Diary February 20, 1942

02-1942, Diary WW2, War Diary, Year 1942 / 1 minute of reading

Recovery of a supply bomb in Demiansk 'Cauldron'. — Recovery of a supply bomb in Demiansk ‘Cauldron’.

WW2 War Diary for Friday, February 20, 1942:

Air War

Eastern Front – Demiansk Airlift: force of Ju 52s (increasing from 40 in February to 300 in May) maintains trapped German 16th Army in Demiansk ‘Cauldron’, north of Smolensk, losing 262 aircraft.
Pacific: F4F Wildcat fighter flown by Lt ‘Butch’ O’Hare, of USS Lexington, shoots down 5 Mitsubishi G4M Betty bombers in ten minutes near Gilbert Islands.

Eastern Front

German frostbite casualties now total 112,627, including 14,357 requiring amputation.

Pacific

East Indies: Japanese land on Timor Island (Dutch and Portugese), north of Australia (occupation completed February 24).

Neutrals

Vichy France: THE RIOM WAR GUILT TRIAL. Vichy French Supreme Court, sitting at Riom, near Clermont-Ferrand, examines ex-Prime Ministers Daladier and Blum, General Gamelin and others on charges of being ‘responsible for the defeat of France’. Accused later deported to Germany and Court dissolved, June 13, 1942.

Sea War

Atlantic: Italian submarine group Da Vinci (4 boats) sinks 14 merchantmen (February 20-March 24) in the Caribbean.

About The Author

Kretaner

My name is Norman 'Kretaner' and since my childhood I am interested in history and strategy games. Later, I have learned programming and the development of computer games, and finally with the Internet, also web design. I'm in the fortunate position to combine all my interests with my work and to live on a place of my choice, on Crete. All information, figures, specifications and statistics used here had been compiled from a variety of sources and the large, over decades collected, library of the author about military history, WW2 and weapons.