Ernest Bevin, Minister of Labour, calls on 'The Women of Britain' to man the factories and invites 100,000 volunteers to come forward. His basic rules is that no man will do any job in the services or industry which could be done by a woman.

Next month all women aged 20 and 21 will be registered. Thousands of women will then take jobs in new munitions factories, fill positions vacated by men who will soon be de-reserved under new regulations, and provide enough labour to work continuous three-shift systems in shell-filling factories.

London: The Admiralty:

Plans are sent to the C-in-C Med. concerning the intended sailing of the SS Parracombe early in April carrying about 12 Hurricanes, a number of Harvey projectors with their ammunition and other stores direct to Malta. The SS Parracombe will be disguised as Vichy French, unescorted and manned by picked crew. It will be scuttled if captured.

Destroyer KNM Arendal (ex-HMS Badsworth) launched.

Minesweeping trawler HMS Orfsay launched.

Corvette HMS Dianthus commissioned.

GERMANY: A daily report by the SS on the mood of the German people pays attention to anti-Nazi feeling, especially spread by the church. It notes: "Even a foreign-language prophecy which admits of no ambiguity has been used in church circles, saying that the time has come for Germany to be called the most warlike nation of the world ... the most dreadful warrior will rise from her ranks to spread war throughout the world and the peoples of the world will bear weapons and call him the Antichrist."

U-218 laid down.

ADRIATIC SEA: Italian torpedo boat Andromeda is sunk off Albania by RAF bombers. 

ATLANTIC OCEAN: Two German U-boats that were attacking Halifax/UK Convoy HX112, are sunk about 380 miles (612 kilometres) southeast of Reykjavik, Iceland, in a battle with convoy escorts of the 5th EG commanded by Commander MacIntyre.

(1) U-100 (Type VIIB), commanded by Kapitänleutnant (Lieutenant Commander) Joachim Schepke who had sunk 26 ships on 14 patrols for 137,819 tons, is sighted by HMS SCIMITAR which drives U-100 under. SCIMITAR then calls up destroyers HMS WALKER and HMS VANOC. At last some of HMS VANOC's depth charges explode close to their target sending U-100 sliding, stern first to 750 feet, deeper than any U-boat had ever gone. Schepke, in fear of the pressure hull imploding, blew all ballast tanks and surfaced. At 1,000 yards the technicians manning the nonrotating Type 286M radar on HMS VANOC pick out the contact with U-100, the first verifiable British surface-ship radar contact on a U-boat. HMS VANOC rams U-100 at 0318 killing Schepke during the collision. Six of the 44-man crew survive; and

(2) U-99 (Type VIIB), commanded by Kapitänleutnant (Lieutenant Commander) Otto Kretschmer who had sunk 38 ships on 16 patrols for 244,749 tons, commences an attack at 2200 hours, sinking five ships including three tankers with one salvo of torpedoes. At 0130 MacIntyre in HMS WALKER gets a firm sonar contact with U-100. MacIntyre calls on HMS VANOC to commence depth-charge attacks on the U-boat. At length, HMS WALKER leaves to rescue merchant seamen, leaving HMS VANOC to continue the hunt.  U-99 is scuttled at 0343 hours after being depth charged by the British destroyer HMS Walker, who was surprised to find another U-boat so close to the site of the previous sinking. U-99 is forced to the surface and the crew abandon ship, although its engineer re-enters the U-boat to ensure that it would sink and is lost; 40 of the 43-man crew, including Kretschmer, survive. The loss of two U-boat aces in one night lowers the morale of the German submarine service.  Kretschmer holds the Knight's Cross with Swords. (106)

SS J.B. White, Canadian merchantman, torpedoed and sunk between Iceland and the Faeroe Islands by U-99, Kptlt Otto Kretschmer, Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords, CO. Two lives are lost from her crew of 40 men.