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• Troops of Japanese 18th Infantry Division landed at Port Blair, Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean. The garrison of 300 Sikh militia and 23 British officers did not oppose the invasion. ww2dbase [Fall of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands | TH, CPC]
• American blimp mis-identified and bombed American submarine USS Gato off San Francisco Bay, California, United States. ww2dbase [Gato | CPC]
• Hitler ordered a build up of defenses in coastal areas. ww2dbase [CPC]
• German submarine U-124 sank US tanker Naeco 65 miles southeast of Cape Fear, North Carolina, United States at 1023 hours; 24 were killed, 14 survived. In the afternoon, U-754 sank British tanker British Prudence 50 miles south of Newfoundland at 1531 hours; 3 were killed, 47 survived. In the Souther Atlantic, German armed merchant cruiser Thor stopped Greek freighter Pagasitikos, forced the 33 aboard to abandon ship, and sank the freighter with a torpedo. After sundown, Italian submarine Morosini sank British tanker Peder Bogen with torpedoes and gunfire; all 53 aboard survived. ww2dbase [Second Happy Time | Thor | CPC]

• 19 Japanese Type 1 bombers from Rabaul, New Britain attacked Seven Mile airfield near Port Moresby, Australian Papua at 1330 hours (Kittyhawk fighters failed to scramble in time to intercept the bombers), followed by strafing by four Zero fighters at 1420 hours (one shot down by anti-aircraft fire). ww2dbase [Port Moresby | CPC]

• Chinese troops held the Japanese attacks in check near Oktwin, Burma, but withdrew toward Taungoo after sundown. ww2dbase [Invasion of Burma | CPC]

• Katori arrived at the fleet anchorage east of Iseko Jima in Hiroshima Bay, Japan, near Hashirajima. Vice Admiral Marquis Teruhisa Komatsu, the new commanding officer of Japanese Sixth Fleet as of 16 Mar 1942, disembarked from Katori to attend a meeting with Isoroku Yamamoto aboard battleship Yamato. ww2dbase [Katori | Hiroshima | CPC]

• German aircraft sank British transport Clan Campbell and damaged transport Breconshire of Allied convoy MW10. The remaining two transports, Pampas and Talabot, reached Malta by the end of the day. ww2dbase [Malta Campaign | CPC]

• Intelligence experts at US Navy Station CAST at Corregidor, Philippine Islands tentatively linked the Japanese Navy code name AF to Midway Atoll. ww2dbase [Battle of Midway and the Aleutian Islands | Corregidor, Cavite | CPC]

• US Secretary of Navy Frank Knox designated the new Marine Corps Training Area at Santa Margarita Ranch in California, United States as Camp Joseph H. Pendleton. ww2dbase [San Diego, California | CPC]

23 Mar 1942 Interactive Map