May 2, 1942: Cruiser Edinburgh Sunk

Saturday 2 May 1942

U-boats at the Hel submarine training base in Poland on the Baltic Sea, May 1942. The two U-boats closest to the camera are Type VIIC.

Battle of the Pacific: The Japanese are on the move in the South West Pacific Area (SWPA) on 2 May 1942. Their Operation Mo has as its first objective the occupation of Tulagi, where the Japanese intend to establish a seaplane base. Coastwatcher Jack Read on Bougainville Island spots large Japanese ships departing the Buka Island area near northern Bougainville, and later coastwatcher D.G. Kennedy on New Georgia (further south on the way to Tulagi) spots the same. Alerted of these sightings on Tulagi, Australian commando commander Captain A. L. Goode and Royal Australian Air Force commander Flight Officer R.B. Peagam order the immediate destruction of their facilities and evacuation of personnel. Flyable PBY-5 Catalina flying boats already have left. The evacuation will be completed by the early hours of 3 May.

The Japanese also have their Carrier Strike Force, led by aircraft carriers Shōkaku and Zuikaku, on the way from Truk. Its commander, Vice Admiral Takeo Takagi, attempts today to deliver eighteen Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter planes to Rabaul, but poor weather interferes. Ultimately, Takagi is able to deliver the fighters (this is unclear and disputed in the sources), but he must keep trying until the 3rd. The bad weather also prevents Takagi's force from refueling until the 4th. These delays seriously disrupt the entire Japanese timetable for Operation Mo and prevent the Carrier Strike Force from arriving at Tulagi on time to have any effect.

A portrait of General MacArthur on the Australians Women Weekly, 2 May 1942

A separate Japanese force out of New Ireland establishes a seaplane base at Thousand Ships Bay, Santa Isabel Island, to support the projected landings at Tulagi, while the Japanese 3rd Kure Special Landing Force occupies the Florida Islands (Nggela Islands) north of Guadalcanal.

The US Navy has a good idea of the Japanese plans because of radio intercepts. Vice Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher, commander of Task Force 17, has stationed fleet carriers USS Yorktown (TF 17) and Lexington (TF 11) about 300 nautical miles (350 miles, 560 km) northwest of New Caledonia. TF 17 completes its refueling today, but TF 11 takes longer and signals it will not be ready until the 4th. Yorktown aircraft (SBDs (VS 5) and TBDs (VT 5)) spot Japanese submarine I-21 near Nouméa and attack but score no hits. Reporting by radio to Tokyo, the Japanese commander does not indicate that the attacking aircraft are carrier-based, so the nearby US Navy carriers remain undetected.

Corregidor.

On Corregidor Island, Philippine Islands, the embattled US garrison (many of the 4th Marine Division) continues to hold out against a vicious around-the-clock pounding from Japanese shore artillery and bombers. Malinta Tunnel is overcrowded - to step outside is to invite death. Potable water is running out, now down to a six-day supply. The US Navy scuttles the river gunboat USS Mindanao off South Harbor. The US Navy is sending submarine USS Starfish to pick up a couple of dozen more lucky people, it is scheduled to arrive on the 3rd.

US Navy submarine USS Trout torpedoes and sinks 5015-ton Japanese freighter Uzan Maru off Shikoku, Japan.

Japanese 10,930-ton seaplane carrier Mizuho, torpedoed off Omaezaki, Japan, by USS Drum on 1 May 1942, sinks about 40 nautical miles (74 km) offshore. There are 472 survivors (31 wounded) and 101 deaths.

USS Sunfish (Cdr R.W. Peterson) is launched on 2 May 1942 at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California (US Navy).

Battle of the Indian Ocean: The Japanese tighten their grip on Mandalay, Burma, on 2 May 1942. Their advance units range far to the west of the former capital. Their occupation of the city and rapid move westward blocks the escape route for part of the 1st Burma Division. It attacks the Japanese 33rd Infantry Division at Monywa, west of Mandalay, in an attempt to rejoin the main British forces north of Mandalay, but fails to make progress.

North of Lashio, the Northern Shan States Battalion, Burma Frontier Force, along with elements of a detachment of the Chin Hills Battalion, continue to block the Japanese advance north toward the regional center at Bhamo. The Allied troops are holding a key bridge across the Shweli River. The bridge has been rigged for detonation, but nobody knows how to set off the charges. The battle for the bridge rages throughout the day while the Japanese troops await reinforcements.

Eastern Front: General Franz Halder, fresh off a week-long leave in Berlin, returns to, as he puts it in his war diary, a "Quiet day along the entire front, except on the Volkhov, where local fighting continues." The Germans have cut off a large Red Army force to the west of the Volkhov River, which now is fighting for its life. Operations along the rest of the front are at a standstill due to the spring thaw ("Rasputitsa") which always peaks around this time of year.

European Air Operations: A pause in major operations by both sides continues today, likely due in part to the weather (the RCAF in England reports "Weather visibility 2000 yards, improving by midday"). The RAF sends 96 bombers of Nos. 3 and 5 Groups on minelaying all along the coast from the German North Sea coast on south to Brittany, France. Two bombers are lost. Another 11 bombers drop leaflet over France.

Picture Post magazine, 2 May 1942.

Battle of the Atlantic: The battle in the Barents Sea explodes when German destroyers Z7 "Hermann Schoemann," Z24, and Z25, which attacked convoy QP 11 on 1 May 1942 and sank a freighter, find badly damaged Royal Navy cruiser HMS Edinburgh (Captain H W Faulkner). The German destroyers spot the cruiser at 06:17 about 250 miles east of QP 11. It is moving at only two knots and is escorted by seven ships: destroyers Foresight and Forester, four British minesweepers, and Soviet guard ship Rubin. Despite these poor odds, the German commander Kapitän zur See Alfred Schulze-Hinrichs, flush off his victory against the convoy, decides to attack.

Hinrichs has a problem, however. A snow shower separates his destroyer, Z7, from the two other Kriegsmarine Narvik-class destroyers. Despite this, Hinrichs attacks alone. Edinburgh can only steam in circles, but its guns remain fully operational. It scores a devastating hit on Hinrich's ship that causes it to sink later in the day.

Light cruiser HMS Edinburgh, with its stern blown off, unloads its crew to another ship before sinking in the Barents Sea, 2 May 1942.

During the afternoon, the other two German destroyers arrive on the scene. Z25 scores hits on both Forester and Foresight, disabling the former and badly damaging the latter. At 18:52, a German torpedo hits Edinburgh directly opposite its previous damage done to it by U-456. The blows Edinburgh's stern clean off. The German destroyers then withdraw and rescue the crew of Z7, which is still afloat, before scuttling it (other survivors from Z7 are picked up later by U-88). Edinburgh, now in very bad shape, is sunk with a torpedo from Foresight. The action of 2 May 1942 unquestionably is a German naval victory, though the convoys that are the main prize still have suffered minimal losses.

Polish submarine ORP Jastrząb (LtCdr  Bolesław Romanowski) is serving with the Royal Navy, but it is hard to distinguish friendly submarines from unfriendly ones under the gray, overcast skies of the Barents Sea. It is in the vicinity of Convoy PQ 15, perhaps loosely escorting it but more likely just on the lookout for German surface ships, when destroyer HNoMS St. Albans and minesweeper Seagull spot it. There are divergent accounts after this point, but the particulars are immutable. The two ships force the submarine to the surface and strafe the deck (killing five men including a British liaison officer and wounding six more). They damage the submarine so badly that it must be scuttled. ORP Jastrząb, incidentally, was former US Navy submarine USS S-25 that was given to the British, and thence the Polish Navy, in November 1941.

A portrait of Anne Frank in May 1942, shortly before she and her family went into hiding in Amsterdam.

U-402 (Kptlt. Siegfried Freiherr von Forstner), on its third patrol out of St. Nazaire, torpedoes and sinks 602-ton US Navy patrol yacht USS Cythera (PY-26). This is a former civilian yacht owned by William L. Harkness that served in both World War I and II. There are 69 deaths. The U-boat picks up the only two survivors of the sinking and makes them prisoners of war.

U-66 (KrvKpt. Richard Zapp), on its fifth patrol out of Lorient, torpedoes and sinks 7624-ton Norwegian tanker Sandar southwest of Grenada in the Caribbean. There are three deaths and 37 survivors, who are picked up by US freighter Alcoa Pilot.

A view of Halifax on 2 May 1942, showing Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious and various US Navy transports (Nova Scotia Archives H.B. Jefferson Nova Scotia Archives 1992-304 / 43.1.4 64).

Battle of the Mediterranean: U-573, badly damaged on 29 April 1942 by depth charges dropped by an RAF Lockheed Hudson, limps into port at Cartagena, Spain. Since Spain is a neutral country, it can only offer a limited time period before under international law it must intern the submarine. For instance, when German heavy cruiser Admiral Graf Spee docked at Montevideo in December 1939, it was given only 72 hours for repairs.

The Spanish are much more accommodating to the Germans than the Uruguayans had been. They allow three months rather than just three days for repairs to be made before they will take action. Naturally, the British embassy in Madrid protests, but both sides must treat Spain with great sensitivity because it controls access to the Mediterranean - where a major campaign is underway. 

Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Heinsohn, however, knows that even three months is insufficient to repair the submarine in Spain. Ultimately, the crew returns to the Reich for further service and the German government sells U-573 to Spain on 2 August 1942 for 1.5 million Reichsmarks. U-573 continues in service there until 1970. U-573 ends her career with on sinking of 5289 tons (Norwegian freighter Hellen on 21 December 1941) and no casualties among her crew - a rarity in the U-boat service.

U-573 while still in the Kriegsmarine.

While U-573 gets away, another U-boat does not. Royal Navy destroyers HMS Wishart and Wrestler use depth charges to sink U-74 (Oblt. Karl Friederich), on its eighth patrol out of La Spezia, off Cartagena, Spain. The U-74 is a victim of bad luck, as a Catalina flying boat spots U-573 nearby, and it vectors in the Royal Navy ships that find U-74 instead. U-74 ends its career having sunk 37,144 tons of shipping.

Royal Navy submarine HMS Proteus torpedoes 3682-ton German freighter Otto Leonhardt off Sfax, Tunisia. The ship's captain manages to beach the vessel, but it is a complete write-off.

In Malta, invasion fears are at a peak as heavy bombing raids continue. Delayed-action bombs dropped near Zejtun Church and on houses south of Zejtun-Tarxien road explode, killing 21 civilians and wounding another 30. 

Bomb damage to HMS Wallace, 2 May 1942 © IWM A 9895. 

US Military: Admiral Chester W. Nimitz arrives on Midway Island for an inspection and to present decorations. He departs on the 3rd.

American Homefront: Chestnut stallion Shut Out wins the Kentucky Derby with jockey Wayne D. Wright.

There is a hybrid eclipse of the sun.

Future History: Jacques Rogge is born in Ghent, Belgium. He becomes an orthopedic surgeon and later goes on to become the 8th President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from 2001 to 2013. As of this writing, Rogge serves as the Honorary President of the IOC.

Pix magazine of 2 May 1942 features an article on "The Japanese Attitude to Women," a subject that will occupy researchers and diplomats well into the 21st Century due to the military's use of "Comfort Women."

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 29, 1942: Japanese Preparing Operation Mo

Wednesday 29 April 1942

Hitler and Mussolini at Schloss Klessheim, 29 April 1942 (National Digital Archives, Poland).

Battle of the Pacific: The Japanese are preparing Operation Mo, an invasion of Port Moresby, New Guinea, on 29 April 1942. With a large invasion force at their forward base at Truk, they also intend to occupy and install a seaplane base at Tulagi in the Solomons north of Guadalcanal (the Australians currently operate a seaplane base at nearby Gavutu-Tanambogo). Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto places Vice Admiral Shigeyoshi Inoue, a strong proponent of these aggressive moves, in charge of the naval portion of Operation Mo. General Douglas MacArthur, Allied area commander, is kept abreast of all these developments as the intelligence flows into his headquarters in Melbourne, Australia.

Japanese forces occupy Parang and Cotabato, Mindanao.

"Groundcrew refuelling a Short Stirling Mk I of No. 1651 Heavy Conversion Unit at Waterbeach in Cambridgeshire, 29 April 1942." the truck is an AEC 6x6 petrol tanker known as a "Matador." © IWM COL 201.

Battle of the Indian Ocean: After fierce fighting by Chinese rearguard units, the Japanese 22nd Infantry Division, Thirteenth Army, takes the key position of Lashio. The Chinese commander there, General Chang, orders all stores blown up before ordering a retreat to Hsenwi. There are quite a lot of them, as Lashio is a key stop on the Allied supply route to China.

Chang also blocks the road to Kutkai, though the Japanese seem more interested in heading west toward India than northeast to invade China. The Chinese 200th Division, which has had some success to the south at Loilem, loses its escape route by the Japanese occupation of Lashio and is forced to turn southwest before taking a roundabout route around Lashio to reach China. The entire Chinese position in Burma, which recently looked quite promising, is now completely adrift.

This Japanese success cuts communications between China and Mandalay, virtually ensuring its loss to the Allies. The British already assume that Mandalay will fall and have pulled their units north of the city. General Chang has little hope of holding out for long and is preparing to withdraw his entire force into China through Kutkai and Wanting. All Allied supplies to China, particularly US lend-lease shipments, now must be made by air. These flights must be made over the "Hump," or Himalayas, by the USAAF 10th Air Force.

The 10th Air Force also has some offensive capability. Today, it sends its B-17s to bomb Rangoon. The planes cause major damage to the dock area.

Portland, Oregon, officials posting evacuation orders from the United States War Relocation Authority. Printed in The Oregonian of 29 April 1942.

Eastern Front: The Germans have solidified their contact with the isolated Demyansk garrison sufficiently for engineers to string a telephone line across the Lovat River. The two overall commanders, Generals Georg von Kuechler, Oberbefehlshaber der Heeresgruppe Nord ("commander-in-chief of Army Group North"), and Walter von Brockdorff, commander of II. Armeekorps (2 Corps) in the former pocket, finally can discuss the situation without fear of being overheard. The pocket at Kholm remains in peril, but a relief force under Generalmajor Werner Huehner is approaching. Hitler is following events there closely and is prepared to send more forces to help relieve the pocket if necessary.

The Soviets are preparing an attack to sever this tenuous German connection through Ramushevo to Demyansk. However, in part due to the spring thaw ("Rasputitsa"), they are having difficulty getting troops in place to mount this operation and it will not be ready until May.

Damage in York after a Luftwaffe attack, 29 April 1942. Shown is a steam locomotive in the York North locomotive depot (National Railway Museum).

European Air Operations: On 29 April 1942, York recovers from an overnight Baedeker Blitz raid by the Luftwaffe. As with many other such raids, it causes only moderate damage but an inordinate number of casualties. Buildings destroyed or damaged include the Guildhall and minster. There are 79 deaths and many injured.

Tonight, 29/30 April, the  Luftwaffe attacks Norwich again. This raid destroys many buildings in the center of the city. The planes drop more than 110 high-explosive bombs despite encountering heavier anti-aircraft fire than previously. The attack is 45 minutes shorter than the previous attack on the night of 27 April but still claims an additional 69 lives.

During the day, a Luftwaffe Bf-109F-3 of 3(F)/123 succeeds in getting aerial reconnaissance of Bath, Avonmouth, and the Nailsea munitions dump. 

RAF Bomber Command, however, is not taking a break. The RAF sends half a dozen Bostons against the Dunkirk docks during the day without loss.

The RAF hits Paris/Ennevilliers in the evening, sending 88 aircraft (73 Wellington bombers, 6 Stirlings, and 9 Hampdens) against the city in bright moonlight. They run into heavy flak and fighter defenses, however. The bombing results are mediocre, with no hits made on the main target, the Gnome & Rhone aero-engine factory. There are 15 deaths and 74 injured. The RAF loses three Wellingtons.

Subsidiary raids are made to Ostend (20 bombers), minelaying (5 Manchesters off the Danish coast), and six independent intruder missions. The raid on Ostend is the first of the war, and two bombers are lost there and one on the minelaying mission.

Hauptman Joachim Muncheberg, Stab II./JG 26, shoots down a Spitfire near Le Tourquet. It is his 74th victory. The victim is likely Polish ace Major Marian Pisarek, commander of I Polish Fighter Wing.

Michigan State Troopers guarding the Sojourner Truth housing project as African-Americans move into them, 29 April 1942. Many local residents objected to the location of the projects and violent clashes led to arrests (The Faces of Detroit).

Battle of the Atlantic: Both sides have sent heavy forces to the Arctic as the Allies struggle to keep the Soviet Union supplied via the Arctic convoy route around northern Norway. The Allies have two convoys converging in the area, PQ-15 from Iceland heading east and QP-11 from Murmansk heading west. Today, a German Ju 88 reconnaissance bomber and U-boats spot QP-11 a day after it left port. The U-boats prepare to attack on the 30th. The British, meanwhile, dispatch light cruiser HMS Edinburgh (CS 18) from Murmansk to beef up QP-11's escort force.

The Soviets, however, get in the first blow. Submarine M-171 (Lt. Cdr Stanikov) torpedoes and sinks 4969-ton German freighter Curityba off Vardø, Varangerfjord, Norway. The Curityba is carrying a Norwegian fishing trawler, F-14-V, and two auxiliary minesweepers, M-5403 and M-5407 (it is unclear if the trawler is one of these), which go down with the ship. There are 34 survivors and 22 deaths.

U-66 (KrvKpt. Richard Zapp), on its fifth patrol out of Lorient, torpedoes and sinks 10,354-ton Panamanian tanker Harry G. Seidel west of Trinidad. There are 48 survivors and two deaths.

U-108 (KrvKpt. Klaus Scholtz), on its seventh patrol out of Lorient, torpedoes and sinks 9925-ton US tanker Mobiloil about 350 miles northeast of Turks Island in the Caribbean. This happens after an excruciating 13-hour chase which includes one torpedo miss. The U-boat finally gets into position and hits the tanker at 08:57, then surfaces and begins shelling the ship. The tanker crew, meanwhile, returns fire with their own 4-inch stern gun. A long battle ensues into the late afternoon. Finally, Scholtz fires more torpedoes (for a total of six, a large number for a commercial shipping target) that break the tanker in half. All 52 men on board survive, picked up by USS PC-490 on 2 May 1942. The tanker's master, Ernest V. Farrow, is later convicted for failing to follow orders to wait for a convoy off Norfolk.

The US is finally organizing coastal convoys on the East Coast. Today, the first coastal convoy departs from New York to the Delaware River, and other convoys also begin.

The surviving 27-man crew of US freighter Steel Maker, sunk by U-136 on 19 April, is rescued today by British freighter Pacific Exporter near Frying Pan Shoals.

Construction of the Allis Chalmers Supercharger Plant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 29 April 1942 (Milwaukee Public Library).

Battle of the Mediterranean: Royal Navy submarine HMS Urge sinks on 29 April 1942 while en route from Malta to Alexandria after hitting a mine while sailing on the surface. The incident happens not long after Urge leaves Grand Harbour, Malta. The submarine is torn in two by the violent explosion and sinks rapidly with no survivors There are 39 deaths, including war correspondent Bernard Gray. The wreck is discovered in October 2019 lying in 130 meters (430 feet) of water two miles (3.2 km) off the Malta coast.

Royal Navy 81-ton tug Alliance hits a mine and sinks off Famagusta, Cyprus. There are three deaths and seven survivors. British 157-ton schooner Terpsithea also hits a mine and sinks at the same location. Everyone on the schooner survives.

Malta's military governor, Lt. General Sir W. Dobbie, reports that 333 people have been killed there over the previous month. This includes 139 men, 117 women, and 77 children). Property damage "has been exceedingly heavy." He concludes, though, that "the bearing and morale of the public has remained admirable."  

Battle of the Black Sea: German 155-ton naval ferry barge (Marinefährprahm) F 130 hits a mine and is beached. Later, it is refloated, repaired, and put back in service.

Luftwaffe aircraft sink 950-ton Soviet auxiliary minesweeper T-494. There are nineteen survivors and twenty dead.

Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Hermann Goering, Karl Doenitz, Kurt Zeitzler, and other officials at the map table in Schloss Klessheim, 29 April 1942 (ONB).

Axis Relations: Following his successful (final) speech to the Reichstag on the 26th, Adolf Hitler takes his personal train down to Salzburg, near his home at Berchtesgaden, to meet Mussolini. The two dictators meet at Schloss Klessheim for a two-day meeting to review the war situation in front of Hitler's customary 1:1000 maps. Hermann Goering, Foreign Minister Ribbentrop, Field Marshal Keitel, General Jodl, and other top Axis officials are there as well, signifying the importance of the meeting.

As usual, Hitler does most of the talking. These sessions invariably default to Hitler engaging in extended monologues as Mussolini listens in silence. Hitler tells Mussolini that his sole foreign policy dream was "annulling Bolshevism as a military power." The summer's offensive in the USSR would accomplish this. After that, Hitler says he would be able to shift his main forces west for a showdown with the western Allies. He hints that Stalin might be ready to negotiate terms due to supposed frustration with the failure of the British and Americans to open up a second front in France. 

The two men agree that, now that the Wehrmacht had survived the winter intact, nothing could save the Red Army. Privately, however, Mussolini is not so sure. To his son-in-law and Foreign Minister, Count Galeazzo Ciano, he reveals resentment over his utter reliance on Hitler and the Wehrmacht. Mussolini, now privy to Hitler's plans for another grand offensive in the East ("Case Blue"), notes that the war's outcome would be decided by the end of the summer in the steppes of Russia.

Nothing is really decided today. The dictators will meet again on the morning of the 30th to discuss military plans.

The massive crater at Tessenderlo, Belgium, resulting from the explosion of 29 April 1942 (Tessenderlo Group).

US Military: General Harold Huston George, 49, is mortally wounded in a ground accident at Batchelor Field near Darwin, Australia. A Curtiss P-40 loses control while taking off and slams into George's Lockheed C-40. Victorville Air Force Base in California is renamed George Air Force Base in his honor in June 1950.

Holocaust: A date is set for all Dutch Jews to wear a Yellow Star of David badge: 3 May 1942.

Belgian Homefront: An explosion caused by ammonium nitrate rocks a chemical factory (Produits Chimiques de Tessenderloo (PCT)) in Tessenderlo, Belgium. Ammonium nitrate is often used as fertilizer but also as an ingredient in explosives. The shockwaves are felt in Antwerp and Brussels and the explosion creates a crate 70 meters wide and 23 meters deep. Accidental explosions during its manufacture and transport cause many tragedies over the years, such are in Beirut in 2020, so the incident is not necessarily military sabotage. There are 189 deaths.

Internees on the mess line at the Tanforan Assembly Center in California, 29 April 1942 (Dorothy Lange, National Archives 537677).

American Homefront: Top Hollywood entertainers visit the White House to kick off a 30-city tour promoting the sale of war bonds. Among the celebrities in attendance are Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Cary Grant, Desi Arnaz, Groucho Marx, Laurel and Hardy, Charles Boyer, Charlotte Greenwood, Claudette Colbert, Olivia de Havilland, Spencer Tracy. and Betty Grable. Actress Carole Lombard, of course, perished during a tour selling war bonds on 16 January 1942.

In a sign of the times, just as the top Hollywood stars are in Washington dining with the President, civil defense authorities order all theater marquees in Times Square to be blacked out.

The San Francisco News reports that the local FBI office has made searches and raids in 24 cities and towns of Northern California for aliens and contraband articles. The Wartime Civil Control Administration, meanwhile, reports that it is having difficulty finding farmers to work all the fields being abandoned (unwillingly, of course) by the evacuating Japanese-Americans. A columnist in the same newspaper, Arthur Caylor, meanwhile, reports that many of the areas in San Francisco being vacated by the Japanese-American residents are being condemned. There is a "sub-surface meeting-of-minds," he says, that "the Japanese shall never come back."

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 26, 1942: Hitler Expands His Powers

Sunday 26 April 1942

Adolf Hitler addressing the Reichstag, 26 April 1942 (Federal Archive Image 101I-811-1881-33).

Battle of the Pacific: The Allies are busy beefing up their air defenses in northern Australia and at Port Moresby on 26 April 1942, and not a moment too soon. Today, the 35th and 36th Pursuit Squadrons of 8th Pursuit Group transfer their P-39s and P-40s from Brisbane and Townsville, respectively, to Port Moresby, New Guinea. Everyone can see from the flow of Japanese invasions that Port Moresby is likely to be the next "hot spot" on the road to Australia. However, it remains unclear if the Japanese will try a seaborne invasion launched from their overseas headquarters at Rabaul or try to cross the forbidding Owen Stanley Mountain Range. The distance between the Japanese positions on the north coast and the Australian-held port on the south coast is not terribly much as the crow flies, but the crow would have to fly high over mountains and dense jungles to make the trip.

Polish Judge Karol Wrona (No. 29596), a native of Rudno, executed at Auschwitz on 26 April 1942.

Battle of the Indian Ocean: Pursuant to orders from General Harold Alexander, commander of all forces in Burma, British and Chinese troops withdraw to positions north of Mandalay. Chinese forces of the Sixty-Sixth Army and attached units are concentrating in Lashio, where there are warehouses full of supplies bound for China, as the Japanese rapidly approach.

The situation in Burma is murky to the world at large, many of whom could not find it on a map. A reporter for the Sunday Observer (now affiliated with The Guardian) in London attempts to summarize it on 26 April 1942:

The Japanese are practicing the advantages of mobility which they enjoyed in Malaya, and getting the full benefit of the lead which it gives them over our more cumbersomely equipped forces. They have been switching their attack from the east to the west and back again to the east, looking all the time for our weak spots. They found one at Taunggyi, ninety-five miles south-east of Mandalay, and they are now throwing their heavy forces into this railway terminus, which gives them a valuable springboard for the decisive attack on Mandalay.

While things look dire for the Allies due to the rapid Japanese advance, the weather is about to become their ally. The monsoon season is about to begin and that will stop the Japanese better than the Allies can.

As losses mount on the Eastern Front (over a third of the initial troops of Operation Barbarossa have become casualties), the Wehrmacht is recruiting heavily in the Nordic nations. Here, soldiers from the Free Corps Denmark march out of the K.B. Hallen as part of the DNSAP's spring appeal on 26 April 1942. (National Museum of Denmark).

Eastern Front: As General Franz Halder notes in his diary entry for 26 April 1942, the spring thaw has brought operations on both sides to a temporary halt:

Situation: Unchanged quiet. Apparently, the effects of the seasonal mud are severely felt in Center and North [Army Groups]. In [Army Group] South, the enemy regrouping movements opposite our front continue.

Halder does not know this, but the Red Army is reshuffling its units to launch a major operation to retake Kharkiv. Stalin is determined to get in some more successes from the dying winter counteroffensive before the expected German summer offensive. Halder notes in his diary that he is leaving his headquarters at 20:05 to attend the Fuhrer's Reichstag speech in Berlin.

While it did not receive much attention in the post-war world, the bombing of Bath was considered quite horrific at the time and resulted in this pamphlet, "The Bombardment of Bath." 

European Air Operations: The Luftwaffe returns to Bath on the night of 26/27 April 1942 for the second night in a row. The two raids cause widespread devastation and about 400 casualties.

During the day, the RAF sends a dozen Boston bombers to attack St. Omer and Hazebrouck railway yards. They return without loss.

After dark, RAF Bomber Command raids Rostock again for the fourth night in the row. The Germans use the phrase "Terrorangriff" (terror raid) for the first time to describe these attacks. Taken together, the four raids destroy 1765 buildings and cause serious damage to 513 others. This is the first time that Bomber Command begins destroying large swathes of German cities, with 130 acres (60 percent of the downtown area) obliterated. Tonight's raid kills 204 people and injures 89 others, an inversion of usual figures when more people are injured than killed. These casualty totals illustrate the enhanced effect of mass bombings when firestorms break out and local rescue services such as fire stations are overwhelmed.

While many point to raids on Cologne and Hamburg over the summer of 1943 as turning points in the air war, the German leadership already can read the writing on the wall. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels confides in his diary that "community life in Rostock is practically at an end." That said, the results have required a full RAF commitment over several nights, though with minimal losses. Tonight they lose three bombers, which, considering the roughly 109 aircraft involved gives an "acceptable" loss rate of under 3%.

The RAF also launches subsidiary raids of 24 aircraft against Dunkirk, 2 Blenheim Intruders to Leeuwarden, 4 bombers on minelaying missions, and seven leaflet flights with no losses.

"A Crusader I tank emerges from a tank landing craft (TLC 124) during tests of a portable concrete roadway, in this case laid on the beach, 26 April 1942." © IWM H 19057.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-66 (KrvKpt. Richard Zapp), on its fifth patrol out of Lorient, torpedoes and sinks 5513-ton US freighter Alcoa Partner about 80 nautical miles (150 km) northwest of Bonaire in the Caribbean. The ship sinks quickly due to the heavy bauxite ore cargo. There are ten deaths and 25 survivors, who make it in their lifeboat to Bonaire on the 27th.

US Navy 1190-ton destroyer USS Sturtevant (DD-240) hits three mines in rapid succession and sinks off Key West, Florida while escorting a convoy. An investigation reveals that it blundered into a US Navy minefield about 8 miles (13 km) north of the Marquesas Keys. The loss is attributable to a lack of communication between different commands within the US Navy. There are 15 deaths and 115 survivors. The Sturtevant, resting in two pieces at a depth of 60 feet (18 meters), becomes a favored site for SCUBA divers.

Convoy PQ 15 sails from Reykjavík, Iceland, on 26 April 1942 with its local escort. It is bound for Murmansk, USSR. 

An Italian POW, most likely captured in North Africa, arrives in Liverpool on 26 April 1942. "This prisoner brought his mandolin." © IWM A 8469.

Battle of the Mediterranean: U-81 (Kptlt. Friedrich Guggenberger), on its fifth patrol out of La Spezia, surfaces and shells 100-ton Egyptian sailing vessel Aziza off Palestine.

It is a quiet morning in Malta aside from some false air raid alerts. At 14:20, however, the bombers return with a total of 54 Junkers Ju 88 and 17 Junkers Ju 87 Stuka planes. The attackers break up into six separate groups and focus on the airfields at Ta Qali, Luqa, and Kalafrana as well as the Grand Harbour area. The damage is not confined to those areas, however, and affects many other portions of the island as well. 

The raid sinks 330-ton HMS Monkey, a Dockyard Water Tank vessel in the Malta Dockyard near the Sheer Bastion. Another vessel, HM Drifter Eddy being used to clear mines despite having a steel hull, sinks after hitting a mine just outside Grand Harbour.

The RAF is able to get three Spitfires into the air from Luqa and three from Ta Qali, but they do not down any enemy planes. The RAF loses two fighters from its dwindling force. Other air attacks follow throughout the evening.

Adolf Hitler addresses the Reichstag at the Kroll Opera House, 26 April 1942. Many other leaders of the Third Reich also are visible, including Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Goering.

German Government: Adolf Hitler addresses the Reichstag for the final time (while he makes many more speeches, they are at Party gatherings). He gives a long oration that favorably compares the desperate German defense outside of Moscow with the Napoleonic retreat and catastrophe of 1812. This battle required sacrifices "far exceeding what should or could be expected in normal wars," he says, though the comparison falls flat since he cites the Napoleonic situation that in fact suggests bad Russian winters are completely normal during wartime. The speech is full of bravado but short on mentions of actual conquests. It strikes some (such as Italian Foreign Minister Count Ciano) as pessimistic, particularly when Hitler vows to be ready for the next winter "no matter where it finds us."

That was all standard boilerplate stuff. Let's step back a moment before going on to the key part of this speech. While Hitler holds seeming total control over the Third Reich, there are various gaps in his authority. These primarily lie in two areas, the Church and the Wehrmacht. The Church he can do nothing about because of widespread public support for it. The archbishops already have defeated Hitler on the euthanasia issue, though he successfully hid the program in the death camps after seemingly terminating it. Hitler does not like limits on his power and holds a powerful grudge against the Pope and the other clergy that he can do little about despite some occasional hostile comments at his "table talk." That issue remains unresolved throughout Hitler's tenure.

But the Wehrmacht is another matter entirely. The German Army has a long history of independence, particularly over promotions and demotions, but it ultimately is under the control of the chief executive and the law. Hitler chafes at the historical limits of his authority over the generals. His main grievance is that he can remove generals from their positions, but he cannot arbitrarily demote them or even execute them (as Stalin can). That must be done under a cloak of legality even within the Third Reich, after a court-martial. Any general can demand an honor court, just as General Werner von Fritsch had done before the war. That incident turned quite embarrassing for the Fuhrer because Fritsch showed conclusively that he had been framed. Hitler doesn't want scorned generals embarrassing him ever again. Eliminating this gap in his authority becomes the main purpose of Hitler's speech.

Thus, the 26 April 1942 speech is crafted to expand Hitler's legal powers over the military, despite the common misconception that he already holds absolute dictatorial control over all aspects of German life. In it, Hitler reveals what will become a common theme for the remainder of the war. He asks the Reichstag to give him:

... an explicit confirmation that I have the legal right to hold everyone to the fulfillment of his duty and to reduce to the common ranks or remove from post and position, without regard for acquired rights or status, anyone whom I find not to have done his duty.

In other words, Hitler wants (and receives) power to blame his generals for the army's failures. This is despite the fact that he increasingly is giving the generals detailed instructions on how to fight their battles. Blaming the generals, of course, is better than blaming himself. 

The Reichstag is presided over by Hermann Goering and naturally grants Hitler's requests by acclamation. It is the last vote of any substance the Reichstag will make. Tellingly, Hitler rarely if ever uses these new powers over his generals (he invariably just dismisses them and puts them in the "Fuhrer Reserve" until the 20 July 1944 Putsch). This suggests Hitler is just using this occasion as a pretext to cast the generals, many of whom he dislikes intensely for losing battles and occasionally not following his orders to the letter, obliquely as scapegoats for the hard winter of 1941-42. After the speech, Hitler boards his train and heads south to Salzburg for a strategy meeting with Mussolini.

There is a particular interested party listening to Hitler's speech over the radio: British Intelligence. They notice something odd about the tone of the speech, but they can't quite put their finger on it. They commission a pioneer social scientist, Mark Abrams, to analyze it and subsequent speeches. Abrams listens to Hitler's speeches closely and he notes certain tendencies in a report marked "Secret." His aim is "to reconstruct, if possible, what was in Hitler's mind when he composed and delivered the speech."

Abrams asks a fellow academic, Joseph McCurdy, to write up the report on these findings. McCurdy's report concludes that Hitler's speeches now have a "dull flatness of the delivery" and show "a man who is seriously contemplating the possibility of utter defeat." Hitler also is developing a "Jew phobia" and increasingly sees them as a "universal diabolical agency" versus himself, who represents "the incarnation of the spirit of good." All in all, it is not a pretty picture, rather a terrifying one of a man who thinks he sees the future and doesn't like it at all. And this man controls the fates of millions of people all across Europe and elsewhere.

Japanese Homefront: An explosion in the Benxihu Colliery (coal mine) in the puppet state of Manchukuo kills up to 1,549 miners.

These nineteen Polish prisoners were executed (11 May 1942) in Buchenwald Forest, Germany, for an attack by two Poles on a German policeman on 26 April 1942. This spot was chosen because it was the spot where the Polish forced laborers stabbed the German to death. The nineteen men were hanged from gallows erected by the Buchenwald SS.

American Homefront: American communists are fully behind the war effort ever since the commencement of Operation Barbarossa. Susan Green writes an article in "Labor Action" of 26 April 1942 entitled "Here's How to Smash the Fascists." She singles out the "Coughlins, Pellys, Kullgrens, and other would-be American Hitlers" (they are all radio commentators) for scorn. Her concluding section is "We Must Ferret Out the Fascist Rats." Of course, just because the American communists are against Hitler does not mean they support the US status quo. She concludes that "Neither [Franklin] Roosevelt nor [Wendell] Wilkie is an insurance against the spread of American fascism." Susan Green, incidentally, was a confirmed Trotskyite who viewed Stalin's Soviet Union as a "totalitarian empire," so she ware more of a pure radical than a partisan.

A Handley Page Hampden I bomber. RAAF No. 455 Squadron transferred from Bomber Command to Coastal Command on 26 April 1942 because its Hampdens were becoming obsolete. 

Future History: Robert Louis Ridarelli is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After winning a talent show on the television show "Paul Whiteman's TV Teen Club," Robert adopts the stage name "Bobby Rydell" and attempts to become a professional singer. He finally achieves some success in 1959 with "Kissin' Time," which leads to a tour of Australia with other artists. More successes follow, and he gets a big break by being cast as the central character of Hugo Peabody in the film version of "Bye Bye Birdie." This brings Bobby Rydell even greater fame, which leads to more hits. However, the British Invasion is not kind to Rydell's style of rock and so his singing and acting career plateaus and declines by the mid-1960s. As of 2021, Bobby Rydell continues to perform on occasion despite health issues.

Claudine Oger is born in Paris, France. After being named "Miss France Monde", Claudine is the first runner-up in the 1958 Miss World contest. She then tries her hand at acting while still in school, changes her name to Claudine Auger, and makes her screen debut in "Testament of Orpheus" (1960). Her most prominent film role becomes Domino in the James Bond movie "Thunderball" (1965). Claudine Auger passes away in Paris on 18 December 2019.

"Iraq. 26 April 1942. On the parade ground, Air Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder KCB, Air Officer in Commanding in Chief, RAF, Middle East, inspects Iraq levies during his tour of inspection of the Middle East area." Australian War Memorial MED0400.

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 17, 1942: The Disastrous Augsburg Raid

Friday 17 April 1942

Douglas SBD "Dauntless" aboard the USS Enterprise (CV-6) April 17, 1942 (US Navy).

Battle of the Indian Ocean: The British retreat in Burma accelerates on 17 April 1942 as the Japanese take Yenangyaung, the site of Britain's largest overseas oil fields. The British have skillfully destroyed the 6000-well oil field, which continues to blaze away. The Japanese 214th Regiment has blocked the British Burma Division's retreat route to the north, so the 1st Battalion The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in Yenangyaung is forced to retreat south - toward the main body of the Japanese force. Things do not look good for them as the Japanese have infiltrated through the jungle and all the roads are blocked.

Fortunately for the British, help is on the way in the form of part of the Chinese 38th Division. While he is under orders not to help the British, Chinese General Sun Li-jen disobeys and sends his 113th Regiment (1121 men) south toward the trapped British. British Lieutenant-General William Slim chips in the 7th Armored Brigade (Brigadier John Anstice) with two regiments of American M3 Stuart tanks and a battery of 25-pounder guns to help General Sun's infantry. This combined force battles its way south toward the trapped British infantry, making good progress in 114-degree Fahrenheit heat.

Ironwood (Michigan) Daily Globe, 17 Aprl 1942. The public knows there are a lot of prisoners in Bataan, but they do not know what is happening to them in the Bataan Death March. That is not disclosed until early 1944.

Battle of the Pacific: The Bataan Death March continues in the Philippines. Prisoners who have survived the roughly 65-mile (105 km) walk to Camp O'Donnell under brutal conditions find little relief there. Men collapse at the camp and many die of exposure. The roads to the south remain clogged with shuffling columns of underfed and dehydrated men hoping they won't fall behind the slow pace and be bayoneted by pitiless Japanese guards. The sides of the roads are littered with dead bodies. Of the 80,000 Allied POWs who began the march, only about 54,000 even make it to the camp.

About 1000 miles (1500 km) east of Japan, Admiral "Bull" Halsey's Task Force 16 continues preparing for the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo. The deck crew of USS Hornet pulls the 16 B-25 bombers to the rear of the flight deck, loads them with four 500-lb bombs apiece and ammunition, and fuels them. The bombers also are fitted with broomsticks painted black in their tails to look like machine guns. All plane systems are checked even though the operation is not scheduled to begin for a couple of days. 

Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle and the Hornet's Captain Marc Mitscher hold a small ceremony on the Hornet's flight deck with the aircrew. They tie "friendship medals" given to the United States by Japan before the war - this apparently was President Roosevelt's idea, who wanted to return the medals in proper fashion. The fleet oilers refuel the ships and then withdraw with the destroyers to the east. The two aircraft carriers, Hornet and Enterprise, continue heading west at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) in radio silence.

Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle pins a Japanese "Peace and Friendship" medal to a bomb destined to be dropped on Tokyo, 17 April 1942 (US Navy).

Eastern Front: General Franz Halder notes in his war diary that there are "confused movements and radio silence" opposite General Kleist's front along the Mius River from south of Kharkiv to Taganrog on the Sea of Azov. While Halder does not flesh this out, it is well known among German commanders that Soviet radio silence usually presages an attack.

Following Hitler's lead, Halder is becoming busy preparing for Operation Blau, the upcoming offensive in Kleist's area toward the Caucasus. Troops are being transferred from Army Group Center to the south (held in reserve for now) and they need support. Today, Halder meets with Reichsleiter Konstantin Hierl, head of the Reich Labour Service (Reichsarbeitsdienst; RAD), to arrange support services for Operation Blau. At some point, Halder notes in his diary, these Labour Service personnel face "incorporation into Army." Halder also meets with the Italian transportation chief, General de Raimondo, and discusses strategy for Blau with General von Sodenstern, the chief of staff for Army Group South.

The Luftwaffe continues building up its strength in the Black Sea region in order to support General Manstein's 11th Army, and this is producing results. KG 26 sinks 4125-ton transport Svanetiya as it is trying to bring reinforcements to Sevastopol, leading to the death of about 535 Soviet soldiers. Luftwaffe General Wolfram von Richthofen is bringing an entire air fleet - which usually supports an entire army group - into the area as units return from winter quarters in the Reich. While the ground contest is fairly even, there is no question that the Luftwaffe dominates the air over the Crimea.

Douglas F-3 "Havoc" aerial reconnaissance aircraft, April 17, 1942.

European Air Operations: During the day, Arthur "Bomber" Harris decides to try something new to address the poor accuracy of his bomber force. He sends a dozen Lancaster bombers to Augsburg while 30 Boston bombers stage a diversionary raid to northern France. The controversial Augsburg raid succeeds in one respect - the eight bombers that get through do make accurate bombing runs. However, the Luftwaffe has something to say about all this, and its pilots shoot down four of the Lancasters en route to the target and three others over Augsburg itself. An additional Boston is lost during the diversionary raid. Many of the bombers that do make it back are damaged. Squadron Leader J.D. Nettleton of RAF No. 44 Squadron, flying one of the five damaged planes that make it back from Augsburg, receives the Victoria Cross for his heroism during this raid.

After dark, RAF Bomber Command does a normal nighttime mission and sends 173 bombers (134 Wellingtons, 23 Stirlings, 11 Halifaxes, 5 Manchesters, and 7 Manchesters) over Hamburg. As is standard with these night raids, bombing accuracy is poor. The bombs start 75 fires, 33 large, in Hamburg, with 23 people killed and 66 injured. In minor operations, 22 Whitleys bomb St. Nazaire, four bomb Le Havre, six Blenheims attack targets in Holland, and nine bombers lay mines off Heligoland.

Overall, it is a bad day for the RAF. Out of 214 sorties, it loses 10 aircraft. This loss ratio of 4.7% is too high for sustainable operations. Thus, Harris decides to end his experimental daylight raids to focus exclusively on night attacks.

"The crew of HMS UPRIGHT with their Jolly Roger Flag recording their successes." Holy Loch, 17 April 1942. © IWM A 8426.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-123 (Kptlt. Reinhard Hardegen), on its eighth patrol out of Lorient, completes one of the war's best patrols by sinking 4834-ton US freighter Alcoa Guide about 300 miles east of Cape Hatteras. Out of torpedoes, Hardegen maneuvers close to the freighter and uses the last of his deck-gun ammunition to shell the ship from only 400 yards. The Alcoa Guide's master, Leroy Cobb, tries to ram the U-boat but fails, so the crew abandons the ship, which sinks at 05:23. There are six dead and 28 survivors. One survivor is at sea until 18 May when he is picked up by freighter Hororata.

During this patrol, U-123 has sunk 8 ships of 39,917 tons and damaged three more of 24,310 tons for a total of 64,227 tons. It is because of successes like this along the east coast of the United States that Admiral Doenitz extends his Operation Paukenschlag through the summer.

A fleet tanker refueling the ships of the Doolittle Raid, 17 April 1942 (US Navy).

U-66 (KrvKpt. Richard Zapp), on its fifth patrol out of Lorient, torpedoes and sinks 11,020-ton Panamanian tanker Heinrich von Riedemann between Grenada and Isla La Blanquilla. All 44 men on board survive in lifeboats, with 15 men landing at Blanquilla and 29 picked up by passing freighter Karmt the same day as the sinking.

Activity remains bustling along the Arctic convoy route even though no action takes place today. Soviet submarines K-21, S-1010, and ShCh-401 begin a patrol along the Arctic coast and two Soviet destroyers join Convoy PQ-14 to help it into port. U-376, meanwhile, is shadowing the convoy and fires torpedoes at Royal Navy cruiser HMS Edinburgh east of Bear Island, but misses. German U-boat commanders routinely complain about defective torpedoes during this stage of the war, with the problem ultimately traced to the magnetic detonators being triggered prematurely due to variations in the earth's magnetic field.

"One of a fleet of YMCA mobile canteens presented by the Women of India distributing free chocolate to troops in Benghazi." © IWM K 1930.

Battle of the Mediterranean: Luftwaffe General Albert Kesselring's air offensive against Malta, begun on 20 March 1942, is over for the time being. With the skies temporarily clear, the British issue orders today for troops from Army infantry brigades to help clear and restore airfields for operations.

POWs: French General Henri Giraud, held in Königstein Castle near Dresden, escapes by making a 150-foot (46 m) rope out of torn bedsheets, twine, and copper wire. Giraud has alerted his family back in France of his plans in letters using a simple code, so they have placed a British Special Operations Executive (SOE) contact at Schandau. Giraud makes it to Schandau and, supplied there with identity papers and clothes, continues on to the Swiss border.

Resistance: The Gestapo reports that there has been an increase in resistance activities in the Rhineland. These include anti-German graffiti and "V for Victory" signs.

US/Vichy French Relations: In the evening, President Roosevelt announces that he is recalling the US Ambassador to France, Admiral William Leahy (Retired), due to Marshal Pétain's appointment of arch-collaborator Pierre Laval as Vice-Premier (and effective head of the French government). Leahy will remain in France through the end of the month.

This photo was taken on 17 April 1942. It shows the area being cleared for the Pentagon. "Army Blitz levels Arlington Area-Government operations rather than a bomb caused this shell of a house and other wreckage near the new War Department Building in Arlington, Va. Workmen yesterday fired several houses, mostly frame, to clear the way for the network of roads which will surround the Federal structure, shown in the background. Colored families have moved into trailers supplied by the Government." Washington Star, 18 April 1942.

US Military: The US Army Air Force 5th Air Force transfers the 8th Pursuit Squadron (Interceptor), 49th Pursuit Group (Interceptor), from Canberra to Darwin, Australia. 

Holocaust: It is "Bloody Friday" in the Jewish District of Warsaw. In the evening, German officers and non-commissioned officers from the police, SS, Gestapo, and Jewish employees of the Jewish Ghetto Police undertake a "hunt" under the direction of SS leader Karl Brandt. The President of the Warsaw Judenrat, Adam Czerniaków, writes in his diary:

There is panic in the district. The shops are being closed. The population is gathering in the street in front of the houses. I went out onto the street and walked through several streets to calm the people down.

Cars containing armed Germans each assisted by a Jew of the Jewish Ghetto Police round up individuals and families based on a list of obscure derivation. The victims are given a few minutes to round up a very few possessions (to allay their suspicions) and then driven to a central spot and executed. A total of 52 people (both women and men) are shot. By the standards of the Holocaust, this is not a lot, but the entire city's Jewish population is terrorized. "Bloody Friday" is considered a prelude to the worst extermination campaigns that begin soon after.

American Homefront: In an article by H. Dyson Carter in The Family Circle magazine, the question is raised of whether comics are bad for children. Carter's answer is a resounding 'No." She (presumably, given the first name is shown as an initial and this is a woman's magazine) writes about the popularity of comics with children:

Yes, you say, but is this healthy? And what you mean is: Isn’t it dangerous to put so much faith in fantasy?  Isn’t this escapism?  Doctors Baker and Lourie answer no to both questions.  Your child isn’t wrong.  It’s you who are wrong.  You’ve lost touch, as adults invariably do, with the essence of childhood-which is a magic compound of imagination and fantasy.  It isn’t so much his faith that a child puts into these comic book stories.  It’s his gathering emotions, his craving for self-expression, his desire to be a part of great adventures.  And great adventures, at his age, are limited only by the limits of his imagination.  And where his imagination leaves off, Superman begins.

This article is the first shot in a long war about this particular issue. In the 1950s, Senator Estes Kefauver and Fredric Wertham will lead a crusade against comic books, so there is hardly unanimity on this topic. It is worth pointing out that the "Batman" and "Superman" comic series are both relatively new in 1942, with a classic serial of "The Batman" running in theaters. In the long run, the view expressed in this 1942 article ultimately prevails.

The Family Circle magazine, 17 April 1942, asks the eternal question: Are comics bad for kids.

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