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• » 5 Mar 1943

• Tirpitz completed post-refitting trials. ww2dbase [Tirpitz | CPC]
• Awa Maru was commissioned into service. ww2dbase [Awa Maru | CPC]
• The USAAF 14th Air Force was established in China. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Destroyer Yukikaze arrived at Rabaul, New Britain, Bismarck Islands. ww2dbase [Yukikaze | CPC]
• US B-25 bombers machine gunned a cluster of life rafts occupied by Japanese survivors of ships sunken during the Battle of the Bismarck Sea. ww2dbase [Solomon Islands Campaign | CPC]
• German submarine U-255 sank freighter Executive (9 were killed, 51 survived) and damaged freighter Richard Bland of Allied convoy RA-53 at 0924 hours; shortly after, 12 German He 111 aircraft attacked the convoy, but none of them were able to break through the escort screen. ww2dbase [Arctic Convoys | CPC]

• British bombers attacked Krupp works at Essen, Germany; this was the Allies' first attack on this industrial region, which started what the Allies called the Battle of the Ruhr. This attack also saw the first successful use of Oboe, an aerial blind bombing targeting system. ww2dbase [Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | Essen | TH]

• Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Additional portions of British Fighter Squadrons 882, 896, and 898 arrived on board. ww2dbase [Barbers Point Naval Air Station | Ewa, Oahu | DS]

• I-168 departed Yokosuka, Japan for Paramushiro, Kurile Islands. ww2dbase [I-68 / I-168 | Yokosuka, Kanagawa | CPC]
• Irako sailed south from Fukajima, Japan with torpedo boat Hato in escort. ww2dbase [Irako | CPC]
• Nachi refueled from oiler Teiyo Maru at Paramushiro (Paramushir), Kurile Islands. ww2dbase [Nachi | Paramushiro, Hokkaido | CPC]

• During a test run of Crematorium II at Auschwitz-Birkenau, it took 40 minutes to cremate 45 bodies. An observing commission, which included engineers from the firm J. A. Topf and Sons and SS officers, complained that the amount of time it took was too long. They instructed the prisoners who operated the crematorium to keep the generators running for several days to increase the temperature. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Auschwitz Concentration Camp | Oswiecim | CPC]

• The first Gloster Meteor (DG206) aircraft made its maiden flight. The Meteor would go on to become the only turbojet powered Allied aircraft operational during the war. ww2dbase [Meteor | AC]

5 Mar 1943 Interactive Map