Posted on 05/15/2012 4:28:23 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1942/may42/f15may42.htm
German 11th Army recaptures Kerch
Friday, May 15, 1942 www.onwar.com
Wrecks after the battle at Kerch [photo at link]
On the Eastern Front... Kerch falls to the forces of the German 11th Army under the command of General Manstein. About 150,000 men are lost to the Soviets, many are taken prisoner.
In Burma... The first British soldiers reach India in the retreat from Burma. Japanese has reached its objectives in isolating China from surface communications and supply from the Allies.
In the Arctic... The HMS Trinidad is sunk by German bombers while escorting a convoy on the Iceland to Archangel route.
From Australia... Australian reinforcements are dispatched to Port Moresby.
In the United States... Gasoline rationing begins in 17 States. The weekly ration is 3 gallons for nonessential vehicles.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/frame.htm
May 15th, 1942
UNITED KINGDOM: Minesweeping trawler HMS Sir Tristram commissioned.
Escort carrier HMS Hunter laid down.
Rescue tug HMS Lariat launched.
(Dave Shirlaw)
GERMANY: U-859 laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.S.R.: German units, under Manstein reach Kerch.
ARCTIC OCEAN: The British Cruiser HMS Trinidad is scuttled after a German air raid on an Artic Convoy to Russia. She had been repaired at Kola after sustaining a hit from one of her own torpedoes. Now she is scuttled in the Barents Sea 100 miles N of Murmansk at 73 37N 23 53E. There are 81 casualties. (Alex Gordon)
A U.S. freighter suffers a direct hit by a bomb but there are no casualties. The ship is beached to prevent loss. (Jack McKillop)
SOUTH AFRICA: Destroyer depot ship HMS Hecla mined off Capetown. She was towed to Simonstown for 18 weeks of repairs. (Dave Shirlaw)
INDIA: Imphal: It was days after the first pathetic Burmese refugee arrived here before the first sign of a disciplined body emerged. A column of men wearing what appeared to be eccentrically-shaped pith helmets and gumboots came over the horizon. It was a native fire brigade. The men had no fire-engines, but they marched in step all the same.
They were followed by miscellaneous civil servants, public works gangs, clerks without desks - and all the time the refugees, the small change of modern war, rolled by.
Only after they had passed did the army appear, its wounded in the van. For five months it has retreated before the Japanese advance into Burma, attacked by dive-bombers, Japanese infantry and Japan’s Burmese nationalist allies all the way. Some units had trudged 900 miles on foot.
Many soldiers were wrecks, others, bootless and shirtless, still shouldered their rifles. Every man had his own horror story. For Lt-Gen Bill Slim, who commands the corps, it was the sight of a four-year-old trying to spoon-feed her dead mother from a tin of evaporated milk. He watched his troops march by. “They look like scarecrows,” he noted. “But they look like soldiers too.”
BURMA: The first British units reach India as the retreat from Burma continues.
CHINA: The Japanese murder 100 Chinese families in reprisal for the Doolittle raid.
CANADA:
Corvette HMCS Brantford commissioned.
Minesweeper HMCS Noranda commissioned.
HMC ML 065 commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: Gasoline (petrol) rationing begins with the amount set for non essential vehicles at 3 gallons per week. There are 17 eastern states in the US, with rationing in effect, at this point.
There has been some grumbling as well as some severe shortages of the suddenly precious fuel. The basic allotment is three gallons a week, although special cases are allowed more. But even as many motorists complained that three gallons is an unreasonable amount, a number of drivers initially granted extra allotments returned their X and B-3 cards for lesser rations. Even Mrs. Roosevelt has an A card, for three gallons a week, saying that she will learn to use her new English bicycle to get around. One US citizen, Bernard Baruch, who is often asked to travel to Washington for conferences, gave up his special card for an A card. “I came to New York 62 years ago and hoofed it then. I can hoof it now,” he said.
Shortages at stations occurred as pre-midnight consumption resulted in many dealers running out of fuel. Some station owners say that they will close on Saturday and Sunday to avoid irate motorists.
The 78th Pursuit Group (Interceptor) is re-designated 78th Fighter Group. (Jack McKillop)
The U.S. star insignia applied to aircraft is modified on all military aircraft by eliminating the red disc in the center of the star. The USN also orders that the red and white rudder stripes be eliminated. (Jack McKillop)
Washington: The chief of naval operations, Admiral Ernest King, demands another 1,670 million tons of warships in the next year.
First Naval Air Transport Service flight across Pacific.
Submarine USS Wahoo commissioned.
Escort carrier USS Core launched.
Light cruiser USS Mobile launched.
(Dave Shirlaw)
COSTA RICA: Costa Rica severed diplomatic relations with Hungary and Rumania. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 0254, the unescorted Siljestad was hit on the port side under the bridge by one torpedo from U-156 and sank after 40 minutes about 420 miles NE of Barbados. The ship had been spotted at 17.20 hours the day before and missed with the first two torpedoes at 2045 and 0155. The crew abandoned ship in the two starboard lifeboats, but two men fell overboard and drowned. The U-boat then questioned the survivors and gave them the course to Barbados before leaving the area. The survivors were picked up after about 12 hours by Kupa, which also hoisted the lifeboats on her starboard side and took care of the survivors. It was planned to let them continue in the boats because the ship was heading for South Africa. At 2059, the zigzagging Kupa was hit under the bridge by one torpedo from U-156 and sank by the bow in a few minutes. The U-boat had observed about six hours earlier how the vessel stopped and assumed correctly that they picked up 31 survivors and their lifeboats from Siljestad, which had been sunk at 0254 by the same U-boat. Two crewmembers were lost. At 2113, the U-boat surfaced, questioned the survivors and fished 14 tires from the surface before leaving the area. The lifeboats made landfall after ten days in Venezuela and Barbados. (Dave Shirlaw)
Soon to be made famous by Captain Mush Morton.
Ivan is in for a cruel surprise at Kharkov.
"Consequently, the Nazis shamelessly looted Europe's cultural treasures.
Hermann Göring, one of the biggest looters, scoured museums and private collections of wealthy deported Jews for works by famous masters.
In his villa, he proudly displayed stolen masterpieces by Titian, Raphael, Rubens, and Rembrandt. Hitler's interest in Europe's art stemmed from his plan to turn Linz, the Austrian city of his youth, into the world's cultural capital.
He envisioned displaying the world's greatest art treasures, such as the confiscated Madonna and Child by Michelangelo, in the world's biggest museum.
"The pillaging of art reached astronomical proportions.
Throughout Europe, the Nazis acquired more than 100,000 works.
In France alone they appropriated almost 22,000 objects (including 5281 paintings) from 1940 to 1944, bringing them to Germany in 29 shipments that involved 137 freight cars.
After the war, Allied officials attempted to return the treasures, a process complicated by the deaths of former Jewish owners.
Some pieces are still unclaimed, and legal intervention continues to grapple with disputed ownership claims."
"Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski, "Eldest of the Jews" in Lódz, Poland, informs the ghetto population that the deportations have come to an end.
In the two previous weeks, May 4 to 15, 10,915 people had been deported for "resettlement"--in reality, the Chelmno death camp.
But the population remained suspicious, and rumors--unfortunately accurate--soon began to spread about renewed deportations in the near future."
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