19 March 1939

Yesterday Tomorrow

March 19th, 1939 (SUNDAY)

U.S.S.R.: The Maxim Gorky class heavy cruiser Molotov is launched today.

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19 March 1940

Yesterday Tomorrow

March 19th, 1940 (TUESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group. Bombing - Hornum. 10 Sqn. Eight aircraft. Moderate opposition. 51 Sqn. Seven aircraft. Moderate opposition. One gunner wounded, one aircraft FTR. 77 Sqn. Seven aircraft. Moderate opposition. 102 Sqn. Eight aircraft. One returned early U/S. Moderate opposition.

50 RAF bombers tonight attacked the German seaplane base at Hornum, at the southern end of the North Sea island of Sylt. The raid, publicly disclosed in the Commons by the Prime Minister as it was happening, is a reprisal for the German bombing of Scapa Flow three days ago which killed six sailors and one civilian. 4 Group sent eight aircraft from No 10 Sqn., and 22 from Nos. 51, 77 and 102 Sqn. 5 Group sent 20 Hampdens, to form the greatest number of RAF aircraft to concentrate on a single German target to date. All aircraft claimed to have attacked the target as briefed, with the exception of a crew from 102 Sqn. which returned early. One crew from No. 51 successfully evaded an attack from an Arado float plane (Ar 196) but encountered severe Flak and the tail gunner was wounded. One aircraft (N1405 of No 51 Sqn. Flt Lt J.E. Baskerville) FTR claimed by Luftwaffe Flak.

Westminster: Chamberlain defends the lack of Allied aid to Finland, saying that Mannerheim only requested it once, in January. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain makes a detailed statement in the House of Commons on British plans and actions on Finland's behalf. A 100,000-strong Anglo-French expeditionary force could not be sent due to the refusal of entry by Norway and Sweden. Large quantities of arms ammunition, equipment and aircraft (152) had been delivered or promised.

London: A woman is fined £75 for buying enough sugar for 140 weekly rations; she drove away from the shop in a Rolls-Royce.

Corvette HMS Polyanthus laid down.

FINLAND: Helsinki: Official figures are released showing that 15,700 Finns were killed in the war with Russia.
Finnish losses were 26 662 killed during the Winter War (30 November 1939 - 13 March 1940). This amount of dead breaks down as follows:

- 16 725 KIA (body recovered)

- 3 433 KIA (body not recovered)

- 3 671 died to their wounds

- 1 727 MIA (presumed dead)

- 28 died while POW

- 715 killed by diseases or accidents

- 363 the cause of death not known

It is also interesting to see how the number of dead breaks down by the months:

-November 1939 (just one day): 100=20

-December 1939 (31 days): 5400

-January 1940 (31 days): 3290

-February 1940 (29 days): 8974

-March 1940 (13 days): 7478

+ some 1300 men who succumbed to their wounds or were declared legally dead after the war

Note how during the 13 days of March almost as many men were killed as during the 29 days of February! The reorganized Russian attack began in early February and the fighting grew fiercer as the time went by.

As there were also 16 437 severely and 27 120 lightly wounded, the total amount of Finnish losses during the 105 days of Winter War is about 70,000.

Since early 1990's groups of volunteers have every summer travelled to the old battlefields of Winter and Continuation wars in Russian Karelia to search for the bodies of Finnish soldiers. Some dozens have been recovered each year, and some of these have been identified by one way or another. Sometimes the ID tag is still intact, or there's some other hint of the body's identity to allow DNA comparison with living relatives (if any). But it is possible to identify only few bodies (often the remains consist only of some small bones, a uniform button or other piece of uniform revealing the nationality), the unidentified majority being buried in a collective ceremony in military cemeteries at Lappeenranta, Joensuu or Kajaani.

Source: Lentil, Riitta and Juutilainen, Antti: Talvisodan uhrit ('The Losses of Winter War'). Article in the book Leskinen, Ari and Juutilainen, Antti (eds.): Talvisodan pikkujttilinen (Juva 1999).

CANADA: The first strong condemnation of Nazism by an official representative of the U.S. government takes place in Ottawa. The U.S. Ambassador to Canada, James Cromwell, declares that Hitler's Germany is openly trying to destroy the social and economic order on which the government of the United States is based.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-19 sank SS Charkow and Minsk.

19 March 1941

March 19th, 1941 (WEDNESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM:

London: Free French officials set up their own central banking system.

Mass produced vegetable rissoles are to be sold at 8d a pound.

London: Exiled German socialist groups join together to form the Union of German Socialists, pledged to work for a "democratic and socialist future for Germany."

London: A massive German raid by 479 bombers leaves 750 people dead after they drop 122,292 incendiaries.

London: The 'BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC' Committee of all Ministers and heads of the armed services has its first meeting.

London: Churchill's fears of the havoc which German raiders could cause on the North Atlantic sea lanes causes him to ask Roosevelt for assistance in tracking German ships. Although Churchill refrains from asking the President to escort American supply convoys to Britain, he does say:

"It would be a very great help if some American warships and aircraft could cruise about this area [central North Atlantic] as they have a perfect right to do without any prejudice to neutrality.

VICHY FRANCE: The government in the form of Admiral Darlan announces that "vowing that Frenchman shall eat. Serves notice that its naval ships would convoy merchantmen if the British persist in their blockade of France.

If the British continue this blockade, ... I will be obliged to ask permission to provide arms and protection for our merchantmen. I will let nothing stand in the way of the French People's eating. The Germans are more generous and more comprehensive of the needs of humanity than the English."

GERMANY: A German ultimatum gives Yugoslavia 5 days to accept the German terms.

Rommel flies to Hitler's HQ to report and obtain fresh instructions. Field-Marshal von Brauchitsch told him that there was no intention of striking a decisive blow in Africa in the near future, and he could expect no reinforcements. After the arrival of the 15th Panzer Division at the end of May, he was to attack and destroy the British units around Agedabia. Benghazi "might perhaps be taken."

The Wehrmacht High Command announced:

On March 16, German reconnaissance aircraft attacked a powerful formation of enemy war vessels consisting of 2 heavy units, 6 cruisers and 2 or 3 destroyers, in the Mediterranean 23 miles west of Crete. each of the 2 heavy units was struck by one air-launched torpedo.

The entire coal-mining industry and the coal trade in Germany have been amalgamated into a giant cartel known as the Reich Coal Union. it is hoped that, with centralised control, this vital industry will be able to increase its production beyond the 246 million tons achieved this year. A significant boost is necessary if the increase in arms production demanded by the government is to be possible and the German people are to be able to buy fuel.

ALBANIA: Good weather allows the Italians to mount fresh attacks, supported by armor, artillery, and some of the heaviest tactical air strikes yet experienced in this theatre. But the Greeks are ready and these new efforts have no success. The continued Italian assaults are apparently an effort to keep the Greeks on the defensive, bolstering Cavallero's assertion that this failed offensive has somehow saved Italian "honour" and forestalled further Greek advances. (Mike Yaklich)

GREECE: The British Military Mission to Greece reports that Greek morale is high and fortifications are well prepared although there is a severe shortage of reserves with the oldest class of reservists about to by called up.

AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Deloraine laid down.

CANADA: Ottawa: in an agreement signed by Adolf Berle, the assistant US secretary of state, and William Mackenzie King, the Prime Minister of Canada, the Great Lakes will soon become the biggest shipbuilding area in the world - the ships to be built on the Canadian side, with power and finance from the US side.

"The extent to which intensified submarine and air attacks on convoys necessitate an expansion in the programme is still unknown," said President Roosevelt, but he estimated that the number of ships needed would be "several times" those now available.

Minesweeper (ex-whaler) HMCS Suderoy VI commissioned.

Minesweeper HMCS Thunder launched Toronto, Ontario.

Corvette HMCS Dundas laid down Victoria, British Columbia.

U.S.A.: Washington: Roosevelt responds to Churchill's protest about leaks in the blockade of Germany. He is deliberately vague in an attempt to walk a tightrope between British problems and America's conciliatory policy toward Vichy.

Jimmy Dorsey And His Orchestra record one of their biggest musical successes, “Green Eyes” featuring vocalists Helen O’Connell and Bob Eberly. The record became one of Decca Records’ all-time greats. This record was on the Pop Charts for 21 weeks and was Number 1 for four weeks.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: HMS MALAYA sustains serious damage from a torpedo from U-106 while escorting a convoy. She goes to New York City for repairs, the first major British warship to receive such help.

U-105 sank SS Mandalika in Convoy SL-68.

HMS Ark Royal locates three ships captured by prize crews from the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, two scuttle themselves while the third SS Polykarp is recaptured.

19 March 1942

March 19th, 1942 (THURSDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Churchill has been complaining to the war office about the censors who strike out of news reports the names of famous regiments which have displayed gallantry in battle, even when it is apparent when the enemy is aware of their identities. But the censors are cautious folk: a rule that warships must not be named led one censor to delete HMS Pinafore in a theatre review.

The censorship is wide-ranging. Mostly it concerns overseas mail, all of which is censored; all telephone trunk lines are also tapped. Press censorship is theoretically voluntarily, but under Emergency regulation 2D the government does have power to ban newspapers (as it did for a time the communist Daily Worker). Press censorship affects news only; comment is free. But the pitfalls are many: a report of a football match may be banned if the players are employed by a factory or power station. Deaths and marriages in local papers are censored to remove references to servicemen and merchant seaman.

London: London: The Daily Mirror was today accused of "a reckless indifference to the national interest" by repeatedly publishing material "calculated to foment opposition to the successful prosecution of the war". The charge was made by Herbert Morrison, the home secretary, although it is understood that Mr Churchill instigated the move.

Mr Morrison summoned the editorial director, Harry Guy Bartholomew, and the editor, Cecil Thomas, and produced a cartoon showing a torpedoed seaman clinging to a raft in a heaving sea; the caption read: "The price of petrol has been increased by one penny - Official." Morrison said that the cartoon was clearly telling people that seamen were risking their lives for the profit of the oil companies. The Mirror men, for their part, believed that that he cartoon was a warning to the public that the petrol they used cost lives as well as pennies.

Morrison said the cartoon was only the latest example of a stream of "scurrilous misrepresentations, distorted and exaggerated statements and irresponsible generalisations". He quoted a leading article which called the nation's leaders and senior military officers "brass-buttoned boneheads, socially prejudiced, arrogant and fussy ... with a tendency to heart disease, apoplexy, diabetes and high blood pressure". If the paper did not mend its way, Morrison said, he would shut it down.

The Government issues a new order regarding standard time throughout the country. The new order changes the start date of double summer time to the day after the first Saturday in April (5 April 1942).

Minesweeper HMS Lyme Regis launched.

GERMANY: During the day, RAF Bomber Command dispatches a Wellington to Essen but the aircraft returns early due to lack of cloud cover.

U-445, U-621, U-622 launched.

U-614 commissioned.

YUGOSLAVIA: In Serbia and Croatia, the Germans face Yugoslav partisans. The Germans issue a directive ordering houses and villages supporting partisans to be levelled. "Removal of the population to concentration camps can also be useful," the directive notes. "If it is not possible to ‘apprehend or seize’ partisans, themselves, ‘reprisal measures of a general nature may be in order, for example, the shooting of male inhabitants in nearby localities.’ “ The directive sets a ratio, 100 Serbs shot for one German killed, 50 Serbs shot for one wounded.

U.S.S.R.: Moscow: The Germans today launched Operation Munich, a full-scale offensive designed to wipe out the large forces of partisans operating behind the German lines between Vyazma and Smolensk.

A special air detachment set up at Bobruisk has pinpointed the partisan bases in the forests around Yelnya and Dorogubuzh, and is now bombing them and harrying the guerrillas as they flee.

Squads of German ski-troops are sweeping through the countryside, burning villages and shooting the inhabitants. The need for the Germans to mount such in operation demonstrates the increasing effort of the partisans on the war.

While the offensive may disperse the units, now stiffened with specially-trained soldiers, there is little doubt that they will regroup and return to raid the supply lines with even greater support from the surviving villagers.

Operation Bamberg kicks off near Bobruisk, with SS Police troops attacking Soviet villages. The Nazis burn the villages and kill 3,500 people, which only infuriates the survivors more, and make them join the partisans, making the whole exercise very counter-productive. From the Third Panzer Army diaries: "There are indications that the partisan movement in the region of Velikye Luki, Vitebsk, Rudnya, Velizh, is now being organised on a large scale. The fighting strength of the partisans hitherto active is bolstered by individual units of regular troops."

An offensive by Army Group North cuts off the Soviet 2nd Shock Army, commanded by Lieutenant General Andrei Vlasov, in a salient between Novgorod and Gruzino. The Soviet Army maintains pressure on the Germans on the central and southern fronts.

INDIA: Calcutta: As Allied forces in Burma retreat before an invincible Japanese army. Lt-Gen William "Bill" Slim has been sent to command the last fighting units there. His corps comprises two ill-equipped divisions (one Indian, one Burmese) commanded by friends from Gurkha Regiment days. He needs friends. One division, swimming a river to elude the enemy, was left with 3,000 men with underpants and no boots, while Allied aircraft are outnumbered tenfold by Japan.

BURMA: Lieutenant General William J. Slim, former General Officer Commanding 10th Indian Division in Syria, arrives in Burma to take command of Imperial troops, now formed into the Burma I Corps. In the Sittang Valley, Japanese troops attack Toungoo, the original training base of the American Volunteer Group (AVG, aka, “The Flying Tigers”). General Slim aims to hold the Japanese on the Prome-Toungoo line, blocking two roads. Between the roads is 80 miles (129 kilometres) of jungle and hills, with no connecting roads. Two Chinese armies move to Toungoo to block that route. While Chinese divisions are the strength of British brigades, they are good troops with years of experience in fighting the Japanese. However, their top leader, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek, more concerned with fighting rival Communist leader Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-Tung), is reluctant to commit his troops. And communications between Slim and the American commanding the Chinese troops, Lieutenant General Jospeh Stilwell, are slow and complicated. British forces are in poor shape, too, demoralized and in retreat. The 17th Division has been on the run, and 1st Burmese is untested. Slim's HQ's radio batteries have to be recharged by operating a pedal-driven generator. Slim has one trump card, though, the 7th Armoured Brigade, superior to the tankless Japanese.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Philippine President Manuel Quezon and 13 members of his party are transported from Dumaguete, Negros Island, to Oroquito, Mindanao Island, after a 240-mile (386 kilometer) voyage in motor torpedo boat PT-41.

NEW GUINEA: Flight Lieutenant J. F. Jackon, a pilot who has served with No. 3 Squadron RAAF in the Western Desert, is appointed to command No. 75 Squadron RAAF.

Today 17 Kittyhawks are flown off from Townsville, Queensland, on their way to Port Moresby, staging by way of Cookstown and Horn Island.

Jeffrey led the first flight of 4 without escort and Jackson followed leading the main force of 13. By this time the garrison at Port Moresby had become increasingly sceptical of reports that a fighter squadron would be sent for their protection and none more so than the troops manning the machine-gun posts round the aerodromes.

Having now endured 16 enemy raids, these gunners regarded with understandable cynicism the prospect of the arrival of the Kittyhawks they had so often been told to expect. To their cynicism they gave a twist of wry humour by dubbing them the "Tomorrowhawks", "Neverhawks" or "Mythhawks". (Daniel Ross)

AUSTRALIA: General Douglas MacArthur"> MacArthur and his party endure travelling in a tiny railroad coach with two hard wooden seats running lengthwise. The second car is a diner with a long wooden table, washtubs full of ice, and an Australian army stove. Two Australian sergeants and an army nurse do the housekeeping. To switch from diner to passenger car, the train has to stop, and passengers have to get out of one car and walk along the ground to the other. MacArthur and his families sit in the car, besieged by flies. MacArthur goes to sleep. At one point, the engineer stops the train, surrounded by sheep ranchers. The general thinks they want a speech from the war hero but actually they want a doctor to assist one of the ranchers; after the surgery, the train leaves.

FIJI: Japanese submarine HIJMS I-25 launches a Yokosuka E14Y1, Navy Type 0 Small Reconnaissance Seaplane (later assigned the Allied Code Name “Glen”), to reconnoiter Suva on Vitu Levu Island.

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: Military Intelligence warns that a Japanese seizure of the Aleutian Islands, or a raid on Alaska, could be expected at any time. It is believed that the attack would be to prevent the U.S. from invading Japan from the north, or to obstruct Soviet/American communications.

U.S.A.: President Roosevelt ordered men between the ages of 45 - 64 to register for non-military duty. (Michael Ballard)

SecNav gave Civil Engineering Corps command of Seabees.

The action adventure motion picture "Reap the Wild Wind" is released in the U.S. Directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Ray Milland, John Wayne, Paulette Goddard, Raymond Massey, Robert Preston, Susan Hayward, Charles Bickford and Hedda Hopper, the plot concerns 19th-century ship salvagers operating in the Florida Keys. The film is nominated for three Academy Awards and wins one.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: German submarine U-332 torpedoes and sinks an armed U.S. freighter, SS Liberator, about 17 miles (27 kilometres) southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, U.S.A.

U-124 sank SS Papoose and W.E. Hutton.

19 March 1943

March 19th, 1943 (FRIDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: ASW trawler HMS Sapper commissioned.

Submarines HMS Tireless and Token launched.

BALTIC SEA Sea: U-5 is sunk in a diving accident west of Pillau. There are 6 survivors but 21 crew are lost. (Alex Gordon)

U.S.S.R.: German troops of the Gross Deutschland division reach Bielgorod, but are still battling with Soviet resistance in these northern approaches to Kharkov.

LIBYA: Tripoli: Chief Officer George Preston Stronach (b.1914) evacuated the fuel and ammunition-laden SS OCEAN VOYAGER after it was bombed, and braved flames to save four men. (George Cross)

Whilst at anchor in port at Tripoli destroyer HMS Derwent is hit by a Motobomba (circling torpedo) launched by an Italian aircraft She is beached with her engine room flooded, and although salvaged and returned to England she is never repaired. (Alex Gordon)(108)

SOLOMON ISLANDS: The first aerial mine-laying mission in the South Pacific occurs on the night of 19/20 March. Forty-two Grumman TBF Avengers of a Marine and three Navy squadrons drop 42 mines in the Buin-Tonolei area of Bougainville. The mines are dropped by parachute from an altitude of 800 to 1,300 feet (244 to 396 meters). The effectiveness of the mines is difficult to access but it is known that a destroyer and a cargo ship are damaged and a 6,400-ton merchant vessel is sunk on 18 April.

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: The XI Bomber Command is activated on Adak Island, Aleutian Islands. This new command, assigned to the Eleventh Air Force, controls all USAAF bomber units in Alaska but at this time, the only subordinate unit is the 28th Bombardment Group (Composite).

CANADA: Frigate HMCS Chebogue laid down Esquimalt, British Columbia.

U.S.A.:

Destroyers USS Newcomb and Bennion laid down.

Destroyers USS Halligan and Haraden launched.

Frigate USS Long Beach laid down.

Escort carrier USS Solomons laid down.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-384 is sunk southwest of Iceland at position 54.18N 26.15W by depth charges dropped from a Coastal Command Flying Fortress of 206/B Squadron. All 47 crew are lost. (Alex Gordon)

The steamer SS Matthew Luckenbach in Convoy HX-229 torpedoed by U-527 and then by U-523. HMCS Columbia salvaged the Matthew Luckenbach and took her into port after she had twice been abandoned.

British Steamer Svend Foyne was a victim of an iceberg collision off the southern tip of Greenland. The U.S. Coast Guard and other craft rescued One hundred forty-five persons. International Ice Patrol was suspended during this period (1942-1945).

U-333 sank SS Carras in Convoy SC-122.

U-666 damaged SS Carras in Convoy SC-122.

19 March 1944

March 19th, 1944 (SUNDAY)

HUNGARY: The Germans occupy the country for tactical reasons and to safeguard their continued access to oil resources.

Budapest: With Stalin's armies now thrusting towards Germany's flank in south-eastern Europe. Hitler has sent in troops to occupy Hungary and seize vital communications for the defence of the Danube plain - the highway into the Reich.

All civilian traffic has been ordered off the roads. Admiral Horthy, the regent of Hungary, was summoned to Klessheim Castle, Salzburg, where Hitler ordered him to appoint a pro-Nazi as premier, allow the Germany army to take over the Hungarians transport system, and give the SS a free hand in deporting Hungarian Jews. Horthy returned to Budapest to find a German guard of honour lined up to greet him. He retreated to his palace and has not been seen since.

Edmund Veesenmayer, the German ambassador plenipotentiary with "special powers" in Hungary, is mobilizing "all resources for final victory", and Hungary's 767,000 Jews, hitherto unharmed through four years of war, are to be sent on their way to Auschwitz.

NEW GUINEA: The US shells the Japanese at Wewak for a second time.

CANADA: Tug HMCS Glenholme ordered McKenzie Barge and Derrick.

U.S.A.:

Destroyer escort USS Cross laid down.

Light cruiser USS Dayton launched.

Minesweeper USS Gayety launched.

Destroyer escorts USS Goss and Kendall C Campbell launched.

Destroyer USS Maddox launched.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-1059 (type VIIF) is sunk, south-west of Cape Verde Island in position 13.10N, 33.43W, by depth charges dropped from American Avenger aircraft of Squadron VC-6, operating from USS Block Island. Eight of the U-boat crew survive, but 47 are lost. Even as U-1059 was sinking, it succeeded in bringing down one of the attacking Avengers by gunfire.
The boat was sunk in this attack but it brought down one of the attackers even as the boat was slipping beneath the waves. The boat left Bordeaux during March of 1944 with a load of torpedoes destined for the "Monsun" group operating in the Indian Ocean, and from Japanese occupied harbours.

Sunk on 19 March, 1944 south-west of the Cape Verde Islands, in position 13.10N, 33.44W by depth charges from Avenger and Wildcat aircraft of the US escort carrier Block Island (VC-6). 47 dead and 8 survivors. (Alex Gordon)

U-311 sank SS Seakay in Convoy CU-17.

U-510 sank SS John A. Poor.

U-256 shot down an RAF 224 Sqn Liberator. The aircraft smashed into the sea 500m away from the boat and exploded.

19 March 1945

March 19th, 1945 (MONDAY)

GERMANY: Hitler orders a total scorched earth policy on all fronts. This is the "Nero Command", ordering the destruction of all industry, transport links, food supplies and agriculture.

"If the war is lost, the nation will also perish".

US 7th Army captures Saarlouis. The US 3rd Army reaches Worms.

U-2368 launched.

JAPAN: Beginning at 0545 hours, aircraft from the carriers of Task Force 58 begin an attack on Japanese warships in the Kobe and Kure areas. These attacks are in support of the upcoming Okinawa invasion. At least 16 Japanese ships are damaged including the battleship Yamato, aircraft carriers Amagi and Katsuragi and the light aircraft carrier Ryuho.

At 0708 hours, one hour and 23 minutes after launching a strike force, the aircraft carrier USS Franklin (CV-13, Captain Leslie E, Gehres) had 31 aircraft on her flight deck, five bombers, 14 torpedo planes and 12 fighters. All were loaded with ammunition, fuel, GP bombs and Tiny Tim rockets. A Japanese Yokosuka D4Y Navy Carrier Bomber Suisei (Comet), Allied Code Name "Judy," dove out of the 2,000-foot (610 meter) clouds and drops two 250-kilo (550 pound) semiarmor piercing bombs; one struck the flight deck centreline penetrating to the hangar deck, effecting destruction and igniting fires through the second and third decks and knocking out the combat information centre (CIC). The second hit aft tearing through two decks and fanning fires which triggered ammunition, bombs and rockets. The ship lay dead in the water, took on a 13 degree list to starboard, lost all radio communications, and continued to burn. All interior communications are lost creating confusion among the crew. Some junior officers pass out officers' clothing to enlisted crewmen to help them but this causes additional confusion when these "pseudo" officers begin abandoning ship without orders. Other sailors were blown overboard or forced to abandon ship due to the raging fires. A total of 103 officers and 604 enlisted men voluntarily remained on the ship to fight the fires.

The Franklin lay dead in the water for four hours only 55 miles (89 km) from the coast of Japan. Franklin was taken in tow by the heavy cruiser USS Pittsburgh (CA-72) until she managed to churn up 14 knots and reach Ulithi Atoll in the Caroline Islands. Casualties aboard the ship were 724 killed and 265 wounded.

Two officers were awarded Medal of Honors for their actions on this day.

The first was the ship's chaplain, Lieutenant Commander Joseph T. O'Callahan, USNR, a Jesuit Priest. According to the citation accompanying the medal, Father O'Callahan "ministered to the wounded and dying, comforting and encouraging men of all faiths; he organized and led fire fighting crews into the blazing inferno on the flight deck; he directed the jettisoning of live ammunition and the flooding of the magazine; he manned a hose to cool hot, armed bombs rolling dangerously on the listing deck, continuing his efforts, despite searing, suffocating smoke which forced men to fall back gasping and imperiled others who replaced them." The second officer was an engineering officer, Lieutenant (jg) Donald Gary. His citation reads, "Stationed on the third deck when the ship was rocked by a series of violent explosions set off in her own ready bombs, rockets, and ammunition by the hostile attack, Lt. (j.g.) Gary unhesitatingly risked his life to assist several hundred men trapped in a messing compartment filled with smoke, and with no apparent egress. As the imperiled men below decks became increasingly panic stricken under the raging fury of incessant explosions, he confidently assured them he would find a means of effecting their release and, groping through the dark, debris-filled corridors, ultimately discovered an escapeway. Staunchly determined, he struggled back to the messing compartment three times despite menacing flames, flooding water, and the ominous threat of sudden additional explosions, on each occasion calmly leading his men through the blanketing pall of smoke until the last one had been saved. Selfless in his concern for his ship and his fellows, he constantly rallied others about him, repeatedly organized and led fire-fighting parties into the blazing inferno on the flight deck and, when firerooms 1 and 2 were found to be inoperable, entered the No. 3 fireroom and directed the raising of steam in one boiler in the face of extreme difficulty and hazard."

Aircraft carrier USS Enterprise was slightly damaged by Kamikaze aircraft.

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: The US Navy commissions a training area at Cold Bay, Aleutian Islands, to train Soviet Naval personnel how to operate surface vessels being transferred to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease. A total of 138 vessels are transferred and eventually, 15,000 Soviet sailors will be trained to operate them.

U.S.A.: Submarine USS Catfish commissioned.

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