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WWII On This Day: March 24

What happened on March 24 during World War II? This date brings together 9 events from 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944 and 1945, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1941
New Zealand infantry and Matilda tank crews meeting outside Tobruk during Operation Crusader, photographed 2 December 1941.
Captain Geoffrey Keating / No. 1 Army Film & Photographic Unit · Imperial War Museums E 6918 · UK Government public domain
Tobruk and Operation Crusader

Rommel’s first counter-offensive begins

With British and Commonwealth forces stretched across Cyrenaica and some formations diverted towards Greece, the German–Italian command renewed movement from the El Agheila area. Rommel pressed east rather than wait for a more complete defensive consolidation. The opening movements developed into an offensive across the region. The remaining British armoured and infantry formations fell back in stages as German mobile columns threatened their roads. The Axis advance succeeded because the defenders were dispersed and their communications and transport were strained, but gaining ground eastwards would put the Axis farther from…

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1942
Burmese refugees fleeing along the Prome Road toward India, 31 January 1942.
James Jarche / British Ministry of Information, Imperial War Museums JAR 1240 · Public domain (UK Government)
The Fall of Burma

The Chinese 200th Division defends Toungoo

The Chinese 200th Division under Major General Dai Anlan reached Toungoo on 8 March 1942, the day Rangoon fell, as a formation of the Chinese Expeditionary Force that Stilwell commanded, drawn from the Fifth Army and the New Sixth Army. A first skirmish took place on 18 March. On 24 March the 143rd Regiment of the Japanese 55th Division outflanked the town and cut the 200th Division's supply line, and on 25 March the Japanese attacked from three sides in house-to-house fighting. On 28 March the 56th Division, newly arrived…

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1943
A Chindit column crosses a river in Burma during Operation Longcloth in 1943.
Imperial War Museums, IND 2290 · UK Government public domain
The Arakan and the Chindits

Wingate is ordered to withdraw from Longcloth

By late March the Longcloth columns were deep inside Burma and increasingly difficult to sustain. On 24 March IV Corps ordered Wingate to withdraw after considering whether the force could continue useful operations farther east. The columns did not return as one body. They broke into dispersal groups, abandoned equipment and animals that could no longer be carried, and searched for crossings of the Irrawaddy, Shweli and Chindwin while Japanese patrols tried to intercept them. The withdrawal lasted for weeks. It exposed the central weakness of deep penetration: air supply…

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1944
The Arakan and the Chindits

Orde Wingate is killed in an aircraft crash

On 24 March Wingate was returning from visits to Chindit strongholds when the B-25 carrying him and other passengers crashed in the hills near Bishenpur in Manipur. Everyone aboard was killed. His death removed the principal architect and political advocate of long-range penetration at the point when Operation Thursday was still expanding. Command passed through new arrangements while the Chindit brigades remained committed behind Japanese lines. The operation continued, but its employment changed as northern Burma fighting intensified. Increasingly the brigades were directed toward objectives connected with Joseph Stilwell’s advance…

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A German Messerschmitt Bf 110 attacks B-17F Flying Fortresses of the 91st Bomb Group over Europe in January 1944.
U.S. Army Air Forces / National Archives, NAID 204888701 · Public domain in the United States · Source
The Combined Bomber Offensive

The Fifteenth Air Force attacks from Italy

Heavy bombers of the Fifteenth Air Force attacked Berlin from bases in Italy while major Allied operations were also under way from Britain. The mission demonstrated the two-direction pressure envisioned for Pointblank, although weather and operational demands often prevented close coordination between the Eighth and Fifteenth.

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1945
Horsa gliders on the ground near Hamminkeln on 25 March 1945, the day after Operation Varsity.
Sgt Christie, No. 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit · Imperial War Museums BU 2287 · Public domain
The Rhine Crossings

Ninth Army crosses south of the Lippe

The U.S. Ninth Army crossed south of the Lippe under Simpson, with the 30th and 79th Infantry Divisions leading, and found the forward German positions lightly held enough for the assault battalions to make rapid progress. Ninth Army lost 41 killed, 450 wounded and seven missing during the first day. Its role in the 21st Army Group plan was the southern wing of the lower-Rhine bridgehead, from which American forces would later turn around the Ruhr.

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C-47 transports release paratroops and supplies over the Rees-Wesel area during Operation Varsity, 24 March 1945.
C-47 transports release paratroops and supplies over the Rees-Wesel area during Operation Varsity, 24 March 1945. Imperial War Museums wartime collection · Public domain Source
The Rhine Crossings

Varsity lands east of the Rhine

Two airborne divisions landed in a single daylight operation east of the Rhine after the ground assault had begun and within range of Allied artillery. RAF Air Historical Branch tables record 14,365 British and American airborne troops in the initial lift. The British 6th Airborne Division and U.S. 17th Airborne Division were assigned objectives around Hamminkeln, the Diersfordter Wald and the Issel crossings. Their task was to prevent German forces from organising directly behind the river bridgehead.

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The Rhine Crossings

German flak hits the airborne lift

The price of landing in daylight close to the front was heavy exposure to German anti-aircraft fire. The U.S. 17th Airborne Division lost 159 killed, 522 wounded and 840 missing during the day, although about 600 of the missing subsequently returned. IX Troop Carrier Command lost 41 killed, 153 wounded and 163 missing. More than 50 gliders and 44 transport aircraft were destroyed, and 332 transports were damaged. The airborne objectives nevertheless continued to fall during the afternoon.

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Glider troops after landing near Wesel during Operation Varsity, 24 March 1945.
Glider troops after landing near Wesel during Operation Varsity, 24 March 1945. U.S. Army · Public domain Source
The Rhine Crossings

The Issel crossings are secured

Glider troops and paratroopers took Hamminkeln and important crossings over the Issel, the next obstacle behind the Rhine, and held them as ground forces pushed east from the river bridgehead. By about 12:30 the airborne lift was on the ground. The airborne divisions landed with 109 tons of ammunition, 695 vehicles and 113 artillery pieces. Their same-day link-up with the ground force opened the eastern approaches of the lower-Rhine bridgehead.

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