World War II Database

• Home
• » Events
• » WW2 Timeline
• » 2 Mar 1941

• German submarines U-552, U-95, and U-147 attacked Allied convoy HX-109 170 miles northwest of Outer Hebrides, Scotland, United Kingdom since the previous day. Near the end of the day at 2212 hours, U-147 sank 4,811-ton Norwegian merchant steamer Augvald. Augvald was carrying 7,000 tons of steel, scrap iron and tractors bound for Kingston upon Hull in Britain from Halifax in Canada and due to bad weather had straggled from the convoy HX-109. U-147 fired a single G7a torpedo and hit the Augvald at the forward hold. The heavily laden ship sank within a minute. Some survivors climbed onto wreckage and the Germans tried to question them but failed to understand them so sailed off. The master, Rolf Svensen and 28 crewmen died, including the 2 English mess boys, Stanley Scargill, aged 14, and Micheal Gouldon, aged 15. Able Seaman Rasmus Kolstø survived for 11 days alone on a raft before being seen by a Sunderland flying boat that brought the corvette HMS Pimpernel to pick him up. He was taken to hospital in Greenock where he had to have one of his toes amputated due to frostbite. The medical officer on board the Pimpernel reported that Kolstø was very near death whenthey got to him, he had only some moudy biscuits and fouled water left in the raft and had wrapped himself in a sail and fixed a canvas screen to protect himself to a certain degree. ww2dbase [CPC, HM]

• British 11th African Division began marching from Mogadishu, Italian Somaliland toward Jijiga, Ethiopia in pursuit of retreating Italian forces. ww2dbase [Invasion of Italian East Africa | Mogadishu | CPC]

• German Twelfth Army moved from Romania into Bulgaria the day after Bulgaria joined the Axis alliance. ww2dbase [Balkans Campaign | TH]

• The RAF conducted a heavy bombing raid on Köln (Cologne), Germany. ww2dbase [Köln, Köln-Aachen | TH]

• At Kufra, Libya, Free French Major Philippe Leclerc pledged not to lay down his weapons until the French flag once again flew over the cathedral at Strasbourg, France. ww2dbase [Battle of Kufra | Philippe Leclerc | Kufra | CPC]

• The United Kingdom severed diplomatic relations with Bulgaria. ww2dbase [London, England | TH]

2 Mar 1941 Interactive Map