Timeline of World War II (1942) - April 1942

April 1942

1: The Eastern Sea Frontier, desperately short on suitable escort vessels after the Destroyers for Bases Agreement, institutes an interim arrangement known as the "Bucket Brigaid," wherein vessels outside of protected harbors are placed in anchorages protected by netting after dark, and move only under whatever escort is available during the day. As word of this and similar measures reaches Doenitz, he does not wait to test their effectiveness, but instead shifts his U-boats to the area controlled by the Gulf Sea Frontier, where American anti-submarine measures are not as effective. As a result, in May more ships will be sunk in the Gulf, many of them off the Passes of the Misssissippi, than off of the entire Eastern Seaboard.
: The Pacific War Council meets for the first time in Washington. Intended to allow the smaller powers involved in fighting the Japanese to have some input into US decisions, its purpose is soon outstripped by events, notably the collapse of the ABDA Command.

2: Over 24,000 sick and starving troops (American and Filipino) are now trapped on the Bataan Peninsula.
: Japanese make landings on New Guinea, most importantly at Hollandia.

3: Japanese forces begin an all-out assault on United States and Filipino troops in Bataan.
: Sustained Japanese air attacks on Mandalay.

4: Germans plan "Baedeker raids" on touristy or historic British sites, in revenge for the Lübeck bombing.

5: On Bataan, the Japanese overwhelm Mt. Samat, a strong point on Allied defensive line.
: The Japanese Navy attacks Colombo in Ceylon. Royal Navy cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire are sunk southwest of the island.
: Adolf Hitler issues Directive No. 41, outlining his plans for the coming summer offensive in Russia. The main offensive is directed to seize the Russian oil fields in the Caucasus; a secondary thrust is to capture Stalingrad and protect the flank of the main advance.

6: Japanese naval forces put troops ashore on Manus Island in the Bismarck Archipelago (some sources give a date of 8 April for these landings).

8: Heavy RAF bombing of Hamburg.
: American forces are strained for one last offensive on Bataan.
: With the withdrawal of the HMS Penelope from Malta, Force K in Malta comes to a close.

9: The Japanese Navy launches an air raid on Trincomalee in Ceylon; Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Hermes and Royal Australian Navy destroyer HMAS Vampire are sunk off the country's East Coast.
: Bataan falls to the Japanese. The "Bataan Death March" begins, as the captives are taken off to detention camps in the north. Corregidor, in the middle of Manila Bay, remains a final point of resistance.

10: Japanese land on Cebu Island, a large middle island of the Philippines.

12: Japanese forces capture Migyaungye in Burma.

14: Winston Churchill, concerned that the situation in Malta will cause the Axis forces in North Africa to be better supplied than British forces, sends a telegram to Sir Stafford Cripps in Cairo, asking him to pressure General Auchinleck to take offensive action before this can occur.
: USS Roper, DD-147, becomes the first American ship to sink a U-boat.

15: Malta is awarded the George Cross by King George VI for "heroism and devotion".
: Soldiers of the I Burma Corps begin to destroy the infrastructure of the Yenangyaung oil fields to prevent the advancing Japanese from capturing them intact.

17: French General Henri Giraud, who was captured in 1940, escapes from a castle prison at Konigstein by lowering himself down the castle wall and jumping on board a moving train, which takes him to the French border.

18: Doolittle Raid on Nagoya, Tokyo and Yokohama. Jimmy Doolittle's B-25's take off from the USS Hornet. The raids are a great boost of morale for Americans whose diet has been mostly bad news.
: The Eastern Sea Frontier, the United States Navy operational command in charge of the East Coast of the United States, somewhat belatedly forces a blackout along the East Coast. This deprives U-boat commanders of background illumination, but provides only a very little relief from U-boat attack; as the nights grow shorter more U-boat attacks are occurring in daylight hours.

20: General Dobbie, Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief of Malta, sends a message to Winston Churchill saying "it is obvious that the very worst may happen if we cannot replenish our vital needs, especially flour and ammunition, and that very soon...." Churchill concludes from this and other "disturbing news" that Dobbie is not capable enough for such an important job, and decides to replace him with Lord Gort.
: USS Wasp (CV-7) delivers 47 Spitfire Mk. V fighters of No. 603 Squadron RAF to Malta; the planes are destroyed, mostly on the ground, by intense Axis air raids before they can affect the course of battle.

23: Beginning of so-called Baedeker Raids by the Luftwaffe on English provincial towns like Exeter, Bath, Norwich, and York; attacks continue sporadically until June 6.

24: Heavy bombing of Rostock, Germany by RAF.

26: Hitler assumes a kind of supreme authority over Germany.

27: Rostock is bombed for fourth night in a row.
: A national plebiscite is held in Canada on the issue of conscription. French Canadians are main, though not the only, objectors to the draft.

28: The bulk of the British assault troops depart Durban for Madagascar; the slower ships, carrying transport and heavy weapons, have departed in great secrecy some days earlier.

29: The "Baedeker raids" continue, focused on Norwich and York.
: Japanese cut Burma Road with the capture of Lashio. .
: Adolf Hitler summons Benito Mussolini and Galeazzo Ciano to a summit conference at Salzburg. Like most Hitlerian conferences, this one is actually a thinly-disguised attempt to harangue the invitees into compliance with the Fuehrer's will; in this case, the Italians are to commit more troops to the Eastern Front. Hitler is successful, and Mussolini agrees to send an additional seven divisions, as well as the two already promised. These unfortunate troops will be formed into the Eighth Italian Army and attached to von Bock's (later von Weichs') Army Group B.