March 15th, 1941 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:London: Winston Churchill to the Admiralty controller:
Give me a report on the progress of the ships to carry and disgorge tanks. How many are there? What is their tonnage? How many tanks can they take in a flight? When will each one be ready? Where are they being built? What marks of tank can they carry?
ASW trawler HMS Quadrille launched.
Minesweeping trawler HMS Rysa launched.
Minesweepers HMS Alarm and Algerine laid down.
Submarine HMS Umbra launched.
Corvette HMS Bryony launched.
BELGIUM: Liege: Belgian politicians of all parties form the "Independent front" resistance movement.
FRANCE:
Paris: The city's art collectors have had the honour of receiving a Reichsmarschall Herman Göring . He is here to pick for himself the best of the privately owned works of art which Hitler has ordered to be considered as war booty - to be used as a bargaining weapon in future peace negotiations with France.
He has already chosen works by Rembrandt, Rubens and Goya from the stock of stolen art work stored at the Louvre and the Jeu de Paume. They will be taken to Karinhall, his mansion near Berlin.
Soon after the German occupation Alfred Rosenberg, the Nazi Reichsleiter for home affairs, set up a special organisation to bring works back to Germany. By the autumn, Rosenberg estimated that some 22,000 objects of value had been "collected", including 5,281 paintings and 2,477 pieces of furniture. Special care has been taken to seize Jewish-owned works of art. The assets of the Rothschild banking family, whose members fled the country when the Nazis came, have been rushed to Germany in special trains.
GERMANY:
ALBANIA: Very heavy Italian artillery fire against the Greek positions conceals the fact that only a few limited initiatives are being made on the ground. Over the following two days, there will be artillery fire only, and no ground attacks. (Mike Yaklich)
PORTUGAL: Lisbon: the Portuguese capital has become a haven for refugees from all over Europe fleeing from Nazi persecution. Many spend weeks in miserable accommodation here waiting in terror for a passage on a ship to Australia or the Americas, as far as possible from the Third Reich. There are now so many refugees in the Atlantic port that the American Export Line, the only US shipping line with a regular European service, has stopped taking bookings until existing ones are cleared.
ERITREA: British 4th and Indian 5th divisions launch a series of attacks towards Keren. The first attacks by the 4th Division go fairly well but not all the gains can be held.
Blenheims and Wellesleys dropped 38,800 pounds of bombs on the Italian defences. (Mike Yared)(284)
CHINA: Japanese forces take Fengxin, in Kiangsi province, in a major new assault on Shanggao.
AUSTRALIA: Two transports sail from Brisbane, Queensland, with troops bound for Thursday Island off the north coast of Queensland; Port Moresby, New Guinea; and Rabaul, New Britain Island, Bismarck Archipelago.
CANADA: Tug HMCS Hodgeville assigned to St John's.
U.S.A.: Washington: Roosevelt said here tonight that there is no longer the slightest doubt that the American people have demanded a policy of all-out, unqualified aid for Britain, Greece, China and the governments of the democracies in exile.
Prussian autocracy was bad enough, the President told the White House correspondent's dinner in a key address, but "Nazism is far worse."
Mr Roosevelt spoke of the "vital bridge across the ocean, the bridge of ships" carrying good and arms to "those who are fighting the good fight."
He promised that the US will supply Britain and the
Allies "aide until victory" and that there will be an "end of
compromise with tyranny."
"Song Of The Volga Boatmen" by Glenn Miller and his Orchestra reaches Number 1 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in the U.S. This song, which debuted on the charts on 22 February 1941, was charted for 8 weeks, was Number 1 for 1 week and was ranked Number 10 for the year 1941.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Today and tomorrow, German ships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau sink or
capture 16 unescorted ships in the Newfoundland area.
Today Gneisenau captures the Norwegian tanker BIANCA (5688 tons), POLYKARB (6400 tons), the British SAN CASIMIRO (8000 tons), putting prize crews onto these vessels to sail them to Bordeaux. BIANCA and SAN CASIMIRO encounter HMS Renown and 46 British prisoners are released and the German sailors taken captive, although not before they had scuttled the tankers. (Alex Gordon)