28 March 1942
St. Nazaire , France : Operation Chariot , Executing Operation Chariot, Old Town Class Royal Navy destroyer HMS Campbeltown (from Destroyers vs Bases Deal) sailed into the Loire River estuary near Saint-Nazaire France , accompanied by two Royal Navy torpedoboats and eighteen motorboats , with commandos on board at 0122 hours. Their objective is to destroy drydock of St. Nazaire and its harbour facilities to deny them from German battleships like Tirpitz. The flotilla was detected and fired upon by coastal guns. Despite hits, HMS Campeltown rammed into the dry dock at 0134 hours and unloaded commandos and other troops, who wrecked the dock facilities , suffering 169 killed and 215 captured; 228 escaped via small motorboat vessels (four Victoria Crosses won that night) , leaving eleven motoboat transports sinking and the explosives-laden HMS Campbeltown behind, which detonated at noon, killing 360 German troops and naval personnel and wrecking dry dock. Royal Navy torpedoboats accompanying the flotilla left a series of timed mines at the entrance of dock to detonate a few days later and before leaving the area. Only U-Boat pens remained intact in St. Nazaire harbour.
Hitler angered that British were audacious to sail up under German guns to cripple an important harbour , relieved German admiral commanding St. Nazaire a few days later.
Rastenburg , East Prussia : Even as the commando raid on St Nazaire was in progress, Hitler, at Rastenburg, was informing his military commanders of their tasks for the summer campaign against Russia, Operation Blue. First, the city of Voronezh, on the Don, would be captured, then Stalingrad, on the Volga. Further south, the Caucasus mountains were to be reached by early September. After the defeat of the Russian armies, an East Wall would be built along the Volga, behind which the remnants of Russiaâs armies would remain, to be attacked whenever they threatened to become too strong.
Arctic Ocean : Battle of Convoy PQ-13 resumes. In the morning, German submarine U-209 attacked Polish ship Tobruk of Allied convoy PQ-13 with all torpedoes missing the target; the convoy escorts counterattacked with depth charges with similar dismal results. Later in the day, Luftwaffe JU-88 bombers attacked the same convoy , hit and sank British cargo ship Empire Ranger and damaged Panamanian merchant ship Raceland (which would eventually sink at 2230 hours).
In the evening, German destroyers Z24, Z25, and Z26 departed Kirkenes in far northern Norway to hunt for ships of the PQ-13; 61 of Empire Rangerâs survivors were rescued by German destroyer Z24 at 2245 hours, but many other survivors died in the freezing water.
Mediterranean Sea : Royal Navy submarine HMS Proteus torpedoed and sank Italian hospital ship Galilea 20 miles west of Greece; 991 were killed, 284 survived.
Lubeck , Germany : LĂźbeck suffered the first area saturation bombing as 234 RAF bombers dropped incendiaries, destroying over 200 acres of the city. One British bomber equipped with the new GEE navigation system was lost and the GEE captured by the Germans. (though it took a few more months for them to find countermeasures against it)
Two thousand of LĂźbeckâs buildings were totally destroyed that night, and 312 German civilians killed. Of the 191 RAF bombers which reached the city, twelve were shot down. Fifteen thousand Germans had lost their homes. âThis Sunday has been thoroughly spoiledâ, Reich Propaganda Minister Goebbels noted in his diary, âby an exceptionally heavy air raid by the Royal Air Force on LĂźbeckâ. Eighty per cent of the medieval city, he added, âmust be considered lostâ.
The main object of the attack,â the head of RAF Bomber Command, Air Marshal Sir Arthur Harris, later recalled, âwas to learn to what extent a first wave of aircraft could guide a second wave to the aiming-point by starting a conflagration; I ordered a half-an-hour interval between the two waves in order to allow the fires to get a good hold.â Harris added, by way of explanation of the choice of LĂźbeck as a target that night: âLĂźbeck was not a vital target, but it seemed to me better to destroy an industrial town of moderate importance than to toil to destroy a large industrial cityâ. In addition, Harris wrote, âI wanted my crews to be well âbloodedâ as they say in fox-hunting, to have a taste of success for a change.â
France : Over western Europe, Royal Air Force were particularly active on March 28, a day which saw the first parachute drop of supplies to the British agents in France. The drop, at Blyes, was successful.
Berlin , German : In an attempt to tie down as many Russian troops as possible in the Far East during the coming offensive in Eastern Front, German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop pressed the Japanese Ambassador in Berlin, Baron Oshima, to secure a Japanese attack on Russia simultaneously with Germanyâs âcrushing blowâ. The German General Staff, in order to encourage such a Japanese attack, would send their Japanese opposite numbers a specific proposal for a Japanese attack against Vladivostok and on to Lake Baikal. Such was Ribbentropâs proposal to Japan on March 28. But the Japanese took no action.
Fritz Sauckel was named the Reich Chief of Manpower, with responsibility of expediting the recruitment of slave labor.
Pacific Ocean : The US Marine Corps 7th Defense Battalion departed for Upolu, Western Samoa while a small Marine detachment was dispatched to Savaiâi, Samoa.
A second Japanese carrier fleet set sail for the Indian Ocean.
Burma : A fresh regiment of the Japanese 56th Division attacked Chinese-defended city of Taungoo, Burma.
Australia : RMS Queen Mary arrived at Sydney, Australia and disembarked 8,400 troops.
Dutch East Indies : Dutch Major General Roelof T. Overakker surrendered his 2,000 troops at Blangkedjeren, marking the end of resistance on Sumatra, Dutch East Indies.
New Delhi , India : After long talks with Indian National Congress leaders , Sir Stafford Cripps declares that India would be independent Commonwealth status after the war.