March 14th, 1943 (SUNDAY)
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: The British
submarine HMS THUNDERBOLT
the salvaged HMS
Thetis of June 1939 fame) is located and depth charged by the Italian destroyer
Cicogna off Cap San Vito, Sicily. There are 62 casualties, none of the crew
surviving this sinking. Thunderbolt was discovered again 9 November 1995 covered
in fishing nets and wires, with a large hole on the port side forward of the
conning tower. Her identification was confirmed by a bronze tally on the 4 inch
gun which read “Thetis No. 1027” (1027 being Cammell Laird’s yard number
for Thetis). (Alex Gordon)(108)
Submarine HMS
Turbulent is lost with all hands (62 casualties). She may have been mined or the
victim of a depth charge attack by a Ju.88 and the Italian destroyer Ardito in
the Bay of Naples on 6 March, or mined somewhere along the East coast of
Sardinia. (Alex Gordon)(108)
NEW GUINEA: Australian and US troops attack Japanese positions, forcing a slow retreat.
U.S.A.: The motion picture "The Moon is Down" premieres in New York City. Directed by Irving Pichel and starring Cedric Hardwicke and Lee J. Cobb and based on the John Steinbeck novel, the film is about the relationship between the mayor of a Norwegian town and the commander of the German forces occupying the town.
Destroyer escort USS Fiske launched.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: A 6 day series of battles begins. Convoy HX-229 and SC-122 are attacked by a large wolfpack of 20 German U-Boats. Through B Dienst, the Germans have enough intelligence to find the convoys and sink 21 ships.
A total of 40 U-Boats were assembled for an attack on the convoy presumed to be SC 122. First contact was made in the morning of 16 March by the "Raubgraf" group, and during that day and the following night, 8 U-Boats made contact and claimed 14 ships sunk, and 6 damaged.
On the night of 16 March, a second convoy was reported 120 miles ahead of the first, this second being identified as an SC ( in fact, SC122) and it was at this point it was realised that the first convoy already under attack was actually an HX (HX229).
Almost half of the U-Boats participating in this: "The Biggest Convoy Operation of the War- Against HX 229 and SC 122" as it is titled in the German Naval History, scored results, and only one U-Boat was lost. The German claim was for 32 ships sunk totalling 136 000 tons, comparing with the British record of only 21 ships but aggregating 141 000 tons, plus the A/S trawler "Campo Bello".
The British Admiralty Monthly A/S report: "The Germans never came so near to disrupting communication between the New World and the Old as in the first twenty days of March 1943."
(Alex Gordon)
Canadian-owned, British-registered CPR passenger liner SS Duchess of York heavily damaged off Cape Finisterre when she was bombed by Luftwaffe aircraft. She was sunk later in 1943 in another air attack in the same general area.