Berlin, Germany • March 21, 1943 Adolf Hitler was the target of assassins on at least 30 occasions. On this date in 1943 in the German Reich’s capital, Berlin, Army officers made the second of 2 attempts in March to kill Hitler with a bomb. The week before, 2 staff officers had planted a bomb aboard Hitler’s private…
Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts • March 20, 1944 On this date in 1944 the USS Mason, an Evarts-class destroyer escort, was commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard, 5 months after her keel was laid down. The next month, on April 25, 1944, the USS PC‑1264, a PC‑461-class submarine chaser, was commissioned 6 months after her keel was laid…
Chanute Field, Rantoul, Illinois • March 19, 1941 Pressed on one side by Black news media and civil rights groups demanding that pilot training be opened up to African Americans and on the other by an upcoming re-election, President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940 authorized the creation of a segregated flight school and an all-Black…
Over Germany • March 18, 1945 On April 18, 1941 tests began of the world’s first operational twin-engine turbojet fighter, the Messerschmitt 262 Swallow (Schwalbe). The tests were really of the airframe because the BMW turbojets were nowhere close to being ready. Over a year later, on July 18, 1942, a fully configured version flew—this almost…
Aboard the HMS Walker in the North Atlantic • March 17, 1941 On this date in 1941 U-99, skippered by Otto Kretschmer, one of Germany’s most famous U‑boat commanders, had just fired the last of her torpedoes when she was spotted by a British destroyer southeast of Iceland in the North Atlantic. By this time Kretschmer,…
Auburn, Massachusetts • March 16, 1926 On this date in 1926 in Auburn, Massachusetts, Dr. Robert Goddard (1882–1945) conducted his first successful rocket flight. His liquid-propellant rocket rose 41 ft/12.5 m, traveled 184 ft/56 m, and burned no more than 3 seconds, but it proved the concept of rocket flight worked. Goddard, who received limited support for his research and…
Washington, D.C. • March 15, 1942 On this date in 1942 the U.S. War Department established the second of 3 tank battalions in what became the Fifth Armored Group, a predominately African American armored formation that served with distinction in World War II. The 3 black tank battalions were the 758th, activated in January 1941; the 761st, activated…
Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands • March 14, 1945 On this date in 1945 the U.S. flag was raised over the 8.1‑sq‑mile/21‑sq‑km island of Iwo Jima in a formal flag-raising ceremony. The Battle of Iwo Jima (February 19 to March 26, 1945)—a battle for the isolated and barren Japanese-held island lying some 760 miles/1,223 km southeast of Tokyo—was the most…
Moscow, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics • March 13, 1940 (Finnish Time) On this date in 1940, in the Soviet capital of Moscow, Finnish and Soviet delegates initialed the Treaty (or Peace) of Moscow. The terms of the agreement, dated March 12 (Moscow time), ended the so-called Winter War the Soviets had unleashed a little…
Linz, Austria • March 12, 1938 After abolishing Germany’s Ministry of War on February 4, 1938, and creating in its place the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW, or Supreme Command of the Armed Forces) with himself at its helm, Adolf Hitler now focused on a peaceful takeover of Europe beginning with his native Austria, an Alpine country…
