Sunday 22 February 1942

A local St. Louis girl, Nurse Agnes Kozjak, in her field uniform at Ft. Benning, Georgia. St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Pictures Section, page 1, February 22, 1942.

Battle of the Pacific: The loss of the Allied position on the Bilin River and the resulting approach of Japanese troops causes panic in Rangoon on 22 February 1942. Civilians evacuate west to India or leave by sea. On the Sittang River, the last strong natural barrier between the Japanese Army and Rangoon, the Japanese continue to make gains. Throughout the day, the British Indian Army continues to hold the Sittang River Bridge despite fierce Japanese attacks, often at close quarters. Finally, at 17:30, Brigadier Sir John George Smyth, V.C., orders his troops to blow up the bridge rather than allow it to fall into Japanese hands intact. This is done despite the fact that a large portion of the 17th Indian Division is still on the other side. Those men now are forced to get across the river in small groups without their equipment, and most of them do manage to reach the British lines. The overall commander in Burma, General Hutton, soon dismisses Smyth and replaces him as commander of the 17th Division with Brigadier David "Punch" Cowan. Since the 17th Division is the only large force available to defend the Sittang River, its struggles now for all intents and purposes doom Rangoon.

""Americans, Dutch Forces Now on Offensive," screams the headline of the 22 February 1942 The Ada (Texas) Evening News. The reality is a bit different, but it certainly sounds good and is better than reading about constant retreats.

Japanese air attacks on the Allied stronghold of Java increase in intensity as they begin to utilize newly acquired airbases in the region. Attacks today destroy four B-17's at Pasirian Airdrome and an LB-30 Liberator at Jogjakarta Airdrome. USAAF Fifth Air Force retaliates by destroying Japanese aircraft on the ground at Pasar Airfield.

US Navy submarine USS Swordfish disembarks Philippine President Manuel Quezon and his party at San Jose, Panay. Quezon wants to set up a new headquarters in Mindanao, but the Allies want him out of the Philippines and in Australia. They fear that Quezon may make a separate peace with the Japanese, which would remove from battle many troops fighting hard in the Bataan Peninsula. Area commander General Douglas MacArthur, meanwhile, also has orders to leave the Philippines and head to Australia.

After dark, two flights of 3 B-17Es of the Kangaroo Squadron (435th Bomb Squadron of the 19th Bomb Group), six bombers in all, set out from Townsville (Queensland) Field to bomb the Japanese fortress at Rabaul. The raid will actually take place early on the morning of the 23rd. One of these B-17s is "Swamp Ghost," which later becomes famous for being found in the swamps of New Guinea. The area has become too hot now for the US Navy to realize its plans of sending a carrier task force to attack the port, which rapidly is becoming the main Japanese base in the southwest Pacific.

A German poster, dated 22 February 1942, signed by Higher SS and Police Leader in General Government, SS-Obergruppenführer Friedrich Wilhelm Krüger. The poster sets forth penalties for aiding partisans or escaped Soviet prisoners.

Eastern Front: Adolf Hitler institutes a new practice by designating the Demyansk pocket a "fortress" (Festung). This makes the position there sound deliberate rather than unplanned and connotes a pleasing sense of permanence. He talks with the leaders of his army high command, OKH, about ways to restore contact with the large force at Demyansk. However, the smallest gap between the fortress and the German lines is about 20 miles to Staraya Russa to the north and the Polist River to the south. The troops outside the pocket, however, are busy holding their own lines, while the trapped German forces are barely surviving on less than half of the daily supplies they require from the Luftwaffe airlift. It will take a massive buildup nearby for the Germans to be able to stage a successful relief operation across the gap.

European Air Operations: After dark, RAF Bomber Command sends 50 bombers (31 Wellingtons and 19 Hampdens) to attack Wilhelmshaven. The targets are German heavy cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau ("Salmon and Gluckstein" as the British call them, after the tobacconist), which are believed to be at anchor. The weather is poor for bombing and bombers attempt to release their loads over the city instead (and, according to the Germans, they all miss Wilhelmshaven entirely). Seven bombers attack Emden, five bombers bomb the port of Ostend, five Manchesters lay mines off of Wilhelmshaven, and two Hampdens drop leaflets over Paris. The RAF loses no aircraft.

The Lone Ranger comic strip by Charles Flanders, illustrator. Taken from The Shreveport Times. February 22, 1942.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-504 (KrvKpt. Hans-Georg Friedrich Poske), on its second patrol out of Lorient, torpedoes and sinks 5287-ton US freighter Republic about 3 1/2 miles (5 km) northeast of Jupiter Inlet, Florida. While the Republic remains afloat for over 24 hours, it drifts onto reefs about five miles east of Hobe Sound and is lost. This is one of the famous incidents near Florida in which residents onshore are able to see the attack or its result. The surviving crewmen row ashore and are helped by local citizens. There are five dead and 29 survivors.

U-96 (Kptlt. Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock), on its third patrol out of Lorient, torpedoes and sinks 6,999-ton British freighter Scottish Standard, a straggler from Convoy ONS-67 The crew of Scottish Standard already has abandoned the ship after bombing by a German Focke-Wulf Fw200 Condor, but Lehmann-Willenbrock gladly administers the coup de grâce at 15:52. There are five dead and 39 survivors.

U-96 also hits 8888-ton British tanker Kars, another straggler, this one from Convoy HX-175 (convoys often overlap on the busy North Atlantic routes). The ship is abandoned and taken in tow. Kars makes it to Halifax and is beached on 27 February. There are 50 deaths and two survivors.

MV Adellen, sunk on 22 February 1942 by U-155.

U-155 (Kptlt. Adolf Cornelius Piening), on its first patrol out of Kiel, gets its first two victories of the war. They are 1799-ton Norwegian freighter Sama and 7984-ton British freighter Adellen. Both of these ships are part of Convoy ONS-67. Both ships are hit after U-155 firest three torpedoes into the convoy south of Cape Farewell. There are 36 dead and 12 survivors from the Adellen and 19 dead and 20 survivors from Sama.

U-128 (Kptlt. Ulrich Heyse),  on its second patrol out of Lorient, torpedoes and sinks unescorted 8103-ton US tanker Cities Service Empire about 25 miles north of Bethel Shoals, Florida. Heyse fires four torpedoes at the ship but misses with all four. He then fires two more torpedoes. These hit and immediately start a raging fire. There are 14 dead and 36 survivors.

British supply ship Hanne, sunk by Luftwaffe bombers off North Africa on 22 February 1942.

Battle of the Mediterranean:  The Luftwaffe bombs and sinks British 1341-ton freighter Hanne (formerly City of Bradford) in the Mediterranean about 77 miles east of Tobruk. The Hanne was carrying military equipment, something it had done 21 times already without incident. There are four deaths and 21 survivors.

U-83 (Kptlt. Hans-Werner Kraus), on its fifth patrol out of Salamis, claims to hit two ships near Sidi Barrani with torpedoes. This may be true, but there are no records of damaged ships at this time and place.

The 22 February 1942 L.A. Japanese Daily News reports on "Hundreds taken in round-up" by the FBI.

German Resistance: Ernst Junger, who maintains a personal diary, has tea with General of Infantry Carl-Heinrich Rudolf Wilhelm von Stülpnagel, who is the new military commander of Occupied France (succeeding his cousin, General Otto von Stülpnagel). Junger, who is on Stülpnagel's staff, finds that Stülpnagel is unexpectedly pessimistic about the military situation on the Eastern Front (where Stülpnagel commanded the 17th Army). Stülpnagel also complains about a hidden battle in France for power between the military occupation authority and the NSDAP. The former is acting in furtherance of military goals while the latter is more interested in political control. Stülpnagel is maintaining contacts with the anti-Hitler resistance through his friend, Lieutenant-Colonel Caesar von Hofacker. However, Stülpnagel is no angel and is alleged to authorize war crimes in his commands.

Holocaust: German Einsatzgruppe C sets up the Dzyatlava Ghetto (Zdzięcioł Ghetto) in Western Belarus when troops plaster city walls with posters directing the 4500 Jewish residents to relocate to an area around the synagogue and the Talmud Torah building within the streets of Łysogórska and Słonimska. Other residents are forced to evacuate their homes (which they gladly do so as to not be in the Ghetto themselves) and they are used for the new arrivals. The Ghetto is at least partially surrounded by barriers and barbed wire, with guards controlling access. Some trade is permitted between residents of the Ghetto and people outside for things like food and clothing, but these interactions are extremely limited. The Ghetto residents are used for building tasks outside the Ghetto under close guard.

The Seattle Sunday Times reports on FBI roundups of "Axis Spy Groups," 22 February 1942.

British Military: Air Marshall Arthur Harris becomes Head of Bomber Command for the RAF. He becomes known as "Bomber" Harris for his enthusiastic implementation of the RAF's new policy of terror bombings (the Area Bombing Directive of 14 February 1942).

Air Marshal Arthur "Bomber" Harris at his office during World War 2.

Harris puts forth his views on the upcoming bombing campaign by reference to the Bible:

The German people entered this war under the rather childish delusion they were going to bomb everyone else, and nobody was going to bomb them. At Rotterdam, London, Warsaw and half a hundred other places, they put their rather naive theory into operation. They sowed the wind, and now, they are going to reap the whirlwind.

There is no question that Harris' strategy is effective at destroying cities, though the scope of its effect on the overall German war effort is debatable. The strategy fails utterly at undermining the Reich's morale, just as Hermann Goering's terror bombing of London failed in 1940 and 1941. Bomber Harris becomes a controversial figure within Britain and elsewhere both during and after the war due to his uncompromising and unwavering attitude toward bombing civilians.

"Army's new dive bombers see action at Bali," says the caption to this photo in the 22 February 1942 Philadelphia Inquirer.

US Military: Recently arrived Major General Ira C. Eaker sets up the headquarter of U.S. Army Bomber Command, U.S. Army Forces, British Isles (USAFBI).

US Navy seaplane tender USS Langley leads a convoy of ships out of Freemantle, Australia, to India and Tjilatjap, Java. They carry 69 USAAF P-40s, motor vehicles, and U.S. Army troops

The A-24s of the 17th Bombardment Squadron, 27th Bomber Group, arrive at Batchelor from Brisbane, Australia. As with many air units in the region, their ground echelon is trapped in Bataan.

British Government: Prime Minister Winston Churchill continues his government shakeup following the loss of Singapore and the successful German Channel Dash. Among new appointees are Lord Wolmer as Minister of Economic Warfare and Sir James Grigg as Secretary of War. Everyone knows that Churchill, working very hard every day, is making all the big decisions and that his war cabinet basically exists to rubberstamp them.

"Corporate Cat," a Gold Seal Novel by Martin Flavin, reprint included with the 22 February 1942 Philadelphia Inquirer. Illustrator: Henry C. Pitz.

American Homefront: While the major auto manufacturers closed down their production lines by 10 February, a few have continued producing cars past that date. That production ends today. The remaining manufacturers all end their production of automobiles on February 22, 1942. Units manufactured at the beginning of February bring up the total number of vehicles in a newly established car stockpile to 520,000. These are available for the duration of the war for rationed sales by auto dealers to purchasers deemed “essential drivers.” Naturally, this makes obtaining a "new" car exceedingly difficult and reliant on "knowing the right people" and "pulling strings." Even if you have a car, gasoline to use it also is rationed.

"A String of Pearls" by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra is the number one song on the Billboard singles chart. It spends ten weeks there.

Future History: Christine Margaret Keeler is born in Uxbridge, Middlesex, England. She becomes a waitress, then a topless showgirl, in the late 1950s. Through this work, Keeler meets osteopath Stephen Ward, who introduces her to various government and entertainment figures. Keeler has affairs with several prominent men, including Secretary of State for War John Profumo and Soviet officer Yevgeny Ivanov. This leads to a major British government scandal that results in the resignation of Profumo and the suicide of Ward. After the Profumo Scandal, Keeler slips back into anonymity and passes away in obscurity on 4 December 2017.

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

Sunday 5 October 1941

"A Luftwaffe officer prisoner is escorted down the gangplank of a hospital ship to exercise on the quayside at Newhaven, 5 October 1941. He was one of a number of German POWs awaiting repatriation in a prisoner exchange." © IWM (H 14474).

Eastern Front: There are many command changes during World War II on both sides. However, on 5 October 1941, the Wehrmacht makes a seemingly routine change that reverberates across the conduct of the war in the East and also reveals some unpleasant truths about the state of the Wehrmacht in 1941.

The Peterhof Memorial. This commemorates a failed Soviet landing at Peterhof Palace at Petergof, Leningrad on 5 October 1941. The Soviets landed 510 troops with the intent of seizing the town, which the Germans had captured on 23 September, and blocking the highway. The landing was a complete and utter disaster, with the German defenders killing or capturing the entire landing party by 7 October.

The southern flank of the German advance during Operation Barbarossa has been both the most and the least, successful of the three main prongs of the offensive. While it is the only army group that has actually met its main objective by capturing Kyiv, this required a diversion of the main striking power from Army Group Center, namely General Guderian's Panzer Group 2, to the south. The major port city of Odessa has been given to the Romanians to subdue, and while it now is far behind the main front, the Soviets there still hold out. Dissatisfaction at the pace of operations throughout the sector under the leadership of Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt has been growing for weeks.

Oberleutnant Peter Kiesgen wins the Knight's Cross on 5 October 1941. Kiesgen is Führer (Leader) of 1./Infanterie-Regiment 239 of the 106. Infanterie-Division. Note the five tank destruction badges on his sleeve, earned by personally destroying an enemy tank. He also is wearing the Infantry Assault Badge, Iron Cross First and Second Class, Wounded Badge in Black and on the right-center pocket the Spanish Cross in Bronze with Swords. Obviously, Kiesgen is a veteran of the Spanish Civil War and someone who engages in combat.

The commander of the 11th Army at the extreme south of the line at the start of Operation Barbarossa, Colonel-General Eugen Ritter von Schobert, perished on 12 September 1941 when his Fiesler Storch observation plane landed in a minefield. He was replaced by General Erich von Manstein, previously a corps commander. On 5 October 1941, the army holding the line just to the north of the 11th Army, 17th Army, also gets a new commander. However, this command change is a little different and has nothing to do with anyone dying. Instead, the reason is a little more subtle and much more complex.

General of Infantry Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel.

General of the Infantry Carl-Heinrich von Stülpnagel is a World War I veteran and a former Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Army. However, his actual command experience is very limited. General Franz Halder, Chief of Staff of OKH, has been hinting in his diary that von Stülpnagel's performance has been unacceptable. For instance, on 3 October 1941 Halder cryptically wrote in his war diary that:

Regrouping of Sixth and Seventeenth Army has been initiated. The method chosen by the Army Group, to order the two left-wing Corps of Seventeenth Army to strike northeast, under its direct control, for the time being, is an indication of tensions within the Army Group.

The next day, on 4 October 1941, Halder wrote the following:

[17th Army] Commanding General, von Stülpnagel, has reported sick. This illness is the result of the pressure brought to bear on him because of his timid leadership. Intervention by the Army Group a few days ago in taking the command of his northern wing out of his hands and so getting the movement underway again, probably is as much a cause of this illness as is the letter from the Army Commanding General.

It is very rare for Halder to be openly caustic about his colleagues in his war diary, so to see him openly calling von Stülpnagel "timid" is shocking. This is about the worst thing that a commanding general can be called during the war on either side and invariably leads to their replacement. Being too aggressive can be worse than being too timid, but it seldom gets a general fired.

Panamanian 744-ton freighter SS C. Jon, sunk southwest of Ireland on 5 October 1941 by U-204.

Some note that Von Stülpnagel's history of riding a desk may be one cause of this "timidness." However, there may be a darker reason that Halder does not know. For some time, von Stülpnagel has been a secret opponent of Hitler. Like many of the generals, von Stülpnagel was upset by the Blomberg–Fritsch affair in January 1938. The Sudeten Crisis later in 1938 changed von Stülpnagel from being a passive resister to an active one. He initiated contact with the Schwarze Kapelle (Black Orchestra, a group of officers within the Wehrmacht who wished to overthrow Hitler) and revealing the secret plan for the invasion of Czechoslovakia. He remained a conspirator for the rest of his life. Thus, von Stülpnagel does not his heart in German conquest, which may explain his "timid" leadership.

Having reported himself sick, which is a typical ruse by German generals to resign without actually resigning, von Stülpnagel needs to be replaced. The German high command now makes the utterly unfathomable decision to replace von Stülpnagel with Hermann Hoth, the commander of Panzer Group 3. There are several reasons why this is odd. Hoth is a panzer expert, one of the best of World War II, and the 17th Army is not a panzer formation. In addition, Hoth has been having great success with his command of Panzer Group 3, which is about to be upgraded to a full Panzer Army. Finally, Panzer Group 3 is in an absolutely critical situation, being the left arm of the Wehrmacht's advance on Moscow. Replacing its commander at such a critical juncture is just asking for trouble. Hoth is replaced at Panzer Group 3 by General Georg-Hans Reinhardt, the commander of XLI Panzer Corps. While Reinhardt is a capable officer, switching command right as the panzer group is delicately trying to execute a movement that may determine the outcome of the entire war is a very risky decision. In addition, Reinhardt also will have to be replaced in his critical position in Panzer Group 3. This is akin to taking a winning formula and starting from scratch.

General Hermann Hoth.

It is unclear why Hoth is forced to move at this time from a critical point on the front to an unimportant, but a hardly critical, area. The reason may be that Field Marshal von Rundstedt in charge of the army group is the senior officer in the Wehrmacht and basically has his pick of replacements. He previously chose Manstein for the 11th Army because they had worked together well in planning the successful invasion through the Ardennes in 1940. Hoth is a dashing, aggressive tactician who does not carry the baggage of General Guderian at Panzer Group 2, who is well known to be a difficult subordinate. General Hoth can be expected to be aggressive without becoming a problem, exactly what von Rundstedt needs.

German Prisoners being loaded on ships in exchange for British prisoners waiting in Dieppe, France, 5 October 1941. There were several such trips during this exchange, including German women nurses repatriated for British nurses.

How this impacts Operation Typhoon, the drive to Moscow, is not really his concern - German generals are notorious for only worrying about their own operations and not those being handled by other commands. However, from a larger perspective, removing a successful commander such as Hoth from an absolutely critical operation, the advance on Moscow, is not positive for the German war effort. It is one of those oft-overlooked "details" that can be the difference between ultimate victory and defeat.

October 1941. An exterior view of the White Tower (called "White Tavern" in the LOC captions and eventually to be called "White Castle") restaurant in Amsterdam, New York. Medium-format nitrate negative by John Collier for the Farm Security Administration.

October 1941

October 1, 1941: Germans and Finns Advance in USSR
October 2, 1941: Operation Typhoon Broadens
October 3, 1941: Air Battles Near Moscow
October 4, 1941: Stalin Contemplates Defeat
October 5, 1941: Hoth Goes South
October 6, 1941: First Snowfall After Dark
October 7, 1941: Stalin Gets Religion
October 8, 1941: FDR Promises Stalin Aid 
October 9, 1941: FDR Orders Atomic Bomb Research
October 10, 1941: Reichenau's Severity Order
October 11, 1941: Tank Panic in Moscow
October 12, 1941: Spanish Blue Division at the Front
October 13, 1941: Attack on Moscow
October 14, 1941: Germans Take Kalinin
October 15, 1941: Soviets Evacuate Odessa
October 16, 1941: Romanians Occupy Odessa
October 17, 1941: U-568 Torpedoes USS Kearny
October 18, 1941: Tojo Takes Tokyo
October 19, 1941: Germans Take Mozhaysk
October 20, 1941: Germans Attack Toward Tikhvin
October 21, 1941: Rasputitsa Hits Russia
October 22, 1941: Germans Into Moscow's Second Defensive Line
October 23, 1941: The Odessa Massacre
October 24, 1941: Guderian's Desperate Drive North
October 25, 1941: FDR Warns Hitler About Massacres
October 26, 1941: Guderian Drives Toward Tula
October 27, 1941: Manstein Busts Loose
October 28, 1941: Soviet Executions
October 29, 1941: Guderian Reaches Tula
October 30, 1941: Guderian Stopped at Tula
October 31, 1941: USS Reuben James Sunk

2020