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

Sunday 25 January 1942

"Fairey Fulmar planes grounded in the snow after a storm." Royal Naval Air Station Donibristle, 25 January 1942. © IWM (A 7252).

Battle of the Pacific: Thailand, on 25 January 1942, declares war on the Allies, and Britain, New Zealand, and South Africa reciprocate. While Thailand does not have a particularly imposing military, it does have an extremely useful location for Japanese troops invading Burma. General Archibald Wavell, Commander in Chief Australian-British- Dutch-American (ABDA) Command, South West Pacific, flies to Rangoon and finds the situation deteriorating rapidly. The battle line is west of the Salween River, opposite Moulmein, and Wavell orders Moulmein held. The Japanese are bringing up reinforcements via Thailand, however, and the unit tasked with holding Moulmein, the 16th Brigade, Indian 17th Division, is overmatched and at best can delay the Japanese.

"Fairey Fulmar planes grounded in the snow after a storm."  Royal Naval Air Station Donibristle, 25 January 1942. © IWM (A 7251).

On the Malay Peninsula, Lieutenant General Arthur Percival meets with Generals Bennett and Heath. They decide to order a withdrawal by the troops at Buta Pahat back to Singapore. The British in any event are unable to hold Batu Pahat after furious battles during the day, including attempts to reinforce the garrison with the British 53rd Brigade Group. Indian 3 Corps begins pulling out of the area after dark. The Japanese focus their attack in the western portion of the line, and the 2/20th AIF Battalion evacuates Mersing to Jemaluang Crossroads.

"Malaya. AIF artillerymen firing a 25 pounder gun from beside a rubber plantation." January 1942. Australian War Memorial 011303/30.

In Borneo, the Japanese expand their hold at Balikpapan, where they already are in possession of the critical refinery. Their advance southward is slow because the Dutch garrison has destroyed the bridges on the main coastal road. Late in the day, the Japanese reach Balikpapan City, which the Dutch have abandoned. The Japanese send their Surprise Attack Unit south of the Reservoir and head upriver toward the village of Banoeabaroe. The remaining Dutch troops in the area attempt to withdraw via the coast road, but the Surprise Attack Unit cuts them off. After that, the Surprise Attack returns to Balikpapan City and helps to complete its occupation.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch for 25 January 1942 has timely news about the Battle of the Makassar Strait, an American victory.

In the Philippines, the eastern half of the Allied line controlled by II Corps pulls back under pressure. I Corps, in control of the western half of the line, also pulls back and abandons its defenses at Mauban south of Moron (Morong). The Japanese roadblock on West Road behind the main front line continues to be a thorn in the I Corps side, and the US command has to divert additional troops to it from the west. The small Japanese bridgehead far to the south at Quinauan and Longoskawayan Points also holds out against fierce Allied attacks, though it is being forced back against some cliffs. It is a bitter battle, with heavy casualties on both sides. The retreat down the Bataan Peninsula has progressed so far now that the southern beach areas now shift from the control of the Service Command Area to the military commanders of I and II Corps.

"Warangoi River, New Britain. 1942-01. The Adler River, in the Bainings Mountains on the eastern side of the Gazelle Peninsula, an obstacle to the Australian troops retreating from Rabaul after the successful attack by Japanese forces. This is the point where at least two parties of retreating Australian troops crossed the Adler River. The first party of twenty-one men from the Anti-aircraft Battery Rabaul and the 17th Anti-tank Battery crossed here on 1942-01-26 securing a lawyer vine rope to cross the river. This image was taken in late January 1942 and shows some of the men of Sergeant L. I. H. (Les) Robbins' party fording the river as they make their way south toward Palmalmal Plantation and rescue in April 1942." The Japanese are in firm control of the port of Rabaul on 25 January 1942, but their grip on the rest of New Britain is tenuous. The retreating Australian troops have nowhere to go and little hope of rescue, but they can hide out in the jungles for as long as they can find food and water. Australian War Memorial P02395.012.

Sailors in the Japanese Navy continue to feel invulnerable and use their submarines to take potshots at US military installations. on 25 January 1942, Japanese submarine I-73 shells the US base on Midway Island. Meanwhile, I-59 enters Sabang Roads, Sumatra (Indonesia) and sinks a freighter and captures part of the crew.

Lieutenant General Erwin Rommel on an inspection tour of the front, January 1942 (Gemini, Ernst A., Federal Archive Figure 183-H26262).

Battle of the Mediterranean: Panzer Group Africa continues its offensive and takes Msus. British 1st Armoured Division, 13 Corps, falls back on Mechili. Indian 4th Division evacuates Benghazi and Barce, protected by a small detachment of tanks from the 1st Armoured Division. British General Neal Ritchie, General Officer Commanding Eighth Army, then orders the Indian 4th Division and 1st Armoured Division to prepare a counterattack.

U-123 (Kptlt. Reinhard Hardegen, shown here in January/February 1942, was the first U-boat operating off the east coast of the United States as part of Operation Drumbeat. On 25 January 1942, it sinks British freighter Culebra.

Battle of the Atlantic: Operation Paukenschlag (Drumbeat), the U-boat offensive off the east coast of the United States, continues claiming victims. U-125 (Kptlt. Ulrich Folkers) is on its third patrol out of Lorient attacks 7294-ton US tanker Olney off Cape Lookout, North Carolina. Attempting to escape, Olney's captain grounds the tanker. Olney later proceeds to port, its minor damage is repaired, and returns to service.

U-130 (KrvKpt. Ernst Kals) is on its second patrol out of Lorient. Today, it is operating off the coast of New Jersey and torpedoes and sinks 9305-ton Norwegian tanker Varanger. Everyone is rescued.

British freighter Culebra, sunk by U-123 on 25 January 1942.

U-123 (Kptlt. Reinhard Hardegen) is on its seventh patrol out of Lorient. It was the first U-boat to reach the US east coast and now is on its way back to France. Today, in the mid-Atlantic, it uses its deck gun to attack and sink 3044-ton British freighter Culebra, which was dispersed from Convoy ON-53 and is en route from London/Loch Ewe to Bermuda/Jamaica. There are no survivors. Captain Hardegan praises the crew of the Culebra in his log, noting their "astonishing cold-bloodedness" as the Culebra's crew puts up a heroic fight with its deck gun.

U-754 (Kptlt. Hans Oestermann) is on its first patrol out of Kiel. Today, it torpedoes and sinks 3876-ton Greek collier Mount Kitheron about two miles off St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. There are 12 deaths and 24 survivors.

German soldiers on the march in southern USSR, January 1942 (Grunewald, Federal Archive Picture 101I-539-0393-26A).

Eastern Front: The Red Army advance west of Moscow continues on 25 January 1942. The advancing Soviets encircle Kholm (south of Lake Ilmen). Isolated in the pocket are about 5500 German troops under the command of General Theodor Scherer, primarily of the 218th Infantry Division and the 553rd Regiment of the 329th Division, but with many other men from other units, too. Unlike in the larger Demyansk pocket nearby, there is not enough land for an airstrip, so all supplies must be air-dropped - which is hazardous for both the planes and the German soldiers who sometimes are enticed into going dangerously close to Soviet outposts to get the containers.

Greek freighter Mount Kitheron, torpedoed off St. John's, Newfoundland, on 25 January 1942.

The Soviet troops are occupying vast swathes of territory during the Moscow counteroffensive, but it is not easy. They are struggling through snowdrifts and over icy roads, and the fact that they are encountering little opposition from the Wehrmacht, which is, for the most part, sitting tight in fortified towns, is cold comfort. Due to necessity, the Germans have adopted a strong-point strategy (also called a hedgehog defense) wherein they occupy isolated fortified towns and villages while basically conceding everywhere else to the Soviets. This has been put in motion not out of some kind of well-thought strategy, but because Hitler has ordered the troops to hold towns without regard to being surrounded. The hedgehog defense actually is very effective (it is "invented" by NATO in the 1970s), but flies in the face of 1942 military doctrine.

German soldiers use sleds to unload a Junkers Ju 52 transport in the Demyansk pocket south of Lake Ilmen, January 1942 (Ullrich, Gerhard, Federal Archive Bild 101I-003-3446-21).

On the Crimea Peninsula, Soviet General Kozlov continues sending reinforcements by sea to his small bridgehead at Sudak, which is far behind the mainline. Kozlov is convinced that the Germans don't have the strength to eliminate the bridgehead, but German General Fretter-Pico already is diverting troops from 30 Corps which will soon be in a position to attack with devastating superiority.

Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering and Italian leader Benito Mussolini watch a demonstration of aircraft prototypes at Furbara Airfield, January 1942 (Federal Archive Picture 146-1979-155-22).

Australian Government: The Australian War Cabinet calls up for military service "all able-bodied white male British subjects" between the ages of 18 and 45 years old.

"At the scene of the 'incident', telephone repair crews unroll new cables on a bomb-damaged London street in order to breach the gap in telephone supply caused by an air raid." London, January 1942 (© IWM (D 6445)).

1942

January 1942

January 1, 1942: Declaration By United Nations
January 2, 1941: Manila Falls to Japan
January 3, 1942: ABDA Command Announced
January 4, 1942: MacArthur on His Own in the Philippines
January 5, 1942: Soviets Plan General Offensive
January 6, 1942: US Army in Europe
January 7, 1942: Soviet General Offensive Opens
January 8, 1942: Hitler Sacks Hoepner
January 9, 1942: Battle of Dražgoše
January 10, 1942: Building the Jeep
January 11, 1942: Japan Takes Kuala Lumpur
January 12, 1941: Rommel Plans Counterattack
January 13, 1942: First Ejection Seat Use
January 14, 1942: Operation Drumbeat First Sinking
January 15, 1942: U-Boat Off NYC
January 16, 1942: Carole Lombard Crash
January 17, 1942: British Take Halfaya Pass
January 18, 1942: Soviet Paratroopers in Action
January 19, 1942: FDR Approves Atomic Bomb
January 20, 1942: The Wannsee Conference
January 21, 1942: Parit Sulong Bridge Battle
January 22, 1942: Parit Sulong Massacre
January 23, 1942: Japan Takes Rabaul
January 24, 1942: Battle of Makassar Strait
January 25, 1942: Kholm Surrounded
January 26, 1942: GIs Land in Europe
January 27, 1942: Battle of Endau
January 28, 1942: Rommel Takes Benghazi
January 29, 1942: First US Coast Guard Ship Sunk
January 30, 1942: Singapore Isolated
January 31, 1942: Army Group South Averts Disaster

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