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• The Spanish foreign ministry announced the closure of its border with France and stopped with refugee from cross into Spain without transit papers. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Indian 4th Division overran the Mareth Line in Tunisia. ww2dbase [Operations Pugilist and Supercharge II | TH]
• Russian fighter Ace Grigori Rechkalov received his first (of two) award of Hero of the Soviet Union while serving as a senior lieutenant with the 16th GvIAP. ww2dbase [AC]
• The Japanese offensive at Bougainville in the Solomon Islands was halted. ww2dbase [Solomon Islands Campaign | CPC]
• The No. 5 Column of the Chindits, under Bernard Fergusson, made rendezvous with Orde Wingate's main body at Shaukpin Chaung river bed in Burma. ww2dbase [Operation Longcloth | CPC]
• Lieutenant Ralph Marcus Wallace was named the commanding officer of HMCS Trillium. ww2dbase [Trillium | CPC]
• Greek partisans captured Samos Island from the Italian garrison, albeit only temporarily. ww2dbase [TH]
• Vasily Kuznetsov was promoted to the rank of colonel general. ww2dbase [Vasily Kuznetsov | CPC]

• U-469, a German Type VIIC submarine, was sunk in the North Atlantic south of Iceland, by depth charges from a British Fortress aircraft of 206 Squadron RAF/L. All 47 of her crew were lost. ww2dbase [HM]
• At 0707 hours, the unescorted and unarmed 1,688-ton Swedish motor merchant Industria was hit on the starboard side below the bridge by one of two torpedoes from German submarine U-518 while steaming at 12 knots about 80 miles southeast of Aracaju, Sergipe, Brazil. The submarine had spotted the navigation lights of the ship, but could not see the Swedish flag painted on the side because it was not illuminated. No distress signals were sent as the aerial had been damaged and the ship sank by the bow within eight minutes. Most crew members abandoned ship in one lifeboat, while others had to jump overboard when the ship sank. The submarine surfaced shortly after, questioned the survivors in the boat and took the master, the chief officer and the chief engineer as prisoners aboard. The Germans then asked the survivors if there were any wounded and if water was required and left after 30 minutes. The lifeboat picked up the men swimming in the water and searched in vain for a man who was last seen on a raft. The survivors were picked up 15 hours after the sinking by the Swiss steam merchant St. Cergue and landed at Bahia, Brazil. ww2dbase [HM]

• The 1,504-ton German steamship Bungesberg struck a mine and sank west of Tallinn, Estonia. ww2dbase [HM]

• A Japanese reconnaissance flight over Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands discovered about 300 Allied aircraft at the base. ww2dbase [Guadalcanal Campaign | Henderson Field | Lunga Point, Guadalcanal | CPC]

• USS S-43 departed Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. ww2dbase [S-43 | Guantanamo Bay | CPC]

• US bombers attacked Nauru for the first time. ww2dbase [CPC]

• USS Wahoo sank freighter Satsuki Maru in the Yellow Sea with two torpedoes (both of which missed) and her deck gun. ww2dbase [Wahoo | Yellow Sea | CPC]
• USS Whale spotted a Japanese ship and began tracking her off Saipan, Mariana Islands. ww2dbase [Whale | CPC]

• USS S-44 departed Trinidad. ww2dbase [S-44 | CPC]

• George Kenney attended the posthumous Medal of Honor award ceremony for Brigadier General Kenneth Walker at the White House in Washington DC, United States. ww2dbase [George Kenney | White House | Washington | CPC]
• The keel of submarine Barbero was laid down by the Electric Boat Company in Groton, Connecticut, United States. ww2dbase [Barbero | Electric Boat Company | Groton, Connecticut | CPC]

25 Mar 1943 Interactive Map