Japanese advance in Burma continues
Sunday, April 12, 1942 www.onwar.com
Japanese soldiers fighting among ruinsIn Burma... Despite reinforcement by the Chinese 38th Division, the Japanese take Migyaungye from the Allied defenders and threaten the British positions in the valley.
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April 12th, 1942 (SUNDAY)
INDIA: The Congress Party leader, Pandit Nehru, promises no surrender and full resistance to the Axis, despite the rejection of Stafford Cripp’s plea for greater Indian military co-operation in exchange for independence after the war.
BURMA: American Volunteer Group P-40s attack Toungoo Airfield and destroy 3 Japanese bombers. (Jack McKillop)
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Australia-based USAAF B-25s, staging through Mindanao Island, hit the harbour and shipping at Cebu, Cebu Island while B-17s carry out single-bomber strikes from Mindanao against Cebu harbour and Nichols Field on Luzon.
Motor torpedo boat PT-35, undergoing repairs on the marine railway at the Cebu Shipyard and Engineering Works, is destroyed by crew as the Japanese capture Cebu Island.
(Jack McKillop)
U.S.A.: Lieutenant General Henry H “Hap” Arnold, Commanding General USAAF, sends air plans for Operation BOLERO, the build-up of US armed forces in the UK for an attack on Europe, to General George C Marshall, Chief of Staff US Army, in London. The plan calls for establishment of the 8th Air Force in the UK. (Jack McKillop)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: German submarines sink 4 merchant vessels:
- Armed U.S. freighter SS Delvalle, en route from New Orleans, Louisiana to Buenos Aires, Argentina, via St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, is torpedoed and sunk by U-154 south of Haiti.
- Armed Panamanian motor tanker MT Stanvac Melbourne is torpedoed by U-203 about 15 miles (24 km) off Frying Pan Shoals, North Carolina.
- Unarmed U.S. tanker SS Esso Boston, en route from Venezuela to Nova Scotia, is torpedoed and shelled by U-130 northeast of Puerto Rico.
- Unarmed U.S. freighter SS Leslie is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-123 approximately 3 miles (4,8 km) southeast of Hetzel Shoals Gas Buoy, Florida. (Jack McKillop)