The New York Times Book of World War II, 1939-1945
Page 66
These plans reveal that the Administration recognizes the tremendous and determining role that air power is going to play in this war. Even more than any other nation, the United States must concentrate on air power. The great ocean distances that have so far kept our mainland free of air attack are also the chief barriers that stand in the way of our own offensive action against the Axis. There are only two ways in which we can bring that offensive action to breakthrough long-range bombers and through ships.
We need the ships to transport men and tanks and guns and pursuit planes. But our ships are limited in number; compared with planes, they move with painful slowness, and cargo space must be rigorously economized. This means that they must only to a small extent be used to ship mere manpower; they are needed mainly to transport short-range planes, air personnel and fully mechanized divisions. If we can get these air forces and mechanized forces to Russia and China they can act as spearheads to turn the almost unlimited manpower already in these nations, particularly China, from defensive to vigorous offensive action. The merchant ship and the plane, with the protection of warships and of airplane carriers, are the two chief weapons with which America must win this war.
An air force of the huge dimensions that we now contemplate raises once more important questions in war organization. When it has grown to this size, an air force can no longer be thought of as a mere “supporting arm” to the older services. The question may be seriously raised whether in our own case the relationship will not be the reverse of this, and whether this should not be reflected in a new form of organization.
It is at least clear that at any given point the Army, Navy and air force must all be under a single unified command. And those in command of the air forces must have a thorough training in and understanding of air tactics and strategy. This training and understanding certainly did not exist at Pearl Harbor. It they had, our planes there would not have been concentrated and exposed in such a way that the Japanese were able to inflict the maximum rather than the minimum damage upon them on the ground. Our apparent lack either of sufficient airplanes or of proper protection for airplanes at Guam, Wake, and the Philippines also raises a serious question whether those in charge of strategy in Washington before Dec. 7 really understood the role of the air force and were alive to the needs of the situation.
Not less important than having a huge air force is to have men in command who know how to use it. And this must raise one more question: whether men whose whole training has been in the older services with the older weapons can be relied upon to assign air power its proper share in their plans. There has been an increasing tendency since Pearl Harbor to put in command men with a better understanding of air power. This reform must be thorough-going.
FEBRUARY 16, 1942
BRITISH CAPITULATE
Tokyo Claims Toll of 32 Allied Vessels South of Singapore
By JAMES MacDONALD
Special Cable to The New York Times.
LONDON, Feb. 15—Singapore has fallen.
The long dreaded news that the key British base of the Pacific and Indian Oceans would be captured by the Japanese—a major reverse clearly foreseen many days ago—was announced tonight by Winston Churchill, a few hours after dispatches from Vichy and Tokyo reported that Lieut. Gen. Arthur E. Percival’s forces had surrendered unconditionally at 3:30 P. M. today British daylight saving time [9:50 P.M. Sunday Singapore time and 10:30 A.M. Eastern war time].
London officials naturally declined to disclose what plans had been made or were perhaps in the making for establishing a naval base elsewhere to meet the grave emergency arising from the loss of Singapore. They could not or would not divulge how many Imperial troops were taken prisoner or how many got away.
COMMANDERS MEET
According to the official Tokyo announcement, fighting ceased along the entire front three hours after a meeting between General Percival and the Japanese Commander in Chief, Lieut. Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita, in the Ford motor plant at the foot of Timah Hill, where the documents of surrender were signed. The terms were not disclosed here, but a Japanese Domei Agency dispatch late tonight said that under the capitulation up to 1,000 armed British soldiers would remain in Singapore City to maintain order until the Japanese Army completed occupation.
Similar terms, it is recalled, were contained in the surrender of Hong Kong on Christmas Day.
The Tokyo radio said the Japanese had constantly kept pouring in fresh troops to make up for losses from the fierce resistance of British Imperial troops.
In the final battle, three Japanese columns were said to have advanced on the city. Yesterday the central column completed occupation of the water reservoirs and a part of this column reached the northern outskirts of the city on a six-mile front. Another column bypassed the reservoirs, crossed the Kalang River and cut the road from Singapore to the civil airport. The third column reached Alexandris Road in the western part of the city.
SOME RESISTING, TOKYO SAYS
[Japanese units left the main island in barges and seized Blakang Mati, the island opposite Keppel Harbor, thereby gaining control of the sea approach to Singapore from the south, according to a Tokyo broadcast recorded by The United Press.
[Japanese troops entered Singapore City today under the terms of the surrender by the British, but a Domei dispatch said some of the defending forces and “other hostile elements” still were resisting, another Tokyo broadcast heard by The United Press stated.]
The Berlin radio, quoting the Japanese newspaper Asahi, said the largest part of the British and Australian forces “obviously” left Singapore Friday for Sumatra.
Unofficial reports reached London late tonight that 2,000 persons evacuated from Singapore had arrived in Bombay.
Just about the time “cease fire” was ordered in Singapore, the city’s radio station was broadcasting as usual, giving a news bulletin and announcing in conclusion:
“This is the Malayan Broadcasting Corporation closing down its news program. We’ll be broadcasting again tomorrow evening. Good night, everybody, good night.”
Earlier in the day a Singapore broadcast had been heard in New Delhi, India, announcing, “We’re still offering stiff resistance to the enemy’s attacks.” Listeners in India had vital reason for watching the battle of Singapore because its loss involved possible domination of the Indian Ocean by Japanese naval forces. Immediate attacks in great strength on Sumatra, and other Netherlands Indies points, were also anticipated.
News of the capture of Singapore was greeted jubilantly in Japan. A Tokyo dispatch said Emperor Hirohito “heard with great satisfaction” the Japanese Imperial Headquarters announcement about the fall of the historic base that the British had held for 123 years. Both Houses of the Japanese Parliament are scheduled to meet tomorrow in a special session at which Premier Hideki Tojo and Admiral Shigetaro Shimada, Minister of the Navy, will make their official reports.
FEBRUARY 20, 1942
DARWIN IS BOMBED FOR SECOND TIME
Port Machine-Gunned in New Raid—Tokyo Reports Landing on Island of Timor
By The Associated Press.
SYDNEY, Australia, Feb. 20—Air raid alarms sounded in Darwin today for the second successive day, but Japanese planes did not appear to follow up the two blows struck yesterday, in which fifteen persons were killed and twenty-four wounded at the vital Allied naval base on Australia’s north coast.
Air Minister Arthur S. Drakeford announced that a third raid had occurred, but later information said no enemy planes appeared although the “alert” was sounded.
[A Tokyo broadcast recorded by The United Press this morning said Japanese troops had landed on both the Netherland and the Portuguese portions of Timor, north of Australia.]
FEBRUARY 22, 1942
GUN DUEL IS HEAVY IN BATAAN BATTLE
By C. BROOKS PETERS
Special to The New York Times.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 21—The Battle of Bataan was marked today by the growing extent of Japanese as
saults upon General Douglas MacArthur’s positions in the Philippine area, the War Department reported.
During the past twenty-four hours the Japanese and the American-Filipino forces poured shells into each other’s positions in what the War Department called “heavy artillery firing.”
All along the front on the Bataan Peninsula infantry patrols were reported active and skirmishes were frequent.
Increasing and effective resistance by Filipino civilians to the Japanese invaders, and the extent to which General MacArthur’s fight is bolstered by naval men and guns and other equipment evacuated from the United States base at Cavite, near Manila, were emphasized in other communiqués.
The Japanese air force was again reported dropping incendiary bombs on objectives over and behind the United States lines. The enemy was said to have made frequent flights over General MacArthur’s lines for this purpose.
The Japanese resumed firing with long-range batteries on all of General MacArthur’s defense fortifications. Fort Frank, one of the auxiliary fortresses to the bastion of Corregidor that holds the entrance to Manila Bay against the enemy bore the brunt of this artillery attack.
The Japanese have emplacements across Manila Bay at Cavite from which they have intermittently bombarded the Americans’ island fortifications. There was no indication as to the effectiveness of the Japanese shellings. The War Department reported that the harbor defense batteries returned the fire.
MACARTHUR HAS ‘NAVAL SUPPLY’
The Navy Department reported that the battalion of bluejackets and Marines, under the command of Rear Admiral Francis W. Rockwell, commandant of the Sixteenth Naval District, which has been fighting with General MacArthur, had succeeded in taking “considerable equipment” from the Cavite naval base before it fell to the enemy. It said also that materiel from “other sources of naval supply” has been used to good advantage in the defense of the Bataan Peninsula.
The naval equipment that is helping General MacArthur’s forces in their defense includes three-inch and four-inch artillery, as well as boats, guns and machine guns of several types, with ammunition, the Navy Department said.
In addition the Navy reported that a large number of hand grenades, aircraft bombs and depth charges, stores of gasoline, Diesel oil and lubricating oil were saved and were being used effectively in the Americas in field operations.
Motor launches and tugs were provided for General MacArthur by Admiral Rockwell’s force.
The Navy said also that the battalion had salvaged facilities for repair of artillery, tanks, and trucks, in addition to electrical and ordnance supplies.
Furthermore, the Navy reported, personnel of the naval air base organization, who were formerly employed on government contracts, has constructed and repaired airfields and roads in the fighting area. Steam shovels, tractors, cranes, trucks and graders, the Navy revealed, have been operated by this organization to useful advantage on Bataan and Corregidor.
FILIPINO CIVILIANS’ RESISTANCE
The War Department announced that General MacArthur has sent reports relative to the loyalty and morale of the Filipinos in the areas occupied by the enemy.
“Despite the harshness and severity of the military rule imposed by the invaders,” the War Department said, “the spirit of the liberty-loving Filipinos remains undaunted.”
Filipino civilian resistance to the Japanese was becoming “increasingly effective,” the report said. A secret society had been formed, the “F.F.F.” or “Fighters for Freedom,” which fostered civilian resistance to the invaders.
Informers to whom the Japanese in the Philippines have been reported as offering rewards, have been done away with by patriotic Filipinos.
Several days ago an enemy proclamation posted in Manila and throughout the countryside, enumerating offenses against the Japanese that were punishable by death and declaring that ten Filipinos would be shot for every Japanese killed, was altered overnight, the report said.
It had been changed to read that “for every Filipino killed, ten Japanese soldiers would lose their lives.”
FEBRUARY 22, 1942
INDIA’S ROLE IN WAR BECOMES VITAL
British Seek Ways To Unite People in Great Effort
By CRAIG THOMPSON
Wireless to The New York Times.
LONDON, Feb. 21—In steady thrusts the Japanese have been pushing their way through British and Netherland Far Eastern barriers toward India and the Indian Ocean. Adolf Hitler meanwhile has been piling up ever greater quantities of guns, tanks and war chariots, which may head eastward through Turkey and Iran toward India. Since the fall of Singapore Britain has discovered, with a sharpness that has left many persons stunned, the possibility that some of this war’s most important actions may be fought out among the cool hills and hot valleys of that fabulous land of princes and Untouchables.
A junction of the Axis forces anywhere in the Middle East or Far East automatically means that the wealth of the Indies will be available to both. In this world-girdling struggle between two philosophies, Britain’s foes could hardly choose a spot where dissension and Imperial antipathy would be more likely to play into their hands. India is a place where people are torn into almost implacable groups opposed to unity on anything except a common desire to be rid of British dominance.
PRESSURE FOR UNITY
Politically, everything now is staked on the possibility that the peril of all may bring about a degree of unity in which the war effort may approach something that is closer to the potential power of the naturally rich country, with 388,000,000 people, than has heretofore been possible. There have been signs of a tendency in this direction, although India has been host to many political prophets with imported views, whose general endeavors might be classed as fifth-column work.
EXPANDING INDUSTRY
The development of war power means industrial advancement, and in this direction India has been growing by bounds since the war began, although many Indians insist that British policy has had a stunting effect.
The visit of Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek of China—inspired in London—was a step in the direction of unity. It was hoped that he and Madame Chiang would impress on the Indians the resilient strength of a united people, who, far from being crushed after nearly five years of warfare, have become actually stronger.
Underlying this was still another motive, seldom expressed but causing genuine concern among the British and Netherlands government; that is the power of the Japanese slogan, “Asia for the Asiatics.”
General Chiang’s visit seems to have left the situation about where it was. The Indians have given certain indications that they will drop—temporarily—some of their differences, but only on condition that the British Government lay down guarantees of post-war independence on such unqualified and specific terms that there can be no misunderstanding or recall when and if the present crisis is passed.
If the Britain Government is now prepared to make such concessions no sign of it has yet been seen in London, but there is growing anxiety about India in view of the Far Eastern developments, and it may be easily forced by the circumstances of war to make concessions. The concession, however, would be no greater than the concessions from the Indian parties in willingness to buckle down in a cooperative manner behind the war effort.
POLITICAL DIVISIONS
India has two main parties—the Moslem League, led by Mohammed Ali Jinnah, and the Congress party, which Mohandas K. Gandhi so long led and which has now been lined up behind Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, who has only been out of jail for a few months. He served nearly a year of a four-year sentence for a political speech that was deemed to be in violation of the Defense of India Rules. He was only one of thousands jailed for the same reason in the months that followed the war’s outbreak.
Nearly two years ago, when it was first proposed to establish a broad executive council under Viceroy Linlithgow, Mr. Gandhi countered with a proposal that his following insisted on guarantees of complete independence
. Since these were not forthcoming he spread the doctrine of nonresistance to cover everything, including war, and even advised that Britain should lay down her arms and let Germany trample over her, and, suffering every possible indignity, refuse nothing except allegiance. The British politely replied that they appreciated the spirit in which his advice was offered but that they could not accept it.
Pandit Nehru then led a group within the Congress party who modified the nonresistance application to the essential degree that made it inapplicable to wars or national defense. But the party would have nothing less in return than guarantees of independence.
Chapter 11
“LIDICE, ILLINOIS”
March–June 1942
The spring and summer of 1942 saw the Axis powers reach their fullest territorial extent. German forces rallied in the spring and recaptured the city of Kharkov, while Hitler ordered a new major operation, code-named “Blue,” to capture the oil and wheat areas of southern Russia and the Caucasus. Operation Blue was launched by the Germans on June 28 after they first destroyed the Russian port of Sevastopol. In North Africa, Rommel’s German and Italian armies proved unstoppable as they swept through Libya to seize the port of Tobruk on June 21 with the capture of 32,000 British Empire and Allied forces.
The unpredictable story was just how far the victorious Japanese armed forces would go. From Tokyo there was talk of complete victory over the United States and the European colonial powers. On April 6 the capital of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) was shelled by Japanese warships, and it seemed likely that Japan would sweep on into India following its brief but effective campaign to capture Burma (Myanmar) by late April. American eyes were turned to the final death throes of the large American force holed up on the Bataan Peninsula on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. On March 9 General MacArthur left to go to Australia, placing his garrison under the command of Lt. General Jonathan Wainwright. Under constant pressure from General Masaharu Homma’s Fourteenth Army, American and Filipino troops retreated farther toward the fortress of Corregidor. But on April 9, short of ammunition and supplies, 78,000 of them were forced to surrender. Some 2,000 escaped to Corregidor, where Wainwright and around 11,000 men defied the Japanese invaders for another month, finally surrendering on May 6. Thousands of tired and hungry soldiers were forced on what became known as the Bataan death march to POW camps, mistreated by Japanese soldiers whose military culture of death to the end left little sympathy for an enemy who surrendered.