April 9th, 1942 (THURSDAY)
GERMANY: During the day, seven RAF Bomber Command Wellingtons are dispatched on a cloud-cover raid to Essen; only one aircraft bombs a village north of Essen.
Hitler on US production: In the economic field we can learn much from the United States. The motor industry of the United States, by standardization of types and mass production, has reduced the cost of a motor car to such an extent that every workman over there can afford to keep and run a car. Our own procedure has been exactly the reverse. We are constantly bringing out new models and modifying and improving existing ones. The result is that we have to produce an immense number and variety of spare parts, for the parts of a different model of the same make of car are never interchangeable. Nothing like this occurs in America. (207)
NORWAY: The people conduct a one-day "silence strike" on the second anniversary of the German invasion. No Norwegian speaks to a German or Norwegian collaborator.
U.S.S.R.: Strong Soviet efforts to
advance from the Kerch area in the Crimea make little headway against stubborn
German forces. The Germans remain on the defensive on the central front,
containing most of Soviet Army thrusts; on the northern front, the Germans
launch fresh attacks in the Lake Illmen area and make slow progress against firm
opposition toward encircled forces in vicinity of Cholm and Staraya Russa.
Vyazma: To avoid the
dishonour of surrender to the Germans, General Mikhail Yefremov commits suicide.
Crimea: The Red Army launches a new offensive but gains little ground.
INDIAN OCEAN: At 1035 hours, the
aircraft carrier HMS Hermes, Australian destroyer HMAS Vampire, British corvette
HMS Hollyhock, depot ship HMS Athelstane and RFA oiler British Sergeant, are
about 65 miles (105 kilometres) south of Trincomalee, Ceylon, and 5 miles (8
kilometres) offshore. The ships are located and attacked by Japanese aircraft
from the aircraft carriers HIJMS Akagi, Hiryu and Soryu. HMS Hermes is hit by 40
bombs and capsizes and sinks at about 1045 hours. Sixteen aircraft then attack
the Australian destroyer and after several near misses, a 250-kilogram
(551-pound) bomb hits the boiler room and four other bombs hit in rapid
succession; a fifth bomb breaks the ship’s back and she splits in two.
Remarkably, only eight men are lost. The corvette, depot ship and oiler are also
sunk.
Nine Blenheim Mk. IVs of RAF No.
11 Squadron based at Colombo Racecourse, Ceylon, attack the Japanese carriers
but they are beaten off by AA fire and fighter attacks; five of the nine
aircraft are shot down.
Japanese bombers with a huge fighter escort, bombed the China Bay airfield and dockyard at Trincomalee today, causing major damage. Warned of the approach, RAF Hurricane fighters and naval Fulmars intercepted, shooting down 15 Japanese aircraft for the loss of eight Hurricanes and three Fulmars. In a gallant attempt at retaliation, nine RAF Blenheims attacked the Japanese carrier fleet.
Five British aircraft were shot down and the remainder damaged. Their bombs scored only near misses, but they destroyed five enemy aircraft. Because of the impending raid shipping had been cleared from Trincomalee, but with the raid over the carrier HMS HERMES, with HMAS VAMPIRE, turned for home.
A Japanese scout plane had reported their position. Fighters sent to aid the Hermes did not arrive in time. Nagumo's carriers flew off 85 bombers and nine fighters which attacked the Hermes in waves. Within ten minutes she had been hit by 40 bombs and sunk, there are 307 casualties. Bombers then attacked the Vampire, which had 13 direct hits before breaking in two and sinking. A corvette, HMS HOLLYHOCK, is escorting tanker HMS ATHELSTONE and RFA oiler BRITISH SERGEANT were also lost an hour after the first attacks. HOLLYHOCK sinks 30 miles SSE of Batticaloa (Ceylon) at 07 21N, 81 57E. (Jack McKillop and Alex Gordon(108)
INDIA: With the breakdown of
autonomy negotiations, British forces crack down on dissidents. One of those
arrested is Mahatma Gandhi.
BURMA: The Burma I Corps is now disposed to defend
oil fields, on a general line Minhla-Taungdwingyi, a 40-mile (64 kilometres)
front. The Chinese are not in position to support the corps because of a series
of contradictory orders.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: On Bataan, at 0330
hours, emissaries of Major General Edward King, Commanding General Luzon Force,
start to the Japanese lines under a white flag to arrange for surrender. General
King surrenders the Luzon Force unconditionally at 1230 hours, and a grim march
of prisoners from Balanga to San Fernando follows. The fall of Bataan permits
Japanese aircraft previously employed against it to devote their full attention
to Corregidor Island in Manila Bay. For the first time since the end of March,
enemy planes attack in force. Japanese artillery emplaced at Cabcaben, on
southern Bataan, opens fire on Corregidor.
USN facilities at Mariveles
are demolished to prevent enemy use: Navy forces scuttle submarine tender USS
Canopus (AS-9), minesweeper USS Bittern (AM-36), tug USS Napa (AT-32), and
dry-dock Dewey. Ferry launches San Felipe (YFB-12), Camia (YFB-683), and Dap Dap
(YFB-684), and Canopus motor launches, evacuate men and equipment to Corregidor.
In the Visayan Islands, the Cebu Island garrison is alerted as the enemy
flotilla heading toward the Island is spotted.
Submarine USS Snapper (SS-185) delivers food to Corregidor.
Motor torpedo boats PT-34 and PT-41 engage Japanese light cruiser HIJMS
Kuma and torpedo boat HIJMS Kiji in a running fight off Cape Tanon, the southern
tip of Cebu Island; HIJMS Kuma is hit by a dud torpedo and machine gun fire.
Later that same day, PT-34 is bombed and strafed by floatplanes from the
Japanese seaplane carrier HIJMS Sanuki Maruand beached off Cauit Island. A
second bombing and strafing attack by Sanuki Maru's planes destroys PT-34, which
suffers two dead and three wounded from her six-man crew in the action.
After four months' epic resistance the 76,000 emaciated and
diseased US and Filipino troops and civilians defending Bataan have surrendered.
Major-General King said that he was defying orders not to surrender from
Major-General Wainwright, now on Corregidor, in order to avoid a "mass
slaughter" by the 50,000 strong Japanese enemy.
2,000 men were evacuated to Corregidor, which is still holding out.
The PoWs pose a logistics problem to their captors who are now turning their attention to the island of Corregidor. The Japanese therefore plan to move the prisoners to Camp O'Donnell, but with the nearest railhead 65 miles away they will have to force march them there.
AUSTRALIA: The USAAF’s 7th Pursuit Squadron (Interceptor) moves from Bankstown Aerodrome, New South Wales, to Batchelor Aerodrome, Northern Territory, 50 miles (80 kilometres) south of Darwin. The squadron, equipped with P-40Es, joins the 9th Pursuit Squadron (Interceptor) which has been at Darwin since 17 March.
Melbourne, Australia: The 2nd victim of the "Brownout Strangler", 31 year old Pauline Thompson was found this morning. She had told her husband, a policeman in Bendigo, that was going to a dance at the Music Lover's club with a number of her girlfriends and a very young American, Private Justin Jones. She had planned to meet Private Jones at the American Hospitality Club before the dance at 7pm. Private Jones was 30 minutes late. Pauline gave up waiting for Jones and she was later seen with a soldier at the Astoria Hotel. They were seen leaving the hotel just before midnight. It was a dark, rainy miserable night. Pauline's body was found at about 4am on the steps of Morningside House in Spring Street. She had been badly strangled and her clothing was torn. (Denis Peck)
U.S.A.: In a message to General
Douglas
MacArthur, Commanding General
U.S. Army Forces, Far East, General George C Marshall, Chief of Staff U.S. Army,
proposes that all participating nations in the Southwest Pacific should be
represented on the staff of General Headquarters especially since
MacArthur’s
Chief of Staff and the naval and air commanders will be Americans. Marshall adds
that President Franklin D Roosevelt wants Dutch and particularly Australians
appointed to “a number of the higher positions.”
A radio controlled Great Lakes TG-2 torpedo bomber operated as a drone,
directed by control pilot Lieutenant M. B. Taylor of Project Fox, makes a
torpedo attack on the destroyer USS Aaron Ward (DD-483) steaming at 15 knots in
Narragansett Bay in south-eastern Rhode Island. Taylor utilized a view of the
target obtained by a television camera mounted in the drone, and directed the
attack so that the torpedo was released about 300 feet (91 meters) directly
astern of the target and passed under it.
Motor torpedo boat PT-59, on a practice run in upper Narragansett Bay,
Rhode Island, accidentally torpedoes cargo ship USS Capella (AK-13); tugs are on
the scene immediately and anchor the damaged auxiliary in shoal water.
The 8th Air Force HQ echelon
is relocated to Bolling Field, Washington, DC, to prepare the 8th for a move
overseas.
A radio controlled TG-2 drone, directed by control pilot Lieutenant M. B. Taylor of Project Fox, makes a torpedo attack on the destroyer Aaron Ward steaming at 15 knots in Narragansett Bay. Taylor utilized a view of the target obtained by a television camera mounted in the drone, and directed the attack so that the torpedo was released about 300 feet directly astern of the target and passed under it. (Gordon Rottman)
The Wartime Civilian Control Agency established to administer wartime internment in the U.S. (Pat Holscher)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: German and Italian submarines sink five unarmed U.S. merchant ships in the Western Hemisphere. (1) U-123 sinks a tanker en route from Honduras to New York about 21 miles northeast of Jacksonville Beach, Florida. (2) U-160 sinks a freighter about 63 miles (101 kilometres) south of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. (3) U-552 sinks a tanker about 69 miles (111 kilometres) south southwest of Cape Hatteras. (4) Later in the day, U-552 sinks a second tanker about 71 miles (114 kilometres) south southwest of Cape Hatteras. (5) Italian submarine Pietro Calvi sinks a tanker route to Caripito, Venezuela from Buenos Aires, Argentina, by gunfire about 120 miles (193 kilometres) north northwest of Fortaleza, Brazil.