[Homer_J_Simpson]

Rommel Repelled – 2
Vain Axis Assault Fires Desert Night (McMillan) – 3
War News Summarized – 3
Foe is Hit at Dawn (Parker) – 4
Midway Battle’s Lesson (Baldwin) – 5
The Texts of the Day’s Communiques on the War – 6-7
Britain’s Output of Arms Defended (Anderson) – 7

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1942/jul42/f16jul42.htm

Red Army fights for Rostov
Thursday, July 16, 1942 www.onwar.com

On the Eastern Front... Soviet resistance against the German advances near Rostov stiffens.

From Moscow... Soviets release figures of German losses from the start of their summer offensive. Their numbers, 900,000 are considered to be exaggerated.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

I just now got around to reading Hanson W. Baldwin’s take on the Navy account of Midway. I am surprised that seven months after Pearl Harbor even a well connected guy like Baldwin doesn’t realize the extent of the damage from the attack.

A long letter in The New York Sun of June 20 . . . describes how [the West Virginia] was struck at Pearl Harbor by “four torpedoes and two bombs, one of which fired the forward part of the ship” and which obviously caused great damage. Yet yesterday’s list of American naval losses included only one battleship lost – presumably the Arizona – and one damaged, presumably the capsized Oklahoma.

That evidence that the Navy has been less than forthcoming on U.S. ship losses should have given Baldwin a clue as to why the entire Japanese fleet wasn’t hunted down and sunk at Midway.

Greater results – in fact annihilation of an eighty-ship armada – might have been achieved if our surface ships had been able to close within gun range of the enemy.

Little does Baldwin realize that the last thing Nimitz wanted was for the U.S. fleet to venture within range of the enemy battleships.