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/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]