March 30th, 1942 (MONDAY)
GERMANY: Berlin: The heavy RAF bombing raid on the Baltic port of Lübeck on Sunday night gave Goebbels the chance to stage a coup against his detested rival, Wilhelm Frick, the former police official who is now interior minister. When Hitler phoned to ask about the air raid, Goebbels told him that the situation was chaotic and interior ministry officials had even failed to organize proper relief measures for the hundreds of bombed-out families.
The Führer ordered that responsibility for caring for bombed areas should be removed at once from Frick's ministry and handed over to Goebbels. "The Führer conferred sweeping powers on me," observed Goebbels. "By midnight everything was arranged that could possibly be done. I have been given plenary powers to take action without being hindered by the bureaucracy."
The dwarfish, crippled Goebbels longs to be seen as Hitler's deputy. He is a glutton for work. As Reich minister for public enlightenment and propaganda he controls all book, magazine and newspaper publishing, broadcasting, film production, theatre productions and artistic exhibitions. Because of his withered leg he did not serve in the Great War; he seeks to impress Hitler with fulsome expressions of his loyalty and his large family. His wife Magda is required to produce a baby every year.
POLAND: The first RSHA transport from France arrives in camp Birkinau. (Michael Ballard)
At 5.33 this morning, special train 767 steamed into the camp's railway siding with 1,112 Jewish men from Paris on board. The organizer, SS Captain Theodore Dannecker, was annoyed that the goods wagons which he had requested were not available. The deportees had the relative comfort of passenger coaches.
Their journey began three and a half days ago at the Drancy and Compiegne concentration camps. At Compiegne, all the men were ordered to line up in the camp yard. Then the commandant, Kuntze, started to call out names. The prisoners did not know why. Those selected had to stand on one side. The 550 chosen were given 15 minutes to collect their things; they scrambled for their worn blankets and tattered bundles of clothes.
They were put into two heavily guarded huts overnight. The next day the Germans again lined them up, smashing fists and rifle butts into their mouths at random. Then, a haggard, grey, bruised and bloody sight, they were marched through the streets of Compiegne to the railway station. The local townspeople looked on, stunned that such wraiths could truly still be alive.
Now they will have to get used to their new camp. But few of them will last long: gas chambers and crematoria are nearly ready at Birkenau, the annexe to the main camp. Most of them will be dead before autumn.
NORWAY: During the night of the
30th/31st, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 34 Halifaxes to attack the German
battleship Tirpitz in a fjord near Trondheim but the ship is not located; five
aircraft bomb flak positions. A total of six aircraft are lost.
Barents Sea: U-585
(type VIIC) is sunk north of Murmansk about 70.00N 34.00E by a German mine which
drifted from the "Bantos A" barrage. All 44 of the U-Boat crew are
lost. (Alex Gordon)
U.S. freighter SS Effingham, straggling 90 miles (145 kilometres) astern of Murmansk-bound convoy PQ 13, is torpedoed and set afire by German submarine U-435 about 107 miles (172 kilometres) north northeast of Murmansk. The ship explodes and sinks.
ASCENSION ISLAND: The first detachment of U.S. Army engineers arrive to build an airstrip on this 34 square mile (88 square kilometer) island, which lies about midway between South America and Africa. The airfield will be used for antisubmarine patrols and as a refueling stop for aircraft.
BURMA: The Chinese
200th Division withdraws from Toungoo under pressure and fails to destroy the
bridge over the Sittang River thus leaving the way to the Chinese border wide
open for the Japanese. On the Irrawaddy River front, the Burma I Corps task
force falls back to Prome from the Paungde area, leaving vehicles behind at
Shwedaung. During the night 30th/31st, the Japanese attack the Indian 63d
Brigade at Prome and soon breach their defenses, exposing the right flank of the
Indian 17th Division.
CHRISTMAS ISLAND: Nine hundred Japanese troops land
on the British controlled, 52 square mile (137 square kilometer) Christmas
Island located about 225 miles (362 kilometres) south of the western end of
Java, Netherlands East Indies. The island is rich in phosphates.
NEW GUINEA: Reinforcements for the RAAF’s No. 75
Squadron operating from Seven Mile Aerodrome at Port Moresby arrive in the form
of five Kittyhawk Mk. IAs (= USAAF P-40E).
PACIFIC: Submarine USS Sturgeon (SS-187) sinks a Japanese transport 33 miles (53 kilometres) southwest of Makassar City, Celebes, Netherland East Indies.
Melanesia: The Japanese occupy Bougainville. There are no Allied forces on the island and virtually all the Europeans have left. (Gordon Rottman)
U.S.A.: Directives are drafted designating General Douglas MacArthur as Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA), and Admiral Chester Nimitz as Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Area (CINCPOA), for submission to the Allied governments concerned.
SWPA is to include Australia, the Philippines, New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, the Solomons, and most of the Netherlands East Indies. As Supreme Commander of SWPA, General MacArthur is to maintain positions in the Philippines and bases in Australia; guard approaches to SWPA; halt the Japanese advance on Australia; protect communications within the theater; support POA forces; and be prepared to take the offensive.
POA comprises the North Pacific Area (north of 42N), Central Pacific Area (between 42N and the equator) and South Pacific Area (south of the equator between the eastern boundary of the SWPA and 110W), all under overall command of Admiral Nimitz, and the first two under his direct command.
As CINCPOA, Admiral Nimitz, who also remains Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Fleet, is to maintain communications between the U.S. and SWPA; support operations in the SWPA; and be prepared to take offensive action. In addition to SWPA and POA, Pacific Theater is to include the Southeast Pacific Area, i.e., the ocean stretches west of Central and South America.
The Combined Chiefs of Staff send directives to the two commands: (CCS 57/1)
-- IAW the "Directive to the Supreme Commander in the Southwest Pacific Area," MacArthur was the "supreme commander" of all Allied forces in the area, of whatever nationality. [Para. 2] As such he was "not eligible to command directly any national force." [Para. 3] His staff was to include officers of all the nations involved. [Para. 9] These latter two provisions were honored more in the breach than the observance.
-- IAW the "Directive to the Commander in Chief of the Pacific Ocean Area," Nimitz was a CinC, not an Allied "supreme commander". However, he was to have under him a Commander, SOUTH PACIFIC AREA, who would command the multinational Allied forces in that theater and was to be "not eligible to command directly any national force." [Para. 1-3] (Initially this was the ill-fated VADM Ghormley.) His staff, too, was to have officers from the nations involved -- but outside of the SOPAC area no other nations were involved. (Will O'Neil)
President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces the creation of The Pacific War
Council in Washington, D.C. The Council membership consists of the President,
Roosevelt’s unofficial advisor on foreign affairs Harry Hopkins, and political
representatives of the U.K., China, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and
Canada. Representatives of India and the Philippines are added later.
The Inter-American defence Board holds its first meeting in Washington,
D.C. The Board was created to study and recommend measures for the defence of
the hemisphere.
The War Production Board bans the production of certain electric
appliances, notably toasters, stoves and razors.
A War Department order discontinues the induction of Japanese Americans in the armed services on the West Coast. (Gene Hanson)
Also in the last three days the Western defence Command has issued a series of proclamations which severely restrict the movements of persons of Japanese descent in the Pacific Coast military area, and which prohibit them from leaving the military area. The Western defence Command had decided that allowing people of Japanese descent to leave the military area and go wherever they chose was creating too much disturbance and opposition among local people. (Scott Peterson) More...
Life magazine carries an article on the American Volunteer Group, the "Flying Tigers". LINK