March 10th, 1942 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: War spending reaches £9,050 million, exceeding the cost of the entire First World War.
Westminster: Anthony Eden today gave details of alleged Japanese atrocities in Hong Kong to a stunned parliament. MPs and Peers heard the chilling facts about the fate of the garrison after its surrender.
Fifty British soldiers were bound hand and foot and then bayoneted to death. Women of all races were raped and abused for the pleasure of the Japanese. More than a week after the surrender, wounded were being brought down from the hills, but the Japanese refused to allow the dead to be buried.
Mr Eden described the Japanese claim that their soldiers are inspired by the chivalric code of the Samurai, warriors of feudal Japan, as "nauseating hypocrisy."
A group of Australian nurses and British soldiers which surrendered to the Japanese in Malaya last month is said to have been summarily executed. The men were bayoneted and shot and the nurses forced to walk into the sea and the machine-gunned down. Two soldiers and one nurse miraculously survived.
The Chinese too have been dealt with mercilessly. Some 5,000 civilians were rounded up in Singapore on 18 February. Two weeks later they were all dead. Many of their bodies were found decapitated with the hands tied behind the backs.
Prisoners who have been taken alive live in fear that every day is their last. Unconfirmed reports tell of the butchering of 120 Australian PoWs on Amboina Island on 20 February. They were executed by the bayonet or sword, kneeling with the eyes covered.
Prime Minister Winston Churchill bluntly warns that if the U.S. Navy can't stop German U-boat depredations in the Caribbean, he'll order British tankers to remain in port.
Corvette HMCS Dunvegan arrived Londonderry.
FRANCE: Two RAF Bomber Command aircraft bomb the Boulogne port area during the night of the 10th/11th.
NETHERLANDS: One RAF Bomber Command aircraft bombs the Rotterdam port area during the night of the 10th/11th.
GERMANY: The RAF's new heavy bomber, the Avro Lancaster, makes its first night raid over Germany when two aircraft of No. 44 Squadron take part in a raid on Essen. (22)
During the night of the 10th/11th, RAF Bomber Command
dispatches 126 aircraft, 56 Wellingtons,
43 Hampdens, 13 Manchesters, 12 Stirlings and two Lancasters to bomb Essen; this
was the first participation by Lancasters in a raid on a German target. This was
another disappointing raid with unexpected cloud being the main cause of poor
bombing; only 85 crews claimed to have bombed Essen. The report from Essen shows
that only two bombs fell on an industrial target - railway lines near the Krupps
factory - and a house was destroyed and two damaged in residential areas. Five
Germans were killed and 12 injured and a Polish worker was killed by a Flak
shell which descended and exploded on the ground. Individual aircraft bomb
Bochum, Duisburg and Gelsenkirchen.
In Berlin, a strange part of the propaganda war takes place when U.S. born
Jane Anderson, a Georgia socialite makes one of her “Georgia Peach” broadcasts
to the US on Deutsche Rundfunk shortwave. Anderson, married to a Spanish
grandee, and a fanatical anti-Communist, has been broadcasting English-language
propaganda aimed at the US, denouncing Jews and the U.S. media, and praising
Adolf Hitler, in an increasingly
hysterical and incoherent manner. Today, to embitter her American listeners with
news concerning the delicacies to be found in Germany's fine restaurants, she
reports on how Berlin nightclubs and teashops offer Turkish cakes laden with
marzipan, chocolate, and champagne. “Sweets and cookies and champagne, not bad!”
The U.S. Office of War Information rebroadcasts the descriptions of Berlin high
life back into the Reich to anger the average German, who is eating ersatz
chocolate and drinking ersatz coffee, and enduring “one-meal Sundays.” The
counter-broadcasts in turn outrage the Rundfunk, and Anderson is bounced off the
air.
ARCTIC OCEAN: Soviet submarine M-175 of the Polar fleet and White Sea Flotilla is sunk by a German U-boat north of the Ribachi Islands. (Sergey Anisimov) (69)
IRAN: Iran is declared eligible for U.S. lend-Lease.
CHINA: Lieutenant General Joseph Stilwell, Commanding General American Army Forces, China, Burma and India, is appointed Chief of Staff of the Chinese Army, and spends most of the war arguing with Chinese Leader Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Lieutenant General Jonathan M.
Wainwright, Commanding General I Corps, visits General Douglas
MacArthur">
MacArthur, Commanding General U.S. Army
Forces, Far East (USAFFE), on Corregidor and learns that he (Wainwright) will
head Luzon Force and that his I Corps will be turned over to Brigadier General
Albert M. Jones, Commanding General Philippine 51st Division. General
MacArthur">
MacArthur, after his withdrawal from
the Philippines, plans to remain in control of Philippine operations from
Australia through Colonel Lewis C. Beebe, who will be deputy chief of staff of
USAFFE.
Rear Admiral Francis W. Rockwell, Commandant Sixteenth Naval District,
gives Lieutenant John Bulkeley,
Commander of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three (MTBRon 3) based on Bataan, his
orders regarding the evacuation of General
MacArthur and his party from
Corregidor Island to Mindanao Island.
Bulkeley, with PT-41, is to pick up his passengers, including General and
Mrs.
MacArthur and their son, and Major General Richard K. Sutherland,
MacArthur’s Chief of Staff, at North Dock at Corregidor at 1930 hours tomorrow.
PT-34 and PT-35 are to remain at their base on Bataan so that the Japanese do
not observe any unusual activity; these two boats will transport Admiral
Rockwell and his Chief of Staff, Captain Ray, USN, who will be transported from
Corregidor to Bataan by launch. The fourth PT boat, PT-32, will pick up
passengers at Quarantine Dock at Mariveles at 1915 hours. The plan is for the
four boats to rendezvous at the entrance to Manila Bay at 2000 hours tomorrow
night.
NEW GUINEA The Japanese make a landing at Finschhafen on the Huon Peninsula. The Japanese needed to capture towns such as Finschhafen and Salamaua to protect their forward air base at Lae.
The intention is to deny a Japanese attempt to gain control of the 100-mile Torres Straits separating New Guinea and Queensland.
At the same time Japanese aircraft have bombed Port Moresby, the Papuan capital, and there are reports of an invasion fleet heading for the town.
USN Task Force Eleven (TF 11) (Vice Admiral Wilson Brown Jr.),
which includes ships of TF 17 (Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher), on the heels
of initial nuisance raids by RAAF Hudsons, attacks the Japanese invasion fleet
(Rear Admiral Kajioka Sadamichi) off Lae and Salamaua. Sixty one SBD
Dauntlesses of Bombing
Squadron Two (VB-2), Scouting Squadron Two (VS-2), VB-5 and VS-5, and TBD
Dauntlesses of Torpedo
Squadron Two (VT 2) and VT 5, supported by
F4F
Wildcats of Fighting Squadrons Three (VF 3) and VF 42 from the aircraft carriers
USS Lexington (CV-2) and Yorktown (CV-5) fly over the 15,000-foot (4572 meter)
Owen Stanley Mountains on the tip of New Guinea to hit Japanese shipping. They
sink armed a merchant cruiser, an auxiliary minelayer, and a transport; and
damage light cruiser HIJMS Yubari; destroyers HIJMS Yunagi, Asanagi, Oite,
Asakaze, and Yakaze; a minelayer; seaplane carrier; a transport; and a
minesweeper. One VS-2 SBD is lost to antiaircraft fire.
Eight USAAF B-17E Flying Fortresses and RAAF Hudsons conduct follow up
strikes but inflict no appreciable additional damage.
Japanese Navy aircraft based at Rabaul, New Britain Island, Bismarck
Archipelago, attack targets around Huon Gulf and in the Port Moresby area.
In a message to British Prime Minister Churchill, President Franklin D.
Roosevelt hails the raid as “the best day's work we've had.” The success of the
U.S. carrier strike (the first time in which two carrier air groups attack a
common objective) convinces Japanese war planners that continued operations in
the New Guinea area will require carrier support, thus setting the stage for
confrontation in the Coral Sea.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: Japanese troops land on Buka
Island, the 190 square mile (492 square kilometer) island just north of
Bougainville Island. The two islands are separated by Buka Passage.
MIDWAY ATOLL: A Kawanishi H6K4, Navy Type 97 Flying Boat (later assigned the Allied Code Name “Mavis”), is shot down southwest of Midway by a Marine Fighting Squadron Two Hundred Twenty One (VMF-221) F2A Buffalo fighter pilot. The flying boat, based at Wotje Atoll in the Marshall Islands, had been refueled at sea by a Japanese submarine.
U.S.A.: The House of
Representatives votes to increase the U. S. national debt from US$65 billion to
US$125 billion. (Considering inflation, that is from US$792 billion to US$1.524
trillion in 2002 dollars.)
Corvette USS Impulse commissioned.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 0632, the unescorted and unarmed U.S. steam tanker Gulftrade was torpedoed by U-588 three miles off Barnegat Light, New Jersey, U.S. The U-boat spotted the tanker, because the running lights and the masthead light had been turned on to avoid collision with several colliers in the vicinity. A torpedo struck the starboard side just forward of the mainmast and just aft of the bridgehouse. The explosion broke the ship in two, ripped up the decks and completely opened tanks #5, #6 and #7. Oil and debris was sprayed over the vessel from stem to stern and the ship caught fire immediately. Within one minute, the high seas washed over the tanker and extinguished the flames. The engines were stopped and the crew of eight officers and 26 crewmen abandoned the ship. The high seas and the fact that oil lay several inches deep all about the deck and had filled the boats complicated the abandonment. Seven survivors stayed on the stern and nine abandoned ship in a lifeboat. Two other boats with 18 men swamped, drowning the officer and 17 crewmen in them. USCGC Antietam arrived and picked up the men in the lifeboat. While manoeuvring to remove the men on the stern, her port propeller got fouled with a mooring line. Net tender USS Larch then rescued the men. The survivors reported that the U-boat surfaced 5 minutes after the attack, circled the stern and departed 45 minutes later on a southerly course. The master, Torger Olsen, died on 21 Oct, 1943, when his next ship the Gulfland collided with the Gulfbelle. (Jack McKillop and Dave Shirlaw)
At 0449, U-161 fired two torpedoes into Port Castries, St Lucia. The first torpedo hit SS Lady Nelson, which caught fire and sank by the stern in shallow waters. The second torpedo struck Umtata, which exploded and also sank. However, both vessels were later salvaged and repaired.
When U-155 headed back from the US-East coast it lost I WO Oberleutnant zur See Gert Rentrop overboard.