World War II Chronicle

World War II Chronicle: March 21, 1942

Chris Carter

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With Imperial Japan conquering vast swaths of the Pacific, George Fielding Eliot discusses what could be their next move (see page 11)… Sports section begins on page 14, which features a story on 20-year-old welterweight boxer “Sugar” Ray Robinson, who just extended his unbeaten streak to 29 matches last night at the Madison Square Garden. Robinson lived on the same Detroit city block as heavyweight champion Joe Louis and will serve alongside his former neighbor in the Army when he joins the Army in February 1943.

“Happy Time” for U-124

German U-boats hit American shipping particularly hard this week off the coast of North Carolina:

Sunday:

  • Coast Guard lighthouse tender Acacia (WAGL-200) is sunk by U-161 south of Haiti.
  • U-158 sinks U.S. tankers Ario and Olean just off the coast of Cape Lookout, N.C.

Monday:

  • U.S. tanker Australia is torpedoed, shelled, and irreparably damaged by U-332 off Diamond Shoals, N.C.

Tuesday:

  • Unarmed U.S. tanker Acme is torpedoed and damaged by U-124 west of Diamond Shoals, whose crew torpedoes and sinks two more foreign-flagged freighters later that day.

Wednesday:

  • U-124 strikes again… first torpedoing and sinking U.S. tankers E.M. Clark, Papoose, and W.E. Hutton the same day

Thursday:

  • After the destroyer Dickerson rescues survivors from E.M. Clark, the U.S. freighter Liberator accidentally fires on the destroyer, killing the ship’s captain and three other sailors. Liberator is then torpedoed and sunk by U-332.

Friday:

  • 300 miles to the east, U.S. tanker Oakmar is shelled, torpedoed, and sunk by U-71.

Saturday:

  • 30 miles southeast of Bald Head Island, U-124 torpedoes U.S. tanker Esso Nashville, breaking the vessel in half. The aft end is towed back to North Carolina, and U-124 torpedoes yet another tanker, but Atlantic Sun isn’t badly damaged and manages to reach Beaufort safely.

U-124 sinks one more American tanker tomorrow (Naeco) then heads back to France. Her skipper, Kapitänleutnant Johann Mohr, is decorated with the Iron Cross for a patrol where he and his crew sank seven ships, damaged three, and sent some 48,000 tons of enemy supplies to the bottom.

Evening star. (Washington, D.C.), 21 March 1942. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1942-03-21/ed-1/

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