World War II As It Happened
A MaritimeQuest Daily Event Special Presentation
Thursday, March 5, 1942
Day 917

March 5, 1942: Front page of the News and Chronicle, London, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the photo in columns 1-2: "Gen. Campbell Gets His V.C."
(Major-General John Charles Campbell awarded the Victoria Cross.)


March 5, 1942: Front page of The Daily Mail, Hull, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


March 5, 1942: Front page of The Yorkshire Post and Leeds Mercury, Leeds, England.
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Note the report at top left: "Java Ordered To Fight To The Last"
(The Dutch government in exile has ordered their commanders on Java to "fight to the last" man. An order some would consider courageous, but the officials in London, where the order comes from, are not the ones who are going to die because of it. On several occasions when Hitler gave such an order, he was mocked as not caring about his troops, which of course, he didn't. Here you have the same situation, only an Allied government issuing such absurd orders. Sacrificing men and women (there were plenty of women on Java) to fight an overwhelming force to a futile end is madness and only a government official would issue such an order. Now you know that it was not only the Germans or Japanese that issued death decrees to their troops.)


March 5, 1942: Front page of the Western Mail and South Wales News, Cardiff, Wales.
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March 5, 1942: Front page of the Evening Telegraph and Post, Dundee, Scotland.
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Note the report in column 2: "Japs Say Stronghold Sunk"
(It was true, HMS Stronghold was sunk with the loss of 75 men. The report also states that USS Asheville PG-21 had been sunk, also true. There was only 1 survivor from a crew of 161 men. Neither of these losses had been released to the press by the Admiralty or the Navy Dept.)
Also note the report in column


March 5, 1942: Front page of The Examiner, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.
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March 5, 1942: Front page of The Sydney Sun, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
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Note the report in columns 1-2: "50,000-ton Jap Battleships"
(The report states that two new Japanese battleships, of 50,000 tons, were now in commission. The report was half true. The battleship Yamato was in commission, but Musashi would not be commissioned until August. These were the largest battleships ever built and they displaced over 65,000 tons, over 70, 000 with a full load. A third ship of the Yamato class, Shinano, was converted into an aircraft carrier before completion, but it was sunk on trials by USS Archerfish SS-311 on Nov. 29, 1944, before it was commissioned. Over 1,400 sailors and civilian workers went down with the ship. Yamato and Musashi were both sunk by U.S.N. carrier-based aircraft. Yamato on Apr. 7, 1945 with the loss of 2,498 men and Musashi on Aug. 5, 1942, over 1,000 officers and men were killed.)


March 5, 1942: Front page of The Telegraph, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report at top left: "Surprise On Jap. Ships In Philippines - Gen. MacArthur's Air Force Takes Toll"
(As it turns out, no Japanese ships had been sunk by MacArthur's air forces. Of course, the press had no way to confirm this and the headlines would soon fade into some other war story and nobody would ever know that they had been lied to. Well, now they know.

(An unnamed spokesman in Batavia so says. However, the truth was something quite different.

Below is a brief timeline of the actions that took place between Feb. 25 and Mar. 9, 1942.

Feb. 25: The Japanese depart for the invasion of Java. They are split into two forces, which was the typical Japanese tactic, one which almost always failed. Almost one hundred transports ships of all sizes were escorted by a huge force of cruisers, destroyers, minesweepers, submarine chasers, and all kinds of support vessels. Air cover was provided by the aircraft carrier Ryujo and the seaplane carrier Chiyoda along with shore-based aircraft. A third force, under Admiral Nagumo, consisting of aircraft carriers, battleships, cruisers and destroyers takes up a position south of Java.

The invasion forces are sighted by waiting Allied submarines on Feb. 25, but no attack is made against them. Japanese air reconnaissance sights Allied ships off Java and the invasion force is stopped. There was no great battle, the Japanese just retired to avoid combat.

Feb. 26: The ABDA force, under the command of Rear Admiral Kaerl Doorman, sortied, but did not locate the Japanese. They sortie again on the 27th and this time they found one of the invasion forces and the Battle of the Java Sea began.

Feb. 27: The Dutch destroyer Kortenaer is sunk by a torpedo fired from Haguro, 59 men are lost. Then HMS Exeter, veteran of the Battle of the River Plate, is hit by a Japanese shell and is forced to retire, 13 men are killed. HMS Electra is sunk by a torpedo attack with the loss of 109 men.

HMS Jupiter hits a Dutch mine and sinks, taking 84 men with her. HNLMS De Duyter, flagship of the squadron, is sunk sometime during the night of Feb. 27-28, three hundred and sixty-six men, including Doorman, were lost. HNLMS Java, also sunk in the same action takes five hundred and thirty men with her.

In a separate action with Nagumo's covering force, USS Langley AV-1 is sunk, fortunately only 16 men were lost. In all of this, only two Japanese warships had been damaged, none were sunk.

Feb. 28: Japanese forces land on Java.

Mar. 1: The Battle of the Sunda Strait. The cruisers USS Houston CA-30 and HMAS Perth attack the Japanese force landing on Java, sinking two transports and damaging a minesweeper. Both Houston and Perth are sunk, Houston lost six hundred and ninety-three men while Perth lost three hundred and forty-two.

HMS Exeter is sunk with the loss of 54 men. HMS Encounter is shelled and sunk, 7 men are killed. USS Pope DD-225 is bombed by aircraft from Ryujo and disabled, then shelled by the same two Japanese ships that sank HMS Encounter and sunk, only 1 man was lost. The Japanese lost two transports [mentioned above] and two cruisers were damaged.

In a separate action on Mar. 1st, aircraft from Nagumo's force locate USS Pecos AO-6 and sink her. One hundred and seventy-two men, including many survivors from USS Langley, were killed. The battleship force then comes across USS Edsall DD-219, which also had survivors from Langley on board. The destroyer took on the battleships single-handed, never hauling down her flag, she went down after a severe punishing. One hundred and forty-seven men went down with the ship, five were picked up by the cruiser Chikuma. They were interrogated, tortured, and then executed at Kendrie POW camp, Celebes. Along with this, five merchant ships were sunk.

Mar. 2: HMS Stronghold is sunk, 75 men lost, USS Pillsbury DD-277 is sunk, 185 men lost. One merchant ship sunk one captured. HNLMS Banckert, HNLMS Witte de With, USS Stewart DD-224 and three Dutch submarines, K-XII, K-XVIII and K-IV are scuttled at Surabaya, Java. Stewart and Banckert were later raised and repaired by the Japanese. USS Sailfish SS-192 sinks the aircraft transport Kamogawa Maru.

Mar. 3: USS Asheville PG-21 is sunk with 160 of her 161-man crew.

Mar. 4: Japanese ships locate a small convoy and sink all but one ship, which is captured. Lost were HMAS Yara with 138 men, HMAS Anking, with 259 men lost, HMS MMS-51 with the loss of 2 men and RFA Francol and 19 men. The 7,089-ton Tjisaroea was captured.

Mar. 5: Nagumo's carrier aircraft raid Tjilatjap, Java, two ships are damaged but 15 are scuttled.

Mar. 6: HNLMS Jan van Amstel, HNLMS Eland Dubois and HNLMS Pieter de Bitter are scuttled.

Mar. 9: With much of the ABDA force sunk and the remaining ships and submarines having fled to safety, the ABDA command is dissolved.

Many of the survivors would die as prisoners in Japanese custody.)


March 5, 1942: Front page of The Lethbridge Herald, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.
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March 5, 1942: Front page of the Winnipeg Free Press, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
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Note the report in columns 6-7: "Van Mook Calls On Java Citizens To Battle On"
(At least Lt. Governor-General Dr. Hubertus van Mook was there at the time. He escaped to Australia soon thereafter.)


March 5, 1942: Front page of the Biddeford Daily Journal, Biddeford, Maine.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 7: "Thousands Of Japs Drown When MacArthur's Fliers Sink Three Troop Ships"
(This is how the myth of MacArthur was propagated. Headlines like this were in many U.S. papers of the day.)
Also note the report in column 4: "Mystery Plane Raids Honolulu, None Hurt"
(Since all Japanese aircraft carriers were engaged in operations near Australia, it is most likely that a U.S. aircraft jettisoned the bombs either in error or because of some problem. This was not uncommon.)
 
Also note the report in columns 7-8: "Higher Fuel Prices Required For East In View Of Tanker Losses"


March 5, 1942: Front page of The Evening Star, Washington, D.C.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in columns 2-3: "Cripps May Replace Churchill As Prime Minister, British Hear"
(An unidentified, but "extremely reliable and well-informed political source" tells the press that Winston Churchill may be replaced by Sir Stafford Cripps, former Ambassador to Russia and known Marxist/Socialist. We know this disaster never happened, but it just shows that politics never changes, even in war time. You can be sure the "source" was from the labour party.)
Also note the report in column 3: "Another False Alarm Awakens Los Angeles"


March 5, 1942: Front page of The Evening Gazette, Xenia, Ohio.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the photo in column 7: "New Navy Ace"
(Lt. Edward Henry O'Hare, USN, credited with shooting down 5 enemy aircraft (not six) when they attacked USS Lexington CV-2. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for this action. O'Hare was killed on Nov. 26, 1943 when his aircraft was shot down. USS O'Hare DD-889 and Chicago's O'Hare airport were named in his honor.)


March 5, 1942: Front page of The Port Arthur News, Port Arthur, Texas.
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March 5, 1942: Front page of the Tucson Daily Citizen, Tucson, Arizona.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 4: "Gas Rationing To Be Decided This Weekend"


March 5, 1942: Front page of The Bakersfield Californian, Bakersfield, California.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the headline: "Java Doomed By Jap Gain"
(Finally an editor publishing a truthful headline.)
Also note the report in column 2: "The Mystery"
(Secretary of War Henry Stimson, after declaring that enemy agents had hired several aircraft and flew over Los Angeles to terrify the population, retracts or clarifies his statement and now claims he does not believe there were any aircraft over Los Angeles.)


March 5, 1942: Front page of the Teltower Kreisblatt, Kreis Teltow, Brandenburg, Germany.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
1. Kommandowechsel im Südwest-Pazifik.
(Change of command in the Southwest Pacific.)


March 5, 1942: Front page of the Völkischer Beobachter, the official newspaper of the NSDAP.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
1. Schamloses Vorgehen des Verräters an Europa - Churchill läßt Paris bombardieren - Einst verherrlichtes Kulturzentrum - heute Racheobjekt.
(Shameless action by the traitor to Europe - Churchill has Paris bombed - once a glorified cultural center - today an object of revenge.)



   
Page published March 5, 2023