Posted on 05/03/2012 5:02:12 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
John Toland, The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945
The News of the Week in Review
Twenty News Questions – 6
Loss of Burma Means a Big Setback in Asia (Baldwin) – 7
Western Europe’s Bombing Grounds (map) – 8
R.A.F. Offensive Found Gaining Its Objectives (Daniell) – 9
Political Commissars Aid Red Army (Parker) – 10
A Survey of National Sentiment on Our All-Out War Effort (by the usual regional correspondents) – 11-15
Editorial Page – 16-21
Springtime for Hitler
China Still Stands
Patent Reform
The Anti-Inflation Program
Poland’s Day
Apple Blossom Time
Topics of the Times
Answers to Twenty News Questions
Causes Held Largely Ignored in President’s Programs (letter)
Men’s Dress Criticized (letter)
Scholar (poem)
The New York Times Book Review
Victory Through Air Power, by Major Alexander de Seversky. Reviewed by Fletcher Platt – 22-23
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1942/may42/f03may42.htm
Filipinos resist Japanese invasion
Sunday, May 3, 1942 www.onwar.com
Filipino guerrillas organizing against Japanese [photo at link]
In the Philippines... Local resistance succumbs to heavy Japanese landings.
In the Solomons... The Japanese land forces at Tulagi.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/frame.htm
May 3rd, 1942
UNITED KINGDOM: Submarine HMS Unrivalled commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
SOLOMON ISLANDS: Japanese land at Tulagi. They intend to set up a seaplane base in the harbour.
On this, the first day of the first modern US naval engagement in history, called the Battle of the Coral Sea, a Japanese invasion force succeeds in occupying Tulagi of the Solomon Islands in an expansion of Japan’s defensive perimeter. The United States, having broken Japan’s secret war code and forewarned of an impending invasion of Tulagi and Port Moresby attempted to intercept the Japanese armada. Four days of battles between Japanese and American aircraft carriers resulted in 70 Japanese and 66 Americans warplanes destroyed. This confrontation, called the Battle of the Coral Sea, marked the first air-naval battle in history, as none of the carriers fired at each other, allowing the planes taking off from their decks to do the battling. Among the casualties was the American carrier Lexington which suffered such extensive aerial damage that it had to be sunk by its own crew. Two hundred sixteen Lexington crewmen died as a result of the Japanese aerial bombardment. Although Japan would go on to occupy all of the Solomon Islands, its victory was a Pyrrhic one - The cost in experienced pilots and aircraft carriers was so great that Japan had to cancel its expedition to Port Moresby, Papua, as well as other South Pacific targets. (Dave Shirlaw)
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: During the night of 3 May, the submarine USS Spearfish (SS-190) slips into Manila Bay and picks up 27 Army and Navy officers, including nurses, from Corregidor Island to be evacuated to Fremantle, Western Australia. She is the last American submarine to visit Corregidor before the island is surrendered. (Jack McKillop)
Japanese troops land on the north coast of Mindanao. (Jack McKillop)
AUSTRALIA: Melbourne: The first victim of the “Brownout Strangler”, 40 year old Ivy Violet McLeod, was found strangled in Victoria Avenue, Albert Park in Melbourne this morning. She was partly naked and had been badly beaten by her attacker. An American soldier had been seen in the area just before her body was discovered. Robbery did not appear to be the motive for the crime as her purse still contained about one Pound’s worth of small change. (Denis Peck)
U.S.A.:
President Franklin Roosevelt issues Executive Order 9066, ordering the evacuation of Japanese Americans from Los Angeles by May 9th. (Pat Holscher_
Destroyers USS Fletcher, Mervine, Quick and Radford launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN:
At 1054, the unescorted Laertes was hit by one torpedo from U-109 SE of Cape Canaveral, Florida. The ship was hit on the port side and the crew began to abandon ship. The starboard lifeboat was lowered without problem, but just as the port lifeboat reached the surface, a second torpedo struck the vessel just beneath the boat, killing all 17 occupants. The first mate was blown overboard from the boat deck and drowned. The British sailor Jones was also blown overboard, but was later picked up by a USN flying boat. The survivors in the starboard lifeboat landed at Cape Canaveral about six hours later.
At 1723, the unescorted San Rafael was hit near the bridge by one torpedo from U-125 and was sunk with 32 rounds from the deck gun after the crew abandoned ship in two lifeboats and two rafts.
At 0014, the abandoned Jutland was torpedoed and sunk by U-251.
At 0638, the British Workman, which was straggling from Convoy ON-89 due to engine troubles, was torpedoed and sunk by U-455 SSE of Cape Race. Six crewmembers were lost. The master, 39 crewmembers and seven gunners were picked up by HMCS Assiniboine and Alberni and landed at St John’s.
Banana boat Samana sunk by U-506 at 25.04N, 79.45W.
At 0824, the unescorted Ocean Venus was torpedoed and sunk by U-564 about 12 miles ESE of Cape Canaveral, Florida. Five crewmembers were lost. The master, 37 crewmembers and four gunners rowed to shore and landed at Cape Canaveral.
Motor tanker Geo W McKnight damaged by U-66 at 11.18N, 61.19W. (Dave Shirlaw)
A little nicer pic of a B-17F Flying Fortress for the gang
A pic in memoriam for all the aircrew that gave the last full measure during WW-II
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
wow...what a story!
Homer, you forgot to post a barf alert about that p10 article on red army political commissars.
“SPRINGTIME FOR HITLER”
...actual title of article!
http://corregidor.org/chs_army/morton_03.htm#thepreassaultbombardment
Sunday, 3 May, was a repetition of the day before. There were five air-raid alarms during the day, with the planes again concentrating of James Ravine and Kindley Field. The enemy aircraft over the field met no fire from the antiaircraft batteries, whose guns and height finders had already been damaged or destroyed. Artillery fire during the day was so heavy that the dust blinded the spotters observing counterbattery fire. “Situation here is fast becoming desperate,” Wainwright reported to General MacArthur at the end of the day’s action. “With artillery that outranges anything we have except two guns, he [the enemy] keeps up a terrific bombardment as well as aerial bombing.”[45]
That night an American submarine on patrol in the South China Sea stopped outside the mine channel for an hour before returning to Australia for torpedoes. It took out 25 passengers, all that could be crowded into its tight interior. Among the passengers were Colonel Constant Irwin, who carried a complete roster of all Army, Navy, and Marine personnel still alive; Col. Royal G. Jenks, a finance officer, with financial accounts; Col. Milton A. Hill, the inspector general, 3 other Army and 6 Navy officers, and about 13 nurses. Included in the cargo sent from Corregidor were several bags of mail, the last to go out of the Philippines, and “many USAFFE and USFIP records and orders.”[46]
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