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• Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru arrived at Palau. ww2dbase [Hikawa Maru | CPC]
• After emergency repairs, USS Perch attempted to make a test dive, but it failed without almost disastrous results. As repairs continued, she was discovered by two Japanese cruisers and three Japanese destroyers. Commanding officer David A. Hurt gave the abandon ship order, sinking the ship and giving up himself and his crew, totaling 59 men, to the Japanese. ww2dbase [Perch (Porpoise-class) | CPC]
• Unsubstantiated reports were made, mentioning the shelling of Mona island near Puerto Rico by a submarine. ww2dbase [Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico Campaigns | CPC]
• Allied leaders approved the division of Western Pacific into two zones, with Burma and all Southeast Asia west of Java-Sumatra border under the command of British General Archibald Wavell, and areas to the east under the command of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. ww2dbase [CPC]
• The Atlantic Amphibious Force, commanded by USMC Major General Holland Smith, received its final redesignation as Amphibious Corps, Atlantic Fleet. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Japanese destroyers Arashi and Nowaki sank US gunboat USS Asheville south of Java, Dutch East Indies, killing all 170 aboard. ww2dbase [CPC]
• German submarine U-129 sank US transport Mary 165 miles north of Dutch Suriname in the Atlantic Ocean at 1705 hours; 1 was killed, 33 survived. On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, German submarine U-68 sank British ship Helenus 86 miles west of Monrovia, Liberia at 1721 hours; 6 were killed, 76 survived. ww2dbase [Second Happy Time | CPC]
• Soviet transport Kiev fell out of Allied convoy PQ-12 in poor weather. ww2dbase [Arctic Convoys | CPC]
• Léon Degrelle was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class. ww2dbase [Léon Degrelle | CPC]
• Kamoi refueled auxiliary minesweepers Tama Maru and Tama Maru No. 2 with heavy oil in the morning. ww2dbase [Kamoi | CPC]
• USS S-38 was ordered to sail to western Australia. ww2dbase [S-38 | CPC]

• In Western Australia, Australia, 9 Japanese Zero fighters from Koepang, Timor, Dutch East Indies attacked the flying boat anchorage at Roebuck Bay (destroying 15 flying boats) and the airfield at Broome (destroying 5 bombers and 2 transport aircraft; one of the transports shot down at Broome, a DC-3 airliner carrying evacuees from Java, Dutch East Indies, crashed into the jungle 50 miles north of the city, destroying its cargo of £150,000-£300,000 worth of diamonds. Only 1 Japanese Zero fighter was lost during the attack. ww2dbase [CPC]

• At Rabaul, New Britain, the Japanese South Seas Force began embarking transports Yokohama Maru and China Maru, while the Maizaru 2nd Special Naval Landing Force began embarking transports Kongo Maru, Tenyo Maru, and Kokai Maru for the invasion of Lae and Salamaua in the Australian Territory of New Guinea. ww2dbase [New Guinea-Papua Campaign, Phase 2 | Rabaul, New Britain | CPC]

• Joseph Stilwell met with Chiang Kaishek in Lashio, Burma. At the conclusion of the meeting Stilwell officially assumed the title of Chief of Staff to the Supreme Commander of the China Theater and Commanding General of US Army Forces in the China Theater of Operation, Burma, and India. ww2dbase [Joseph Stilwell | Chiang Kaishek | Lashio | CPC]
• Japanese troops forced Indian 17th Infantry Division out of Payagyi, Burma. ww2dbase [Invasion of Burma | Payagyi | CPC]

• Australian troops continued to hold against Japanese attacks at Leuwiliang west of Batavia, Java, Dutch East Indies. In eastern Java, Japanese captured Bojonegoro. ww2dbase [Dutch East Indies Campaign, Java | Java | CPC]
• Nachi arrived at Kendari, Celebes, Dutch East Indies. She departed for Makassar, Celebes later on the same day. ww2dbase [Nachi | Kendari, Celebes | CPC]

• RAF bombed the Renault plant in Billancourt, near Paris, France, while the Lancaster bomber made its debut mining the harbor at Brest, France. ww2dbase [Lancaster | Brest, Bretagne | TH]
• A German report noted that over 5,000 arrests and more than 250 executions were conducted in Vichy France in 1941. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Two Japanese flying boats from the Marshall Islands, refueled by submarines, attacked the US Territory of Hawaii. The intended target was Pearl Harbor, but during this cloudy night one aircraft dropped its four bombs on Mount Tantalus 6 miles away, while the other aircraft dropped its four bombs in the water. ww2dbase [Honolulu, Oahu | TH]

• USS Grayback fired a torpedo at a Japanese transport in the Philippine Sea off Tinian, Mariana Islands; the torpedo missed. ww2dbase [Grayback | Philippine Sea | CPC]

• USS Moffet landed survivors of Norwegian motor taker Charles Racine, sunk by Italian submarine Giuseppe Finzi on 10 Mar 1942, at San Juan, Puerto Rico. ww2dbase [San Juan | HM]

3 Mar 1942 Interactive Map