Posted on 10/28/2012 5:36:50 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1942/oct42/f28oct42.htm
Germans drawn to Australian advance
Wednesday, October 28, 1942 www.onwar.com
In North Africa... The Battle of Alamein. The Australian 9th Division makes progress toward the sea and continues to draw more German troops to oppose them, specifically the German 90th Light Division.
In French West Africa... American diplomat Robert Murphy informs French General Mast that the Allied invasion of the area will take place in November. Mast protests that he will be unable to organize support for either General Giraud or the Allied cause in time.
In the Mediterranean... The British carrier Furious brings another cargo of Spitfires to within flying range of Malta from Gibraltar. The situation on the island continues to deteriorate as the supplies are reaching the island are brought by submarine or fast minelayer. Axis intelligence is award of the shortages and interprets the build up of shipping at Gibraltar to yet another attempt at a large convoy run to Malta rather than the transports carrying troops for Operation Torch, the invasion of French North Africa.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/frame.htm
October 28th, 1942
UNITED KINGDOM: Destroyer HMS Rocket launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
GERMANY:
U-531 commissioned.
U-953, U-954 laid down.
U-243, U-346, U-478, U-1221 laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
NORWAY: U-586 made a ground reconnaissance of Jan Mayen Island in Mary Mass Bay. (Dave Shirlaw)
FINLAND: Shtsh-304 and Shtsh-306 are mined in Gulf of Finland. (Mikko Härmeinen)
GIBRALTAR: The British carrier HMS FURIOUS sails with Spitfires for Malta.
ALGERIA: Robert Murphy, US Consul in Northwest Africa, tells French General Mast that the invasion will occur in November. Mast insists that he does not have enough time to organize the Allied sympathizers and to arrange for Giraud to be accepted.
NEW GUINEA: Along the Kokoda Track the Japanese are finally forced off the high ground at Eora Creek. (William L. Howard)
SOLOMON ISLANDS: GUADALCANAL: Japanese reinforcements, nicknamed the “Tokyo Express” by the Americans, start landing on the north-west coast. They meet stiff resistance.
U.S.A.: After completing Officer Candidate School, Clark Gable is commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Army Air Forces. (Jack McKillop)
Minesweeper USS Spear laid down.
Destroyer USS Erben laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-627 (Type VIIC) which had left Kiel for its first combat patrol on 15 Oct is sunk 12 days later south of Iceland, at position 59.14N 22.49W by depth charges from a British Fortress aircraft (Sqn 206/F). 44 dead (all crew lost).
U-509 sank SS Nagpore and damaged SS Hopecastle in Convoy SL-125.
U-606 sank SS Gurney E Newlin and damaged SS Kosmos II in Convoy HX-212.
SS Bic Island, 4,000 GRT, Canadian merchant ship, formerly the Italian CAPO NOLI, captured on 10 Jun 40 by HMCS Bras D’Or, was sunk in the North Atlantic by U-624, KptLt Ulrich Graf Von Soden-Fraunhofen, CO. All of her crewmembers plus the survivors of 2 other sunken merchant-ships were lost. Bic Island was part of HX 212, a 43-ship convoy from New York City to Liverpool. She is not listed among the 5 other ships that were lost, which means that she was likely a ‘straggler’. The materiel lost from the 5 ships that were sunk while in convoy amounted to 21,000 tons of crude oil, 20,300 tons of fuel oil, 12,000 tons of petrol, and 8,200 tons of grain, plus the cargo from Bic Island. 243 merchant sailors were lost from the 5 sunken merchant ships. The size of Bic Island’s crew is not known. The convoy eventually reached the UK on 02 Nov 42. The convoy was escorted by the American Escort Group A 3, Commanded by Capt Paul Heineman USN. The ships included the US Coast Guard cutters Badger and Campbell, Corvettes HMS Dainthus, HMCS Rosthern Trillium. 3 assigned for passage and for further duties in Operation TORCH were also included - HMCS Alberni, Summerside and Ville de Quebec. (Dave Shirlaw)
"The deportation of the 22,000 Jews of Piotrków Trybunalski, Poland, began in the early morning hours of October 14, 1942.
In the process 1,000 Jews, most of them too sick to get out of bed, were shot.
The remaining Jews were shipped to Treblinka, where those who did not die on the journey perished in the gas chambers."
"Units of the regular military services often participated in deportations.
Here, Luftwaffe troops round up a group of Orthodox Jews in the Polish town of Szczebrzeszyn.
On October 21, 1942, Szczebrzeszyn's remaining Jews, about 1,000 of them, were transported to Belzec.
In addition, the Germans forced between 400 and 500 Jews from their hiding places and summarily shot them.
The town's gentile population, threatened with death if they hid Jews and tempted by offers of rewards for handing them over, helped the Germans find Jews who had concealed themselves."
I have to wonder if the decision to admit the loss of the Wasp was made just before or just after news that the Hornet had been lost, the carrier that had launched the Tokyo raid. Terrible times with Halsey losing the carrier in his first week in command...and being reduced to only one damaged carrier.
I suspect that FDR thought they better come clean on the Wasp to avoid having to announce two carriers gone at a later time.
Most likely the I400 but keel not laid until Jan, 1943
Crew was 157 but imagine it could transport more. Actual tonnage 6,600 vs 4500 in article.
There was a sub that made it to Germany and back with supplies, but not this one?
What is the Korean Front reporting this?
Japanese attack on the west coast was a very real possibility at that time.
Info on I400, interesting read.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-400_class_submarine
Regarding the source of the info on japanese subs, here is one reference. Maybe not very credible source but there were elements of truth there. Wonder what became of him and the org after the war?
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,849918,00.html
KOREA: Straight to the Armpit
Monday, Aug. 24, 1942
Share
inShare0 Kilsoo K. Haan, U.S. representative of both the admittedly revolutionary Korean National Front Federation and the Sino-Korean Peoples’ League, is Korea’s most vocal Washington spokesman. He is short and 42; he wears rimless spectacles and is given to loud, figured ties. He is often heard, seldom heeded. But last week Kilsoo Haan came into his own.
Papers throughout the U.S. featured his “secret report” that a young Korean patriot had shot and slightly wounded Japanese Premier Hideki Tojo on June 17. The would-be assassin’s second shot went wild, but seriously wounded onetime...
Maybe old Kilso did have credibility. He translated a Japanese military book the prior spring. Wrote a letter on Dec 5th regarding Pearl Harbor.
http://home.comcast.net/~eo9066/1984/IA184-2.html
SINO-KOREAN PEOPLES LEAGUE
101 D Street, NE
Washington, D.C.
December 5, 1941
VERY URGENT
Honorable Maxwell Hamilton
Chief, Far East Division
Department of State
Washington, D.C.
My dear Mr. Hamilton:
Pursuant to our telephone conversation regarding our agents apprehensions that Japan may suddenly move against Hawaii “THIS COMING WEEKEND,” may I call your attention to the following relevant and pertinent information.
One: The publication of U.S. Army Air Corps air maneuvers throughout the Hawaiian Islands by the Japanese daily, Nippu Jiji, Nov. 22, 1941. This time table of air maneuvers is from November through Dec. 31, 1941, “Every day except Sundays and holidays.”{In right margin: “JAPANESE STRUCK PEARL HARBOR 11:AM SUNDAY DEC. 7, 1941”}
We note the hours between 12 and 8 A.M. there will be no air maneuvers. Strategically speaking, the 6 or 8 hour gap is significant, especially if there is no maneuver from midnight Saturday to all day Sunday.
I know the owner of the Japanese daily, Mr. Yasataro Soga, personally. He is a front man for the Japanese Consulate. Nippu Jiji has played an important part in the Japanization of Hawaii. Such military time table is more than interesting to all those who know the Japanese.
Two: The Italian Magazine “Oggi” of Oct. 24, 1941, published an article in Rome forecasting war between Japan and America. The article forecasts war between Japan and America by air and naval attack of the Hawaiian Islands and eventually will attack Alaska, California and the Panama Canal.
Italian agents in Japan are close to many Japanese officials in Japan. Their observation and military views should not be overlooked nor be ignored. Italy today is the member of the Tripartite Treaty between Germany, Italy and Japan.
Three: Issuance of military conscription order by the Japanese Consulates in Honolulu, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle, Oct. 2, 1941, conscription of all Japanese aliens as well as the Japanese-Americans who hold on to the Japanese citizenship — Dual Citizenship. {In right margin: “AMERICANS OF GERMAN & ITALIAN DESCENT DIDN’T HAVE DUAL CITIZENSHIP NOR WERE THEY REQUIRED TO, AS WERE JAPANESE-AMERICANS.”}
I have already on the 23rd of October, 1941, submitted to you the information and material for your inspection and observation. I had a 40 minute conference with Mr. Richard W. Flonmoy, legal advisor of the Department of State, on this very subject matter.
Kindly read Senator Guy M. Gillette’s remarks in the Congressional Record, October 2, 1941 on the same subject.
Four: Japanese War Plan Book — “THE THREE POWER ALLIANCE and the U.S. JAPAN WAR” by Kinoaki Matsuo, published in Japan October 1940, only one month after the signing of the Tripartite Pact. If you will read chapter 10 “The Opening Period of War” you will note the following significant statement and plan — a blueprint to open and undeclared war against America:
“When will the military action of the U.S.-Japanese war start?”
“Until the two countries cross swords there must be a series of diplomatic conversations. Our experience in the Russo-Japanese war, revealed diplomatic negotiations were prolonged until actual outbreak of war. It must be therefore remembered even up to the outbreak of war, there must be diplomatic conversations continued as usual in some form, at least until the initiation of military action. From the strategical standpoint J{apan is?} blessed to take the offensive.”
Chapter 17: “The Japanese Surprise Attack Fleet.”
“There is no doubt that in the event of war... Japan will grasp the best opportunity to strike the enemy in advance.”
Sir, if the press accounts of the HULL-NOMURA-KURUSU diplomatic conversations are correct, the Japanese have gained the necessary time. Japanese activities in Hawaii and California, Oregon, Washington and New York show sings that Japan is ready to strike and strike without warning as Matsuo boldly pointed out.
The President and Secretary of State should be warned of this plan at once. We fear the book which was submitted to your Department last March 25, 1941, is being overlooked.
I am informed that G-2 has already underestimated the strategic and diplomatic significance of this book.
I trust at least you will read the two chapters 10 and 17 — and see the overall Japanese strategy relative to the Japanese diplomatic maneuvers during the past 6 months.
Five: Our Oct. 28, 1941 report addressed to Secretary of War, Henry L. Stimson. A copy of this letter was mailed to the Department of State the same day. May I quote the report:
“Hirota, former foreign minister, now the ‘Big Stick’ of the Black Dragon Society, in their August 26 meeting told the news that War Minister TOJO has ordered a total war preparation to meet the armed forces of the United States in the Pacific Emergency. TOJO is said to have told him of the Navy’s full support of his policy against America.”
“He also spoke to TOJO giving orders to complete the mounting of guns and rush supplies of munitions to the Marshall and Caroline group by November, 1941. Hirota and others present in the meeting freely discussed and expressed opinions as to the advantages and consequences of a war with America. Many expressed the most suitable time to wage war with America is December 1941 or February 1942.”
It is therefore our considered observation and sincere belief, December is the month of the Japanese attack and that the SURPRISE FLEET attack is aimed at Hawaii, perhaps the first Sunday of December.
Please do not consider our persistent warnings impertinent and presumptuous. We are only carrying out our conscientious convictions. We know the Japanese. To learn about Japanese activities against America is our business. We have made it our business since 1932.
No matter how you feel toward our work, will you please convey our apprehension and this information to the President and to the military and naval commanders in Hawaii.
In the interest of America’s security and the cause of Korea’s freedom.
Respectfully,
/s/ KILSOO K. HAAN
KILSOO K. HAAN
Here is the book that Kilsoo translated in the spring of 41. They stole it from the hotel room of 2 Japanese war officers. Further research of Kilsoo is that he was very anti communitst. I think I like this guy.
http://corregidor.org/chs_japan/japanwin.htm
Huh! We knew about the Japanese submarine aircraft carriers as early as ‘42! Also, I’m gonna tell my Korean friends about Kilsoo Haan stealing Japanese military documents and warning the State Department with his correct guess of December 7 at Pearl Harbor.
Lt. Col. James T. Stewart & Major Clark Gable - RAF Polebrook, 1943
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