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Events on Friday 24 March 1944 2
1903 – 1944Orde Wingate (1903-1944)Died 24 March 1944, aged 41British Army officer who created the Chindits, long-range penetration units that fought behind Japanese lines in Burma. He had earlier led guerrilla operations in Palestine and Ethiopia. He was killed in an air crash in northeast India.
1944The Great EscapeMass breakout from Stalag Luft IIISeventy-six Allied airmen escaped through a tunnel named Harry from the German prisoner-of-war camp at Sagan. All but three were recaptured. On Hitler's orders, fifty of them were executed by the Gestapo.