28 February 1939

RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group. Leaflets and Reconnaissance - Berlin. 51 Sqn. Two aircraft. One returned early U/S. Moderate opposition.

Royal Navy: The first of a new class of battleship, HMS King George V, is launched.

Scotland: Divers have recovered three rotors from the top-secret Enigma enciphering machine on board U-33. The U-boat, caught minelaying off Scotland, scuttled herself after being forced to the surface by depth charges from the sloop HMS Gleaner, which marked the spot and sent for the divers.
The rotors have been rushed to Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire where code-breaking scientists are working furiously to solve the secrets of Enigma. The rotors could help break the vital U-boat code.

Corvette HMS Dahlia laid down.

Destroyer depot ship HMS Tyne launched.

Battleship HMS Duke of York launched.

Minesweeping trawler HMS Whitehorn commissioned.

GERMANY:
Berlin: The propaganda minister, Dr. Göbbels, tells neutral countries to "curb their public opinion" and warns Sweden against aiding Finland.

FINLAND: Finns receive an ultimatum from Moscow: Finland has to accept the Soviet terms for starting the negotiations in two days (by 11 am. on 1 March). The Finnish cabinet immediately gathers at Helsinki, where the majority of ministers agree that peace has to be made. PM Ryti and four other ministers travelled to Mikkeli to meet Mannerheim, who told them that the situation at the front is worrisome.

Lt. Gen. Ernst Linder's Swedish volunteers take over the defence of North Finland from Maj. Gen. Kurt Wallenius. Five Finnish infantry battalions are freed to strengthen the defence at the western coast of the Bay of Viipuri, where the Red Army threatens to attack over the frozen gulf.

PALESTINE: The British government limits the acquisition of Arab land by Jews.

CHINA: Communist troops retake Anding, near Yenan, from the Japanese.

AUSTRALIA: The War Cabinet adopts a plan to form a second Australian Imperial Force division, the 7th, which with the existing 6th Division, would form an Australian corps.

U.S.A.: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announces a limited commercial television service will be authorized beginning on 1 September. Standards are not set, pending further research until the best system can be determined. (Two days later the FCC suspended its authorization for commercial service, declaring that the marketing campaign of RCA disregarded the commission's findings and recommendations.)
The National Broadcasting Company’s experimental TV station W2XBS in New York City broadcasts the first basketball game, Fordham vs. the University of Pittsburgh, from Madison Square Garden. Pittsburgh won, 50-37.

BELGIUM: Six RAF Bomber Command Blenheims, with a fighter escort, bomb the port area of Antwerp without loss.

POLAND: 10,000 Jews from Lodz were gassed at Chelmo this week, while 4,618 Jews have died of starvation in the Warsaw ghetto.

INDIAN OCEAN: British Overseas Airways Corp. (BOAC) Short S-23 C-Class Empire Boat, msn S-842, registered G-AETZ and named “Circe” is shot down by Japanese fighters while it is en route from Tjilatjap, Java, and Broome, Western Australia.

BURMA: British Imperial forces fall back on Pegu from Payagyi and Waw in anticipation of a general withdrawal. Japanese are only 50 miles (80 kilometres) north of Rangoon.

JAPAN: Admiral YAMAMOTO Isoroku, Commander of the Combined Fleet, issues Navy Directive No. 60, which states that the Japanese Navy is to consider Soviet ships as “absolutely neutral.”

NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: Sumatra: Major-General Gordon Bennett, the commander of the 8th Australian Division on Singapore, has sailed from the clutches of the Japanese - and into a bitter controversy.

When the situation on Singapore was desperate, Bennett handed command of his division to his artillery commander, and, without consulting his superior, Lieutenant-General Percival, boarded one of the hundreds of small boats leaving the colony. Bennett is accused of abandoning his troops while other commanders went into captivity with their men. The most senior officer to escape, he is among 3,000 troops and civilians being looked after by locals on Sumatra.

The light cruisers HMS Danae and Dragon and HMAS Hobart which have been operating from Batavia, Java, sail shortly after midnight accompanied by a Dutch destroyer to sweep north from Batavia with orders, if contact with the Japanese Western Invasion Force were not made by 0430 hours, to abandon the search and proceed to Trincomalee, Ceylon, via the Sunda Strait. The sweep was really no more than a demonstration, since to keep the small and hopelessly outnumbered force in the west Java Sea would have been suicidal. No enemy was encountered by the time laid down, and the force withdrew as ordered and finally arrived at Colombo, Ceylon, on the 5 March.
     The heavy cruiser USS Houston (CA-30), with her No. 3 turret disabled and low on ammunition, and the light cruiser HMAS Perth, survivors of last nights’ Battle of the Java Sea, arrive back in Batavia, at 1400 hours. After refuelling, they depart at 1930 hours intending to pass through the Sunda Strait to Tjilatjap, Java. Unknown to the Allies, part of the Japanese Western Invasion Force was being landed in Bantam Bay, 40 miles (64 kilometres) west of Batavia. Shortly after 2300 hours, the two ships, rounding a headland, accidentally encounter the Japanese transport force and escorting ships (Rear Admiral TAKEO Takagi) in Banten Bay, Java, and engage.
     The heavy cruiser HMS Exeter, whose boiler rooms had been damaged yesterday, makes repairs at Surabaya, Java, and, accompanied by destroyers HMS Encounter and USS Pope (DD-225), sails in the evening for Ceylon. Soon after leaving Surabaya, the three ships are spotted by Japanese aircraft.
      Of all the Allied ships which took part in the Battle of the Java Sea only four American destroyers survived, USS Alden (DD-211), John D. Ford (DD-228), Paul Jones (DD-230) and John D. Edwards (DD-216), which had been detached to Surabaya and ordered to rearm in Australia. They sailed under cover of darkness on the night of the 28th, passed through Bali Strait and made a short contact with a force of three Japanese destroyers patrolling in the southern leg of Bali Island. The American ships returned fire after the Japanese ships engaged. At the end they increased the speed to 27 knots and arrived in Fremantle, Western Australia, on 4 March without any further incident.
     At 2330 hours, the transports carrying the Japanese 16th Army anchor in Bantam Bay and prepare to land the Japanese Army troops.

Near Christmas Island, the USS Whipple (DD-217) with the USS Edsel (DD-219) begin transferring USS Langley crew members [rescued 2 days before] to the oiler USS Pecos (AO-6), and completing the task by 0800. While one destroyer transferred personnel, the other circled and maintained an antisubmarine screen. When the job of transferring survivors from the lost seaplane tender had been completed, the two destroyers parted company with the oiler.

Changing course in anticipation of orders to retire from Java, Whipple prepared to send a message relative to these orders when the destroyer's chief radioman heard a cell for help over the radio from Pecos, then under attack by Japanese bombers near Christmas Island. Whipple sped to the scene to render assistance if possible.

Throughout the afternoon, as the destroyer closed the oiler, all hands on board prepared knotted lines and cargo nets for use in picking up survivors. Whipple went to general quarters at 1922 when she sighted several small lights off both bows. Whipple slowly closed and began picking up survivors of Pecos. After interrupting the proceedings to conduct an unsuccessful attack on a submarine lurking in the area, she returned to the task and continued the search until she had received 231 men from the oiler. (Ron Babuka)

U.S.A.: "Moonlight Cocktail" by Glenn Miller and his Orchestra with vocals by Ray Eberle and The Modernaires reaches Number 1 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in the U.S. This song, which debuted on the charts one week earlier, was charted for 15 weeks, was Number 1 for 10 weeks and was ranked Number 2 for the year 1942.

Washington: President Roosevelt approves the reorganization of the War Department. (Marc James Small)

Certain duties of former Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation transferred to Coast Guard temporarily by Executive Order 9083. Made permanent July 16, 1946.

U.S. Maritime Service transferred to Coast Guard from War Shipping Administration.

CARIBBEAN SEA: At 1117, the unescorted and unarmed Texaco tanker Oregon was attacked by U-156 with the deck gun about 150 miles NE of Mona Passage or 170 miles (274 kilometres) northwest of San Juan, Puerto Rico while steaming completely blacked out on a zigzag course at 10 knots. The first shell hit the starboard side in the quarters of the master and the second destroyed the radio shack. After disabling the radio the U-boat circled the tanker and fired shells at point blank range into the waterline during 75 minutes. Fire broke out on the bridge and the stern and a boiler exploded but the cargo never caught fire. The tanker sank by the stern about four hours after the initial attack. The eight officers and 28 crewmen abandoned ship in one lifeboat and one raft. They abandoned ship on the starboard side while the U-boat fired shells into the port side. The master, two officers and three crewmen died during the attack. The 26 survivors in the lifeboat made landfall near Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic on 4 March. The Gulfpenn picked up the four survivors on the raft five and a half days after the attack. Some survivors reported that two U-boats shelled the vessel and that some men were machine gunned when they tried to lower the port boats. A man who jumped overboard reported that a U-boat attempted to run him over. There are no proofs for this reports, but fact is that only one U-boat attacked and the men lost were apparently killed in the initial shelling of the bridge and radio shack. (Jack McKillop, Dave Shirlaw and Keith Allen)

ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 1057, destroyer USS Jacob Jones (DD-130) was hit by two torpedoes fired by U-578, while proceeding completely blacked out at 15 knots, operating about 38 miles (61 kilometres) east-northeast of Ocean City, Maryland. The first torpedo struck on the port side just aft of the bridge and ignited a magazine. The explosion completely destroyed the bridge, the chartroom and the officer's and petty officer's quarters. As the ship stopped, unable to send a distress signal, the second torpedo struck on the port side about 40 feet forward of the stern and carried away the after part of the ship above the keel plates and shafts and destroyed the after crew quarters. The ship remained afloat for 45 minutes, allowing about 30 survivors to abandon ship on four or five rafts. But as the stern sank, the unsecured depth charges exploded, killing several survivors on a nearby raft. Some hours later, an US Army observation plane sighted the life rafts and reported their position to Eagle Boat USS PE-56 on inshore patrol. The Eagle Boat was forced to abandon her search after three hours, due to strong winds and rising seas. She had picked up 12 survivors, but one of them died enroute Cape May. The search for survivors continued for two days, but was fruitless. (James Paterson, Dave Shirlaw and Jack McKillop)

SS Bayou sunk by U-129 at 08.08N, 55.14W. The only survivor was rescued on 5 Mar at 07°36N, 58°05W.

At 0844, the unescorted Leif was hit by two torpedoes from U-653 east of Cape Hatteras. The forward section broke away and sank immediately, followed by the rest of the ship 11 minutes later. The crew abandoned ship in two lifeboats, one containing six survivors and the other 18. First they had rain, hail showers and strong winds, but as soon as the weather permitted four men (including the master) moved to the boat with less men in it. In the afternoon the boats were separated. The master and nine survivors were picked up from the first boat in the morning on 2 March by the Swedish steam tanker Sveadrott about 185 miles west of Bermuda and landed at Key West four days later. The other lifeboat with 14 survivors was never seen again.

Occupied Europe: In the yard of Block 25 at the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp there is a pile of bodies stacked up like firewood. Occasionally the pile stirs as the dying struggle to free themselves from those already dead. Enormous rats scuttle around gnawing the corpses.

At Treblinka, inmates are made to dig up the buried dead for burning. The stench of rotting flesh fills the air. Female corpses are used as kindling because they burn more quickly; the pregnant women burst open to reveal blackened foetuses.

At Sobibor, the SS guards compete to throw Jewish children the furthest. One of them, Hubert Gomerski, enjoys beating people to death with an iron watering can.

10,000 Hungarian Jews have been deported to a Yugoslav copper mine for hard labour that will certainly kill many of them. 4,000 Jews from Marseilles, have been rounded up for deportation, and Bulgaria has agreed to deport 11,000 to Treblinka.

The Nazis are liquidating the Polish ghettoes. The last 5,000 Jews of Bialystock have been dispersed to Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz. All but 300 went straight to the gas chamber.

Black Sea: The GRUZ, a Russian Minesweeper is torpedoed by S(E)-Boats off Cape Myshako. (James Paterson)

The bravery and effectiveness of the partisans fighting behind the German lines is now fully recognized by the Soviet government. 14 partisans have been made Heroes of the Soviet Union, and a new medal struck to be awarded "To a Partisan of the War for the Fatherland."

The exploits of the partisans make stirring reading, and Stalin has issued a special order urging that the "flame of partisan warfare shall be kindled and spread". Some of the partisan brigades are over 1,000 strong and are supplied from the air with weapons, explosives, radios and even printing presses to spread the word of resistance.

The effect of their activities may be judged from the diary of a German officer killed by partisans in Byelorussia. "We entered a gloomy wilderness in our tanks. There wasn't a single man anywhere. Everywhere the forests and marshes are haunted by the ghosts of the Avengers. They would attack us unexpectedly, as if rising from under the earth. They cut us up to disappear like devils into the nether regions. Night is setting in and I feel them stealthily approaching from out of the darkness, they are the ghosts and I am frozen with fear."

Journeys through forested areas are extremely hazardous for the Germans. Bridges are blown, mines laid and ambushes set. Some units heading for the front have to fight their way through. These activities have brought a violent reaction from the Germans who mount full-scale operations against the partisans and kill anyone whom they capture. Zoya, a famous 18-year-old girl partisan who was captured near Moscow in 1941, was hanged and mutilated as an example.

Not everyone approves of the partisans. They live off the country and expect the peasants to feed, clothe and shelter them, and the Germans need little excuse to execute those suspected of helping the partisans. The partisans are just as ruthless as the Germans and will kill anyone suspected of collaboration with the enemy.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: At 1710, U-371 fired one torpedo at an eastbound convoy off Dellys, Algeria and observed the hit. At 1718, another torpedo was fired. U-371 heard a hit, but no detonation after 35 seconds. SS Daniel Carroll was struck by one torpedo on the starboard side at the bow. A second torpedo struck the ship but failed to explode. The explosion extensively damaged the Liberty ship, but the ten officers, 33 men, 27 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 5in, one 3in and eight 20mm guns) and 30 passengers remained on board. A British tug towed the Daniel Carroll to Algiers, where she arrived on 1 March. The most of her cargo was saved by salvors. On 11 May, she proceeded to Gibraltar for intermediate repairs, arriving two days later. On 22 July, left in convoy GUS-10 for New York, where she arrived on 9 August. She returned to service in Jul 44. Daniel Carroll had left New York for Casablanca in Convoy UGS-4 and was then proceeding from Gibraltar to Algiers in station #23 of convoy TE-16.

Destroyer escort USS Peterson laid down.

Destroyers USS Bullard, Kidd, Thorn and Turner launched.

Submarine USS Ray launched.

Light fleet carrier USS Monterey launched.

Destroyer escort USS Hill launched.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: US Liberty Ship Wade Hampton sunk by U-405 at 59.49N, 34.43W. Soviet RPT-1 (ex USS PT-85) and RPT-3 (ex-USS PT-87), deck cargo on Wade Hampton, were lost as well.

ITALY: The second offensive from Anzio begins. The attack fails to break through.

U.S.S.R.: Polar Fleet and White Sea Flotilla: (Sergey Anisimov)(69)Submarine loss. "M-108" and K-22 - by surface ships, at Sulten-fjord area.

Murmansk: The Allied convoy JW-57 - 42 merchant ships and a tanker - arrives safely having sunk two U-boats but lost the destroyer HMS Mahratta.

Frigate HMCS Teme (ex-HMS Teme) commissioned.

Corvette HMCS Hespeller commissioned.

Destroyer escort USS Leland E Thomas launched.

Aircraft carrier USS Bennington launched.

Minesweepers USS Vigilance and Change commissioned.

Destroyer escort USS Martin H Ray commissioned.

Destroyer USS Moale commissioned.

UNITED KINGDOM: Westminster: A Commons motion expresses regret that the Yalta Conference did not allow the Poles to choose their own destiny is defeated by 396 votes to 25.

307,201 members of the Empire's armed forces have been killed in action since war broke out; in the same period, 60,585 British civilians were killed by enemy bombs.

ENGLISH CHANNEL: The Canadian-owned, US-registered merchantman Soreldoc (1,926 GRT) was torpedoed and sunk by U-1302, Kptlt. Wolfgang Herwartz, CO, in position 52.15N, 005.35W. Soreldoc was on route from Liverpool to Swansea. Fifteen of her 36 crewmembers were lost. The survivors were rescued by the fishing vessel Loyal Star and were landed at Milford Haven, Wales. Soreldoc was acquired by the US War Shipping Administration in 1943 and was registered in Panama at the time of her loss. The crew was American.

GERMANY: The US 1st Army crosses the river Erft, only just over six miles from Cologne, but meets strong resistance.

Rhineland: Along a 150 mile front fromt Trier in the south to Udem in the north, US, Canadian and British troops have launched Operations Lumberjack and Undertone to drive the Germans back to the Rhine. A British unit found four miles of the river at Calcar clear of the enemy. Units of the US 9th Army have been moving forward so fast that a security blackout has been imposed on their positions. The 9th was last reported two miles from Mönchen-Gladbach, the gateway to Düsseldorf. Köln, now just ten miles from the front, is being shelled by American 155mm Long Toms.

POLAND: Danzig: This great Baltic port is the scene of an amazing evacuation. Some two million people are being shipped to the west to escape the "red terror" being visited on the German people by the advancing Russians.

The Soviet soldiers are inflamed by the writing of the propagandist Ilya Ehrenburg, who tells them: "Break the racial pride of these Germanic women. Take them as your lawful booty. Kill. As you storm onwards, kill, you gallant soldiers of the Red Army."

The slogan "Blood for blood. Bread for bread" has been drummed into them, and as they roll through the villages of East Prussia they are exacting a terrible revenge. The men are shot, and for the women the order "Frau Komm" means certain rape and probable death. Homes are looted of everything, with furniture being strapped onto tanks by drunken soldiers.

So the people are fleeing, stumbling across the icy fields. carrying what they can, prepared to leave everything behind to escape the rampaging Russians.

Those who reach the safety of the ports fight to get on board the evacuation ships. Babies are being thrown to be used by another member of the family as a means to get aboard. At sea there is danger from mines, but the ships are getting through and anything is better than facing the rampant terror of the Red Army.

ROMANIA: Bucharest: The government resigns, and the USSR appoints a Soviet commissar to wield influence over Romanian affairs.

ITALY: L/Cpl David Russel (b.1911), 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force was executed. he had escaped from a PoW camp, lived with peasants and contacted other ex-PoWs before being caught and fruitlessly tortured. (George Cross)

SAUDI ARABIA: Riyadh: Saudi Arabia today became one of the last countries in the Middle East to declare war on Germany. Two days ago Syria joined the Allies, while Iraq and Iran declared a state of belligerence last year. The recent worldwide rush to join the Allies seems to have been caused by an announcement that only states which declare war before 1March will be invited to a conference in San Francisco on the proposed post-war "United Nations" organization. However, only Iran, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia of the Middle East nations have declared war on both Germany and Japan.

BURMA: After an 80-mile advance from the Irrawaddy, "bumping" one Japanese roadblock after another, the 17th Indian Division and its accompanying 255th Indian Tank Brigade has enveloped Meiktila. The town, a landscape of temples reflected in lakes, is the bottle-neck of all communications to the Japanese 33rd and 15th Armies. If Major-General "Punch" Cowan's column can take the town, the bulk of the Japanese army in Burma will be "in the bag". To defend it Maj-Gen Kasuya has onlly 3,500 rear-echelon troops, but he is preparing a tenacious defence, even arming his walking wounded with bamboo spears.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Puerto Princesa: US Forces land on Palewan, the fifth largest and westernmost of the Philippines. The first wave of 41st Division troops, riding ashore in armed amphibious trucks, met no opposition; driving rapidly inland they took Puerto Princesa and two disused airstrips. Hopes of rescuing 150 US PoWs thought to be on Palewan vanished, however, after five who had escaped said that the Japanese had burnt the rest alive in a dug-out in December.

MacArthur claimed that the lack of opposition was another indication of the enemy's failure to "diagnose our plans". Palawan is only 800 miles from China and 250 miles from Japanese-controlled oilfields in North Borneo. With an anchorage deep enough for Liberty ships, it will serve as a base for harassing enemy shipping en route to Japan from the Dutch East Indies.

U.S.A.: The motion picture "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" premieres at the Roxy Theater in New York City. Directed by Elia Kazan, this drama about tenement life, based on a Betty Smith novel, stars Dorothy McGuire, Joan Blondell, James Dunn, Lloyd Nolan, Peggy Ann Garner and James Gleason.

Submarine USS Carp commissioned.

Destroyer escort USS Joseph E Connolly commissioned.

Minesweeper USS Reform commissioned.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 2300, U-1022 fired a spread of three torpedoes at Convoy UR-155 and heard detonations and sinking noises from two ships. In fact only the Alcedo (Master Marius A. Kolster, age 53) in position 22 was hit by one torpedo on the starboard side between #3 and #4 hatches. The force of the explosion sheared off the mainmast and it fell to port. The propeller shaft was broken stopping the engine and the #4 hold was immediately flooded. This caused the ship to sink by the stern after 25 minutes in 64.00N/22.46W. An Able Seaman had been caught in the safety net hanging over the starboard side and was trapped and drowned when the ship sank. Another AB fell into the hole on deck, which was caused by the explosion. A messman went down with the ship when he refused to jump overboard to be picked up by a lifeboat. In all three crewmembers died and eight were injured out of her complement of 32 crewmembers (3 Americans and 15 other nationalities), 5 US Naval armed guard and one navy security officer. The remaining survivors abandoned ship in two boats and two rafts and were picked up at 0140 by HMS Home Guard and landed in Reykjavik about four hours later. The Danish Master Marius A. Kolster (Age 53) survived.

MS Norfolk Coast was torpedoed and sunk by U-1302 SW of Strumble Head. Six crewmembers and one gunner were lost. The master, four crewmembers and one gunner were picked up by HMCS Moose Jaw and landed at Fishguard.