Posted on 04/03/2012 4:41:37 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Carroll V. Glines, The Doolittle Raid
* U.S.M.C. alert – note the very last item on page 10.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1942/apr42/f03apr42.htm
Japanese attacks force British retreat
Friday, April 3, 1942 www.onwar.com
In Burma... Mandalay is bombed heavily. The British continue to withdraw up the Irrawaddy Valley.
In the Philippines... After a short lull, the Japanese renew their attacks on the Bataan Peninsula, where an under equipped American and Philippino force has retreated to their final defensive positions. The attack begins with a lengthy bombardment of allies positions and they are forced to retreat again.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/frame.htm
April 3rd, 1942 (FRIDAY)
U.S.S.R.: Moscow: The German and Soviet armies are now sparring for advantage before they launch the major offensives they plan for spring. Encounters are reported from outside Leningrad, and there is heavy fighting for possession of Novgorod and Staraya Russa in the centre.
Most of the activity is in the south where the spring thaw is releasing the ground. The Russians have pushed the Germans back south-east of Kharkov. The Germans admitted yesterday that the Russians had penetrated their lines and compelled them to retreat.
BURMA : The Burma I Corps continues a northward withdrawal from the Allanmyo area although not under enemy pressure. In the Sittang Valley, Lieutenant General Joseph Stilwell, Commanding General American Army Forces, China, Burma and India and Chief of Staff of the Chinese Army, begins deploying the Chinese for a stand at Pyinmana. The Chinese 22d Division is to fall back gradually on Pyinmana, where the Chinese 96th Division is to take over. (Jack McKillop)
Japanese bombers attack Mandalay, killing 2000 and destroying much of the city. (Jack McKillop)
Six USAAF 10th Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses from Asansol Airdrome, India, bomb warehouses and docks at Rangoon starting three large fires; one B-17 fails to return. (Jack McKillop)
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: The Japanese open an all-out offensive against the Bataan line, which is by now under strength, undernourished, poorly clothed and equipped, and battle weary. After air and artillery bombardment, lasting from 1000 until 1500 hours, the Japanese move forward, making their main effort against Sector D, the west flank of the II Corps, where the 41st and 21st Divisions, Philippine Army (PA), are thinly spread and dazed as result of the preliminary bombardment. The 41st, on the west, gives way and is rendered virtually ineffective as a fighting force, although a regiment on extreme west succeeds in withdrawing in an orderly fashion. A battalion on the flank of the 21st Division is forced to pull back. An effort to re-establish the line of the 41st Division after dark is partially successful. The only corps reserve unit, the 33d Infantry (PA), less the 1st Battalion, is released to Sector D as is the Provisional Tank Group (-) of the Luzon Force reserve. In the I Corps sector to the west, the Japanese succeed in reaching the main line of resistance on the eastern flank but are unable to pierce it. (Jack McKillop)
AUSTRALIA: The USAAF’s Air Transport Command activates two transport squadrons, one at Archerfield Aerodrome near Brisbane, Queensland, and the second at Essendon Aerodrome near Melbourne, Victoria. The squadrons are equipped with various transport aircraft. (Jack McKillop)
EAST INDIES: RAAF Hudsons of Nos. 2 and 13 Squadrons operating from Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, bomb Penfui Airfield on Dutch West Timor Island. The Australians destroy four and damage two aircraft on the ground. (Jack McKillop)
TERRITORY OF HAWAII: Admiral Chester W Nimitz assumes command of Pacific Ocean Areas (POA). POA comprises North, Central, Southeast and South Pacific Areas, all under overall command of Admiral Nimitz as Commander-in-Chief POA. The Southeast Pacific Area had been established on 8 December 1941 and is commanded by Rear Admiral John F Shafroth. The South Pacific Area is officially established on 20 April and North Pacific Area on 17 May. Nimitz retains his position as Commander in Chief Pacific Fleet (CINCPAC). (Jack McKillop)
Light minelayers USS Pruitt (DM-22), Preble (DM-20), Sicard (DM-21), and Tracy (DM-19) mine French Frigate Shoals, Hawaiian Group, to prevent Japanese submarines from using the area as a refueling point for flying boat raids on Oahu. (Jack McKillop)
U.S.A.: The motion picture “Jungle Book” is released in the U.S. This action adventure fantasy, directed by Zoltan Korda, starred Sabu and Rosemary DeCamp. The plot involves a boy raised by wolves in India who is adopted by Ms. DeCamp. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards. (Jack McKillop)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Two U.S. merchant ships are sunk by German submarines: (1) a freighter, en route to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., from Takoradi, Gold Coast, is torpedoed and sunk by U-754 about 250 miles (402 kilometres) east of Virginia Beach, Virginia, U.S.A.; and (2) a freighter en route to Takoradi, Gold Coast, from Marshall, Liberia, is torpedoed by U-505 about 240 miles south southwest of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and abandoned. (Jack McKillop)
Among the things not reported at the time the Brits evacuated all the white people in Penang and left all the Chinese and mixed-blood Portuguese behind for the Japanese to deal with.
This POd just about EVERYONE.
Bitterness lingers to this day.
What is the deal with not allowing cuffs on pants? Front page news? I suppose they wanted to conserve wool....
Wasn’t the capture of Penang part of the Singapore campaign back in February?
His mother was "Ann Stanley" ~ definitely something to think about when you dig into the old Portuguese/Anglo/Malay families living along the coastline of the Indian Ocean ~
My understanding is that the Japanese began their Malay campaign in the South, at Singapore, but sent naval units North for a later landing ~ and how later is a good question. The dates I've seen for that movement tend to reflect Navy rather than Army units. Malaya then was much more difficult to travel through than it is today.
Just looking up some articles the Penang evacuation took place during the Singapore battle period ~ but the Japanese never really took over the place ~ nor did they need to. With the Brits out and no one but unarmed civilians left behind it ended up not serving any purpose.
Since the article we are looking at is so early in 1942, all of this overlaps the still continuing Japanese advance into the region.
So, to get around this prohibition, might a man who normally wore a 32" finished length purchase the same pair of pants but with a 36" finished length and then have them shortened to 32" with cuffs?
Not unless you're looking for trouble from the War Production Board.
"No person shall finish a pair of trousers made of wool cloth with cuffs or cause such to be finished with cuffs by others for his account."
I wonder if cuffs on cotton pants are legal. Better not chance it. You might wind up wearing another kind of "cuffs."
Interesting story about the three Negro soldiers being killed at Fort Dix. There were many such racial incidents and retaliations during the war. I think that they generally got little publicity.
You're right. From December through May people must have dreaded reading the headlines in the morning. What's the next catastrophe?
I finally got around to updating my library listing on my profile. It mostly has the books added from my work on the First World War and 20th Century Warfare in China.
Obviously General Homma did not commit suicide for his failure, contrary to the article (career suicide excepted), but as far as I know General Yamashita was not involved in the Bataan campaign at all. Quite the contrary, he had been “exiled” to Manchuria by now (or soon would be) following his unprecedented success in taking Malaya and Singapore. Am I wrong?
No. Gen Homma is still running the show on Luon. Gen. Yamashita will transfer to Manchuria in July. And not via the Philippines. Don't tell our editor, though. He hates it when people from the future correct him.
I’m not buying the duel story on page 9. When 2 men and a woman end up shot, it isn’t over military tactics.
Arguably two of the biggest mistakes the Imperial Japanese Army made...Homma was still one of their best generals, even after the Bataan siege made a mockery of his battle plan. (Timing was as vital as conquest itself in the Japanese version of “blitzkrieg” across Greater East Asia...Homma’s forces were needed for the prize conquest of the Dutch East Indies.) And given the factional fighting of the 1930s and the mutual distaste between Yamashita and many of his peers, I doubt that the “Tiger Of Malaya” would have presented the political threat that Tojo viewed when he reassigned him to the frozen wastes.
But, as they might have said “To err is human...to forgive is not Imperial General Staff policy”.
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