Post-blogging 1940

Operation Drumbeat. Just after midnight off Newfoundland, U-754 sinks Greek SS Icarion (9 dead and 20 survivors). At 9.43 AM 35 miles Southeast of Ocean City, New Jersey, U-130 sinks American tanker SS Francis E. Powell (4 dead, 28 survivors) and damages American tanker SS Halo with shellfire.

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Siege of Leningrad Day 141. Trucks bring in 2000 tons per day on Road of Life across frozen Lake Lagoda and the bread ration has doubled, but civilians are still dying at the rate of 4000 per day. Scurvy is a problem so pine needles are extracted to produce vitamin C. Road of Life capacity now allows civilians to be evacuated from Leningrad (440,000 will be transported out before the Ice Road melts on April 15).

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Dutch Borneo. Japanese Assault Unit, which landed East of Balikpapan, captures the airfield by dawn. They make slow progress towards Balikpapan city due to destruction of bridges by the Dutch defenders. 1000 Dutch troops retreat North only to be overwhelmed by Japanese Surprise Attack Unit attacking from their river landings. In the evening, both Japanese units arrive in the city which is now undefended. Japanese are incensed at the prior destruction of the oil facilities by the Dutch, leading to a massacre next month.

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Japanese invasion of the oil-rich islands of Dutch East Indies begins in earnest. On the island of Celebes, Japanese Sasebo Combined Special Naval Landing Force lands at Kendari and quickly overwhelms 400 Dutch defenders to capture the airfield. Off Kendari, US submarine USS Swordfish sinks Japanese gunboat Myoken Maru. Off Borneo, Dutch bombers attack Japanese troop ships all day as they approach the oil town of Balikpapan. Dutch submarine K-18 damages Japanese patrol boat P37 (K-18 is counterattacked and damaged by depth charges, returning to the Dutch naval base at Soerabaja, Java, unable to dive). Overnight, 5500 Japanese troops land unopposed at 2 sites North and East of Balikpapan and converge on the city. US destroyers USS Paul Jones, USS Parrot, USS Pope and USS John D. Ford attack the anchored Japanese flotilla with torpedoes overnight, sinking 3 transport ships (Kuretake Maru, Sumanoura Maru and Tatsukami Maru) and the damaged patrol boat P37.

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At 3.19 AM 70 miles Southwest of Kauai, Hawaii, Japanese submarine I-72 sinks US Oiler USS Neches with 3 torpedoes (57 killed). USS Neches is en route to refuel Task Force 11 (including aircraft carrier USS Lexington) which left Oahu yesterday to bomb Wake Island. Task Force 11 cannot reach Wake without fuel and returns to Pearl Harbor.

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Malaya. Overnight, ambulances held hostage by the Japanese at Parit Sulong bridge escape back to Colonel Anderson’s trapped column. In the morning, 2 RAF Fairey Albacores from Singapore drop supplies and then bomb the Japanese holding the bridge. The Japanese positions are not weakened and easily repel Anderson’s probing attacks. With attacks on the column intensifying and no hope of relief from Allied troops at Yong Peng, Anderson at 9 AM orders the walking to make for Yong Peng through the jungle to avoid annihilation (Anderson will win the VC but only 900 of the 4000-strong Bakri garrison escape to safety). Japanese massacre 110 Australian and 40 Indian wounded and medics by machinegunning, bayoneting, beheading with swords and burning alive with petrol. Lieutenant Ben Hackney of Australian 2/19th Battalion and 2 other survivors will testify after the war against Imperial Guards commander General Takuma Nishimura who is executed by hanging on June 11, 1951.

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Battle of Bataan. With the East side of the Abucay-Mauban line crumbing, Japanese get behind the West side of the line by crossing the undefended slopes of Mount Natib. They establish a roadblock on the Mauban ridge, cutting off the Philippine Army 1st Regular Division and preventing resupply of US and Filipino troops at the front.

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In Berlin at 56-58 Am Grossen Wannsee, SS General Reinhard Heydrich informs 15 German government administrators that the “Final Solution to the Jewish question” would be deportation of Jews to Eastern Europe for extermination or use as slave labour.

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