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Originally Posted by Kapitän
Started new career in August 2019 to commemorate the beginning of WWII, 80 years before ...
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Sunday, 8 March 1942 - Lorient
Construction of the Alaska-Canadian Highway begins by the US Army.
US Army troops relieve the US 1st Marine Brigade (Provisional) at Reykjavik, Iceland.
Tirpitz and escorting destroyers gets as close as 60 miles from Allied convoy PQ-12 but poor weather prevents the Germans from realizing this fact. German destroyer Friedrich Ihn, however, does catch sight of old Russian coal-burning merchant ship Izhora, a straggler of the convoy, and promptly sinks her at 1715 hours. In the evening, Admiral Otto Ciliax turns his fleet back toward its home port.
The RAF dispatch 211 bombers to attack Essen, Germany, some equipped with the new GEE navigational system. The results are less than hoped fory as "only" a few homes and a church are destroyed, killing 29 civilians, while the industrial centers, the primary targets, are untouched.
An annoyed Winston Churchill, not satisfied with Cairo's reasons for not attacking at Gazala, summons the British C-in-C Middle East back to London, to "confer with him about the situation".
Warrant Officer Nobuo Fujita, flying in a submarine-based (submarine I-25) E14Y aircraft, conducts a photographic reconnaissance mission over Wellington harbor in New Zealand.
Dutch troops at Bandoeng, Java, Dutch East Indies surrender at the Isola Hotel in Lembang, between Dutch General Jacob J. Pesman and Japanese Colonel Toshishige Shoji. In the afternoon, Dutch Governor Tjarda Van Starkenborgh Stachouwer, General Hein Ter Poorten, and Major General Jacob Pesman surrender all Dutch forces on Java to Japanese General Hitoshi Imamura.
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Started new career in August 2019 to commemorate the beginning of WWII, 80 years before ...
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Monday, 9 March 1942 - Lorient
US Navy Admiral Ernest King is appointed Chief of Naval Operations; he is to maintain his responsibility as the Commander-in-Chief (CominCh) of the US Navy.
Admiral Harold Stark, formerly the American Chief of Naval Operations, is appointed as Commander of the United States Naval Forces in European waters with his headquarters in London.
At 0640 hours, British aircraft is spotting the German fleet centered around battleship Tirpitz. At 0730 hours, British carrier HMS Victorious launches 12 Albacore aircraft to attack, reaching Tirpitz and destroyer Friedrich Ihn at 0830 hours. The attack causes no damage to the German warships; two Albacore aircraft are lost. Tripitz and her escorts arrive at Narvik later that day.
A second British air raid to Essen, Germany, again using the new GEE navigational system, has similar dismal results as the first raid on the previous day, as the haze makes the target difficult to spot.
Japanese troops enter undefended Rangoon, Burma, abandoned by British troops two days prior.
Japanese cruisers Kumano, Chokai, and cruiser division 7 depart Singapore to cover Operation T - The Invasion of Northern Sumatra.