April 2012

6 Junkers Ju88s unsuccessfully attack Allied convoy PQ 15 (1 Ju88 shot down). At 3.45 PM 165 miles Northeast of Iceland, British battleship HMS King George V and destroyer HMS Punjabi collide in dense fog while providing distant cover to PQ 15. HMS Punjabi crosses the bow of the battleship which slices clean through at 25 knots. Punjabi’s stern sinks immediately, detonating primed depth charges, (49 killed) but her forepart sinks slowly allowing destroyers HMS Martin & HMS Marne to take off 169 crew (another 40 survivors picked up from the sea). HMS King George V suffers a 40 foot gash in the bow above the waterline and buckled plates below from Punjabi’s exploding depth charges but reaches Scapa Flow under her own steam on May 4 (repaired at Liverpool, returned to service on July 1). American battleship USS Washington, immediately astern of HMS King George V, sails between sinking the halves of HMS Punjabi and is also slightly damaged by the depth charges.

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At 1.52 AM 180 miles East of Barbados, U-162 sinks British tanker MV Athelempress with shellfire from the deck gun (3 killed, 19 survivors make land at Gros Inlet Bay, St. Lucia, 28 survivors picked up by Norwegian tanker MV Atlantic and landed at Trinidad). At 3.36 AM 18 miles South of Cape Fear, North Carolina, U-402 sinks Soviet SS Ashkhabad (all 47 hands, including 3 women, picked up by the escort British anti-submarine trawler HMS Lady Elsa). At 7.37 AM 95 miles East of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, U-576 sinks Norwegian SS Taborfjell (17 killed, 3 survivors on a raft rescued 20 hours later by British submarine HMS P-552). At 6.10 PM 5 miles North of Gibara, Cuba, U-507 sinks American SS Federal with shellfire from the deck gun (5 killed, 28 survivors).

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US aircraft carrier USS Wasp returns to Glasgow, Scotland, following the delivery of Spitfires to Malta (Operation Calendar). USS Wasp quickly loads another 47 Spitfires for a repeat run to Malta (Operation Bowery).

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Burma. With the decision made to retreat to India, British and Indian troops begin an orderly withdrawal despite being harassed by Japanese 33rd Division. Indian 17th Division crosses West over the Irrawaddy River by ferry and boat at Sameikkon, with 38th Chinese Division and British 7th Armoured Brigade holding the East bank of the river from Sagaing to Ondaw.

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Timor. Australian Sparrow Force, having reestablished contact with the Australian mainland using a radio built out of recycled parts, is supplied by airdrop to continue guerrilla operations against Japanese forces in Portuguese Timor.

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At 8.30 AM in the Caribbean 80 miles North of Bonaire, U-66 torpedoes American SS Alcoa Partner. Carrying 8500 tons of bauxite ore, SS Alcoa Partner sinks within 3 minutes (10 dead, 25 survivors escape in a lifeboat and reach Bonaire 37 hours later).

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