Sunday July 19, 1942. End of the Second Happy Time, Spreading Murder in the East, the Leningrad Suite.

German submarines were ordered withdrawn from the U.S. East Coast due to mounting effectiveness of American anti-submarine efforts, thus brining the "Second Happy Time", Operation Drumbeat, to a close.

Heinrich Himmler ordered that all Jews with the German "General Government", i.e., occupied Poland, be moved to camps by December 31.

German propaganda poster urging Poles to do farm worth with Germany.

NBC broadcast Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony.  It was a big event at the time, and its gone on to be the most streamed performance of the 20th Century.

Tuesday April 14, 1942. A Naval First.

 

USS Roper.

Today in World War II History—April 14, 1942: Off North Carolina, destroyer USS Roper sinks U-85 in the first US naval victory over a German U-boat (all 46 killed).

From Sarah Sundin's blog.  A U.S. Navy victory in the Battle of the Atlantic.  The U-85 was the first casualty for the Germans in Operation Drumbeat.   The U-252 went down the same day in the Atlantic when attacked by ships of the Royal Navy.  The British submarine Upholder was sunk, however, by the Italians in the Mediterranean.

On the same day, Philippe Petain reinstated Pierre Laval as Vice Premier of France due to German pressure to do so.

Thursday, January 22, 1942. Japanese murders, Russian evacuations.

The Japanese shot, bayoneted, and beheaded withe swords 110 Australian and 40 Indian wounded prisoners and their medics in Malaya, the Parit Sulong Massacre.

The Japanese Imperial Guards commander, General Takuma Nishimura was tried after the war for war crimes due to this, and was hanged on June 11, 1951, although there is some doubt about his culpability for the actions of the troops.

It ought to be noted that actions like this by the Japanese were completely common during World War Two, and seem to have become common in the Japanese military no later than the 1930s.  This had not been the case earlier, as for example in the Russo Japanese War.

The Soviets advanced in their Winter offensive, the Afrika Korps advanced in theirs.

The Soviets also started evacuating residents of Leningrad over Lake Ladoga, which was frozen.

Six Allied merchant ships went down due to submarines in Operation Drumbeat.

Thursday, January 15, 1942. Baseball gets the go ahead.

President Roosevelt issued his "green light" letter to professional baseball, indicating that it should go forward in spite of the war.  Unlike World War One, however, there'd be no pretextual avenue for baseball players to avoid conscription and that fact, combined with baseball players volunteering for service, would result in an enormous decrease in first rank talent from the sport for the duration of the war, making wartime baseball accordingly unique.

While Operation Drumbeat takes three more ships off the US east coast, 3,900 US troops of the 34th Division depart by ship for the United Kingdom. The U-577 surfaces so close off of New York Harbor that night that the rides at Coney Island could be seen silhouetted against the nighttime sky, blackouts not having been ordered.

German Field Marshall Ritter von Leeb is relieved of his command after demanding a free, non Hitler, hand over his troops.

The American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) Command was activated with Field Marshall Sir Archibald Wavell as its commander.  Its task was to combat the Japanese expansion in South-East Asia.

The Ninth Pan American Conference opened in Rio de Janeiro.

Wednesday January 14, 1942. Canadian Internment, Operation Drumbeat, Operation Posmaster and Executive Order on Enemy Aliens.

On this day in 1942, the Arcadia Conference concluded.

Canada began a Japanese internment program

As discussed here:

Today in World War II History—January 14, 1942

Canada designates a 100-mile security zone in British Columbia; all males of Japanese ancestry ages 18-45 are ordered to vacate; 23,000 men will be sent to labor camps; women and children are deported to six inner BC towns; Japanese-Canadians also banned from fishing and using shortwave radios.

While this story is well known in Canada, it is not in the United States.  It's significant to Canadian history for a lot of reasons, but also to US history in regard to the atmosphere at the time.

The US had not yet begun internment of Japanese residents, but it did commence registration of enemy aliens on this day in 1942.

President Roosevelt issued an order requiring the registration of enemy aliens.

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation 

Whereas section 21 of title 50 of the United States Code provides as follows: 

Whenever there is a declared war between the United States and any foreign nation or government, or any invasion or predatory incursion is perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States by any foreign nation or government, and the President makes public proclamation of the event, all natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects of the hostile nation or government, being of the age of fourteen years and upward, who shall be within the United States and not actually naturalized, shall be liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as alien enemies. The President is authorized in any such event, by his proclamation thereof, or other public act, to direct the conduct to be observed, on the part of the United States, toward the aliens who become so liable; the manner and degree of the restraint to which they shall be subject and in what cases, and upon what security their residence shall be permitted, and to provide for the removal of those who, not being permitted to reside within the United States, refuse or neglect to depart therefrom; and to establish any other regulations which are found necessary in the premises and for the public safety. 

Whereas by sections 22, 23, and 24 of title 50 of the United States Code further provision is made relative to alien enemies; 

Whereas by Proclamation No. 2525 of December 7, 1941, and Proclamations Nos. 2526 and 2527 of December 8,1941, I prescribed and proclaimed certain regulations governing the conduct of alien enemies; and 

Whereas I find it necessary in the interest of national defense to prescribe regulations additional and supplemental to such regulations: 

Now, Therefore, I, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, acting under and by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution of the United States and the aforesaid sections of the United States Code, do hereby prescribe and proclaim the following regulations, additional and supplemental to those prescribed by the aforesaid proclamations of December 7, 1941, and December 8, 1941: 

CERTIFICATES OF IDENTIFICATION REQUIRED; DUTIES AND AUTHORITY OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL 

All alien enemies within the continental United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands are hereby required, at such times and places and in such manner as may be fixed by the Attorney General of the United States, to apply for and acquire certificates of identification; and the Attorney General is hereby authorized and directed to provide, as speedily as may be practicable, for the receiving of such applications and for the issuance of appropriate identification certificates, and to make such rules and regulations as he may deem necessary for effecting such identifications; and all alien enemies and all other persons are hereby required to comply with such rules and regulations. The Attorney General in carrying out such identification procedure, is hereby authorized to utilize such agents, agencies, officers, and departments of the United States and of the several states, territories, dependencies, and municipalities thereof and of the District of Columbia as he may select for the purpose, and all such agents, agencies, officers, and departments are hereby granted full authority for all acts done by them in the execution of this regulation when acting by the direction of the Attorney General. After the date or dates fixed by the Attorney General for completion of such identification procedure, every alien enemy within the limits of the continental United States, Puerto Rico, or the Virgin Islands shall at all times have his identification card on his person.

The British pulled off Operation Postmaster, an SOE operation, which involved hijacking three ships in a port in Spanish Guinea.  While military insignificant, it boosted the reputation of the SOE in particular, and the British in general, for eclectic raiding.

German U-boats began to make some successful strikes off of the near US and Labradorean/PEI/Newfoundland coast as part of a new submarine offensive, Operation Drumbeat.  The U-123 sank the Panamanian tanker MV Norness off of Long Island.  Across the Atlantic, the U-43 sank the three vessels, including the Panamanian flagged SS Chepo.