JAPANESE LAND ON SINGAPORE ISLE; OPEN ALL-OUT DRIVE ON M’ARTHUR (2/9/42)

Free Republic University, Department of History presents World War II Plus 70 Years: Seminar and Discussion Forum
First session: September 1, 2009. Last date to add: September 2, 2015.
Reading assignment: New York Times articles delivered daily to students on the 70th anniversary of original publication date. (Previously posted articles can be found by searching on keyword “realtime” Or view Homer’s posting history .)
To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by freepmail. Those on the Realtime +/- 70 Years ping list are automatically enrolled. Course description, prerequisites and tuition information is available at the bottom of Homer’s profile. Also visit our general discussion thread

Selections from West Point Atlas for the Second World War
The Far East and the Pacific, 1941 – Operations of the Japanese First Air Fleet, 7 December 1941-12 March 1942
The Far East and the Pacific, 1941 – American Carrier Operations, 7 December 1941-18 April 1942
Micronesia, Melanesia and New Guinea: Japanese Centrifugal Offensive-Japanese Fourth Fleet and South Seas Detachment Operations, December 1941-April 1942
Luzon, P.I., 1941: Centrifugal Offensive, 10 December 1941-6 May 1942-Fourteenth Army Operations on Luzon
Netherlands East Indies, 1941: Japanese Centrifugal Offensive, December 1941-April 1942, Sixteenth Army and Southern Force (Navy) Operations
Southern Asia, 1941: Japanese Centrifugal Offensive (and Continued Operations), January-May 1942
Eastern Europe, 1941: Soviet Winter Offensive – Operations, 6 December 1941-7 May 1942
North Africa, 1940: Rommel’s Second Offensive, 21 January-7 July 1942

Strait is Crossed (Fitchett) – 2-3
The War Summarized – 3
2 Flanks Attacked (Peters) – 5
Chungking Fights Huge Price Rises (Forman) – 5
U.S. Generals’ Daring on Bataan Improves Their Troops’ Morale (Floyd, Lee) – 6
Japanese Striving to Crush Growing Allied Air Power (Durdin) – 7
Movies are Put in Essential Class by Draft Ruling – 7-8
Japan’s Bases in the Mandated Islands (by Hanson W. Baldwin) – 10-11
USO Mobile Units Cheer Oahu Forces (by Foster Hailey) – 11
The Texts of the Day’s Communiques on Fighting in Various Zones – 12-14

http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1942/feb42/f09feb42.htm

Japanese planes attack Batavia
Monday, February 9, 1942 www.onwar.com

In the Dutch East Indies... Japanese aircraft raid airfields near Batavia, the capital.

In Burma... Japanese forces cross the Salween River.

In the United States... The troop transport Lafayette (83,000 tons) — previously the French liner Normandie — catches fire in New York harbor.

In Britain... Soap is rationed to 4 oz (113 g) for household use or 2 oz (56 g) for toiletry use per person per month.

In Canada... In four by-elections the “anti-conscription” candidates are heavily defeated.

In Delhi... Chiang Kai-shek visits.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/09.htm

February 9th, 1942

UNITED KINGDOM: Soap rationing comes into force today as the British government cuts supplies by 20% in order to save imported oils and fats for food rations. Despite elaborate efforts to keep the soap rationing plans secret - government communiqués referred to nutmegs - some London chemists reported a run on soap before the official announcement. People will be entitled to four ounces of household soap, or two ounces of toilet soap, soap flakes or chips per person per month. Emergency measures might have to be taken for workers in “dirty” trades.

The Pacific War Council, composed of representatives from the U.K., Australia, Netherlands East Indies, and New Zealand, is formed in London. (Jack McKillop)

Scotland: Gnr J. T. Etherington (911161) celebrates his 21st birthday in Glasgow where he is stationed.
Minesweeper HMS Bowen laid down.

Salvage vessel HMS Salveda launched. (Dave Shirlaw)

GERMANY: U-260 launched. (Dave Shirlaw)

INDIA: Chiang Kai-shek arrives to urge nationalists to join the fight against Japan.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: In the I Corps area on Bataan, Japanese remnants from Little Pocket are destroyed while seeking to escape. 1st Division, Philippine Army, is now free to join in the battle against Big Pocket, which is being compressed and from which the Japanese are trying to escape. In the South Sector, the 2d Battalion, 57th Infantry, Philippine Scouts, replaces the 3d Battalion in the center of the line in the Anyasan-Silaiim region and makes limited progress against the Japanese. (Jack McKillop)
The Japanese get radio station KZRH in Manila on the air again, and broadcast propaganda to the embattled American and Filipino forces, playing American songs to make GIs feel homesick, including “Waiting for Ships That Never Came in.” (Jack McKillop)

NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: Celebes: Japan occupies Makassar. About 8,000 Japanese troops land near Makassar City and south of Makassar at Jeneponto on Celebes Island. They immediately head for Makassar City, where they capture a bridge and the Dutch troops who were guarding the bridge. A company of native soldiers opens fire on the Japanese causing casualties and in reprisal, the Japanese tie the Dutch soldiers in groups of three and throw them from the bridge into the water to drown. (Jack McKillop)
A flight of three USAAF 5th Air Force A-24 Dauntlesses, nine P-40s and an LB-30 Liberator guide, on a flight from Australia to Java, arrives over Koepang Airdrome on Timor and finds the base closed by weather. The LB-30 returns to Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, but the A-24s and P-40s must land. All nine P-40s are destroyed while attempting to land and the three A-24s are shot up by Dutch AA gunners. One A-24 continues to Java tomorrow but the other two must return to Australia for repairs. (Jack McKillop)
Japanese aircraft bomb Batavia, Surabaya, and Malang, Java. (Jack McKillop)

Submarines USS Saury and Porpoise departed Surabaya for their second war patrol. (Dave Shirlaw)

SINGAPORE: After a series of huge artillery barrages, Japanese assault troops succeeded in crossing the Johore Strait last night and stormed the mangrove-fringed north-west shore of Singapore Island itself. General Tomoyuki Yamashita concentrated the weight of all three of his divisions on the long, thinly-held line manned by the two brigades of the Australian 8th Division.

Early reports indicate that the Australians have been thrown back by the overwhelming weight of the hordes of Japanese who charged their positions with bayonets. By dawn, the Japanese were pouring through a massive gap in the line and Tengah airfield, the initial objective of the Japanese assault, fallen to the enemy. Within a few hours, more than 4,000 Japanese troops came ashore in assault craft. Tanks and infantry are being ferried across on rafts. It is estimated that 30,000 Japanese have been successfully landed on Singapore.

The assault by the Japanese 5th and 18th Divisions came after arguments to build stronger defences were resisted by some senior British commanders as damaging to local morale. Also rejected were plans to concentrate defences on the north-west shore; more were sent to the north-east shore and then bypassed by Japan’s move. Despite this, some Australian battalions held firm all day. Then, surprised by the speed of enemy attacks, commanders ordered premature retreats.

Survey ship Herald, which had been damaged in an air raid, is abandoned and scuttled in dockyard at Singapore. Raised by the Japanese and recommissioned as Heiyo, she is mined and sunk in the Java Sea on 14 November 1944. (Alex Gordon)(108)

Although reinforcements are sent to the West Area from other sectors, the Japanese reach Tengah airfield. Beginning at 2100 hours, the Japanese 4th Guards Regiment lands in the area just west of the causeway. Lieutenant General Arthur Percival, General Office Commanding Malaya Command, orders the garrison to defend the southern part of the island, where Singapore town, Kalang airdrome, the reservoirs, and supply depots are located. The Far East War Council meets for the last time. (Jack McKillop)

PACIFIC OCEAN: Submarine USS Trout (SS-202) torpedoes and sinks a Japanese gunboat 53 miles (85 kilometres) off Keelung, Formosa. (Jack McKillop)

MIDWAY ISLAND: Japanese submarine HIJMS I-69 shells Sand Island with its 100mm deck gun. It is strafed and damaged by a USMC F2A Buffalo of Marine Fighting Squadron Two Hundred Twenty One (VMF 221) (Jack McKillop)

BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: Four destroyers from Rabaul land troops of the Japanese 144th Infantry at Gasmata, a coastal town on southern New Britain Island. (Jack McKillop)

TERRITORY OF HAWAII:12 USAAF 7th Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses are detached and released to the USN’s Commander-in-Chief, Pacific (CINCPAC); they will cover the advance of Task Force Eleven (TF 11) (Vice Admiral Wilson Brown Jr.) into the South Pacific. (Jack McKillop)

CANADA: Anti-conscription candidates are soundly defeated in four by-elections.

U.S.A.: The Screen Actors Guild rejects General Hershey’s plan to defer movie stars that was announced yesterday. (Jack McKillop)

78th Pursuit Group (Interceptor) and its three subordinate units, the 82d, 83d and 84th Pursuit Squadrons (Interceptor), USAAF are activated at Baer Field, Fort Wayne, Indiana. (Jack McKillop)

The 85,000 ton French passenger liner SS Normandie, built in 1931 and regarded by many as the most elegant ocean liner ever built, burns and sinks in New York Harbor during its conversion to a USN transport to be named Lafayette (AP-53). When France surrendered to the Germans in June 1940 and the puppet Vichy regime was installed, the Normandie was in dock at New York City. The US Navy immediately placed it in “protective custody,” since the U.S. government did not want a ship of such size and speed to fall into the hands of the Germans, which it certainly would if it returned to France; the Navy took control of the ship shortly after Pearl Harbor. While undergoing conversion to a transport, a welder accidentally set fire to a pile of flammable life preservers with his torch, and by early the next morning the ship lay capsized in the harbour, a gutted wreck. Salvage from this ship will be auctioned in July 1945. It almost certainly was some sort of carelessness that caused the fire, but it was not the fire that sank the ship. Tied up with only some ballast in her hull while she was being converted, it was the vast amount of firehose water that flooded upper compartments but had no way out, and gradually overweighted the balance and tipped her over. (Jack McKillop and Dave Shirlaw)
On this day, Congress pushes ahead standard time for the United States by one hour in each time zone, imposing daylight saving time—called at the time “war time.” (Jack McKillop)
Oiler USS Chicopee commissioned.

USS YMS-54 commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)

ATLANTIC OCEAN:
SS Tolosa (master Harald N. Kruse) disappeared on route from Kingston to Chester with her 22 men crew (16 Norwegians, 2 Swedes, 2 Danes, 1 American, 1 Briton). Believed sunk by U-108.

At 0538, the unescorted Anna Knudsen was torpedoed by U-586 northwest of Scotland, but kept afloat by her crew and arrived safely in Britain.

At 0034, U-654 fired three single torpedoes at convoy ON-60. Just as a hit on corvette FFL Alysse (ex-HMS Alyssum) was observed, a second explosion took place beyond. A freighter of 7000 grt stopped and was later attacked with a coup de grâce by the U-boat, but missed.

At 2020, the Empire Fusilier (Master William Reid), dispersed from convoy ON-60, was torpedoed and sunk by U-85 southeast of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Nine crewmembers were lost. The master, 31 crewmembers and six gunners were picked up by corvette HMCS Barrie and landed at Halifax. (Dave Shirlaw)

Interesting mention of New Zealand troops joining up with the Serbs.

Thanks again for this, as always I look forward to reading this. Reading the articles gives me the same chill in the spine I get when I'm at these places in the Philippines.

Any good news lately?

I’m back, btw

Any good news lately?

I’m back, btw

Oh wait, movies are ESSENTIAL?? lol.

Colonel John Scanlan and Major John Mollard, first and second commanders of ground forces in the New Guinea area decide to surrender to the Japanese in hopes of preventing another massacre like the one that had happened at the Tol plantation five days earlier.

I always get a kick out of the old advertisements in the Life magazines.

What really used to crack me up was how the ads for the “Eight O’Clock” coffee would show it in a package that you could still find in the store today. Just last summer they finally changed their packaging so it looks different now.