March 24 in Military History

Queen Elizabeth I died and James VI of Scotland became James I of England, uniting the two crowns and creating a combined military power that would dominate the British Isles and eventually build the world's largest empire. The union ended centuries of Anglo-Scottish warfare and created the military infrastructure that would project British power globally.

German physician Robert Koch presented his discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes tuberculosis. TB had been the leading killer of soldiers in virtually every army in the world, often causing more military deaths than combat. Koch's discovery launched the scientific revolution in military medicine that transformed how armies fought disease.

Three days into Operation Michael, German forces crossed the Somme River while the Paris Gun, a massive railway-mounted cannon, fired its first shells on Paris from 75 miles away. Over 16 days, the Germans advanced 40 miles, the deepest penetration on the Western Front since trench warfare began in 1914.

On the night of March 24, 76 Allied POWs escaped through "Tunnel Harry", a 30-foot-deep, 336-foot-long tunnel beneath Stalag Luft III. Masterminded by Squadron Leader Roger Bushell, it was the largest Allied escape of the war. Only 3 of the 76 reached freedom. A furious Hitler ordered 50 of the recaptured men executed by the Gestapo, a war crime that was investigated and prosecuted after the war.

German SS forces executed 335 Italian civilians and political prisoners in the Ardeatine Caves outside Rome in reprisal for a partisan bombing that killed 33 German soldiers. Hitler ordered 10 Italians killed for every German, and the SS exceeded even that ratio. Victims included resistance fighters, political prisoners, 75 Jews, and civilians grabbed off the streets. The youngest was 15, the oldest over 70.

More than 16,000 Allied paratroopers from the British 6th Airborne Division and U.S. 17th Airborne Division launched Operation Varsity, the largest airborne operation ever conducted in a single day. Approximately 2,700 transport aircraft and 1,300 gliders dropped troops east of the Rhine near Wesel as part of Montgomery's Operation Plunder. All objectives were captured within hours, but at a cost of over 2,000 airborne casualties, the deadliest single day for Allied airborne troops in WWII.

British and Indian forces under General William Slim captured the vital Japanese logistics hub of Meiktila in central Burma, cutting off supplies to the entire Japanese Fifteenth and Thirty-Third Armies. The audacious armored thrust across 300 miles of difficult terrain is considered one of the finest operational maneuvers of World War II.

The Argentine military overthrew President Isabel Perón in a coup that installed a junta led by General Jorge Videla. The subsequent "Dirty War" saw the military regime kidnap, torture, and murder an estimated 30,000 people. The junta's 1982 decision to invade the Falkland Islands led to a war with Britain that ended the regime.

During Freedom of Navigation exercises, Libya fired SA-5 missiles at U.S. Navy aircraft over the Gulf of Sidra, which Gaddafi had declared a "Line of Death." The Navy responded with Harpoon missiles and cluster bombs, sinking a Libyan missile boat and attacking radar sites and a corvette. A carrier battle group of three carriers and 250 aircraft was involved. All U.S. aircraft returned safely.

NATO launched its first-ever combat operation, a 78-day air campaign against Yugoslavia to halt Serbian ethnic cleansing of Kosovar Albanians. Over 1,000 aircraft flew more than 38,000 sorties without a single Allied combat death. Serbia capitulated on June 10. The operation was controversial for lacking a UN mandate but established the principle that air power alone could compel a nation to capitulate.