JAPANESE INVADE NEW GUINEA AT 2 POINTS; JAVA SILENT, REPORTED SURRENDER DENIED (3/9/42)

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
Battle of Bataan, 1942
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

Towns are Seized (by Christian Folkard, first-time contributor) – 2-3
Foe Gains in Burma – 3-4
Indies Isle Cut Off (Anderson) – 4-5
The War Summarized – 4
MacArthur Blasts 29 Trucks; Reports Hara-kiri by Homma – 6
The Texts of the Day’s Communiques on the War – 7-8
The War on U-Boats (Baldwin)

http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1942/mar42/f09mar42.htm

Dutch government leaves Java
Monday, March 9, 1942 www.onwar.com

In the Dutch East Indies... The Dutch government on Java is evacuated. The Japanese have complete control of the island. General Ter Poorten agrees to surrender 100,000 Allied troops.

From Washington... Admiral Ghormley is relieved by Admiral Hard Stark as commander US naval forces in European waters.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/frame.htm

March 9th, 1942

UNITED KINGDOM: Bomber Command aircraft fitted with a revolutionary navigational device code-named “Gee” bombed Essen last night in the first large-scale use of the new system.

“Gee” works by sending out pulse signals from three different ground stations. These signals are picked up by the bombers and enable their navigators to calculate their positions by observing the time taken for the signals to reach them.

Aircraft equipped with “Gee” illuminated last night’s target and were followed by other “Gee” bombers which dropped incendiaries. It is hoped the system will improve night navigation.

Frigate HMS Exe is launched.

Submarines USS R-17 and R-19 transferred to RN under Lend Lease and renamed HMS P-512 and P-552 respectively.

P-512 assigned to Halifax and P-552 to Argentia/St John’s for ASW training. (Dave Shirlaw)

NETHERLANDS: Individual RAF Bomber Command aircraft bomb Schipol and Soesterburg Airfields during the night of the 9th/10th. (Jack McKillop)

FRANCE: Six RAF Bomber Command Bostons on a Circus raid bomb the Mazingarbe fuel depot during the day; there are no losses.

During the night of the 9th/10th, nine RAF Bomber Command Wellingtons and Stirlings are dispatched to bomb the port area of Boulogne; only two aircraft bomb the target. (Jack McKillop)

GERMANY: During the night of the 9th/10th, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 187 aircraft, 136 Wellingtons, 21 Stirlings, 15 Hampdens, ten Manchesters and five Halifaxes, to continue the series of heavy Gee-guided raids on Essen. One hundred forty three aircraft bomb but thick ground haze leads to scattered bombing and only two buildings are destroyed in Essen but 72 are damaged. Four other aircraft attack Duisburg and individual aircraft bomb Emmerich and Oberhausen. Two Welingtons and a Halifax are lost. (Jack McKillop)
Five RAF Bomber Command Hampdens lay mines in the Frisian Islands. (Jack McKillop)

U-619 and U-620 are launched. (Dave Shirlaw)

NORWAY: Albacore aircraft from HMS Victorious make an unsuccessful attack on the TIRPITZ.

INDIA: New Delhi: Java, the greatest prize in the triumphant Japanese campaign of conquest in South-east Asia, has fallen. After bloody engagements in the jungle, the Dutch, British, Australian and US contingents have surrendered.

The Dutch East Indies government has flown out to Australia. Java appeared doomed after Singapore fell three weeks ago. Resistance crumbled rapidly once the three Japanese invasion forces, meeting little resistance on the beaches, came ashore and moved inland. A Japanese column attacked Kalidjati airfield where the defenders, mostly British anti-aircraft gunners turned infantrymen fought bravely until they had been practically wiped out. In the west the Japanese 2nd Division advanced towards Batavia by the coast road and on Buitenzorg by the southern road.

The destruction of the Allied naval forces in the Java Sea last month, the weakness of Allied air power, and the blockade imposed by overwhelming Japanese naval dominance made capitulation in Java inevitable. At 9am today Lieutenant-General H ter Poorten, the Allied commander, broadcast that all were to lay down their arms.

BURMA: Burma Army forces at Taukkyan continue a withdrawal northward without serious difficulty. (Jack McKillop)

NEW CALEDONIA: American troops, Task Force 6814 consisting of the HQ of the 51st Infantry Brigade and the 132d and 182 Infantry under the command of Major General Alexander M. Patch, land at Noumea on New Caledonia Island. A brief diplomatic scuffle ensues after Patch takes a dissident group of local militiamen under his command but the matter is quickly resolved in favor of the French and a new governor is appointed for the island. (Jack McKillop)

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: General Douglas MacArthur, Commanding General U.S. Army Forces, Far East, announces that General YAMASHITA Tomoyoki has replaced Lieutenant General HOMMA Masaharu as Commander of the Japanese 14th Army in the Philippines. (Jack McKillop)
President Franklin D. Roosevelt again radios MacArthur to leave the Philippines and MacArthur agrees he will leave Corregidor by 15 March. The question is how. The original plan was for MacArthur and party to leave in the submarine USS Permit (SS-178) on 14 March. However, the radio press in the U.S. began broadcasting demands that MacArthur be placed in command of all Allied Forces in Australia and the Japanese, realizing that he will flee, increase the size and frequency of naval patrols in Subic Bay and off Corregidor. A destroyer division is sighted in the southern Philippines heading north at high speed. Tokyo Rose is broadcasting that MacArthur will be captured within a month, and U.S. Navy officers give MacArthur a one-in-five chance. Therefore, It is decided not to wait for the submarine but to leave by motor torpedo (PT) boat as soon as preparations can be completed. The PT boats will take him to Mindanao Island and the party will then board three USAAF B-17 Flying Fortresses at Del Monte Field for a flight to Australia. (Jack McKillop)

NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: At 1430 hours on Java, in compliance with the demands of Lieutenant General IMAMURA Hitoshi, Commander of the Japanese 16th Army, Dutch Lieutenant General Hein Ter Poorten makes a second radio broadcast in which all British, Australian and American units are ordered to lay down their arms. (Jack McKillop)

NEW GUINEA: Land-based aircraft attack a Japanese convoy in Huon Gulf with unobserved results. Japanese aircraft continue the neutralization of points in New Guinea. (Jack McKillop)

AUSTRALIA: A leading brigade of the 7th Division Australian Imperial Force arrives in Adelaide, South Australia, from the Middle East. Elements of the division had been sent to Java where they soon became prisoners of the Japanese. (Jack McKillop)
Submarine USS Swordfish (SS-193) disembarks U.S. High Commissioner to the Philippine Islands Francis B. Sayre and his party at Fremantle, Western Australia. (Jack McKillop)

SOLOMON ISLANDS: Australian coastwatcher P. Good is executed by the Japanese on Buka Island, north of Bougainville. He had been betrayed by an Australian news broadcast reporting enemy shipping movements. (Jack McKillop)

CANADA: An advance construction team of U.S. Army engineers arrives at Dawson Creek, British Columbia, to begin work on the 1,522 mile (2449 kilometre) Alcan Highway between Dawson Creek and Fairbanks, Territory of Alaska, U.S.A. (Jack McKillop)

U.S.A.: Admiral Harold Stark relieves Admiral Ghormley as Commander US Naval Forces in European Waters.

A major U.S. Army reorganization, implementing an Executive Order of 28 February, becomes effective today. General Headquarters is abolished and three autonomous commands, Army Ground Forces under Lieutenant General Lesley J. McNair, Army Air Forces under Lieutenant General Henry H. “Hap” Arnold, and Services of Supply (later designated as Army Service Forces) under Major General Brehon B. Somervell, are given responsibility for Zone of Interior (ZI) functions under General George C. Marshall as Chief of Staff. The field forces remain under control of the War Department General Staff. The Air Corps and the US Army Air Force Combat Command, which previously had made up the Army Air Forces (AAF), are discontinued. (Jack McKillop)

The Anglo-American Caribbean Commission is founded. (Dave Shirlaw)

ATLANTIC OCEAN: A Brazilian steamship, the unescorted Hog Islander SS Cayru, is torpedoed by German submarine U-94, breaks in two and sinks about 130 miles (209 kilometres) east of Atlantic City, New Jersey, U.S. All hands on board abandoned ship, but only the lifeboat with the master and 26 other men was found. The other lifeboats with 47 crewmembers and six passengers disappeared. (Jack McKillop and Dave Shirlaw)

SS Lily sunk by U-587 at 43.32N, 54.14W.

MS Tyr sunk by U-96 at 43.40N, 61.10W. (Dave Shirlaw)

CARIBBEAN SEA: At 1317, the unescorted and unarmed motor tanker Hanseat was hit by two torpedoes from U-126 10 miles NNE of Cape Maysi, Cuba. The first torpedo struck on the starboard side in the bow and tore holes in both sides, the second hit simultaneously in the stern, just ahead of the propeller near the engine room. The tanker immediately settled by the stern, due to the flooding of the engine room. The engines were stopped and distress signals were sent, before the Danish crew abandoned ship in all four lifeboats. A short time later, the U-boat surfaced and started to shell the Hanseat for about two hours. About 200 rounds were fired into the port side, setting the tanker ablaze. One lifeboat had an outboard motor and reached the village of Maysi about seven hours after the attack. The men in the boat immediately left aboard the Cuban motor launch Corsario to rescue the other survivors. In the meantime, the men in the remaining lifeboats sighted the Panamanian motor tanker Pheobus enroute from New York to Caripito, bearing directly toward the burning Hanseat. Brandt hoisted a yellow flag to warn her, because they were only 7 miles away from the wreck and they thought that the U-boat was still in the vicinity. The other tanker came near and Groth spoke to Brandt, inquiring him about the condition of the survivors and offering assistance. Brandt told him to keep on going in order not to endanger his ship by stopping. Groth promised to send help and proceeded on his course. By this time the last sign of smoke from the Hanseat had disappeared, apparently the ship was completely sunk. Two hours after leaving Maysi, the motor launch arrived at the scene and took the three lifeboats in tow to Maysi. The survivors were then transported on the Corsario to Baracoa, Cuba and later by bus to Havana. They were flown to Miami and were then sent by train back to New York, arriving on 24 March. (Dave Shirlaw)

I enjoy the heck out of reading these each day. Thanks for keeping them coming!

As the last Dutch on Java surrender, FDR writes a letter to Churchill suggesting that "The whole of the operational responsibility for the Pacific area will rest on the United States."
Twelve Albacores of the Fleet Air Arm attack the Tirpitz with little success.

Looks like MacArthur is engaging in more wishful thinking. Funny how he now says the Japan is attacking with a superior force now when he told his men on Bataan that they out numbered the Japanese. But then again he also told them they were “amply supplied”.

Wow. In recent months, there has been a shortage of nekkid pictures, but they really made up for it this week.

I noticed that myself. Someone over there at LIFE must have been going through withdrawals or something because I think this is the most nudity I’ve seen in an issue yet.