March 9th, 1942 (MONDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Bomber Command aircraft fitted with a revolutionary navigational device code-named "Gee" bombed Essen last night in the first large-scale use of the new system.
"Gee" works by sending out pulse signals from three different ground stations. These signals are picked up by the bombers and enable their navigators to calculate their positions by observing the time taken for the signals to reach them.
Aircraft equipped with "Gee" illuminated last night's target and were followed by other "Gee" bombers which dropped incendiaries. It is hoped the system will improve night navigation.
Frigate HMS Exe is launched.
Submarines USS R-17 and R-19 transferred to RN under Lend Lease and renamed HMS P-512 and P-552 respectively.
P-512 assigned to Halifax and P-552 to Argentia/St John's for ASW training.
NETHERLANDS: Individual RAF
Bomber Command aircraft bomb Schipol and Soesterburg Airfields during the
night of the 9th/10th.
FRANCE: Six RAF Bomber
Command Bostons on a Circus raid bomb the Mazingarbe fuel depot during the
day; there are no losses.
During the night of the 9th/10th, nine RAF Bomber Command Wellingtons and Stirlings are dispatched to bomb the port area of Boulogne; only two aircraft bomb the target.
GERMANY: During the night of
the 9th/10th, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 187 aircraft, 136 Wellingtons,
21 Stirlings, 15 Hampdens, ten Manchesters and five Halifaxes, to continue
the series of heavy Gee-guided raids on Essen. One hundred forty three
aircraft bomb but thick ground haze leads to scattered bombing and only two
buildings are destroyed in Essen but 72 are damaged. Four other aircraft
attack Duisburg and individual aircraft bomb Emmerich and Oberhausen. Two
Welingtons and a Halifax are lost.
Five RAF Bomber Command Hampdens lay mines in the Frisian Islands.
NORWAY: Twelve Albacore aircraft from HMS Victorious make an unsuccessful torpedo attack on the TIRPITZ. They scored no hits and two aircraft are shot down.
INDIA: New Delhi:
Java, the greatest prize in the triumphant Japanese campaign of conquest in
South-east Asia, has fallen. After bloody engagements in the jungle, the Dutch,
British, Australian and US contingents have surrendered.
The Dutch East Indies government has flown out to Australia. Java appeared doomed after Singapore fell three weeks ago. Resistance crumbled rapidly once the three Japanese invasion forces, meeting little resistance on the beaches, came ashore and moved inland. A Japanese column attacked Kalidjati airfield where the defenders, mostly British anti-aircraft gunners turned infantrymen fought bravely until they had been practically wiped out. In the west the Japanese 2nd Division advanced towards Batavia by the coast road and on Buitenzorg by the southern road.
The destruction of the Allied naval forces in the Java Sea last month, the weakness of Allied air power, and the blockade imposed by overwhelming Japanese naval dominance made capitulation in Java inevitable. At 9am today Lieutenant-General H ter Poorten, the Allied commander, broadcast that all were to lay down their arms.
BURMA: Burma Army forces at Taukkyan continue a withdrawal northward without serious difficulty.
NEW CALEDONIA:
American troops, Task Force 6814 consisting of the HQ of the 51st Infantry
Brigade and the 132d and 182 Infantry under the command of Major General
Alexander M. Patch, land at Noumea on New Caledonia Island. A brief
diplomatic scuffle ensues after Patch takes a dissident group of local
militiamen under his command but the matter is quickly resolved in favor of
the French and a new governor is appointed for the island.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: General Douglas
MacArthur,
Commanding General U.S. Army Forces, Far East, announces that General
YAMASHITA Tomoyoki has replaced Lieutenant General HOMMA Masaharu as
Commander of the Japanese 14th Army in the Philippines.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt again radios
MacArthur to leave the
Philippines and
MacArthur agrees he will leave Corregidor by 15 March. The
question is how. The original plan was for
MacArthur and party to leave in
the submarine USS Permit (SS-178) on 14 March. However, the radio press in
the U.S. began broadcasting demands that
MacArthur be placed in command of
all Allied Forces in Australia and the Japanese, realizing that he will
flee, increase the size and frequency of naval patrols in Subic Bay and off
Corregidor. A destroyer division is sighted in the southern Philippines
heading north at high speed. Tokyo Rose is broadcasting that
MacArthur will
be captured within a month, and U.S. Navy officers give
MacArthur a
one-in-five chance. Therefore, It is decided not to wait for the submarine
but to leave by motor torpedo (PT) boat as soon as preparations can be
completed. The PT boats will take him to Mindanao Island and the party will
then board three USAAF B-17 Flying Fortresses at Del Monte Field for a
flight to Australia.
NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: At 1430 hours on Java, in compliance with the demands of Lieutenant General IMAMURA Hitoshi, Commander of the Japanese 16th Army, Dutch Lieutenant General Hein Ter Poorten makes a second radio broadcast in which all British, Australian and American units are ordered to lay down their arms.
NEW GUINEA: Land-based aircraft attack a
Japanese convoy in Huon Gulf with unobserved results. Japanese aircraft
continue the neutralization of points in New Guinea.
AUSTRALIA: A leading
brigade of the 7th Division Australian Imperial Force arrives in Adelaide, South
Australia, from the Middle East. Elements of the division had been sent to Java
where they soon became prisoners of the Japanese.
Submarine USS Swordfish (SS-193) disembarks U.S. High Commissioner to the
Philippine Islands Francis B. Sayre and his party at Fremantle, Western
Australia.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: Australian coastwatcher P. Good is executed by the Japanese on Buka Island, north of Bougainville. He had been betrayed by an Australian news broadcast reporting enemy shipping movements.
CANADA: An advance construction team of U.S. Army engineers arrives at Dawson Creek, British Columbia, to begin work on the 1,522 mile (2449 kilometre) Alcan Highway between Dawson Creek and Fairbanks, Territory of Alaska, U.S.A.
U.S.A.: Admiral Harold Stark relieves Admiral Ghormley as Commander US Naval Forces in European Waters.
A major U.S. Army reorganization, implementing an Executive Order of 28 February, becomes effective today. General Headquarters is abolished and three autonomous commands, Army Ground Forces under Lieutenant General Lesley J. McNair, Army Air Forces under Lieutenant General Henry H. “Hap” Arnold, and Services of Supply (later designated as Army Service Forces) under Major General Brehon B. Somervell, are given responsibility for Zone of Interior (ZI) functions under General George C. Marshall as Chief of Staff. The field forces remain under control of the War Department General Staff. The Air Corps and the US Army Air Force Combat Command, which previously had made up the Army Air Forces (AAF), are discontinued.
The Anglo-American Caribbean Commission is founded.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: A Brazilian steamship, the unescorted Hog Islander SS Cayru, is torpedoed by German submarine U-94, breaks in two and sinks about 130 miles (209 kilometres) east of Atlantic City, New Jersey, U.S. All hands on board abandoned ship, but only the lifeboat with the master and 26 other men was found. The other lifeboats with 47 crewmembers and six passengers disappeared. (Jack McKillop and Dave Shirlaw)
SS Lily sunk by U-587 at 43.32N, 54.14W.
MS Tyr sunk by U-96 at 43.40N, 61.10W.
CARIBBEAN SEA: At 1317, the
unescorted and unarmed motor tanker Hanseat was hit by two torpedoes from U-126
10 miles NNE of Cape Maysi, Cuba. The first torpedo struck on the starboard side
in the bow and tore holes in both sides, the second hit simultaneously in the
stern, just ahead of the propeller near the engine room. The tanker immediately
settled by the stern, due to the flooding of the engine room. The engines were
stopped and distress signals were sent, before the Danish crew abandoned ship in
all four lifeboats. A short time later, the U-boat surfaced and started to shell
the Hanseat for about two hours. About 200 rounds were fired into the port side,
setting the tanker ablaze. One lifeboat had an outboard motor and reached the
village of Maysi about seven hours after the attack. The men in the boat
immediately left aboard the Cuban motor launch Corsario to rescue the other
survivors. In the meantime, the men in the remaining lifeboats sighted the
Panamanian motor tanker Pheobus enroute from New York to Caripito, bearing
directly toward the burning Hanseat. Brandt hoisted a yellow flag to warn her,
because they were only 7 miles away from the wreck and they thought that the
U-boat was still in the vicinity. The other tanker came near and Groth spoke to
Brandt, inquiring him about the condition of the survivors and offering
assistance. Brandt told him to keep on going in order not to endanger his ship
by stopping. Groth promised to send help and proceeded on his course. By this
time the last sign of smoke from the Hanseat had disappeared, apparently the
ship was completely sunk. Two hours after leaving Maysi, the motor launch
arrived at the scene and took the three lifeboats in tow to Maysi. The survivors
were then transported on the Corsario to Baracoa, Cuba and later by bus to
Havana. They were flown to Miami and were then sent by train back to New York,
arriving on 24 March.