World war II chronology - March 1944

1 March 1944	A joint British-American-Canadian board overseeing the Habbakuk ice ship project is dissolved.
3 March 1944	Adolf Hitler orders the Channel Islands converted into fortresses.
4 March 1944	The United States air force makes its first attack on Berlin. German forces in Italy give up counterattacks on the Anzio front.
5 March 1944	Allies begin an aerial invasion of Burma, with gliders carrying the British/Indian "Chindits" force to Landing Zone Broadway.
6 March 1944	General Truscott of the US 6th Corps at Anzio, Italy, launches a major offensive on German forces. In the Atlantic ocean, several Royal Canadian Navy and British Royal Navy ships sink German submarine U-744. In the south Pacific, the US 5th Marine Division lands on Willaumez Peninsula of New Britain. 800 American aircraft bomb Berlin. US bombers begin daylight raids on Germany. 267 British bombers attack the railway centre at Trappes, south-west of Paris. Enormous damage is inflicted, with no loss of planes. This is the first attack of the Allied Transportation Plan, to disrupt German reinforcement routes prior to an amphibious landing.
7 March 1944	British bombers attack railway targets in Le Mans, France. Enormous damage is inflicted, with no loss of planes.
8 March 1944	Adolf Hitler issues Führer Order 11, defining two classes of fortresses on the Eastern front. Fortified Areas are to hold down enemy forces, and counter-attack. Local String-points are to defend against enemy penetrations past Fortified Areas.
10 March 1944	In the North Atlantic, while escorting convoy SC-154, Royal Canadian Navy ships HMCS St. Laurent and HMCS Swansea and a British Royal Navy destroyer surface and sink German submarine U-845.
13 March 1944	In the North Atlantic, several Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Navy, and United States Navy ships and planes sink German submarine U-575. British bombers attack railway targets in Le Mans, France.
15 March 1944	Allies launch another attack on Cassino. Over eight hours, 1000 tons of bombs are dropped, and 190,000 shells are fired on the town. By nightfall, two-thirds of the town is in Allied hands. Japanese forces in Burma cross Chindwin, attacking Imphal. At the town of Kohima on a 5000-foot ridge, about 3000 British, Indian, and Nepalese soldiers are besieged by a Japanese division. (They are able to hold the position for almost four months.) British bombers attack railway targets in Amiens, France. Much damage is inflicted.   The USSR issues four postage stamps honoring defenders of Stalingrad, Leningrad, Odessa, and Sevastopol.
16 March 1944	British bombers attack railway targets in Amiens, France. Much damage is inflicted.
19 March 1944	German troops enter Budapest, Hungary.
20 March 1944	Canadian Lieutenant-General Harry Crerar leaves Canadian 1st Corps in Italy to lead the Canadian 1st Army in England. He is replaced by Lieutenant-General E. Burns. In the south Pacific, the US 4th Marine Division lands on Emirau in the St. Matthias Islands. Operation Anvil is cancelled. The plan was for a landing in south France simultaneously with the landing in north France. Adolf Hitler tells his principal commanders in the West that keeping the Allies from a successful landing would decide the war.
22 March 1944	Germans install their own government in Hungary. In the Atlantic ocean, south-west of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, German submarine U-802 torpedoes and sinks Canadian merchant ship Watuka.
23 March 1944	American forces at Anzio, Italy, finally break out of the bridgehead. In Italy, British General Harold Alexander halts the Monte Cassino operation due to weather and strong resistance.
24 March 1944	The Zionist Relief and Rescue Committee proposes to Dieter Wisliceng, an aide of Adolf Eichmann, a US$2 million ransom with US$200,000 downpayment to guarantee that Hungarian Jews would not be deported or forced into ghettos. The plane of Major General Orde Wingate crashes into a hillside near Imphal, killing him. 811 British bombers attack Berlin, Germany. 72 planes are shot down, killing 392 crew members, and leaving 131 as prisoners. This is the final British air assault of the Battle of Berlin. Since August 1943, Bomber Command had flown over 10,000 sorties and dropped over 30,000 tons of bombs, making it the longest and most sustained bombing offensive against a single target in the war. (The British official history of the Battle of Berlin declares it an operational defeat for Britain.) The SS unit of Captain Erich Priebke rounds up 335 Italians, and machine-guns them in the Ardentine caves on the outskirts of Rome. The massacre is in reprisal for the killing of 33 German soldiers two days earlier by Italian resistance fighters.
26 March 1944	705 British bombers attack Essen, Germany, with good results. Nine planes are shot down. British bombers attack railway targets in Courtrai, France.
30 March 1944	Adolf Hitler removes Erich von Manstein from command of Southern Army Group, on the eastern front. British Bomber Command sends 795 aircraft to bomb Nuremberg, Germany. The attack is ineffective, inflicting little damage. During their flight, about 200 German fighter planes shoot down 95 bombers. 540 crew are killed, 25 wounded, and 148 taken prisoner. (This is the highest single air raid loss in history.)