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March 22nd, 1939 (WEDNESDAY)

LITHUANIA: The Memel Territory is ceded to Germany after the Germans present an ultimatum to the Lithuanian government. The name Memel Territory is applied to the 1,092 square mile (2828 square kilometer) district of former East Prussia situated on the east coast of the Baltic Sea and adjoining East Prussia. In 1919 the Treaty of Versailles placed the district, containing the city and port of Memel, under League of Nations-sponsored French administration. Lithuanian troops occupied the area in 1923, forcing the French garrison to withdraw. The Allied council of ambassadors then drew up a new status for the territory, which in 1924 became an autonomous region within Lithuania with its own legislature. The 1938 electoral victory of the National Socialists in the Memel Territory was followed by the German ultimatum demanding the district’s return and Lithuania complied.

Amongst the Kriegsmarine units taking part in the occupation is the pocket battle cruiser Graf Spee.

U.S.A.: The USN ordered that the XF2A-1 (Brewster Buffalo) be modified by replacing the engine with a 1,200 hp (894.8 kW) Wright R-1820-40 radial engine, raised canopy, redesigned rudder, introduction of an electric instead of a hydraulic propeller and a high-altitude carburettor system. (Craig Paffhausen)

 

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22 March 1940

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March 22nd, 1940 (FRIDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM:

RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group. Leaflets and Reconnaissance - Ruhr. 10 Sqn. Six aircraft. Two returned early due to icing. Opposition heavy. One aircraft shadowed by enemy aircraft but was not attacked.

RAF Fighter Command: Cromer Knoll lightship is attacked by a lone Luftwaffe aircraft.

The Times..

It might be news to many of you that London streets are now regularly filled with body-snatchers in a flap. Or that, if they were body-snatchers from north of the border, they might cool off with some bottled sunshine.

These are just a couple of the phrases coined by the men in Britain's armed services. The body-snatchers are first-aid workers, and when in a flap they are working in an air raid. The bottled sunshine is beer.

Parachuting is an activity that has fired the men's imaginations. The 'chute itself is known as bag by some, and is used for a brolly hop by pilots, or bus drivers, as bomber pilots are called. Unlucky pilots ditch in the herring pond or the gravy (the Atlantic) or in the drink (the Channel).

Amorous activities have produced one of the richest sources of servicemen's slang. Girlfriends are known as charmers, lush bints, popsies or pushers. Those who are seeing a girl regularly are said to be nibbling.

On an evening off men get into their swanks (civilian clothes) and take the liberty bus into town to pitch a woo. Those separated from their lovers receive yum yum by post if they're lucky. An amorous couple may be described as kittens in a basket.

Friends, too, are described in a variety of inventive ways. A sailor's chum is his brassy or sprog. When they have a disagreement they part brassrags, each taking his cleaning rags back to his own quarters.

During time off, bottled sunshine (alternatively known as brown food) gets you horizontal, stitched, shot up or shot to ribbons. Char (tea) the next morning can be accompanied by gunfire - biscuits so-called because they crackle loudly when bitten.

FRANCE: The French airborne units, the "groupes francs" are disbanded and the men returned to their infanterie de l'air companies. (Stuart Millis)

TURKEY: Ankara: All large Turkish steamers in foreign waters are ordered to return home as soon as possible.

JAPAN:   Foreign Minister ARITA Hachiro announces that the Japanese government will keep out of European affairs. 

U.S.A.: The USN initiates the development of guided missiles at the Naval Aircraft Factory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with the establishment of a project for adapting radio controls to a torpedo-carrying Great Lakes TG-2 torpedo bomber. 
 

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22 March 1941

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March 22nd, 1941 (SATURDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: The government agrees to let US grain ships deliver an emergency cargo of flour to Vichy France.

Plymouth: Fire appliances are sent from all over the south-west to relieve the city's exhausted firemen.

RAF Bomber Command: 2 Group: A Blenheim of 107 Sqn. sinks a 2,000-ton ship off Norway.

London:

Churchill sends a personal letter to Cvetkovic telling him that Hitler and Mussolini faced certain defeat. If Yugoslavia stooped to the fate of Romania, or committed the crime of Bulgaria and became accomplice in the attempted assassination of Greece, her ruin would be certain and irreparable.

ALBANIA: Italian Army chaplains climb Monastery Hill under a flag of truce, trying to arrange a cease-fire in order to bury the many dead of the Puglie and Bari Divisions which cover the slopes. The Greeks refuse when the Italians cannot guarantee that the cessation of hostilities will apply to the entire front of the offensive. (Mike Yaklich)

YUGOSLAVIA: Belgrade: The British Minister passes on to London the contents of the secret sections of the Yugoslav agreement to join the Axis. They include opt out clauses so that Yugoslavia does not have to give military assistance to any other Axis power. Yugoslavia would not be required to come into the war against Greece. The opt out clause could be made public if the Yugoslavs thought it necessary 'for compelling domestic reasons' such as to calm any unrest about joining the Axis.

ETHIOPIA: In the advance west of Jijiga the Allied forces overrun another defensive position at the Babile Pass. The Italians evacuate Harar, west of Jijiga, and declare it an “open city” and in western Ethiopia, Belgian colonial troops capture Gambela.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: The German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau reach French waters and enter Brest after a 20-day cruise. As well as the dispersing convoys found, one other ship has been sunk, bring the total to 22 ships of 115,600 tons. Considerable disruption to the British convoy system has been caused. 

HMS Ark Royal re-establishes air patrols in the hope of relocating Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. During the day a catapult malfunction destroys a Fairey Swordfish; flinging the fuselage into the sea ahead of the carrier. Unable to stop, Ark Royal ran over the Swordfish and is overhead when the aircraft's depth charges detonate. Ark Royal needs to return to Gibraltar for repairs.

U.S.A.: Actor James Stewart is inducted into the U.S. Army at Fort MacArthur.

Washington: The United Press News Agency reports:

The US Credit Commission has published a report which General Marshall read at a secret session on March 5. The report explains that at the end of February the USA received further precise data about the Panzer divisions that Germany deployed last year in its armoured drive to the English Channel. The US Army is going to form eight armoured divisions of this kind. At the moment it has only two.


ANTARCTICA: An emergency evacuation of East Base, U.S. Antarctic Service, Marguerite Bay, is carried out. Two Curtiss R4C Condor flights (Aviation Chief Machinist's Mate Ashley C. Snow and Radioman First Class Earl B. Perce, naval aviation pilots) bring out the entire complement of 24 people to Mikkelson Island, the emergency landing field 25 miles (40 kilometres) northeast of Adelaide Island, whence they are taken on board miscellaneous auxiliary USS Bear (AG-29), which soon sails for Punta Arenas, Chile, to rendezvous with Interior Department motorship MS North Star. 

The two R4C-1s used for the Antarctic exploration were former U.S. Marine Corps aircraft. The R4C-1 was a Curtiss Model AT-32E Condor, a twin-engine biplane transport that was really an anachronism when it flew on 30 January 1933. Newer, faster monoplanes like the Boeing 247 and Douglas DC-1 were being designed or produced but Eastern Air Transport and American Airways (later Eastern Airlines and American Airlines) bought them. The two Marine aircraft served with Marine Utility Squadron Six (VJ-6M), Aircraft One, Fleet Marine Force, based at Quantico, Virginia and VJ-7M, Aircraft Two, Fleet Marine Force, based at San Diego, California during the late 1930s.

Both aircraft were abandoned in Antarctica, the first on 3 January 1941 and the second on 22 March 1941. It would be nice if someone would dig down and see how these aircraft fared over the last 69 years.

Anyone wishing to see a photo of one of these two birds can go to:

http://oldairplanepictures.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=679


 

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22 March 1942

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March 22nd, 1942 (SUNDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: The BBC begins transmitting news bulletins in Morse code for the benefit of resistance fighters in mainland Europe. 

FRANCE: Paris: A sailor, Hugel, is wounded by revolver firing.
A German civilian, Spiegler, is shot in the stomach at Villacoublay.

GERMANY: King Boris of Bulgaria arrives in Berlin to meet with Chancellor Adolf Hitler. The meeting is interpreted as a German demand for additional manpower for the upcoming German offensive in the Soviet Union.      
 

CZECHOSLOVAKIA: Prague: Paul Thummel, an important double agent in the Abwehr [German military intelligence] is arrested.

POLAND:  A Polish newspaper editor is beheaded for listening to a British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) radio broadcast. 

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: The Second Battle of Sirte. During the night of the 21st/22nd, Italian warships under Vice Admiral Angelo Iachino begin leaving port to attack the British convoy sailing from Alexandria, Egypt to Malta. The battleship Littorio and four destroyers leave Taranto; and the heavy cruisers Gorizia and Trento, light cruiser Bande Nere and four destroyers leave Messina. The Littorio group is sighted by a British submarine patrolling off Taranto, giving the British forces an early warning. The ships head for the Gulf of Sirte on the north central coast of Libya where they calculate they will encounter the British ships but due to fierce weather, the Italian formation could not achieve more than 22 knots, and one of the escorts left due to an engine breakdown. At 0930 hours, Savoia-Marchetti S.M. 79-II torpedo-carrying aircraft attack the British convoy but fail to score any hits. The RN convoy consists of four merchant freighters escorted by the light cruisers HMS Cleopatra, Dido, Euryalus and Penelope, the antiaircraft light cruiser HMS Carlisle and 18 destroyers. At 1240 hours, an Italian scout plane from Trento reports sighting the convoy and also the fact that there is no RAF air cover. At 1330 hours, the Italian cruisers sight the British who wrongly identified them as battleships and the Italian formation then maneuvers to draw the British towards the battleship Littorio. For more than an hour the two formations chased each other while the wind grew even stronger. At 1630 hours, the battleship Littorio joins the fighting, causing the British to quickly withdraw behind a thick smoke screen. British destroyers made several desperate runs against the Littorio, but the battleship's 15-inch (38,1 cm) guns inflict serious damage. The Littorio itself received a smaller calibre shell which did not inflict any damage. With darkness approaching, Vice Admiral Angelo Iachino, in command of the Italian forces, breaks off the engagement. According to British reports, light cruiser HMS Cleopatra has its after turret demolished by the light cruiser Bande Nere; the destroyer HMS Havock was, for a time, left dead in the water by a direct hit; the destroyer HMS Sikh was also hit, along with the destroyers HMS Lively, Legion, Lance and Kingston. Also the light cruisers HMS Euryalus and Penelope were considerably damaged. The Italian force, along with the minor damage to the Littorio, lost the destroyers Scirocco and Lanciere to incredibly violent seas as they returned to port. 

MALTA: Lt. Dennis Arthur Copperwheat (b.1914), RN, led a party to scuttle a blazing ammunition ship, sending others to safety before firing charges. (George Cross)

BURMA: Japanese aircraft make another destructive attack on Magwe Airdrome, forcing the American Volunteer Group 3d Fighter Squadron (AVG, aka, “The Flying Tigers) and RAF aircraft to withdraw to Loiwing (on the Chinese frontier) and Akyab, respectively; troops defending Burma are thus denied close air support. Lieutenant General Joseph Stilwell, Commanding General American Army Forces, China, Burma and India and Chief of Staff of the Chinese Army, upon arriving at the front, begins planning for a counterattack in support of the Chinese 200th Division at Toungoo. The Chinese continue to withstand Japanese pressure against Toungoo from the south. 

INDIA: Sir Stanford Cripps, British statesman and member of the War Cabinet, arrives in India for talks with Mohandas Gandhi, in what will become known as the Cripps Mission, to discuss two pressing issues: Japan's threat to India, and India's independence from Britain. The first meeting takes place today and the first item on the agenda is India's defence against a growing Japanese empire. Cripps wants to rally the Indian National Congress, and its leader Mohandas K. Gandhi, behind the cause. Gandhi was at the center of India's quest for independence from British colonial rule. The Cripps Mission fails; Cripps returned to Britain and was eventually transferred to the Ministry of Aircraft Production. Gandhi was arrested as a "threat" to Indian security and is interned for two years before health issues forced his release. 

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES:  Bataan defenders are eating less than 15 ounces (425 grams) a day, one-fourth the peacetime ration, mostly gummy rice. All 250 horses and 48 pack mules of the 26th Cavalry Regiment have been shot and eaten. Troops find rice growing in no-man's land and thresh it in their foxholes. Other American soldiers dine on dogs, iguanas, even python eggs. Some troops rob supply trucks at gunpoint while supply officers pad strength reports and don't list casualties, to gain extra food. Shortages on Bataan go down to cigarettes, soldiers get one a day, and pay US$5 for a five-cent pack. (Considering inflation, US$5 in 1942 is equal to US$56 in year 2003 dollars.) Uniforms, shoes, blankets, all fall apart and go unrepaired. Poorly clothed and badly fed, American troops also fall to diseases like diarrhoea, dysentery and beri-beri, due to their low vitamin levels. Everyone seems to have malaria. Barefooted Filipino troops suffer the hardest, particularly because of their poor sanitation. Hospitals with capacities of 1,000 are caring for more than 3,000. Against this, the Japanese have moved in troops from Shanghai and Indochina, siege guns from Hong Kong, and heavy bombers from Malaya. Even so, General HOMMA  Masaharu, commanding the Japanese 14th Army, worries that his samurai will be defeated. He wonders whether the Americans will spring some new trick on him so Homma orders his heavy artillery of the Hayakawa Detachment to stop shelling Corregidor from the south side of Manila Bay and head for Bataan. 

NEW GUINEA: RAAF No. 75 Squadron, based at Seven Mile Airdrome, Port Moresby, makes it combat debut. Six Curtiss Kittyhawks Mk. IAs (= USAAF P-40Es) make a surprise attack at dawn on the Japanese forces at Lae. Two pilots are given credit for shooting down two Mitsubishi A6M2, Navy Type 0 Carrier Fighters (later assigned the Allied Code Name “Zeke”); two Kittyhawks are lost with the loss of one pilot.

AUSTRALIA: A single Mitsubishi Ki-15, Army Type 97 Command Reconnaissance Plane (later assigned the Allied Code Name “Babs”) takes off from Koepang, Timor, to reconnoiter the defenses of Darwin, Northern Territory, in readiness for a larger strike force of Mitsubishi G4M, Navy Type 1 Attack Bombers (later assigned the Allied Code Name “Betty”). Coast watchers on Bathurst Island notify Darwin of the approaching reconnaissance aircraft at about 1200 hours and it is shot down by USAAF P-40 pilots of the 9th Pursuit Squadron (Interceptor). As anticipated, the Japanese bombers make a raid that same day but not on Darwin. They fly 200 miles (322 kilometres) further southeast and bomb Katherine, Northern Territory. They presumably were hoping to find Allied bombers at the Katherine Airfield but none were there and damage at the airfield is minimal.  Officially described as: "An aborigine was killed, another wounded and some damage was done to the aerodrome." (Jack McKillop and Daniel Ross) Japanese aircraft bomb Darwin, Northern Territory. 

     General Douglas MacArthur"> MacArthur arrives in Melbourne, Victoria, and is greeted by more than 6,000 local citizens and an honour guard of 360 US troops, most of them Signal Corps and engineers in white tropical helmets. There is no band. MacArthur inspects the troops, issues a statement lauding Australian soldiers, and hops into a Wolsley limousine that takes him to the Menzies Hotel. Jean MacArthur's first move is to summon a dressmaker to prepare her something to wear on Monday morning, when she goes to buy clothes to replace her wardrobe, left behind in Manila. MacArthur's 11-day, 3,000-mile (4828 kilometer) odyssey is headline news around the world. German Propaganda Minister Dr. Joseph Goebbels calls MacArthur a "coward," and the Japanese call him a "deserter" who "fled his post," thereby admitting "the futility of further resisting Japanese pressure in the southern extremity of the Bataan peninsula."    

U.S.A.: President Franklin D. Roosevelt sends a message to General Douglas MacArthur"> MacArthur in Australia expressing his desire that Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright control all forces in the Philippines; MacArthur concurs.  
 

The first removal of people of Japanese descent from the designated Pacific Coast area occurs. The people are from the Los Angeles area; they are sent to the Manzanar relocation center in northeastern California. The center comprises a 6000 acre site, enclosed by barbed wire fencing, and within that site a 560 acre residential site with guard towers, search lights, and machine gun installations. During the next eighteen months, about 120,000 people of Japanese descent are removed from the Pacific Coast area to ten relocation centers in California, Arizona, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Arkansas. (Scott Peterson) More...

ATLANTIC OCEAN: Two unarmed U.S. merchant tankers are torpedoed and sunk by German submarines in the Western Hemisphere. (1) U-124 sinks the first ship about 98 miles east southeast of Wilmington, North Carolina, U.S.A; this is the ninth ship torpedoed by this submarine off the North Carolina coast since 17 March. (2) U-123 sinks the second ship about 840 miles (1352 kilometres) northeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico. U-123 draws near to the survivors on two rafts and questions them before clearing the area; none of the 34-man crew, however, are ever seen again. 

 

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22 March 1943

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March 22nd, 1943 (MONDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: London: What might be vital intelligence has today come from a top-secret interrogation centre in Kensington Park Gardens. Two German generals captured in North Africa, Cruwell and von Thoma, were placed in a bugged room and their conversation was monitored. During it they spoke of long-range rockets being developed to strike London, and expressed surprise that the capital is not already under attack. This ties in with scraps of information from other sources, and is likely to be treated very seriously by the intelligence world.

POLAND: Auschwitz: Crematorium IV, a modern extermination plant fitted with an underground gas chamber and electric lifts to custom-built incinerator, is opened.

U.S.S.R.: Khatyn: The SS unit which swept on the Russian village of Khatyn, near Minsk, was very unusual, even by Nazi standards; it had been formed from German criminals released from concentration camps. Commanded by SS Major-General Oskar Dirlewanger, the SS men systematically murdered all but one of the 150 villagers and burned the village to the ground. The atrocity is intended to deter villagers from giving food and shelter to the partisans, about 150,000 of whom are in action behind enemy lines.

Moscow: Once again the weather has taken a decisive hand in the war in Russia. The thaw has come early this year and both armies are bogged down in the morass of mud churned up by fighting vehicles of both sides. 

Where, only a few days ago, tanks could roar at full speed across the hard-frozen steppe, they are now in danger of drowning in a sea of mud, and the runways of airstrips have turned into quagmires which refuse to release aircraft. While the thaw has brought difficulties to both sides, it has hurt the Germans most by bringing von Manstein's successful counter-offensive to a halt.

After recapturing Kharkov he had planned to cut quickly across the Donets behind the Russian armies which were still pressing west. If he had been able to do so, he night well have been caught the Red Army in a trap and produced a disaster comparable to Stalingrad. But he lost too many men and too many machines to achieve the quick result, and now General Thaw has taken command.

ITALY: SICILY: 24 B-17s bomb port facilities at Palermo. This is the first Allied bomber mission against Sicily by aircraft based in Northwest Africa.

NORTH AFRICA: General Montgomery transfers his main attack to the Tebaga Gap in Tunisia.

RAF Hurricanes smash a Panzer counter-attack near the German's Mareth Line.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: German submarine U-524 is sunk south of Madeira, Portugal, in position 30.15N, 18.13W, by a Consolidated B-24 Liberator of the 1st Antisubmarine Squadron (Heavy) based at Port Lyautey, French Morocco. All hands on the U-Boat are lost.

U-665 (Type VIIC) is sunk in the North Atlantic west of Ireland in position 48.04N 10.26W by depth charges dropped by an RAF Whitley from Squadron 10OTU/Q. All 46 of the crew of U-665 are lost. (Alex Gordon)

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22 March 1944

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March 22nd, 1944 (WEDNESDAY)

GERMANY: Berlin announces the appointment of a new government for Hungary, led by Dome Sjotay.

Frankfurt: An RAF raid tonight kills 948 people and make 120,000 homeless.

ITALY: New Zealand Corps attacks Cassino for the last time. Freyburg finally calls off the attack.

EUROPE: Over 800 USAAF bombers hit targets in Germany and Italy. About 650 Eighth Air Force B-17s and B-24s bomb the Berlin area while about 200 Fifteenth Air Force B-17s and B-24s bomb marshalling yards at Verona, Bologna and Rimini.

Ottawa: CANADA and China sign a mutual aid pact.

BURMA: Over 160 A-31s, A-36s, B-24s, B-25s, P-40s and P-51s attack supply dumps at Prome near Rangoon, support Allied ground forces near Katha and Mawlu, attack Japanese ground troops along the Chindwin River and in the Mogaung Valley and damage a bridge near Pyinmana.

Air Commando Combat Mission NO. 35 3:10 Flight time Hailakandi, Assam to Malu, Burma. Bombed Jap troops at roadblock. (Chuck Baisden)

INDIA: Japanese ground troops invade India from Burma and advance to Manipur within 30 miles (48 km) of Imphal.

NEW GUINEA: Over 150 A-20s, B-24s, B-25s, P-40s and P-47s attack the (1) Wewak, Boram and Yeschan areas; (2) the Aitape-Tadji area; (3) barges at Alexishafen and (4) other targets.

PACIFIC OCEAN: The Fifth Fleet, including Task Force 58, sorties from Majuro Atoll in the Marshall Islands to bombard the Palau Islands.

U.S.A.: USN aircraft paint scheme is changed. Glossy paint will be used instead of flat paint. Fighter aircraft are to be painted glossy sea blue overall. Aircraft not operating in a combat zone need not be painted at all.

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22 March 1945

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March 22nd, 1945 (THURSDAY)

GERMANY: The US 5th Division crosses the Rhine near Nierstein. Patton sends his troops across the Rhine at Nierstein, stealing the glory from Montgomery, who had long been planning a crossing on the next day.

Soviet troops under Konev bridge the Oder at Oppeln.

Soviet pilot L.I. Sivko flying a Yak-9 claims to shoot down an Me262 jet but is himself swiftly thereafter shot down himself by an Me-262 jet piloted by pilot Unteroffizier. Franz Schall, the wingman of his victim, and one of the leading jet aces of the war.

EUROPE: Over 2,700 USAAF bombers hit targets in Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia. Over 1,280 Eighth Air Force B-17s and B-24s hit four airfields and three marshalling yards east of Frankfurt and ten military  encampments in the Rhine. Nearly 800 Ninth Air Force A-20s, A-26s and B-26s bomb nine communications centers and a marshalling yard east of the Rhine River; and over 680 Fifteenth Air Force B-17s and B-24s hit oil refineries and rail targets in Austria and Czechoslovakia.

EGYPT: The Arab League is formed with adoption of a charter in Egypt.

PACIFIC OCEAN: Task Force 58 retires to take on fuel, ammunition and supplies at sea. The damaged carriers USS Enterprise (CV-6) with Night Carrier Air

Group Ninety [CVG(N)-90], USS Franklin (CV-13) with Carrier Air Group Five (CVG-5) and USS Wasp (CV-18) are organized as Task Group 58.2 and retire towards Ulithi Atoll in the Caroline Islands. TF 58 is reorganized as follows:

Task Group 58.1 (CarDiv 5)

USS Bennington (CV-20) with CVG-82

USS Hornet (CV-12) with CVG-17

USS Belleau Wood (CVL-24) with Light Carrier Air Group THIRTY (CVLG-30)

USS Jacinto (CVL-30) with CVLG-45

TG 58.3 (CarDiv 1)

USS Bunker Hill (CV-17) with CVG-84

USS Essex (CV-9) with CVG-83

USS Hancock (CV-19) with CVG-6

USS Bataan (CVL-29) with CVLG-47

USS Cabot (CVL-28) with CVLG-29

TG 58.4 (CarDiv 6)

USS Intrepid (CV-11) with CVG-10

USS Yorktown (CV-10) with CVG-9

USS Independence (CVL-22) with CVLG-46

USS Langley (CVL-27) with CVLG-23

SOLOMON ISLANDS: Cpl Reginald Roy Rattey (1918-86), Australian Military Forces, silenced three bunkers and later captured a machine gun intact. (Victoria Cross)

An attack by a company of 25th Battalion, Australian Military Forces on a strongly held enemy position was met by extremely heavy fire. Corporal Rattey, realizing that any advance would be halted by this fire and heavy casualties inflicted, dashed forward firing his Bren gun from the hip and completely neutralized the enemy fire from three forward bunkers.

Then, having silenced a bunker with one grenade, he fetched two more with which he silenced the other two bunkers. The company was then able to continue its advance. Later Corporal Rattey captured another machine-gun and 2,000 rounds of ammunition. (Daniel Ross)

 

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