UNITED KINGDOM: Henley: Cambridge wins the unofficial wartime boat race.

RAF Bomber Command: Leaflet raid on Berlin.

RAF Fighter Command: Luftwaffe attacks on North Sea and Channel shipping. The British India liner SS Domala is bombed by Luftwaffe aircraft off the Isle of Wight, fired and beached; There are heavy casualties with 100 killed on the ship.

A formal request is forwarded to Sweden and Norway to allow Allied troops to be sent to Finland through the Scandinavian countries. The British force is planned to reach a level of 100,000 men eventually. 

Rescue tug HMS Fairplay II wrecked on Yorkshire coast.
 

BELGIUM: A Dornier 17, flying over the Ardennes opens fire upon three Belgian fighters which go up to order it out of Belgian airspace, and all three fighters are hit; one catches fire and the pilot is killed. A German statement says that the fighters were Hurricanes and that the German crew mistook them for British aircraft.

FRANCE: Army intelligence reveals German preparations for an attack on Scandinavia.

A formal request is forwarded to Sweden and Norway to allow Allied troops to be sent to Finland through the Scandinavian countries. Units are intended to begin arriving by 20  March. Premier Edouard Daladier has plans for a force of 50,000 French "volunteers" and 150 aircraft.   

GERMANY:  A high-flying RAF Spitfire photographs the entire Ruhr industrial region in one sortie. 

U-123 launched.

GIBRALTAR:  U.S. passenger liner SS Manhattan is detained at Gibraltar by British authorities, but is released the same day. Some 80 of 200 items of cargo, however, are detained subject to guarantees as to their destinations. 


COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Naval members on the Joint Army-Navy Board recommended a strong increase in both Army and Navy air strength in the Philippines.  Strong then directed his War Plans Division to conduct a study, which found that a proper defence of the islands would require a 12-fold increase in air power (from 37 aircraft to 441), a doubling of the US and Philippine Scout forces assigned, and $22 million in new construction, mainly for airfields. (Marc Small)

U.S.A.: The National Broadcasting Company’s experimental TV station in New York City, W2XBS, televises the first intercollegiate track meeting live from Madison Square Garden. New York University wins the meeting. 

CARIBBEAN SEA: The cruiser HMS Dunedin intercepts the 'Heidelberg'. The German ship is scuttled.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: The cruiser HMS Berwick intercepts the German SS Wolfsburg in the Denmark Strait. The German ship is scuttled.

At 2159, U-17 fired a torpedo at a ship reported as a fully loaded tanker of estimated 9000 tons from a distance of 1200 meters. The ship was hit in the bow and sank within five minutes. This must have been MS Rijnstroom, which had been reported missing. Only a capsized lifeboat, some lifebuoys, deckplanks and part of the cargo were later found adrift. A Dutch ship also picked up an empty raft.

At 0810, SS Lagaholm was ordered to stop by U-32 and was shelled with 40 rounds, after the crew had abandoned ship in the lifeboats. The ship caught fire and sank later in 59°42N/05°35W.