March 9th, 1944 (THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Submarine HMS Visigoth commissioned.
GERMANY: U-826, U-827, U-1055 launched.
INDIAN OCEAN: At 0800, U-183 torpedoed storage tanker British Loyalty, which was anchored off the southwest entrance to Addu Atoll. She caught fire and sank to the bottom. The ship was later salved and again used as hulk until she was scuttled on 15 Jan 1946 in position 00.38´12S/73.07´24E.
BURMA: Indaw: Operation Thursday, one of the most spectacular operations of the war in Burma, was launched when Brigadier Wingate's Chindits struck again some 200 miles behind the Japanese front lines. At dusk on 5 March, 9,000 members of two brigades began flying into an area known as "Broadway" in gliders. A third brigade is marching into enemy territory, but stores, mules and equipment have been flown in.
"Broadway" is 50 miles northeast of Indaw, and Wingate's task is to sever the arteries of supply to the enemy forces opposing General Stilwell's march towards Myitkyina from the north and the advance of the Chinese troops from Yunnan.
The expedition was nearly cancelled when aerial photographs showed logs laid by the Japanese obstructing the ground at "Piccadilly" - 20 miles south of "Broadway" - where gliders crashed on landing, killing 31 crewmen. But landings at "Broadway" went ahead, and in 12 hours engineers had prepared an airstrip. The next night 55 DC-3 Dakota transports landed. The operation is to be supplied by air, and casualties are to be flown out by No. 1 Air Commando of the USAAF.
ADMIRALTY ISLANDS: US aircraft begin operations from Momote Airfield.
CANADA: Frigate HMCS New Waterford arrived Halifax from Esquimalt, British Columbia.
U.S.A.: Light cruiser USS Springfield launched.
Minesweeper USS Ptarmigan laid down.
Destroyer escort USS Dufilho launched.
Minesweeper USS Palisade commissioned.
Escort carrier USS Sargent Bay commissioned.
Submarine USS Spadefish commissioned.
Destroyer USS Wedderburn commissioned.
Destroyer escort USS Richard M Rowell commissioned.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Flower class corvette HMS Asphodel is torpedoed and sunk by U-575 (Oberleutnant zur See Rudolf Boehme) WNW of Cape Finisterre at 45 24N 18 09W. There are 92 casualties, but only 5 survivors. (Alex Gordon)(108)
USCG-manned destroyer escort USS Leopold, on her second voyage and escorting Convoy CU-16, when she got an acoustic contact about 400 miles south of Iceland and turned to investigate it. But before the destroyer escort reached the U-boat, she was hit at 2200 by a Gnat from U-255 and abandoned. The vessel remained afloat but sank early the next morning. Only 28 survivors were picked up by sister ship USS Joyce.