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• Indian 4th and 5th Divisions attacked Italian positions at 0700 hours near Keren, Eritrea, Italian East Africa, capturing hilltops on either side of the gorge after an entire day of fighting in which both sides suffered heavy casualties. ww2dbase [Invasion of Italian East Africa | CPC]
• US shipping company American Export Lines announced that it would stop taking orders from Lisbon, Portugal because there were too many refugees waiting in its ports. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Japanese troops launched an offensive towards Shanggao, Jiangxi Province, China. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Belgian politicians formed the cross-party resistance organization Independence Front at Liege. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Battleship Bismarck received two aircraft at Scheerhafen, Kiel. ww2dbase [Bismarck | CPC]
• German submarine U-124 made rendezvous with armed merchant cruiser Kormoran 650 miles southwest of Cape Verde Islands and received 7 torpedoes and other supplies. ww2dbase [Kormoran | CPC]
• German submarine U-110 detected Allied convoy-112, consisted of 41 merchant ships escorted by 7 warships, and shared the finding with U-37, U-74, U-99, and U-100. Overnight, U-110 set British tanker Erodona on fire with a torpedo, killing 36, but she would be towed to Iceland for repairs. ww2dbase [CPC]

• German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau attacked an Allied convoy 950 miles east of Nova Scotia, Canada, sinking 3 tankers (killing 7, most of the survivors were captured) and capturing 3 tankers. ww2dbase [Operation Berlin | Gneisenau | Scharnhorst | CPC]

• Italian Navy's Special Weapons Section of 1a Flottiglia MAS, based at La Spezia in Italy, was renamed 10th MAS Flotilla, which served only as a cover name as the special forces function of the unit would not change. ww2dbase [La Spezia, Liguria | CPC]

• Benjamin Kelsey was promoted to the war time rank of major. ww2dbase [Benjamin Kelsey | CPC]
• At a crowded dinner of the White House Press Correspondents Association, President Franklin Roosevelt, in a trenchant speech that was beamed to Europe in fourteen languages, promised America would supply the needs of the British and Greeks with ships, planes, and food. This was fighting talk but specious fighting talk, for that he was making public promises that he was powerless to keep. ww2dbase [Franklin Roosevelt | AC]

15 Mar 1941 Interactive Map