A cabin boy upset at being disciplined would set the SS Bremen, a major modern passenger liner, on fire. The act proved so destructive that the ship was towed out and sunk, with steel above the water line removed. She was later towed out further, but is visible at low tide.
The Bremen had managed to avoid British detection at the very start of the war, which broke out when she was on a return trip from New York. She dashed to Murmansk. When the Winter War broke out, she dashed to Bremerhaven and avoided being sunk by a British submarine whose captain had determined she was not a legal target.
British and Indian forces landed in an amphibious operation at Berbera in Somaliland on this day in 1941. The malaria ridden Italian garrison surrendered without a fight. The German surface raiders Scharnhorst and Gneisenau sank ten ships overnight.
The Italian spring offensive ended in failure.
A British destroyer tracked a German submarine by radar, the first instance of this being done.
More on the events of World War Two can be read about here:
Today in World War II History—March 16, 1941
And here:
Day 563 March 16, 1941
Hitler delivered a speech in Berlin in which he predicted victory, now that the winter was over. The audience was not aware that the spring would see the invasion of the Soviet Union. You can read more about that here:
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