Posted on 04/28/2012 5:08:56 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1942/apr42/f28apr42.htm
Chinese troops defend the Burma Road
Tuesday, April 28, 1942 www.onwar.com
Chinese infantry holding a defensive positionIn Burma... [Photo at link]
Lashio, the terminus of the Burma Road, becomes a major defensive target, to this end the Chinese 28th Division is ordered from Mandalay to defend Lashio.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/frame.htm
April 28th, 1942
GERMANY: U-664 launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
FINLAND: Major-General Aarne Snellman dies of his wounds suffered on the 13th. (Mikko Härmeinen)
MALTA: No ships of the Royal Navy ride proudly at anchor in Valetta’s Grand Harbour today. The cruiser HMS PENELOPE has been hit so often by German bombs that she was nicknamed “HMS Pepperpot” before she slipped away last nigth. Two damaged destroyers remain - the last vestige of Britain’s shattered naval power in the Mediterranean. The submarines that have been supplying Malta with fuel have been forced to leave by the huge number of Axis mines laid outside the harbour. On short rations, Malta is praying for a miracle.
BURMA: The Chinese 28th Division moving from Mandalay, is ordered to defend Lashio.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: The full horror of a forced march by American and Filipino prisoners - in which as many as 20,000 men are believed to have perished from disease, hunger and the savagery of their Japanese captors - is beginning to emerge. The prisoners, taken after the surrender of the Bataan peninsula earlier this month, died as they were marched 65 miles to a captured US barracks near Clark Field airbase.
Even before the march began, many of the prisoners were racked by malaria, dysentery, beriberi and other diseases. The Japanese forced the pace with clubs, bayonets and unspeakable cruelty. Dozens of men were bayoneted to death; more were beheaded, shot and beaten at the whim of their captors. Those who could not keep up were clubbed to death or buried alive.
Filipinos bore the brunt of the brutality and, it is believed, the casualties. On 11 April, as the march began, Japanese soldiers massacred some 400 Filipino officers and NCOs - hacking them to pieces with their swords. All the PoWs were looted of personal possessions. One officer who refused to hand over his wedding ring had his finger cut off. The precise number of prisoners who started - and finished - this “death march” is not known, but it is believed that one in three may have died.
CANADA: Ottawa: Canada has voted on conscription in a record turn-out and the country is divided on linguistic grounds. English speakers, the majority, are in favour of a draft for service overseas. The French-speaking minority, is against.
In both 1939 and 1940, the Prime Minister, Mr. Mackenzie King, made a solemn pledge to French-Canadians that there would be no such conscription. His fear was that Canada would be split and that a pro-Vichy city council might emerge in Quebec.
Events in the Pacific, including the Hong Kong debacle which netted 1,689 Canadian prisoners have forced the prime minister’s hand.
Corvette HMCS La Malbaie commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: Washington: Following a statement by President Roosevelt that the American “standard of living will have to come down”, the prices of all essential items have been frozen and a host of commodities is now rationed. In a message to Congress, the president set a limit on wages of $25,000 after taxes, called for stabilizing all incomes, fixed ceilings for prices on almost all goods and announced that such items as gasoline and sugar will be rationed.
The president will address the nation tonight. His message is the culmination of a series of actions which put America on a war footing. The US Navy has taken over four plants of Brewster Aeronautical Corporation because the management could not assure delivery of aircraft. The government told civilians that little space will be available for them after “air mail, passengers and express goods essential to the war effort” get priority.
The war production board is seeking laws giving it the power to draft executives from private industry to military posts, and it has been announced that 5.5 million new workers are needed to produce war materials. One sign of tougher - or leaner? - times is this advice to women: use less elastic in your girdles.
Destroyer USS Bradford laid down.
Destroyer USS Laub launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
CUBA: Cuba granted de facto recognition to Free French control over French territories in the Pacific, Equatorial Africa, and the Cameroons. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: The US Navy’s Task Force 99, consisting of the battleship USS Washington (BB-56), heavy cruisers USS Tuscaloosa (CA-37) and USS Wichita (CA-45) and four destroyers, sails from the Royal Navy base at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands. This is Force “Distaff,” a joint RN-USN task force that will be positioned northeast of Iceland to protect convoy PQ-15 sailing for Murmansk in the Soviet Union. The RN force consists of the battleship HMS King George V, the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious, the light cruiser HMS Kenya and five destroyers. (Jack McKillop)
Tug HMS West Dean lost due to unknown reasons.
SS Arundo sunk by U-136 at 40.10N, 73.44W. (Dave Shirlaw)
Just a reminder, as if anyone here needed it, of the utter economic failure of the socialist, Franklin Roosevelt.
Homer, I thoroughly enjoy your posts. Thanks for doing this.
I’m glad you enjoy them. You might want to check back with this one later tonight. Roosevelt is giving a speech to explain our enhanced economic dictatorship and we plan to have a live feed.
I get the impression that the Chinese actually fought in Burma, while the British Imperial troops fared only somewhat better than their performance in Malaya.
FDR was a scary MF’er.
Chinese troops did indeed fight in Burma. In fact, when that theater collapsed, several of their units retreated into India, where they were retrained and equipped by the US and British into X Force, a corp of three modern divisions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Army_in_India
And like most socialists, Franklin Roosevelt came from a wealthy family and never had to work for his money. So like the limousine liberal trust fund babies of today he already "had his" so it was easy to attack capitalism and wreck the economic lives of others - as he himself could always fall back on Daddy's money.
X force was also augmented by Chinese troops flown back over “the Hump” by C-47’s. They would otherwise have been empty, so it was thought this was a good way to equip some Chinese forces without having to fly in the equipment.
Which begs the question, why Gandhi the pacifist protested the arrival of American troops on the premise that India should have been able to mobilize millions? Indeed, but I doubt that Gandhi was really all that fired up about that.
About a half hour. Audio link is on the right.
boo hiss... commie!!
I strongly disagree with all of FDR’s social and economic policies. 0bamunism is nothing more than the re-creation of the New Deal. But I will give credit where it is due; FDR did know how to delegate the conduct of the war to the men who knew how to fight it.
And no other democrat could or would do that today.
A lot of the military leaders of that day seemed to know what they were doing. I guess they weren’t political appointee’s or chosen for political correctness.
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