March 23rd, 1941 (SUNDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: RAF Bomber Command: 2 Group: 82 Sqn. attack five ships off the Ems Estuary and claim a destroyer damaged.MALTA: Luftwaffe Ju 87 Stuka dive-bombers, with a fighter escort, conduct a raid on Malta. A total of 13 German planes are shot down while the British lose two fighters. British authorities decide to withdraw all bombers and flying boats from Malta as a result of the raid. (Jack McKillop
YUGOSLAVIA: Belgrade: Anti-Nazi demonstrations sweep Yugoslavia as Hitler presses the government to join the Axis.
The German Minister in Belgrade is summoned by the Prince Regent to be told that the Germans had now imposed a deadline after which the special terms for joining the Axis would be withdrawn. The Prince Regent maintained that Yugoslavia would fight to the last.
GREECE: Athens: The Athens news agency Athinaiko Praktoreio reports:
A Greek government spokesman says that the Italians have carried out three days of armoured attacks on the central front, but that lethal Greek artillery fire has forced them to retreat.
ALBANIA: after dark an Italian night attack on the Bubesi front twice manages to break into the Greek positions, but both times the Italians are driven out with grenades and bayonets in fierce Greek counterattacks. This will be the last significant episode of the failed Italian "spring offensive." Never in the two weeks of fighting was the Greek line in serious danger of being broken. In future days Cavallero, the Italian Chief of the General Staff and principal author of the abortive attacks, will attempt to portray this dismal failure as having saved Italian honour. But despite the terrible losses endured by the long-suffering Italian soldiers, the whole sorry affair will only serve to heighten impressions of Italian military ineptitude, and to make obvious their inability to defeat the Greeks without German help. (Mike Yaklich)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Armed trawler HMS Visenda sinks German submarine U-551 about 93 miles southeast of the south coast of Iceland by depth charges. All 45 crewmen on the submarine are lost.
U.S.A.: The United Press Agency reports:
Lord Forbes, the national export union president, declared that Brazilian scientists have succeeded in finding a new use for their coffee surpluses. After extensive experimentation it is now possible to produce a substance called "cafelite" from coffee. Lord Forbes said that it is highly durable and possesses extraordinary physical properties. In fact the substance is of such high quality that it can be used to manufacture airplane parts, if not even in the construction of entire planes. (16)