. Norway and Sweden made the statement that they would resist such an invasion.
- German submarine U-28 torpedoed and sank Dutch tanker Eulota 125 miles west of Quessant, France at 0317 hours. The ship broke in two but remained afloat until HMS Broke and HMS Wild Swan arrived to rescue the entire crew of 42. Eulota was scuttled upon completion of the rescue.
- Blenheim bombers of 82 Squadron, RAF Bomber Command attacked German submarine U-31, on sea trials, in Jade Bay near Wilhelmshaven. 2 of the 4 anti-submarine bombs hit U-31, killing all 58 (48 crew, 10 dock workers) on board. U-31 would later be refloated only to be sunk again, the only WW2 ship to suffer the misfortune of being sunk twice in the war.
- German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop met with Mussolini in Italy regarding German-Italian cooperation in the war.
» In-depth article
11 Mar 1941
- German submarine U-74 attacked Icelandic trawler Frodi with her deck gun 192 miles southeast of Iceland at 0800 hours. 5 were killed in the attack. Frodi would be able to escape to Vestmannaeyjar Island on the next day.
- German submarine U-106 sank British ship Memnon 200 miles west of Senegal, French West Africa, killing 5. Of the 69 survivors, 4 were captured by German battlecruiser Gneisenau, 22 made land in Senegal on 21 Mar, and 43 made land in Sierra Leone on 24 Mar.
- The Panzer Regiment of German 5th Light Division completed disembarking from freighters at Tripoli, Libya. A parade was staged with the newly arrived tanks, with some of the tanks going around the town multiple times to make their numbers seem greater. The tanks headed east toward Sirte after the parade.
» In-depth article - 135 German aircraft dropped 122 tons of high explosive bombs and 830 incendiary bombs on Birmingham, England, United Kingdom.
» In-depth article
- During the night of 11 to 12 Mar, six British Handley Page Halifax bombers of No. 35 Squadron of No. 4 Group from RAF Leeming in North Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom attacked Le Havre, France. It was the operational debut of the four-engine heavy bomber. It was marred by the accidental shoot-down of one of them by an RAF nightfighter.
» In-depth article
- Japan dictated that France would return parts of Cambodia and Laos, which the French had gained from Thailand about 40 years prior, to Thailand.
» In-depth article
- As English diplomats arrived in Istanbul, Turkey, a bomb smuggled into their luggage exploded, killing 2.
- US President Roosevelt signed the Lend Lease Act into law, which allowed Allied nations to purchase weapons and other supplies from the United States on credit.
» In-depth article
11 Mar 1942
- German submarine U-701 sank British anti-submarine trawler HMS Stella Capella 38 miles east of Iceland at 0211 hours, killing all 33 aboard. German submarine U-94 sank Norwegian ship Hvoslef 2 miles east of Fenwick Island, Delaware, United States at 0316 hours; 6 were killed, 14 survived. At 0800 hours, U-158 sank US ship Caribsea 20 kilometers east of Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, United States; 21 were killed, 7 survived. Further south, U-126 sank US freighter Texan within 5 kilometers of the northern coast of Cuba. Italian submarine Tazzoli sank Panamanian ship Cygnet 5 mile east of the Bahamas; all 30 aboard survived.
» In-depth article - Japanese troops landed on Mindanao, the southern-most of the Philippine Islands.
» In-depth article - Tatsuta Maru arrived at Wake Island.
» In-depth article
» Tabular Record of Movement - German submarine U-565 sank British cruiser HMS Naiad 30 miles north of Sidi Barrani, Egypt at 2000 hours; 82 were killed, 582 survived.
- Chiang Kaishek told Joseph Stilwell that he was now ready to commit three elite Chinese armies (5th, 6th, and 66th) to Burma. Stilwell would soon find out that Chiang had secretly ordered the Chinese commanders to avoid decisive confrontations, thus rendering the Chinese troops useless to Stilwell's command.
» In-depth article - USS Pollack sank Japanese cargo ship Fukushu Maru between Taiwan and the Japanese home islands with one of ten torpedoes fired.
» In-depth article - The 6 survivors of USS Edsall, sunken off Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean on 1 Mar 1942, were executed by their Japanese captors.
- Japanese submarine I-2 attacked British passenger ship Chilka 340 miles west of Padang, Sumatra, Dutch East Indies at 1400 hours, killing 7. Chilka signaled surrender at 1425 hours. The captain of I-2 gave the crew some time to abandon ship before proceeding to sink her.
- Merchant ship Sevaples fell out of Allied convoy PQ-12 in poor weather. Allied convoy QP-8 arrived at Reykjavík, Iceland.
» In-depth article
- George Brett dispatched 4 B-17 Flying Fortress bombers, with skeleton crew, from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia to Batchelor Field near Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, via Daly Waters, Northern Territory; these aircraft were meant to be used to evacuate Douglas MacArthur and his family and staff from the Philippine Islands.
» In-depth article
- Kaga arrived at Staring Bay near Kendari, Celebes, Dutch East Indies.
» In-depth article
» Tabular Record of Movement
- USS Enterprise returned to Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii.
» In-depth article
- With sister Zuikaku, Shokaku accompanied Vice Admiral Takasu Shiro's First Fleet (Ise and Hyuga) on a sortie to sweep for enemy believed to approaching Japan.
» In-depth article
» Tabular Record of Movement
- Douglas MacArthur, his family, and a small staff departed Corregidor by PT boats; General Jonathan Wainwright remained as commanding officer of US and Filipino forces in the Philippine Islands.
» In-depth article
- Japanese H8K flying boats attacked Midway Atoll, causing minor damage; one aircraft was shot down in this attack.
11 Mar 1943
- Tirpitz departed Trondheim, Norway.
» In-depth article - Erwin Rommel received Diamonds to his Knight's Cross medal.
» In-depth article - German RSHA organization ordered that all Jews in the criminal rehabilitation system were to be sent to Auschwitz or Majdanek concentration camps, where they would remain indefinitely, after they served their sentences. Meanwhile, Bulgarian troops arrested 7,100 Macedonian Jews and deported them to the new Skopje Concentration Camp in Yugoslavia.
» In-depth article - Joseph Goebbels ordered the SS and Security Police to round up the 4,000 Berlin Jews who had escaped Operation Factory at the end of Feb 1943.
» In-depth article - British Secretary of State for Air Sir Archibald Sinclair spoke at the House of Commons, noting that "[t]he past 12 months have been marked by striking changes in the conduct and effectiveness of... the pulverising offensive of Bomber Command.... The monster raids saturating the enemy's active and passive systems of defence is one example. A second example is the success achieved in finding, marking and illuminating targets which has contributed enormously to the recent triumphs of Bomber Command.... Praise the men who are striking these hammer blows at German might... fearless young men flying through storm and cold and darkness higher than Mont Blanc, through the flak, hunted by the night fighters, but coolly and skillfully identifying and bombing these targets." Some Members of Parliament, such as Mr. Montague, representing West Islington, voiced concerns for the "wanton destruction" delivered by the Bomber Command.
» In-depth article - USS S-31 departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for her sixth war patrol.
» In-depth article - The British Admiralty officially announced the loss of submarine P311, suspected to have been lost to a mine in the Mediterranean Sea on 8 Jan 1943.
- Repair ship Akashi completed the repair work for destroyer Akizuki and began repairing auxiliary aircraft transport Keiyo Maru at Truk, Caroline Islands.
» In-depth article
» Tabular Record of Movement
- The BI-3 rocket-powered prototype aircraft took its first flight at Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia (the fourth flight of the design), reaching the altitude of 4,000 meters.
» In-depth article
- The royalist Yugoslavian government-in-exile in London, England, United Kingdom reported that German forces had executed 1,250 Serbians in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
11 Mar 1944
- Aircraft of No. 466 Squadron RAAF conducted minelaying operations off of Helgoland, Germany.
- About 300 Jewish women and children of Split, Yugoslavia were rounded up, sent to Jasenovac Concentration Camp, and killed.
» In-depth article - The British ambassador in Washington voiced the opinion that revealing the Holocaust to the German people would not be an effective propaganda tool against the German leadership.
- By this date, 9,000 men and 1,300 animals were delivered to northern Burma for Operation Thursday.
» In-depth article - Repair ship Akashi received provisions from auxiliary storeship Kitakami Maru at Palau Islands.
» In-depth article
» Tabular Record of Movement
11 Mar 1945
- USS Sargent Bay departed Iwo Jima.
» In-depth article - US Third Army captured Kochem, Germany.
» In-depth article - Soviet forces moved toward Gotenhafen, Germany (now Gdynia, Poland), endangering the civilian rescue effort there.
» In-depth article - The first unexploded V-2 rocket landed in England, United Kingdom, but it was not retrieved and studied until 7 Apr, by that time other unexploded rockets had been found and many secrets of the rocket had already been uncovered.
- USS Segundo sank Japanese cargo ship Shori Maru in the East China Sea off Korea with 2 of 4 torpedoes fired.
» In-depth article - 285 American B-29 bombers attacked the Nagoya, Japan urban area with incendiary bombs.
» In-depth article - Light carrier Hosho departed Oita, Japan for target ship duty for Air Group 252's training.
» In-depth article
» Tabular Record of Movement
- Anglo-Indian troops continued to assault Mandalay Hill near Mandalay, Burma.
» In-depth article
- In Operation Tan No. 2, Japanese Navy aircraft conducted a large-scale special attack operation on American warships at Ulithi atoll, Caroline Islands. Closer to the home islands, a P1Y1 Ginga aircraft of 762nd Naval Air Group based in Kanoya, Kagoshima, Japan struck USS Randolph at dusk.
- Lavrentiy Beria reported to Joseph Stalin that suicides, especially among women, were becoming common in Soviet-occupied East Prussia, Germany.
» In-depth article
- American fighters began flying escort operations from Iwo Jima, Japan.
» In-depth article
- USS Springer attempted to attack two Japanese warships in the Pacific Ocean, but was driven off by aircraft.
» In-depth article
- Allied convoy JW-65 departed Clyde, Scotland, United Kingdom.
» In-depth article
11 Mar 1946
- Rudolf Höss, who had been living for the past year as a farmer under the pseudonym Franz Lang, was arrested by British troops.
» In-depth article
- Allied repatriation ship Hikawa Maru arrived at Rabaul, New Britain and embarked Japanese personnel.
» In-depth article
» Tabular Record of Movement
- Soviet chief prosecutor Roman Rudenko sent a letter to US chief prosecutor Robert Jackson, asking the US prosecution team in Nürnberg, Germany not to bring up the topics of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, borders with Poland, and other sensitive issues.
» In-depth article
11 Mar 1947
- The trial against Rudolf Höss at the Supreme National Tribunal of Poland began.
» In-depth article
11 Mar 1948
- 30 Japanese officers, doctors, and a female nurse were tried by the Allied war crimes tribunal for human experimentation in China. 23 of them would later be found guilty, with 5 sentenced to death.
» In-depth article
11 Mar 1950
- USS Sea Cat completed her upgrade work at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, Pennsylvania, United States.
» In-depth article
11 Mar 1955
- Vasily Chuikov was made a Marshal of the Soviet Union.
» In-depth article
11 Mar 1969
- Daniel Barbey passed away.
» In-depth article
11 Mar 1975
Photo(s) dated 11 Mar 1975
Photo(s) dated 11 Mar 1975
Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis
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