Sunday 1 March 1942

HMS Exeter is hit by a torpedo fired by Japanese destroyer Inazuma during the Second Battle of the Java Sea, 1 March 1942.

Damaged during the First Battle of Java Sea, Royal Navy cruiser HMS Exeter (famous for helping to destroyer German heavy cruiser Admiral Graf Spee in 1939) is ordered on 28 February to leave immediately from Surabaya to Ceylon for repairs. The decision comes just before the Japanese Navy sweeps the sea later that night in the Battle of Java Sea. At nightfall, Exeter and escorting destroyers HMS Encounter and USS Pope depart from the main north entrance (rather than the less obvious southern one) of the harbor due to Exeter's draft. The seas are swarming with Japanese, ships, and they spot Exeter at 04:00 on 1 March. They elude their pursuer, but the Japanese sight them again at 09:35. Heavy cruisers Haguro and Nachi, accompanied by destroyers Kawakaze and Yamakaze, approach and cause the Exeter to change course to the northeast. However, this only leads the British ships toward another group of Japanese warships (heavy cruisers Ashigara and Myōkō and destroyers Inazuma and Akebono). At 10:20, the ships begin firing at each other. At 11:20, a shell hits Exeter's boiler room, slowing it to four knots, and the Japanese cruisers close in. Exeter sinks at 11:40 about 90 miles (78 nautical miles and 140 km) northwest of Bawean. Both destroyers are sunk soon after, Encounter after her captain orders her scuttled and Pope by dive bombers. While the Japanese rescue 652 men from Exeter, 152 of them perish in Japanese custody.

HMS Exeter sinking on 1 March 1942 (U.S. Navy photo NH 91772 from the U.S. Navy Naval History and Heritage Command, captured by US forces on Attu Island in 1943).

Japanese Aichi D3A ("Val") dive bombers operating near Christmas Island attack and sink US Navy fuel tanker USS Pecos and damage accompanying destroyer USS Edsall. Battleships Hiei and Kirishima are alerted to the destroyer's plight and they sail to the area and sink it using gunfire. There are five survivors of the Edsall who are captured and executed by the Japanese at Kendari on Celebes Island.

With the seas now cleared of large Allied warships, the invasion of Java continues without serious interruption. The first landings begin just after midnight at around 00:15. Japanese transport ships unload troops at Bantam Bay in West Java (near Merak and Eretan Wetan) and Kragan in East Java. Facing little opposition, the Japanese in the western force quickly sets up its headquarters at Serang, while the eastern force takes Kalidjati airfield by noon. The Allied defenders send defensive forces to the landing zones during the day, but they do not arrive in numbers large enough to counterattack until 2 March.

The Second Battle in the Java Sea, 1 March 1942. Heavy cruiser Myoko and Ashigara are firing on the Exeter.

Everyone on the Allied side can see that the end is near for Java, and evacuations are in full swing. The USAAF flies its last three B-17s and an A-24 Dauntless squadron back toward Australia. Nine P-40s, six RAAF fighters, and four RNAF fighters attack the Japanese landings, losing three planes. The Japanese Air Force then counterattacks the P-40 base at Blimbing Airdrome and destroys the surviving fighters on the ground.

In the Philippines, the front is quiet but the Allied position is withering. The 34th Pursuit Squadron has been engaged in heavy fighting for two months and is down to its last two planes. The Japanese, however, also are taking heavy casualties, having lost 2700 killed and 4000 wounded. The difference between the two sides is that the Japanese can easily bring in reinforcements from the north, while the Allies are effectively blockaded by the oppressive Japanese sea and air presence.

Dutch freighter Rooseboom, sunk west of Sumatra on 1 March 1942.

Japanese submarine HIJMS I-59 (later I-159), under the command of Lieutenant Yoshimatsu, torpedoes and sinks 1035-ton Dutch freighter at 23:35 west of Sumatra. Two men are picked up by a passing Dutch freighter in the water nine days later, with well over 100 deaths. There is one other (known) survivor, and he tells quite a tale. The sinking is best remembered for the account of the events endured by the survivors in the sole lifeboat that is launched before the ship quickly capsizes told by Corporal Walter Gardiner Gibson. According to Gibson, 80 people are crowded in the boat which is designed to hold only 28 people, with many more survivors left to swim in the water. Some of the swimming men try to build a raft from flotsam, but it sinks and they all drown. There is no food or water and people in the boat begin to hallucinate, many killing themselves due to their agony. A group of survivors in the boat's bow throws the weaker ones overboard at night, and then they themselves are pushed overboard to drown. When the survivors are down to a group of two white men, a Chinese woman, and four Javanese seamen, the Javanese murder and eat the other white man. Eventually, the lifeboat grounds on an island off Sumatra, Sipora. The four Javanese sailors all perish (two disappear into the jungle). The Japanese shoot the Chinese woman as a spy and put Gibson in a POW camp. Gibson lives to write two books about his experiences, "The Boat" (1952) and "Highland Laddie" (1954).

President Polk, sunk near the Gilbert Islands on 1 March 1942.

Japanese aircraft bomb and sink 9225-ton US troopship President Polk near the Gilbert Islands. The Americans later raise the ship and return it to service.

Japanese submarine HIJMS I-25 launches its Yokosuka E14Y1, Navy Type 0 Small Reconnaissance Seaplane "Glen" to perform reconnaissance over Hobart, Tasmania. As on its other flights, the seaplane carries out its mission without being spotted.

Destroyer USS Pope (DD-225) sinking on 1 March 1942 during the Second Battle of the Java Sea. This photo was taken from a Japanese floatplane.

Eastern Front: While the front has stabilized following the Soviet counteroffensive in December, the German position remains much shakier than anyone ever expected. General Halder, head of OKH, issues an analysis showing that total casualties are approaching half the number of men that began the campaign. While many of those men are still fighting, the winter was not the respite that the Wehrmacht expected and instead has turned into a struggle to the death. Replacements are not coming close to making up all the losses, and ammunition supplies are becoming an issue as well.

After almost two weeks of indecision about whether to even approach Hitler with the idea of another retreat, today Fourth Army General Heinrici arrives at the Fuhrer headquarters in Rastenburg to plead his case with Hitler. Hitler, however, already is thinking about operations elsewhere to regain the initiative and rescue the trapped units at Kholm and Demyansk and is not concerned about the troops near Moscow. To Heinrici's (and everyone else's) astonishment, Hitler immediately grants the withdrawal request. He explains that previously he had been "deliberately obstinate" about retreats, but the front situation has improved so much in recent weeks that he no longer cares exactly where it is. Heinrici returns to headquarters with permission to pull troops back from an exposed position at Yukhnov.

Guns of Japanese cruiser Myoko firing during the Second Battle of the Java Sea, 1 March 1942.

On the Crimea, the Soviet effort along the Parpach Narrows front now is focused on the Romanian forces at the north end of the line. They are the only sector that has given up serious ground. Today, the German 170th Infantry Division moves up and stops this threat, leaving the Red Army in possession of a bulge at the extreme northern end of the line. The Soviets land a small party at Alushta today, but it achieves nothing and quickly re-embarks, while the Soviet Navy bombards Yalta and Feodosiya to little effect. The Soviets already have lost 40 tanks during their offensive and now are achieving little, but they refuse to abandon it. Lieutenant General Dmitry Timofeyevich Kozlov prepares one last attack on the 2nd against the German strongpoint at Koi-Asan.

HMS Exeter sinking after the Second Battle of Java Sea, 1 March 1942.

European Air Operations: The RAF conducts no major missions today.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-656 (Kptlt. Ernst Kröning), on its second patrol out of Brest, is bombed and sunk by a Lockheed PBO-1 Hudson (VP-82 USN) south of Cape Race, Newfoundland. An unlucky boat, U-656 sinks or damages no ships during its career. There are no survivors of the 45 aboard. This U-boat sinking by an airplane is a rare event for this period of World War II.

Battle of the Mediterranean: Royal Navy submarine HMS Unbeaten sinks 3415-ton Vichy French tanker PLM.20 5 nautical miles east of Mehedia (Mahdia), Tunisia.

US/British Relations: Winston Churchill rightfully fears a Japanese expansion into the Indian Ocean. Today, he informs President Roosevelt of the Royal Navy's desire to land troops at Diego Suarez, Madagascar. Madagascar is under Vichy French control, and already there are Japanese submarines around India. The invasion is still tentative at this point, however, and no plans have been prepared.

Canadian Military: The Canadian Women's Army Corps receives full Army status as "a Corps of the Active Militia of Canada." Before this, the only women's units admitted to this status were the nursing sisters.

Auschwitz 2.

Holocaust: The Germans begin building the Sobibor concentration camp near the town of Włodawa (Wolzek), Poland. The location is chosen due to the nearby Chełm – Włodawa railway line connecting the General Government with the Reichskommissariat Ukraine. Local people begin the construction and are soon replaced by the forced labor of a Sonderkommando of local Jewish residents. Ultimately, well over a hundred thousand people are murdered at the camp.

Also on 1 March 1942, Auschwitz Birkenau (also known as Auschwitz 2) is established. It is intended to house Soviet prisoners of war but ultimately becomes the main extermination camp at Auschwitz.

One of the first ration books (The National WWII Museum).

American Homefront: Nationwide food rationing takes effect throughout the United Staes. Not everything is rationed - for instance, fresh fruit and vegetables are not - so everyone can always find something to eat. People also are free to grow or raise their own food. However, certain food items such as coffee and sugar must be imported and thus are rationed because the shipping is needed for other purposes.

By now, about 10,000 family members of US servicemen have been evacuated from Hawaii. About 20,000 remain to be shipped to California. They are taking up all of the shipping space, which leaves none for the proposed internment on the mainland (favored by the US Army) of Japanese-Americans. This indirectly blocks their removal from the islands.

Cornelius Vanderbilt III passes away in Miami Beach, Florida at the age of 68. He is most remembered for his interest in yachting and for serving honorably as a brigadier general in World War I.

The owners of the major league baseball clubs decide against allowing players who now are in the military from playing for their clubs when they are available, i.e., on leave or based nearby.

The Japanese 2d Division celebrates landing at Merak, Java, on 1 March 1942.

Future History: The wreck of HMS Exeter was discovered on 21 February 2007 some 60 miles (97 km) from the last position given by its commander, Captain Oliver Gordon (who survives). It was classified as a British war grave and thus was considered untouchable. However, when another diving expedition visits the location in November 2016, it finds the right spot - but the ship itself is missing. Exeter, along with the nearby wreck of destroyer Encounter and two other vessels, apparently had been illegally scavenged during the intervening decade. It must have been a major salvage operation, one of the biggest in history. How this was done without anyone knowing about it in approximately 60 meters (200 feet) of water remains a mystery, along with what was done with the wrecks (presumably scrapped).


February 1942

February 1, 1942: The US Navy Strikes Back
February 2, 1942: Germans Recovering in Russia
February 3, 1942: Japanese Shell and Bomb Singapore
February 4, 1942: Battle of Makassar Strait
February 5, 1942: Empress of Asia Sunk
February 6, 1942: The Christmas Island Body
February 7, 1942: The Double-V Campaign
February 8, 1942: Japan Invades Singapore
February 9, 1942: French Liner Normandie Capsizes
February 10, 1942: US Car Production Ends
February 11, 1942: Tomforce Fails on Singapore
February 12, 1942: The Channel Dash
February 13, 1942: Japanese Paratroopers In Action
February 14, 1942: RAF Orders Terror Raids
February 15, 1942: Japan Takes Singapore
February 17, 1942: Indian Troops Defect to Japanese
February 18, 1942: Battle of Badung Strait
February 19, 1942: FDR Authorizes Internment Camps
February 20, 1942: O'Hare the Hero
February 21, 1942: Crisis in Burma
February 22, 1942: Bomber Harris Takes Over
February 23, 1942: Bombardment of Ellwood, California
February 24, 1942: US Raid on Wake Island
February 25, 1942: Battle of Los Angeles
February 26, 1942: Gneisenau Eliminated
February 27, 1942: Battle of Java Sea
February 28, 1942: Battle of Sunda Strait

March 1942

March 1, 1942: Second Battle of Java Sea
March 2, 1942: Huge Allied Shipping Losses at Java
March 3, 1942: Japan Raids Western Australia
March 4, 1942: Second Raid On Hawaii
March 5, 1942: Japan Takes Batavia
March 6, 1942: Churchill Assaults Free Speech
March 7, 1942: British Defeat in Burma
March 8, 1942: Rangoon Falls to Japan
March 9, 1942: Japanese Conquest of Dutch East Indies
March 10, 1942:US Navy attacks Japanese Landings at Lae
March 11, 1942: Warren Buffett's First Stock Trade
March 12, 1942: Japan Takes Java
March 13, 1942: Soviets Attack In Crimea Again 
March 14, 1942: The US Leans Toward Europe
March 15, 1942: Operation Raubtier Begins
March 16, 1942: General MacArthur Gets His Ride
March 17, 1942: MacArthur Arrives in Australia
March 18, 1942: Japan Attacks In Burma
March 19, 1942: Soviets Encircled on the Volkhov
March 20, 1942: "I Shall Return," Says MacArthur
March 21, 1942: Germans Attack Toward Demyansk
March 22, 1942: Second Battle of Sirte
March 23, 1942: Hitler's Insecurity Builds
March 24, 1942: Bataan Bombarded
March 25, 1942: Chinese Under Pressure in Burma
March 26, 1942: Win Or Die, Vows MacArthur
March 27, 1942: The Battle of Suusari
March 28, 1942: The St. Nazaire Commando Raid
March 29, 1942: The Free Republic of Nias
March 30, 1942: Japanese-Americans Off Bainbridge Island
March 31, 1942: Japanese Seize Christmas Island

2020

Friday 27 February 1942

HMS Exeter (right, barely visible under the spray) and Australian cruiser HMAS Hobart (D63) under aerial attack by Japanese aircraft in the Battle of Java Sea. The date of this picture has not been positively established may be from 27 February 1942. Or, it may be from an earlier incident on 14-15 February 1942.

Battle of the Pacific: Admiral Karel Doorman has his fleet at sea east of Surabaya in search of a reported Japanese invasion fleet heading for Java on 27 February 1942. After spending all night and all morning in a fruitless search, his ships spot the Japanese ships at about 16:00. within about fifteen minutes, the two fleets are firing guns and torpedoes at each other. Allied cruiser HMS Exeter is hit in the boiler room by a Japanese shell and heads back to Surabaya, and destroyer HNMLS Kortenaer sinks quickly after being hit by a torpedo. A gun battle between Royal Navy destroyer Electra and Japanese light cruiser Jintsū and destroyer Asagumo leads to the loss of Electra (Asagumo is damaged and withdraws). At 18:00, having lost two ships with a third badly damaged, Doorman breaks off the battle and heads west in an attempt to intercept the invasion transport ships. However, on the way, Royal Navy destroyer Jupiter hits a mine and sinks, compounding the damage. The Japanese pursue Doorman and there is another furious gun-and-torpedo battle which leads to the sinking of Dutch cruisers De Ruyter and Java. Doorman goes down with his ship, and only 111 men survive from both ships. Following orders, the only two surviving Allied ships, cruisers Perth and Houston, retreat back to Tanjung Priok.

Dutch flagship De Ruyter, sunk on 27 February 1942.

The Battle of the Java Sea is decisive for the fate of the Netherlands East Indies. While the battle delays the Japanese invasion by the day, that comes at a cost to the Allies of virtually their entire fleet in the Netherlands East Indies (Japanese losses are not known with precision but apparently are very light). The fate of Java is now sealed and the Allies have almost no naval forces left in the region aside from the battered Exeter and a few destroyers. This arguably is the height of Japanese naval power in the Pacific, though a lot of fighting remains.

In this perfectly timed photo, the U.S. Navy seaplane tender USS Langley (AV-3) is torpedoed by USS Whipple (DD-217), after being abandoned, south of Java, 27 February 1942. Naval History and Heritage Command NH 92476 USS LANGLEY (AV-3)

Allied woes at sea on 27 February 1942 do not end there, however. US Navy aircraft carrier USS Langley, the country's first aircraft carrier and now serving as a seaplane tender, is attacked early in the day south of Tjilatjap (Cilacap), West Java, along with US destroyers Whipple and Edsall by sixteen Mitsubishi G4M "Betty" bombers. They are flying out of Denpasar airfield on Bali and are escorted by 15 A6M Reisen "Zero" fighters. While Langley (which is carrying 32 P-40s) evades two bombing runs, it takes five 60- and 250-kg bombs on the third pass and bursts into flames. At 13:32, the crew abandons ship, and the escorting destroyers put two torpedoes into Langley to make sure that the Japanese don't salvage it. The tragedy of the Langley does not end there, either, as many of her surviving crew are on another ship, USS Pecos, when it is sunk while en route to Australia.

Polish soldiers in London, 27 February 1942 (Imperial War Museum).

Eastern Front: In the Crimea, Soviet Lieutenant General Dmitry Timofeyevich Kozlov launches an offensive along a section of the front at the Parpach Narrows at 06:30. The Red Army has 93,804 troops, 1,195 guns and mortars, 125 anti-tank guns, 194 tanks, and 200 aircraft. The offensive begins with a 230-gun artillery barrage, but the shelling is poorly aimed and does little to disrupt the German defenses. The Germans have their 46th and 132nd Infantry Divisions on the 42 Corps front along with the Romanian 18th Infantry Division. The Germans also have Gruppe Hitzfeld in reserve.

The crew of destroyer USS Whipple (DD-217) watches as its torpedo (fired to prevent the ship from falling into enemy hands) strikes USS Langley south of Java (Naval History and Heritage Command NH 92475 USS LANGLEY (AV-3)).

The Germans rely on a hedgehog defense of fortified strongpoints at the villages of Tulumchak, Korpech’, and Koi-Asan. They have built strong fortifications all along the front, and they are aided by warm weather which creates muddy conditions benefiting the defense. The Soviets must advance across a flat, 80-square kilometer plain which exposes them to brutal counter-fire. Soviet tanks, particularly the heavy KV-1s which are slow and make good targets, sink in the mud. Still, the Red Army soldiers take Tulumchak, which is held by the Romanian 18th Infantry Regiment. However, the Germans hold their other two strongpoints at Korpech’ and Koi-Asan after brutal fighting. The Luftwaffe makes 40 Stuka sorties which help to knock out 93 Soviet tanks in total, including 28 KV-1s. The Soviets do make minor gains but at a brutal cost.

Sergeant Hajime Toyoshima (left), Australia’s first Japanese prisoner of war, Bathurst Island, 27 February 1942. Toyoshima piloted of a Zero fighter damaged during the 19 February air raid on Darwin. After being forced to crash-land on Melville Island, Toyoshima was disarmed and captured by Aborigines who took him to Bathurst Island to hand over to Sergeant Leslie Powell (right), 23rd Field Company, Royal Australian Engineers. Powell, who had been sent to maintain demolition installations on the island and was unarmed, used Toyoshima’s service pistol to escort him into captivity.

European Air Operations: RAF Bomber Command sends 68 bombers (33 Wellingtons, 17 Manchesters, and 18 Hampdens) to bomb the Kiel drydock again where Gneisenau is being repaired. However, the weather is cloudy and only 50 bombers even drop their bombs - but where they drop is a mystery because there is no report of damage in Kiel. In another mission, 33 bombers (three Whitleys are lost) attack Wilhelmshaven and heavy cruiser Scharnhorst, but again the weather is poor and only 26 bombers drop their bombs - somewhere - to no effect. Another 15 bombers (11 Hampdens and 4 Manchesters) lay mines off the Frisian Islands.

The Luftwaffe bombs and sinks 269-ton British coaster Fernside off Banff, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

Tanker R.P. Resor, sunk on 27 February 1942.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-578 (KrvKpt. Ernst-August Rehwinkel), on its third patrol out of St. Nazaire, torpedoes and sinks 7451-ton tanker R.P. Resor about 20 miles east of Manasquan Inlet, New Jersey. The torpedo hits at 06:36 and ignites oil which sprays into all along the ship. The flames make abandoning ship almost impossible, and the sole lifeboat that can be launched is burned up. There are only two survivors of the 50 men on board. The ship stays afloat at an extreme angle, but the stern grounds in 122 feet of water when it is taken under tow and the ship sinks on 1 March.

U-432 (Kptlt. Heinz-Otto Schultze), on its fourth patrol out of La Pallice, torpedoes and sinks independent 8215-ton US tanker Marore about 3.5 miles off Wimble Shoals near Cape Hatteras. Captain Schultze then surfaces and begins the shelling the ship. The crew of the Marore abandons ship just in time. All 39 men survive.

U-156 (Kptlt. Werner Hartenstein), on its second patrol out of Lorient, uses its damaged deck gun (which exploded during a surface attack on the island of Aruba) sinks 2498-ton British freighter Macgregor about 15 miles northeast of Cabo Frances Viejo, Dominican Republic. Hartenstein follows the freighter for 16 hours until moonrise allows him to make his attack. The U-boat's gun erupts from 1600 yards at 22:35 and the first shot kills or wounds the freighter's gun crew. The Macgregor is able to send a distress signal before the guns destroy the freighter's bridge. After 35 minutes, the freighter is ablaze and the crew abandons ship. Amazingly, only one man on the Macgregor perishes, hit by the opening shot from U-156. There are 30 survivors.

Italian freighter Tembien, sunk off Tripoli on 27 February 1942.

Battle of the Mediterranean: Italian forces based on Rhodes launch a major counterattack against British commandos trying to take Kastelorizo in Operation Abstention. The weather is poor, making the landings difficult, but Ammiraglio di Divisione (Vice Admiral) Luigi Biancheri manages to land enough troops from gunboats Lupo, Lince, MAS 546, and MAS 561to isolate the poorly equipped British troops. During the afternoon, destroyers Crispi and Sella also land more troops to bring the total Italian Army presence to 258 soldiers and 80 marines. Now outnumbered, the commandos retreat to Nifti Point, harassed by naval gunfire by Lupo. Offshore, the Royal Navy makes a half-hearted attempt to intervene but can't locate the Italian ships. The British intend to land reinforcements on destroyer Rosaura, but the heavy Italian naval presence is calling that into doubt. Operation Abstention has become a muddled fiasco, but the British are determined to take the island and thus send more troops from Alexandria to land on the 28th.

Royal Navy Submarine HMS Upholder torpedoes and sinks 5584-ton Italian freighter Tembien about 24 miles (40 km) from the Tripoli lighthouse.

The Bruneval radar station.

Special Operations: The British execute Operation Biting, an overnight raid on German coastal radar installations in northern France. After several days of poor weather, conditions are right for aircraft of RAF No. 51 Squadron based at RAF Thruxton to drop "C" Company of the 2nd Parachute Battalion at Bruneval, France. The Commandos take the cutting-edge Wurzburg radar installation by force, killing one German guard and taking two others as prisoners. Rather than destroying the equipment, the Commandos remove it and take key pieces to the nearby beach on special trolleys. However, the Commandos find the beach to be under enemy fire, so they return to the installation and, after a fierce firefight with German troops, re-occupy it while other troops clear the beach. Six Royal Navy landing craft then appear on schedule and the entire force (less six Commandos who get lost) board and return to England. The Commandos lose two killed and eight wounded, while the Germans lose 5 killed, two wounded, and five missing men. The raid is both a technical and propaganda success for the British and leads to the expansion of British airborne forces. British scientists use the equipment to develop radar countermeasures, including "Window" (chaff), that are highly effective in later air raids. The British will erect a memorial to the Biting raid at Bruneval.

Short S23 C-Class S.849, Empire Flying Boat, A18-12 G-AEUG "Coogee" VH-ABC (see above photo) of 33 Squadron RAAF crashes on landing in Cleveland Bay near Townsville on 27 February 1942. Six RAAF crew perish and are buried at Townsville War Cemetery.

US/Mexican Relations: President Roosevelt signs an executive order establishing a Joint Mexican-U.S. Defense Commission.

British/Venezuelan Relations: Great Britain cedes Patos Island to Venezuela. This is one of Britain's oldest possessions in the New World, dating to 1628 and being part of the colony of Trinidad and Tobago. In exchange, the Venezuela government gives Trinidad and Tobago Soldado Rock. The two islands are or will become national parks and are of no strategic importance.

HMS Duke of York at sea, 27 February 1942. © IWM (A 7556).

US Military: US Navy ship Sea Witch deposits 27 crated P-40s at Tjilatjap, Java. With the Japanese about to invade, it is doubtful that they can be prepared in time to enter combat.

US Government: There is a tense Cabinet meeting at the White House about Japanese internment. At the meeting, representatives of the US Army claim that ethnic Japanese in the Hawaiian Islands will all have to be brought to the mainland for internment. President Roosevelt disagrees and wishes them to be interned on Molokai. The issue is left unresolved, but eventually, the Army's position will prevail.

A formation of Japanese bombers attacking warships during the Battle of the Java Sea, as seen from the Australian cruiser, HMAS Hobart, February 1942. Australian War Memorial P02620.005.

British Homefront: British physicist and radio astronomer James Stanley Hey discovers radio emissions coming from the Sun. This is a major development in the field of radio astronomy - the study of celestial objects at radio frequencies. Hey's discovery is related directly to the war, as he realizes today that complaints from the RAF of jamming of anti-aircraft radars are not the result of German actions, but are natural phenomenon from the Sun.

American Homefront: Scientist Edwin Hubble publishes an article, "The Problem of the Expanding Universe," in Science magazine. Hubble writes that he has validated scientist Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity by proving that light takes longer than it should to arrive at earth from distant galaxies. The reason is that the universe is expanding. The theory of the expanding universe is one of the cornerstones of modern cosmology. The question of how fast the universe is expanding remains unresolved to this day.

Armorers reloading a Messerschmitt Bf 109E of Jagdgeschwader 27 (JG27), North Africa, February 1942.

February 1942

February 1, 1942: The US Navy Strikes Back
February 2, 1942: Germans Recovering in Russia
February 3, 1942: Japanese Shell and Bomb Singapore
February 4, 1942: Battle of Makassar Strait
February 5, 1942: Empress of Asia Sunk
February 6, 1942: The Christmas Island Body
February 7, 1942: The Double-V Campaign
February 8, 1942: Japan Invades Singapore
February 9, 1942: French Liner Normandie Capsizes
February 10, 1942: US Car Production Ends
February 11, 1942: Tomforce Fails on Singapore
February 12, 1942: The Channel Dash
February 13, 1942: Japanese Paratroopers In Action
February 14, 1942: RAF Orders Terror Raids
February 15, 1942: Japan Takes Singapore
February 17, 1942: Indian Troops Defect to Japanese
February 18, 1942: Battle of Badung Strait
February 19, 1942: FDR Authorizes Internment Camps
February 20, 1942: O'Hare the Hero
February 21, 1942: Crisis in Burma
February 22, 1942: Bomber Harris Takes Over
February 23, 1942: Bombardment of Ellwood, California
February 24, 1942: US Raid on Wake Island
February 25, 1942: Battle of Los Angeles
February 26, 1942: Gneisenau Eliminated
February 27, 1942: Battle of Java Sea
February 28, 1942: Battle of Sunda Strait

2020