Posted on 04/16/2012 4:27:50 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Barbara W. Tuchman, Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45, Grove Press, 1970
Trying to reconcile how bombers from Australia go 4000 miles round trip to bomb the Philippines and Doolittle’s raiders run out of gas having to launch 600 miles from Japan.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1942/apr42/f16apr42.htm
King recognizes Maltese heroism
Thursday, April 16, 1942 www.onwar.com
In London... King George VI, awards Malta the King George Cross, for the collective heroism of the Maltese people during the massive Axis air bombardment.
In the Philippines... Japanese overcome all resistance on Cebu and land 4000 troops on Panay.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/frame.htm
April 16th, 1942
King George VI awards MALTA the George Cross for collective heroism in the face of the Axis air attacks. A message to the island’s governor, Lieutenant-General Sir William Dobbie, read: “To honour her brave people I award the George Cross to the Island Fortress of Malta, to bear witness to a heroism and a devotion that will long be famous in history.”
Since Hitler ordered that the island be “neutralized” in preparation for invasion four months ago, it has suffered 1,000 air-raids - an average of seven a day. The Maltese people have gone underground, burrowing deep into the soft limestone to build shelters, communications centres and first aid centres, racing for cover when the alert sounds and emerging into the sunlight to carry on a near normal life - given that many Maltese are on desperately short rations - when they hear the “all clear”. The capital, Valetta, is devastated beyond recognition; the Grand Harbour, once the home of the British Mediterranean Fleet, is under such constant bombardment that submarines are forced to remain submerged during daylight.
The submarines are an essential part of the island’s lifeline. They bring fuel for the few Spitfires and Hurricanes available to defend Malta from airfields which are bombed daily, with ground crews working round the clock to service the aircraft, often “cannibalizing” wrecked planes for spares.
HMS Welshman, one of the fastest ships in the navy, makes regular dashes from Gibraltar, bringing in food and ammunition to help the island resist a bombardment which - the Germans say - has become the “most accurate in the world.”
ATLANTIC: The unarmed U.S. freighter SS Alcoa Guide is shelled by German submarine U-123 (which expended her last torpedo on 12 April) east of North Carolina; Alcoa Guide tries to ram the U-boat without success. U-123 pauses to allow the crew to abandon ship and then sinks the freighter with gunfire once the merchant sailors (two of whom die of wounds suffered in action) have gotten away safely. (Jack McKillop)
FRANCE: Paris: School students stage a demonstration after their history teacher is arrested.
VICHY FRANCE: Under German pressure, Marshal Petain appoints Pierre Laval head of government and himself becomes a ceremonial head of state.
Admiral William D. Leahy,USN(Retired), Ambassador to France, receives a cable from Washington with information that his recall “for consultation” will be announced shortly after the formation of a new Vichy government. (Jack McKillop)
GERMANY: Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, the veteran of the invasion of France and the USSR is appointed C-in-C of the Atlantic Wall defences.
PACIFIC: The submarine USS Tambor (SS-198) torpedoes and sinks a Japanese stores ship 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Kavieng, New Ireland, Bismarck Archipelago. (Jack McKillop)
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Japan invades the island of Panay with a 4,000-strong force.
The Japanese Kawamura Detachment (41st Infantry) lands unopposed at Iloilo and Capiz on Panay Island. (Jack McKillop)
BURMA:Yenangyaung: Britain’s largest oil field in the Far East is a sheet of flame. The 500-foot high flames silhouette the men of “Burcorps”, the remnants of the 17th Indian and 1st Burma Divisions, who have been fighting a delaying action up the Irrawaddy valley and trying to hold on to the oil field.
Three days ago they began to destroy the oil wells to prevent them from falling into Japanese hands. The oilfields here came under attack after the Japanese forces took Migyaungye on 12 April.
During the night of 16/17 April, 10th Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses take off from Dum Dum Airfield near Calcutta, India to bomb Rangoon. 6 B-17’s, guided by flares, bomb the target; numerous searchlights make it impossible to estimate the bombing results. (Jack McKillop)
B-17's vs. B-25's?
"Joseph Goebbels's Propaganda Ministry churned out filmstrips that played upon traditional anti-Jewish stereotypes.
This frame depicts a middle-aged Jewish man lounging leisurely with a younger gentile woman.
The caption, 'Jews have always been race defilers,' plays on the myth that Jewish men seduced gentile women."
That and the Doolittle crews may not have done any special training on fuel conservation.
Homer can correct me if I’m wrong, but I always thought raid was launched from about 750 miles. That would be in the ballpark of 650 nautical miles. That 750 miles just gets you to the Japanese coast. Then you have fly over to Japan to your designated target, continue to cross the country and then off to where ever you plan on putting down. The shortest point (using Tokyo as a reference) is Vladivostok which is another 670 miles away. Most of the aircraft headed to China to try and land on airfields in the Zhejiang province. Using the city of Hangzhou (in the northeast portion of the province) as a reference point that is about 1200 miles. So that trip is at least 1950 miles. Since the B-25 doesn’t have the range of a B-17, and I’m not sure on the fuel load out for this mission, we could be looking at the extent of its ferry range.
Didn’t the US still have a strip on Mindanao at this point?
The original plan called for getting to within 400-500 miles of Japan before launching, but they always knew that if they were sighted by the Japanese earlier they would launch if they had a reasonable chance of making it to China. According to Glines' account Doolittle, in the first plane, had to fly 620 statute miles to reach his target in Tokyo. The 16th and last plane had 600 miles to go. I didn't find the distance from Japan to the intended landing points in China but Doolittle's planning memo said that the longest nonstop distance any plane would have to fly would be 2,000 mi. With extra gas tanks their range would theoretically be 2,400 mi. That assumed finely tuned engines to reduce fuel consumption. The crew of the eighth plane off the Hornet had discovered once at sea that the carburetors on their plane had been replaced by maintenance personnel at McClellan Field without permission. As a result they knew shortly after take off that they were not going to make it to China. So they opted for the Soviet Union near Vladivostok. I've got an excerpt prepared for April 24 to describe part of their experience.
I don’t think they were conducting any operations from Mindanao by this point. I’d have to double check but I think air operations on the Philippines shut down about the same time MacArthur left. And if you are suggesting that it would make another landing zone for Doolittle, that would be 2000 miles from Tokyo at the nearest. Way too far.
No, I wasn’t thinking of Doolittle. I was thinking more of a place to more or less safely ditch if the plane ran into trouble.
I scanned the strategic bombing survey for the Pacific last night, and didn’t see where they even dealt with these operations. It was probably primarily a propaganda and harassment operation with little or no real military value.
I didn’t think you meant Doolittle, but I thought I better ask. To be honest, the only airfield on Mindanao that I really know about is Del Monte Air Base (A name like that sort of sticks with you).
I did some looking into the Army Green Books to get a bit more information on the air field and found that the air field is in fact still in operation. It wont be overrun until May 9th. I’m not sure what size of force is left at the field and the green book entry does not detail any specific operations, but I do know that this field was big enough to handle B-17s.
“Del Monte Air Base (A name like that sort of sticks with you)”
A ‘for what it’s worth from Wikipedia:
‘On April 8, 1942, the air echelons of the 24th Pursuit Group along with the remaining Army Air Corps flying operations in the Philippines were withdrawn from Luzon and transferred to Del Monte with whatever aircraft were left to carry on the fight.
‘In April 1942, a group of 7 B-25s and 3 B-17s from Australia returned to Del Monte for the Royce Mission, to attack the Japanese on three bombing missions. On April 12, B-25s hit the harbor and shipping at Cebu, Cebu Island while B-17s carried out single-bomber strikes against Cebu harbor and Nichols Field on Luzon. On 13 April B-25s hit targets in the Philippines for the second consecutive day. The B-25s took off just after midnight and bombed shipping at Cebu on Cebu Island and installations at Davao on Mindanao. Later in the day the B-25s again attacked Davao, bombing the dock area.
‘The advancing Japanese forced their return to Australia without loss. In addition to the raids, they brought out a number of important military and diplomatic personnel who had gathered at Del Monte to await evacuation.’
I had thought it was a pre-existing strip for the Del Monte pineapple operations, but Wikipedia doesn’t support that.
“Del Monte Air Base (A name like that sort of sticks with you)”
A ‘for what it’s worth from Wikipedia:
‘On April 8, 1942, the air echelons of the 24th Pursuit Group along with the remaining Army Air Corps flying operations in the Philippines were withdrawn from Luzon and transferred to Del Monte with whatever aircraft were left to carry on the fight.
‘In April 1942, a group of 7 B-25s and 3 B-17s from Australia returned to Del Monte for the Royce Mission, to attack the Japanese on three bombing missions. On April 12, B-25s hit the harbor and shipping at Cebu, Cebu Island while B-17s carried out single-bomber strikes against Cebu harbor and Nichols Field on Luzon. On 13 April B-25s hit targets in the Philippines for the second consecutive day. The B-25s took off just after midnight and bombed shipping at Cebu on Cebu Island and installations at Davao on Mindanao. Later in the day the B-25s again attacked Davao, bombing the dock area.
‘The advancing Japanese forced their return to Australia without loss. In addition to the raids, they brought out a number of important military and diplomatic personnel who had gathered at Del Monte to await evacuation.’
I had thought it was a pre-existing strip for the Del Monte pineapple operations, but Wikipedia doesn’t support that.
I haven't looked at the Wikipedia entry for it, but apparently it was a group of three airstrips that were ordered to be built in the Del Monte owned pineapple plantations on November 9th, 1941. It would eventually be the airstrip from which MacArthur would be evacuated after taking a PT boat to Mindanao.
In looking into this I found a book that I might have to get and read over summer break.
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