March 19th, 1942 (THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Churchill has been complaining to the war office about the censors who strike out of news reports the names of famous regiments which have displayed gallantry in battle, even when it is apparent when the enemy is aware of their identities. But the censors are cautious folk: a rule that warships must not be named led one censor to delete HMS Pinafore in a theatre review.
The censorship is wide-ranging. Mostly it concerns overseas mail, all of which is censored; all telephone trunk lines are also tapped. Press censorship is theoretically voluntarily, but under Emergency regulation 2D the government does have power to ban newspapers (as it did for a time the communist Daily Worker). Press censorship affects news only; comment is free. But the pitfalls are many: a report of a football match may be banned if the players are employed by a factory or power station. Deaths and marriages in local papers are censored to remove references to servicemen and merchant seaman.
London: London: The Daily Mirror was today accused of "a reckless indifference to the national interest" by repeatedly publishing material "calculated to foment opposition to the successful prosecution of the war". The charge was made by Herbert Morrison, the home secretary, although it is understood that Mr Churchill instigated the move.
Mr Morrison summoned the editorial director, Harry Guy Bartholomew, and the editor, Cecil Thomas, and produced a cartoon showing a torpedoed seaman clinging to a raft in a heaving sea; the caption read: "The price of petrol has been increased by one penny - Official." Morrison said that the cartoon was clearly telling people that seamen were risking their lives for the profit of the oil companies. The Mirror men, for their part, believed that that he cartoon was a warning to the public that the petrol they used cost lives as well as pennies.
Morrison said the cartoon was only the latest example of a stream of "scurrilous misrepresentations, distorted and exaggerated statements and irresponsible generalisations". He quoted a leading article which called the nation's leaders and senior military officers "brass-buttoned boneheads, socially prejudiced, arrogant and fussy ... with a tendency to heart disease, apoplexy, diabetes and high blood pressure". If the paper did not mend its way, Morrison said, he would shut it down.
The Government issues a new order regarding standard time throughout the country. The new order changes the start date of double summer time to the day after the first Saturday in April (5 April 1942).
Minesweeper HMS Lyme Regis launched.
GERMANY: During the day, RAF Bomber Command dispatches a Wellington to Essen but the aircraft returns early due to lack of cloud cover.
YUGOSLAVIA: In Serbia and Croatia, the Germans face Yugoslav partisans. The Germans issue a directive ordering houses and villages supporting partisans to be levelled. "Removal of the population to concentration camps can also be useful," the directive notes. "If it is not possible to ‘apprehend or seize’ partisans, themselves, ‘reprisal measures of a general nature may be in order, for example, the shooting of male inhabitants in nearby localities.’ “ The directive sets a ratio, 100 Serbs shot for one German killed, 50 Serbs shot for one wounded.
U.S.S.R.: Moscow: The Germans today launched Operation Munich, a full-scale offensive designed to wipe out the large forces of partisans operating behind the German lines between Vyazma and Smolensk.
A special air detachment set up at Bobruisk has pinpointed the partisan bases in the forests around Yelnya and Dorogubuzh, and is now bombing them and harrying the guerrillas as they flee.
Squads of German ski-troops are sweeping through the countryside, burning villages and shooting the inhabitants. The need for the Germans to mount such in operation demonstrates the increasing effort of the partisans on the war.
While the offensive may disperse the units, now stiffened with specially-trained soldiers, there is little doubt that they will regroup and return to raid the supply lines with even greater support from the surviving villagers.
Operation Bamberg kicks off near Bobruisk, with SS Police troops attacking Soviet villages. The Nazis burn the villages and kill 3,500 people, which only infuriates the survivors more, and make them join the partisans, making the whole exercise very counter-productive. From the Third Panzer Army diaries: "There are indications that the partisan movement in the region of Velikye Luki, Vitebsk, Rudnya, Velizh, is now being organised on a large scale. The fighting strength of the partisans hitherto active is bolstered by individual units of regular troops."
An offensive by Army Group North cuts off the
Soviet 2nd Shock Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Andrei Vlasov, in a
salient between Novgorod and Gruzino. The Soviet Army maintains pressure on the
Germans on the central and southern fronts.
INDIA: Calcutta: As Allied forces in Burma retreat before an invincible Japanese army. Lt-Gen William "Bill" Slim has been sent to command the last fighting units there. His corps comprises two ill-equipped divisions (one Indian, one Burmese) commanded by friends from Gurkha Regiment days. He needs friends. One division, swimming a river to elude the enemy, was left with 3,000 men with underpants and no boots, while Allied aircraft are outnumbered tenfold by Japan.
BURMA: Lieutenant General William J. Slim, former General Officer Commanding 10th Indian Division in Syria, arrives in Burma to take command of Imperial troops, now formed into the Burma I Corps. In the Sittang Valley, Japanese troops attack Toungoo, the original training base of the American Volunteer Group (AVG, aka, “The Flying Tigers”). General Slim aims to hold the Japanese on the Prome-Toungoo line, blocking two roads. Between the roads is 80 miles (129 kilometres) of jungle and hills, with no connecting roads. Two Chinese armies move to Toungoo to block that route. While Chinese divisions are the strength of British brigades, they are good troops with years of experience in fighting the Japanese. However, their top leader, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek, more concerned with fighting rival Communist leader Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-Tung), is reluctant to commit his troops. And communications between Slim and the American commanding the Chinese troops, Lieutenant General Jospeh Stilwell, are slow and complicated. British forces are in poor shape, too, demoralized and in retreat. The 17th Division has been on the run, and 1st Burmese is untested. Slim's HQ's radio batteries have to be recharged by operating a pedal-driven generator. Slim has one trump card, though, the 7th Armoured Brigade, superior to the tankless Japanese.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Philippine President Manuel Quezon and 13 members of his party are transported from Dumaguete, Negros Island, to Oroquito, Mindanao Island, after a 240-mile (386 kilometer) voyage in motor torpedo boat PT-41.
NEW GUINEA: Flight Lieutenant J. F. Jackon, a pilot who has served with No. 3 Squadron RAAF in the Western Desert, is appointed to command No. 75 Squadron RAAF.
Today 17 Kittyhawks are flown off from Townsville, Queensland, on their way to Port Moresby, staging by way of Cookstown and Horn Island.
Jeffrey led the first flight of 4 without escort and Jackson followed leading the main force of 13. By this time the garrison at Port Moresby had become increasingly sceptical of reports that a fighter squadron would be sent for their protection and none more so than the troops manning the machine-gun posts round the aerodromes.
Having now endured 16 enemy raids, these gunners regarded with understandable cynicism the prospect of the arrival of the Kittyhawks they had so often been told to expect. To their cynicism they gave a twist of wry humour by dubbing them the "Tomorrowhawks", "Neverhawks" or "Mythhawks". (Daniel Ross)
AUSTRALIA: General Douglas MacArthur"> MacArthur and his party endure travelling in a tiny railroad coach with two hard wooden seats running lengthwise. The second car is a diner with a long wooden table, washtubs full of ice, and an Australian army stove. Two Australian sergeants and an army nurse do the housekeeping. To switch from diner to passenger car, the train has to stop, and passengers have to get out of one car and walk along the ground to the other. MacArthur and his families sit in the car, besieged by flies. MacArthur goes to sleep. At one point, the engineer stops the train, surrounded by sheep ranchers. The general thinks they want a speech from the war hero but actually they want a doctor to assist one of the ranchers; after the surgery, the train leaves.
FIJI: Japanese submarine HIJMS I-25 launches a Yokosuka E14Y1, Navy Type 0 Small Reconnaissance Seaplane (later assigned the Allied Code Name “Glen”), to reconnoiter Suva on Vitu Levu Island.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: Military Intelligence warns that a Japanese seizure of the Aleutian Islands, or a raid on Alaska, could be expected at any time. It is believed that the attack would be to prevent the U.S. from invading Japan from the north, or to obstruct Soviet/American communications.
U.S.A.: President Roosevelt ordered men between the ages of 45 - 64 to register for non-military duty. (Michael Ballard)
SecNav gave Civil Engineering Corps command of Seabees.
The action adventure motion picture "Reap the Wild Wind" is released in the U.S. Directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Ray Milland, John Wayne, Paulette Goddard, Raymond Massey, Robert Preston, Susan Hayward, Charles Bickford and Hedda Hopper, the plot concerns 19th-century ship salvagers operating in the Florida Keys. The film is nominated for three Academy Awards and wins one.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: German submarine U-332 torpedoes and sinks an armed U.S. freighter, SS Liberator, about 17 miles (27 kilometres) southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, U.S.A.
U-124 sank SS Papoose and W.E. Hutton.