7 March 1942
Pacific Ocean : American submarine USS Grenadier attacked Japanese transport Asahisan Maru 82 miles northeast of Tokyo, Japan at 1500 hours, hitting her with four torpedoes but only one detonated; Asahisan Maru was damaged but was able to return to Yokohama, Japan for repairs.
RAAF Hudson aircraft detected Japanese transports 55 miles north of the coast of New Guinea.
Arctic Ocean : The 2,815-ton Russian passenger-cargo vessel Ijora went missing near the Kola Inlet. It was reported to have been sunk by the German destroyer Friedrich Ihn during operations against Convoy QP-8. On March 7, the German battleship Tirpitz sailed from Trondheim with three destroyers. She failed, however, to reach the both Arctic convoys PQ-12 , which was her target and returning QP-8 , while the British Home Fleet also failed initially to intercept her.
Atlantic Ocean : German submarine U-126 torpedoed and sank US freighters Barbara and Cardonia between Cuba and Haiti.
German submarine U-155 torpedoed and sank Brazilian cargo ship Arabutan 50 kilometers off North Carolina, United States.
German submarine U-129 torpedoed and sank US cargo ship Steel Age off Dutch Guyana.
Swedish cargo ship Skane was torpedoed and sunk by Italian submarine Giuseppe Finzi off Bahamas.
Toward the end of the day, at 2314 hours, German submarine U-701 (Kapitänleutnant Horst Degen) sank 349-ton Danish steam trawler Nyggjaberg from the Faroe Islandsby gunfire , killing all 21 aboard.
At 1759 hours the unescorted 9,755-ton South African whale factory ship Uniwaleco was hit by one of two torpedoes from German submarine U-161 (Kapitänleutnant Albrecht Achilles) in the Caribbean Sea 45 miles west of St. Vincent Passage. The ship apparently went out of control because she ran in circles and settled but did not sink. At 1814 hours, the submarine fired a coup de grâce which hit aft and caused her to sink within three minutes after breaking in two. 18 crew members were lost. The master and 32 crew members landed on St. Vincent.
Burma : Rangoon is evacuated by British and Indian forces. ÂŁ11,000,000 worth of oil installations of Burmah Oil Company in southern Burma near Rangoon were destroyed as British retreated from the city, preventing Japanese capture; this destruction would result in 20 years of High Court litigation after the war. Also destroyed were 972 unassembled Lend-Lease trucks and 5,000 tires. From Rangoon, 800 civilians departed aboard transports for Calcutta, India.
The Anglo-Indian troops in the Rangoon region were held up by a Japanese roadblock at Taukkyan, which was assaulted repeatedly without success.
The 382-ton British merchant ship Nyounghla was scuttled at Rangoon, Burma.
Dutch East Indies : Japanese troops reached Tjilatjap, Java, Dutch East Indies during the day and captured Lembang in the evening, which overlooked Bandoeng. Dutch sailors scuttled minelayer Gouden Leeuw at Surabaya, Java to prevent capture.
The invasion of Java is about to end. The situation in the western part of the island is critical since decision to surrender Jakarta two days ago. Dutch forces are outnumbered five to one and Japanese have absolute air supremacy over Java and rail links between east and west of the Java were severed.
That night Dutch commander in Chief in Java General ter Poorten officially surrendered his entire command to Japanese. 100,000 Dutch, British, Australian and American troops were taken prisoner. Their travails had only just begun. In all, 8,500 Dutch soldiers were to die in captivity, nearly a quarter of those who were taken prisoner. A further 10,500 Dutch civilian internees were to perish, out of 80,000 interned. Many soldiers and civilians died while hiding on remote islands, hoping for rescue, or building boats in which to seek possible succour on other islands.
Indian Ocean : 150 miles southwest of Tjilatjap in Java, Dutch East Indies, the Norwegian Merchant steamer Woolgar, carrying 4,500 tons of coal and 450 tons of ammunition and explosives, was attacked by Japanese bombers. Three bombs were direct hits and lifeboats were launched. These survivors were machine-gunned and some Chinese crew were killed. A fourth bomb hit the vessel which resulted in the explosion of the TNT in the hold, which ripped the ship apart. The lifeboat with remaining crew in it was 88 days at sea before reaching the Andaman Islands where they were taken prisoner by the Japanese.
Dutch passander ship Poelou Bras was bombed and sunk by Japanese navy dive bombers from Japanese carrier Hiryu. 240 were killed.