16 Mar 1941 | World War II Database

16 Mar 1941

At Keren, Eritrea, Italian East Africa, British 2nd West Yorkshire Regiment climbed up the steep mountain to attack Italian positions at Fort Dologorodoc overnight; to the British troops' advantage, some of the Italian troops had departed from the fort to attack Indian 5th Mahratta Light Infantry Regiment at the base of the mountain, allowing the fort to be captured at 0630 hours after about 2 hours of combat, yielding 400 prisoners of war. In British Somaliland, 2 Indian battalions conducted an amphibious landing at Berbera; the port was defended by only 60 Italian troops, who surrendered without resisting. ww2dbase [Invasion of Italian East Africa | CPC]
German submarine U-100 became the first submarine to be tracked by radar. It was sunk by HMS Vanoc with depth charges. Only 6 of the 44 crew survived; commanding officer Joachim Scepke went down with U-100. In the same action, U-99 was scuttled after being damaged by HMS Walker; most of the crew survived, including the captain Otto Kretschmer. ww2dbase [AC]
The Italian Primavera Offensive was called off after 8 days after the Italians had suffered 12,000 casualties. ww2dbase [Balkans Campaign | CPC]
German bombers sank British anti-submarine trawler HMT Lady Lilian and damaged HMT Angle 85 miles west of Ireland. ww2dbase [CPC]
British submarine HMS Parthian damaged Italian steamer Giovanni Boccaccio 50 miles east of Malta. ww2dbase [CPC]
German submarine U-106 sank Dutch ship Almkerk 220 miles off the coast of Gambia, British West Africa. The entire crew of 66 survived the attack and took to 2 lifeboats, and all would survive. ww2dbase [CPC]
162 German bombers attacked Bristol, England, United Kingdom overnight, targeting the docks at Avonmouth and the city center; 257 were killed, 391 were wounded. ww2dbase [Battle of Britain | CPC]

Atlantic Ocean

German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau attacked an Allied convoy 950 miles east of Nova Scotia, Canada between 0428 and 1550 hours, sinking or capturing 10 ships. Danish ship Chilean Reefer sent distress signals and returned fire with her deck gun, and was sunk by Gneisenau's 11-inch shells, killing 9. British battleship HMS Rodney received the distress signals, but arrived only after the German ships had already departed the area. ww2dbase [Operation Berlin | Gneisenau | Scharnhorst | CPC]

China

Wong Sun-sui passed away from wounds sustained during the aerial engagement two days prior at in Sumatou district, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China. ww2dbase [Wong Sun-sui | Chengdu, Sichuan | CPC]

France

Reginaldo Giuliani departed Bordeaux, France for Gdynia (Gotenhafen), occupied Poland. ww2dbase [Reginaldo Giuliani | Bordeaux, Aquitaine | CPC]

Germany

Adolf Hitler predicted that the United Kingdom would fall by 1942. ww2dbase [Adolf Hitler | CPC]

Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, Hugh Martyr, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis

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