which lasts a total of 13 hours and 48 minutes, Swansea's town centre is almost completely obliterated by the 896 high explosive bombs employed by the Luftwaffe; 397 casualties and 230 deaths are reported. February 22 – WWII: British cruiser bombards Barawa, on the coast between Kismayo and Mogadishu. February 23 – Glenn T. Seaborg and associates isolate and discover plutonium, at the University of California, Berkeley. February 25 – WWII: The occupied Netherlands starts the first popular uprising in Europe against the Axis powers, the "February strike" against German deportation of Jews in Amsterdam and surroundings. British submarine attacks an Italian convoy, sinking the cruiser Armando Diaz. February 27 – WWII: The New Zealand Division cruiser HMS Leander (1931) sinks Italian armed merchant raider Ramb I off the Maldives. March March 1 WWII: Bulgaria signs the Tripartite Pact, thus joining the Axis powers. Arthur L. Bristol becomes Rear Admiral for the United States Navy's Support Force, Atlantic Fleet. March 4 – WWII: Operation Claymore – British Commandos carry out a successful raid on the Lofoten Islands, off the north coast of Norway. March 8 – WWII: The U.S. Senate passes the Lend-Lease Act. March 11 – WWII: Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States, signs the Lend-Lease Act into law, providing for the U.S. to provide Lend-Lease aid to the Allies. March 15 – Richard C. Hottelet is arrested by the Gestapo on "suspicion of espionage", but eventually released in July as part of a prisoner exchange with the U.S. March 16 – A group of U.S. warships arrive in Auckland, New Zealand, on a goodwill visit. On March 20, they arrive in Sydney, Australia. March 17 In Washington, D.C., the National Gallery of Art is officially opened by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. British Minister of Labour Ernest Bevin calls for women to fill vital jobs. March 22 – Washington state's Grand Coulee Dam begins to generate electricity. March 24 – WWII: Rommel launches his first offensive in Cyrenaica. March 25 – WWII: The Kingdom of Yugoslavia joins the Axis powers in Vienna. March 27 – WWII: Battle of Cape Matapan: Off the Peloponnese coast in the Mediterranean, British naval forces defeat those of Italy, sinking 5 warships (the battle ends on March 29). Yugoslav coup d'état: An anti-Axis coup d'état in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia led by General Dušan Simović, Brigadier General Borivoje Mirković, Colonels Dragutin Savić