April 12th, 1942 (SUNDAY)
INDIA: The Congress Party leader, Pandit Nehru, promises no surrender and full resistance to the Axis, despite the rejection of Stafford Cripp's plea for greater Indian military co-operation in exchange for independence after the war.
BURMA: American Volunteer Group P-40s attack Toungoo Airfield and destroy 3 Japanese bombers.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Australia-based USAAF B-25s, staging through Mindanao Island, hit the harbour and shipping at Cebu, Cebu Island while B-17s carry out single-bomber strikes from Mindanao against Cebu harbour and Nichols Field on Luzon.
Motor torpedo boat PT-35, undergoing repairs on the marine railway at the Cebu Shipyard and Engineering Works, is destroyed by crew as the Japanese capture Cebu Island.
U.S.A.: Lieutenant General Henry H "Hap" Arnold, Commanding General USAAF, sends air plans for Operation BOLERO, the build-up of US armed forces in the UK for an attack on Europe, to General George C Marshall, Chief of Staff US Army, in London. The plan calls for establishment of the 8th Air Force in the UK.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: German submarines sink 4 merchant vessels:
- Armed U.S. freighter SS Delvalle, en route from New Orleans, Louisiana to Buenos Aires, Argentina, via St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, is torpedoed and sunk by U-154 south of Haiti.
- Armed Panamanian motor tanker MT Stanvac Melbourne is torpedoed by U-203 about 15 miles (24 km) off Frying Pan Shoals, North Carolina.
- Unarmed U.S. tanker SS Esso Boston, en route from Venezuela to Nova Scotia, is torpedoed and shelled by U-130 northeast of Puerto Rico.
- Unarmed U.S. freighter SS Leslie is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-123 approximately 3 miles (4,8 km) southeast of Hetzel Shoals Gas Buoy, Florida.