April 12th, 1944 (WEDNESDAY)
FRANCE AND BELGIUM: 231 B-26s and 20 A-20s of the US Ninth Air Force attack railroad, shore batteries, radar installations, airfields, and V-weapon sites at Dunkirk and Courtrai/Wevelghem, France; Coxyde/Furnes, De Pannes-Bains, Saint Ghislain and Ostend, Belgium; and points along the coast. 70+ P-47s dive-bomb military installations in N France.
GERMANY: US Eighth Air Force Mission 300: 455 bombers and 766 fighters dispatched to bomb industrial targets at Schweinfurt, Zwickau, Oscheresleben, Schkeuditz, Halle and Leipzig are forced to abandon the mission because of haze and multilayer clouds; Luftwaffe fighter opposition is concentrated over N France and the bombers claim 10-6-7 fighters; 6 B-17s are lost, 2 damaged beyond repair and 1 damaged; 25 B-24s are damaged; casualties are 12 KIA, 16 WIA and 56 MIA. Escort is provided by 124 P-38s, 449 Eighth and Ninth Air Force P-47s and 193 Eighth and Ninth Air Force P-51s; they claim 18-1-3 Luftwaffe aircraft in the air and 1-0-8 on the ground; 3 P-38s and 2 P-51s are lost, 2 P-47s are damaged beyond repair and 3 P-38s, 17 P-47s and 1 P-51 are damaged.
U.S.S.R.: Germany begins to evacuate the Crimea, despite Hitler's order to hold to the last man.
FINLAND: In a secret session, the Finnish Parliament rejects the Soviet terms for peace.
AUSTRIA and YUGOSLAVIA: Bad weather lifts, permitting US Fifteenth Air Force bomber operations; almost 450 B-17s and B-24s attack targets in Austria and Yugoslavia; the B-17s hit aircraft factories at Fischamend Markt, Austria and Split, Yugoslavia; the B-24s hit the industrial area at Wiener Neustadt and Bad Voslau, Austria and the marshalling yard and air depot at Zagreb, Yugoslavia; 200+ P-38s and P-47s provide escort; the bombers and fighters claim 30+ enemy aircraft shot down; 8 US airplanes are known lost and several more fail to return.
ITALY: King Victor Emmanuel announces his plan to retire when the Allies enter Rome, and appoints Crown Prince Umberto lieutenant of the realm.
US Twelfth Air Force medium bombers bomb rail lines approaching the Monte Molino bridge and at a nearby junction to the Viterbo line, railroad and road bridges S of Orvieto and at Certaldo, tracks approaching a bridge at Impeda, and railroad bridges over the Var River and at Albenga; light bombers pound the Zagarolo supply dump; fighter-bombers and fighters (some operating with British aircraft) hit communications (mainly railroad bridges), vehicles, supply dumps at various places, including Arezzo, the island of Elba, Orvieto, NE of Grosseto, NW of Bracciano, Civita Castellana, Montalto di Castro, between Piombino and Viterbo, in the Castiglioncello area, NW of Montepescali and S of Cecina.
INDIA: The merchant ship Fort Stikine arrives at Bombay. She left Liverpool, on February 24th, staging north-about around Ireland in convoy, eleven days to Gibraltar and thence unscathed through air attacks in the Mediterranean, she sailed on to Suez, Aden and Karachi. Partial discharge at Karachi was followed by the loading of 9,000 bales of cotton, thousands of drums of lubricating oil (some leaking), timber, scrap iron, sulphur, fish meal, rice and resin. An attempt to load 750 drums of turpentine on top of the coal in the bunkers was firmly resisted.
The ship docked today. Despite carrying three categories of explosive and having a priority discharge certificate, unloading will not commence until she has been alongside for more than 24 hours. (78)
Kohima: Japanese forces, whose "March on Delhi" was halted last week on the Imphal Plain, are fighting a bloody battle with the defenders of British India. Here at Kohima, 50 miles north of Imphal, the Japanese 31st Division is locked in bitter combat with a scratch force of 3,500 Rajputs, Royal West Kents and Assamese, while Imphal is besieged by the Japanese 15th Army and Subhas Chandra Bose's Indian National Army. For eight days Kohima has been under siege and the Imphal road has been cut, isolating the 100,000 Anglo-Indian troops fighting on the Imphal Plain. Two Allied relief attempts have failed so far; one by 161 Brigade of the 5th Indian Division, did get its leading elements to Kohima before itself being cut off at Jotsoma.
Today XXXIII Corps, responsible for the Kohima area, is being reinforced as rapidly as possible, with 23 Brigade of the 3rd Indian Division being ordered south to aid the British 2nd Division and cut Japanese communications.
Fighting also continues in Naga, a tiny village which clings to a mountain east of the Manipur road. Here the Allied troops are under mortar and artillery fire by day, and at night they are attacked by waves of hungry Japanese infantry without supplies. For both sides it is a fight for survival and a race against time with the monsoon approaching next month.
BURMA: 90+ P-40s, A-36s, P-51s, and B-25s over the Mogaung Valley support ground forces, bomb supply areas, and hit numerous targets of opportunity in areas around Mogaung, Myitkyina, Kamaing, Taungni, and Shaduzup; 5 B-25s knock out a bridge at Natmauk while 2 others damage the Pyu bridge near Rangoon; 5 B-24s bomb Nagorn Sawarn while 7 hit the Moulmein railroad station and jetties and bomb the SE part of Prome.
MARSHALL ISLANDS: US Seventh Air Force B-25s, flying out of Abemama Island, bomb Maloelap Atoll, rearm at Majuro Atoll, and hit Jaluit Atoll on the return trip.
BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: On New Britain Island, 23 B-25s and 11 P-39s of the US Thirteenth Air Force pound the W section of Rabaul, 7 other B-25s cause considerable damage in the Ratawul supply area; 23 fighter-bombers blast the concrete airstrip at Vunakanau.
SOLOMONS ISLANDS: On Bougainville Island, 12 US Thirteenth Air Force fighter-bombers bomb and strafe the Numa Numa trail and pound the harbour area.
NEW GUINEA: The US Fifth Air Force dispatches 180+ B-24s, B-25s, and A-20s, supported by 60+ P-38s, bomb AA positions, airfields, supply areas and shipping construction; B-24s, B-25s, A-20s, and P-39s bomb and strafe various targets at Wewak, Madang, along Hansa Bay and on Karkar Island; other P-39s fly a barge sweep from Alexishafen up the coast as far as the mouth of the Sepik River. 2 B-25s bomb Penfoei on Timor Island.
PACIFIC OCEAN: Submarine USS Halibut (SS-232), despite the presence of at least 3 escort vessels, sinks a Japanese army passenger/cargo ship about 20 miles (32 km) southwest of the Nansei Shoto, Ryukyo Islands.
Admiralty Islands: US troops clear Pak Island.