March 7th, 1943 (SUNDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: London: The latest National Savings campaign "Wings for Victory", was launched this weekend with a target of £150 million for building bombers. By last night £30 million had already been collected.
A Stirling bomber stands in front of St Paul's and a Lancaster in front of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. Huge crowds have been attracted; they are urged to buy savings stamps to stick on to 500-pound bombs. The Lord Mayor of London launched 1,300 pigeons to carry messages to savings groups everywhere.
Destroyer HMCS Assiniboine arrived Liverpool for refit.
U.S.S.R.: Panzer units attack Soviet-held Krasnograd.
Josif Stalin becomes a Marshal of the Soviet Union. This event marks Stalin's growing confidence on the ability of the Red Army to beat Germany, and he obviously wants to identify with the glory the Army is winning. From this day on Stalin, who previously has not used any uniforms, is often seen in public in the Marshal's uniform.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: CICLONE, Italian Torpedo-Boat, 1pm Mined 70 miles north-east of Bizerta while rescuing survivors from a merchant ship mined in the same field. Taken in tow by the Groppo but sank in heavy seas on the 8th, 15 men lost. (James Paterson)
NORTH AFRICA: General George Patton takes command of the US II Corps. (Keith Allen)
PACIFIC OCEAN: Submarine USS Grampus lost under mysterious circumstances, possibly to 2 Japanese destroyers on this date. Sister sub Grayback reported seeing her in the area two days earlier nd the two Japanese destroyers were lost with their logs two days later.
U.S.A.:
Destroyer escort USS JRY Blakely launched.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 1227, the unescorted MS Jamaica was torpedoed nd sunk by U-221. The ship broke in two nd sank within two minutes. The survivors launched four lifeboats, but two had been damaged nd could not be used. The motor lifeboat was sucked down as the ship sank nd came up capsized. This boat was straightened, bailed and later held 13 survivors, while four other survivors were in the gig. The U-boat questioned the survivors and accidentally rammed a lifeboat, throwing the occupants into the sea. The third engineer was picked up by the U-boat nd was allowed to swim to the other boat, which picked up the remaining occupants swimming in the sea. On 9 March, the survivors in the lifeboat were spotted by a B-17 Fortress aircraft, which dropped first aid articles for them, but they were not rescued until 18 March, when they were picked up by corvette HMS Borage. The corvette altered course to rendezvous with another corvette that had a doctor onboard nd three of the survivors who were severely injured were transferred to her, to be taken to Gibraltar as quickly as possible. Borage first escorted a convoy to England and then landed the remaining survivors at Plymouth on 26 March, arriving at London the next day. The four men in the gig reached the Isle of Barra on 29 March, they later reached London on 6 April.
At 0210, U-230 attacked Convoy SC-121 SSE of Cape Farewell nd torpedoed SS Egyptian. Siegmann thought that his victim sank nd attacked the convoy again at 0925. He claimed the sinking of another ship of 5000 tons in the former position of the Egyptian, but it seems that both attacks were carried out on the same ship. The Empire Impala was ordered to pick up the survivors, dropped behind the convoy and was sunk with all hands by U-591 at 0906 hours. The master, 36 crewmembers nd nine gunners from Egyptian were lost. Three crewmembers were picked up by corvette HMCS Rosthern nd landed at Londonderry.
SS Sabor sunk by U-506 at 34.30S, 23.10E.
At 1820, U-638 attacked a straggler from Convoy ON-168 SW of Cape Farewell nd Bernbeck thought that he had missed, but SS Empire Light was damaged nd abandoned. 39 crewmembers and six gunners were lost. The master, three crewmembers and one gunner were picked up by destroyer HMS Beverley nd landed at St John's. At 2212 on 12 March U-468 sank the abandoned Empire Light by two coup de grāce.