April 28th, 1942 (TUESDAY)
GERMANY: U-664 launched.
FINLAND: Major-General Aarne Snellman dies of his wounds suffered on the 13th.
MALTA: No ships of the Royal Navy ride proudly at anchor in Valetta's Grand Harbour today. The cruiser HMS PENELOPE has been hit so often by German bombs that she was nicknamed "HMS Pepperpot" before she slipped away last night. Two damaged destroyers remain - the last vestige of Britain's shattered naval power in the Mediterranean. The submarines that have been supplying Malta with fuel have been forced to leave by the huge number of Axis mines laid outside the harbour. On short rations, Malta is praying for a miracle.
BURMA: The Chinese 28th Division moving from Mandalay, is ordered to defend Lashio.COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: The full horror of a forced march by American and Filipino prisoners - in which as many as 20,000 men are believed to have perished from disease, hunger and the savagery of their Japanese captors - is beginning to emerge. The prisoners, taken after the surrender of the Bataan peninsula earlier this month, died as they were marched 65 miles to a captured US barracks near Clark Field airbase.
Even before the march began, many of the prisoners were racked by malaria, dysentery, beriberi and other diseases. The Japanese forced the pace with clubs, bayonets and unspeakable cruelty. Dozens of men were bayoneted to death; more were beheaded, shot and beaten at the whim of their captors. Those who could not keep up were clubbed to death or buried alive.
Filipinos bore the brunt of the brutality and, it is believed, the casualties. On 11 April, as the march began, Japanese soldiers massacred some 400 Filipino officers and NCOs - hacking them to pieces with their swords. All the PoWs were looted of personal possessions. One officer who refused to hand over his wedding ring had his finger cut off. The precise number of prisoners who started - and finished - this "death march" is not known, but it is believed that one in three may have died.
CANADA: Ottawa: Canada has voted on conscription in a record turn-out and the country is divided on linguistic grounds. English speakers, the majority, are in favour of a draft for service overseas. The French-speaking minority, is against.
In both 1939 and 1940, the Prime Minister, Mr. Mackenzie King, made a solemn pledge to French-Canadians that there would be no such conscription. His fear was that Canada would be split and that a pro-Vichy city council might emerge in Quebec.
Events in the Pacific, including the Hong Kong debacle which netted 1,689 Canadian prisoners have forced the prime minister's hand.
Corvette HMCS La Malbaie commissioned.
U.S.A.: Washington: Following a statement by President Roosevelt that the American "standard of living will have to come down", the prices of all essential items have been frozen and a host of commodities is now rationed. In a message to Congress, the president set a limit on wages of $25,000 after taxes, called for stabilizing all incomes, fixed ceilings for prices on almost all goods and announced that such items as gasoline and sugar will be rationed.
The president will address the nation tonight. His message is the culmination of a series of actions which put America on a war footing. The US Navy has taken over four plants of Brewster Aeronautical Corporation because the management could not assure delivery of aircraft. The government told civilians that little space will be available for them after "air mail, passengers and express goods essential to the war effort" get priority.
The war production board is seeking laws giving it the power to draft executives from private industry to military posts, and it has been announced that 5.5 million new workers are needed to produce war materials. One sign of tougher - or leaner? - times is this advice to women: use less elastic in your girdles.
Destroyer USS Bradford laid down.
Destroyer USS Laub launched.
CUBA: Cuba granted de facto recognition to Free French control over French territories in the Pacific, Equatorial Africa, and the Cameroons.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: The US Navy's Task Force 99, consisting of the battleship USS Washington (BB-56), heavy cruisers USS Tuscaloosa (CA-37) and USS Wichita (CA-45) and four destroyers, sails from the Royal Navy base at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands. This is Force "Distaff," a joint RN-USN task force that will be positioned northeast of Iceland to protect convoy PQ-15 sailing for Murmansk in the Soviet Union. The RN force consists of the battleship HMS King George V, the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious, the light cruiser HMS Kenya and five destroyers.
Tug HMS West Dean lost due to unknown reasons.
SS Arundo sunk by U-136 at 40.10N, 73.44W.