March 21st

1945: In Hungary, the Red Army captures Stuhlweissenburg. In the West, units of the US First Army advance from the Remagen bridgehead toward Siegburg. The US 8th Air Force launches a major attack (650 bombers) against Hamburg.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/march.html

1942: Air battle for Port Moresby begins - The Japanese had hoped to occupy Port Moresby as a base from which to cut off shipping to Eastern Australia. Their defeat in the Battle of the Coral Sea thwarted the planned naval attack and invasion against Port Moresby.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1918: Germany begins major offensive on the Western Front - Near the Somme River in France, the German army launches its first major offensive on the Western Front in two years. At the beginning of 1918, Germany’s position on the battlefields of Europe looked extremely strong. German armies occupied virtually all of Belgium and much of northern France. With Romania, Russia and Serbia out of the war by the end of 1917, conflict in the east was drawing to a close, leaving the Central Powers free to focus on combating the British and French in the west. Indeed, by March 21, 1918, Russia’s exit had allowed Germany to shift no fewer than 44 divisions of men to the Western Front.
1967: North Vietnam rejects Johnson overture - The North Vietnamese press agency reports that an exchange of notes took place in February between President Lyndon B. Johnson and Ho Chi Minh. The agency said that Ho rejected a proposal made by Johnson for direct talks between the United States and North Vietnam on ending the war. The North Vietnamese demanded that the United States "stop definitely and unconditionally its bombing raids and all other acts of war against North Vietnam."
1972: Khmer Rouge shell Phnom Penh - In Cambodia, more than 100 civilians are killed and 280 wounded as communist artillery and rockets strike Phnom Penh and outlying areas in the heaviest attack since the beginning of the war in 1970. Following the shelling, a communist force of 500 troops attacked and entered Takh Mau, six miles southeast of Pnom Penh, killing at least 25 civilians.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?

1801 - The Battle of Alexandria is fought between British and French forces near the ruins of Nicopolis in Egypt.
1945 - World War II: British troops liberate Mandalay, Burma.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_21

1917 - Loretta Walsh becomes first woman Navy petty officer when sworn in as Chief Yeoman.
1919 - Navy installs and tests Sperry gyrocompass, in first instance of test of aircraft gyrocompass
1945 - Bureau of Aeronautics initiates rocket-powered surface-to-air guided missile development by awarding contract to Fairchild
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmar.htm

March 22nd

1943: German troops of Heeresgruppe Mitte recapture Belgorod.
1945: Units of the US Third Army cross the Rhine at Oppenheim south of Mainz against minimal German resistance.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/march.html

1942: Japanese aircraft bomb Katherine - This was the only air raid against Katherine in the Second World War, one man was killed.
1945: Corporal Rattey , 25th Battalion, originally from Barmedman, New South Wales, wins the Victoria Cross on Bougainville
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1915: Russians take Austrian garrison at Przemysl - After six months of battle, the Austrian garrison at Przemysl (now in Poland), the citadel guarding the northeastern-most point of the Austro-Hungarian empire, falls to the Russians. During the first weeks of World War I in August 1914, Russia had been able to mobilize more quickly than the Central Powers had expected, sending two armies into East Prussia and four into the Austrian province of Galicia, along the northern slopes of the Carpathian Mountains (now southeast Poland and western Ukraine). In Galicia, two armies moved in from the east and two from the west, both steadily advancing through the region, scoring victories over inferior numbers of Austrian troops, including at Lemberg (now Lvov) in early September.
1968: Westmoreland to depart South Vietnam - President Lyndon B. Johnson announces the appointment of Gen. William Westmoreland as Army Chief of Staff; Gen. Creighton Abrams replaced him as commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam. Westmoreland had first assumed command of U.S. Military Assistance Command Vietnam in June 1964, and in that capacity was in charge of all American military forces in Vietnam. One of the war's most controversial figures, General Westmoreland was given many honors when the fighting was going well, but when the war turned sour, many Americans blamed him for problems in Vietnam. Negative feeling about Westmoreland grew particularly strong following the Tet Offensive of 1968.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?

1820 - Commodore Stephen Decatur dies after duel with Capt. James Barron
1915 - "Naval Aviator" replaces former "Navy Air Pilot" for officers qualified as aviators
1929 - Navy ships protect Americans and their property during Mexican revolution
1946 - USS Missouri departs U.S. to return body of deceased Turkish ambassador to the U.S. back to Turkey for burial. Missouri arrived in Istanbul on 5 April.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmar.htm

1942 - World War II: In the Mediterranean Sea, Britain's Royal Navy confronts Italy's Regia Marina in the Second Battle of Sirte.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_22

March 23rd

1945: The Red Army reaches the outskirts of Danzig and Gotenhafen. The RAF launches a devastating raid (300 bombers) against Hildesheim near Hannover, a small city of little military and industrial importance.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/march.html

1815 - USS Hornet captures HMS Penguin in battle lasting 22 minutes
1882 - SECNAV Hunt issues General Order No. 292 creating Office of Naval Intelligence.
1917 - Launching of USS New Mexico, first dreadnought with turboelectric drive
1945 - Carriers begin pre-assault strikes on Okinawa, kamikaze attacks follow
1958 - First launching of simulated Polaris missile from submerged tactical launcher facility off CA.
1965 - LCDR John W. Young, USN, Pilot of Gemini 3 completed 3 orbits in 4 hours., 53 minutes at an altitude of 224 km. Recovery was by helicopters from USS Intrepid (CVS-11).
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmar.htm

1945: Waitavolo and Tol plantations captured by Australians, New Britain - In 1942 the Tol plantation was the scene of the massacre of some 150 Australians as they attempted to flee Rabaul. The capture of the plantations in 1945 enabled the Australian 5th Division to establish a line across the Gazelle Peninsula from which they were able to conduct patrols against Japanese positions in the North of New Britain.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1862: Confederate General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson suffers a rare defeat when his attack on Union forces in the Shenandoah Valley fails. Jackson was trying to prevent Union General Nathaniel Banks from sending troops from the Shenandoah to General George McClellan's army near Washington. McClellan was preparing to send his massive army by water to the James Peninsular southeast of Richmond for a summer campaign against the Confederate capital. When Turner Ashby, Jackson's cavalry commander, detected that Yankee troops were moving out of the valley, Jackson decided to attack and keep the Union troops divided.
1918: At 7:20 in the morning on March 23, 1918, an explosion in the Place de la Republique in Paris announces the first attack of a new German gun. The Pariskanone, or Paris gun, as it came to be known, was manufactured by Krupps; it was 210mm, with a 118-foot-long barrel, which could fire a shell the impressive distance of some 130,000 feet, or 25 miles, into the air. Three of them fired on Paris that day from a gun site at CrÉpy-en-Laonnaise, 74 miles away.
1961: One of the first American casualties in Southeast Asia, an intelligence-gathering plane en route from Laos to Saigon is shot down over the Plain of Jars in central Laos. The mission was flown in an attempt to determine the extent of the Soviet support being provided to the communist Pathet Lao guerrillas in Laos. The guerrillas had been waging a war against the Royal Lao government since 1959. In a television news conference, President John F. Kennedy warned of communist expansion in Laos and said that a cease-fire must precede the start of negotiations to establish a neutral and independent nation.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?

1942 - World War II: In the Indian Ocean, Japanese forces capture the Andaman Islands.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_23

1945: Germany - Allies cross Rhine north of the Ruhr.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Mar&day=23

March 24th

1941: In Libya, the newly arrived Afrikakorps under Generaloberst Rommel begins an offensive and recaptures El Agheila, the farthest point reached by the British 8th Army (Wavell) in February.
1944: The Luftwaffe attacks London with 90 medium bombers (He-111s and Ju-88s), while the RAF bombs Berlin with 810 heavy Lancasters. In Italy, the US Fifth Army's (Clark) bridgehead at Anzio is bombarded by German heavy long-range guns (Screaming Mimies) and Luftwaffe aircraft using guided bombs, causing severe casualties in men, ships, and equipment. Persistent US and British attacks against the Gustav Line at Cassino are repulsed by the German defenders.
1945: In a major effort (Operation Plunder), units of the British Second Army (Dempsey) cross the lower Rhine at Wesel, followed by 40,000 US and British airborne troops (Operation Varsity). The US Third Army captures Speyer and Ludwigshafen on the upper Rhine. In the East, the 1st Ukrainian Front captures Neisse in Upper Silesia.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/march.html

1901: Veldfontein - Australians capture Boer convoy and guns at Veldfontein
1942: Port Moresby bombed by Japanese - The Japanese had hoped to occupy Port Moresby as a base from which to cut off shipping to Eastern Australia. Their defeat in the Battle of the Coral Sea thwarted the planned naval attack and invasion against Port Moresby.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1918: German forces cross the Somme River, achieving their first goal of the major spring offensive begun three days earlier on the Western Front. Operation “Michael,” engineered by the German chief of the general staff, Erich von Ludendorff, aimed to decisively break through the Allied lines on the Western Front and destroy the British and French forces. The offensive began on the morning of March 21, 1918, with an aggressive bombardment.
1944: Wingate dies in Burma - Maj. Gen. Orde Wingate, leader of the 77th Indian Brigade, also called the Chindits, dies in a transport plane crash. He was 41 years old.
1975: North Vietnamese launch "Ho Chi Minh Campaign" - The North Vietnamese "Ho Chi Minh Campaign" begins. Despite the 1973 Paris Peace Accords cease fire, the fighting had continued between South Vietnamese forces and the North Vietnamese troops in South Vietnam. In December 1974, the North Vietnamese launched a major attack against the lightly defended province of Phuoc Long, located north of Saigon along the Cambodian border. They successfully overran the provincial capital at Phuoc Binh on January 6, 1975. President Richard Nixon had repeatedly promised South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu that the United States would come to the aid of South Vietnam if the North Vietnamese committed a major violation of the Peace Accords. However, by the time the communists had taken Phuoc Long, Nixon had resigned from office and his successor, Gerald Ford, was unable to convince a hostile Congress to make good on Nixon's promises to Saigon.
source: http://www.history.com/tdih.do?

1765 - American Revolutionary War: The Kingdom of Great Britain passes the Quartering Act that requires the 13 American colonies to house British troops.
1944 - In an event later dramatized in the movie The Great Escape, 76 prisoners begin breaking out of Stalag Luft III.
1999 - Kosovo War: NATO commences air bombardment against Yugoslavia, marking the first time NATO has attacked a sovereign country.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_24

1945: Netherlands - Canadian Corporal Fred Topham wins VC for bravery as Canadian paratroopers and air support help Canadian Army cross the Rhine in Operation Varsity; start of the liberation of the Netherlands.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_...mth=Mar&day=24

1903 - George Dewey commissioned Admiral of the Navy with the date of rank, 2 March 1899. He was the only person to hold this rank.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmar.htm

March 25th

1941: Yugoslavia joins the Tripartite Pact.
1945: The British Second Army captures Wesel which has been nearly 100% destroyed by Allied bombing.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/march.html

1945: Chowne, VC - Lieutenant Chowne, 2/2 Battalion AIF, originally from Sydney, New South Wales, wins the Victoria Cross posthumously at Dagua, New Guinea. source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1802 - The Treaty of Amiens is signed as a "Definitive Treaty of Peace" between France and United Kingdom.
1821 - Greece declares its independence from the Ottoman Empire, beginning the Greek War of Independence.
1865 - American Civil War: In Virginia, Confederate forces capture Fort Stedman from the Union in a bloody battle.
1971 - Bangladesh Liberation War: Beginning of Operation Searchlight of Pakistan Army against East Pakistani civilians.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_25

1968: Johnson meets with the "Wise Men" - After being told by Defense Secretary Clark Clifford that the Vietnam War is a "real loser," President Johnson, still uncertain about his course of action, decides to convene a nine-man panel of retired presidential advisors. The group, which became known as the "Wise Men," included the respected generals Omar Bradley and Matthew Ridgway, distinguished State Department figures like Dean Acheson and George Ball, and McGeorge Bundy, National Security advisor to both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. After two days of deliberation the group reached a consensus: they advised against any further troop increases and recommended that the administration seek a negotiated peace. Although Johnson was initially furious at their conclusions, he quickly came to believe that they were right. On March 31, Johnson announced on television that he was restricting the bombing of North Vietnam to the area just north of the Demilitarized Zone. Additionally, he committed the United States to discuss peace at any time or place. Then Johnson announced that he would not pursue reelection for the presidency. source: http://www.historychannel.com/

1942: US troops occupy the Society Islands.
1944: Manstein persuades Hitler to allow the First Panzer Army to break out to the west of Lvov, not south.
1945: The U.S. Navy begins the pre-invasion bombardment of Okinawa firing more than half a million shells and rockets in a week. Greek partisans temporarily take over Samos Island from the Italian garrison. The U.S. First Army breaks out of the Remagen bridgehead.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm

1813 - USS Essex takes Neryeda, first capture by U.S. Navy in Pacific
1898 - Assist. SECNAV Theodore Roosevelt proposes Navy investigate military application of Samuel Langley's flying machine, beginning naval aviation.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmar.htm

1994: American troops completed their withdrawal from Somalia.
source: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20080325.html

March 26th

1944: The Red Army recaptures Kamenets-Podolsk. in the Ukraine.
1945: The US Third Army captures Darmstadt. Reichsführer-SS Himmler is replaced by General Heinrici as C-i-C of Heeresgruppe Weichsel.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/march.html

1917: Captain P.H. Cherry, VC - Captain P.H. Cherry, 26th Battalion AIF, originally from Drysdale, Victoria, wins the Victoria Cross at Lagnicourt. It was a posthumous award.
1917: First Battle of Gaza begins - This was the first Allied attempt to capture this major Turkish centre lying 32 kilometres inside the border of Palestine. The Allied strength included two Australian Light Horse Brigades and the ANZAC Mounted Division under Major General Harry Chauvel.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1942 - ADM King becomes both Chief of Naval Operations and Commander, U.S. Fleet
1943 - Battle of Komandorski Islands, prevents Japanese reinforcements from reaching Attu
1966 - Operation Jackstay in Navy's first amphibious assault in Vietnam's inland waters
1968 - Operation Bold Dragon III began in Mekong Delta
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmar.htm

1945: Canada - Commonwealth Air Training Program ends after graduating 131,500. Germany -Canadians part of five Allied armies now on the attack east of the Rhine.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Mar&day=26

1913 - Balkan War: Bulgarian forces take Adrianople.
1945 - World War II: In Iwo Jima, US forces declare Iwo Jima "secure."
1958 - The United States Army launches Explorer 3.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_26

1864: General James B. McPherson assumes command of the Union Army of the Tennessee after William T. Sherman is elevated to commander of the Division of the Mississippi, the overall leader in the West.
1941: On this day, Italy attacks the British fleet at Suda Bay, Crete, using detachable warheads to sink a British cruiser. This was the first time manned torpedoes had been employed in naval warfare, adding a new weapon to the world's navies' arsenals.
1975: The city of Hue, in northernmost South Vietnam, falls to the North Vietnamese. Hue was the most recent major city in South Vietnam to fall to the communists during their new offensive. The offensive had started in December 1974, when the North Vietnamese had launched a major attack against the lightly defended province of Phuoc Long, located north of Saigon along the Cambodian border. The communists overran the provincial capital of Phuoc Binh on January 6, 1975.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?

March 27th

1941: In Yugoslavia, a coup by General Simonic and other army officers overthrows the pro-German government.
1945: The US Third Army captures Aschaffenburg. On the Oder front, beginning of a German counterattack from the Frankfurt bridgehead toward Küstrin that bogs down after a few miles.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/march.html

1944: First Victory Loan - Australian Government launches first Victory Loan aimed at raising £150 million for the war effort. Twelve major Government war loans were offered to the Australian public during the Second World War.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/mar.htm

1814: At the Battle of Horseshoe Bend (Tohopeka, Alabama) in the Creek War, Andrew Jackson and his 3,000 troops defeated the Creek Indians, slaughtering more than 800 warriors and imprisoning 500 women and children.
source: http://www.britannica.com/eb/dailycontent?month=3&day=27&go_button.x=6&go_butto n.y=11

1794 - Congress authorizes construction of 6 frigates, including Constitution
1799 - USS Constitution recaptures American sloop Neutrality from France
1880 - USS Constellation departs New York with food for famine victims in Ireland
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmar.htm

1964: Cyprus -First Canadians start duties with UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Mar&day=27

1965: Following several days of consultations with the Cambodian government, South Vietnamese troops, supported by artillery and air strikes, launch their first major military operation into Cambodia. The South Vietnamese encountered a 300-man Viet Cong force in the Kandal province and reported killing 53 communist soldiers. Two teams of U.S. helicopter gunships took part in the action. Three South Vietnamese soldiers were killed and seven wounded.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

1794 - The United States Government establishes a permanent navy and authorizes the building of six frigates.
1846 - Mexican-American War: Siege of Fort Texas.
1942 - World War II: United Kingdom forces raid the U-boat base at St. Nazaire, France.
1943 - World War II: Battle of the Komandorski Islands - In the Aleutian Islands the battle begins when United States Navy forces intercept Japanese attempting to reinforce a garrison at Kiska.
1945 - World War II: Operation Starvation, the aerial mining of Japan's ports and waterways begins.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_27

March 28th
1940: The British War Cabinet decides to lay mines in neutral Norwegian waters and to establish military bases on the coast of Norway.
1941: In the Mediterranean, the British Navy attacks Italian naval forces at Cape Matapan, Greece, and sinks three cruisers and one destroyer.
1942: Under the new tactical doctrine of area saturation bombing, introduced by Air Vice Marshal Harris, the RAF launches a heavy incendiary attack (234 bombers) against Lübeck on the Baltic that devastates 265 acres of the city.
1944: The Red Army recaptures Nikolaev on the Black Sea and enters Rumanian territory.
1945: Argentina declares war against Germany. The US Third Army captures Limburg on the Lahn. In the East, the 1st Belorussian Front captures Gotenhafen north of Danzig. Hitler replaces General Guderian with General Krebs as chief of the OKH.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/march.html

1918: Sergeant S.R. McDougall, VC. - Sergeant S.R. McDougall, 47th Battalion, originally from Recherche, Tasmania, wins the Victoria Cross at Dernancourt.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1794 - Allies under the prince of Coburg defeated French forces at Le Cateau.
1809 - Peninsular War: In the Battle of Medelin the France defeats Spain.
1854 - Crimean War: France declares war on Russia.
1860 - First Taranaki War: The Battle of Waireka begins.
1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Glorieta Pass - In New Mexico, Union forces succeed in stopping the Confederate invasion of New Mexico territory. The battle begun on March 26.
1942: In occupied France, British naval forces raid the German-occupied port of St. Nazaire.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_28

1800 - Essex becomes first U.S. Navy vessel to pass Cape of Good Hope
1814 - HMS Phoebe and Cherub capture USS Essex off Valparaiso, Chile. Before capture, Essex had captured 24 British prizes during the War of 1812.
1848 - USS Supply reaches the Bay of Acre, anchoring under Mount Carmel near the village of Haifa, during expedition to explore the Dead Sea and the River Jordan.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmar.htm

1942: In response to General Stilwell's request for a British counter-attack to relieve the pressure on Chinese forces around Toungoo, Alexander orders the 1st Burma Corps to attack at Paungde and Prome in the Irrawaddy valley. Under the new tactical doctrine of area saturation bombing, introduced by Air Vice Marshal Harris, the RAF launches a heavy incendiary attack (234 bombers) against Lübeck on the Baltic that devastates 265 acres of the old city. The RAF lost 13 aircraft and from one of these the Germans were able to obtain their first specimen of the GEE equipment. In retaliation for the raid on Lübeck, Hitler orders the Luftwaffe to bomb historic British towns and cities.
1943: The British First Army goes onto the offensive in northern Tunisia.
1944: Merrill’s ‘Marauders’ begin a 10-day defensive action against 1,300 Japanese at Nhpum Ga Ridge. The Russians recapture Nikolaev on the Black Sea and enter Romanian territory.
1945: The 1st Belorussian Front captures Gotenhafen (Gdynia) north of Danzig, along with 9,000 prisoners, after a long struggle. Hitler replaces General Guderian with General Krebs as chief of OKH. The British Second Army begin its drive towards the Elbe as the U.S. First Army captures Marburg, 60 miles Northeast of Koblenz. The US Third Army captures Limburg on the Lahn.
source: http://www.worldwar-2.net/timelines/timelines-index.htm

1885: Toronto Ontario - General Frederick Dobson Middleton leaves for the west in command of 5,000 troops to fight the North West Rebellion; reaches the end of the CPR on April 2, and splits up; Middleton goes to Batoche, Otter sent to Battleford, Strange goes after Big Bear.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Mar&day=28

1862: Union forces stop the Confederate invasion of New Mexico territory when they turn the Rebels back at Glorieta Pass. This action was part of the broader movement by the Confederates to capture New Mexico and other parts of the West. This would secure territory that the Rebels thought was rightfully theirs but had been denied them by political compromises made before the Civil War.
1941: Andrew Browne Cunningham, Admiral of the British Fleet, commands the British Royal Navy's destruction of three major Italian cruisers and two destroyers in the Battle of Cape Matapan in the Mediterranean. The destruction, following on the attack on the Italian Fleet at Taranto by the British in November 1940, effectively put an end to any threat the Italian navy posed to the British.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?

March 29th

1945: The US Third Army (Patton) captures Frankfurt am Main. In Hungary, the Red Army seizes the oilfields south of Komorn, the last source of petroleum for the German war effort.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/march.html

1885:New South Wales contingent arrive in Sudan - New South Wales' offer to send a contingent to the Sudan was a demonstration of the depth of imperial sentiment in colonial Australia.
1941:Battle of Matapan, Greece _ HMA ships Perth, Vendetta and Stuart were among 13 Allied ships involved in the battle which saw the loss of five Italian ships and 1,230 men. Victory at Matapan gave the Allies sea control of the Eastern Mediterranean until the end of the campaigns in Greece and Crete.
source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/index.asp

1461: Wars of the Roses: Battle of Towton - Edward of York defeats Queen Margaret to become KingEdward IV of England.
1847: Mexican-American War: United States forces led by GeneralWinfield Scott take Veracruz after a siege.
1865: American Civil War: Battle of Appomattox Court House begins.
1879: Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Kambula: British forces defeat 20,000 Zulus.
1973: Vietnam War: The last U.S. combat soldiers leave South Vietnam.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_29

1954 - Carrier aircraft began reconnaissance near Dien Bien Phu, Indochina
1960 - Launch of first fully integrated Fleet Ballistic Missile from USS Observation Island
1973 - Naval Advisory Group and Naval forces, Vietnam disestablished and last U.S. prisoners of war left Vietnam.
1975 - Evacuation of Danang by sea began.
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmar.htm

1971: Army Lt. William L. Calley Jr. was convicted of murdering at least 22 Vietnamese civilians in the My Lai massacre. (He spent three years under house arrest.)
1973, the last United States troops left South Vietnam, ending America's direct military involvement in the Vietnam War.
source: http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20080329.html

March 30th

1941: In Libya, the Afrikakorps resumes its offensive against the British 8th Army.
1945: On the Oder front, German troops of Heeresgruppe Weichsel (Heinrici) evacuate their last remaining bridgehead at Wollin N of Stettin.
source: http://www.feldgrau.com/march.html

1944 - First use of torpedo squadrons from carriers to drop aerial mines (Palau Harbor)
1972 - Easter Offensive began in Vietnam
source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmar.htm

1965: A bomb explodes in a car parked in front of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, virtually destroying the building and killing 19 Vietnamese, 2 Americans, and 1 Filipino; 183 others were injured. Congress quickly appropriated $1 million to reconstruct the embassy. Although some U.S. military leaders advocated special retaliatory raids on North Vietnam, President Lyndon B. Johnson refused.
source: http://www.history.com/

1939 - First flight of the AustralianC.A.C.CA-16 Wirraway.
1940 - Sino-Japanese War: Japan declares Nanking to be the capital of a new Chinesepuppet government, nominally controlled by Wang Ching-wei.
1945 - World War II: Soviet Unionforces invade Austria and take Vienna, Polish and Soviet forces liberate Gdańsk.
1945 - World War II: a defecting German pilot delivers a MesserschmittMe 262A-1 to Americans.
1972 - Vietnam War: The Easter Offensive begins after North Vietnamese forces cross into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) of South Vietnam.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/30_March

1644: Montreal Quebec - Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve 1612-1676 defeats a large band of marauding Iroquois on the site of the Place d'Armes; aided by force of 30 settlers; they had massacred several habitant families.
1885: Battleford Saskatchewan - Cree chief Poundmaker [Pitikwahanapiwiyin] 1826-1886 attacks and surrounds Battleford with 200 warriors; local settlers forced to seek shelter in NWMP barracks for a month. A formidable soldier, Poundmaker had participated in the signing of Treaty 6, and in 1881 had guided the Marquis of Lorne from Battleford to Calgary. But he was distressed at the treatment given the Cree people, and had agitated for fulfillment of the promises made under Treaty.
1972: Halifax Nova Scotia - Last daily rum ration issued to Canadian naval personnel.
source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_...mth=Mar&day=30

1942: The Allies formally divide the Pacific theatre into two commands. General MacArthur takes control of the South-West Pacific Command based in Australia and covering the Philippines, new Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago and the Dutch East Indies. The second command covered the remainder of the Pacific and came under the control of Admiral Nimitz, who was based at Pearl Harbor. His Pacific Ocean Command was then sub divided in to three, which were the North, Central and South Pacific Areas. The 6th Chinese Army abandons Toungoo, and fails to destroy the bridge over the river Sittang as well. This leaves the way to the Chinese border wide open for the Japanese Army. The abandonment of Toungoo also exposed 1st Burma Corps left flank, whose attacks in the Prome area had been turned back by the Japanese. It was therefore forced to withdraw towards the Yenangyuang oilfields.
1942: The RAF make a second unsuccessful attempt to sink the Tirpitz while in port at Trondheim.
1943: Elements of the Eighth Army break through at the Gabes Pass, over 100 miles into Tunisia and heads North.
1944: The siege of Imphal begins, as the Japanese cut the road to the North. The RAF suffers its heaviest losses in single raid when 96 bombers (600 aircrew) out of 795 are shot down during a raid on Nuremberg. Kleist and Manstein are sacked by Hitler and replaced by Schorner and Model.
1945: Russians troops finally capture Danzig, along with 45 U-boats and 10,000 prisoners. Breslau and Glogau are surrounded, 180 miles South East of Berlin. Russian troops cross the Austrian border to the North of Koszeg. German troops of Army Group Weichsel evacuate their last remaining bridgehead at Wollin to the North of Stettin. The U.S. First Army begins a 3 day battle for Paderborn.

1918: British, Australian and Canadian troops mount a successful counter-attack against the German offensive at Moreuil Wood, recapturing most of the area and forcing a turn in the tide of the battle in favor of the Allies.
source: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?