May 21, 1942: U-106 Sinks the Wrong Tanker

Thursday 21 May 1942

P-36C Ser. No. 38-204, 61st Pursuit Squadron, skids off the runway after mechanical failure at Bridgeport Airport in Connecticut, 21 May 1942. The pilot, Lt. George D. Hobbs, is uninjured.

Battle of the Pacific: Japanese Admiral Nagumo sails his Kido Butai carrier force out of the inland sea port of Sasebo on 21 May 1942. His crews spend the day practicing fleet maneuvers as they head through the Bungo Strait. Badly damaged at the Battle of the Coral Sea, aircraft carrier Zuikaku limps into Kure today. It is unavailable for the upcoming attack on Midway.

The Americans remain in doubt about the next target of Japanese aggression, though many officers in naval intelligence suspect it is Midway. Seeking definitive proof, decryption teams in Washington, D.C., Honolulu, and Melbourne, Australia spend the day working on a stack of intercepted Japanese radio messages. These include one long message that has been flagged for priority processing. Japanese radio intelligence operators, meanwhile, also notice an increase in American radio traffic out of Hawaii. They intercept 180 messages and note that 72 are marked as urgent.

The Japanese continue their gradual occupation of the Philippines. After landings in the Leyte Gulf, they enter the city of Bacolod, Leyte, and Samar. Organized Allied resistance ended with the fall of Corregidor, so the Japanese only have to contend with occasional guerrillas.

US Army Air Force B-26 bombers attack Lae, New Guinea.

I-10 at Penang sometime in 1942.

Battle of the Indian Ocean: Japanese submarine I-10, part of A Detachment which is scouting the Indian Ocean for targets, surfaces off Durban, South Africa. The crew launches its E14Y1 floatplane to perform reconnaissance. The pilot spots no targets and quickly flies back to the submarine when challenged by Allied forces over the radio. This is the first Japanese venture to Africa during the war.

Eastern Front: Marshal Timoshenko, belatedly concerned about the mortal danger to his forces south of Kharkov posed by German counterattacks, spends the day regrouping his forces. The Luftwaffe has complete aerial supremacy and wrecked Red Army vehicles block many roads. 

At Fuhrer Headquarters, General Franz Halder notes that "The situation at Kharkov continues to develop to our satisfaction." After writing that an encircled German force at Ternovaya (northeast of Kharkov) has been relieved, he continues that "We can now take out forces from this sector [north of Kharkov] and get them ready to meet Kleist, converging from the north." He concludes that Kleist's advance is taking "a gratifying course" and "we are now recapturing the initiative." Throughout the middle years of the war, "having the initiative" is a major aim of both sides, sometimes to their detriment.

Supply difficulties on the Eastern Front are shown on the cover of the 21 May 1942 Illustrierter Beobachter. 

Southeast of Kharkov, Kleist's panzers of the 14th Panzer Division advance another four miles. This reduces the Soviet breakout point through which all of their supplies flow to Timoshenko's troops to the west from 12 to 8 miles. The Germans remain puzzled that the Red Army on either side still has not attempted to pierce the thin line that the Wehrmacht is establishing east of Timoshenko's armies.

Halder sums up Manstein's victory in Operation Trappenjagd: "Kerch operation concluded. Regrouping at Sevastopol, where the enemy is evidently making preparations against our impending attack."

There is an oblique but telling reference in Halder's diary to the German high command's condescending attitude toward its allies. He writes that the Hungarian military attache visited during the day and requested information about the Kharkov battle. Halder notes simply, "I politely refuse." This is a peculiar attitude considering the key role that the allied troops are projected to play in the upcoming "decisive" summer offensive, Case Blau. However, it also is quite common in the Wehrmacht.

European Air Operations: An extended spring lull continues for both sides over the Channel Front. The only major action is the RAF sending 33 Wellington and 15 Stirling bombers of No. 3 Group to lay mines at the Biscay ports. However, poor weather permits only 18 bombers to complete the mission. No aircraft are lost.

U-106. Its sinking of a Mexican oil tanker on 21 May 1942 leads to a declaration of war.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-106 (Kptlt. Hermann Rasch), on its sixth patrol out of Lorient, torpedoes and sinks 6067-ton Mexican oil tanker Faja de Oro. There are ten deaths and 21 survivors. This sinking, along with other events, leads Mexico to declare war on Germany.

It isn't really Rasch's fault that this leads to war, of course. He is just doing the job asked of him and the sinking of neutral ships is quite common by 21 May 1942. In fact, if U-106 didn't sink Faja de Oro, another U-boat was in a position to do so. U-754 was stalking Faja de Oro and watched as U-106 torpedoed it. Two U-boats were ready to do the deed. So, the tanker was doomed and Mexico was fated to declare war.

U-103 (Kptlt. Werner Winter), on its seventh patrol out of Lorient, torpedoes and sinks 3372-ton US freighter Clare 40 nautical miles (74 km) south of easternmost Cuba. All 40 crewmen survive, either reaching land in their lifeboats or picking up by a Cuban naval vessel.

U-103 also torpedoes and sinks 4727-ton US freighter Elizabeth about 30 nautical miles (56 km) south of Cape Corrientes, Cuba. There are six deaths and 36 survivors.

U-201 returning to Brest, 21 May 1942. the crew has the binoculars out to see what is in port (Leskin, Federal Archive Image 101II-MW-4939-22).

U-159 (Kptlt. Helmut Friedrich Witte), on its second patrol out of Lorient, gets its first two victories of the war today. It torpedoes and damages 2646-ton Royal Fleet Auxiliary RFA Montenol 140 nautical miles (260 km) southeast of Santa Maria Island, Azores. RFA Montenol is with convoy OS 28. There are three deaths and 61 survivors, who are rescued by HMS Woodruff. RFA Montenol is deemed unsalvageable and is scuttled by HMS Wellington.

U-159 also torpedoes and sinks 6529-ton British freighter New Brunswick 140 nautical miles (260 km) southeast of Santa Maria Island, Azores. New Brunswick is part of Convoy OS 28. There are three dead and 59 survivors, who are rescued by British freighter Inchaga, HMS Totland, HMS Weston, and HMS Woodruff.

Canadian freighter Troisdoc, sunk by U-558 on 21 May 1942.

U-558 (Kptlt. Günther Krech), on its seventh patrol out of Brest, torpedoes and sinks 1925-ton Canadian freighter Troisdoc west of Jamaica. All 18 crewmen survive and are rescued by USCGC Mohawk.

U-156 (Kptlt. Werner Hartenstein), on its third patrol out of Lorient, torpedoes and sinks 1738-ton Dominican Republic freighter Presidente Trujillo off Fort-de-France, Martinique. There are 24 dead and 15 survivors.

U-69 (Oblt. Ulrich Gräf), on its eighth patrol out of St. Nazaire, torpedoes and sinks 1927-ton Canadian freighter Torondoc 60 nautical miles (110 km) northwest of Martinique. All 22 crewmen perish.

After two weeks at sea, four survivors of Neosho (AO-23) are rescued by the destroyer USS Helm (DD-338).

Convoy PQ 16 departs Iceland, bound for Murmansk.

An article about expressive dance in the 21 May 1942 Illustrierter Beobachter.

Battle of the Mediterranean: British troops in Malta find a man in bad condition in a cave beneath the Dingli cliffs and bring him to Imtarfa military hospital for treatment. He identifies himself under a phony name, Caio Borghi. By chance, he is recognized at the hospital by a boyhood neighbor who now is a captain in the British Army. The man, Carmelo Borg Pisani, then admits to being an Axis spy sent to report on conditions on Malta.

The Luftwaffe continues its recent pattern of sending Bf 109 fighter-bombers on sweeps over Malta. The RAF attempts to intervene, but is usually too slow to arrive. On one of these attacks over Hal Far aerodrome, they kill two men and wound three others. One of the deaths is Sgt. Dewhurst, recently awarded the Military Medal.

A postcard commemorating the laying of the keel of USS Pargo on 21 May 1942.

US Military: Having been greatly reinforced in recent days by troops brought over to Northern Ireland by liner Queen Mary and other transport ships,  US Army medical battalions begin taking over some facilities. These include hospitals at Musgrave Park on the outskirts of Belfast and at Irvinestown.

North Pacific Force is established in Alaska. It controls all US and Canadian forces in the region. Its first commander is Rear Admiral Robert A. Theobald.

Holocaust: German forces deport 4300 Jewish residents of Chelm to the death camp at Sobibor. All are gassed to death.

German firm IG Farben establishes a factory outside the Auschwitz extermination camp in order to profit from slave labor.

Deportation of Slovak Jews. Stropkov, Czechoslovakia, May 21, 1942.

American Homefront: MGM releases "Tortilla Flat," directed by Victor Fleming and starring Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr, John Garfield, Frank Morgan, and Akim Tamiroff. Morgan is nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

In her 'My Day" syndicated column, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt notes that many women in New Mexico have volunteered and been trained as nurses. They now are "being used in all clinics and hospitals throughout the state." This frees up trained nurses and doctors for other tasks.

Ted Williams goes 3-5 with a home run and four RBIs in an 8-3 Boston Red Sox victory over Cleveland. This is his last game before joining the U.S. Navy on 22 May. After being sworn in, Williams returns to the Red Sox and finishes out the season, coming in second in MVP voting to NY Yankees second baseman Joe Gordon.

Future History: Danny Ongais is born in Kahului, Hawaii. He serves in the US Army in Europe in the late 1950s as a paratrooper, then returns to Hawaii and enters motor racing. He becomes a top drag racer, winning the AA Gas Dragster Championship in 1963 and 1964, and in the National Hot Rod Association AA Dragster championship title in 1965. He enters Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) in 1979 and races in several Indianapolis 500 races. To date, Ongais, who becomes known as the "Flyin' Hawaiian" due to his flamboyant personality, is the native Hawaiian to race in the Indianapolis 500. Danny Ongais is inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2000 and retires from racing in the late 1980s, though he returns for a final race in 1996 and remains associated with the sport for years afterward.

Internees at the Poston internment camp in Arizona filling mattresses with straw, 21 May 1942 (Fred Clark, National Archives and Records Administration, Ctrl. #: NWDNS-210-G-A145, NARA ARC #: 536112).

May 1942

May 1, 1942: Japanese Take Mandalay

May 2, 1942: Cruiser Edinburgh Sunk

May 3, 1942: Japanese Take Tulagi

May 4, 1942: Fletcher Attacks at Tulagi

May 5, 1942: British Invade Madagascar

May 6, 1942: Corregidor Falls to Japan

May 7, 1942: Scratch One Flattop!

May 8, 1942: Lexington Sunk in the Coral Sea

May 9, 1942: Manstein on the Attack in Crimea

May 10, 1942: Spitfires Rule Over Malta

May 11, 1942: First Japanese Retreat at Deboyne

May 12, 1942: Soviets Attack At Kharkov

May 13, 1942: Crisis at Kharkov

May 14, 1942: Where in the World is AF

May 15, 1942: Germans Take Kerch

May 16, 1942: Sobibor Begins Operation

May 17, 1942: Germans Counterattack at Kharkov

May 18, 1942: Soviet Command Confusion 

May 19, 1942: Soviet Panic at Kharkov

May 20, 1942: Churchill and Molotov Negotiate

May 21, 1942: U-106 Sinks the Wrong Tanker

May 22, 1942: AF is Midway!

May 23, 1942: German Forces Surround Soviet Armies at Kharkov

May 24, 1942: German Anti-Partisan Operations in Full Swing

May 25, 1942: Soviet Breakout at Kharkov Fails

May 26, 1942: Rommel Pounces in North Africa

May 27, 1942: Heydrich Fatally Wounded in Prague

May 28, 1942: German Victory At Kharkov

May 29, 1942: Japanese at Madagascar

May 30, 1942: First RAF Thousand-Plane Raid

May 31, 1942: The Attack on Sydney Harbour

2021

April 22, 1942: Gasoline Rationing in the US

Wednesday 22 April 1942

Japanese light cruiser Naka at the Seletar Naval Base, Singapore, 22 April 1942. It is showing battle damage amidships and listing after being torpedoed by US Navy submarine USS Seawolf off Christmas Island on 1 April 1942.

Battle of the Pacific: To defend northeast Australia, which is wide open to a Japanese invasion, General Douglas MacArthur's South West Pacific Area command on 22 April 1942 creates Task Force 44 from the ANZAC Squadron. The first commander is Rear Admiral John Gregory Crace (Royal Australian Navy). Task Force 44 becomes instrumental in the defense of Port Moresby in the Australian Territory of New Guinea.

Battle of the Indian Ocean: While the British have slipped out of some traps recently in Burma, the Japanese 15th Army remains in hot pursuit. They advance toward Lashio, the eastern terminus of the Burma Road, with the intention of stopping Lend-Lease supplies to the Chinese Nationalists. The growing threat forces the new US 10th Air Force to begin evacuating military and civilian personnel and their supplies from Burma to India.

A US Army Air Force Douglas A-20A on 22 April 1942 engaged in the first static test run of liquid-fuel jet units. They are installed in the nacelles for Jet-assisted Takeoff (JATO) (US Air Force).

Eastern Front: The Germans, having hacked a tenuous corridor through to the Demyansk pocket at Ramushevo in Operation Brückenschlag ("Bridge-building"), begin moving the first supplies to the 100,000 or so German troops there. The Soviets, shocked at this brilliant German success, are slow to react. They slowly begin preparing an offensive against the corridor which will not be ready before May. General Franz Halder makes a cursory reference to this in his war diary, noting "the gap between X [the relieving troops] and II Corps [the trapped troops] has been closed, but the link needs more strengthening."

Halder next turns to the situation on the Volkhov, where the situation is reversed and the Soviets are trapped in a pocket. He writes that "the many enemy penetrations have again been eliminated. Volkhov river covered with floating ice." This bodes ill for the trapped Soviet forces, which include Soviet Second Shock Army and its promising young commander, General Vlasov.

In Crimea, Soviet General Kozlov now is under new orders from Premier Joseph Stalin to prepare yet another offensive - which would be the fifth - to break through to the trapped forces at Sevastopol. However, while the Soviets have three armies - the 51st in the north, the 44th in the south, and the 47th in reserve - and outnumber the Germans 2-1, the Soviet fighting troops have been decimated during the fighting and are in no position to attack. Stalin's orders, though, help to prevent the institution of a defense-in-depth orientation that would secure the Soviet hold on the territory that they still hold. German General Manstein, for his part, is busy preparing his own offensive, Operation Trappenjagd ("Bustard Hunt"), to eliminate the Soviets from the Kerch region. He is getting help from a massive Luftwaffe buildup within Fliegerkorps VIII under the command of Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen, a very competent air strategist.

Red, white, and blue balloons are released in Times Square, New York, to publicize the U.S.O. military service organization on 22 April 1942 (Photo courtesy of The New York Times).

European Air Operations: Ending a lull in operations, British Bomber command sends 64 Wellington and 5 Stirling bombers to bomb Cologne, Germany. The bombers are guided by the Gee direction-finding apparatus and the crews are ordered as a test to rely on that equipment rather than visual observations. The results are typical, with some bombs dropped over the target while others are dropped as far as ten miles away. There are four deaths and eight injured in the city with minor damage to industrial targets. The RAF loses two Wellington bombers. In other operations, 23 bombers attack Le Havre, 63 aircraft lay mines off of Germany and Denmark, and there is one leaflet flight over France. Two of these bombers, a Wellington on the Le Havre raid and a Hampden laying mines, are lost.

"WU Direct BAD/DN Transmitting and Receiving Teleprinters in operation at the Admiralty." © IWM A 9269.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-201 (Kptlt. Adalbert Schnee), on its sixth patrol out of Brest, torpedoes and sinks 7217-ton British freighter Derryheen southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, US. All 51 men aboard survive, rescued by UK freighter Lobos.

U-201 also torpedoes, shells, and sinks 6609-ton US passenger ship San Jacinto southeast of Cape Hatteras. There are 14 deaths and 169 survivors. Destroyer USS Rowan rescues the survivors on the 23rd.

Soviet submarine M-173 (Lt. Cdr Terekhin) sinks 3323-ton German freighter Blandenese (formerly French ship Ange Schiaffino) in the Barents Sea off Kirkenes, Norway. There are 45 survivors and one death.

A big part of the Battle of the Atlantic is rescuing survivors of sunk ships. There are multiple rescue operations underway today. US destroyer Bristol (DD-453) rescues all 35 survivors of US freighter West Imboden (sunk by U-752 on 20 April), destroyer Rowan (DD-405) rescues 18 survivors from US freighter Steel Maker (sunk by U-136 on 19 April), and British freighter Tropic Star rescues the survivors of US freighter Pipestone County (sunk by U-576 on 21 April). While this may seem like the "small change" of the war compared to tales of sinkings and bombings, it's hugely important to operations and the men involved.

A closeup of the tail of the Bf 109F of Luftwaffe ace Herbert Ihlefeld after he scored his 100th confirmed victory in the Soviet Union for Stab I.JG77 on 22 April 1942. This milestone will lead to Ihlefeld's award of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords on 24 April 1942.   

Battle of the Mediterranean: U-81 shells and sinks 122-ton Egyptian sailing vessel El Saadiah off Palestine.

On Malta, the Luftwaffe already has destroyed almost all of the Spitfire fighters ferried to the island recently. There are at most only 7 of the 46 fighters still operational. Luftwaffe raids occur throughout the day and the Spitfires rise in defense of their own airfields, with two of the fighters crashing on landing (pilots safe). This period of time is known as "Malta's darkest hour."

Battle of the Black Sea: A German tugboat hits a mine and sinks in Odessa Harbor.

"Men of No. 4 Commando after returning from a raid on the French coast near Boulogne, 22 April 1942." © IWM H 18957.

Special Forces: Operation Abercrombie, a two-hour Commando landing near Boulogne, ends without incident. The main objective, a searchlight array, is not reached, but there is only one casualty (a commando shot through the ankles by a beachhead sentry). All Germans encountered scatter quickly and, apparently, they suffer no casualties. The main advantage of this sort of inconclusive operation is that it gives the Allies experience in landings and training for the troops.

Partisans: The first phase of Operation Trio, the Axis anti-partisans advance to the Drina in Yugoslavia, continues with some success. However, the main effect of the operation is that it is having the unintended effect of revealing cracks within partisan unity that greatly helps the Axis forces. The monarchist Chetnik forces have little in common with the other partisan units, many of whom are communists. This fault line explodes as the disparate Axis forces display much more unity.

Chetniks, under attack from the Ustaše Black Legion, avoid combat with German units and allows them free passage to attack partisans further back. The partisan main detachments likewise avoid fighting the Black Legion and instead attack the Chetniks, who supposedly are on their side. Some Chetnik troops sign on as Italian auxiliaries to the 5th Alpine Division "Pusteria" and help the advance toward Čajniče. There is brewing pro-Chetnik sentiment within the main partisan detachments that is causing some defections, such as within the Romanija Partisan Detachment. The fighting increasingly becomes a murky political stew that descends to a primal tribal level which transcends the overarching concept of "Allies" and "Axis." While the partisans can be very effective when they work together, every partisan unit is out for itself and has an agenda based on ancient grievances, and many partisan units themselves are rent with internal conflicts due to widely varying allegiances.

"Naval Torpedo Station, Firing Pier, North end of Gould Island in Narragansett Bay, Newport, Newport County, RI." This newly built complex is used for testing torpedoes, with the firing pier at the extreme right. The US Navy badly needs this facility because there are increasing reports during the first year of World War II of defective torpedoes. These issues are not fixed until mid-1943 (Library of Congress).

American Homefront: Gasoline rationing picks up steam. The Office of Price Administration (OPA) limits motorists in 17 eastern states to no more than 21.4 US gallons (17.8 Imperial gallons or 81 liters) of gasoline per week beginning 15 May. This is partly a consequence of huge losses of tankers off the east coast of the United States during the Kriegsmarine's Operation Paukenschlag ("Drumbeat").

There is some lingering pro-German sentiment in the tristate area. State and federal authorities raid gathering spots in Union City, Hoboken, and other New Jersey localities that celebrated Hitler's 20 April birthday.

Universal Pictures releases "Saboteur," an Alfred Hitchcock thriller starring Robert Cummings, Priscilla Lane, Otto Kruger, and Norman Lloyd. David O. Selznick, the producer of "Gone With The Wind," gets the project in motion but it eventually winds up at Universal for various creative/financial reasons. Priscilla Lane is borrowed from Warner Bros. and has to finish "Arsenic and Old Lace" before filming her scenes for this film. The film, which began filming in December 1941, includes one famous scene showing the capsized French liner "Normandie" in New York Harbor with a clear implication that its February 1942 sinking was due to sabotage. The climax set in the Statue of Liberty becomes one of Hitchock's most famous monumental settings, which later include Mount Rushmore and the United Nations, among others. "Saboteur" is a financial and critical success and is often considered a precursor to Hitchcock's more famous "North by Northwest" (1959).

Draft orders, such as these in the Vidette-Messenger of Porter County, Valparaiso, Indiana of 22 April 1942, are going out all across the United States.

April 1942

April 1, 1942: Convoys Come to the USA 
April 2, 1942: Doolittle Raiders Leave Port
April 3, 1942: Japanese Attack in Bataan
April 4, 1942: Luftwaffe Attacks Kronstadt
April 5, 1942: Japanese Easter Sunday Raid on Ceylon
April 6, 1942: Japanese Devastation In Bay of Bengal
April 7, 1942: Valletta, Malta, Destroyed
April 8, 1942: US Bataan Defenses Collapse
April 9, 1942: US Defeat in Bataan
April 10, 1942: The Bataan Death March
April 11, 1942: The Sea War Heats Up
April 12, 1942: Essen Raids Conclude Dismally
April 13, 1942: Convoy QP-10 Destruction
April 14, 1942: Demyansk Breakout Attempt
April 15, 1942: Sobibor Extermination Camp Opens
April 16, 1942: Oil Field Ablaze in Burma
April 17, 1942: The Disastrous Augsburg Raid
April 18, 1942: The Doolittle Raid bombs Japan
April 19, 1942: British in Burma Escape
April 20, 1942: The Operation Calendar Disaster
April 21, 1942: Germans Relieve Demyansk

April 22, 1942: Gasoline Rationing in the US

April 23, 1942: The Mystery of Plane 8

April 24, 1942: When Will Help Arrive?

April 25, 1942: Bath Devastated in Baedeker Blitz

April 26, 1942: Hitler Expands His Powers

April 27, 1942: Luftwaffe Bombs Norwich

April 28, 1942: Brewing Clash in the Arctic

April 29, 1942: Japanese Preparing Operation Mo

April 30, 1942: U-Boats Attack!

2021

April 21, 1942: Germans Relieve Demyansk

Tuesday 21 April 1942

A Soviet soldier sets up a loudspeaker to broadcast propaganda to German soldiers somewhere in Russia, 21 April 1942 (AP Photo).

Battle of the Pacific: From a safe house in Chuchow (Quzhou), China, Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle manages to get a message out to Washington, D.C. on 21 April 1942. In the message, he tells his superior officer, General "Hap" Arnold, that:

[The] mission to bomb Tokyo has been accomplished. On entering China, we ran into bad weather and it is feared that all planes crashed. Up to the present five fliers are safe.

Hap Arnold himself is receiving other information that indicates that most of the other Doolittle crewmen are safe, but that the Japanese also had captured a few. Doolittle himself is apprehensive that he faces a court-martial when he returns to the States due to the likely loss of all of the bombers in the mission (only one survives intact but is interred in the Soviet Union near Vladivostok).

President Roosevelt finally addresses the press today about the Doolittle raid. He confirms that US planes indeed had bombed Japan but for national security reasons gives few details. When a reporter asks Roosevelt what "base" the bombers had flown out of, Roosevelt takes the advice of an aide (Samuel Rosenman) and replies, "They came from our new secret base at Shangri-La." Of course, everyone at the time realizes that this was the fictional location in James Hilton's recent best-selling novel "Lost Horizon." Doolittle himself is not mentioned and the public is not given any more details about the raid until April 1943.

In China, the Japanese occupation forces carry out a retaliatory action for the Doolittle Raid known as the Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign. This leads to the deaths of an estimated 250,000 Chinese people over the course of the next month.

Chinese civilians helping downed airmen of the Doolittle raid ca. 21 April 1942. The Japanese occupation authorities were not pleased with this sort of assistance and launched a retaliatory campaign that led to many Chinese deaths (AP Photo/US Army Air Force).

Battle of the Indian Ocean: The Japanese advance in Burma continues as the Allies slowly retreat northwest toward India. Kyidaunggan on the road to Mandalay falls to the Japanese 18th Infantry Division.

Eastern Front: A German relief force under General Seydlitz (Operation Brückenschlag) manages to push through fading Soviet resistance in Ramushevo and reach the Lovat River. This creates a corridor (over the river) to the besieged garrison of almost 100,000 troops in the Demyansk pocket for the first time in ten weeks. The men of SS "Totenkopf" trapped in the pocket have battled their way to the river through the deepening spring thaw ("Rasputitsa") that makes any troop movement through the woods extremely difficult. This is a major German victory that deepens Adolf Hitler's belief that surrounded troops can always be rescued given sufficient will within leadership to do so.

General Franz Halder, not yet informed of the success at Demyansk, notes blandly in his war diary, "On the whole quiet, except for new attacks on the Volkhov."

In Crimea, the enhanced Luftwaffe forces remain very active. General Wolfram von Richhtofen has built the air force's Fliegerkorps VIII presence there up to the standards of an entire air fleet as planes and pilots return from the Reich after being restored to top service over the winter. Planes of KG 55 today damage the Soviet minesweeper Komintern and sink 4156-ton transport ship Kalinin at Novorossiysk. These raids are greatly interfering with Soviet General Kozlov's attempts to supply and reinforce his troops on the Kerch peninsula.

U-571 and U-459 at sea, with a supply submarine refueling another submarine using a fuel hose (which the crew is grabbing with a hook), 21 April 1942 (Jostling, Federal Archive Fig. 101II-MW-4835-12).

In a rare display of independence, the Soviet Stavka (military high command) notes the obvious trends in Crimea and asks Stalin to consider evacuating the Kerch position. Stalin refuses and today orders preparations for yet another offensive against the German 11th Army units holding the Parpach Narrows to break through to Sevastopol. Stalin also refuses to send any more reinforcements, considering the forces he already has allocated to Crimea to be adequate for the mission. General Kozlov now is placed in an impossible position, with inadequate forces for an offensive, no hope of getting any more, and orders to put his forces into an attack orientation that will make them vulnerable to an attack. German General Manstein is planning exactly such an attack for the earliest time after the Rasputitsa subsides.

The Wehrmacht requests Italian naval forces for an unusual mission that will go under the code name Operation Hobgoblin. This is an attempt to interdict Soviet naval traffic across Lake Ladoga that is keeping Leningrad from surrendering. The Soviets are believed to have a large force of 6 gunboats, 2 large and 5 small torpedo boats, 32 armed minesweepers, 9 armed transport ships, 17 armed tugboats, and one submarine, plus another 25 other boats on the lake. The Italians are renowned for their small-boat force and immediately agree to supply four torpedo boats (MAS 526 to 529) of the 12th MAS Flotilla, commanded by Capitano di Corvetta (Lt-Commander) Bianchini. He has four officers, 19 NCO's, and 63 other ranks. These forces will be supplemented by Kriegsmarine Siebel ferries once the ice on the lake melts.

Commander-in-Chief Western Approaches Admiral Sir Percy Noble's personal aircraft, photographed on 21 April 1942. "The Admiral's plane, An Airspeed AS 6J Envoy III (P5629). Note the Admiral's flag on the nose." Note the overcast skies and rainwater on the airstrip, foul weather that day on the Channel Front (© IWM A 8386).

European Air Operations: For the second day in a row, there are no operations due to ground haze and light rain.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-576 (Kptlt. Hans-Dieter Heinicke), on its fourth patrol out of St. Nazaire, torpedoes and sinks 5102-ton US freighter Pipestone County about 475 (880 km) miles east of Cape Henry, Virginia. The U-boat stops and gives provisions to one of the four lifeboats after questioning the survivors. All 46 aboard survive, rescued by USCGC Calypso, fishing vessel Irene and May, and Norwegian freighter Tropic Star.

U-201 (Kptlt. Adalbert Schnee), on its sixth patrol out of Brest, torpedoes and sinks 2027-ton Norwegian freighter Bris about 475 miles southeast of Wilmington, North Carolina. There are 4 deaths and 21 survivors.

U-84 (Oblt. Horst Uphoff), on its fourth patrol out of Brest, torpedoes and sinks 3014-ton Panamanian freighter Chenango about 60 nautical miles (110 km) southeast of Cape Henry, Virginia. There are 31 deaths and one survivor who is picked up by a Consolidated PBY Catalina of the US Coast Guard.

"The Duke of Gloucester inspects the Royal Marine Guard of Honour onboard HMS CLEOPATRA." Alexandria, Egypt, 21 April 1942 (© IWM A 8773).

Battle of the Mediterranean: Heavy Luftwaffe attacks on Malta continue. Of the 47 Spitfire fighters flown to the island from USS Wasp (CV-7) in Operation Calendar on the 20th, already about 30 have been destroyed and many others damaged. The Axis planes also sink 392-ton Royal Navy trawler HMT Jade in Grand Harbor, Malta.

Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, noting Malta's crumbling defenses, asks Hitler to take the island using paratroopers (Fallschirmjaeger). This is something that Luftwaffe General Albert Kesselring has been urging as well. Hitler, however, refuses to use paratroopers in an offensive role due to the heavy losses on Crete. This may be a wise decision because the British intelligence services could prepare a hot welcome for paratroopers dropping on British-controlled territory just as they did on Crete due to the secret Enigma codebreaking team.

Royal Navy submarine HMS Torbay shells and sinks 170-ton Kriegsmarine patrol boat 13V2 Delpa II off Cape Drepano near the Corinth Canal.

Assembly line for the M4A1(75) at Pacific Car & Foundry of Renton, Washington, 21 April 1942. The completed tanks first rolled off the line in May of 1942, and the tank nearest to the camera was the pilot tank. PCF was the only West Coast manufacturer of Sherman tanks, with many used for training purposes in California and others sent overseas to fight the Japanese.

Special Forces: No. 4 Commando, in conjunction with 50 men from the Canadian Carleton and York Regiment, (2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade) and some Royal Engineers conduct Operation Abercrombie. This is an overnight reconnaissance in force begun after dark on 21 April 1942 in the vicinity of the French coastal village of Hardelot. Continuing a pattern of widely varying results of these commando raids, the raid accomplishes very little after a great deal of effort and planning. Among other issues, the Canadian contingent loses its way in the night and has to completely abort its participation in the mission. 

While no meaningful opposition is encountered, the Commandos lack time to accomplish minimal mission objectives such as destroying a nearby searchlight array. There are no casualties on either side. The raid is most notable for being the first time that the new LCS (Landing Craft Support) is used, providing valuable experience for future missions.

Partisans: The German authorities in France shoot 20 French hostages in retaliation ("complicity") for the successful British Commando raid on St. Nazaire in March 1942. Shooting hostages for attacks on German soldiers already has become an established practice by the occupation authorities.

A British Royal Navy Grumman Martlet IV (Grumman F4F-4B) at Naval Air Station, Anacostia, Washington D.C. (USA), on 21 April 1942, after application of British markings. Official U.S. Navy photo NH 89676 from the U.S. Navy Naval History and Heritage Command.

POWs: French General Henri Giraud reaches the presumed safety of Switzerland after a daring escape from the high-security POW camp at Königstein Castle near Dresden. Giraud accomplished his escape by using bedsheets and other articles to make a 150-foot (46 m) rope to lower himself down from his prison cell. Giraud had the advantage that many other POWs did not of having established a simple code in his letters home to inform his family of his plans. A Special Operations Executive (SOE) officer then met him and escorted him to Switzerland.

Giraud is stopped at the border by two Swiss border guards. At times these guards are known to have returned POWs to the German authorities, but these guards take this prize prisoner to Basel instead. News of Giraud's escape creates a sensation in France. Giraud then becomes a murky figure in murky French politics, remaining loyal to Pétain and the Vichy government but refusing to cooperate with the German authorities. Heinrich Himmler eventually tries to have the Gestapo assassinate Giraud but fails. Giraud refuses Pierre Laval's attempts to force him to cooperate with the Germans, but Laval does not turn Giraud over to the Gestapo when he has the chance. The Allies give Giraud the codename Kingpin and plan to make use of him when they invade French North Africa. After a long series of important appointments and politically charged events, they find out that Giraud is a loose cannon and cut their ties with him.

President Roosevelt awards Lieutenant (j.g.) Edward H. O'Hare the Medal of Honor at a White House ceremony, 21 April 1942. In the background are Secretary of the Navy William Franklin Knox, Admiral Ernest J. King, U.S. Navy, Chief of Naval Operations, and Mrs. O’Hare (US Navy).

US Military: US Navy aviator Lt. Edward "Butch" O'Hare becomes the first naval recipient of the Medal of Honor. O'Hare receives the award for exploits on 20 February 1942 that his commanding officers, including Vice Admiral Wilson Brown (commander of Task Force 11) and Captain Frederick C. Sherman, believed may have saved his aircraft carrier USS Lexington from destruction. O'Hare Airport in Chicago, Illinois, is named after Lt. O'Hare, who later went missing near the Gilbert Islands on 26 November 1943 and was declared dead exactly one year later.

US Government: President Roosevelt orders the seizure of all patents owned or controlled by enemy nations. This action is mainly directed against Germany, which has close ties to several important US industries.

The Roosevelt administration okays the "Big Inch" pipeline from Texas to New York. This is in response to the recent loss of many oil tankers off the US east coast during German Operation Drumroll (Paukenschlag).

The wife of the last US ambassador to Vichy France, Louise Leahy, passes away unexpectedly of an embolism. Admiral Leahy already has been ordered to return to the United States at the end of the month and this is a crushing experience to him. He will leave France at the beginning of May 1942.

Japanese American evacuees, Camp Harmony (Puyallup Assembly Center), 1942 Photo by Howard Clifford, Courtesy UW Special Collections (UW526).

American Homefront: In Seattle, Washington, evacuation announcements are posted on telephone poles, bulletin boards, and other highly visible public places. These direct Japanese-American to leave the city in three groups on the following Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. The Japanese population of Seattle is around 7,000 people, with about another 7,000 living in the remainder of Washington State. Of these 14,000, a total of 12,892 persons of Japanese ancestry wind up in internment camps, first in the Puyallup assembly center and then to Minidoka in Idaho. The FBI already is arresting members of this community.

The San Francisco News on 21 April 1942 prints a report by Harry Ferguson of United Press giving an eyewitness account of the Manzanar internment camp. Ferguson reports that newcomers "found comfortable wooden buildings covered with tar paper, bathhouses and showers and plenty of wholesome food." He quotes an internee who calls Manzanar a "Nice place to live" that is "better than Hollywood." However, "Those whose sympathies lie with Japan are keeping quiet about it."

In another article in the San Francisco News today, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is reported as suggesting "rehabilitation" of "Little Tokio." This "rehabilitation" actually means obliterating it. The article states:

All parties concerned have endorsed the idea of slum clearance programs for the section, but there have been differences over whether Federal or private money should be used.

The article suggests that there is some urgency to the matter as other minorities are quickly moving into the areas abandoned by the Japanese-Americans.

Look magazine, 21 April 1942.

April 1942

April 1, 1942: Convoys Come to the USA 
April 2, 1942: Doolittle Raiders Leave Port
April 3, 1942: Japanese Attack in Bataan
April 4, 1942: Luftwaffe Attacks Kronstadt
April 5, 1942: Japanese Easter Sunday Raid on Ceylon
April 6, 1942: Japanese Devastation In Bay of Bengal
April 7, 1942: Valletta, Malta, Destroyed
April 8, 1942: US Bataan Defenses Collapse
April 9, 1942: US Defeat in Bataan
April 10, 1942: The Bataan Death March
April 11, 1942: The Sea War Heats Up
April 12, 1942: Essen Raids Conclude Dismally
April 13, 1942: Convoy QP-10 Destruction
April 14, 1942: Demyansk Breakout Attempt
April 15, 1942: Sobibor Extermination Camp Opens
April 16, 1942: Oil Field Ablaze in Burma
April 17, 1942: The Disastrous Augsburg Raid
April 18, 1942: The Doolittle Raid bombs Japan
April 19, 1942: British in Burma Escape
April 20, 1942: The Operation Calendar Disaster
April 21, 1942: Germans Relieve Demyansk

April 22, 1942: Gasoline Rationing in the US

April 23, 1942: The Mystery of Plane 8

April 24, 1942: When Will Help Arrive?

April 25, 1942: Bath Devastated in Baedeker Blitz

April 26, 1942: Hitler Expands His Powers

April 27, 1942: Luftwaffe Bombs Norwich

April 28, 1942: Brewing Clash in the Arctic

April 29, 1942: Japanese Preparing Operation Mo

April 30, 1942: U-Boats Attack!

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