Monday, March 3, 2003

March 1-7, 1942 News by jwxspoon @ 11:25

March 1st, 1942: The only survivors of the Australian-British-Dutch-American naval force, four US destroyers, Edwards, Alden, Ford, and Paul Jones, slip out of Soerabaja, leaving behind the damaged USS Stewart. The four destroyers, all four-pipers of World War I vintage, slip through the Oostervaarwater and Bali Strait through the night, and past Japanese patrols.

Early in the morning, Japanese troops land at Merak, Bantam, Eretan Wetan, and Kragan. Wire service reporters struggle through unfamiliar maps to figure out that these are town in Java, and that the last part of the barrier to Japanese invasion of Australia is about to fall. Japanese troops advance quickly against outnumbered Dutch forces, who lack air and naval support.

In Malaya, Australian Pvt. Colin F. Brien is one of more than 50 Allied PoWs who are led to a freshly dug shallow grave. "I was told to sit down," he recalls later, "With my knees, legs, and feet projecting into the grave. My hands were tied behind my back. A small towel was tied over my eyes and then -- my shirt was unbuttoned and pulled forward over my back, exposing the lower part of my neck. My head was bent forward, and after a few seconds I felt a heavy dull blow sensation on the back of my neck. I realized I was still alive, but pretended to be dead and fell over on my right side; after that, I lost consciousness." Brien survives. After that, he flees, but is recaptured, and the Japanese keep him alive, putting him in hospital and PoW camp. A historian writes, "He survived the war as a novelty." However, Brien later testifies on this mass execution at the Tokyo War Crimes Trials.

In Russia, Soviet troops launch an offensive in the Crimea.

Back in Germany, Field Marshal Fedor von Bock, "The Preacher of Death," phones Hitler to tell the Fuhrer that despite their huge losses in battle, the Soviets might still be able, not only to draw on enough reserve troops to counter the planned Nazi spring offensives, but also to create new armies east of Moscow. Hitler's aide, General Franz Halder, disagrees. Nonetheless, efficient Wehrmacht staff officers present their masters with Nazi losses for eight months of war in Russia: 202,257 German soldiers killed, 725,642 wounded, and 112,617 incapacitated by frostbite. A further 400,000 have been taken PoW by the Russians. German losses are averaging 2,000 a day in battle.

American military authorities, angered over the destruction at Pearl Harbor, order Rear Adm. Husband E. Kimmel and Maj. Gen. Walter Short, the top Navy and Army officers in Hawaii at the time, court-martialled. When cooler heads prevail, the Army and Navy create Boards of Inquiry to examine the case.

March 2nd, 1942...USS Enterprise, enroute to attacking Marcus Island, picks off two Japanese submarines. Her planes drive them off.

Japanese troops expand their bridgehead in Mindanao in the Philippines.

In Java, the Dutch Governor-General orders Admiral Helfrich to leave Java for Ceylon. The top Dutch civilians will join their citizens in captivity.

In Russia, the SS takes 5,000 Jews from the Minsk ghetto and murders them with machinegun fire. In Krosniewice, in Poland, SS men put 900 Jews in gas vans, and slaughter them.

March 3rd, 1942...2nd New Zealand Division, resting in Syria, comes under the 9th Army. Rev. J.W. McKenzie is appointed Senior Chaplain to the New Zealand Forces.

Nine Japanese fighters pound Broome and Wyndham on Australia's North Coast, pounding the flying-boat based used to ferry soldiers and refugees from Java. 23 Allied aircraft are destroyed, and 70 people killed, many of them unlucky refugees who have just fled the hell of Java. One American bomber manages to take off as the raid opens, but is shot down. Of the 33 men aboard, only one survives.

The same day, 25 Japanese warships bounce three British ships that have left Batavia, taking refugees to Australia. All three are sunk. 26 survivors scramble onto two lifeboats. The Japanese ships steam by, not to shoot, but to stand solemnly at attention in their honor, saluting the brave, then steam away. The 26 remain at sea, running out of food, eating sea birds and drinking rain water. Only 18 survive to reach Java. Six die trying to get ashore, and the remaining 12 pass into Japanese captivity.

In Zychlin, Poland, Nazi forces gas 3,200 Jews, using vans. Jews are herded into the vans, which drive off. The vehicle's exhaust is re-fed into the van's sealed chamber, killing the passengers.

In England, No. 486 NZ Fighter Squadron is formed in Kirton- in-Lindsey, Lincolnshire. The RAF has a busy night, 200 bombers attacking the Renault vehicle works at Billancourt, France, which is overhauling captured French tanks for the Wehrmacht. Of the French workforce of 3,000, only five are killed. But some bombs fall off target, hitting nearby houses, killing 500 Frenchmen, including whole families. The Nazis try to exploit this for propaganda, but a French informer in German pay tells his masters the truth: "In general, if the pulse of public opinion is taken, indignation is not widespread enough." The next day, a German guard is shot dead in a Paris street. The Nazis shoot 20 French Communists in reprisal. Dr. Goebbels, irritated that his propaganda didn't work, diaries: "That's the method I proposed. If rigorously applied it will lead to visible results."

March 4th, 1942...At 4:35 am, USS Enterprise sounds "Flight Quarters" and hurls 38 bombers at Marcus Island, 1,000 miles from Tokyo, in a one-punch hit-and-run raid. The SBD Dauntlesses form up in formation amid cloudy skies in pre-dawn darkness, under Lt. Howard Young. The bombers are guided in by Enterprise's radar, and reach their target at 6:30 am, finding a small airfield surrounded by water. The bombers swoop down, release their loads at 6,000 feet, and whack the base's fuel dumps and radio towers. The Japanese are totally surprised, and take a few minutes to hit back with machine guns. They hole several planes and shoot down one, capturing pilot and bombardier. Having sliced up Marcus Island, Enterprise recovers her planes, and heads for Pearl Harbor at top speed.

The four American destroyers that slipped out of Soerabaja on March 1st reach Freemantle in Australia, succeeding where their larger and newer sisters failed, the only Allied ships to survive Java.

Nazi troops march 3,000 Jews out of the Baranowicze ghetto and kill them, a total destruction of more than 12,000 people in 48 hours.

One of the factors aiding the Nazis in killing these Jews is that the victims are poor and uneducated, with no tradition of resistance or awareness of what is happening to them. They quietly and obediently file out of town when told, carrying their few meager possessions.

March 5th, 1942...Winston Churchill proposes to Franklin D. Roosevelt that a US division be sent to New Zealand on the condition that the New Zealand Expeditionary Force remains in the Middle East.

In Burma, Gen. Harold Alexander, who was the last man off the beach at Dunkirk, is appointed commander of the Burma front.

Dutch forces evacuate Batavia, and Japanese airpower swoops down on the Tilatjap evacuation convoy, sinking 17 ships and completely destroying the harbor.

In the Crimean town of Feodosiya, three anti-partisan sweeps within three weeks lead to the killing of more than 2,000 people, of whom, says Operational Situation Report No. 184, "678 were Jews, 359 Communist officials, 153 partisans, and 810 asocial elements, Gypsies, mentally ill, and saboteurs."

In the Nazi concentration camp of Dachau, Dr. Sigmund Rascher conducts experiments on human endurance to atmospheric pressure, using prisoners as guinea pigs. One 37-year-old "Jew in good condition" is put in a chamber in which Rascher simulates altitude, gradually reaching 12 kilmeters. The suffering and death of the Jew is meticulously recorded, as he first begins to perspire, then develop cramp, then become breathless, then become unconscious, and finally die. Rascher reports to SS Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler that his experiments will "merit particular scientific interest because they were recorded until the very last moment by an electrocardiogram." Rascher conducts 200 such experiments, killing about 80 people. The other result is a 24- page report to Himmler that flying without pressure suits and oxygen is "impossible" over 12 kilometers.

As the Japanese swarm across Java, No. 488 Squadron of RNZAF is disbanded.

March 6th, 1942...Indian troops fail to reopen the Rangoon-Pegu road, and Gen. Harold Alexander, Britain's top man in Burma, orders the Burmese capital's evacuation. British troops destroy as much equipment as they can, millions of rounds of ammunition, hundreds of trucks, jeeps, and guns.

North of Burma, at Toungoo, Chinese army troops mass to protect the British oilfields.

Nazi killing squads at Klintsy in Russia haul 30 Gypsies and 270 Jews by truck to a ditch outside the town, order them to undress and shoot the lot.

March 7th, 1942...Another victory parade for the Imperial Japanese Army as it struts into Rangoon. They find most supplied wrecked, but 19,052 tons of lend-lease supplies intact in warehouses, including construction equipment and electrical supplies. The Japanese forces have advanced faster than anyone has anticipated.

In Java, the Japanese demand talks with the Dutch generals, and threaten to bombard Bandung if talks are not agreed upon. The Dutch ponder their situation, which is worse than desperate.

On Tjebia Island off Sumatra, the first of 19 Englishmen who reached the island after fleeing Singapore, die of disease and exposure. Among the party is an admiral and a Royal Air Force Air Vice Marshal.

In Zagreb, Croatia, Archbishop Stepinac writes to the Croatian Minister of the Interior about rumors of "impending mass arrests of Jews who are to be sent to concentration camps." If such rumors are true, Stepinac writes, "I take the liberty to appeal to you to prevent, by virtue of your authority, an unlawful attack on citizens who are not personally guilty of anything." Stepinac's appeal is ignored.

The German battleship Tirpitz, 35,000 tons displacement, bristling with 15-inch guns and Krupp steel, puts to sea with three destroyers to reach an Arctic convoy. Morale is beginning to slip on the battleship, which spends most of her time swinging at anchor.

That evening, Dr. Goebbels writes, "The situation is ripe for the final solution of the Jewish question. Later generations will no longer have the will-power or the instructive alertness. That is why we are doing good work in proceeding radically and consistently. The task we are assuming today, will be an advantage and a boon to our descendants."