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• German submarine U-158 sank US tanker John D. Gill off North Carolina, United States, killing 4. To the south, in the Bahamas, U-126 sank US freighters Texan at 0234 hours (9 were killed, 38 survived) and Olga at 0611 hours (1 was killed, 32 survived) and damaged US freighter Colabee. 520 miles northeast of the British Virgin Islands, Italian submarine Morosini sank British freighter Manaqui. ww2dbase [Second Happy Time | CPC]
• British authorities evacuated the Andaman Islands. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Tirpitz arrived at Trondheim, Norway. ww2dbase [Tirpitz | CPC]
• US Army Lieutenant General Joseph Stilwell was named the commander of American forces in the CBI theater. ww2dbase [Joseph Stilwell | CPC]
• Tatsuta Maru departed Wake Island. ww2dbase [Tatsuta Maru | CPC]
• USS Pollack attacked a Japanese cargo ship between Taiwan and the Japanese home islands with one torpedo; the torpedo missed. ww2dbase [Pollack | CPC]
• Captain Henry Goodwin led a flight of 4 B-17 Flying Fortress bombers from Batchelor Field, Darwin, Australia to Mindanao, Philippine Islands to embark Douglas MacArthur. 3 aircraft would be turned back due to mechanical troubles (1 of these 3 would crash on the return trip). The lone aircraft that made it (1st Lieutenant Harl Pease, Jr.) was judged to be in too poor of shape to embark MacArthur, and was sent back to Australia by Brigadier General William Sharp. ww2dbase [CPC]

• The survivors of Norwegian motor taker Charles Racine, sunk by Italian submarine Giuseppe Finzi two days prior, were picked up by USS Moffet. Moffet remained in the area all day in search of a final lifeboat before giving up. ww2dbase [HM]
• At 1536 hours German submarine U-578 fired a spread of two torpedoes at unescorted 3,089-ton Norwegian steam merchant Ingerto (Master Olaf Ellingsen) in the Atlantic Ocean; one of them struck after 1 minute 11 seconds, causing the ship to sink quickly. ww2dbase [Second Happy Time | HM]
• Torpedo boats Jaguar and Seeadler began escorting merchant raider Michel as the raider attacked British shipping in the English Channel. ww2dbase [Seeadler | Jaguar | English Channel | CPC]
• Morosini fired two stern torpedoes at British freighter Manaqui, which she had been persuing since before midnight on the previous day, in the Atlantic Ocean at 0138 hours, scoring one hit. Manaqui sank at 0143 hours. All 44 crew members and 6 gunners were lost. ww2dbase [Morosini | Second Happy Time | CPC]

• On Sumatra, Dutch East Indies, Japanese troops landed at Sabang at 0235 hours, Koetaradja at 0330 hours, Idi at 0540, and Laboehanroekoe at 0700 hours. They would capture the airfield at Medan in the morning. ww2dbase [Dutch East Indies Campaign, Sumatra | CPC]
• British General Sitwell, Australian Brigadier Blackburn, and US Colonel Searle formally surrendered to Japanese General Maruyama at Bandung, Java, Dutch East Indies at 0730 hours. ww2dbase [Dutch East Indies Campaign, Java | Bandung, Java | CPC]
• Naka arrived at Makassar, Celebes, Dutch East Indies. ww2dbase [Naka | Makassar, Celebes | CPC]
• Japanese cruisers Kumano, Chokai, and cruiser division 7 cover the landings at Sabang in Operation T - The Invasion of Northern Sumatra ww2dbase [Chokai | Kumano | Dutch East Indies Campaign, Sumatra | Sabang | DS]

• HMS Turbulent (Commander John Wallace Linton) sank the Greek caique Agia Paraskevi with gunfire north of the Zea Channel, southeast of Athens, Greece. Two of the crew were wounded. ww2dbase [Zea Channel | HM]

• Troops of US Americal Division occupied French colony of New Caledonia in the South Pacific, where a major base at Nouméa was planned to be built in the near future. ww2dbase [CPC]
• USS Honolulu arrived at Nouméa, New Caledonia. ww2dbase [Honolulu | Nouméa | DS]

• Jonathan Wainwright took over command in the Philippine Islands. ww2dbase [Jonathan Wainwright | Corregidor, Cavite | AC]

• Allied convoy PQ-12 arrived at Murmansk, Russia. ww2dbase [Arctic Convoys | Murmansk | CPC]

• The 2,291-ton British passenger vessel St. Briac, built in 1924 by William Denny & Brothers, Dumbarton, for the Southern Railway Co, London and taken into Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm service in Jun 1941 as a target ship, struck a mine and sank off Aberdeen on the east coast of Scotland, United Kingdom. Four crewmen on board were lost. ww2dbase [Second Happy Time | Aberdeen, Scotland | HM]

• In the United States, The Portland Branch of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank Evacuee Property Department was established in response to President Franklin Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066. The branch was to assist Japanese-Americans in disposing property holdings and to protect against fraud, forced sales, and unscrupulous creditors. ww2dbase [Internment of Japanese-Americans and Japanese-Canadians | Portland, Oregon | CPC]
• In the morning, a US Coast Guard dispatch boat landed the 7 survivors of US steam merchant Caribsea, which had been sunk by German submarine U-158 on the previous day, at Little Creek Coast Guard Station in Virginia Beach, Virgina, United States, from where three injured survivors were taken to the Marine Hospital in nearby city of Norfolk. ww2dbase [Virginia Beach, Virginia | HM]
• The 11,641-ton American steam merchant ship John D. Gill was on its second voyage, travelling on route from Atreco, Texas, United States to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States with 141,981 barrels of crude oil. At 2110 hours, just off the coast of North Carolina, United States, a torpedo from German submarine U-158 struck the starboard side. The tanker did not explode or ignite until a life ring with a self-igniting carbide lamp was thrown overboard by a crew member. The ship was immediately engulfed in flames. Explosions wrecked all but No. 2 and No. 4 lifeboats. The No. 2 boat was successfully launched with 15 crew members who were later picked up by the SS Robert H. Colley and taken to Charleston, South Carolina, United States. The No. 4 boat capsized while being lowered and its occupants were dumped into the sea. Many were lost when sucked into the still turning propeller. Of the ships complement of 42 crew and 7 naval armed guard, 23 were killed. ww2dbase [Second Happy Time | Kure Beach, North Carolina | HM]
• Japanese submarine I-17 departed the US coast for Yokosuka, Japan. ww2dbase [Japanese Attacks on the Continental United States | DS]

12 Mar 1942 Interactive Map