In the Battle of the Bismarck Sea during World War II, American and Australian aircraft attacked a Japanese convoy, causing heavy troop losses. In December 1942, the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters decided to reinforce their position in the South West Pacific. The plan was to move some 6,900 troops from Rabaul directly to Lae, New Guinea. Strong Allied air power made it risky, but the alternative was for troops to march through inhospitable terrain. The convoy (eight destroyers and eight troop transports escorted by fighters) set out on 28 February 1943. The Allies had detected preparations for the convoy, and codebreakers had decrypted messages indicating its intended destination and arrival date. The convoy came under sustained air attack on 2–3 March 1943. Follow-up attacks by PT boats and aircraft were made on 4 March. All eight transports and four of the escorting destroyers were sunk, and only about 1,200 troops made it to Lae. Another 2,700 were saved by destroyers and submarines and returned to Rabaul. The Japanese made no further attempts to reinforce Lae by ship, greatly hindering their ultimately unsuccessful efforts to stop Allied offensives in New Guinea.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Bismarck_Sea
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1820:
The U.S. Congress passed the Missouri Compromise, which balanced the addition of Missouri as a slave state with the admittance of Maine as a free state. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri_Compromise
1875:
French composer Georges Bizet's opera Carmen, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, premiered at the Opéra Comique in Paris. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmen
1913:
Thousands of women marched in Washington, D.C. (program pictured) "in a spirit of protest" against the exclusion of women from American society. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woman_Suffrage_Parade_of_1913
1943:
Second World War: During a German aerial attack on London, 173 people were killed in a stampede while trying to enter Bethnal Green tube station, which was being used as an air raid shelter. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethnal_Green_tube_station
1997:
The Sky Tower in Auckland, the tallest free-standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere at 328 m (1,076 ft), opened. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_Tower_(Auckland)
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
beey: (informal, rare) Reminiscent of or containing bees. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/beey
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Parliamentary government is simply a mild and disguised form of compulsion. We agree to try strength by counting heads instead of breaking heads, but the principle is exactly the same. … The minority gives way not because it is convinced that it is wrong, but because it is convinced that it is a minority. --James Fitzjames Stephen https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Fitzjames_Stephen