Posted on 04/09/2012 4:17:20 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
John Toland, The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945
Barbara W. Tuchman, Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45
* This is the first of five parts spread over 8 days.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1942/apr42/f09apr42.htm
Allied POWs begin the Death March
Thursday, April 9, 1942 www.onwar.com
Allied victims of the “Death March”In the Philippines... American General King surrenders 75,000 men (12,000 Americans) to the Japanese. A death march begins for the prisoners as they are taken to San Fernado, 100 miles away. Many thousands of them die on the march. Resistance continues in isolated areas of Luzon and other islands. General Wainwright and his troops continue to hold out on Corregidor Island.
In the India Ocean... The Japanese fleet continues its attacks. It is hunting the main British fleet. Trincomalee is attacked by Japanese aircraft and the British carrier HMS Hermes is attacked and sunk.
In Burma...In the Irrawaddy Valley, both the Japanese and British forces prepare offensives. The Japanese however have the advantage of earlier reinforcement and are in a position to attack first.
On the Eastern Front... German forces in the north advance to begin the relief of the encircled 16th Army forces at Demyansk. Meanwhile, in the Crimea, Soviet attacks are renewed with little success in the area.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/frame.htm
April 9th, 1942 (THURSDAY)
GERMANY: During the day, seven RAF Bomber Command Wellingtons are dispatched on a cloud-cover raid to Essen; only one aircraft bombs a village north of Essen. (Jack McKillop)
Hitler on US production: In the economic field we can learn much from the United States. The motor industry of the United States, by standardization of types and mass production, has reduced the cost of a motor car to such an extent that every workman over there can afford to keep and run a car. Our own procedure has been exactly the reverse. We are constantly bringing out new models and modifying and improving existing ones. The result is that we have to produce an immense number and variety of spare parts, for the parts of a different model of the same make of car are never interchangeable. Nothing like this occurs in America. (207)
NORWAY: The people conduct a one-day “silence strike” on the second anniversary of the German invasion. No Norwegian speaks to a German or Norwegian collaborator. (Jack McKillop)
U.S.S.R.: Strong Soviet efforts to advance from the Kerch area in the Crimea make little headway against stubborn German forces. The Germans remain on the defensive on the central front, containing most of Soviet Army thrusts; on the northern front, the Germans launch fresh attacks in the Lake Illmen area and make slow progress against firm opposition toward encircled forces in vicinity of Cholm and Staraya Russa. (Jack McKillop)
Vyazma: To avoid the dishonour of surrender to the Germans, General Mikhail Yefremov commits suicide.
Crimea: The Red Army launches a new offensive but gains little ground.
INDIAN OCEAN: At 1035 hours, the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes, Australian destroyer HMAS Vampire, British corvette HMS Hollyhock, depot ship HMS Athelstane and RFA oiler British Sergeant, are about 65 miles (105 kilometres) south of Trincomalee, Ceylon, and 5 miles (8 kilometres) offshore. The ships are located and attacked by Japanese aircraft from the aircraft carriers HIJMS Akagi, Hiryu and Soryu. HMS Hermes is hit by 40 bombs and capsizes and sinks at about 1045 hours. Sixteen aircraft then attack the Australian destroyer and after several near misses, a 250-kilogram (551-pound) bomb hits the boiler room and four other bombs hit in rapid succession; a fifth bomb breaks the ship’s back and she splits in two. Remarkably, only eight men are lost. The corvette, depot ship and oiler are also sunk. (Jack McKillop)
Nine Blenheim Mk. IVs of RAF No. 11 Squadron based at Colombo Racecourse, Ceylon, attack the Japanese carriers but they are beaten off by AA fire and fighter attacks; five of the nine aircraft are shot down. (Jack McKillop)
Japanese bombers with a huge fighter escort, bombed the China Bay airfield and dockyard at Trincomalee today, causing major damage. Warned of the approach, RAF Hurricane fighters and naval Fulmars intercepted, shooting down 15 Japanese aircraft for the loss of eight Hurricanes and three Fulmars. In a gallant attempt at retaliation, nine RAF Blenheims attacked the Japanese carrier fleet.
Five British aircraft were shot down and the remainder damaged. Their bombs scored only near misses, but they destroyed five enemy aircraft. Because of the impending raid shipping had been cleared from Trincomalee, but with the raid over the carrier HMS HERMES, with HMAS VAMPIRE, turned for home.
A Japanese scout plane had reported their position. Fighters sent to aid the Hermes did not arrive in time. Nagumo’s carriers flew off 85 bombers and nine fighters which attacked the Hermes in waves. Within ten minutes she had been hit by 40 bombs and sunk, there are 307 casualties. Bombers then attacked the Vampire, which had 13 direct hits before breaking in two and sinking. A corvette, HMS HOLLYHOCK, is escorting tanker HMS ATHELSTONE and RFA oiler BRITISH SERGEANT were also lost an hour after the first attacks. HOLLYHOCK sinks 30 miles SSE of Batticaloa (Ceylon) at 07 21N, 81 57E. (Jack McKillop and Alex Gordon(108)
INDIA: With the breakdown of autonomy negotiations, British forces crack down on dissidents. One of those arrested is Mahatma Gandhi. (Jack McKillop)
BURMA: The Burma I Corps is now disposed to defend oil fields, on a general line Minhla-Taungdwingyi, a 40-mile (64 kilometres) front. The Chinese are not in position to support the corps because of a series of contradictory orders. (Jack McKillop)
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: On Bataan, at 0330 hours, emissaries of Major General Edward King, Commanding General Luzon Force, start to the Japanese lines under a white flag to arrange for surrender. General King surrenders the Luzon Force unconditionally at 1230 hours, and a grim march of prisoners from Balanga to San Fernando follows. The fall of Bataan permits Japanese aircraft previously employed against it to devote their full attention to Corregidor Island in Manila Bay. For the first time since the end of March, enemy planes attack in force. Japanese artillery emplaced at Cabcaben, on southern Bataan, opens fire on Corregidor. (Jack McKillop)
USN facilities at Mariveles are demolished to prevent enemy use: Navy forces scuttle submarine tender USS Canopus (AS-9), minesweeper USS Bittern (AM-36), tug USS Napa (AT-32), and dry-dock Dewey. Ferry launches San Felipe (YFB-12), Camia (YFB-683), and Dap Dap (YFB-684), and Canopus motor launches, evacuate men and equipment to Corregidor. (Jack McKillop)
In the Visayan Islands, the Cebu Island garrison is alerted as the enemy flotilla heading toward the Island is spotted. (Jack McKillop)
Submarine USS Snapper (SS-185) delivers food to Corregidor. (Jack McKillop)
Motor torpedo boats PT-34 and PT-41 engage Japanese light cruiser HIJMS Kuma and torpedo boat HIJMS Kiji in a running fight off Cape Tanon, the southern tip of Cebu Island; HIJMS Kuma is hit by a dud torpedo and machine gun fire. Later that same day, PT-34 is bombed and strafed by floatplanes from the Japanese seaplane carrier HIJMS Sanuki Maruand beached off Cauit Island. A second bombing and strafing attack by Sanuki Maru’s planes destroys PT-34, which suffers two dead and three wounded from her six-man crew in the action. (Jack McKillop)
After four months’ epic resistance the 76,000 emaciated and diseased US and Filipino troops and civilians defending Bataan have surrendered. Major-General King said that he was defying orders not to surrender from Major-General Wainwright, now on Corregidor, in order to avoid a “mass slaughter” by the 50,000 strong Japanese enemy.
2,000 men were evacuated to Corregidor, which is still holding out.
The PoWs pose a logistics problem to their captors who are now turning their attention to the island of Corregidor. The Japanese therefore plan to move the prisoners to Camp O’Donnell, but with the nearest railhead 65 miles away they will have to force march them there.
AUSTRALIA: The USAAF’s 7th Pursuit Squadron (Interceptor) moves from Bankstown Aerodrome, New South Wales, to Batchelor Aerodrome, Northern Territory, 50 miles (80 kilometres) south of Darwin. The squadron, equipped with P-40Es, joins the 9th Pursuit Squadron (Interceptor) which has been at Darwin since 17 March. (Jack McKillop)
Melbourne, Australia: The 2nd victim of the “Brownout Strangler”, 31 year old Pauline Thompson was found this morning. She had told her husband, a policeman in Bendigo, that was going to a dance at the Music Lover’s club with a number of her girlfriends and a very young American, Private Justin Jones. She had planned to meet Private Jones at the American Hospitality Club before the dance at 7pm. Private Jones was 30 minutes late. Pauline gave up waiting for Jones and she was later seen with a soldier at the Astoria Hotel. They were seen leaving the hotel just before midnight. It was a dark, rainy miserable night. Pauline’s body was found at about 4am on the steps of Morningside House in Spring Street. She had been badly strangled and her clothing was torn. (Denis Peck)
U.S.A.: In a message to General Douglas MacArthur, Commanding General U.S. Army Forces, Far East, General George C Marshall, Chief of Staff U.S. Army, proposes that all participating nations in the Southwest Pacific should be represented on the staff of General Headquarters especially since MacArthur’s Chief of Staff and the naval and air commanders will be Americans. Marshall adds that President Franklin D Roosevelt wants Dutch and particularly Australians appointed to “a number of the higher positions.” (Jack McKillop)
A radio controlled Great Lakes TG-2 torpedo bomber operated as a drone, directed by control pilot Lieutenant M. B. Taylor of Project Fox, makes a torpedo attack on the destroyer USS Aaron Ward (DD-483) steaming at 15 knots in Narragansett Bay in south-eastern Rhode Island. Taylor utilized a view of the target obtained by a television camera mounted in the drone, and directed the attack so that the torpedo was released about 300 feet (91 meters) directly astern of the target and passed under it. (Jack McKillop)
Motor torpedo boat PT-59, on a practice run in upper Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, accidentally torpedoes cargo ship USS Capella (AK-13); tugs are on the scene immediately and anchor the damaged auxiliary in shoal water. (Jack McKillop)
The 8th Air Force HQ echelon is relocated to Bolling Field, Washington, DC, to prepare the 8th for a move overseas. (Jack McKillop)
A radio controlled TG-2 drone, directed by control pilot Lieutenant M. B. Taylor of Project Fox, makes a torpedo attack on the destroyer Aaron Ward steaming at 15 knots in Narragansett Bay. Taylor utilized a view of the target obtained by a television camera mounted in the drone, and directed the attack so that the torpedo was released about 300 feet directly astern of the target and passed under it. (Gordon Rottman)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: German and Italian submarines sink five unarmed U.S. merchant ships in the Western Hemisphere. (1) U-123 sinks a tanker en route from Honduras to New York about 21 miles northeast of Jacksonville Beach, Florida. (2) U-160 sinks a freighter about 63 miles (101 kilometres) south of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. (3) U-552 sinks a tanker about 69 miles (111 kilometres) south southwest of Cape Hatteras. (4) Later in the day, U-552 sinks a second tanker about 71 miles (114 kilometres) south southwest of Cape Hatteras. (5) Italian submarine Pietro Calvi sinks a tanker route to Caripito, Venezuela from Buenos Aires, Argentina, by gunfire about 120 miles (193 kilometres) north northwest of Fortaleza, Brazil. (Jack McKillop)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bataan
Radio Broadcast – Voice of Freedom – Malinta Tunnel – Corregidor – April 9, 1942:
“Bataan has fallen. The Philippine-American troops on this war-ravaged and bloodstained peninsula have laid down their arms. With heads bloody but unbowed, they have yielded to the superior force and numbers of the enemy.
The world will long remember the epic struggle that Filipino and American soldiers put up in the jungle fastness and along the rugged coast of Bataan. They have stood up uncomplaining under the constant and grueling fire of the enemy for more than three months. Besieged on land and blockaded by sea, cut off from all sources of help in the Philippines and in America, the intrepid fighters have done all that human endurance could bear.
For what sustained them through all these months of incessant battle was a force that was more than merely physical. It was the force of an unconquerable faith—something in the heart and soul that physical hardship and adversity could not destroy! It was the thought of native land and all that it holds most dear, the thought of freedom and dignity and pride in these most priceless of all our human prerogatives.
The adversary, in the pride of his power and triumph, will credit our troops with nothing less than the courage and fortitude that his own troops have shown in battle. Our men have fought a brave and bitterly contested struggle. All the world will testify to the most superhuman endurance with which they stood up until the last in the face of overwhelming odds.
But the decision had to come. Men fighting under the banner of unshakable faith are made of something more than flesh, but they are not made of impervious steel. The flesh must yield at last, endurance melts away, and the end of the battle must come.
Bataan has fallen, but the spirit that made it stand—a beacon to all the liberty-loving peoples of the world—cannot fall![5]
Edward Joseph Leonski (December 12, 1917 – November 9, 1942) . Leonski is known as the “Brownout Strangler”, given Melbourne’s wartime status of keeping low lighting (not as stringent as a wartime blackout).
On May 3, 1942, Ivy Violet McLeod, 40, was found dead in Albert Park, Melbourne. She had been beaten and strangled, and because she was found to be in possession of her purse it was evident that robbery was not the motive.
Just six days later, 31-year-old Pauline Thompson was strangled after a night out. Gladys Hosking, 40, was the next victim, murdered on May 18 while walking home from work at the Chemistry Library at Melbourne University.
Leonski confessed to the crimes and was convicted and sentenced to death at a United States Army general court-martial on July 17, 1942. Leonski was hanged at Pentridge Prison on November 9, 1942, only the second American serviceman to be executed during World War II.
I think that the “Brown-out” stranglings in Melbourne happened in May, not April.
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/leonski-edward-joseph-10814
http://ergo.slv.vic.gov.au/explore-history/rebels-outlaws/city-criminals/brown-out-strangler
http://www.ozatwar.com/ozatwar/eddieleonski.htm
If these crimes had happened in England instead of Australia I’m sure inspector Christopher Foyle would have gotten involved. It is good that whoever was really assigned to the case got it solved before there were more victims.
This fact could hardly be believed in Washington and Marshall asked for specific figures, declaring that 90,000 "is greatly in excess of what we understood was there." When Wainwright's reply arrived it proved even more startling than his first statement. On Bataan and Corregidor alone, the strength of the command, including naval elements and civilians subsisted by the Army, was 110,000.
There was not the slightest possibility that sufficient food for even a fraction of this force could be sent, but Marshall told Wainwright not to hesitate to ask for any assistance that was practicable. "It is a matter of continuing concern to me," he assured the recently appointed USFIP commander, "as to what additional measures the War Department might take to strengthen and sustain your gallant defense .... Your recommendations always receive my immediate personal attention." Similar assurances had already been given by the President.
Following a lengthy, eleven-page requisition to the War Department, which could not possibly have been filled even under more favorable circumstances, Wainwright reviewed for General Somervell the supplies received from outside sources since the start of the campaign and explained his present situation.
"Our desperate needs at the moment," he told the War Department G-4, "are subsistence and limited medical supplies, particularly quinine sulphate." The urgency of the request was emphasized in a separate message to the War Department in which he spoke of the high incidence of malaria and other diseases on Bataan and asked for a one-month supply of various drugs essential to the health of his command. Two days later he bluntly warned the Chief of Staff that disaster was imminent unless supplies arrived soon. There was only enough food on Bataan, he stated, to last until 15 April "at one-third ration, poorly balanced and very deficient in vitamins." If, by that time, supplies did not reach him, "the troops there will be starved into submission."
To this estimate, MacArthur, who received a copy of the message, took sharp exception.
Without minimizing the critical conditions on Bataan he maintained that there had been enough food there before he left to last until 1 May. "It is of course possible," he told the Chief of Staff, "that with my departure the vigor of application of conservation may have been relaxed." To Wainwright he expressed his confidence that the efforts then being made to break the blockade would bring in enough food to last for an indefinite period and categorically repudiated any idea of surrender. "I am utterly opposed," he asserted, "under any circumstances or conditions to the ultimate capitulation of this command. If food fails," he directed Wainwright, "you will prepare and execute an attack upon the enemy."
But the chief problem, to reach Wainwright with supplies, still remained unsolved.
From Washington General Marshall used all his authority to send Wainwright the things he so desperately needed. In messages to Australia and Hawaii he ordered that every means at hand be utilized to send aid; all supply agencies in the War Department were impressed with the urgency of the situation; and the Navy was asked to make submarines available. Lt. Gen. Delos C. Emmons, Hawaiian Department commander, was directed to send a vessel loaded with 3,600 tons of concentrated food to Manila Bay immediately. "Spare no effort to push this movement," the Chief of Staff ordered. "You are authorized to pay crew liberal bonus." Within the week a vessel manned by a Navy crew and loaded with 1,000,000 rations, 340 tons of meat, 20 tons of cigarettes, 158 tons of milk, 200 tons of rice, and 548 tons of ammunition had left Honolulu. The journey would take twenty-two days, sixteen more than the Japanese were to allow the Bataan garrison
MacArthur was asked to intensify his efforts from Australia to relieve Wainwright and to send small boats capable of running the Japanese blockade between Mindanao and Corregidor. The need for quinine was so pressing, Marshall told MacArthur, that he was to send all he could collect by air immediately to Mindanao. Submarines furnished by the Navy would carry other supplies. "Report date of initial shipment by plane, type, and quantity of items," the Chief of Staff directed.
In reply MacArthur asserted that he had already, at Wainwright's request, sent all the quinine and vitamin concentrates he had been able to gather on short notice. In addition he was planning to send another load by air soon and would station the plane in Mindanao to fly supplies northward.
Marshall even sought to get Wainwright help from China. On 30 March he asked Lt. Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell to look into the possibilities of sending food to the Philippines by ship. Stilwell replied that there was no chance of getting blockade-runners, but that he would try to secure planes and food for such a venture. While he was still trying, Bataan fell.
As each expedient failed to bring in supplies, more and more desperate and extreme measures were proposed in a vain attempt to break through the blockade.
When Wainwright requested three submarines to transport supplies from Cebu, they were quickly made available although their transfer seriously limited naval operations. Two underwater craft on patrol west of the Philippines were ordered to Cebu to load supplies for Corregidor, and two others were readied at Fremantle for the trip north. Wainwright proposed, on 27 March, still another scheme to break through the blockade. This proposal, first made to MacArthur, called for a surprise attack against Japanese naval forces in Visayan waters and in Subic Bay by medium or heavy bombers sent from Australia to Mindanao. Such an attack would have a fair chance, Wainwright thought, of temporarily disrupting the blockade so that some of the food tied up in Cebu could be brought in. As a last resort, he suggested that ten BI7's be stationed at Del Monte and, "by making a round trip each day, deliver a few days reduced ration for Bataan troops." Where these heavy bombers would land was never made clear.
MacArthur agreed to send the bombers at some indefinite date in the future and Wainwright completed his arrangements. Within a few days all was in readiness. Two ships of 500 tons each, one loaded with food and the other with gasoline, were waiting at Cebu and Iloilo. Others were standing by and would be loaded and ready to sail when the first bombers attacked. During the voyage to Corregidor, the vessels would be covered by three P-40's then being assembled in Mindanao. Wainwright had convinced himself by this time that the air attacks would disrupt the blockade "for a considerable period of time," and that he would be able to move all the supplies on Cebu, an amount sufficient to subsist the Bataan garrison for one month, to Corregidor. All he needed to carry out this ambitious plan, he told MacArthur, was heavy bombers. On the 4th MacArthur told him that the planes were being prepared and would "be available sometime the following week."
Days passed but no planes came. At Cebu and Iloilo eight ships, fully loaded with rations and medicine, lay at anchor. They were still there when the Japanese occupied Cebu on the morning of 10 April. The bombers finally reached Mindanao the next day, too late to help the men on Bataan.
Despite every effort it had proved impossible to relieve the men on Bataan.
The beginning of April found them at their weakest-their fighting edge blunted and their capacity to resist at the lowest ebb. The effects of a three-month-long starvation diet, incessant air and artillery bombardment, and the ravages of disease could be seen in the gaunt bodies and sunken eyes of Americans and Filipinos alike. The loss of hope and the psychological impact of war are recorded only in the diaries and speech of those fortunate enough to survive.
By 1 April, wrote General King's surgeon, the combat efficiency of the troops in Luzon Force "was rapidly approaching the zero point."
The Fall Of The Philippines by Louis Morton
Center Of Military History, United States Army
The Japanese officer who returned the class ring to the Notre Dame grad may have seen the Trojans shut out the Domers in the Coliseum in 1932—and the Notre Dame win in 1934 which broke its three-game losing streak against USC.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Hermes_(95)
After the raid on Colombo by the Japanese aircraft carriers on 5 April, Hermes and Vampire were sent to Trincomalee to prepare for Operation Ironclad, the British invasion of Madagascar, and 814 Squadron was sent ashore. After advance warning of a Japanese air raid on 9 April 1942, they left Trincomalee and sailed south down the Ceylon coast before it arrived.[41] They were spotted off Batticaloa, however, by a Japanese reconnaissance plane from the battleship Haruna.[42] The British intercepted the spot report and ordered the ships to return to Trincomalee with the utmost dispatch and attempted to provide fighter cover for them.[43] The Japanese launched 85 Aichi D3A dive bombers, escorted by nine Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters, at the two ships. At least 32 attacked them and sank them in quick order despite the arrival of six Fairey Fulmar II fighters of No. 273 Squadron RAF. Another six Fulmars from 803 and 806 Squadrons arrived after Hermes had already sunk. The rest of the Japanese aircraft attacked other ships further north, sinking the RFA Athelstone of 5,571 gross register tonnage (GRT), her escort, the corvette Hollyhock, the oil tanker SS British Sergeant and the Norwegian ship SS Norviken of 2,924 GRT.[44]
Hermes sank with the loss of 307 men, including Captain Onslow. Vampire's captain and seven crewmen were also killed. Most of the survivors of the attack were picked up by the hospital ship Vita.[45] Japanese losses to all causes were four D3As lost and five more damaged, while two Fulmars were shot down.[46]
Right you are. The etherington website has lots of good information but the dates sometimes get scrambled. The more common error is an event assigned to the correct month and date but the wrong year.
There is something about a young wife telling her husband that she is going out on the town dancing with friends and a young American soldier that makes me question the state of their marriage.
They buried thios son of a b*tch in a MILITARY cemetery?
“A radio controlled Great Lakes TG-2 torpedo bomber operated as a drone, directed by control pilot Lieutenant M. B. Taylor of Project Fox, makes a torpedo attack on the destroyer USS Aaron Ward (DD-483) steaming at 15 knots in Narragansett Bay in south-eastern Rhode Island. Taylor utilized a view of the target obtained by a television camera mounted in the drone, and directed the attack so that the torpedo was released about 300 feet (91 meters) directly astern of the target and passed under it. (Jack McKillop)”
Fist instance of a UAV I’ve read. Didn’t Joe Kennedy, Jr. die in a UAV incident in Europe later in the war?
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