March 16th, 1943 (TUESDAY)
GERMANY: U-1168 laid down.
U.S.S.R.: Moscow: Stalin demands a second front, accusing Churchill and Roosevelt of treachery by failing to open one in Europe.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: At 2048, U-172 fired a spread of four torpedoes at Convoy UGS-6 and heard a detonations after 2 minutes 50 seconds, 3 minutes 10 seconds and two after 3 minutes 20 seconds. At 20.50 hours, a stern spread was fired and two hits were observed after 56 seconds and 58 seconds, both torpedoes probably hit SS Benjamin Harrison in station #73. The other detonations must have been depth charges dropped by the American escorts. Benjamin Harrison was hit by two torpedoes on the starboard side in the #5 hold, began to settle slowly and appeared to be in no great danger of sinking quickly. The master did not order the eight officers, 35 men, 27 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in, one 3in and four 20mm guns) and one passenger to abandon ship. Some men shouted this order, creating a great confusion and they began leaving the ship in a chaotic manner. The explosion had damaged one of the lifeboats and in their haste two others were improperly launched, causing the occupants to fall into the sea. Only one boat was launched effectively with 16 men clung to the full boat and 15 had to swim with their life preservers until they were picked up by the Panamanian motor merchant Alan-A-Dale and were landed at Oran, Algeria on 24 March. Three other survivors were picked up by destroyer USS Rowan, which sank the wreck with gunfire at 2130 about 150 miles ENE of Terceira, Azores and were landed at Casablanca. Two officers and one armed guard died in this sinking.
About 1120, U-77 fired torpedoes at Convoy ET-14 NW of Oran and hit the Hadleigh and Merchant Prince. Two crewmembers from the Hadleigh were lost. The master, 41 crewmembers and eight gunners abandoned the vessel and were picked up by HMS Tynedale. The next day, the vessel was towed to Oran by tug HMS Restive, then to Mers el Kebir, where she was beached and later declared a total loss after the vessel broke in two. Merchant Prince was first abandoned, but reboarded the next day and towed to Oran where the ship was beached. On 8 April, the ship was refloated and continued to the UK after temporary repairs were made at Oran, she arrived in Glasgow on 2 August for permanent repairs.
TUNISIA: U.S. II Corps troops enter Gafsa after the Germans abandon it. (Jeff Chrisman)
CANADA:
Destroyer HMCS Griffin (ex-HMS Griffin) commissioned.
U.S.A.:
Destroyer USS Wadsworth commissioned.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: A U-boat pack savages convoy HX-229, sinking eight merchant ships.
Corvette HMS Godetia rescued the crew of minesweeping trawler HMS Campobello after this ship hit an iceberg the day before and as a result of the collision she had a leak in her boiler room. HMS Campobello was beyond salvage and her crew (35 men) was taken off. Godetia finally sank Campobello with shallow set depth charges.
At 2300, U-603 fired three FAT and one G7e torpedoes at Convoy HX-229 and heard one certain and one possible detonation. The only ship hit was the Elin K, which was hit by one torpedo and sank. All crewmembers abandoned ship in the lifeboats and were picked up by corvette HMS Pennywort.