On 20 April, the USS Wasp delivered a squadron of Spitfire fighters to Malta; although the planes were destroyed on the ground by the Luftwaffe before they could get into action, this marked a clear commitment by the Allies to defend the island. On 23 April in response to the bombing of Lubeck in March,… Read more »Read more

On 15 June the island of Malta was awarded the George Cross for heroism, after enduring so many air raids by the Luftwaffe (over 2,000 since the war began). On 18 June the “Doolittle raid” against Japan took place, when 16 American bombers launched from aircraft carriers to attack targets on the Japanese mainland, including… Read more »Read more

The Japanese invasion of the Philippines intensified this week with further landings and the capture of the Bataan peninsula; on 9 April some 65,000 captured American and Filipino soldiers were sent on the infamous “Bataan death march” to captivity, during which 11,000 died. On 8 April the RAF mounted one of the largest bombing raids… Read more »Read more

This week the Japanese attacked the 24,000 American and Filipino soldiers trapped on the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines; meanwhile, the Japanese Navy sank the cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire off Ceylon [Sri Lanka]. On 4 April Germany decided to stage raids on historic British cities in reprisal for the bombing of Lübeck last… Read more »Read more

On 28 March British commandos launched the raid on Saint-Nazaire in Brittany. An obsolete destroyer, HMS Campeltown, packed with explosives, rammed the dock gates and when the explosives later detonated they did so much damage that the dock was out of service for the rest of the war. 622 commandos accompanied the Campbeltown but after… Read more »Read more

On 20 March Operation Outward, one of the more unusual projects in the war, began. This was a British plan to launch hydrogen-filled balloons at Germany: some trailed a long wire to snag on power lines and cause short-circuits, while others were fitted with incendiary devices to start forest fires. By August they would be… Read more »Read more

Last week the British had evacuated Rangoon; this week Japanese troops moved in. Since declaring war in December Japan had gained control of Java, Burma and New Guinea and now began to land troops in Mindanao in the Philippines as well as the Solomon Islands, directly threatening Australia. Meanwhile in Europe the RAF continued to… Read more »Read more

The Japanese advances in the Far East dominated the news in the early part of the year. This week they captured Batavia, the capital of the Dutch East Indies, and landed in New Guinea. They were now close enough to Australia to launch an air raid on raid Broome in the Kimberley region of Western… Read more »Read more

As Japanese forces continued to sweep all before them, on 25 February the internment of Japanese-American citizens living along the Pacific coast of the USA began; over 110,000 people would ultimately be affected. On 27 February an Allied fleet was decisively defeated by the Japanese Navy in the Battle of the Java Sea and ten… Read more »Read more

Following the fall of Singapore last week the Japanese continued their seemingly unstoppable advance, advancing into Burma, bombing Darwin in Australia and invading Bali and Timor. As the American defence of the Philippines collapsed, General MacArthur was reassigned to the defence of Australia. On 16 February, Japanese forces on Bangka Island massacred 20 Australian nurses… Read more »Read more