March 11th, 1942 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Lord Woolton, the minister of food, announced today that there will be no more white bread on sale after 6 April, in order to save shipping. The "national wheatmeal loaf", which is not brown, but off-white in colour, will take its place. It has failed to catch on voluntarily, accounting for only 7% of sales. "In spite of advertisements I have issued, the nation has made it quite clear that it prefers white bread," Lord Woolton admitted, "but I don't believe it wants it as the expense of troop movements."
LCdr. Herbert Sharples RAYNER, was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC). The citation (awarded as per the London Gazette) read: "For courage and enterprise in action against enemy submarines."
GERMANY:
MEDITERRANEAN SEA:
U-565 sinks HMS Naiad
(AA cruiser)
at 32 01N 26
19E, north of Sollum, Egypt.
Seventy-seven of Naiad's 470 crewmembers are lost. (Alex Gordon and Dave Shirlaw)(108)
MALTA: The military garrison is placed under command of Commander in Chief Middle East Forces. Naval and RAF garrisons are under command of Commander in Chief Mediterranean and Air Officer Commanding in Chief, respectively. Lieutenant General Sir William Dobbie, Governor of Malta, remains commander in chief.
INDIA: New Delhi: Lieutenant-General "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell, a lanky, thin-lipped American general with a reputation for forcefully speaking his mind, will next week take over command of all American forces in the China-Burma-India theatre. Stilwell, who served with distinction in the Great War, is a student of Chinese and a former military attaché in Peking. He will also be chief-of-staff to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek - although he prefers to eat and sleep with his troops.
BURMA: The Burma Army regroups in preparation for the defence of upper Burma. In the Irrawaddy Valley, the Indian 17th Division is disposed in the Tharrawaddy area. In the Sittang Valley, the Burma 1st Division, after successful diversionary attacks against Shwegyin and Madauk, east of Nyaunglebin, withdraws, except for the 13th Brigade, to positions north of Kanyutkwin. Lieutenant General Joseph Stilwell, Commanding General American Army Forces, China, Burma and India and Chief of Staff of the Chinese Army, is placed in command of the Chinese 5th and 6th Armies (actually the size of a Western division). The Chinese 6th Army is holding Shan States; the Chinese 5th Army, except for the 200th Division disposed in the Toungoo area, is to concentrate at Mandalay.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: General Douglas
MacArthur ">
MacArthur
leaves Luzon. "I shall return!" General Douglas
MacArthur">
MacArthur, Commanding General U.S. Army
Forces, Far East, his family, Rear Admiral Francis W. Rockwell and their staffs
embark from Corregidor and Bataan in four motor torpedo (PT) boats, PT-32,
PT-34, PT-35 and PT-41, of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three (MTBRon 3). The
plan is that the boats will make for Tagauayan Island, in the Cuyo Group, and
arrive by 0730 hours tomorrow morning.
Three USAAF B-17 Flying Fortresses takeoff from Australia to fly to Del
Monte Field on Mindanao to pick up the
MacArthur party. One turns back due to
mechanical problems, the second crashes at sea off Mindanao and the third lands
at Del Monte however; it is in poor mechanical condition.
Major General Jonathan Wainwright assumes command of the 95,000 Americans
and Filipinos on Bataan and Corregidor.
EAST CHINA SEA: Submarine USS Pollack (SS-180), operating in the East China Sea about 270 miles (435 kilometres) east of Shanghai, China, sinks a Japanese merchant cargo ship and a passenger-cargo.
CANADA: Canadian and U.S. representatives meet in Ottawa to discuss the construction of buildings and facilities on the Northwest Staging Route, the air route that will be established between Edmonton, Alberta, and Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, to permit flying aircraft from the continental U.S. to the Territory of Alaska.. The meeting ends tomorrow.
Corvette HMCS Galt completed refit Liverpool , Nova Scotia.
BRAZIL: President Vargas has today confiscated up to 30% of the funds of German, Italian and Japanese citizens resident in Brazil, recalled all Brazilian ships to port and confined the Japanese ambassador and his staff to the embassy.
These measures are in response to the torpedoing of a fourth Brazilian vessel by the Germans and the mistreatment of the Brazilian ambassador in Tokyo. They also open the way for a declaration of war against the Axis powers by Brazil.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: An unarmed U.S. freighter is torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine. U-126 sinks the first about 40 miles (64 kilometres) east of Nuevitas, Cuba.
At 0758, the unescorted and unarmed U.S. freighter Caribsea was missed by one torpedo from U-158 about 14 miles east of the Cape Lookout Lighthouse. The torpedo missed, because Rostin thought the ship (misidentified as Coast Guard vessel) lay dead in the water, but the master reduced the speed of the vessel to four or five knots, according the order he has received to pass Cape Hatteras in daylight. A second torpedo was fired, which struck the starboard bow at the #2 hatch, causing the boilers to explode. The Caribsea sank by the head due her cargo in less than three minutes. So no radio distress signals were sent and the crew of eight officers and 20 men had no chance to launch the lifeboats. The few survivors climbed onto two rafts that floated free and they later observed U-158 passing within 100 yards. Two officers and five crewmen were picked up by the American SS Norlindo ten hours after the attack and took them to the Cape Henry Lighthouse. (Jack McKillop and Dave Shirlaw)
At 0316, the unescorted and unarmed Hvoslef was hit by two torpedoes from U-94 and sank within two minutes two miles east of Fenwick Island off Delaware Bay. The master, three Norwegian and two Swedish crewmembers were lost. The survivors kept themselves afloat in a damaged lifeboat until they landed on Rehobeth Beach near Cape Henlopen about a half-mile north of Fenwick Island Light after 14 hours. Three injured men were hospitalized in the Babe Hospital in Lewis, while the other survivors were sent to New York the following day. The body of the master was later found on a cork raft, which was located by an aircraft two days later.
ASW trawler HMS Stella Capella torpedoed and sunk by U-701 south of Iceland.