World War II calendar
What happened on March 4 during World War II? This date brings together 3 events from 1941, 1944 and 1945, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.
Around 62,000 British, Australian and New Zealand troops were sent from Egypt to Greece, weakening the desert force at exactly the moment Rommel was landing in Tripoli. The commanders in Cairo doubted it could succeed. It was a political decision about not abandoning an ally who was winning, taken with open eyes. It failed in Greece and it also cost the desert: Rommel retook Cyrenaica in April against a force stripped of its best divisions.
By early March the major German attacks had ended and the Anzio front had settled into a defended perimeter. Alexander met Truscott on 4 March while the corps rebuilt depleted units and worked out plans for an eventual breakout. German Fourteenth Army continued to hold the approaches to Rome, and mines and artillery made even small local advances costly.
Continue in Cassino and Anzio: The Road to Rome →
On 4 March 1945, the thirteenth day of the battle, a distressed B-29 landed on Airfield No. 1 while Marines were still fighting north of the field. By 26 March another 35 Twentieth Air Force bombers had been saved by the island, 36 in all. On 6 March the 15th Fighter Group of the Army Air Forces arrived with P-51 and P-61 aircraft, and on 7 March Major General James Chaney of the Army, the island commander, assumed responsibility for developing the base. Iwo-based fighters took over air defence and…
Continue in Iwo Jima →
