March 11th

1941: The US House of Representatives passes the Lend-Lease Act 317-71, the Senate having already passed it 60-31 on March 7; it is immediately signed by President Roosevelt.
1945: The US third Army captures Kochem on the lower Moselle river. In the East, the Red Army approaches Gotenhafen, closing a vital port of embarkation for tens of thousands of refugees from East Prussia who are now heading for the Hela peninsula.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/march.html

1845: First Maori War - British troops based in Australia were sent to suppress an uprising by Maoris who were unhappy at the continuing expansion of European settlement in New Zealands North Island.
1917: Baghdad occupied - Members of the 1st ANZAC Wireless Signal Squadron attached to Lieutenant General Stanley Maude's force of two British Army Corps and one Indian Cavalry Division occupy Baghdad.source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1949: Brussels Belgium - Canada helps draft North Atlantic Security Treaty with Britain, USA, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Norway; leads to creation of NATO.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Mar&day=11

1845 - The Flagstaff War: In New Zealand, ChiefsHone Heke and Kawiti led 700 Māoris to chop down the British flagpole and drive settlers out of the Britishcolonial settlement of Kororareka because of breaches of the 1840Treaty of Waitangi.
1917 - World War I: Baghdadfalls to the Anglo-Indian forces commanded by GeneralStanley Maude.
1942 - World War II: GeneralDouglas MacArthur abandons Corregidor.
1945 - World War II: The Imperial Japanese Navy attempts a large-scale kamikaze attack on the U.S. Pacific fleet anchored at Ulithi atoll in Operation Tan No. 2.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_11

1942: As Japanese forces continued to advance in the Pacific during World War II, Gen. Douglas MacArthur left the Philippines for Australia, vowing: ''I shall return.''
source: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20070311.html

1941: The German 5th Light Division has now completely arrived in Libya and is ordered to prepare for an attack on El Agheila. Meanwhile, Rommel has flown back to Germany for further orders and has been told that when the 15th Panzer Division has arrived in Libya at the end of May he is to recapture Benghazi.
1943: The north Atlantic convoy ONS-169 is attacked by wolfpack 'Raubgraf' between the 11th and 12th March losing 2 ships for 10,531 gross tons. Atlantic convoys SC121 and HX228 are also attacked by other wolfpacks and lose 17 ships for the loss of just U-444 and U-432.
1944: Some 12,000 Chindits are now behind Japanese lines in Burma. British forces capture Buthiduang on the Arakan front. Zhukov is stopped on River Bug after a 60-mile advance.
1945: An RAF Bomber Command record for the largest tonnage dropped on a single target in single day is achieved at Essen when 4,661 tons are dropped. The Red Army advances towards Gotenhafen, a vital port of embarkation for tens of thousands of refugees from East Prussia. The US third Army captures Kochem on the lower Moselle river.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm

1863: Landing party from U.S.S. Wabash, Commander C. R. P. Rodgers, occupied St. Augustine, Florida, which had been evacuated by Confederate troops in the face of the naval threat.
1864: U.S.S. Aroostook, Lieutenant Commander Chester Hatfield, captured blockade-running British schooner Mary P. Burton in the Gulf of Mexico south of Velasco, Texas, with cargo of iron and shot. Boats under Acting Ensign Henry B. Colby, from U.S.S. Beauregard, and Acting Master George Delap, from U.S.S. Norfolk Packet, seized British schooner Linda at Mosquito Inlet, Florida, with cargo including salt, liquor, and coffee. U.S.S. San Jacinto, Commander James F. Armstrong, captured schooner Lealtad, which had run the blockade at Mobile with cargo of cotton and turpentine. Schooner Julia Baker was boarded by Confederate guerrilla forces near Newport News, Virginia. After taking $2,500 in cash and capturing the master and five men, the boarders burned the schooner. U.S.S. Beauregard, Acting Master Francis Burgess, captured blockade running British sloop Hannah off Mosquito Inlet, Florida, with cargo of cotton cloth.
source: http://www.multied.com/Navy/cwnavalhistory/March1864.html

1779: Congress establishes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to help plan, design and prepare environmental and structural facilities for the U.S. Army. Made up of civilian workers, members of the Continental Army and French officers, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers played an essential role in the critical Revolutionary War battles at Bunker Hill, Saratoga and Yorktown.
source:http://www.history.com/this-day-in-h...Article&id=307

1967: U.S. 1st Infantry Division troops engage in one of the heaviest battles of Operation Junction City, resulting in 210 reported North Vietnamese casualties. Junction City was an effort to smash the communist stronghold in Tay Ninh Province and surrounding areas along the Cambodian border northwest of Saigon. The purpose of the operation was to drive the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops away from populated areas and into the open, where superior American firepower could be more effectively used.
source:http://www.history.com/this-day-in-h...rticle&id=1722

March 12th

1940: Formalling ending the "Winter War", Finland and the USSR sign a peace treaty that compels the Finns to cede parts of Carelia as well as "lease" their Baltic ports of Hangö and Vipurii to the Soviets.
1943: German troops evacuate Vjasma on the central front.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/march.html

1900: Australians arrive at Bloemfontein, South Africa - Members of the New South Wales Mounted Rifles, under Lord Roberts, reached Bloemfontein, the capital of the Orange Free State, under Roberts' strategy of taking the war into the Boer Republics.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

538: Witiges, king of the Ostrogoths ends his siege of Rome and retreats to Ravenna, leaving the city in the hands of the victorious Romangeneral, Belisarius.
1938: Anschluss: German troops occupy Austria; annexation declared the following day.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_12

1940: A peace treaty is concluded between Finland and Russia, that formally ends the "Winter War". The terms of this treaty are harsh for Finland, who are forced to cede the entire Karelia Isthmus, and the city of Viipuri, which is renamed Vyborg. The also lose parts of eastern Karelia, Lake Ladoga, the Rybachiy Peninsula and the Petsamo area. The also have to grant the Russian a 30 year lease of the Hangö Peninsula. However, the ever 'generous' Russians drop their recognition of the Kuusinen puppet government in Moscow. The British finalise their plans for the invasion of Norway. Landings are to be made at Narvik and Trondheim in order to secure the rail line to Sweden and the large iron-ore fields.
1942: US troops occupy New Caledonia. The British evacuate their garrison from the Andaman Islands, just off the Burmese coast south of Rangoon. Convoy PQ-12 arrives unscathed at Murmansk, earning the distinction of being the last PQ convoy to sail without losses.
1943: German troops evacuate Vyazma.
1944: The Swedes announce an investigation of the ‘mysterious object which crashed out of the sky’ (a ‘flying torpedo’ V1) from a German research station, 40 miles away.
1945: RAF Bomber Command sets another new record for single target, when 4,851 tons are dropped on Dortmund.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm

1917 - All American merchant ships to be armed in war zones
1942 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt designates Admiral Ernest J. King to serve as the Chief of Naval Operations, as well as the Commander-in-Chief, United States Fleet to which he was appointed on 30 December 1941.
1956 - In first overseas deployment of Navy missile squadron, VA-83 left on USS Intrepid
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmar.htm

1912: USA - Capt. Albert Berry performs first parachute jump from an airplane.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Mar&day=12

March 13th

1941: The Luftwaffe carries out heavy raids against the British ports of Glasgow and Liverpool.
1942: The Red Army launches an attack against Heeresgruppe B (von Manstein) from the Kerch peninsula in the eastern Crimea.
1944: The Red Army recaptures Cherson at the mouth of the Dnestr river on the Black Sea.
1945: The Soviet 1st Belorussian Front (Zhukov) captures the Oder fortress of Küstrin, 70 miles east of Berlin, while the 2nd Belorussian Front (Rokossovsky) launches an offensive against the Braunsberg pocket south of Königsberg. Following a 600-bomber raid by the US 8th Air Force, the RAF (with 800 bombers) attacks Swinemünde north of Stettin, a major port of disembarkation for German escapees from the East, causing heavy damage to the docks and killing hundreds of refugees.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/march.html

1943: Japanese reconnaissance flight over Darwin - In addition to the 64 air raids on Darwin the Japanese made numerous reconnaissance flights over northern Australia.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1895: Award of first submarine building contract to John P. Holland Torpedo Boat Co.
1917: Armed merchant ships authorized to take action against U-boats.
1959: Naval Research Laboratory takes first ultraviolet pictures of sun.
1963: USS Albany (CG-10) and aircraft from Navy Airborne Early Warning Squadron Four from Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico aid five ill crewmembers of Norwegian freighter Jotunfjell.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmar.htm

1884 - The siege of Khartoum, Sudan begins (ends on January 26, 1885).
1900 - Boer War: British forces occupy Bloemfontein, Orange Free State.
1940 - Russo-Finnish Winter War ended.
1943 - World War II: In Bougainville, Japanese troops end their assault on American forces at Hill 700.
1954 - Battle of Điện Biên Phủ: Viet Minh forces attack the French.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_13

1915: British forces end their three-day assault on the German trenches near the village of Neuve Chapelle in northern France, the first offensive launched by the British in the spring of 1915.
source: http://www.historychannel.com/tdih

1940: Hostilities between the Soviet Union and Finland cease. The Finns have lost 25,000 killed and 45,000 wounded, while the Russians have lost an estimated 200,000 killed and an unknown number of wounded.
1941: The Luftwaffe carries out a heavy raid against Clydebank, near Glasgow. 35,000 of the towns population of 47,000 are made homeless.
1942: The Red Army launches an major attack against Army Group B from the Kerch peninsula in the eastern Crimea.
1943: A Chinese counter-attack throws the Japanese back across the Yangtze River.
1944: British troops take the ‘Golden Fortress’ (Razabil) in Arakan, Burma. U.S. submarine Sandlance sinks a Japanese troopship convoy en route to the Marianas. The Russians announce the capture of Kherson in the southern Ukraine.
1945: A surprise armoured thrust by the British in central Burma, cuts off 3,000 Japanese in Mandalay. Following a 600-bomber raid by the US 8th Air Force, the RAF with 800 bombers attacks Swinemünde North of Stettin, a major port of disembarkation for German refugees from eastern Germany, causing heavy damage to the docks and killing hundreds of civilians. The 2nd Belorussian Front launches an offensive against the Braunsberg pocket to the South of Königsberg.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm

1961: Aldershott England - Major-General Allard the first Canadian to command a British army division.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Mar&day=13

March 14th

1945: The US Third Army crosses the Moselle river near Koblenz. In Hungary, the German counterattack to recapture the oilfields near Lake Balaton comes to an end. In East Prussia, the Red Army cuts all communications between Königsberg and the German forces fighting in the Braunsberg pocket. The US 15th Air Force, taking off from Italian airfields, launches a heavy raid (500 bombers) against Regensburg, while the RAF attacks Wuppertal with 400 aircraft.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/march.html

1942: Horn Island bombed - Japanese bomb Horn Island, Torres Strait. Horn Island, in the Torres Strait, was the main tactical base for Allied air operations in the Torres Strait. The island was subject to nine Japanese air raids during the Second World War.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1863 - RADM Farragut's squadron of 7 ships forces way up Mississippi River to support Union troops at Vicksburg and Baton Rouge
1929 - NAS Pensacola aircraft make 113 flights for flood rescue and relief
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmar.htm

1590 - Battle of Ivry: Henry of Navarre and the Huguenots defeat the forces of the Catholic League under the Duc de Mayenne during the French Wars of Religion.
1915 - World War I: Cornered off the coast of Chile by the Royal Navy after fleeing the Battle of the Falkland Islands, the German light cruiser SMS Dresden is abandoned and scuttled by her crew.
1939 - German troops fully occupy the Czechoslovak provinces of Bohemia and Moravia.
1945 - World War II - The R.A.F. first operational use of the Grand Slam bomb, Bielefeld, Germany.
1951 - Korean War: For the second time, United Nations troops recapture Seoul.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_14

1862: Battle of New Bern, North Carolina Union General Ambrose Burnside captures North Carolina's second largest city and closes another port through which the Confederates could slip supplies.
1943: Germans recapture Kharkov German troops re-enter Kharkov, the second largest city in the Ukraine, which had changed hands several times in the battle between the USSR and the invading German forces.
1965: Allies launch second wave of Rolling Thunder Twenty-four South Vietnamese Air Force planes, led by Vice-Marshal Nguyen Cao Ky and supported by U.S. jets, bomb the barracks and depots on Con Co ("Tiger") Island, 20 miles off the coast of North Vietnam. The next day, 100 U.S. Air Force jets and carrier-based bombers struck the ammunition depot at Phu Qui, 100 miles south of Hanoi. This was the second set of raids in Operation Rolling Thunder and the first in which U.S. planes used napalm.
1969: Nixon discusses the possibility of U.S. troop withdrawals At a news conference, President Richard Nixon says there is no prospect for a U.S. troop reduction in the foreseeable future because of the ongoing enemy offensive. Nixon stated that the prospects for withdrawal would hinge on the level of enemy activity, progress in the Paris peace talks, and the ability of the South Vietnamese to defend themselves. Despite these public comments, Nixon and his advisers were secretly discussing U.S. troop withdrawals. On June 8, at a conference on Midway Island with South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu, Nixon formally announced a new policy that included intensified efforts to increase the combat capability of the South Vietnamese armed forces so that U.S. forces could be gradually withdrawn. This program became known as "Vietnamization." The first U.S. troop withdrawals occurred in the fall of 1969 with the departure of the headquarters and a brigade from the 9th Infantry Division.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?

March 15th

1944: The Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front breaks through German defenses and reaches the Bug river, a 1941 German starting line for Operation Barbarossa.
1945: The Soviet 1st Ukrainian Front begins an offensive in the Ratibor area of Upper Silesia. In the West, attacks by troops of the US First Army to expand the Remagen bridgehead meet with little success.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/march.html

1943 - Numbered fleet system established
1947 - Ensign John W. Lee becomes first African American officer commissioned in regular Navy. He was assigned to USS Kearsage.
1957 - Airship ZPG-2 lands NAS Key West after 11 day non-stop flight across the Atlantic
1966 - Establishment of River Squadron Five in Vietnam
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmar.htm

1940:First two women from the Voluntary Aid Detachments organisation enlist in the AIF - Most Voluntary Aids transferred after August 1942 into the new Australian Army Women's Medical Service. Over 200 Voluntary Aids served in the Middle East and Ceylon during the Second World War.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

933: After a ten-year truce, German King Henry I defeats a Hungarian army at the Battle of Riade near the river Unstrut.
1311: Battle of Halmyros: The Catalan Company defeats Walter V of Brienne to take control of the Duchy of Athens, a Crusader state in Greece.
1781: American Revolutionary War: Battle of Guilford Courthouse - Near present-day Greensboro, North Carolina, 1,900 British troops under General Charles Cornwallis defeat an American force numbering 4,400.
1939: World War II: Nazi troops occupy the remaining part of Bohemia and Moravia; Czechoslovakia ceases to exist.
1943: World War II: Third Battle of Kharkov - the Germans retake the city of Kharkov from the Soviet armies in bitter street fighting.
1944: World War II: Battle of Monte Cassino - Allied aircraft bomb the Nazi-held monastery and stage an assault.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_15

1744: France declares war on Britain, in War of the Austrian Succession; called King William's War in North America; to Oct. 14, 1748.
1943: Freetown, Sierra Leone - Canadian Pacific steamer, Empress of Canada, torpedoed by German U-Boat and sunk off the coast of West Africa, with the loss of 400 lives.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_...mth=Mar&day=15

1941: The British 'Northern Force' having concentrated the 4th and 5th Indian Divisions begin their offensive for Italian fortress of Keren in Eritrea.
1942: U-503 is sunk near the Grand Banks, off Newfoundland, by another aircraft from the US squadron, VP-82.
1944: The Japanese begin crossing the Chindwin for an advance against Kohima. The U.S. 1st Cavalry Division lands on Manus in the Admiralty Islands. The heaviest RAF raid of war is made against Stuttgart, with 3,000 tons dropped from 863 bombers, for the loss of only 36 planes. The allies pound Cassino, dropping 1,250 tons of bombs and firing 195,969 shells in 7 and a half hours, but the troops make slow headway.
1945: U.S. troops report slow progress on Luzon in the Philippines.

Gen. Harold K. Johnson, Army Chief of Staff, reports on his recent visit to Vietnam to President Lyndon B. Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. He admitted that the recent air raids ordered by President Johnson had not affected the course of the war and said he would like to assign an American division to hold coastal enclaves and defend the Central Highlands. General Johnson also advocated creating a four-division force of Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) and U.S. troops to patrol the Demilitarized Zone along the border separating North and South Vietnam and Laos. Nothing ever came of General Johnson's recommendation on the SEATO troops, but President Johnson ordered the 173rd Airborne Brigade to Vietnam in May 1965 and followed it with the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) in September of the same year. These forces, along with the first contingent of U.S. Marines--which had arrived in March--were only the first of a massive American build up. By 1969, there were more than 540,000 U.S. troops in South Vietnam.
source: http://www.history.com/tdih.do?actio...yId=vietnamwar

March 16th

1941: The Kriegsmarine loses two of its most successful U-boat commanders, Kretschmer (U-99) and Schepke (U-100) to British convoy escorts.
1943: Armored Waffen-SS units of Heeresgruppe Süd (von Manstein) recapture Charkov.
1944: On the Italian front, repeated attempts by the British 8th Army (Alexander) to break through the Gustav Line at Cassino fail. In the North Atlantic, two U-boat wolf packs, code-named Raubgraf and Stürmer, attack Convoys HX229 and SC122, and over a period of four days and nights sink 21 ships (141,000 tons total), for the loss of one U-boat, U-384 (Oblt. von Rosenberg-Gruszinski).
1945: In Hungary, the Soviet 2nd Ukrainian Front (Tolbukhin) begins an offensive toward Lake Balaton. In the East, the German heavy vessels Schlesien and Prinz Eugen support the forces of Heeresgruppe Kurland in their defense against heavy Soviet attacks to break up the Kessel. The US 8th Air Force launches a massive attack (675 bombers) against the HQ complex of the OKH at Zossen 20 miles south of Berlin, but with minimal effect.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/march.html

1911 - Hulk of USS Maine sunk at sea in deep water with full military honors.
1945 - Iwo Jima declared secure.
1966 - Launch of Gemini 8. Former naval aviator Neil Armstrong flew on this mission which completed 7 orbits in 10 hours and 41 minutes at an altitude of 161.3 nautical miles. Recovery was by USS Leonard F. Mason (DD-852).
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmar.htm

1942: Darwin bombed - Darwin was subject to 64 Japanese air raids during the Second World War.
1943: Flight Lieutenant W.E. Newton, VC - Flight Lieutenant W.E. Newton, originally from St Kilda, Victoria, was awarded Victoria Cross for action at Salamua Isthmus, New Guinea. It was a posthumous award.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1855: Kingston Ontario - George-Etienne Cartier passes his Militia Act, constitutes all males between the ages of 18 and 60 as military forces of Canada; all men under 40 to be mustered once a year; Governor-General to be the Commander in Chief of the militia.
1900: Halifax Nova Scotia - Samuel Benfield Steele 1849-1919 commanding Lord Strathcona's Horse, embarks troops for South Africa; the regiment consists of 537 mounted troops recruited in Manitoba, BC and the NWT.
1915: Southampton England - Second Canadian Division begins to arrive in England for service in World War I.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_...mth=Mar&day=16

1322 - The Battle of Boroughbridge takes place in the First War of Scottish Independence.
1689 - The 23rd Regiment of Foot or Royal Welch Fusiliers is founded.
1802 - The United States Military Academy at West Point is established.
1812 - Battle of Badajoz (March 16 - April 6) - British and Portuguese forces besiege and defeat French garrison during Peninsular War.
1916 - The 7th and 10th US cavalry regiments under John J. Pershing cross the US-Mexico border to join the hunt of Pancho Villa.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_16

1865: Battle of Averasboro, North Carolina - The mighty army of Union General William T. Sherman encounters its most significant resistance as it tears through the Carolinas on its way to join General Ulysses Grant's army at Petersburg, Virginia. Confederate General William Hardee tried to block one wing of Sherman's force, commanded by Henry Slocum, but the motley Rebel force was swept aside at Averasboro, North Carolina.
1968: U.S. troops massacre South Vietnamese - In what would become the most publicized war atrocity committed by U.S. troops in Vietnam, a platoon slaughters between 200 and 500 unarmed villagers at My Lai 4, a cluster of hamlets in the coastal lowlands of the northernmost region of South Vietnam.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?

March 17th - Happy Saint Patrick's Day to all!
1945: The US Third Army (Patton) captures Koblenz on the Rhine. The Ludendorff bridge at Remagen, seized by US troops on March 7, suddenly collapses, killing dozens of US Army engineers working to reenforce it.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/march.html

1917: Australians occupy Bapaume, Western Front - Originally the objective for the first day of the Somme campaign, Bapaume was occupied by the 5th Division after fighting rearguards from the German retreat of early 1917.
1942: General MacArthur flies to Darwin - Having left the Philippines after the Japanese invasion, General MacArthur was appointed to command the newly created South West Pacific Area. Australia became the base from which he would launch offensive action against the Japanese in the Pacific.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1898 - USS Holland, first practical submarine, launched
1942 - United States Naval Forces Europe established to plan joint operations with British
1959 - USS Skate ( SSN-578 ) surfaces at North Pole
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmar.htm

45 BC - In his last victory, Julius Caesar defeats the Pompeian forces of Titus Labienus and Pompey the Younger in the Battle of Munda.
624 - Muhammad wins a key victory over his Meccan adversaries in the Battle of Badr.
1776 - American Revolution: British forces evacuate Boston, Massachusetts after George Washington and Henry Knox place artillery overlooking the city.
1913 - The Uruguayan Air Force is founded.
1939 - Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945): The Battle of Nanchang between the Kuomintang and the Japanese breaks out.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_17

1765: Quebec City - First Canadian St. Patrick's Day celebrated by Irish troops serving in the British Army at Quebec.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_...mth=Mar&day=17

1863: Battle of Kelly's Ford, Virginia - Union cavalry attack Confederate cavalry at Kelly's Ford, Virginia. Although the Yankees were pushed back and failed to take any ground, the engagement proved that the Federal troopers could hold their own against their Rebel counterparts.
source: http://www.history.com/tdih.do

1941: The 11th African Division captures Jijiga in central Abyssinia, having advanced 744 miles up the Italian built Strada Imperiale in just seventeen days.
1943: The Japanese attack British positions in Arakan, western Burma.
1944: The British blow up the Manipur bridge South of Imphal. New Zealand troops take Cassino railway station.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm

March 18th

1940: Hitler and Mussolini meet at the Brenner Pass in northern Italy, Mussolini agreeing to Italy's entry into the war "at an opportune moment".
1945: In the East, the Soviet 2nd Belorussian Front (Rokossovsky) captures the fortress city of Kolberg after 68,000 civilian refugees have been evacuated by sea. The US Third Army captures Boppard on the Rhine.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/march.html

1915: Allied fleet attempts to force the Dardanelles - This was the second allied attempt to force a naval break through of the Turkish defences in the Dardanelles.
1943: Admiral Yamamoto, Imperial Japanese Navy, killed - American Intelligence decoded signals that provided the timetable for Yamamoto's flight. His aircraft was intercepted and shot down near Bougainville by American Lightnings from Guadalcanal. Yamamoto, Commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet, was the architect of the attack on Pearl Harbour.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1945 - Carriers begin 3 month Okinawa Campaign by destroying aircraft on Kyushu, Japan
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmar.htm

1915 - World War I: Massive naval attack in Battle of Gallipoli. Three battleships are sunk during a failed British & French naval attack on the Dardanelles.
2003 - US enters war in Iraq. About $1 billion was taken from Iraq's Central Bank by Saddam Hussein and his family, just hours before the United States began bombing Iraq, biggest bank robbery in history.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_18

1942: Canadian forces establish unified military commands in Atlantic, Newfoundland, Pacific areas. Dawson Creek, BC - US Army Engineers start building Alcan (Alaska) Highway to supply the North West in case of Japanese invasion.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_...mth=Mar&day=18

1942: US forces occupy the New Hebrides in order to help protect Australia's west coast from direct Japanese invasion.
1943: Chindit forces cross the Irrawaddy in Burma.
1944: A New Zealand tank attack on Monte Cassino is repulsed, with the loss of all 17 tanks. The Germans conduct their heaviest night raid on London since 1941 as the Luftwaffe intensifies the ‘Little Blitz’.
1945: The US Navy hits Kure naval base in the Inland Sea, Southwest of Tokyo. Kolberg falls to the Polish 1st Army, of the 2nd Belorussian Front, although the Germans manage to evacuate 80,000 refugees and wounded first.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm

March 19th

1943: In Tunisia, the British 8th Army (Montgomery) begins an offensive against Italian defenses of the Mareth Line.
1945: The US Seventh Army (Patch) captures Worms on the Rhine. In the East, heavy fighting in Hungary and East Prussia. The US 8th Air Force carries out another heavy attack (200 bombers and 700 fighters) against Berlin. Hitler orders the demolition of all German industrial, utility and transport facilities in danger of falling into enemy hands; this order (Verbrannte Erde Scorched Earth) is sabotaged by armaments minister Speer and most local commanders.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/march.html

1916: Sir John Maxwell withdrawn from Egypt, leaving Sir Archibald Murray in command - Murray ultimately led Allied forces, including the Australian Light Horse, in the war against Turkey in the Sinai and Palestine.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1898 - USS Oregon departs San Francisco for 14,000 mile trip around South America to join U.S. Squadron off Cuba
1917 - Navy Department authorizes enrollment of women in Naval Reserve with ratings of yeoman, radio electrician, or other essential ratings.
1942 - SecNav gave Civil Engineering Corps command of Seabees
2003 - Operation Iraqi Freedom begins with Tomahawk strikes from Navy ships and submarines.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmar.htm

1861 - The First Taranaki War ends in New Zealand.
1865 - American Civil War: The Battle of Bentonville begins. By the end of the battle two days later, Confederate forces had retreated from Four Oaks, North Carolina.
1916 - Eight American planes take off in pursuit of Pancho Villa, the first United States air-combat mission in history.
1941 - World War II: The 99th Pursuit Squadron also known as the Tuskegee Airmen, the first all-black unit of the Army Air Corp, is activated.
1945 - World War II: Off the coast of Japan, a dive bomber hits the aircraft carrierUSS Franklin, killing 724 of her crew. Badly damaged, the ship is able to return to the U.S. under her own power.
2002 - U.S. invasion of Afghanistan: Operation Anaconda ends (started on March 2) after killing 500 Taliban and al Qaeda fighters with 11 allied troop fatalities.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_19

1966: The South Korean Assembly votes to send 20,000 additional troops to Vietnam to join the 21,000 Republic of Korea (ROK) forces already serving in the war zone. South Korean forces had been in South Vietnam since August 1964, when Seoul sent a liaison unit to Saigon. The first contingent was followed in February 1965 by engineer units and a mobile hospital. Although initially assigned to non-combat duties, they came under fire on April 3. In September 1965, in response to additional pleas from Johnson, the South Korean government greatly expanded its troop commitment to Vietnam and agreed to send combat troops. By the close of 1969, over 47,800 Korean soldiers were actively involved in combat operations in South Vietnam. Seoul began to withdraw its troops in February 1972, following the lead of the United States as it drastically reduced its troop commitment in South Vietnam.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=1737

March 20th

1942: The Soiet offensive at Kerch in the Crimea is defeated with heavy losses to the Soviets.
1944: The Red Army recaptures Vinnitsa in the Ukraine, Hitler's HQ in 1943.
1945: German troops of Heeresgruppe Weichsel evacuate their bridgehead across the Oder at Stettin. In East Prussia, the Red Army captures Braunsberg, 40 miles south of Königsberg
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/march.html

1916: ANZAC Corps land in France - With Gallipoli behind them the bulk of Australia's forces were now sent to France where the terrible fighting on the Western Front awaited.
1917: Lieutenant McNamara, originally from Rushworth, Victoria, becomes the first Australian airman to win a Victoria Cross for rescuing a downed comrade in Palestine.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1915: Britain and Russia divide future spoils of war - Just two days after its navy suffered a demoralizing defeat against Turkish forces at the Dardanelles, the British government signs a secret agreement with Russia regarding the hypothetical post-World War I division of the former Ottoman Empire. By the terms of the agreement, signed on March 20, 1915, Russia would annex the Turkish stronghold of Constantinople, the Bosporus Strait (a waterway connecting the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara and marking the boundary between the Asian and European halves of Turkey), and more than half of the European section of Turkey. Britain also promised Russia future control of the Dardanelles (the crucially important strait connecting the Black Sea with the Mediterranean)—which the British navy had unsuccessfully attacked two days earlier—and the Gallipoli peninsula, the target of a major Allied military invasion (which would also result in failure) launched late the following month. In return, Russia would agree to British claims on other areas of the former Ottoman Empire and central Persia, including the oil-rich region of Mesopotamia.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-h...Article&id=347

1833 - CDR Geisinger of Peacock negotiates first commercial treaty with King of Siam
1922 -USS Jupiter recommissioned as Langley, Navy's first aircraft carrier
1939 - Naval Research Lab recommends financing research program to obtain power from uranium.
2003 - U.S. began Operation Iraqi Freedom by launching cruise missiles from Navy ships in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmar.htm

1944: Aldershott England - Lt. Gen. Henry Duncan Graham Crerar 1888-1965 appointed to command of 1st Canadian Army; largest field formation ever formed by Canada; includes British, Dutch, Belgian, and Polish units.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Mar&day=20