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March 16th, 1942 (MONDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: London: The Soviet ambassador asks Churchill to open a second front on mainland Europe.

British Lord Privy Seal Sir Stafford Cripps leaves London to negotiate with Indian leaders who want independence. Cripps will offer freedom after the war. Hindu leaders Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharal Nehru demand immediate independence for a unified India while Moslem League President Mohammed Ali Hinnah wants a separate Pakistan. 

GERMANY:

U-706 commissioned.

U-423 laid down.

U-187 launched.


 

POLAND: About 1,600 Jews are deported from the Lublin area to Belzec, the second camp after Chelmno - designed purely for the killing of Jews; it opened on 13 March, when 6,000 Jews from Mielec were murdered.

U.S.S.R.: In response to the problem of partisans in the occupied Soviet Union, the Germans set up a special air detachment in Bobruisk, with orders to bomb partisan camps and seek partisan units from the air. This unit will take part in Operation Munich, a three-week anti-partisan sweep to begin in the third week of March. 

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Japanese siege guns bombard American forts in Manila Bay. One 240 mm shell detonates beneath a Fort Frank powder room, breaking up the concrete and hurling some 60 (filled) powder cans about. Miraculously, none of them explode or catch fire. 

     Submarine USS Permit (SS-178) delivers ammunition to Corregidor Island, and evacuates the second increment of naval radio and communications intelligence people. 

     At Del Monte Airfield on Mindanao Island, two B-17 Flying Fortresses arrive just before 2400 hours, the runway lit by two flares, one at each end. Lead pilot Lieutenant Frank P. Bostrom drinks eight cups of coffee to fortify himself for the return flight while mechanics repair his defective supercharger. Bostrom tells General Douglas MacArthur"> MacArthur his party must abandon their luggage and Jean MacArthur boards carrying only a silk scarf and a coat with a fur collar. 

Station Cast (USN Intelligence, Bataan) makes the first decrypt of the Japanese naval code JN-25B, identifying AF as being Midway Island. (William L. Howard)

AUSTRALIA: Darwin was bombed in Raid no 5 (of 64). Targets were Darwin RAAF Airfield and Anti-Aircraft Battery located at Bagot Road (probably overshoots from the airfield). (Daniel Ross)

CANADA: First arrivals at Vancouver's Hastings Park pooling centre. All Japanese Canadian mail censored from this date.

Frigate USS Natchez laid down Montreal, Province of Quebec.

U.S.A.: Fats Waller recorded "The Jitterbug Waltz" for Bluebird Records. (Michael Ballard)

The Maritime Commission places orders for another 234 "Liberty" ships -- slow-moving 10,500-ton merchant vessels. 

Light fleet carrier USS Cabot laid down.

Minesweeper USS Tide laid down.

Destroyer USS Charles Ausburne launched.

Destroyer KNM Eskdale launched.

Destroyer USS Murray laid down.

Todays issue of TIME prints two letters concerning internment/relocation

One letter is from a Japanese-American editor of the "Japan-California News"

(Los Angeles) that agrees(!) with the relocation of himself and his fellow Japanese-Americans from the West Coast on the basis of relieving the Army of having to keep a watch over them all so the Army can devote itself to defense, and that as loyal citizens they will be of service working on inland farms; plus he notes that should an attack occur on the West Coast, it would be best if the Japanese-Americans were not in the area to fall victim to vigilantism (of which California has a long history).

The second letter was from a resident of Beverly Hills who wrote that she thought there was no need to evacuate them as she detected no desire for that from typical Californians -- only racists and competing local farmers wanted them gone. She also equates such an evacuation as being similar to fascist racial doctrines.

TIME later noted in this issue that German and Italian aliens over 70 years old or who had sons or brothers in the US armed forces were not interned/relocated, but these exceptions were not applied to racial Japanese, citizens or not.  (William Rinaman)

CARIBBEAN SEA: At 1824, the unescorted Manaqui, dispersed from Convoy OS-20, was torpedoed and sunk by U-504 SE of Barbuda, Leeward Islands. The master, 34 crewmembers and six gunners were lost.
 

ATLANTIC OCEAN: Two unarmed merchant tankers are sunk by German submarines off the coast of the U.S.: (1) The first is torpedoed, shelled, and irreparably damaged by U-332 about 20 miles (32 kilometres) southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina; and (2) a British ship is torpedoed and sunk by U-404 about 150 miles (241 kilometres) east of Norfolk, Virginia. 

At 1955, the unescorted, unarmed and zigzagging tanker Australia was spotted by U-332 off the Diamond Shoals Lighted Buoy and within sight of the steam merchant William J. Salman and several other ships. Lighting in the distance outlined the ship against the sky, making the tanker a better target. A torpedo struck the starboard side in the engine room about 12 feet below the waterline. The explosion sent flames and smoke through the engine room skylights, destroyed the engine room fuel lines and auxiliary pipes and killed the officer and three men on watch below. Water flooded in the compartment, extinguishing the blaze as the tanker settled quickly by the stern. The surviving seven officers and 29 men abandoned ship in three lifeboats. The William J. Salman picked them up within one hour and 35 minutes and delivered them to armed yacht USS Ruby. On 17 March, they were landed at Southport, North Carolina. The stern of the Australia rested on the bottom on an even keel and was submerged with only her masts visible but all her cargo tanks intact. The total loss committee of the WSA sent a notice to the Texas Company that they could collect insurance for total loss by sinking the vessel and she was sunk on 20 March. William J. Salman was herself torpedoed and sunk by U-125 on 18 May 1942.

At 2317, the unescorted Baron Newlands was torpedoed and sunk by U-68 six miles south of Cape Palmas, Liberia. 14 crewmembers and four gunners were lost. The master, 17 crewmembers and two gunners landed at Grande Sesters and Piccaniani Cess, near Cape Palmas.

 

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