March 1942
The following events occurred in March 1942:
March 1, 1942 (Sunday)
- The Second Battle of the Java Sea was fought, resulting in Japanese victory. The cruiser HMS Exeter and the destroyers HMS Encounter and USS Pope were sunk.
- The Battle of Sunda Strait ended in Japanese victory. The Allies lost 1 heavy cruiser, 1 light cruiser and 1 destroyer while the Japanese lost 1 minelayer and 4 troopships sunk or grounded.
- Construction of the Sobibór extermination camp began.[1]
- Near Christmas Island, the fuel tanker USS Pecos was bombed and sunk by Aichi D3A dive bombers, while the American destroyer USS Edsall was bombed and damaged by Japanese aircraft and then shelled and sunk by the battleships Hiei and Kirishima.
- The Dutch steamship Roseboom was torpedoed and sunk west of Sumatra by the Japanese submarine I-159.
- German submarine U-656 was depth charged and sunk off Cape Race, Newfoundland by an American Lockheed Hudson.
- Died: George S. Rentz, 59, United States Navy chaplain (killed in action); Cornelius Vanderbilt III, 68, American military officer, inventor, engineer and yachtsman
March 2, 1942 (Monday)
- The Japanese began heavy air strikes on New Guinea in preparation for an invasion.[2]
- Australia declared war on Thailand.[3]
- Ships at Surabaya in the Dutch East Indies were scuttled to keep them from being captured by the Japanese.[4][5]
- The American destroyer Pillsbury was shelled and sunk west of Christmas Island by the Japanese cruisers Atago and Takao.
- Born: John Irving, novelist and screenwriter, in Exeter, New Hampshire; Claude Larose, ice hockey player, in Hearst, Ontario, Canada; Lou Reed, musician, in Brooklyn, New York (d. 2013)
- Died: Charlie Christian, 25, American swing and jazz guitarist (tuberculosis)
March 3, 1942 (Tuesday)
- The Battle of Pegu, concerning the defence of Rangoon, began.
- Attack on Broome: Japanese fighter planes attacked the town of Broome, Western Australia and killed 88 people.
- KNILM Douglas DC-3 shootdown: A Douglas DC-3 airliner was shot down over Australia by Japanese warplanes, resulting in the deaths of four passengers and the loss of diamonds worth an estimated A£ 150,000-300,000. The diamonds were presumably looted from the crash site but their fate remains a mystery.
- The American gunboat Asheville was sunk south of Java by the Japanese destroyers Arashi and Nowaki.
- An exhibition titled "Artists in Exile" opened at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York. Fourteen artists including Marc Chagall, Max Ernst, Fernand Léger and Piet Mondrian were represented at the exhibition with one piece each.[6]
- German submarine U-92 was commissioned.
- Died: Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta, 43, Italian prince (died in a POW camp in Nairobi)
March 4, 1942 (Wednesday)
- The Japanese conducted Operation K, a reconnaissance of Pearl Harbor and disruption of repair and salvage operations there. Two Kawanishi H8K flying boats were dispatched but failed to see much due to heavy clouds and only did negligible bombing damage.
- The Sook Ching massacre ended in Singapore. Official Japanese statistics show fewer than 5,000 killed while the Singaporean Chinese community claims the numbers to be around 100,000.
- The British sloop Yarra was sunk in the Indian Ocean by Japanese cruisers.
March 5, 1942 (Thursday)
March 6, 1942 (Friday)
- Elements of the Japanese 2nd Infantry Division on Java entered Buitenzorg, while Dutch forces withdrew toward Bandung.[8]
- Romania broke off diplomatic relations with Brazil.[3]
- A controversial political cartoon by Philip Zec appeared in the Daily Mirror, depicting a merchant seaman clinging to the remains of a ship in rough seas with the caption, "The price of petrol has been increased by one penny – Official." Winston Churchill interpreted the cartoon as "defeatist" and considered taking action to ban the Daily Mirror from publication.[9]
March 7, 1942 (Saturday)
- The Battle of Pegu ended in tactical Allied victory.
- The first class of five African-American Tuskegee Airmen graduated.[10]
- Netherlands Indies Radio went off the air with the final message, "Goodbye till better times. Long live the Queen!"[11]
- German submarines U-179 and U-211 were commissioned.
- Born: Michael Eisner, businessman and CEO of the Walt Disney Company, in Mount Kisco, New York; Tammy Faye Messner, evangelist, singer and television personality, in International Falls, Minnesota (d. 2007)
- Died: Pierre Semard, 55, French communist leader (executed)
March 8, 1942 (Sunday)
March 9, 1942 (Monday)
- The Dutch East Indies campaign ended in decisive Japanese victory. The Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies began.
- The Battle of Borneo ended as Japanese forces captured Pangkalan Bun on the same day that the airfield at Samarinda formally surrendered.[14]
- The Japanese began the Invasion of Buka and Bougainville in the South Pacific.
- Vannevar Bush delivered a report to President Roosevelt expressing optimism on the possibility of producing an atomic bomb.[15]
- Slovak authorities required all Jews to wear the yellow badge.[16]
- Miklós Kállay became Prime Minister of Hungary.
- Ali Soheili became Prime Minister of Iran.
- Born: Pedro Bandeira, children's author, in Santos, São Paulo, Brazil; John Cale, musician, composer and record producer, in Garnant, Wales; Bert Campaneris, baseball player, in Pueblo Nuevo, Cuba
March 11, 1942 (Wednesday)
March 12, 1942 (Thursday)
- The Battle of Java ended in Japanese victory.
- The U.K. Ministry of War Production was renamed the Ministry of Production and Oliver Lyttelton was appointed its new head.
- Brothers Anthony and William Esposito were executed by electric chair five minutes apart at Sing Sing for the January 14, 1941 slaying of a police officer and a holdup victim, which had led to a sensational trial in which they feigned insanity. Both brothers were in such fragile health that they had to be brought into the death chamber in wheelchairs because they had refused all food for the past 10 months that was not fed them forcibly.[20]
- The American cargo ship Texan was torpedoed, shelled and sunk by German submarine U-126.
- German submarine U-613 was commissioned.
- Born: Ratko Mladić, Bosnian Serb military leader, in Božanovići, Independent State of Croatia; Jimmy Wynn, baseball player, in Hamilton, Ohio
- Died: Robert Bosch, 80, German industrialist, engineer and inventor; William Henry Bragg, 79, British physicist, chemist and Nobel laureate; Enric Morera i Viura, 76, Spanish musician and composer
- The Japanese completed the Invasion of Salamaua–Lae.
- The Canadian Women's Army Corps was integrated into the Canadian Army.[21]
- The musical comedy film Song of the Islands starring Betty Grable and Victor Mature was released.
- Born: Dave Cutler, software engineer, in Lansing, Michigan; Mahmoud Darwish, poet and author, in al-Birwa, Mandatory Palestine (d. 2008); George Negus, author, journalist and television presenter, in Brisbane, Australia; Scatman John, musician, in El Monte, California (d. 1999)
- Died: Žikica Jovanović Španac, 27 or 28, Yugoslav partisan (killed in battle)
March 14, 1942 (Saturday)
- U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent a proposal to all 48 state governors that speed limits throughout the nation be reduced to 40 miles per hour to conserve rubber.[22]
- German submarine U-133 sank off the Greek island of Salamis after striking a naval mine.
- German submarines U-177 and U-260 were commissioned.
- Died: René Bull, 69, British illustrator and photographer
- Nazi occupying forces and local collaborationists committed the First Dünamünde Action in the Biķernieki forest near Riga, massacring about 1,900 people.
- German submarine U-503 was depth charged and sunk off Newfoundland by a Lockheed Hudson.
- The British destroyer Vortigern was torpedoed and sunk off Cromer by the German E-boat S-104.
- German submarine U-503 was depth charged and sunk off Newfoundland by a Lockheed Hudson.
- While sailing from Norfolk, Virginia to Beaumont, Texas, the United States Navy tanker Olean was torpedoed and heavily damaged by the German submarine U-158. The ship was abandoned, towed to the Hampton Roads and repaired.
- A tornado outbreak struck a large area of the Central and Southern United States. 153 people were killed over the next two days.
- Members of the far-right Swiss National Front were sentenced to long prison terms for propagandistic activities.[23]
- German submarine U-706 was commissioned.
- Born: James Soong, Chinese-born Taiwanese politician, in Xiangtan
March 18, 1942 (Wednesday)
March 19, 1942 (Thursday)
- The Battle of Oktwin in the Burma Campaign began.
- When reporters met the train of General Douglas MacArthur north of Adelaide, Australia, he declared: "The President of the United States ordered me to break through the Japanese lines and proceed from Corregidor to Australia for the purpose, as I understand it, of organizing the American offensive against Japan, a primary object of which is the relief of the Philippines. I came through and I shall return."[27]
- The British destroyer Heythrop was torpedoed northeast of Bardia by German submarine U-652. She was towed by the destroyer Eridge towards Tobruk but foundered five hours later.[28]
March 21, 1942 (Saturday)
- Allied forces abandoned the Magwe airfield in Burma, 100 miles east of Akyab.[32]
- Cripps' mission: The British government sent Stafford Cripps to India to disclose the British constitutional proposals for a postwar India. Britain promised self-government for India after the war in exchange for their co-operation in the war effort.[32]
- The BBC began transmitting news bulletins in Morse Code for the benefit of resistance fighters in occupied Europe.[33]
- The Manzanar Japanese-American internment camp first opened.[34]
March 25, 1942 (Wednesday)
March 26, 1942 (Thursday)
- The Australian government imposed a state of emergency over the northern portion of the continent.[38]
- The Action of 27 March 1942 was fought in the Atlantic Ocean. German submarine U-123 sank the American Q-ship USS Atik.
- German submarine U-587 was depth charged and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean by British warships.
- Joe Louis knocked out Abe Simon in the sixth round at Madison Square Garden to retain the World Heavyweight Boxing Championship.[39]
- Born: John Sulston, biologist, in Cambridge, England; Michael York, actor, in Fulmer, Buckinghamshire, England
- Died: Julio González, 65, Spanish sculptor; John W. Wilcox, Jr., 60, American admiral (lost overboard in stormy weather)
March 28, 1942 (Saturday)
- The Japanese completed the invasion of Sumatra.
- Bombing of Lübeck: The port city of Lübeck was the first German city attacked in substantial numbers by the Royal Air Force. The night attack caused a firestorm that caused severe damage to the historic centre and led to the retaliatory Baedeker raids on historic British cities.
- The British conducted the St Nazaire Raid on the heavily defended Normandie dry dock at Saint-Nazaire in German-occupied France. All British objectives were achieved although 169 were killed and 215 taken prisoner. The destroyer HMS Campelltown was expended as a floating bomb.
- The Panamanian cargo ship Howick Hall of convoy PQ 13 was bombed and sunk in the Barents Sea by Junkers Ju 88 aircraft.
- German submarine U-261 was commissioned.
- Stanford beat Dartmouth 53-38 in the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament Final.
- Born: Daniel Dennett, philosopher, writer and cognitive scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts; Neil Kinnock, politician, in Tredegar, Wales; Mike Newell, film director and producer, in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England; Conrad Schumann, East German border guard, in Zschochau, Saxony, Germany (d. 1998); Jerry Sloan, basketball player and coach, in McLeansboro, Illinois
- Died: Pompiliu Ștefu, 31, Romanian typographer, communist activist and anti-fascist militant (executed)
- The Battle of Toungoo ended in Japanese victory.
- Stafford Cripps met with Mahatma Gandhi in New Delhi and presented his plan for postwar independence for India.[26]
- The British cargo ship Hertford was torpedoed and sunk south of Halifax, Nova Scotia by German submarine U-571.
- German destroyer Z26 was shelled and sunk in the Barents Sea by British cruiser Trinidad and destroyer Eclipse.
- The Hukbalahap Rebellion began when former Hukbalahap soldiers rebelled against the Philippine government. The rebellion would not end until 1954.
- Born: Kenichi Ogata, voice actor, in Tagawa District, Fukuoka, Japan; Scott Wilson, actor, in Thomasville, Georgia
- Died: Yogbir Singh Kansakar, 56, Nepalese poet and social reformer
References
- ↑ Matthäus, Jürgen (2013). Jewish Responses to Persecution: Volume III, 1941-1942. Lanham, Maryland: AltaMira Press. p. 531. ISBN 9780759122598.
- ↑ Williams, Mary H. (1960). Special Studies, Chronology, 1941-1945. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 27.
- 1 2 Doody, Richard. "A Timeline of Diplomatic Ruptures, Unannounced Invasions, Declarations of War, Armistices and Surrenders". The World at War. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
- ↑ Sturma, Michael (2011). Surface and Destroy: The Submarine Gun War in the Pacific. Kentucky University Press. p. 91. ISBN 9780813129990.
- ↑ Williford, Glen (2010). Racing the Sunrise: The Reinforcement of America's Pacific Outposts, 1941-1942. Anapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 9781612512563.
- ↑ Comenas, Gary. "Abstract Expressionism". warholstars.org. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
- ↑ World and Its Peoples: Eastern and Southern Asia, Volume 10. Marshall Cavendish Corporation. 2008. p. 1392. ISBN 9780761476436.
- ↑ "War Diary for Friday, 6 March 1942". Stone & Stone Second World War Books. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
- ↑ Douglas, Roy (1991). The World War 1939-1945: The Cartoonists' Vision. New York: Routledge. p. 141. ISBN 9780415071413.
- ↑ "Events occurring on Saturday, March 7, 1942". WW2 Timelines. 2011. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
- ↑ Yust, Walter, ed. (1943). 1943 Britannica Book of the Year. Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. p. 4.
- ↑ Evans, A. A.; Gibbons, David (2012). The Illustrated Timeline of World War II. Rosen Publishing. p. 99. ISBN 9781448847952.
- ↑ "Chronology 1942". indiana.edu. 2002. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
- ↑ "The conquest of Borneo Island, 1941-1942". Forgotten Campaign: The Dutch East Indies Campaign 1941-1942. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
- ↑ "Manhattan Project Chronology". Atomic Archive. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
- ↑ "1942: Key Dates". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
- ↑ "Events occurring on Tuesday, March 10, 1942". WW2 Timelines. 2011. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
- ↑ Kuniholm, Bruce Robellet (1980). The Origins of the Cold War in the Near East: Great Power Conflict and. Princeton University Press. p. 145. ISBN 9781400855759.
- ↑ "Brazil Approaches Open Hostilities with Germany". Daily Illini (Champaign, Illinois): 1. March 12, 1942.
- ↑ "Esposito Brothers Die In Chair; Killed 2 in Holdup". Wilkes-Barre Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania). March 13, 1942. p. 20.
- ↑ Dundas, Barbara; Durflinger, Serge. "The Canadian Women's Army Corps, 1941-1946". Canadian War Museum. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
- ↑ "F. D. R. Calls for 40-Mile Speed Limit". Brooklyn Eagle (Brooklyn). March 14, 1942. p. 1.
- ↑ "Was war am 16. März 1942". chroniknet. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
- ↑ "Events occurring on Tuesday, March 17, 1942". WW2 Timelines. 2011. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
- ↑ "On This Day: March 17". The New York Times. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
- 1 2 3 4 Mercer, Derrik, ed. (1989). Chronicle of the 20th Century. London: Chronicle Communications Ltd. pp. 563–564. ISBN 9-780582-039193.
- ↑ Horner, David. "General MacArthur's War: The South and Southwest Pacific campaigns 1942-45." The Pacific War Companion: From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima. Ed. Daniel Marston. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2005. p. 124. ISBN 9781846032127.
- ↑ "HMS Heythrop". uboat.net. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
- ↑ Eglan, Jared (2015). Beasts of War: The Militarization of Animals. Lulu Press. p. 59. ISBN 9781329516137.
- ↑ Goode, Fred C. (2014). No Surrender in Burma: Operations Behind Japanese Lines, Captivity and Torture. Pen & Sword Books. ISBN 9781473840966.
- ↑ "March 21, 1942". The Second World War - A Day By Day Account. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
- 1 2 "Events occurring on Sunday, March 22, 1942". WW2 Timelines. 2011. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
- ↑ "Chronomedia: 1942". Terra Media. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
- ↑ "Manzanar, California". Japanese American Veterans Association. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
- ↑ Tucker, Spencer C. (2010). A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, LLC. p. 1958. ISBN 9781851096725.
- ↑ "Brazilians Smash Nazi Spy Ring". Daily Illini (Champaign, Illinois): 1. March 27, 1942.
- ↑ Chronology and Index of the Second World War, 1938-1945. Research Publications. 1990. p. 115. ISBN 9780887365683.
- ↑ "Was war am 27. März 1942". chroniknet. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
- ↑ "Joe Louis". BoxRec. Retrieved February 1, 2016.