World War II Chronicle: December 11, 1941
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Nazi Germany was under no obligation to declare war on the United States if Japan was the aggressor. However, with virtually no consultation with his staff, that is exactly what Adolf Hitler did.
Italy also declared war, but when you consider their contribution to the Axis cause, Benito Mussolini probably didn’t concern us much more than Cuba and Costa Rica troubled the Führer. Within hours, Congress responds with a unanimous declaration of war against Germany and Italy.
Just six months ago Hitler ordered the seemingly invincible Wehrmacht to invade a country that could have been an ally. Now the Germans had ground to a frozen halt just short of Moscow and were facing a far different Red Army than the one they dominated during the early days of Operation Barbarossa; one that is seizing the initiative and counterattacking. In support, “General Winter” drops the Russian temperatures so low that the planet Mars — nearly 50 million miles further away from the sun — was actually warmer.
The Soviets were growing stronger each day and Germany now faces two enemies with incredible warmaking capacity and industry that lies beyond the reach of the Luftwaffe. The spires of the Kremlin were in sight, but this was as close as the invaders would get.
5,000 miles to the east, the small American garrison on Wake is putting up a fierce defense against Rear Adm. Kajioka Sadamichi’s invasion force. The Japanese begin shelling the island at a range of 9,000 yards. When there is no counter fire — Maj. James P. S. Devereux ordered his Marines to hold their fire — the enemy closes to 4,500 yards, believing the previous airstrikes must have destroyed the island’s cannons.
The 5-inch coastal defense guns (taken from the former battleship USS Texas) open fire at close range, hammering the Japanese. A well-placed round finds the destroyer Hayate‘s torpedoes (or perhaps the depth charges), setting off a tremendous explosion that cuts the ship in half. Only one sailor survives the sinking. 1st Defense Battalion Marines damage three additional destroyers and a high-speed transport. The Japanese abort the landing and retreat.
Meanwhile, Wake’s four remaining F4F-3 Wildcat fighters have been orbiting high above the battle, waiting to pounce. Although outnumbered, Marine aviators intercept a flight of Japanese warplanes. Capt. Henry T. Elrod shoots down two aircraft before he and his fellow aviators target the Japanese ships. Elrod becomes the first American pilot to sink a surface ship during World War II when his bombs detonate Kisaragi‘s depth charges. The destroyer goes down with all hands.
Marine Fighter Squadron 211 (VMF-211) aviators also damage light cruiser Tenryu and an armed merchant cruiser, and in another sortie, bomb the Japanese submarine RO-66…
Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson “confirmed” that B-17 bombers sunk the battleship Haruna off Luzon Island, however we now know that no battleships were assigned to that particular fleet and Haruna was nowhere near the area. Chalk this up to the fog of war. Three B-17 Flying Fortress bombers of the 14th Bomb Squadron, 19th Bomb Group spotted the Japanese invasion fleet landing troops on the north of Luzon Island, and Capt. Colin P. Kelly, Jr.’s B-17 (more on him tomorrow) dropped their bombs on the largest ship, which they thought was Haruna but in fact was the heavy cruiser Ashigara. The crew believed that two of the three 600-lb. bombs hit the ship, and since they had no fighter cover and smoke obscured the target after their attack run, the B-17s headed back to base…
Do the Japanese have a secret weapon?
George Fielding Eliot brings up something interesting in his column about “Japan’s Secret Weapon” on page 13. Americans are still trying to wrap their minds around how the Japanese managed to do so much damage, not just on Oahu, but all across the Pacific simultaneously. Based on accounts from the Pacific, he wonders if the Japanese have some technology that the Allies don’t posses which has enabled them to bomb targets with higher accuracy than what we are capable of. Perhaps this secret weapon is what — something that would assure them of success when,
Major Eliot says a carrier attack against our bases at Pearl Harbor was considered suicidal, given that carrier-based planes were limited in what they could carry and the damage they cause wouldn’t be worth the risk of our planes simply following the Japanese back to the carrier and sinking it. But that’s not a factor when your enemy has nothing left to fight with. Major Eliot brings up the two Royal Navy ships sunk by the Japanese, Repulse and Prince of Wales. Land-based bombers hit Repulse with a 250-kg bomb from 11,500 feet, but it caused minimal damage and the battlecruiser was sunk by torpedoes. Prince of Wales was hit by a couple of bombs, but again it was torpedoes that finished off the ship.
These were the first ships at sea sunk solely by airpower and Pearl Harbor left everyone reeling, so it makes sense that people would conclude that the enemy could only have pulled all of this off with some new technology. But Japan’s bombers could only put three bombs on those British ships and several of their planes were shot down or damaged. Military history is full of secret weapons, however, so you can’t completely rule that out…
Sports section begins on page 58
Evening star. (Washington, D.C.), 11 December 1942. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1942-12-11/ed-1/