Thursday, April 9, 1942. Bataan surrenders and the Death March begins.

Today in World War II History—April 9, 1942: US surrenders to Japanese at Bataan: 35,000 Filipino troops and 35,000 US troops, the largest surrender in US history.

Sarah Sundin’s entry on her blog, with more than this event being covered on it, notes the grim fact.

I was inevitable, or course.  That Bataan would fall, disaster though it was, could not bee prevented.  The Philippines could not be supplied or relieved.  The troops could not bee withdrawn.  Nothing could be done.  It could be argued that the US should have ordered the bastion to surrender earlier, although their ongoing resistance did tie up a significant number of Japanese forces and even caused the Japanese to send troops to the islands from China, the Japanese army’s primary focus.

The Japanese, in spite of having worked for weeks to complete their conquest in of the Philippines were not prepared to handle such a large number of prisoners.  This, combined with the institutional cruelty of the Japanese armed forces gave rise to an event commenting on this day, the Bataan Death March

Friday, April 3, 1942. The end for Bataan.

The behind schedule Philippine offensive of the Japanese, the only one running behind schedule, makes use of reinforcements, including troops brought in from China, Japans strategic imperative, by launching a renewed offensive against Bataan.  It works, as after  massive bombardment, the Japanese break through the 41st Philippine Division.

Sunday, February 22, 1942. Harris takes command.

February 22, 1942: Air Marshal Sir Arthur “Bomber” Harris takes command of RAF Bomber Command. President Roosevelt orders Gen. Douglas MacArthur to leave Bataan for Australia.

So states the opener of Sarah Sundin's blog for the day.

"The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else, and nobody was going to bomb them. At Rotterdam, London, Warsaw, and half a hundred other places, they put their rather naïve theory into operation. They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind.”  Harris.

 

An unrelenting advocate of the RAF's Area Bombing Directive, he remains an extremely controversial figure, perhaps the most controversial British figure of the Second World War.

Harris was born and raised in England, but moved to Rhodesia at age 18.  While just about to enter ranching in that country in 1914, he reluctantly joined the 1st Rhodesian Regiment.  He transferred to the RAF as a pilot in 1916.  He remained in the RAF after the war and never returned to Rhodesia even though he considered it to be his country, although for a time after his retirement from the RAF he managed a mining company in South Africa.

As also discussed by Sundin, Douglas MacArthur was ordered by Franklin Roosevelt to leave the Philippines.

The Admiral Scheer and Prinz Eugen arrived at Bergen, Norway.  Later that day, the left for Trondheim.