23 Mar 1941 | World War II Database

23 Mar 1941

Anti-Axis demonstrations were held in Yugoslavia. ww2dbase [The Tripartite Pact | CPC]
Australian troops captured Giarabub in southeastern Libya. The commander of the Italian garrison, Lieutenant Colonel Castagna, was captured and would spent the rest of the war as a prisoner of war in India. ww2dbase [Battle of Giarabub | CPC]
German submarine U-110 fired a spread of three torpedoes at Norwegian ship Siremalm 200 miles southwest of Iceland at 0427 hours. One torpedo hit but failed to explode, while the other two missed. U-110 next attempted to attack with her deck gun, but a crewman had forgotten to remove the water plug from the gun, causing it to explode, wounding three men and causing some damage. ww2dbase [CPC]
British anti-submarine trawler HMT Visenda sank German submarine U-551 in the North Atlantic, killing the entire crew of 45. ww2dbase [CPC]
German submarine U-97 sank British tanker Chama 600 miles west of Land's End, England, United Kingdom at 2326 hours, killing the entire crew of 59. ww2dbase [CPC]
Greek submarine Triton attacked an Italian convoy 20 miles east of Brindisi, Italy. The transport Carnia was damaged; she would be towed to Brindisi where she intended to receive repairs, but she would ultimately be lost. ww2dbase [CPC]
Erwin Rommel departed Europe for Libya. ww2dbase [Erwin Rommel | CPC]

Atlantic Ocean

Ermland officially completed its supporting mission for battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisneau as a part of Operation Berlin, as the two battlecruisers had arrived in Brest, France on the previous day. ww2dbase [Operation Berlin | Ermland | CPC]

British Somaliland

South African 2nd Division arrived in the recently recaptured Berbera, British Somaliland by sea. In Abyssinia, Nigerian Brigade of British 11th African Division advanced 36 miles toward Addis Ababa to Babile Pass, where they were paused for several hours by Italian defensive positions. ww2dbase [Invasion of Italian East Africa | Berbera | CPC]

France

Giuliano Prini was made the commanding officer of Alessandro Malaspina, relieving Mario Leoni. ww2dbase [Alessandro Malaspina | CPC]

Photo(s) dated 23 Mar 1941

Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, Hugh Martyr, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis

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