April 8th, 1942 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Harry L Hopkins, Special Assistant to President Franklin D Roosevelt, and General George C Marshall, US Army Chief of Staff, arrive in London for talks with British service and supply chiefs concerning the integration of US and British manpower and war production for action in Europe. General Marshall urges an offensive in the west to relieve pressure upon the USSR and promises a constant flow of US troops, including many air units, to the UK.
NORTH SEA: Four RAF Bomber Command Bostons fly a sweep off the Dutch coast during the day without loss. A ship is bombed but not hit.
FRANCE: During the night of the 8th/9th, seven of 13 RAF Bomber Command Wellingtons dispatched bomb the port area at Le Havre and one bombs the port area at Cherbourg.
Paris: Avenue de Versailles. Corporal Schweitzer is severely wounded.NETHERLANDS: Three RAF Bomber Command Blenheims attack Eindhoven, Haamstede, Leeuwarden and Schipol Airfields during the night of the 8th/9th.
GERMANY: During the
night of the 8th/9th, 272 RAF Bomber Command bombers (177
Wellingtons, 41 Hampdens, 22
Stirlings, 13 Manchesters, 12 Halifaxes and seven
Lancasters) are dispatched to
bomb the Blohm and Voss submarine shipyards at Hamburg. Icing and electrical
storms are encountered and only 175 bombers hit the targets with the loss of
four Wellingtons and a Manchester. Overall, the raid is a failure; 17 people are
killed and 119 injured. Other targets bombed are: three bomb Heligoland, two
bomb Emden and individual aircraft attack Cuxhaven, Norden and Bremen. Bremen
reports a load of incendiaries dropped very accurately on the Vulkan shipyard
where four U-boats and several surrounding buildings are damaged by fire.
German and Italian aircraft bomb MALTA in what will be the heaviest raid of the war against this beleaguered outpost in the Mediterranean.
ARCTIC OCEAN: Soviet submarine "Sch-421" of the Polar fleet and White Sea Flotilla - damaged by a mine in 336 degrees out from the German post on Svirhold, close to Cape Nordcap. It was later sunk by a torpedo of K 22. It was all observed by the minesweeper M 35. (Torstein and Sergey Anisimov) (69)
INDIA: A
USAAF cargo plane makes the first flight
over "The Hump," the 22,000-foot (6706 meters) high Himalayan mountain range
that separates India and China. During the next four years, more than 650,000
tons (589 670 metric tonnes) of supplies will be flown over the Hump to Kunming,
China. More than 450 planes will crash during the airlift, giving the route over
the mountains the nickname "The Aluminium Trail."
CHINA: The first supplies are flown in over "the Hump" - the Himalayas - from India.
BURMA: Pilots of the 1st and 3d Fighter Squadrons, American Volunteer Group (AVG, aka, “The Flying Tigers”) shoot down 12 Japanese fighters near Loiwing Airdrome in northern Burma during the afternoon.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: On Bataan,
the II Corps disintegrates completely under sustained Japanese attacks from the
ground and air. The Japanese soon discover gaps in the Alangan River line held
by the U.S. 31st Infantry and 803d Engineer Battalion; the Philippine Scouts’
57th Infantry, 26th Cavalry and 14th Engineer Battalion; and Philippine
Constabulary troops, and stream southward at will. In a final effort to stem the
enemy advance, the Provisional Coast Artillery Brigade (Antiaircraft), serving
as infantrymen, forms a weak line just north of Cabcaben, but other units
ordered to extend this line are unable to do so. Major General Edward King,
Commanding General Luzon Force, decides to surrender his troops and orders
equipment destroyed during the night of the 8th/9th. Of the 78,000 men of the
Luzon Force, about 2,000 succeed in escaping to Corregidor Island in Manila
Bay.
Submarine USS Seadragon (SS-194) delivers food to Corregidor, and evacuates
the final increment of naval radio and communications intelligence people.
The air echelons of the 3d, 17th and 20th Pursuit Squadrons (Interceptor),
24th Pursuit Group (Interceptor), and the 21st and 34th Pursuit Squadrons
(Interceptor), 35th Pursuit Group (Interceptor) based on Bataan begin operating
from Del Monte Field on Mindanao with whatever aircraft are left.
EAST INDIES: Japanese forces landed and occupied, without a fight, the town of Djailolo on Halmahera Island.
TERRITORY OF HAWAII: At 1200 hours, the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6), with the heavy cruisers USS Salt Lake City (CA-25) and Northampton (CA-26), four destroyers, and the oiler USS Sabine (AO-25), sortie from Pearl Harbor to rendezvous with the aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-8) which is carrying USAAF B-25s to attack Japan.
U.S.A.: The
USAAF’s V Air Support Command, which was
activated on 1 September 1941 to support the Armored Force, is redesignated 9th
Air Force with headquarters at New Orleans AAB, Louisiana.
The War Production Board accelerated the transformation of the nation's
economy by ordering a halt to all production that was not deemed necessary to
the war. The War Production Board's mandate quickly took hold; at the peak of
the war, the military utilized nearly half of the nation's production and
services. Far from causing fiscal woe, World War II proved to be a great boon to
the economy: unemployment, which had climbed up to 14 percent in 1940, all but
evaporated, while the gross national product doubled by the close of the war.
Harry L Hopkins, Special Assistant to President Franklin D Roosevelt, and General George C Marshall, Chief of Staff, U.S. Army, arrive in London, England, for talks with British service and supply chiefs concerning the integration of U.S. and British manpower and war production for action in Europe. General Marshall urges an offensive in the west to relieve pressure upon the U.S.S.R. and promises a constant flow of U.S. troops, including many air units, to the U.K.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Three unarmed U.S. merchant tankers are torpedoed by German submarines off the East Coast of the U.S.: (1) U-160 attacks a ship bound from Corpus Christi, Texas, to New York City, about 65 miles (105 kilometres) southeast of Beaufort, South Carolina, but she manages to reach Hampton Roads, Virginia, under her own power. One man of her 33-man crew is lost in the attack. (2) U-123 sinks the second ship, which is en route from Port Arthur, Texas, to Providence, Rhode Island, about 53 miles (85 kilometres) east of Brunswick, Georgia. (3) U-123 then proceeds to sink the third ship about 85 miles (137 kilometres) east of Brunswick, Georgia.