Thursday, 26 March 1942

US NAVY

UNITED STATES—Admiral Ernest J. King relieves Admiral Harold R. Stark as Chief of Naval Operations and thus becomes Commander in Chief U.S. Fleet and Chief of Naval Operations; Vice Admiral Frederick J. Horne (Vice Chief of Naval Operations) and Vice Admiral Russell Willson (COMINCH Chief of Staff) are his principal assistants.

ATLANTIC—TF 39 (Rear Admiral John W. Wilcox), including battleship Washington (BB 56), carrier Wasp (CV-7), heavy cruisers Wichita (CA-45) and Tuscaloosa (CA-37), and eight destroyers, sails from Portland, Maine, for Scapa Flow, to reinforce the British Home Fleet (see 27 March).

            Commander Eastern Sea Frontier is given operational control of certain USAAF units for antisubmarine patrol duty in the Atlantic. Unity of command over Navy and USAAF units operating over water to protect shipping and conduct antisubmarine warfare is thus vested in the Navy.

            Antisubmarine vessel Atik (AK-101) is torpedoed and sunk with all hands by German submarine U-123 in the North Atlantic, 36°00'N, 70°00'W, after the "Q-ship's" gunfire damages the U-boat in a spirited encounter. Atik is the only U.S. Navy warship disguised as a merchantman that is lost to enemy action during World War II. Sistership Asterion (AK-100) will conduct a fruitless search for survivors (see 30 March).

            Unarmed U.S. tanker Dixie Arrow, bound for Paulsboro, New Jersey, is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-71 about 12 miles off the Diamond Shoals Lighted Buoy, off the coast of North Carolina, 34°59'N, 75°33'W. The ship breaks in half and sinks. Destroyer Tarbell (DD-142), directed to the scene by a Coast Guard plane, rescues 22survivors; 11 merchant sailors either drown or burn to death, however, as the torpedo explosions set the ship's cargo of 86,136 barrels of crude oil afire.

            Panamanian freighter Equipoise is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-160 at 36°36'N, 74°45'W (see 27March).

US ARMY AIR FORCE

FIFTH AF—3 B‑17’s of 435th Reconnaissance Squadron, 19th Bomb Group, evacuate Philippine President Quezon and his family to Australia.

US ARMY

CELEBES—Japanese carrier force leaves Kendari for Indian Ocean.

BURMA—Continuing pressure against Chinese in Toungoo, Japanese seize the town as far as Railroad line. Chinese 22d Division, which has previously been ordered to Pyinmana-Yedashe area, N of Toungoo, to counterattack in support of Chinese 200th Division, arrives in position but fails to take the offensive.

US MARINE CORPS

Admiral King relieves Admiral Stark as Chief of Naval Operations.