April 1942 (1)

As the Japanes invaded, they took over the newspapers and portrayed themselves as peaceful liberators.

1 April – Japanese forces made two more landings on New Guinea, one at Hollandia in the north and Sorong on the west.  / Buka Island, in the Solomons, went into enemy hands.  /  In the Indian Ocean, the Japanese carrier Ryuji led a naval raiding party against Allied shipping along the Orissa coast for 10 days and sank 24 merchant vessels as the Japanese Blitz continued to rage on.

Andaman Island area

2 April, the entire territory of Western Burma went under Japanese control as their 15th Army pushed the Allied Burma Army backwards.  The US Army Air Force B-17 “Flying Fortress” bombers attacked the enemy around the Andaman Islands.

As Army Chaplains held communion services on Good Friday, the enemy bombed the center of the American lines on Bataan so heavily that the jungle went ablaze.  The G.I.s were forced to escape the black smoke as the Japanese went through the 3-mile gap of the defenses.  The next day, the enemy planted their flag on top of Mount Samat, the highest point of the Mariveles Mountains.  The Japanese 4th Division bombed for 5 hours before the onset of 2 days of heavy combat.

Mount Samat, (on left), 1942

MacArthur radioed in his orders for a counteroffensive and Wainwright relayed this order to MGeneral Edward King on the peninsula, but King knew it was an impossible task.  A Navy doctor on-board a boat headed for Corregidor described the scene: “The air was filled with smoke and flying debris, the din was terrific and horrifying.  A gasoline dump was dynamited which intensified the blast which hurled rock, boulders and human fragments all over the area and into the sea, sinking smaller boats in the harbor and injuring the occupants…”

Mitsubushi – Ki 30s over Bataan front line

8 April – the troops on Bataan were ordered to destroy their equipment and prepare to surrender.  King signaled Corregidor, “We have no further means of organized resistance.”  Wainwright refused the idea of surrender.

9 April – King ordered the flags of truce to be raised at 0600 hours, he saw no other alternative to save the lives of the men that remained.  The news arrived at the ‘Rock’ too late to be refused.  When Gen. King laid his pistol on the table at the Japanese headquarters, he compared it to Gen. Lee’s shame at Appomatox on the same day of 1865.  MacArthur said at a press conference, “No army has done so much with so little and nothing became of it more than its last hours of trial and agony.”

POWs

Gen. Homma’s HQ had estimated about 25,000 POWs would need to be transported, but now they were faced with 78,000 American and Filipino troops.  The enemy logistics broke down and 9 April would begin the trek, for men already ill and malnourished, of 65 miles (104 km) long.  One in three would die along the way.

Click on images to enlarge.

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Military Humor – 

 

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Farewell Salutes – 

Anthony Bonvetti Sr. – Wilmington, DE; US Army, WWII

William Dubois – New Castle, CO; US Air Force, Capt., Operation Inherent Resolve, 77th Fighter Squadron, F-16 pilot

Louis Forni – Geneva, IL; US Army, WWII, ETO,  3rd Division

Oval Goad – Alexandria, KY; US Army, WWII & Korea

Sol Hofkins (100) – Golden Lakes Village, FL; USA, WWII, PTO

Brian Mall – Auckland, NZ; RA Army # 2400794, K Force, Lance Cpl.

James McGrath Jr. – US & CAN; US Navy & CAN. Reserves, WWII

Robert Pratt – Lake Worth, FL; US Army, Korea

Angelo Zampieri – Dover, NH; US Navy, WWII / US Air Force, Korea

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