Day 947 April 4, 1942

Siege of Leningrad Day 209. 62 Luftwaffe Stuka dive bombers and 70 other bombers escorted by 59 Messerschmitt Bf-109 fighters attack Soviet fleet at Kronstadt. Battleship October Revolution is hit 4 times, cruiser Maxim Gorky suffers 7 hits while battleship Petropavlovsk, cruiser Kirov and destroyers Silny and Grozyashchi are also damaged.

Siege of Sevastopol Day 108. German shelling finally destroys Soviet destroyer Sovershenny )under repair after being bombed and capsizing on November 12, 1941).

Greek submarine RHS Glavkos is sunk by bombing at Malta.

Bataan, Philippines. Japanese advance up and around Mount Samat. General Parker (US II Corps commander) sends in his reserve, to prevent Japanese control of artillery positions on Mount Samat that dominate the entire Orion-Bagac line. However, most men in the US 31st Regiment are too sick from malaria or dysentery to march into position. MacArthur, from Australia and out of touch with the realities of the situation, orders General Wainwright (Allied commander in the Philippines) that “under no conditions should Bataan be surrendered – any action is preferable to capitulation”.

Operation C, Japanese Navy raid in the Indian Ocean. In the evening 400 mile South of Ceylon, a Canadian PBY Catalina seaplane (flown by Squadron Leader Leonard Birchall, 413 Squadron, RCAF) spots a Japanese carrier fleet. The 6 aircraft carriers Akagi, Ryūjō, Hiryū, Sōryū, Shōkaku, and Zuikaku, commanded by Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, had left Staring Bay, Celebes, on March 26. A Zero fighter from carrier Hiryū shoots down the Catalina after Squadron Leader Birchall radios the location of the Japanese fleet (3 killed, Birchall and the rest of his crew made POWs).

At 11.29 PM 200 miles off Ivory Coast, West Africa, U-505 sinks Dutch SS Alphacca (15 killed, 57 survivors in 4 lifeboats make land near Las Palmas, Ivory Coast). At 11.35 PM 200 miles North of Puerto Rico, U-154 the unescorted Comol Rico (3 dead, 39 survivors on 1 lifeboat and 3 rafts are rescued 2 days later by US destroyer USS Sturtevant).