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• » 2 Mar 1944

• Leutze was commissioned into service. ww2dbase [Leutze | CPC]
• Walter Krupinski received Oak Leaves to his Knight's Cross medal. ww2dbase [Walter Krupinski | CPC]
• James Johnson was named the commanding officer of the No. 144 (RCAF) Wing. ww2dbase [James Johnson | CPC]
• Wilhelm Kratzer was named the acting civilian administrator of the Channel Islands. ww2dbase [CPC]

• USS Cero arrived at Brisbane, Australia, ending her third war patrol. ww2dbase [Cero | Brisbane, Queensland | CPC]

• US 1st Cavalry Division captured Hayne Airfield at Los Negros Island, Admiralty Islands. ww2dbase [New Guinea-Papua Campaign, Phase 3 | Los Negros, Admiralty Islands | CPC]
• US aircraft carpet-bombed the center of Rabaul, New Britain. The Chinatown district received the most damage. ww2dbase [New Guinea-Papua Campaign, Phase 3 | Rabaul, New Britain | CPC]

• German Luftwaffe ace Egon Mayer (102 victories) was shot down and killed when his Fw 190 aircraft was bounced by a pair of US 9th Air Force P-47 Thunderbolt aircraft whilst attacking a formation of B-17 bombers near Sedan, France. In a cruel twist of fate his award of Swords had been announced on that same day. ww2dbase [Sedan, Champagne-Ardenne | AC]

• 421 Czech prisoners were transferred from Auschwitz Concentration Camp in Poland to Buchenwald Concentration Camp in Germany. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Buchenwald Concentration Camp | Ettersberg, Weimar | CPC]
• Heinrich Himmler signed Aktion K into effect, which decreed that captured escapees of prisoners of war camps would be sent to the Mauthausen Concentration Camp in occupied Austria, where they would face execution immediately upon arrival and their remains would be destroyed in the camp crematorium. ww2dbase [Heinrich Himmler | CPC]

• Norwegian motor vessel Tarifa (Master Hans Bjønness) joined an Allied convoy AB-33 off Aden Protectorate. ww2dbase [Arabian Sea | HM]

• On Mount Trocchio near Cassino, Italy, walking down a path that was supposed to have been cleared, Major-General Howard Kippenberger, the admirable commander of the 2nd New Zealand Division, stepped on one of the vicious little wooden "Schu" mines. One of his feet was blown off and the other had to be amputated. ww2dbase [Battle of Monte Cassino | Cassino, Lazio | AC]

• USS Ray began pursuing a nine-ship Japanese convoy in the South China Sea. ww2dbase [Ray | South China Sea | CPC]

• Allied convoy RA-57 departed the Kola Inlet near Murmansk, Russia. ww2dbase [Arctic Convoys | Murmansk | CPC]

• Escort carrier USS Saginaw Bay (CVE-82) was commissioned with Captain Frank C. Sutton in command. ww2dbase [Saginaw Bay | AC]
• USS Proteus entered Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, California, United States for repairs. ww2dbase [Mare Island Navy Yard | Proteus | Vallejo, California | CPC]

• USS Tunny arrived at Midway Atoll. ww2dbase [Midway Bases | Tunny | Midway | CPC]

2 Mar 1944 Interactive Map