March 2nd, 1944 (THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: London: The British government called the Home Guard to defend its parliamentary majority tonight. MPs rostered for duty in uniform as the city's last line of defence was summoned to bolster the vote on the touchy issue of service pay. During a debate promoted by the Independent MP for Grantham, Mr Kendall, a call for pay increases was defeated by only 23 votes, a dramatic fall from the usual majority of 580 enjoyed by a national coalition government. The war cabinet is to review service pay despite inflation.
FRANCE: Paris: Rameau's opera buffa Platée is performed in the Salle du Conservatoire. Paris's artistic establishment is there in force: Jean Paulhan, Professor Mondor, Jean Marais and Jean Cocteau "in the first row of the circle, posing without intending to pose," and Marcel Arland, with whom he could walk home discussing the bad influence of American fiction on Sartre. This soirée happened to be at the moment when convoy number 69 was being prepared at Drancy, consisting of 1,501 people, of whom 178 were under 18; all but 20 of the total were to be exterminated at Auschwitz.GERMANY: U-234, U-323, U-1013, U-1205 commissioned.
U.S.S.R.: Soviet submarine Shch-216 of the Black Sea Fleet is sunk off Cape Tarkhankutskiy by a German submarine. (Mike Yared)(146 and 147)
ITALY: Salerno: Over 400 people who boarded a freight train in the absence of any other transport die of carbon monoxide poisoning when the train stops in a tunnel.
Anzio: The rain stopped today, and bombers roamed the blue skies blasting the Germans who have attacked the Anzio garrison day and night since 28 February. Yesterday the Germans, hampered by driving rain, gave up the ground that they had won, and today the US 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion was relieved by the 30th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Infantry Division. Despite Hitler's fury, Kesselring has called off the offensive.
TURKEY: Lend Lease Aid is cut off, due to their reluctance to join the Allies.
BURMA: Air Commando Combat Mission N0.14 3:35 Flight time. From Hailakandi to Pintha, Burma. We destroyed several engines with .75 mm and .50 machine gun fire. Severe damage done to rolling stock but because the Japanese always move their supplies at night, the cars are empty. Colonel Smith placed a .75 mm armor piercing shell into the boiler of one engine and the steam squirted up to to a height of 200 feet. I managed to get some nice bursts from the upper turret and had the satisfaction of seeing my incendiary bullets explode on an engine. Note: It is easy to fire from the top turret when the pilot makes a climbing turn. (Chuck Baisden)
BORNEO: Capt. Lionel Colin Matthews (b.1912), Australian Military Forces, was executed. The Japanese had interrogated and tortured him for two years in an utterly vain attempt to discover signals secrets. (George Cross)
U.S.A.: The 1943 Academy Awards are presented at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, California. "Casablanca" wins three Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director (Michael Curtiz); "The Song of Bernadette" takes four awards including Best Actress (Jennifer Jones); Best Actor is Paul Lukas for "Watch on the Rhine;" Best Supporting Actor is Charles Coburn for "The More the Merrier;" and Best Supporting Actress is Greek actress Katina Paxinou in "For Whom the Bell Tolls."
The documentary "With the Marines at Tarawa" is released. Directed by Louis Hayward, this 18-minute short shows the battle for Tarawa Atoll.
Submarine USS Chopper laid down.
Escort carrier USS Saginaw Bay commissioned.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 0259, U-744 attacked the combined Convoy MKS-40/SL-149 and reported three LSTs sunk. In fact, HMS LST-362 was sunk and HMS LST-324 was damaged.
The frigates of the Royal Navy's First Escort Group brought the longest continuous U-boat hunt to a successful conclusion, destroying U-358, but losing HMS Gould. The hunt started on 29 February, and HM Ships Affleck, Gould, Gore and Garlies dropped some 104 depth charges over the following two days. Gore and Garlies had to withdraw to Gibraltar for fuel, but Affleck and Gould continued the attack. U-358 succeeded in torpedoing Gould, but was then forced to the surface and finished off by Affleck's gunfire.