The War in Dorset - March 1942
Early in March a German reprisal raid for RAF bombing in Paris hit….Delcombe Bottom near Milton Abbas and Smacam Down near Cerne Abbas, both in very rural parts of Dorset.
On 8th March Messerchmitts machine-gunned the quay at Christchurch.
There was intense activity by the Royal Navy off Dorset in March to enforce the naval blockade of the Channel but the German raider Michel and 5 destroyers escaped through to the Atlantic.
Some of Poole’s flying-boats were commandeered to relieve the siege of Malta, flying a shuttle service from Gibraltar.
Commandos of the Special Service Unit return to Poole after Operation Postmaster, the successful undercover mission in their converted Brixham trawler ‘the Maid Honor’ (see The Small Scale Raiding Force).
A Halifax bomber, specially adapted to trial the first ground mapping using radar, arrived at Hurn aerodrome.
In March 1942 Major David Niven, the actor and film star, was working with ‘V’ Corps on the South coast behind Poole Harbour in Dorset as commander of ‘A’ company in the General Headquarters Liaison Regiment, code-named PHANTOM. David Niven recalled:
“’A’ was my pride and joy. My second-in-command was a sardonic Irish newspaper man and the patrol officers included a Cameron Highlander, a Frenchman, a Lancastrian, a weight lifter, the assistant Bursar at Eton College, an amateur steeplechase jockey and an interior decorator who frequently called me ‘dear’ instead of ‘sir’. The squadron Sergeant-Major was a Scots guard and the seventy other ranks were made up of bank clerks, burglars, shop assistants, milkmen, garage mechanics, school masters, painters, bookmakers, stockbrokers and labourers.” (See The Missing Winter.)
(From ‘Poole and World War II’ written by Derek Beamish, Harold Bennett and John Hillier and published by Poole Historical Trust in 1980, ‘Dorset’s War Diary - Battle of Britain to D Day’ by Rodney Legg, Dorset Publishing company 2004; ‘Phantom at War’ by Andy and Sue Parlour, published by Cerberus in 2003 and ‘The Moon’s a Balloon’, autobiography of David Niven, published by G.P. Putnam's Sons in 1972.)
1st Air Landing Reconnaissance:
In March 1st Air Landing Reconnaissance trained on the Bulford Ranges, Salisbury Plain and worked to develop their craft with the Vickers Aircraft Factory at Weybridge. Glider flying training was based at Netheravon. Parachute PT commenced on 30th March. (From the War Diary of 1st Air Landing Reconnaissance Squadron, WO166/6955 National Archives at Kew.)
March 1942 – gas and electricity rationed in Great Britain.
1st March 1942 – the Japanese achieve victory at sea in the battle of the Java Sea and by 9th March 1942 Java and the rest of the Dutch East Indies had surrendered to the Japanese. In revenge for the destruction of the precious oil installations prior to the invasion, the Japanese killed almost all the white males and forced the women and girls into brothels.
8th March 1942 – the Japanese capture Rangoon, Burma.
12th March 1942 – General MacArthur, Commander of the US Army Forces in the Far East, is forced to leaves the Philippines. American and Philipino forces continue to defend the Bataan Peninsula on the northern island of Luzon.
14th March 1942 – US troops arrive in Australia.
22nd and 23rd March 1942 – Japanese aircraft again attack Darwin in Australia and Port Moresby in New Guinea (now the capital of Papua New Guinea).
28th March 1942 - Under the new tactical doctrine of area saturation bombing, introduced by Air Vice Marshal Harris, the RAF launches a heavy incendiary attack (234 bombers) against Lübeck on the Baltic that devastates 265 acres of the old city. The RAF lost 13 aircraft and from one of these the Germans were able to obtain their first specimen of the secret GEE radar equipment. In retaliation for the raid on Lübeck, Hitler orders the Luftwaffe to bomb historic British towns and cities. (From WW2-net Timelines. )
29th March 1942 - The Australian War Cabinet implements a 'Total Denial' policy in northern Australia should the Japanese invade. This would involve the conduct of a fighting withdrawal, with the evacuation or destruction of anything left behind. A vast migration of sheep and cattle southwards was already underway, with those taking part being nicknamed 'Overlanders'. (From WW2-net Timelines.)
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