March 1942 Explained
The following events occurred in March 1942:
March 1, 1942 (Sunday)
- The Second Battle of the Java Sea was fought, resulting in Japanese victory. The cruiser HMS Exeter and the destroyers HMS Encounter and USS Pope were sunk.
- The Battle of Sunda Strait ended in Japanese victory. The Allies lost 1 heavy cruiser, 1 light cruiser and 1 destroyer while the Japanese lost 1 minelayer and 4 troopships sunk or grounded.
- Construction of the Sobibór extermination camp began.[1]
- Near Christmas Island, the fuel tanker USS Pecos was bombed and sunk by Aichi D3A dive bombers, while the American destroyer USS Edsall was bombed and damaged by Japanese aircraft and then shelled and sunk by the battleships Hiei and Kirishima.
- The Dutch steamship Roseboom was torpedoed and sunk west of Sumatra by the Japanese submarine I-159.
- German submarine U-656 was depth charged and sunk off Cape Race, Newfoundland by an American Lockheed Hudson.
- Died: George S. Rentz, 59, United States Navy chaplain (killed in action); Cornelius Vanderbilt III, 68, American military officer, inventor, engineer and yachtsman
March 2, 1942 (Monday)
- The Japanese began heavy air strikes on New Guinea in preparation for an invasion.[2]
- Australia declared war on Thailand.[3]
- Ships at Surabaya in the Dutch East Indies were scuttled to keep them from being captured by the Japanese.[4] [5]
- The American destroyer Pillsbury was shelled and sunk west of Christmas Island by the Japanese cruisers Atago and Takao.
- Born:
- John Irving, novelist and screenwriter, in Exeter, New Hampshire;
- Claude Larose, ice hockey player, in Hearst, Ontario, Canada;
- Lou Reed, musician, in Brooklyn, New York (d. 2013)
- Died: Charlie Christian, 25, American swing and jazz guitarist (tuberculosis)
March 3, 1942 (Tuesday)
Japanese fighter planes attacked the town of Broome, Western Australia and killed 88 people.
A Douglas DC-3 airliner was shot down over Australia by Japanese warplanes, resulting in the deaths of four passengers and the loss of diamonds worth an estimated A£ 150,000–300,000. The diamonds were presumably looted from the crash site but their fate remains a mystery.
March 4, 1942 (Wednesday)
- The Japanese conducted Operation K, a reconnaissance of Pearl Harbor and disruption of repair and salvage operations there. Two Kawanishi H8K flying boats were dispatched but failed to see much due to heavy clouds and only did negligible bombing damage.
- The Sook Ching massacre ended in Singapore. Official Japanese statistics show fewer than 5,000 killed while the Singaporean Chinese community claims the numbers to be around 100,000.
- The British sloop Yarra was sunk in the Indian Ocean by Japanese cruisers.
March 5, 1942 (Thursday)
March 6, 1942 (Friday)
- Elements of the Japanese 2nd Infantry Division on Java entered Buitenzorg, while Dutch forces withdrew toward Bandung.[8]
- Romania broke off diplomatic relations with Brazil.
- A controversial political cartoon by Philip Zec appeared in the Daily Mirror, depicting a merchant seaman clinging to the remains of a ship in rough seas with the caption, "The price of petrol has been increased by one penny – Official." Winston Churchill interpreted the cartoon as "defeatist" and considered taking action to ban the Daily Mirror from publication.[9]
March 7, 1942 (Saturday)
March 8, 1942 (Sunday)
March 9, 1942 (Monday)
- The Dutch East Indies campaign ended in a Japanese victory. The Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies began.
- The Battle of Borneo ended as Japanese forces captured Pangkalan Bun on the same day that the airfield at Samarinda formally surrendered.[14]
- The Japanese began the Invasion of Buka and Bougainville in the South Pacific.
- Vannevar Bush delivered a report to President Roosevelt expressing optimism on the possibility of producing an atomic bomb.[15]
- Slovak authorities required all Jews to wear the yellow badge.[16]
- Miklós Kállay became Prime Minister of Hungary.
- Ali Soheili became Prime Minister of Iran.
- Born:
- Pedro Bandeira, children's author, in Santos, São Paulo, Brazil;
- John Cale, musician, composer and record producer, in Garnant, Wales;
- Bert Campaneris, baseball player, in Pueblo Nuevo, Cuba
March 11, 1942 (Wednesday)
March 12, 1942 (Thursday)
- The Battle of Java ended in Japanese victory.
- The U.K. Ministry of War Production was renamed the Ministry of Production and Oliver Lyttelton was appointed its new head.
- Brothers Anthony and William Esposito were executed by electric chair five minutes apart at Sing Sing for the January 14, 1941 slaying of a police officer and a holdup victim, which had led to a sensational trial in which they feigned insanity. Both brothers were in such fragile health that they had to be brought into the death chamber in wheelchairs because they had refused all food for the past 10 months that was not fed them forcibly.[21]
- The American cargo ship Texan was torpedoed, shelled and sunk by German submarine U-126.
- German submarine U-613 was commissioned.
- Born:
- Died:
- The Japanese completed the Invasion of Salamaua–Lae.
- The Canadian Women's Army Corps was integrated into the Canadian Army.[22]
- The musical comedy film Song of the Islands starring Betty Grable and Victor Mature was released.
- Born:
- Dave Cutler, software engineer, in Lansing, Michigan;
- Mahmoud Darwish, poet and author, in al-Birwa, Mandatory Palestine (d. 2008);
- George Negus, author, journalist and television presenter, in Brisbane, Australia;
- Scatman John, musician, in El Monte, California (d. 1999)
- Died: Žikica Jovanović Španac, 27 or 28, Yugoslav partisan (killed in battle)
March 14, 1942 (Saturday)
- U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent a proposal to all 48 state governors that speed limits throughout the nation be reduced to 40mph to conserve rubber.[23]
- German submarine U-133 sank off the Greek island of Salamis after striking a naval mine.
- German submarines U-177 and U-260 were commissioned.
- Died: René Bull, 69, British illustrator and photographer
- Nazi occupying forces and local collaborationists committed the First Dünamünde Action in the Biķernieki forest near Riga, massacring about 1,900 people.
- German submarine U-503 was depth charged and sunk off Newfoundland by a Lockheed Hudson.
- The British destroyer Vortigern was torpedoed and sunk off Cromer by the German E-boat S-104.
- While sailing from Norfolk, Virginia to Beaumont, Texas, the United States Navy tanker Olean was torpedoed and heavily damaged by the German submarine U-158. The ship was abandoned, towed to Hampton Roads and repaired.
- A tornado outbreak struck a large area of the Central and Southern United States. 153 people were killed over the next two days.
- Members of the far-right Swiss National Front were sentenced to long prison terms for propagandistic activities.[24]
- German submarine U-706 was commissioned.
- Born: James Soong, Chinese-born Taiwanese politician, in Xiangtan
- Bełżec extermination camp became operational in occupied Poland.
- Douglas MacArthur arrived in Australia and was appointed commander of the combined Allied forces in the southwest Pacific.[25] [26]
- The British government announced the introduction of fuel rationing.[27]
- The British motor tanker San Demetrio was torpedoed and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Charles, Virginia by German submarine U-404.
- Born: John Wayne Gacy, serial killer, in Chicago, Illinois (d. 1994)
March 18, 1942 (Wednesday)
March 19, 1942 (Thursday)
- The Battle of Oktwin in the Burma Campaign began.
- When reporters met the train of General Douglas MacArthur north of Adelaide, Australia, he declared: "The President of the United States ordered me to break through the Japanese lines and proceed from Corregidor to Australia for the purpose, as I understand it, of organizing the American offensive against Japan, a primary object of which is the relief of the Philippines. I came through and I shall return."[28]
- The British destroyer Heythrop was torpedoed northeast of Bardia by German submarine U-652. She was towed by the destroyer Eridge towards Tobruk but foundered five hours later.[29]
March 21, 1942 (Saturday)
- Second Battle of Sirte, the escorting warships of a British convoy to Malta held off a much more powerful Regia Marina (Italian Navy) squadron.
- Allied forces abandoned the Magwe airfield in Burma, 100miles east of Akyab.[33]
- Cripps' mission
The British government sent Stafford Cripps to India to disclose the British constitutional proposals for a postwar India. Britain promised self-government for India after the war in exchange for their co-operation in the war effort.
- The BBC began transmitting news bulletins in Morse Code for the benefit of resistance fighters in occupied Europe.[34]
- The Manzanar Japanese-American internment camp first opened.[35]
March 25, 1942 (Wednesday)
The first mass transport of Jews to Auschwitz concentration camp departed from Poprad railway station in the Slovak Republic, consisting of 997 young women.
March 26, 1942 (Thursday)
March 27, 1942 (Friday)
March 28, 1942 (Saturday)
The port city of Lübeck was the first German city attacked in substantial numbers by the Royal Air Force. The night attack caused a firestorm that caused severe damage to the historic centre and led to the retaliatory Baedeker raids on historic British cities.
- The British conducted the St Nazaire Raid on the heavily defended Normandie dry dock at Saint-Nazaire in German-occupied France. All British objectives were achieved although 169 were killed and 215 taken prisoner. The destroyer HMS Campelltown was expended as a floating bomb.
- The Panamanian cargo ship Howick Hall of convoy PQ 13 was bombed and sunk in the Barents Sea by Junkers Ju 88 aircraft.
- German submarine U-261 was commissioned.
- Stanford beat Dartmouth 53–38 in the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament Final.
- Born:
- Daniel Dennett, philosopher, writer and cognitive scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts; (d. 2024)
- Neil Kinnock, politician, in Tredegar, Wales;
- Mike Newell, film director and producer, in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England;
- Conrad Schumann, East German border guard, in Zschochau, Saxony, Germany (d. 1998);
- Jerry Sloan, basketball player and coach, in McLeansboro, Illinois (d. 2020)
- Died: Pompiliu Ștefu, 31, Romanian typographer, communist activist and anti-fascist militant (executed)
- The Battle of Toungoo ended in Japanese victory.
- Stafford Cripps met with Mahatma Gandhi in New Delhi and presented his plan for postwar independence for India.
- The British cargo ship Hertford was torpedoed and sunk south of Halifax, Nova Scotia by German submarine U-571.
- German destroyer Z26 was shelled and sunk in the Barents Sea by British cruiser Trinidad and destroyer Eclipse.
- The Hukbalahap Rebellion began when former Hukbalahap soldiers rebelled against the Philippine government. The rebellion would not end until 1954.
- Following a coup d'état, the Free Republic of Nias was proclaimed by a group of freed Nazi German prisoners in the Indonesian island of Nias. The republic existed for less than a month until the island was fully occupied by Japanese troops.
- Born:
- Died: Yogbir Singh Kansakar, 56, Nepalese poet and social reformer
Notes and References
- Book: Matthäus, Jürgen . 2013 . Jewish Responses to Persecution: Volume III, 1941–1942 . Lanham, Maryland . AltaMira Press . 531 . 978-0-7591-2259-8 .
- Book: Williams, Mary H. . 1960 . Special Studies, Chronology, 1941–1945 . Washington, D.C. . U.S. Government Printing Office . 27 .
- Web site: A Timeline of Diplomatic Ruptures, Unannounced Invasions, Declarations of War, Armistices and Surrenders . Doody . Richard . The World at War . February 1, 2016 .
- Book: Sturma, Michael . 2011 . Surface and Destroy: The Submarine Gun War in the Pacific . Kentucky University Press . 91 . 978-0-8131-2999-0 .
- Book: Williford, Glen . 2010 . Racing the Sunrise: The Reinforcement of America's Pacific Outposts, 1941–1942 . Annapolis, MD . Naval Institute Press . 978-1-61251-256-3 .
- Web site: Abstract Expressionism . Comenas . Gary . warholstars.org . February 1, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150502074107/http://www.warholstars.org/abstractexpressionism/timeline/abstractexpressionism42.html . May 2, 2015 . dead .
- Book: 2008 . World and Its Peoples: Eastern and Southern Asia, Volume 10 . Marshall Cavendish Corporation . 1392 . 978-0-7614-7643-6 .
- Web site: War Diary for Friday, 6 March 1942 . Stone & Stone Second World War Books . February 1, 2016 .
- Book: Douglas, Roy . Roy Douglas (academic). 1991 . The World War 1939–1945: The Cartoonists' Vision . New York . Routledge . 141 . 978-0-415-07141-3 .
- Web site: Events occurring on Saturday, March 7, 1942 . 2011 . WW2 Timelines . February 1, 2016 .
- Book: 1943 . Yust . Walter . 1943 Britannica Book of the Year . Chicago . Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. . 4 .
- Book: Evans . A. A. . Gibbons . David . 2012 . The Illustrated Timeline of World War II . Rosen Publishing . 99 . 978-1-4488-4795-2 .
- Web site: Chronology 1942 . 2002 . indiana.edu . February 1, 2016 .
- Web site: The conquest of Borneo Island, 1941–1942 . Forgotten Campaign: The Dutch East Indies Campaign 1941–1942 . February 1, 2016 .
- Web site: Manhattan Project Chronology . Atomic Archive . February 1, 2016 .
- Web site: 1942: Key Dates . . February 1, 2016 .
- Web site: History Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory . 2023-03-10 . www.jhuapl.edu . en.
- Web site: Events occurring on Tuesday, March 10, 1942 . 2011 . WW2 Timelines . February 1, 2016 .
- Book: Kuniholm, Bruce Robellet . 1980 . The Origins of the Cold War in the Near East: Great Power Conflict and . Princeton University Press . 145 . 978-1-4008-5575-9 .
- March 12, 1942 . Brazil Approaches Open Hostilities with Germany . . Champaign, Illinois . 1 .
- News: March 13, 1942 . Esposito Brothers Die In Chair; Killed 2 in Holdup . . Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania . 20 .
- Web site: The Canadian Women's Army Corps, 1941–1946 . Dundas . Barbara . Durflinger . Serge . Canadian War Museum . February 1, 2016 .
- News: March 14, 1942 . F. D. R. Calls for 40-Mile Speed Limit . . Brooklyn . 1 .
- Web site: Was war am 16. März 1942 . chroniknet . February 1, 2016 .
- Web site: Events occurring on Tuesday, March 17, 1942 . 2011 . WW2 Timelines . February 1, 2016 .
- Web site: On This Day: March 17 . . February 1, 2016 .
- Book: 1989 . Mercer . Derrik . Chronicle of the 20th Century . London . Chronicle Communications Ltd. . 563–564 . 978-0-582-03919-3 .
- Horner, David. "General MacArthur's War: The South and Southwest Pacific campaigns 1942–45." The Pacific War Companion: From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima. Ed. Daniel Marston. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2005. p. 124. .
- Web site: HMS Heythrop . uboat.net . February 1, 2016 .
- Book: Eglan, Jared . 2015 . Beasts of War: The Militarization of Animals . Lulu Press . 59 . 978-1-329-51613-7 .
- Book: Goode, Fred C. . 2014 . No Surrender in Burma: Operations Behind Japanese Lines, Captivity and Torture . Pen & Sword Books . 978-1-4738-4096-6 .
- Web site: March 21, 1942 . The Second World War - A Day By Day Account . February 1, 2016 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20160304134923/http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/1942/03/21.htm . March 4, 2016 .
- Web site: Events occurring on Sunday, March 22, 1942 . 2011 . WW2 Timelines . February 1, 2016 .
- Web site: Chronomedia: 1942 . Terra Media . February 1, 2016 .
- Web site: Manzanar, California . Japanese American Veterans Association . February 1, 2016 .
- Book: Tucker, Spencer C. . 2010 . A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East . Santa Barbara . ABC-CLIO, LLC . 1958 . 978-1-85109-672-5 .
- March 27, 1942 . Brazilians Smash Nazi Spy Ring . . Champaign, Illinois . 1 .
- Book: 1990 . Chronology and Index of the Second World War, 1938–1945 . Research Publications . 115 . 978-0-88736-568-3 .
- Blumenkranz 1972, p. 404.
- Web site: Was war am 27. März 1942 . chroniknet . February 1, 2016 .
- Web site: Joe Louis . . February 1, 2016 .