Posted on 08/09/2012 4:14:49 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
John Toland, The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945
Richard Tregaskis, Guadalcanal Diary
Pacific Battle On (Trumbull, Darnton, Peters) – 2-3
War News Summarized – 4
Clemency for Two (Wood) – 4-5
Chronology of Eight Spies – 5
End of a Nazi Plot Against U.S.: Six Saboteurs Die in Electric Chair, Two are Jailed (photos) – 6
Zero Plane Bound Here Without Arms (photos) – 8
Nazis Close In on Maikop; Black Sea Trap Tightened – 9-10
9 Leaders Discuss War in Broadcast Today; Davis, Leahy, Eisenhower and Nimitz in List – 10
Airpower is First in Poll of Public (Gallup) – 11
The Texts of the Day’s Communiques on the Fighting in Various War Zones – 12-13
The News of the Week in Review
Twenty News Questions – 14
Revised Nazi Strategy is Seen in Operations (by Charles Hurd) – 15
The Nazi Tide Sweeps Toward the Caucasus (incl. map) – 16-17
Answers to Twenty News Questions – 18
The New York Times Magazine
The Lizzie Borden Case (by Meyer Berger) – 19-22
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1942/aug42/f09aug42.htm
US cruisers lose battle off Savo Island
Sunday, August 9, 1942 www.onwar.com
The cruiser USS Chicago in Sealark Channel [photo at link]
In the Solomon Islands... After the removal of the American aircraft carriers, a Japanese cruiser force, commanded by Admiral Mikawa enters the Sealark Channel south of Savo Island. The remaining American naval defenses, lead by Admiral Crutchley, have little experience of, or the equipment needed for, night fighting. The Americans lose four cruisers and sink none of the Japanese ships. Sealark Channel is later renamed Ironbottom Sound. The American transports unloading at Lunga Point are not attacked, however they are ordered to withdraw due to the threat and the 1st Marine Division is left short of heavy equipment and with only one half of their supplies.
On the Eastern Front... German Army Group A successes continue in the Caucasus: the German 1st Panzer Army captures Maikop, though Soviet forces destroy the oil installations, while German 17th Army takes Krasnodar.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/frame.htm
August 9th, 1942
UNITED KINGDOM: The first aerial victory by a Hawker Typhoon is scored today when a plane of No. 266 Squadron RAF shoots down a Ju-88. (22)
POLAND: Auschwitz: Edith Stein a Catholic nun of Jewish parentage, is murdered in the gas chamber.
U.S.S.R.: In the Caucasus, Maykop, falls to the German 1st Panzer Army and Krasnodar falls to the 17th Army. The retreating Russians have demolished the oil installations at Maykop.
INDIA: Mahatma Ghandi is arrested by the British authorities after riots across the country for independence
SOLOMON ISLANDS: The US Navy suffered a sharp reverse off Guadalcanal today when a Japanese night attack overwhelmed Allied naval units near Savo Island, sinking three American and one Australian cruiser. The US cruisers lost were the Vincennes, Astoria and Quincy, together with the Canberra, of the Royal Australian Navy. They were all caught by surprise when two radar equipped American destroyers patrolling off Savo Island failed to detect the approach of the Japanese.
Over 1,000 Allied sailors are feared to have died. However, a vital target, the transports supporting the US invasion of Guadalcanal, was untouched. The Japanese attacking force of seven cruisers and one destroyer escaped detection in its high speed dash from Rabaul and suffered very little damage.
Shortly after 1:00 am the IJN 8th Fleet commanded by Admiral Mikawa, passes Savo Island. His force is prepared for battle and shielded by weather. The US and Australian ships are dulled by the fatigue and trust in radar.
The Allied naval forces split into two groups and patrol east of Savo Island while the transports and cargo ships remain off Tulagi and Guadalcanal. The northern group consists of the heavy cruisers USS Astoria (CA-34), USS Quincy (CA-39) and Vincennes (CA-44) and 2 destroyers. The southern force consists of the heavy cruisers HMAS Canberra and USS Chicago (CA-29) and the destroyers USS Bagley (DD-386) and USS Patterson (DD-392). At approximately 0140 hours local, the Battle of Savo Island commences. The Japanese task force of 4 heavy cruisers, 3 light cruisers and a destroyer spotted and reported yesterday by an RAAF Hudson, evades the US destroyer USS Blue (DD-387) and sails down the channel to the west of Savo Island and, after sailing around the southern part of Savo, attacks the southern force.
The destroyer Patterson saw the Japanese force approaching and signalled: “Warning, Warning, strange ships entering harbour.” But it was too late. The Japanese commander had given the order “every ship attack”: torpedoes were on their way to the unsuspecting Allied ships.
Brilliant flares dropped by Japanese float planes silhouetted the US cruiser Chicago and the Canberra as the Japanese cruisers opened fire.
HMAS Canberra is hit by a torpedo, possibly from USS Bagley, and Japanese gunfire from IJN Chokai Aoba, Kako, Kinugasa and Furutaka; USS Chicago is also damaged by a Japanese torpedo; and USS Patterson is damaged by gunfire. USS Chicago and USS Patterson return fire and damage a Japanese cruiser however, no alert is sent to the Allied northern force. The Japanese force then divides-inadvertently-into two separate groups and turns generally northeast passing on either side of the three US cruisers. USS Astoria is sunk by the gunfire of 4 Japanese heavy cruisers; USS Quincy is sunk by gunfire of 3 heavy cruisers and a light cruiser and is torpedoed by a light cruiser; and USS Vincennes is sunk by gunfire and a torpedo from a heavy cruiser. The Japanese do not fire does not go unanswered; gunfire from USS Astoria and USS Quincy damages the Japanese flagship while shellfire from USS Quincy damages a heavy cruiser.
In the morning, HMAS Canberra is deemed beyond salvage and is later sunk by the destroyers USS Ellett (DD-398) and USS Selfridge (DD-357) south of Savo Island at 09 15S, 159 40E. There are 84 survivors. The Japanese make a big mistake and withdraw rather than attack the transport and cargo ships. The Americans also have a large problem. Since the 3 aircraft carriers withdrew yesterday, and there are no aircraft on Guadalcanal and 4 heavy cruisers have been sunk, the surface vessels have no air or surface support and all are withdrawn leaving the 17,000 Marines and sailors ashore with only half of their supplies.
During the day the Marines consolidate their lines and defenses on Guadalcanal. Admiral Turner continues unloading supplies and men until he departs at sunset. He leaves promising aircraft for the still uncompleted Henderson Field by the 11th.
Despite a 50-foot (15.24 meter) gash in her side, theUSNdestroyer USS Jarvis (DD-393), which was severely damaged by a torpedo yesterday off Guadalcanal, is considered seaworthy and ordered to proceed under cover of darkness to Efate, New Hebrides. Apparently unaware of the order, her captain, decided to steam to Sidney, Australia, for immediate repairs.
Unnoticed by her own ships, USS Jarvis departed Tulagi at 0000 hours local and moved slowly westward through “Ironbottom Sound” and between Savo Island and Cape Esperance. At 0134 hours she passed 3,000 yards (2,743 meters) northward of Rear Admiral Mikawa’s cruisers, steaming to meet the Americans at the Battle of Savo Island. Mistaking her for a cruiser of the New Zealand Achilles-class, they fired torpedoes, and destroyer Yunagi later engaged her briefly, all without effect. The destroyer, continuing to retire westward, had little speed, no radio communications, and few operative guns; but she refused aid from the destroyer USS Blue (DD-378) upon being sighted at 0325 hours. After daybreak, a scout plane from the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3) sighted her 40 miles (64.4 km) off Guadalcanal, trailing fuel oil and down by the bow. That was the last time Americans saw her.
The Japanese, however, still mistaking Jarvis for an escaping cruiser, dispatched 31 planes from Rabaul to search out and destroy her. Once discovered, the badly damaged destroyer was torpedoed and, according to Japanese records, “split and sank” at 1300 hours on 9 August with the loss of all hands.
In support of operations in the Solomon Islands, USAAF B-17 Flying Fortresses of the Allied Air Forces bomb shipping and airfields at Rabaul, New Britain Island and Gasmata Island off the southern coast of New Britain Island. (Jack McKillop and Alex Gordon(108))
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: 6 USAAF 11th Air Force bombers fly armed reconnaissance over Kiska and Attu Islands and then bomb Kiska.
U.S.A.: Nazi saboteurs plough arrows into a field in Long Island indicating the whereabouts of Mitchell Field air base.
The German submarine U-98 sows mines at the mouth of the St Johns River east of Jacksonville, Florida. (Jack McKillop)
The 15-minute radio show “Our Secret Weapon,” sponsored by Philco, debuts on CBS on Sundays at 1900 hours Eastern Time. The most outrageous lies transmitted by the Axis shortwave radio stations were read and then countered by Rex Stout the author of the Nero Wolfe detective stories. For example, when the Germans claimed that the best major league baseball players were all German, Stout replied, “They’ve got the facts, no getting away from it. Take the six leading batters in the major leagues — Williams, Gordon, Wright, Reiser, Lombardi, Medwick. Some bunch of Germans. Also the great German prizefighter, Joe Louis.” The show remained on the air until 8 October 1943. (Jack McKillop)
During WW II, the Military Intelligence Service (MIS) produced numerous documents, most commonly known are the Intelligence Bulletins. The Military Intelligence Special Series commences with “British Commandos, Origins, Training, Eval.” (William L. Howard)
CARIBBEAN SEA: Apprentice Donald Owen Clarke (b.1923) died after rowing for two hours to pull a full lifeboat away from his torpedoed tanker, despite severe burns to his hands - which had to be cut free - face and legs. (George Cross)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-130 sinks SS Malmanger.
U-155 sinks SS San Emiliano.
U-176 sinks SS Radchurch in Convoy SC-94.
U-752 sinks SS Mendanau. (Dave Shirlaw)
PING
Another tactical triumph for the Japanese who failed to follow through and thus a strategic defeat a la Pearl Harbor. If you are going to gamble and time is the enemy you go All In.
Those 2 pictures about preparing a Japanese fighter for shipment from Dutch Harbor are interesting. I think that fighter was reconstructed, flown and studied to prepare US fighter pilots about it’s strong points and weaknesses and to develope tactics to defeat it in the air. I think it also had some influences in the final F6F Hellcat design in which it was superior to the Zero in every aspect. These posts are fascinating....I look forward to seeing them every morning.
It occurred to me to wonder whether the Japanese knew we had acquired an intact Zero prior to the publication of these photos. I'm surprised the War Department allowed it.
My father trained under Lt Col. Walter Bayler - the fabled “Last Man off Wake Island” as a Radar specialist. Well after Henderson Field was secured he went in with his squad and set up the super secret radar installations. His orders were to destroy everything if the Japs over ran the place.
Hawker Typhoon:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawker_Typhoon
The Typhoon did not begin to mature as a reliable aircraft until the end of 1942, when its good qualities—seen from the start by S/L Roland Beamont of 609 Squadron—became apparent. It was extremely fast, tough and capable, and its unplanned bomb load was doubled and then doubled again.[25] During late 1942 and early 1943, the Typhoon Squadrons on the South Coast were finally effective in countering the Luftwaffe’s “tip and run” low-level nuisance raids, shooting down a score or more fighter-bomber Fw 190s.
I found this on: No audio, though.
http://radiogoldindex.com/
“”68800. War Production Drive Program. August 9, 1942. CBS net. Sustaining. The president has announced a new “Army-Navy Production Award.” Robert Patterson, Undersecretary Of War, speaks on the program about labor and management working together to increase production. John Daly (announcer), Elmer Davis, Robert Patterson, James Forrestal(Undersecretary Of The Navy), William Bat (Vice Chairman of The War Production Board), Phillip Murray (President of the C. I. O., speaking from Pittsburgh), William Green (President of the A. F. of L., speaking from Chicago), Dwight Eisenhower (Lieutanent General, speaking from England), Chester Nimitz (speaking “from somewhere in the Pacific”), William Leahy. 26:06. Audio condition: Excellent. Incomplete.””
Very interesting read on the Lizzie Borden and the structure of language in its day.
Thanks for looking, anyway. It would be interesting to hear Ike and Nimitz talking about their respective situations. The audio might be available for sale but it would take some doing.
I read the transcript of the Lizzie Borden trial. I am convinced she did it, but the prosecution didn’t have enough evidence to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Might have been a different outcome if the police had today’s scientific tools.
Reminds me of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, where they had us beat and the landing force exposed, but retreated in light of the determined attack of the destroyers.
"Of the five persons under the heated roof at 92 Second Street this sultry Aug. 4, 1892, two would not live to see noon. Two others were, in popular opinion, to be absolved of any possible blame for the murders that impended while the mutton broth bubbled on the kitchen stove. One was to live, from this day, another forty-five years with the stain and suspicion of murder upon her, to become a legendary figure of modern crime annals, subject of the grim bit of doggerel that has already survived a half century and which will be repeated fifty years from now:
"Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her Mother forty whacks;
When she saw what she had done,
She gave her Father forty-one!"
You can add another twenty years to that prediction.
Meyer Berger must have written this essay some time before its publication. Since at least August 3 he has been in England filing human interest stories about the American invasion of the British Isles. Before that he had a regular column covering local goings-on in New York. I posted one story he filed from Atlanta when "Gone With the Wind" premiered there.
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