U.S.S.R.: Moscow: The German and Soviet armies are now sparring for advantage before they launch the major offensives they plan for spring. Encounters are reported from outside Leningrad, and there is heavy fighting for possession of Novgorod and Staraya Russa in the centre.
Most of the activity is in the south where the spring thaw is releasing the ground. The Russians have pushed the Germans back south-east of Kharkov. The Germans admitted yesterday that the Russians had penetrated their lines and compelled them to retreat.

BURMA : The Burma I Corps continues a northward withdrawal from the Allanmyo area although not under enemy pressure. In the Sittang Valley, Lieutenant General Joseph Stilwell, Commanding General American Army Forces, China, Burma and India and Chief of Staff of the Chinese Army, begins deploying the Chinese for a stand at Pyinmana. The Chinese 22d Division is to fall back gradually on Pyinmana, where the Chinese 96th Division is to take over.

Japanese bombers attack Mandalay, killing 2000 and destroying much of the city.

Six USAAF 10th Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses from Asansol Airdrome, India, bomb warehouses and docks at Rangoon starting three large fires; one B-17 fails to return.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: The Japanese open an all-out offensive against the Bataan line, which is by now under strength, undernourished, poorly clothed and equipped, and battle weary. After air and artillery bombardment, lasting from 1000 until 1500 hours, the Japanese move forward, making their main effort against Sector D, the west flank of the II Corps, where the 41st and 21st Divisions, Philippine Army (PA), are thinly spread and dazed as result of the preliminary bombardment. The 41st, on the west, gives way and is rendered virtually ineffective as a fighting force, although a regiment on extreme west succeeds in withdrawing in an orderly fashion. A battalion on the flank of the 21st Division is forced to pull back. An effort to re-establish the line of the 41st Division after dark is partially successful. The only corps reserve unit, the 33d Infantry (PA), less the 1st Battalion, is released to Sector D as is the Provisional Tank Group (-) of the Luzon Force reserve. In the I Corps sector to the west, the Japanese succeed in reaching the main line of resistance on the eastern flank but are unable to pierce it.

AUSTRALIA: The USAAF’s Air Transport Command activates two transport squadrons, one at Archerfield Aerodrome near Brisbane, Queensland, and the second at Essendon Aerodrome near Melbourne, Victoria. The squadrons are equipped with various transport aircraft.

EAST INDIES: RAAF Hudsons of Nos. 2 and 13 Squadrons operating from Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, bomb Penfui Airfield on Dutch West Timor Island. The Australians destroy four and damage two aircraft on the ground.

Light minelayers USS Pruitt (DM-22), Preble (DM-20), Sicard (DM-21), and Tracy (DM-19) mine French Frigate Shoals, Hawaiian Group, to prevent Japanese submarines from using the area as a refueling point for flying boat raids on Oahu.