Remembering History by day WW2

[Peter Clare]

AWA MARU (April 1, 1945)
Japanese passenger/cargo ship of 11,249 tons, (Captain Hamada Matsutaro) sunk while homeward bound after having delivered Red Cross relief supplies to American and Allied POW's in Japanese custody under an agreement between Japan and the US Government which guaranteed safe passage for such ships. The third ship to carry out this relief programme was the Awa Maru which picked up the Red Cross parcels from the stockpile at Nakhodka, one hundred miles south of Vladivostok. They had been transported there by five Soviet ships which had sailed from Portland, Oregon, in December, 1943, loaded with 2,500 tons of supplies. The Awa Maru was painted green with large white crosses on her sides and funnel, all illuminated by special spot lights. Loaded with 175 tons of Red Cross supplies, the Japanese also loaded crates of aircraft parts, munitions and other commodities desperately needed by Japanese troops in Southeast Asia.
This was in complete violation of the Relief for P.O.W. agreement. After unloading her cargo at various stops on her journey south, the Awa Maru was now in Singapore preparing for the journey home to Japan. Before leaving Singapore on March 28, she had on board over 2,000 Japanese officials, diplomats, technicians, war loot and civilians, all eager to escape the Allied bombs that were now falling on the city. The war loot consisted of forty metric tons of gold and 150,000 carats of diamonds, all worth over $5 billion. Calling at Batavia (Jakarta) she took on 2,500 tons of crude oil, hundreds of tons of oil drilling machinery, tin ingots, tungsten and rubber. Although the Americans knew what was going on they were reluctant to do anything about it in fear that the relief supplies would be stopped. Submarine commanders were ordered to 'let it go by safely'. However, April 1st saw the US submarine Queenfish , Commander Charles E. Loughlin, on her fourth patrol, in the Taiwan Strait in an area near where the Awa Maru would have to pass through. At 11 pm, a pip appeared on the Queenfish's radar indicating a possible target at 17,000 yards. Loaded far beyond normal limits, and traveling low in the water, the ship presented a smaller than usual radar image not unlike that of a destroyer.
What happened next proved to be the greatest submarine error of the Pacific war. The Queenfish fired four torpedoes, all of which hit the target. As the submarine approached the oil covered spot where the target had sunk, the crew picked up one exhausted man from the water, a first class steward from the sunken ship, 46 year old Shimoda Kantaro, the only survivor of the Awa Maru. Drowned in this disaster were 2,003 persons including seventy-two Taiwanese civilians. On arrival back at base, Commander Loughlin was relieved of his command and faced court-martial the result of which cleared him of all charges of wrongdoing. As the ship was sunk in Chinese territorial waters, Beijing carried out the salvage and recovered the looted treasure.

The Japanese passenger/cargo ship Awa Maru with clearly visible white crosses on her sides

[Peter Clare]

April 1940 - Several large concentrations of enemy warships are reported in naval bases in the north during the first week of the month. Bad weather hampers RAF missions against them, and after a Sunderland flying boat reports German warships entering Trondheim fjord in Norway, it confirms allied fears of a German invasion of Norway which began on 9 April 1940. German forces also occupy Denmark whose forces did not resist the enemy invasion.

[Peter Clare]

Apr 1941 - During an attack on Emden in Germany, Wellingtons drop the first 4,000lb (1,814kg) Blockbuster bomb

[Peter Clare]

April 2, 1941
"The Desert Fox" recaptures Libya

On this day in 1941, German Lieutenant General Erwin Rommel, "the Desert Fox," resumes his advance into Cyrenaica, modern-day Libya, signaling the beginning of what nine days later will become the recapture of Libya by the Axis forces.
Early Italian successes in East Africa, which included occupying parts of Sudan, Kenya, and British Somaliland, were soon reversed after British offensives, led by British Field Marshall Archibald Wavell, resulted in heavy Italian casualties and forced the Italians to retreat into Libya. But Axis control of the area was salvaged by the appearance of Rommel and the Afrika Korps, sent to East Africa by the German High Command to bail their Italian ally out.
On the verge of capturing Tripoli, the Libyan capital, Britain's forces were suddenly depleted when British Prime Minister Winston Churchill transferred British troops to Greece. Seizing the opportunity of a weakened British force, Rommel struck quickly, despite orders to remain still for two months. With 50 tanks and two fresh Italian divisions, Rommel forced the British to begin a retreat into Egypt.
Operation Battleaxe, the counteroffensive by British Field Marshall Archibald Wavell, resulted in little more than the loss of large numbers of British tanks to German 88mm anti-tank guns, as well as Wavell's ultimately being transferred from North Africa to India.
Rommel, known for his trademark goggles, which he pilfered from a British general's command vehicle, may have had some help in defeating his British counterpart. He was known to carry with him a book called Generals and Generalship, written by Archibald Wavell.
Rommel was portrayed by James Mason in the 1953 film The Desert Rats and by Christopher Plummer in 1967's Night of the Generals. Wavell was portrayed by Patrick Magee in the 1981 TV movie Churchill and the Generals.

[Peter Clare]

MELBOURNE STAR (April 2, 1943)

Blue Star liner (12,806 tons) Capt. J. B. Hall, sunk 600 miles south-east of Bermuda by the U-129. (Korkpt. Hans Ludwig Witt. Knights Cross). There were 113 passengers and crew lost, and only four survivors. The U-129 was scuttled on August 18, 1944 at Lorient, France.

[Peter Clare]

ASCQ (Near Lille, April 2, 1944)

At the end of March, 1944, the 12th SS Panzer Division 'Hitler Jugend' set out on 24 rail trucks for Normandy to cover the coast in anticipation of an Allied landing. The convoy, under the command of SS Obersturmführer Walter Hauck, was approaching the small railway station of Ascq when a violent explosion blew the line apart. Stopping the train, it was found that two flat trucks had been derailed, holding up the whole convoy. Hauck, in a foul mood, ordered his men to search and arrest all male members of the houses on both sides of the track. They were assembled together and marched down the track about 300 yards where each man was shot in the back of the head. Altogether 70 men were shot beside the railway line and another 16 killed in the village itself. After an investigation by the Gestapo, six more men were arrested and charged with planting the bomb. They were all executed by firing squad. When the war ended, a search for the perpetrators was set in motion. Most of the SS men were found in Allied POW camps in Europe and in England. In all, nine SS men stood trial in a French Military Court at Lille. All were sentenced to death, including Hauck. The sentences were later commuted to a period of imprisonment and Walter Hauck was released in July, 1957.

In the local cemetery at Ascq, two rows of identical tombstones, and a large plaque engraved with the names of all victims, stand in silent testimony to the tragic events of April 2, 1944.

[Peter Clare]

April 3, 1942
Japanese launch major offensive against Bataan

On this day in 1942, the Japanese infantry stage a major offensive against Allied troops in Bataan, the peninsula guarding Manila Bay of the Philippine Islands.
The invasion of the Japanese 14th Army, which began in December 1941 and was led by General Masaharu Homma, had already forced General Douglas MacArthur's troops from Manila, the Philippine capital, into Bataan, in part because of poor strategizing on MacArthur's part.
By March, after MacArthur had left for Australia on President Roosevelt's orders and been replaced by Major General Edward P. King Jr., the American Luzon Force and its Filipino allies were half-starved and suffering from malnutrition, malaria, beriberi, dysentery, and hookworm.
Homma, helped by reinforcements and an increase in artillery and aircraft activity, took advantage of the U.S. and Filipinos' weakened condition. The Japanese attack signaled the beginning of the end and would result, six days later, in the surrender of the largest number of U.S. troops in U.S. military history.

[Peter Clare]

April 4, 1884
Yamamoto Isoroku, Japan's mastermind of the Pearl Harbor attack, is born

Yamamoto Isoroku, perhaps Japan's greatest strategist and the officer who would contrive the surprise air attack on U.S. naval forces at Pearl Harbor, is born on this day in 1884.
A graduate of the Japanese naval academy in 1904, Yamamoto worked as a naval attachÝ for the Japanese embassy in Washington, D.C., from 1926 to 1927. During the next 15 years, he saw several promotions, from vice minister of the Japanese navy to commander in chief of Japan's Combined Fleet in August 1941. Despite worsening Japanese-American relations (especially in light of Japan's alliance with Germany and Italy), Yamamoto initially opposed war with the U.S., mostly out of fear that a prolonged conflict would go badly for Japan. But once the government of Prime Minister Tojo Hideki decided on war, Yamamoto argued that only a surprise attack aimed at crippling U.S. naval forces in the Pacific had any hope of victory. He also predicted that if war with America lasted more than one year, Japan would lose.
Yamamoto meticulously planned and carried out the Japanese air strike on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu Island, Hawaii, December 7, 1941. Waves of dive bombers, torpedo planes, and fighters descended on U.S. battleships, capsizing, destroying, or immobilizing several U.S. battleships within the first 30 minutes of the raid. The attack was a decided success, especially in catching the United States off guard, and resulted in the destruction of 180 U.S. aircraft and more than 3,400 American casualties.
U.S. forces finally caught up with Yamamoto, though, when they ambushed his plane and shot him down over Bougainville Island in 1943. Yamamoto died having been right about two things: the effectiveness of aircraft carriers in long-range naval attacks and that Japan would lose a drawn-out struggle with the United States.
Yamamoto was portrayed by Toshiro Mifune, an Akira Kurosawa regular, in three films, I Bombed Pearl Harbor (1961), Admiral Yamamoto (1968), and Midway (1974).

[Peter Clare]

April 5, 1945
Tito signs "friendship treaty" with Soviet Union

On this day in 1945, Yugoslav partisan leader Tito signs an agreement permitting "temporary entry of Soviet troops into Yugoslav territory."
Josip Broz, alias "Tito," secretary general of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, led a partisan counteroffensive movement against the Axis occupying powers of Germany and Italy in 1941. Recognized by the Allies as the leader of the Yugoslav resistance, he was, in fact, the leader of a power grab meant not only to expel the Axis forces but to wrest control of Yugoslavia in the postwar environment from both royalist and democratic movements. Once the Soviet army liberated Serbia, the fate of Yugoslavia as a communist-dominated nation was sealed. Tito's task now lay in remaining independent of both the U.S.S.R. and the West. To this end, he created a "second Yugoslavia," a socialist federation that became known for its nonalignment stance.
As part of the agreement signed on April 5, 1945, Tito secured a proviso that the Soviets would leave Yugoslavia once its "operational task" was completed. Ensuring compliance with this clause proved problematic, as Stalin tried to maintain a presence in postwar Yugoslavia, attempting to co-opt the Yugoslav Communist Party and create another puppet state. He failed; Tito played the West against the East in a Machiavellian scheme to keep his own Stalin-like grip on his country. Although he permitted cultural and scientific freedom unheard of in Soviet-bloc countries, he was also guilty of purging centrist and democratic forces fighting for reform within Yugoslavia and centralizing all power in one party. But upon Tito's death, in 1980, the center could not hold--chaos was ultimately unleashed in the form of ethnic civil war.

[Peter Clare]

April 6, 1941
Germany invades Yugoslavia and Greece

The German air force launches Operation Castigo, the bombing of Belgrade, on this day in 1941, as 24 divisions and 1,200 tanks drive into Greece.
The attack on Yugoslavia was swift and brutal, an act of terror resulting in the death of 17,000 civilians--the largest number of civilian casualties in a single day since the start of the war. Making the slaughter all the worse was that nearby towns and villages had emptied out into the capital city to celebrate Palm Sunday. All of Yugoslavia's airfields were also bombed, destroying most of its 600 aircraft while still on the ground.
As part of a comprehensive Balkan offensive, German forces also bombed the Greek port city of Piraeus as army divisions swept south and west, en route to Salonica and the eventual occupation of Greece.
Also on this day: British General Alan Cunningham's troops enter Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, formally expelling the Italian occupiers and setting the stage for the return of Ethiopia's emperor, Haile Selassie.