156 - Swastika Raised on Highest Point in Europe - WW2 - August 21, 1942

The Japanese are also doing a raid, huh?

What?

Using sabers and bayonets? Um...

don't the Americans have machine guns?

It's no big deal?

Are you sure?

August 21, 1942

They've attacked to the west, to the north, to the east, and to the south, and this week

they attack up. This week, the Germans take the highest mountain in Europe.

I'm Indy Neidell; this is World War Two.

Last week the Allies suffered a harsh naval defeat at Japanese hands in the Battle of

Savo Island, though they continued their invasion of the South Solomon Islands. In the Caucasus,

the Axis advance reached the oil city of Maikop, but there was no oil to be found, and the

Soviets made it clear that that will continue to be the case. Malta was finally supplied

and will continue to hold out, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill told Josef

Stalin that there will be no Allied second front in Europe in 1942.

This week we see another representative of His Majesty's government, Captain Martin Clemens,

on the Solomon Islands.

He presents himself to the US Marines on Guadalcanal the 15th. He and his followers will be guides

and intelligence sources for the allies. Later on that day, Allied ships appear on the scene

for the first time in a week. Four destroyer/transports have tools, parts, munitions, and the like

for building and equipping Henderson Air Base there.

Also that day, the US Joint Chiefs tell Robert Ghormley, in overall charge of Operation Watchtower,

the Solomons invasion, that they see task one as now finished and it's time for task

two- taking Lae, Salamaua, and the northeastern coast of New Guinea. On the 17th, Ghormley

replies that without both troop reinforcements and more planes, they cannot go any further.

In fact, he isn't too sure the Marines can even hold Guadalcanal.

And supply issues might be a thornier problem than the Japanese. Even starting with just

the lack of transportation facilities or harbors. Ghormley has chosen Auckland, 9,000 km from

San Francisco where the American supplies disembark, as their advance base. It's another

3,000 km from there to Guadalcanal. If you look at a map this might seem like a weird

choice, but the map won't show deep water harbors that have things like cranes, warehouses,

stevedores, and lots of berthing space. And it won't show them because they aren't there.

They aren't anywhere closer than Auckland. Noumea is 1,100 km closer, sure, but it has

one 3 berth quay and a one berth dock and none of that other stuff. And Guadalcanal

itself has no cargo handling facilities, so everything must be done by hand, with transports

using their own landing craft- in a war zone- and arriving by ones or twos.

Without securing local air cover, of course, there soon won't be any transports arriving

anyhow, so back on the 2nd, 19 F4F Wildcat fighters and 12 Dauntless SBDs left the states