March 16, 1943. Stalin asks for the Western Allies to open a "second" front, disregarding that the war in the East was the Second Front, and the Western Allies were fighting on three fronts.

Former ally of Adolph Hitler, and a man whose overreach in dealing with his Nazi Allies had resulted in his country entering the war, Joseph Stalin, wrote Franklin Roosevelt.

The letter from the Marxist mass murderer read:

MOST SECRET AND PERSONAL MESSAGE

FROM PREMIER J. V. STALIN TO PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT

Now that I have Mr Churchill's reply to my message of February 16, I consider it my duty to answer yours of February 22, which likewise was a reply to mine of February 16.

I learned from Mr Churchill's message that Anglo-American operations in North Africa, far from being accelerated, are being postponed till the end of April; indeed, even this date is given in rather vague terms. In other words, at the height of the fighting against the Hitler troops—in February and March— the Anglo-American offensive in North Africa, far from having been stepped up, has been called off altogether, and the time fixed for it has been set back. Meanwhile Germany has succeeded in moving from the West 36 divisions, including six armoured, to be used against the Soviet troops. The difficulties that this has created for the Soviet Army and the extent to which it has eased the German position on the Soviet-German front will be readily appreciated.

Mr Churchill has also informed me that the Anglo-American operation against Sicily is planned for June. For all its importance that operation can by no means replace a second front in France. But I fully welcome, of course, your intention to expedite the carrying out of the operation.

At the same time I consider it my duty to state that the early opening of a second front in France is the most important thing. You will recall that you and Mr Churchill thought it possible to open a second front as early as 1942 or this spring at the latest. The grounds for doing so were weighty enough. Hence it should be obvious why I stressed in my message of February 16 the need for striking in the West not later than this spring or early summer.

The Soviet troops have fought strenuously all winter and are continuing to do so, while Hitler is taking important measures to rehabilitate and reinforce his Army for the spring and summer operations against the U.S.S.R.; it is therefore particularly essential for us that the blow from the West be no longer delayed, that it be delivered this spring or in early summer.

I appreciate the considerable difficulties caused by a shortage of transport facilities, of which you advised me in your message. Nevertheless, I think I must give a most emphatic warning, in the interest of our common cause, of the grave danger with which further delay in opening a second front in France is fraught. That is why the vagueness of both your reply and Mr Churchill's as to the opening of a second front in France causes me concern, which I cannot help expressing.

March 16, 1943

The letter was either shortsighted or full of hypocritical crap, although perhaps he was blind to its hypocrisy.

In fact, the Western Allies had opened a third front with Operation Torch, or rather continued it as the British were fighting in North Africa prior to Stalin's blundering getting the Soviet Union into the war on the Allied side.  This would count the Battle of the Atlantic, a titanic naval battle which apparently Stalin didn't regard as a front, as a front, but which in fact very much was.

This would of course discount the entire Pacific campaign, which was for the Western Allies already a "second" front, but which was keeping the Japanese off of the Soviet's back, or at least arguably so.

The Soviet peoples were suffering enormously, to be sure, a condition they had been in since Stalin's bloody bedfellows had subjected them to the purification of the "worker's state", assuming we do not backdate that to 1914 when Imperial Russia entered World War One, but mass bloodletting in the USSR was a thing long before World War Two. That it got much worse during World War Two cannot be discounted, to be sure, although part of the Soviet suffering was due to Stalin killing competent Soviet officers prior to the Second World War and terrorizing his own population.

What can you say? Keeping up the fable that Stalin needed a "second front", rather than acknowledging he had one, and then some, was in everyone's best interest.

On one of those fronts, on the Atlantic, the largest wolfpack attack of the war occurred as 22 Allied merchant ships were sunk.

"Second" front indeed.

This TBF had a close call on the Atlantic while landing on the USS Charger, an escort carrier.

Anthony Eden visited the Roosevelt's.

Wednesday, March 10, 1943. The Peak of the Battle of the Atlantic. First combat mission of the P-47.

By Crew of PB4Y-1 107-B-12 of VB-107, November 1943.

March 1943 was the peak of the Battle of the Atlantic, with the largest convoy battle of the war, the battle over Convoys HX 229/SC 122 about to commence.  Commencing on this day was the two-day battle over Convoy HX 228 in which nine U-boots would sink five Allied vessels, one of which was a warship.  The battle over Convoy SC 121 ended on this day, in which 27 U-boots sunk 12 merchant ships.  During March German submarines sank 120 merchant ships while losing only 15 submarines.  A Royal Navy figure later observed: "The Germans never came so near to disrupting communications between the New World and the Old as in the first twenty days of March 1943."

After April, however, Germany naval fortunes were to decline rapidly.

On the same day, the U-633 was sunk by the British freighter Scorton, which rammed her.  In its career, it had been on a single patrol and sunk one vessel.  On the same day, Germany changed its Enigma Code, according to Sarah Sundin's blog, temporarily making the Allies blind in the Atlantic.

A couple of things to recall. At this stage of the war, the Germans were still doing very well in the Atlantic, and indeed their fortunes were increasing in that theater.  Crossing the Atlantic remained extraordinarily perilous.  Allied ships went down continually.  And it was exclusively a Western Allied affair, which they bore alone.

German commenced rationing nonessential goods, thereby prohibiting the manufacture of suits, costumes, bath salts, and firecrackers. It restricted telephone use and photography at the same time.

It's not surprising that they took this step, but rather it was taken this late.

Sarah Sundin reports.

Today in World War II History—March 10, 1943: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter planes fly first mission with US Eighth Air Force based in Britain. US II Corps retakes Sbeïtla, Tunisia.

P-47C taking off, 1943.

P-47s did not have long enough range to escort bombers all the way to Germany and back, but they were nonetheless a game changer for the USAAF.  A new generation of fighters surpassing the capabilities of most Axis fighters was beginning to come online.

Here again, the Western Allies were waging a titanic war on the sea and in the air.  This benefitted all the Allies, but it was not borne by all of them.

The USSR established Laboratory No. 2 to research atomic energy.