Hello You crazy folk!
So I am finally done with 1942 officially!! This is an updated repost of game titles played to move me through the war. I’ve added some Stalingrad titles, Pacific War titles and I will add one more Operational Scale Stalingrad battle a bit later on.
The Chronological Walk Thru 1942
Previous Years: 1939 , 1940 ,1941
January 1, 1942 – Declaration of the United Nations signed by 26 Allied nations.
January 2, 1942 – Manila and U.S. Naval base at Cavite captured by the Japanese.
January 7, 1942 – Japanese attack Bataan in the Philippines.
January 11, 1942 – Japanese invade Dutch East Indies and Dutch Borneo.
January 16, 1942 – Japanese begin an advance into Burma.
January 19, 1942 – Japanese take North Borneo.
*Note while not part of the original plan for this series an OCS play of Burma is available here.
January 21, 1942 – Rommel’s counter-offensive from El Agheila begins.
January 23, 1942 – Japanese take Rabaul on New Britain in the Solomon Islands and also invade Bougainville, the largest island.
January 26, 1942 – First American forces arrive in Great Britain.
January 30/31 – The British withdraw into Singapore. The siege of Singapore then begins.
February 1, 1942 – First U.S. aircraft carrier offensive of the war as YORKTOWN and ENTERPRISE conduct air raids on Japanese bases in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands.
February 2, 1942 – Japanese invade Java in the Dutch East Indies.
February 8/9 – Japanese invade Singapore.
February 14, 1942 – Japanese invade Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies.
February 15, 1942 – British surrender at Singapore.
February 19, 1942 – Largest Japanese air raid since Pearl Harbor occurs against Darwin, Australia; Japanese invade Bali.
February 20, 1942 – First U.S. fighter ace of the war, Lt. Edward O’Hare from the LEXINGTON in action off Rabaul.
February 22, 1942 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders General MacArthur out of the Philippines.
February 26, 1942 – First U.S. carrier, the LANGLEY, is sunk by Japanese bombers.
February 27- March 1 – Japanese naval victory in the Battle of the Java Sea as the largest U.S. warship in the Far East, the HOUSTON, is sunk.
March 7, 1942 – British evacuate Rangoon in Burma; Japanese invade Salamaua and Lae on New Guinea.
March 8, 1942 – The Dutch on Java surrender to Japanese.
March 11, 1942 – Gen. MacArthur leaves Corregidor and is flown to Australia. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright becomes the new U.S. commander.
March 18, 1942 – Gen. MacArthur appointed commander of the Southwest Pacific Theater by President Roosevelt.
March 24, 1942 – Admiral Chester Nimitz appointed as Commander in Chief of the U.S. Pacific theater.
April 3, 1942 – Japanese attack U.S. and Filipino troops at Bataan.
April 9, 1942 – U.S. forces on Bataan surrender unconditionally to the Japanese.
April 10, 1942 – Bataan Death March begins as 76,000 Allied POWs including 12,000 Americans are forced to walk 60 miles under a blazing sun without food or water toward a new POW camp, resulting in over 5,000 American deaths.
April 18, 1942 – Surprise U.S. ‘Doolittle’ B-25 air raid from the HORNET against Tokyo boosts Allied morale.
April 29, 1942 – Japanese take central Burma.
May 1, 1942 – Japanese occupy Mandalay in Burma.
May 3, 1942 – Japanese take Tulagi in the Solomon Islands.
May 6, 1942 – Japanese take Corregidor as Gen. Wainwright unconditionally surrenders all U.S. And Filipino forces in the Philippines.
May 8, 1942 – German summer offensive begins in the Crimea.
May 7-8, 1942 – Japan suffers its first defeat of the war during the Battle of the Coral Sea off New Guinea – the first time in history that two opposing carrier forces fought only using aircraft without the opposing ships ever sighting each other.
May 20, 1942 – Japanese complete the capture of Burma and reach India.
May 26, 1942 – Rommel begins an offensive against the Gazala Line.
Video Notes:
June 4-7 Battle of Midway -Pacific
June 5, 1942 – Germans besiege Sevastopol.
June 4-5, 1942 – Turning point in the war occurs with a decisive victory for the U.S. against Japan in the Battle of Midway as squadrons of U.S. torpedo planes and dive bombers from ENTERPRISE, HORNET, and YORKTOWN attack and destroy four Japanese carriers, a cruiser, and damage another cruiser and two destroyers. U.S. loses YORKTOWN.
June 7, 1942 – Japanese invade the Aleutian Islands.
June 21, 1942 – Rommel captures Tobruk.
July 1-30 – First Battle of El Alamein.
July 3, 1942 – Germans take Sevastopol.
July 9, 1942 – Germans begin a drive toward Stalingrad in the USSR.
July 21, 1942 – Japanese land troops near Gona on New Guinea.
August 7, 1942 – British General Bernard Montgomery takes command of Eighth Army in North Africa.
August 7, 1942 – The first U.S. amphibious landing of the Pacific War occurs as 1st Marine Division invades Tulagi and Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.
August 8, 1942 – U.S. Marines take the unfinished airfield on Guadalcanal and name it Henderson Field after Maj. Lofton Henderson, a hero of Midway.
August 8/9 – A major U.S. naval disaster off Savo Island, north of Guadalcanal, as eight Japanese warships wage a night attack and sink three U.S. heavy cruisers, an Australian cruiser, and one U.S. destroyer, all in less than an hour. Another U.S. cruiser and two destroyers are damaged. Over 1,500 Allied crewmen are lost.
August 12, 1942 – Stalin and Churchill meet in Moscow.
August 21, 1942 – U.S. Marines repulse first major Japanese ground attack on Guadalcanal.
August 23, 1942 – Massive German air raid on Stalingrad.
August 24, 1942 – U.S. And Japanese carriers meet in the Battle of the Eastern Solomons resulting in a Japanese defeat.
September 2, 1942 – Rommel driven back by Montgomery in the Battle of Alam Halfa.
September 12-14 – Battle of Bloody Ridge on Guadalcanal.
September 13, 1942 – Battle of Stalingrad begins.
September 27, 1942 – British offensive in Burma.
October 11/12 – U.S. cruisers and destroyers defeat a Japanese task force in the Battle of Cape Esperance off Guadalcanal.
October 13, 1942 – The first U.S. Army troops, the 164th Infantry Regiment, land on Guadalcanal.
October 14/15 – Japanese bombard Henderson Field at night from warships then send troops ashore onto Guadalcanal in the morning as U.S. planes attack.
October 15/17 – Japanese bombard Henderson Field at night again from warships.
October 18, 1942 – Vice Admiral William F. Halsey named as the new commander of the South Pacific Area, in charge of the Solomons-New Guinea campaign.
October 26, 1942 – Battle of Santa Cruz off Guadalcanal between U.S. And Japanese warships results in the loss of the Carrier HORNET.
November 1, 1942 – Operation Supercharge (Allies break Axis lines at El Alamein).
November 8, 1942 – Operation Torch begins (U.S. invasion of North Africa).
November 11, 1942 – Germans and Italians invade unoccupied Vichy France.
November 14/15 – U.S. And Japanese warships clash again off Guadalcanal resulting in the sinking of the U.S. Cruiser JUNEAU and the deaths of the five Sullivan brothers.
November 19, 1942 – Soviet counter-offensive at Stalingrad begins.
November 23/24 – Japanese air raid on Darwin, Australia.
November 30 – Battle of Tasafaronga off Guadalcanal.
December 2, 1942 – Enrico Fermi conducts the world’s first nuclear chain reaction test at the University of Chicago.
December 16, 1942 – Soviets defeat Italian troops on the River Don in the USSR.
December 17, 1942 – British Foreign Secretary Eden tells the British House of Commons of mass executions of Jews by Nazis; U.S. declares those crimes will be avenged.
December 31, 1942 – Emperor Hirohito of Japan gives permission to his troops to withdraw from Guadalcanal after five months of bloody fighting against U.S. Forces
One thought on “World War Two Chronological Walk 1942”
Comments are closed.