February 27th, 1943 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Corvette HMCS Long Branch (ex-HMS Candytuft) laid down Glasgow.
Frigate HMS Trent commissioned.
ENGLISH CHANNEL: ASW Trawler HMS Lord Hailsham sunk by E-boats.
GERMANY: Count Konrad von Preysing, Catholic Bishop of Berlin, has made another attack on Nazi rule. In a pastoral letter issued throughout Germany he protests against totalitarianism, the execution of hostages and the Jewish persecution.
"In the other world nobody, not even Germans, has rights or wrongs," he declared. "It is a Divine principle that the life of an innocent individual, whether an unborn child or an aged person, is sacred, and that the innocent shall not be punished with the guilty, or in place of the guilty. Neither the individual nor the community can create a law against this."
The pastoral letter was published yesterday in the Swedish weekly, Trots Allt.
Daily Herald.
Berlin: Jewish slave workers in arms factories are deported to Auschwitz.
U.S.S.R.: Black Sea Fleet and Azov Flotilla: MS "T-403 "Gruz"" - by shnellboat, close to cape Mishako and GB "Krasnaya Gruziya" - by field artillery and aviation, close to cape Mishako (Sergey Anisimov)(69)
German troops regain Lozovaya.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Submarine HMS Tigris is located and depth charged by German A/S vessel UJ2210, 6 miles SE of Capri. There are no survivors. (Alex Gordon)(108)
U.S.A.:
ATLANTIC OCEAN: SS St Margaret sunk by U-66 at 27.38N, 43.23W.
Motor tanker Seminole in Convoy TE-16 damaged by U-565 at 35.33N, 02.33W.
Submarine tender HNLMS Colombia was inbound to Simonstown to dock, escorted by HMS Genista and several RAF aircraft. At 1141, U-516 fired a spread of three torpedoes from a distance of 1500 meters on a ship near Simonstown, which was identified as a passenger-cargo ship of the Blue Star Line of 10.000 tons. Four minutes later, one torpedo struck the Colombia at #2 hold, just before the bridge and a large column of water arose beside the ship, while the deckplanks were thrown in all directions. All hands immediately abandoned ship, apparently without any casualties and the ship sank after ten minutes. A headcount showed that eight men were missing. Almost 60 survivors in one whaleboat were picked up by a RAF air-sea-rescue launch. The corvette initially launched a counter-attack, but she returned soon and picked up the remaining survivors.