Chronology of World War II

April 1942

Wednesday, April 15


Air Operations, Europe

US bombers conduct a daylight raid on the occupied French port of Cherbourg.

BOMBER COMMAND
  • 9 Bostons bomb the harbor and railway targets at Cherbourg without a loss.
  • Dortmund is again the target as 152 aircraft including 111 Wellingtons, 19 Hampdens, 15 Stirlings and 7 Manchesters are sent. Although thick clouds and icing meet the bombing force, 88 planes claim to have hit the target area. Dortmund reports 1 house destroyed and 13 seriously damaged with 2 people killed and 6 injured. Bombs falling in Dortmund are the equivalent of 8 bomb loads. 3 Wellingtons and 1 Stirling are lost.
  • In minor operations, 18 Whitleys are sent to St Nazaire, 8 Wellingtons to Le Havre, 4 Blenheim Intruders to Holland, 11 aircraft lay mines of St Nazaire and 4 are sent on leaflet flights over France. There are no losses.
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Allied Planning

Harry Hopkins and Gen Marshall, Roosevelt's two envoys, return to Washington from London with the British approval of the BOLERO plan. The plan calls for the opening of a second front in Europe, but the details have yet to be worked out.

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Battle of the Atlantic

The unarmed US freighter Robin Hood (6887t), en route to Boston from Trinidad, BWI, is torpedoed and sunk by U-575 about 300 miles off Nantucket with the loss of 14 crewmen.

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Burma

Following their breakthrough on the 13th the Japanese continue to drive northward, isolating one of Slim's divs, the 1st Burmese.

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Eastern Front

CENTRAL SECTOR

The Germans launch a series of furious attacks against Soviet partisans and paratroopers trapped in the Dorogobuzh area.

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Heavily Bomb-Damaged Street in Valletta, Malta


Heavily Bomb-Damaged Street in Valletta, Malta

[April 14th - April 16th]