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• Construction for the Alaska-Canadian Highway began by the US Army. ww2dbase [CPC]
• US Army troops relieved the US 1st Marine Brigade (Provisional) at Reykjavik, Iceland. ww2dbase [CPC]
• The first two sections of submarine Puffer was joined together. ww2dbase [Puffer | CPC]
• 200th Division of the Chinese 5th Army arrived at Taungoo, Burma to assist the British defense. ww2dbase [Invasion of Burma | CPC]
• German submarine U-701 sank British anti-submarine trawler Notts County 113 miles southwest of Iceland at 0039 hours, killing all 41 aboard. Off the Grand Banks, Newfoundland, U-587 sank British anti-submarine trawler HMS Northern Princess, killing all 38 aboard. ww2dbase [Second Happy Time | CPC]
• German battleship Tirpitz and escorting destroyers got as close as 60 miles from Allied convoy PQ-12 but poor weather prevented the Germans from realizing this fact. German destroyer Friedrich Ihn, however, did catch sight of old Russian coal-burning merchant ship Izhora (commanded by Vasily Belov), a straggler of the convoy, and promptly sank her at 1715 hours; only 1 person survived this sinking. In the evening, Admiral Otto Ciliax turned his fleet back toward its home port. ww2dbase [Arctic Convoys | CPC]

• The first batch of Kittyhawk fighters were transferred to the Royal Australian Air Force in Australia. No. 75 Squadron RAAF would be first to receive these aircraft, while No. 76 Squadron and No. 77 Squadron would be similarly equipped in the following few days. ww2dbase [P-40 Warhawk | CPC]

• At dawn, Japanese warships bombarded the invasion beaches at Lae and Salamaua on eastern New Guinea island; the few defending Australian troops of the New Guinea Volunteer Rifles fled into the jungle without putting up an opposition to the subsequent troop landing. At 1200 hours, 5 Hudson bombers attacked Japanese shipping in Huon harbor, lightly damaging transport Yokohama Maru. Later on the same day, B-17 bombers from Horn Island at the tip of Queensland, Australia attacked Japanese positions at Lae and Salamaua, damaging two hangars at the airstrip at the latter location. ww2dbase [New Guinea-Papua Campaign, Phase 2 | CPC]
• Tenryu provided cover for the landings at Lae and Salamaua, Australian New Guinea. ww2dbase [Tenryu | CPC]

• A He 111 bomber of German Luftwaffe group I./KG 100 claimed the sinking of a Soviet submarine south of Yalta, Russia. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Dutch troops at Bandoeng, Java, Dutch East Indies surrendered at the Isola Hotel in Lembang at 1000 hours between Dutch General Jacob J. Pesman and Japanese Colonel Toshishige Shoji. In the afternoon, Dutch Governor Tjarda Van Starkenborgh Stachouwer, General Hein Ter Poorten, and Major General Jacob Pesman surrendered all Dutch forces on Java to Japanese General Hitoshi Imamura. ww2dbase [Dutch East Indies Campaign, Java | Java | CPC]
• Naka departed Kragan, Java, Dutch East Indies. ww2dbase [Naka | Kragan, Java | CPC]

• The British Royal Air Force dispatched 211 bombers to attack Essen, Germany, some equipped with the new GEE navigational system. The results were less than hoped for as only a few homes and a church were destroyed, killing 29 civilians, while the industrial centers, the primary targets, were untouched. ww2dbase [Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | Essen | TH, CPC]

• Warrant Officer Nobuo Fujita, flying in a submarine-based (submarine I-25) E14Y aircraft, conducted a photographic reconnaissance mission over Wellington harbor in New Zealand. ww2dbase [Nobuo Fujita | Wellington | CPC]

• An annoyed Winston Churchill, not satisfied with Cairo's reasons for not attacking at Gazala, summoned the British C-in-C Middle East back to London, England, United Kingdom to "confer with him about the situation". ww2dbase [Claude Auchinleck | London, England | AC]

8 Mar 1942 Interactive Map