Posted on 04/13/2012 4:53:33 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1942/apr42/f13apr42.htm
Mountbatten appointment made public
Monday, April 13, 1942 www.onwar.com
Lord MountbattenFrom London... Despite his junior rank, Rear Admiral Lord Mountbatten (Dickie) is appointed Chief of Staff of Combined Operations with a seat on the British Chiefs of Staff Committee. This date is the public announcement of the appointment which occurred on March 18th.
In Burma... The Japanese break through the British defense in the Irrawaddy Valley forcing the British and Chinese to retreat to new positions at Magpwe. The Chinese 6th Army is moved from the Shan States to Manadaly.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/frame.htm
April 13th, 1942 (MONDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Rear Admiral Lord Mountbatten is appointed Chief of Combined Operations and functions as a member of the British Chiefs of Staff Committee. This appointment announced today was effective March 18.
FINLAND: Colonel Aarne Snellman, CO of the Finnish 17th Division is seriously injured at his divisions command post at Vaaseni (Vazhiny by River Svir in Olonets Isthmus) when it is attacked by Soviet night bombers. (Mikko Härmeinen)
LITHUANIA: Vilna: Feldwebel Anton Schmid, an Austria NCO in the German Army assigned to duties in occupied Lithuania is executed. He is guilty of providing food and medicines to Jews assigned to his workshop, and also of helping Jews escape from the ghetto and warning them of imminent SD ‘Aktionen’. (Russ Folsom)
GERMANY: The German radio announces the finding of mass graves in Katyn, Poland, filled with the bodies of thousands of Polish officers. (Mikko Härmeinen)
BURMA: Allied forces retreat to Magwe, leaving the oilfields of central Burma exposed to the Japanese.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: The last boat of US Navy Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron 3 is transferred to the US Army.
Australia-based B-25 Mitchells bomb targets in the Philippines for the second consecutive day. Staging through Del Monte Airfield on Mindanao, the B-25s take off just after midnight on 12/13 April and bomb shipping at Cebu on Cebu Island and installations at Davao on Mindinao. Later in the day the B-25s again attack Davao, bombing the dock area. (Jack McKillop)
PACIFIC OCEAN: Submarine USS Grayling (SS-209) torpedoes and sinks a Japanese merchant cargo ship off the southwest tip of Shikoku, Japan. (Jack McKillop)
SOUTH PACIFIC: Vice Admiral Robert L Ghormley, USN, is assigned as Commander-in-Chief South Pacific (COMSOPAC). He is to command all Allied base and local defence forces (land, sea, and air) in the South Pacific Islands, with the exception of New Zealand land defences. (Jack McKillop)
BURMA: Allied forces retreat to Magwe, leaving the oilfields of central Burma exposed to the Japanese.
U.S.A.: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mandates that the minimum program time required of TV stations is cut from 15 hours to four hours a week for the duration of the war. (Jack McKillop)
Darn we are stilling losing this war I hope it turns around soon.
It doesn't hurt Mountbatten that he is a cousin of the King and friend of Churchill.
Cougar
From reading this week’s LIFE magazine, it is obvious I need to go get some Vitalis for my hair and start using Lifebuoy to stop the B.O. if I ever hope to work out with Jane Russell.
And that’s pretty much what I got out of it.
Yes we are still losing the war...on the face of it. But the Axis margin is much thinner than most people, including Axis leaders, realize.
In preparation for this coming June’s event in the Central Pacific, I am re-reading Paschall & Tully’s “Shattered Sword, The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway.” At this time the Japanese are making their next set of plans, and Yamamoto is obsessed with bringing American fleet carriers out to the “decisive battle.” Paschall & Tully have pointed out that at this time, the Japanese margin of superiority in the war is really just two ships: Shokaku & Zuikaku, the two fleet carriers of Carrier Division 5. The Japanese won’t get another fleet carrier until Taiho is completed in 1944, but they know America is building at least 11 Essex class carriers right now. The fleet striking force of Kido Butai’s six carriers is Japan’s one and only strategic weapons system, and it’s numerical superiority will end in no more than two years. If that force is lost earlier, the Japanese will have lost their naval superiority which they can never again regain.
You’d think they would appreciate stuff like this....
Oops. Should read Doolittle.
Thanks, iowamark. I am really itching to watch all the videos at the link. The Washington Times did a good job with that. If you feel like posting this again on the 18th it would fit in with the day’s news and we might have some new readers.
bump
I keep reminding myself that most Americans back then did not have a lot of access to information about aircraft and stuff that we have today. A lot of people likely knew next to nothing about the military technology. It probably made all of this even scarier.
Apparently before 1945 the term “United Nations” meant the WWII Allies.
Of course an even better idea would have been to not start the war in the Pacific at all. But the Japanese politicians at the top had already foreclosed that option.
ping
“Vice Admiral Robert L Ghormley, USN, is assigned as Commander-in-Chief South Pacific (COMSOPAC). He is to command all Allied base and local defence forces (land, sea, and air) in the South Pacific Islands, with the exception of New Zealand land defences. (Jack McKillop)”
He turned out to be a disaster as I recall...he pulled the Operation Watchtower task force away from Guadalcanal following the disaster of Savo Island (essentially leaving the newly-landed Marines to fend for themselves), and he radioed the Marines holding Henderson Field that they were authorized to discuss surrender if they thought it necessary.
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