Battle of the Pacific: On 12 March 1942, the Battle of Java officially ends when the senior British, Australian, and American commanders are brought to Bandoeng to sign a formal instrument of surrender. The Japanese commander, Lieutenant-General Masao Maruyama, promises them their prisoner-of-war rights of the Geneva Convention. This marks the end of the ABDA Defense of the Netherlands East Indies. Java is garrisoned from this point forward by the 16th Army (the 2nd and 48th Divisions) while the Imperial Navy guards the eastern territory (the Lesser Sunda Islands, Celebes, Ambon, and Netherlands New Guinea).
In Sumatra, the Japanese advance inland and take the airfield at Medan. The Imperial Guard Division is ordered to complete mopping-up operations on the island.
In Burma, the fighting is nearing an end. The badly mauled 17th Indian Division receives orders to evacuate to India. The British and Gurkha garrison of the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal evacuates to India, depriving the Allies of the seaplane base there. The Burma Army establishes its headquarters at the resort town of Maymyo (Pyin Ol Lwin), which has a large European population. The Japanese eventually incarcerate many of them due to suspected sympathies for the Allies.
Captain America Comics No.12 - March 1942, featuring The Weird Case of the Pygmies of Terror.
While the front remains quiet on the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines, all is not well on the Allied side. Malaria and dysentery are rampant due to contaminated water. About 500-700 men a day are reporting themselves sick, while others are not feeling well. The Japanese are building up for a major offensive to drive the Allies out of the Philippines but are not ready yet. Their fresh troops do not suffer the ailments facing the Allies.
General Douglas MacArthur and his party are en route from Luzon to Tagauayan Island in the Cuyo Group aboard fast motor torpedo (PT) boats. During the night, the four PT boats become separated and two of the boats develop mechanical issues. MacArthur's PT boat, however, proceeds without issue, and all four boats eventually arrive safely.
The British know that the next area of naval warfare is likely to be the Indian Ocean. Accordingly, aircraft carrier Formidable and destroyers Paladin and Panther depart today from Capetown bound for Colombo.
US freighter Olga, sunk near Cuba on 12 March 1942.
Eastern Front: Ten Soviet parachute troops land behind German lines near Birza, Lithuania. Their mission is to commit sabotage. However, the Germans spot them and eliminate them quickly.
The Soviets under General Kozlov on the Crimea are preparing for another attempt to break through the German lines to relieve Sevastopol. Kozlov is under strict orders by Stalin issued on 3 March to resume the offensive within ten days. The Germans have laid down 2000 Teller mines in front of the key defensive area and concentrated their assault guns in a defensive posture. Due to the usual spring thawing (Rasputitsa), the ground is muddy and not suitable for an attack, but Kozlov has his orders. The attack will begin as ordered at 09:00 on 13 March 1942.
European Air Operations: RAF Bomber Command attacks Emden and Kiel. Twenty Wellingtons and 20 Whitleys are sent to Emden but only 22 of the 40 planes actually claim to reach the target (three lost). Subsequent aerial reconnaissance shows that the nearest bombs were dropped 5 miles (8 km) from the target. At Kiel, 68 Wellingtons attack the Deutsche Works U-boat shipyard, and 53 bomber crews report successful attacks. The RAF loses five Wellingtons over Kiel. Sixteen other bombers lay mines off of German ports, while one Hampden drops leaflets over France.
Norwegian freighter Ingerto, sunk with no survivors on 12 March 1942.
Battle of the Atlantic: At 02:34 and 06:11, respectively, U-126 (Kptlt. Ernst Bauer) torpedoes and sinks two ships north of Cuba (about 40 miles east of Nuevitas):
7005-ton US freighter Texan (ten dead, 37 survivors)
2496-ton US freighter Olga (one dead, 32 survivors)
Both ships are unarmed. The survivors of the Olga are all taken to Guantanamo Bay. The suction from the Texan causes its lifeboats to capsize and leads to many men drowning.
U-578 (KrvKpt. Ernst-August Rehwinkel), on its third patrol out of St. Nazaire, torpedoes and sinks 3089-ton Norwegian freighter Ingerto about 370 miles southeast of Cape Race. The ship is a straggler of Convoy ON-70. Ingerto sinks quickly and takes all 32 men on board with her.
British 2291-ton passenger ship St. Briac hits a mine and sinks off Aberdeen. There are about 45 deaths of the 123 men on board. Many of the men aboard the St. Briac are Royal Naval sailors because it is classified as an air target vessel.
Two Royal Navy armed trawlers, HMS Wastwater (FY 239) and Le Tigre (Fy 243) begin patrols off the coast of New Jersey in the Third Naval District area.
Battle of the Mediterranean: Royal Navy submarine HMS Turbulent (Cdr. J.W. Linton) uses its deck gun to sink Greek caique Agia Paraskevi north of the Zea Channel. Two crewmen are wounded. The Germans are known to use such caiques for troop movements between the islands.
In Malta, the RAF has lost many planes on the ground in recent days from Luftwaffe bombing. Infantry battalions now are being used to build blast walls to shield parked planes from the explosions. The Luftwaffe and Regia Aeronautica continue their attacks today, dropping bombs on the Ta Qali airfield area and near St. Andrews, Kalafrana, Safi, and near St. Agata Church. These attacks slightly damage seven Hurricane fighters at Ta Qali. A bomb hits a shelter there, killing one soldier (eventually) and wounding several others.
Japanese/Australian Relations: Japanese Prime Minister General Tojo Hideki issues a surrender demand to Australia that is ignored.
US Military: Admiral Ernest J King, Commander-in-Chief U.S. Fleet (CINCUS), is designated to replace Admiral Harold R Stark as Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) effective 26 March. The title of CNO is combined with CINCUS for the duration. Admiral Stark is heading to Europe to become Commander of United States Naval Forces Europe, where he will oversee the 6 June 1944 D-Day landings. In essence, Stark has been "kicked upstairs." Stark remains under a cloud due to the Pearl Harbor attack and eventually will face a Court of Inquiry over his actions leading up to it.
Three transport ships carrying USAAF ground personnel arrive at Karachi from Australia. Many of the men no longer have aircraft to service, however, due to their loss in the sinking of USS Langley on 27 February 1942.
US Army troops under Brigadier General Alexander M. Patch land on New Caledonia Island to establish a base at Noumea. This is Task Force 6814 consisting of 17,500 men. New Caledonia is of uncertain loyalty to the Allied cause due to the strong Vichy French presence on the island.
British Government: Oliver Lyttelton takes over the Ministry of War Production, which is the old Ministry of Production.
American Homefront: The Esposito brothers, Anthony and Esposito, are executed in the electric chair in Sing Sing prison. They were convicted of the "thrill kill" murders of a police officer and a holdup victim on 14 January 1941. While their defense of insanity failed, it did accelerate a long history of such defenses in the court system.
Bing Crosby appears on the Kraft Music Hall and sings ten songs. These are later released as an album, including patriotic song "We're the Gang that Feeds the Army."
In Omaha, Nebraska, 11-year-old Warren Buffett buys his first shares of stock (Buffett himself gives the date as 12 March 1942, though other sources say it is 11 March 1942). They are three shares of Cities Service preferred stock. Being underage, he must use his father's brokerage account. The purchase consumes all of the money Buffett has saved since age 6. "I went all in," Buffett reminisced in February 2019. "I had become a capitalist, and it felt good."
Future History: James Sherman Wynn is born in Hamilton, Ohio. He earns the nickname "The Toy Cannon" while playing for several Major League Baseball teams primarily as a center fielder in the 1960s and 1970s. He winds up his career with the Milwaukee Brewers in 1977.
Reflecting on the importance of the essentials during wartime, the 12 March 1942 Boston Globe reports that a man previously convicted of stealing one pound of sugar from a Cambridge, Massachusetts, store has won his appeal.
Royal navy stores ship USS Pollux breaking up upon the rocks of Lawn Point, Newfoundland, 18 February 1942 (Photo by Ena Farrell Edwards via Maine Independent Journal).
Battle of the Pacific: The Battle of Bilin River in Burma ends on 18 February 1942 when the Indian 17th Infantry Division pulls out and begins heading back toward the Sittang River (Sittaung River). Brigadier Sir John Smyth's troops have put up a gallant fight, but the Bilin River is dry, offering no protection, and Japanese troops have moved through the jungle around them to cut off their lines of communication. The 17th is a new division fighting its first battle and has held out since 14 February under heavy pressure in close-quarters jungle fighting. Burma Army commander Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Jacomb Hutton makes the somewhat perilous journey to the front to give General Smyth the order directly. There is some feeling that the order has come too late and that the 17th Division cannot make it back to the Sittang River in good order, which is the last good defensible position before Rangoon and the 17th the only troops before the capital as well. This is blamed on Hutton, who has never before commanded a major formation in the field and has been a high staff officer, most recently as Chief of the General Staff in India. This will be his first and last field command. The war in Burma now comes down to a race to a critical bridge across the Sittang River between the 17th Division and the Japanese, and the Japanese actually now are closer. The British accept reality and begin evacuating Rangoon.
Rear Admiral Karel Doorman, ABDA Commander during the Battle of Badung Strait.
The Allied command (ABDA) sends naval units into the Badung Strait under the command of Dutch Admiral Karel Doorman in order to interdicts a Japanese invasion fleet sailing for Bali. This leads to the Battle of Badung Strait. Bali is critical because of its proximity to the ABDA naval base at Surabaya. US Navy submarines USS Seawolf and Truant make the first attack but score no hits. Later, the US Army Air Force sends 20 planes to bomb the invasion convoy but score only one hit on transport freighter Sagami Maru. These attacks cause the Japanese ships (after landing their troops) to retreat north with ABDA surface warships in hot pursuit. At about 22:00, cruisers HNLMS De Ruyter and Java and the destroyers USS John D. Ford, Pope, and HNLMS Piet Hein sight the fleeing Japanese ships and open fire. As the ABDA ships pass through the Strait, Japanese ships counterattack and a torpedo from destroyer Asashio hits Piet Hein, sinking it. The two forces later exchange gunfire which damages Japanese destroyer Michishio and ABDA cruiser Tromp and destroyer Stewart (Tromp heads to Sydney for repairs and thus misses the Battle of the Java Sea). The Battle of Badung Strait is considered a victory for the Japanese because they are able to drive off a larger ABDA force and inflict more damage than they sustain. The invasion of Bali proceeds without further interruption and the airfield there quickly falls to a reinforced battalion of Japanese troops.
Light cruiser Tromp, damaged during the Battle of Badung Strait on 18 February 1942 (Naval History and Heritage Command NH 80909).
The Japanese obviously have their sights on Surabaya, and a bombing raid there today sinks Dutch submarine K VII despite its being submerged in the harbor at the time. Fortunately, the submarine is operating with a skeleton crew and only the 13 men aboard - not the normal complement of 31 - perish.
The British in Java know that their fate rests in their own hands and that little help is likely before the Japanese arrive. A volunteer group departs from Batavia, Java, to Oosthaven, Sumatra, in order to salvage whatever they can find despite the island's recent occupation by the Japanese. They pull off this clandestine mission brilliantly right under the noses of the Japanese as destroyer HMS Jupiter and minesweeper Burnie evacuate the rear guard from the port. The volunteers rescue many spare parts and stores. Light cruiser Danae and destroyer Encounter evacuate 877 people from Padang. Meanwhile, overhead, P-40s of the Fifth Air Force shoot down six of nine Japanese bombers attacking Soerabaja, Java at a cost of one P-40. There are vicious dogfights over Soerbaja which result in three additional Japanese fighter losses.
A German dispatch rider on the Eastern Front on 18 February 1942. He has adapted a gas mask as face protector against temperatures as low as -40°. He is wearing sheepskins.
Eastern Front: The German situation at Demyansk deteriorates on 18 February 1942 when the 290th Infantry Division is forced to withdraw from a salient that it has been holding in the northwest section of the pocket. This "northern corner post" has been the source of much hope for the Germans within the pocket as an area close to the main German lines where a relief attempt could aim over the shortest distance. The Red Army, meanwhile, is busy trying to hem the Germans in at Demyansk and push them back into a small area where they are unable to receive air supplies and can be starved into submission. They are tightening the ring by bringing in more troops and trying to drive as much room between the pocket and the main German lines as they can. The Luftwaffe airlift continues, but it is bringing in less than half of the supplies that the trapped forces claim that they need to hold out. Time is the Germans' ally, however, as the spring thaw (Rasputitsa) is only a month away.
European Air Operations: The Luftwaffe is active in the North Sea, sinking 348-ton minesweeping trawler HMS Botanic and 214-ton anti-submarine trawler Warland.
RAF Bomber Command continues its leafletting missions tonight, with six or seven bombers dropping them over Paris and Lille. Another 25 Hampdens drop mines around the West Frisian Islands and off Wilhelmshaven and Heligoland. The British lose one Hampden on this mission.
French submarine Surcouf, lost on or about 18 February 1942 under mysterious circumstances.
Battle of the Atlantic: Free French submarine Surcouf disappears and is believed lost on or about 18 February 1942. The Surcouf is the largest French cruiser submarine and is headed for the Panama Canal to transit to the Pacific Theater of Operations. She left Bermuda on 12 February and loses contact late today. The Surcouf did not stop in Martinique because that island's government remains loyal to the Vichy regime. The US Navy investigates and concludes that the Surcouf sinks after a collision with US freighter Thompson Lykes about 80 miles (70 nautical miles, 130 km) north of Cristóbal, Colón, Panama. A post-war explanation based on service records is that the 6th Heavy Bomber Group operating out of Panama was the culprit. Conspiracy theories within the French Navy later claim that "friendly fire" caused the sinking, but exactly who is supposed to have fired on the submarine is left unsaid. Another possibility is that the submarine did collide with the freighter and the bombers mistakenly finished it off. The Surcouf's wreck is never located and 130 men perish, with no survivors. There is a memorial to Surcouf and its crew in Cherbourg, France.
Four-stack destroyer USS Truxtun, which is lost on 18 February 1942 with 46 survivors and 119 fatalities (Maritime History Archive, Memorial University, PF-306.984. John Cardoulis Photograph Collection.).
The weather is rough in the North Atlantic, and this causes tragic losses. US Navy destroyer USS Truxton and 7,350-ton stores ship USS Pollux both run aground in heavy gales off Newfoundland, Truxton at Chambers Cove and Pollux at Lawn Point. The ships are lost and the foul weather hampers search and rescue operations, with 110 men perishing on the Truxton and 93 on Pollux. Another ship, the Wilkes, also runs aground but is saved. Credit goes to the local inhabitants of Newfoundland for making heroic efforts to save 186 crewmen total in brutal conditions. As one man puts it, "Hardly a dozen men from both ships would have been saved had it not been for the superb work of the local residents." Memorial services have been held for this disaster on 18 February 1992 and 2012.
U-432 (Kptlt. Heinz-Otto Schultze), on its fourth patrol out of La Pallice, sinks 4053-ton Brazilian freighter Olinda about 78 miles (126 km) northeast of Norfolk, Virginia. Schultze stops the neutral freighter off Cape Hatteras with a shot across the bow and allows the crew to disembark before sinking it with gunfire and one torpedo at 21:00. All 46 men on the freighter survive, picked up on the 19th by destroyer USS Dallas (DD 199).
U-108 (KrvKpt. Klaus Scholtz), on its sixth patrol out of Lorient, gets the final (fifth) victory of the patrol southeast of Sable Island when it torpedoes and sinks 5265-ton British freighter Somme. Captain Scholtz questions the crew in their lifeboats, but they disappear. There are no survivors from the 58-man crew.
U-96 (Kptlt. Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock), on its third patrol out of Lorient, torpedoes and sinks 5589-ton British freighter Black Osprey about 130 miles south of Iceland. There are 26 dead and 11 survivors from Black Osprey, which is a straggler from Convoy HX-107.
" Entering Drydock # Two, at Pearl Harbor Navy Yard, 18 February 1942. Sunk as a result of damage received in the 7 December 1941 Japanese air raid, she was refloated on 12 February 1942. Note oil staining along her hull, marking her waterline while she was sunk. Collection of Vice Admiral Homer N. Wallin, USN (Retired). U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph."Catalog #: NH 83056.
Battle of the Mediterranean: At Malta, fuel is running low because of difficulties running tankers to the island from Alexandria due to Luftwaffe air patrols. Governor Lt. General Dobbie warns the War Office that fuel stocks will only last until the end of June, with coal and kerosene running out a little before then. Gasoline for trucks and other vehicles will run out around the first of May, while submarine diesel and furnace oil for ships is down to a two-month supply. Dobbie sums up:
Until situation in Cyrenaica radically changes difficulties of getting convoys from east will not diminish. Consider it essential to explore seriously and very urgently possibility using all other available means of getting supplies not only from east but from west also. This is all the more important if situation French North Africa is likely to deteriorate. I am sure these things are being closely considered by you but I feel it important to point out very clearly that the problem is an urgent one.
Getting convoys to Malta from the west has become vastly more difficult since Lieutenant General Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps retook Benghazi in January.
Propaganda posters entitled "Ein Hetzer plaudert aus der Schule!" (roughly translated, "A hound howls from the school!") issued by the "Parole der Woche," a wall newspaper (Wandzeitung) published by the National Socialist Party propaganda office in Munich on 18 February 1942. Essentially, the poster portrays the man pictured as being a Communist. (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum).
War Crimes: In Singapore, the occupying Japanese begin on 18 February a purge of Chinese residents who are perceived as hostile to their rule. This "cleansing operation" (Sook Ching) lasts until 4 March 1942. This is a meticulously planned and intentional operation by the occupying government, not an ad hoc massacre like many other atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers. The targeted include, inter alia, members in the China Relief, wealthy donors to the China Relief, men with tattoos (who are assumed to be triad members), anyone found with a weapon, and members of the previous British bureaucracy. However, the purge is not limited to any particular groups in some legalistic fashion, it encompasses anyone that local Japanese authorities feel is a threat to their rule. Executions take place at several locations, including Punggol Point, Changi Beach, Katong, and on ships off the coast. British POWs are ordered to bury about 300 bullet-ridden corpses that drift ashore at Belakang Beach. Estimates of victims reach as high as 100,000. The Sook Ching war crimes trial in 1947 convicts some perpetrators, but many, including leader Masanobu Tsuji, escape justice. The Sook Ching incident causes bitter animosity within the Singapore Chinese community toward both the Japanese and the British, who locals feel acted inadequately both to protect them from the Japanese and to punish the perpetrators after the war.
Propaganda: Japanese occupation troops in Singapore have Allied POWs sweep the streets for the newsreel cameras. The Japanese also begin dismantling vestiges of British rule such as statues, memorials, and signs.
Salem (Ohio) News, 18 February 1942. The headline correctly notes that "Zero Hour Nearing on East Indies Front."
Chinese/Indian Relations: Chiang Kai-shek continues his two-week visit to British India by meeting today with Mahatma Gandhi in Calcutta. Yesterday, Chiang met with Jiddah, another revolutionary. These meetings are a slap at the British, who Chiang holds in low esteem since the Tulsa incident at the end of 1941 during which the local British commanders in Burma attempted to hijack American lend-lease supplies intended for China.
British/Australian Relations: General Archibald Wavell, Commander in Chief ABDA Command, defies the wishes of Lieutenant General John Lavarack, General Officer Commanding I Australian Corps, and orders Australian troops aboard requisitioned passenger liner SS Orcades to land at Batavia, Java. Wavell tells the Australian Prime Minister that they are needed for the defense of the airfield. This runs counter to negotiations between the highest levels of the British and Australian governments that all available Australian troops will be returned to Australia for the defense of the homeland.
USS Pollux, one of the ships sunk off the Newfoundland coast on 18 February 1942.
US Military: U.S. Major General George H. Brett, deputy commander of the ABDA Command and the de facto commander in Australia, sends Major General Lewis H. Brereton, Commanding General 5th Air Force, to India to begin building up forces there. Brett also informs the War Department that Java is lost in the absence of an immediate major counteroffensive in Burma and China. Since there are no plans or resources for such attacks, that effectively means that Brett is wiping his hands of responsibility for Java and, by inference, all of the Netherlands East Indies.
Air units of the 91st Bombardment Squadron (light), USAAF 5th Force, begin operating out of Malang, Java. They are equipped with A-24 Dauntlesses. Their ground support remains trapped in Bataan, the Philippines.
B-17s of the 22nd Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 7th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 5th Air Force, depart from Australia bound for Nandi Airport, Fiji. They are heading ultimately for their new base at Jogjakarta (Yogyakarta) Airfield, Java.
Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall sends President Roosevelt a memorandum in which he emphasizes the need for "More shipping than is now in sight." He forecasts troop availability:
By December 1942, there will be 1,800,000 troops ready for overseas service, and by the end of 1943 about three and a half million. We are now endeavoring to secure from the War Shipping Administration an additional eighteen cargo ships per month for military use, which would permit an overseas force of 750,000 by the end of 1942. This number, however, would be less than half of the troops potentially available.
Marshall warns that current shipbuilding plans will permit an overseas force only half as large as possible at the end of 1943, too. He urges "Immediate steps" to "increase the tempo of the shipbuilding program to a much higher figure."
US Government: Intense discussions continue in Washington, D.C., about the internment of Japanese along the west coast. Western Command leader General DeWitt's memorandum arrives at 17:00 which outlines his recommendation that American-born Japanese from Category A areas (primarily urban and military centers in Oregon and Washington State) be forcibly evacuated and removals of enemy aliens from his command begin as soon as possible.
Public sentiment is strongly in favor of tough measures. In an editorial in the Craig Empire Courier of Craig, Colorado, the editor endorses Pulitzer Prize winner Westbrook Pegler’s view that “the Japanese in California should be under armed guard to the last man and woman right now and to hell with habeas corpus until the danger is over.” This view is widespread.
South Africa: Governor-General Sir Patrick Duncan has his term extended by five years.
Air-raid shelter under construction between Hunter and Scott Streets, Newcastle, NSW, February 18, 1942.
British Homefront: For health and sanitary reasons, the government exempts miners from the soap ration.
American Homefront: Glenn Miller and his Orchestra record "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree," written by Sam H. Stept, Lew Brown, and Charles Tobias. This war-themed popular tune is performed with the tried and true formula of vocals by Tex Beneke, Marion Hutton, and The Modernaires. The song goes on to spend thirteen weeks on the Billboard charts and becomes the twelfth best-selling record of the year. The Andrews Sisters also perform the song to acclaim in "Private Buckaroo" with the Harry James Orchestra. Patti Andrews later says that "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree" is their most requested song.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer releases "Born to Sing," starring Virginia Weidler and Ray McDonald. The film features Mickey Rooney's father, Joe Yule Sr., Margaret Dumont, and Leo Gorcey of Bowery Boys fame.
