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• Douglas MacArthur issued a communiqué to USAAF squadrons in the South Pacific to congratulate them for the overwhelming success at the Battle of the Bismarck Sea. ww2dbase [Douglas MacArthur | Solomon Islands Campaign | CPC]
• US Liberty Ship J. L. M. Curry of Allied convoy RA-53 broke in two in a storm. ww2dbase [Arctic Convoys | CPC]

• Sailing from Liverpool, England, United Kingdom to New York, New York, United States in ballast, the 3,105-ton Norwegian motor merchant Jamaica was torpedoed by German submarine U-221 (Oberleutnant zur See Hans-Hartwig Trojer) at 1227 hours. The torpedo struck the refrigerated hold amidships breaking the vessel in two, both halves sinking within two minutes. 4 lifeboats were launched but owing to damaged only 2 of them were serviceable, the motor boat which had gone under with the ship surfaced, was righted and bailed out, 13 survivors getting into it. A gig held another 4 and as the submarine came in closer to question the crew and hit one of the lifeboats throwing all the occupants into the sea. The 3rd Engineer was picked up by the submarine crew who had then allowed him to swim back to another boat, another crewman however, was taken prisoner and later jumped overboard from the submarine and was drowned. Survivors were picked up by HMS Borage on 18 Mar 1943 after being spotted by a Flying Fortress aircraft on 9 Mar 1943. 21 of the crew were lost. There was controversy over the actions of the submarine, the Norwegians all testified that it had deliberately rammed the lifeboat and rendered it useless, and had thrown the 3rd Engineer, Odd A. Ernstsen back into the sea after taking his life jacket. The log of the submarine had an entry about the other crewman: "22.15 General quarters for exercise. The captured Englishman [sic] has the believe that we are about to attack a destroyer and jumps into the water after I had him brought up on the bridge to get some fresh air. He had already expressed this intention previously several times." If the man was English, then he must have been one of the two radio operators. Trojer had also been involved in the ramming of another submarine when on 8 Dec 1942, his boat accidentally rammed U-254 while the boats were on convoy operations in the North Atlantic. U-254 went down immediately with all but four of her crew (41 dead, including the commander). ww2dbase [HM]
• At 0210 hours, German submarine U-230 (Kapitänleutnant Paul Siegmann) attacked Allied convoy SC-121 south-southeast of Cape Farewell, Greenland and torpedoed the 2,868-ton British steam merchant Egyptian. Siegmann thought that his victim sank and attacked the convoy again at 0925 hours. He claimed the sinking of another ship with 5,000 tons in the former position of the Egyptian, but it seems that both attacks were carried out on the same ship. The 6,116-ton British steamship Empire Impala, on passage New York to Hull with SC-121, was ordered to save the survivors of the torpedoed Egyptian and was not seen again. Empire Impala was most likely torpedoed by German submarine U-591 (Kapitänleutnant Hans-Jürgen Zetzsche) and sank south east of Cape Farewell. She was lost with all on board. ww2dbase [HM]

• Cruiser USS New Orleans (New Orleans-class) departed Sydney, Australia bound for Puget Sound, Washington, United States after being fitted with a temporary bow at Sydney. ww2dbase [New Orleans | Sydney | DS]

• Destroyer Yukikaze departed Rabaul, New Britain, Bismarck Islands. ww2dbase [Yukikaze | Rabaul, New Britain | CPC]

• USS Runner arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii, ending her first war patrol. ww2dbase [Runner (Gato-class) | Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Pearl Harbor, Oahu | CPC]

• Nachi departed Kashiwabara, Paramushiro (Paramushir), Kurile Islands to escort a convoy to Attu, Aleutian Islands. ww2dbase [Nachi | Paramushiro, Hokkaido | CPC]

• The 1,947-ton Italian steamship Balzac (formerly the British Tadorna) and the 1,984-ton French steamship Henri Estier were bombed and sunk by US aircraft 20 miles north-east-north of Zembra Island off the coast of Tunisia. ww2dbase [HM]

• USS Permit sank a Japanese sampan off Hakkaido, Japan with her deck gun. ww2dbase [Permit | CPC]

• Roma and Sinti people from occupied Poland and Soviet Union began arriving at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp in Poland. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Auschwitz Concentration Camp | Oswiecim | CPC]

• The 5,323-ton British merchant steamer Sabor, built in 1920, was en route from Port Said, Mombasa, Tamatave, and Durban for Table Bay and Rio De Janeiro carrying a cargo of 1,100 tons of salt ballast and 63 mail bags when she was torpedoed by German submarine U-506 (Kapitänleutnant Erich Würdemann) off of Mossel Bay, South Africa and sunk. Six crew lost from a total crew 58. The master, 41 crew members and nine gunners were picked up by the SAAF crash launch R-8 and landed at Mossel Bay. ww2dbase [HM]

• Rearguard of the retreating Operation Capri forces engaged pursuing Allied forces in small-scale combat south of the Mareth Line in Tunisia. ww2dbase [Battle of Medenine | CPC]

• US Navy 10th Construction Battalion arrived at Canton, Phoenix Islands. ww2dbase [Canton, Phoenix Islands | CPC]

• 4,500 Croatian Jews were arrested; they would be deported to Auschwitz Concentration Camp in occupied Poland between 7 and 13 Mar 1943. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | CPC]

7 Mar 1943 Interactive Map