Battle of Java Sea
week from February 23 - March 1, 1942

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1942

Russian Front: Russians recapture Dorogobuzh, east of Smolensk. Russians reach river Dnieper in strength.

Picture: Assault of Russian T-34 tanks.

Diplomacy: Mutual Aid Agreement between UK, USA, Australia and New Zealand.

Sea War Pacific: Japanese submarine I-17 shells oil installations near Santa Barbara, California (night February 23-24).

Sea War: Prinz Eugen torpedoed off Trondheim by British submarine Trident.

Philippines: Roosevelt orders General MacArthur to leave Bataan for Australia. General Wainwright takes command. MacArthur appointed CinC Allied Forces in Australia.

Home Front Germany: Death of Prof. August von Parseval, aeronautical engineer and inventor of the Parse val 'kite balloon' used on Western Front in World War I.; aged 81.

Home Front Brazil: Stefan Zweig exiled Austrian author and his wife commit suicide at Petropolis; (Stefan) aged 60.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1942

Sea War Pacific: WAKE ISLAND RAID. US carrier Enterprise launches air strike against Wake Island (similar attack on nearby Marcus Island, March 4).

Air War Pacific: Japanese paratroops land on Kupang airfield, Timor.

Sea War Atlantic: US destroyer Iruxton and naval transport Pollux reported wrecked in gale off St Lawrence river (189 missing).

Sea War - Struma Affair: Russian submarine Shch-213 sinks decrepit Bulgarian SS Struma carrying 764 Rumanian Jews (only 1 survivor). Turkish authorities had earlier forced vessel's crew to put to sea because none of the passengers had visas.

Diplomacy: Von Papen, German Ambassador in Turkey, narrowly escapes death in assassination attempt.
Vichy France reaffirms her neutrality following US protest against 'incidental' aid given to German Afrika Korps.

Occupied Norway: Norwegian bishops resign their offices in collective protest against Nazi-Quisling oppression.

Occupied Holland: Death of L.E.Bisser, President of Netherlands High Court of Justice until removed by Germans in 1940; active in Jewish welfare work; aged 70.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1942

Burma: Retreating British use 'scorched earth' tactics in Rangoon, inc. setting fire to oil installations.

Air War Europe: RAF night raid on Kiel (repeated next 2 nights).

Home Front USA: Air raid scare in Los Angeles: heavy AA barrage. Secretary of War Stimson announces that '15 commercial planes operated by enemy agents' have flown over city - false alarm; no bombs dropped.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1942

Air War Europe: RAF cripples Gneisenau at Kiel: a complete rebuilding is planned, but never implemented.

Home Front USA: All 3,000 Japanese-American residents of Terminal Islands in Los Angeles harbour ordered to leave within 3 days.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1942

Home Front Germany: Orders given for the building of 5 crematoria at Auschwitz, capable of 'processing' 12,000 gas chamber victims per day.

Picture: KZ prison volunteers working in a crematoria at Auschwitz.

Sea War - (MAIN EVENT) - BATTLE OF JAVA SEA (February 27-March 1): Allied fleet, under Dutch Admiral Doorman, makes repeated but largely ineffectual attempts to repulse 2 Japanese invasion fleets approaching Java from east and west. Cruisers De Ruyter, Java, Houston, Perth and Exeter and destroyers Kortenaer, Electra, Jupiter, Encounter and Pope are sunk. Japanese lose 2 transports, 1 cruiser and 6 destroyers are damaged.

Air War: Japanese bombers make devastating incendiary raid on Toungoo (Burma Road); 400 killed.

Secret War - The Bruneval Raid (Operation Biting): British paratroops destroy radar station near Le Havre and escape by sea with vital components (night February 27-28).

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1942

Burma: Japanese cut road north of Rangoon.

Sea War Atlantic: U-boats sink 69 ships (mainly tankers) off American East Coast and in Caribbean during February.

Home Front USA: Rear Admiral Kimmel and Lt.-Gen. Short - US Navy and Army CinCs in Hawaii on December 7, 1941 - to face court-martial for 'dereliction of duty', after the war.

Diplomacy: Subhas Chandra Bose, renegade ex-president of Indian Congress Party, makes anti-British broadcast speech from Berlin (repeated March 11).

Home Front Germany: Dr Mansfeld appointed Reich Labour Controller with overall responsibility for the exploitation of foreign workers and PoWs in the armaments industry and agriculture.

Home Front Australia: General Bennett escapes from Singapore to Australia.

Sea War - Merchant shipping losses in February 1942: 78 Allied ships with 440,989 tons in Atlantic, 76 Allied ships with 238,743 tons elsewhere. 9 Axis ships with 34,889 tons in Mediterranean, 9 Japanese ships with 37,291 tons in Pacific.
2 German U-boats sunk in the Atlantic, Arctic or Baltic (worldwide total 2 losses), 18 new U-boats operational, 257 U-boats of all types total in service.

SUNDAY, MARCH 1, 1942

Russian Front: Russians counter-attack in the Crimea.

Sea War: HMS Exeter sunk by Japanese cruisers and destroyers south of Borneo. US destroyer Pope crippled by dive bombers and sunk by gunfire. 2 Japanese task forces (including 4 carriers and 2 fast battleships) under Admirals Nagumo and Kondo wreak havoc among Allied shipping around Java. 9 warships and 10 merchant ships sunk and 3 merchant ships captured (March 1-7). Ships sunk include 3 destroyers - USS Edsall, Pillsbury and HMS Stronghold - and naval tanker Pecos (carrying survivors from USS Langley).

Picture: HMS Exeter shortly before sinking after she was heavily damaged by 4 Japanese heavy cruisers.

Air War: Severe raids on Malta. RAF night raid on shipping at Tripoli.

Home Front USA: Death of Cornelius Vanderbilt III, multi-millionaire railway magnate, inventor and soldier; aged 68.