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.
• 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 ; 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.
• Australia declared war on Thailand.
• Ships at Surabaya in the Dutch East Indies were scuttled to keep them from being captured by the Japanese.
• 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
• Died: Charlie Christian, 25, American swing and jazz guitarist

  [March 3], 1942 (Tuesday)

• The Battle of Pegu, concerning the defence of Rangoon, began.
• Attack on Broome: Japanese fighter planes attacked the town of Broome, Western Australia and killed 88 people.
• KNILM Douglas DC-3 shootdown: 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.
• The American gunboat Asheville was sunk south of Java by the Japanese destroyers Arashi and Nowaki.
• An exhibition titled "Artists in Exile" opened at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York. Fourteen artists including Marc Chagall, Max Ernst, Fernand Léger and Piet Mondrian were represented at the exhibition with one piece each.
• German submarine U-92 was commissioned.
• Died: Prince Amedeo, Duke of Aosta, 43, Italian prince

  [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)

• Japanese forces entered Batavia, the capital of the Dutch East Indies.
• German submarines U-462 and U-612 were commissioned.
• Born: Felipe González, Prime Minister of Spain, in Seville, Spain
• Died: Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia, 50, Russian royal

  [March 6], 1942 (Friday)

• Elements of the Japanese 2nd Infantry Division on Java entered Buitenzorg, while Dutch forces withdrew toward Bandung.
• 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.

  [March 7], 1942 (Saturday)

• The Battle of Pegu ended in a Japanese victory.
• The first class of five African-American Tuskegee Airmen graduated.
• Netherlands Indies Radio went off the air with the final message, "Goodbye till better times. Long live the Queen!"
• German submarines U-179 and U-211 were commissioned.
• Born:
• *Michael Eisner, businessman and CEO of the Walt Disney Company, in Mount Kisco, New York;
• *Tammy Faye Messner, evangelist, singer and television personality, in International Falls, Minnesota
• Died: Pierre Semard, 55, French communist leader

  [March 8], 1942 (Sunday)

• The Japanese Invasion of Salamaua–Lae began.
• Japanese forces entered Rangoon.
• The British and U.S. governments extended loans of £50 million and $500 million, respectively, to the Nationalist Chinese government.
• The Dutch minesweeper Jan van Amstel was sunk by a Japanese destroyer in the Madura Strait with heavy loss of life.
• Jacques Maritain gave the annual Aquinas Lecture at Marquette University.
• Born: Dick Allen, baseball player, in Wampum, Pennsylvania
• Died: José Raúl Capablanca, 53, Cuban chess player

  [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.
• 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.
• Slovak authorities required all Jews to wear the yellow badge.
• 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 10], 1942 (Tuesday)

• The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory was founded.
• The Japanese captured the port of Finschhafen, New Guinea.
• Lend-Lease was granted to Iran.
• Died: Julia Britton Hooks, 89, American musician and educator

  [March 11], 1942 (Wednesday)

• Douglas MacArthur's escape from the Philippines began.
• The British light cruiser Naiad was torpedoed and sunk south of Crete by German submarine U-565.
• Brazilian President Getúlio Vargas by decree reiterated his powers to declare war or a state of national emergency, clearing the way for the seizure of subjects and property of Axis countries.

  [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.
• The American cargo ship Texan was torpedoed, shelled and sunk by German submarine U-126.
• German submarine U-613 was commissioned.
• Born:
• *Ratko Mladić, Bosnian Serb military leader, in Božanovići, Independent State of Croatia;
• *Jimmy Wynn, baseball player, in Hamilton, Ohio
• Died:
• *William Henry Bragg, 79, British physicist, chemist and Nobel laureate;
• *Robert Bosch, 80, German industrialist, engineer and inventor;
• *Enric Morera i Viura, 76, Spanish musician and composer

  [March 13], 1942 (Friday)

• The Japanese completed the Invasion of Salamaua–Lae.
• The Canadian Women's Army Corps was integrated into the Canadian Army.
• 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 ;
• *George Negus, author, journalist and television presenter, in Brisbane, Australia;
• *Scatman John, musician, in El Monte, California
• Died: Žikica Jovanović Španac, 27 or 28, Yugoslav partisan

  [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 to conserve rubber.
• 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

  [March 15], 1942 (Sunday)

• 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.