March 29th, 1942 (SUNDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The text of the "Draft Declaration of Discussion, with Indian Leaders," taken to India by Sir Stafford Cripps is published simultaneously in India and Great Britain. The British Government had decided to lay down in clear terms the steps to be taken for the earliest possible realization of self-government in India. "The object is the creation of a new Indian union which shall constitute a Dominion, associated with the United Kingdom and the other Dominions by a common allegiance to the Crown but equal to them in every respect, in no way subordinate in any aspect of its domestic or external affairs…”
FRANCE: The raid on St. Nazaire had started on yesterday, finishing in the early hours of today. On this day, an old destroyer which had been 'traded' to the British and became the HMS Campbeltown, exploded in an attempt to blow up the lock gates and destroy the drydock facilities at St. Nazaire. The Germans had had the time to investigate the Campbeltown after it crashed into the gates, but had failed to detect the explosives which packed the front of the boat. Up to 400 Germans were killed when the Campbeltown blew up. (Michael Ballard)
USS Buchanan (DD-131), was commissioned as HMS Campbeltown (I-42) on 9 Sep. 1940, part of the destroyers-for-bases deal. Campbeltown has been fitted with a large demolition charge, last night at 0134 hours she rammed the Normandie Lock in St. Nazaire, France to destroy the only drydock on the Atlantic coast capable of accepting the German battleship Tirpitz. The charge breachd the drydock and destroy Campbeltown. (Ron Babuka)
During the night of the 29th/30th, five RAF Bomber Command aircraft drop leaflets on Lille.
FRIESIAN ISLANDS: During the night of the 29th/30th, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 26 aircraft, 18 Hampdens and 8 Manchesters, to lay mines in the Friesians and off Denmark; two Manchesters are lost.
GERMANY: Hitler orders reprisal raids after a RAF air raid on Lübeck. These are known as "Baedeker Raids".
Guided towards their target by the new "Gee" navigation system, 234 Wellingtons, Hampdens, Stirlings and Manchesters, set it ablaze with over 400 tons of bombs, over half of which were incendiaries.
Lübeck's picturesque old town of close-built wooden houses was, in Air Marshal Harris's words, "built more like a firelighter than a human habitation". Nearly 320 people died in the raid, and 784 were injured. This is one of the heaviest death tolls ever in one raid over Germany. Photographs show that 30% of the town has been destroyed.
A number of factories were devastated and dock installations and the railway were heavily damaged. The raid was not, however, aimed at a military target. Its objective was to demonstrate what area bombing by a concentrated force could achieve.
The chiefs of staff have laid down that the aim of the bombing offensive is "the progressive destruction and dislocation of the enemy's war, industrial and economic system, and the undermining of his morale to a point where his capacity for armed resistance is fatally weakened." Lübeck was the first target of that policy. 12 British aircraft failed to return.
ARCTIC OCEAN: German surface
naval forces unsuccessfully engage a Murmansk Convoy.
The British cruiser HMS Trinidad torpedoed itself in the Barents Sea. It
was covering the convoy PQ12 when German destroyers attacked. It was trying to
finish off the German destroyer Z-26 when it was hit by one of its own torpedoes,
which had circled. (Michael Ballard and Alex Gordon)
LIBYA: Luftwaffe aircraft bomb Tobruk.
BURMA: Going on the offensive to relieve pressure on the Chinese at Toungoo and restore communications, a task force of the Burma I Corps attacks and clears Paungde, but its situation becomes precarious as the Japanese establish themselves a few miles north at Patigon and on the east back of the Irrawaddy River at Shwedaung.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Local guerilla fighters form themselves into the Hukbalahaps, the Anti-Japanese People's Army.
AUSTRALIA: General Sir Thomas
Blamey, Commander-in-Chief of Australian Military Forces, meets General Douglas
MacArthur">
MacArthur, Commanding General U.S. Army
Forces, Far East, for the first time in
MacArthur’s rooms in the Menzies Hotel
in Melbourne, Victoria.
NEW HEBRIDES: The Marines 4th defence Battalion (reinforced) and the forward echelon of Marine Fighting Squadron Two Hundred Twelve (VMF-212) arrive at Vila on Efate Island. The troops of VMF-212 are to construct an air strip from which the squadron initiates operations in the New Hebrides on 27 May.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: German submarine U-160 torpedoes a U.S. steamship about 40 miles (64 kilometres) east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, U.S.A. Before the ship is torpedoed a second time, the Armed Guard, who man their gun stations promptly, manages to get 12 rounds off at the U-boat's periscope. A second torpedo sinks the ship, with the Armed Guard leaving only when the bridge is awash.