March 22nd, 1942...Across Europe, Jews are being rounded up for deportation, held in temporary camps, then shipped to Auschwitz. Jews sit in isolation, hunger, and constant indignities at Drancy in Paris, Westerbork in Holland, and Malines in Belgium. Most of these tens of thousands have been uprooted at a moment's notice and suddenly deprived of all but the most pathetic of personal possessions. In southern France, Vichy Milice guard thousands of deportees at Gurs, Noe, Recedebou in the Pyrenees, Rivesaltes near the Mediterranean, and Les Milles in Provence. These prisoners, lacking decent food, medical help, or spiritual hope, dwindle...more than 1,864 die before Vichy hands these Jews over to the SS.

Gen. Douglas MacArthur arrives at Melbourne's Spencer Street Station, greeted by more than 6,000 local citizens and an honor guard of 360 US troops, most of them signalmen and engineers in white tropical helmets. No band. MacArthur inspects the troops, issues a statement lauding Australian soldiers, and hops into a Wolsley limousine that takes him to the Menzies Hotel. His next move is to sack the senior American airman in Australia, Maj. Gen. George H. Brett. Jean MacArthur's first move is to summon a dressmaker to prepare her something to wear on Monday morning, when she goes to buy clothes to replace her wardrobe, left behind in Manila.

MacArthur's 11-day, 3,000-mile odyssey is headline news around the world. Joseph Goebbels calls MacArthur a "coward," and the Japanese call him a "deserter" who "fled his post," thereby admitting "the futility of further resisting Japanese pressure in the southern extremity of the Bataan peninsula." Americans lionize the general. George Marshall awards him the Medal of Honor.

In the Philippines, the war goes on. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright, a lean cavalryman made thinner by three-eighths rations, is the boss, on Corregidor. Maj. Gen. Edward P. King Jr. is in charge of the 1st and 2nd Fil-American Corps on Bataan. He leads 78,000 exhausted American and Filipino defenders and a third as many civilian refugees. Bataan defenders are eating less than 15 ounces a day, one-fourth the peacetime ration, mostly gummy rice. All 250 horses and 48 pack mules of the 26th Cavalry Regiment have been shot and eaten. Troops find rice growing in no-man's land and thresh it in their foxholes. Other American soldiers dine on dogs, iguanas, even python eggs. Col. Richard C. Mallonee, an artilleryman, writes, "I can recommend mule. It is tasty, succulent, and tender -- all being phrases of comparison, of course. There is little to choose between calesa pony and carabao. Iguana is fair. Monkey I do not recommend." Some troops rob supply trucks at gunpoint. Supply officers pad strength reports and don't list casualties, to gain extra food.

However, sailors on USS Canopus, the sub tender at Mariveles, enjoy ice cream (from the ship's freezer) and hot showers (from the ship's water-purification plant).

Shortages on Bataan go down to cigarettes...soldiers get one a day, and pay $5 for a five-cent pack. Uniforms, shoes, blankets, all fall apart and go unrepaired.

Poorly clothed and badly fed, American troops also fall to diseases like diarrhea, dysentery and beri-beri, due to their low vitamin levels. Everyone seems to have malaria. Barefooted Filipino troops suffer hardest, particularly because of their poor sanitation. Hospitals with capacities of 1,000 are caring for more than 3,000.

Against this, the Japanese have moved in troops from Shanghai and Indochina, siege guns from Hong Kong, and heavy bombers from Malaya. Even so, Gen. Masaharu Homma worries that his samurai will be defeated. He wonders whether the Americans will spring some new trick on him. So Homma orders his heavy artillery of the Hayakawa Detachment to stop shelling Corregidor from the south side of Manila Bay and head for Bataan.

March 23rd, 1942...Japanese troops occupy the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean, and find them not worth holding. The British and Gurkha defenders of this former penal colony have long evacuated it.

In Bataan, American troops dig in for the next round. US I Corps fields 32,000 men and 50 guns on the left, while II Corps has 28,000 men and about 100 guns on the right, including 31 naval guns up to 3-inch caliber. Troops have been trained in jungle warfare, trenches and dugouts built, mines laid, and a 12- foot palisade of bamboo erected across the front.

The Japanese are having ration trouble, too, as 14th Army has cut rations from 62 ounces to 23. 13,000 Japanese troops are in hospital. But Homma enjoys an edge: two air force bomber regiments comprising 60 heavy bombers, and naval air force units with Betty and Sally bombers. Homma plans to seize the dominant Mount Samat, centerpiece of the American line, then drive southeast to Limay, ringing the mountains to turn west towards Mariveles, the peninsula's base. The attack will be led by the newly-arrived 4th Division and the 65th Brigade.

Meanwhile, Homma's planes drop beer cans tied with ribbons, asking Wainwright to surrender. The appeal is ignored.

In the Mediterranean, the British try to reinforce Malta and meet with disaster. Italian naval forces sink four ships loaded with oil fuel. Of 26,000 tons in convoy, only 5,000 are salvaged. The RAF can only sortie five fighters from Malta to face 200 Luftwaffe aircraft. Later, when 47 Spitfires reach Malta as reinforcements, 30 of them are destroyed as they arrive and refuel during a German air attack.

March 24th, 1942...On Guadalcanal, now menaced by the Japanese, Australian coastwatcher Don McFarland heads for the isolated west coast community of Lavor with Martin Clemens and Ken Hay to set up a new observation post.

The British, impressed by the feats of German paratroopers in Crete, form the Army Air Corps, of paratroops and gliders. Two new regiments result, the Parachute Regiment and the Glider Pilot Regiment. The same day, the House of Lords debates the fall of Singapore, and decides not to hold an inquiry.

A Filipino patrol in Bataan kills a Japanese officer who brought his documents with him to the front. They include orders for a reconnaissance in force on Mount Samat, followed by an attack on March 26th. So much for Japanese surprise. The Americans dig trenches on Mount Samat.

However, the Japanese, figuring that they don't need surprise, open their air bombardment anyway, hammering Bataan and Corregidor. There are so few American AA guns left, the Japanese can bomb at will.

The Japanese pound Corregidor with Navy Mitsubishi G4M bombers, better known as "Bettys," twin-engine bombers with poorly-armored fuel tanks. Fortunately for the bomber crews, they have no opposition. The Japanese claim no losses, but the Americans claim to shoot down 64. The Japanese do some damage with 71 tons of bombs.

That evening they try again with incendiaries, and the Corregidor sky is brilliantly lit with tracer, incendiaries, and searchlights. Blinded Japanese bombardiers dump their loads almost at random.

In Burma, Toungoo falls to the Japanese, and the Flying Tigers have to retreat again. Short of fuel and ammunition, they Tigers are limited to reconnaissance and patrol, irritating the aggressive American pilots.

March 25th, 1942...Rear Adm. John Wilcox summons his flag officers aboard his flagship, USS Washington, in Casco Bay, Maine, to give them their orders. Washington and her consorts, cruisers USS Wichita and USS Tuscaloosa, and six destroyers are to form Task Force 39, coming under the operational orders of the Royal Navy's Home Fleet. TF 39 navigators receive charts of the Home Fleet's main base at Scapa Flow, Scotland, and all ships are put on four hours notice for steaming. No jubilation in the force. The Sailors want to take on Japan. The reason for this move is because of massive British and Allied losses in, of all places, the Pacific. The Japanese are menacing the Indian Ocean generically, and Madagascar and Ceylon specifically. The Royal Navy, already overtaxed, is despatching an invasion force with two aircraft carriers to take Madagascar from the Vichy French. To cover British concerns at home, Winston Churchill has asked to borrow some American ships. Washington and her team gets the call. That evening, LT Raymond Hunter of Washington passes a message from Bureau of Navigation to Washington's skipper, CAPT Benson. It calls for the dreadnought to detach 100 petty officers, all veterans. Benson breaks into a grin. "I didn't see this message until tomorrow night. That's all, thank you."

In the Pacific, HMNZS Achilles and an ANZAC squadron leaves Noumea in French Caledonia to cover a convoy of troops for Fiji.

Jean MacArthur goes shopping in Melbourne to buy clothes, and finds out that most Australians have no idea of what they've been through. The Myer Emporium salesgirl looks her over, shakes her head sadly, and says, "SSW. Well, I don't know whether we've got anything." What does SSW mean? "Small-sized woman. They're hard to fit." Another shopper recognizes Mrs. MacArthur, and says, sympathetically, "Won't your clothes soon be arriving from Manila?"

In the Philippines, the Japanese attack Corregidor with 50 bombers, in what will become a daily ordeal.

In Burma, Lt. Gen. Joseph Stilwell prepares his Chinese troops to face the Japanese offensive at Toungoo. His 5th Army commander, General Tu, has fits of depression when things go wrong and shuts himself away, refusing to speak. Now he argues against attacking.

March 26th, 1942...At 8 a.m. in Casco Bay, Maine, LT Hunter understands CAPT Benson's grin when the Washington's 1MC blares, "Pipe special sea and anchor detail in preparation for distant service." Task Force 39 puts to sea, with Washington in the van, decks cleared for action, men at battlestations. The battleship stands out of harbor at 8:42 a.m. The ships immediately slam into foul North Atlantic weather, and are joined by the aircraft carrier USS Wasp. All hands commence gun drills.

Winston Churchill writes, "It now seems very likely that we and our Allies cannot lose this war...except through our own fault."

The Nazis deport 999 Jewish women from Slovakia to Auschwitz. They are sent to the barracks.

In Burma, Lt. Gen. Joseph Stilwell visits General Tu and finds him in despair. Stilwell bellows at the lackadaisical Tu, and the 200th Division fights fiercely for the next three days, trying to hold Toungoo. Chinese generals give excuses for failing to attack.

Gen. Douglas MacArthur receives the citation for his Medal of Honor at a formal dinner in Melbourne. He tells the audience, "I have come as a soldier in a great crusade of personal liberty as opposed to perpetual slavery. My faith in our ultimate victory is invincible, and I bring you tonight the unbreakable spirit of the free man's military code in support of our joint cause." The Australians are delighted. MacArthur continues, that the medal is not "intended so much for me personally as it is a recognition of the indomitable courage of the gallant army which it was my honor to command." Liberating the Philippines is now his personal obsession.

March 27th, 1942...One of the most bizarre events in the history of the US Navy takes place in the Atlantic Ocean. Shipfitter SN Johnny Brown goes to RADM John Wilcox's cabin to repair plumbing and finds the admiral pacing his deck, smoking a cigarette, nervous. It's Brown's first meeting with an admiral, and not a good one. Wilcox snaps, "What are you doing here, boy?" Brown burbles, "I came to fix the head, sir."

"Well, are you finished? What do you want now?"
"I'd like to know what door I came in through, sir. I don't

Washington plows into solid walls of green water, and the main deck lifebuoy and machinegun watches have to be secured. Suddenly Wilcox appears on deck, coatless, asking a crew securing a seaplane how things are going. Things are fine. Wilcox goes to the port side. There he sees another working party, tells them they are doing okay, and climbs up a ladder.

Moments later, SA John Alt sees a bald-headed man in the water. He yells "Man overboard," and Washington prepares a rescue lifeboat amid the raging storm. But CAPT Benson leans over the bridge wing, and shouts, "Get that boat back in here; I'm not losing six men for one man." Benson takes foul weather muster. Nobody is missing.

The bridge watchers insist they saw a man in the water. A second muster follows, with division officers looking their men in the eye, from Benson down to the lowest FR. Nobody is missing. Then CAPT John Hall, TF 39's chief of staff, asks, "Has anyone seen the admiral?" No one has.

Hall searches flag country. No sign of the admiral. But in his compartment, they find Wilcox's possessions packed in a suitcase and nothing else. RADM Ike Giffen, senior officer present afloat, orders TF 39 to reverse course for a fruitless search that lasts until noon. At that time, Washington's log notes, "Resumed base course. Speed 18 knots. Formation guide in Washington. OTC Rear Adm. Giffen in Wichita. Task Force 39 proceeded on assigned mission."

The wildest rumors and speculation follow the death of Wilcox, but whether it was suicide or accident, no one ever knows. At day's end, Washington holds loading drill for gun batteries, and captain's inspection of lower decks.

The US War Plans Division issues plans for operations in Northwest Europe.

In Australia, wild cheering in Perth as elements of the 6th Australian Division return home from the Middle East. Some of the 8th Army's best troops are going home to protect Australia from the Japanese, but Rommel's Afrika Korps is readying a new attack. All across the world, frail Allied defenses are being stretched to bursting. Another arrival in Australia is Philippine president Manuel Quezon, racked with tuberculosis. He will never return to his homeland, but die in Lake Saranac, NY, in 1943.

In the Philippines, the Japanese continue to bomb Corregidor from 10,000 yard-altitudes, which makes for poor accuracy. American AA guns pick off one bomber at 27,300 feet, a remarkable feat for an optically-directed 3-inch gun.

Even so, the American troops are in bad shape. One quartermaster officer describes his supper as "one slice of bread, one slice of corn beef, cup of tea, rice, and that my friend is what we now all call a good chow -- about a third ration."

Lt. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright asks for relief convoys, covered by bombers, but nothing can break through the blockade.

RAF pilots based in Magwe in Burma attack a concentration of Japanese aircraft on an airfield at Rangoon.

Admiral Karl Donitz, head of the Nazi U-Boat command, inspects the French port of St. Nazaire. This base holds the only drydock in France that can accommodate the mammoth battleship Tirpitz, and a concrete U-boat pen. If Tirpitz breaks into the Atlantic, this is the only base that can keep her accommodated and repaired for Atlantic operations. Donitz walks around with Kapitanleutenant Herbert Sohler, who commands 7th Submarine Flotilla, and asks "What are you going to do if the British attack this place?" Sohler points out his defenses -- 40mm guns, Marines, searchlights -- and says emergency orders have already been issued for such an eventuality, but it is considered unlikely. "I should not be too sure," Donitz replies.

The Nazis deport 1,112 Jews from Paris in a "special train" to Auschwitz. One deportee, Georges Rieff, manages to jump from the train before it reaches Germany, and escapes. Of the rest, more than half are gassed not long after their arrival. Those "selected" to work are more fortunate for the moment, but only 21 of them are still alive five months later.

Josef Goebbels diaries, "Beginning with Lublin, the Jews under the General Government (Poland) are now being evacuated eastward. The procedure is pretty barbaric and is not to be described here more definitely. Not much will remain of the Jews. About 60 percent of them will have to be liquidated, only 40 percent can be used for forced labor." Goebbels notes that Odilo Globocnik, former Gauleiter of Vienna, carrying out the measure is doing it "with considerable circumspection and in a way that does not attract too much attention. Though the judgment now being visited on the Jews is barbaric, they fully deserve it. The prophecy which the Fuhrer made about them for having brought on a new world war is beginning to come true in a most terrible manner. One must not be sentimental in these matters. If we did not fight the Jews, they would destroy us. It's a life-and-death struggle between the Aryan and the Jewish bacillus. No other government and no other regime would have the strength for such a global solution as this."

March 28th, 1942...Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop asks Japanese Ambassador to Germany Count Oshima to secure a Japanese attack on Russia simultaneously with Germany's "crushing blow." The Japanese would attack at Vladivostok and Lake Baikal. The Japanese take no action.

In the early morning hours of March 28th, the Royal Navy and British Commandos perform a staggering feat of ingenuity and valor, in a dramatic raid on the French port of St. Nazaire. It is defended by more than 5,000 troops. The British attack with 611 men.

The British sail in by night in a flotilla of wooden motor launches surrounding a converted four-pipe American destroyer turned over to Britain in the 1940 "bases-for-destroyers" deal. This ship, HMS Campbeltown, has been modified to resemble a German destroyer and its forward spaces packed with high explosive. Campbeltown's job is to ram the sliding gate of the massive Normandie drydock, unload her 60 commandos, and then explode hours later, destroying the drydock. Meanwhile, the British commandos are to destroy other objectives -- the drydock's pumps and fuel storage tanks -- and re-embark on the wooden motor launches. Campbeltown is commanded by CDR Sam Beattie, the flotilla by CAPT Robert Ryder, the commandos by Col. A.C. Newman.

The force sails into the Loire estuary at 12:30 a.m. as a diversionary RAF raid is ending. The aircraft, trying to avoid hitting their own ships, drops only one bomb per plane, baffling the Germans, so Captain zur See Mecke, commanding the Naval Flak Brigade, puts his men on anti-invasion alert.

Campbeltown grounds twice, but the force passes the Les Morees Tower at 1:20 a.m. At that time, the ship's time fuses are activated. German searchlights play on the British, and they answer with flares and signal in German code that the force is proceeding into harbor in accordance with orders. The British don't say whose orders. Then the British increase speed. The Germans are not impressed. They open fire. The British give up the guise, hoist White Ensigns, and open fire.

Beattie orders "Stand by to ram!" 200 yards from the dock entrance, half-blinded by searchlights. At 1:34 a.m., with half the men aboard dead our wounded, all guns blazing, Campbeltown rams the drydock. 35 feet of her hull crumples back like a buckled tin can, leaving her bows projecting beyond the inner face of the gate. Beattie turns to Capt. Montgomery, the commando demolition officer and says, "Well, there we are. Four minutes late."

Campbeltown's surviving commandos charge onto the drydock and place demolition charges all over the place. Lt. Stuart Chant an his team detonate the drydock's pumping house. Lt. Smalley and his men destroy the winding house for the drydock, under heavy fire. When it goes up, it "seemed to rise several feet vertically before it explodes and disintegrated like a pack of cards." German and British troops bump into each other in the dark.

But while the British score a tremendous triumph on land, their motor launches, laden with fuel tanks, are being destroyed on the river Loire, with all aboard in many cases, Motor launches turn into blazing fuel stains in mid-river. Only one lands her troops. Oil-covered Sailors and commandos swim ashore to captivity. When Montgomery and his team reach the re-embarking point at the Old Mole, he says, "We're here, sir. All demolition tasks completed. Do I now have to embark?"

"Embark?" says the officer. "Just look at the river."

Only two motor launches of the 18 that entered the Loire return to Britain. 169 Bluejackets and 205 commandos are dead, and only five left ashore make their way home. The rest sit in a hotel in St. Nazaire, receiving medical treatment from their German captors. Meanwhile, Nazi troops puzzle over why the British rammed the drydock. Campbeltown is too flimsy to wreck the massive structure. The ship is covered with Germans, both engineers and investigators figuring out what to do with the wreck, and souvenir hunters, raiding the ship's mess stores.

At 10 a.m., Sam Beattie is being interviewed by a German officer. The German does all the talking. The Nazi says, "Your people obviously didn't know what a hefty thing that lock gate is. It was really useless to try to smash it with a flimsy destroyer."

At that moment an enormous explosion shatters the windows of the office in which the interview is taking place, and a vast black cloud shoots up from Campbeltown, killing all aboard. The lock gate disintegrates and tide water rushes in, carrying the shattered destroyer halfway up the dock, which is now useless for the rest of the war.

After the roaring and shaking dies down, Beattie says, "That, I hope, is proof that we did not underestimate the strength of the target."

In Burma, Lt. Gen. Joseph Stilwell meets with Gen. Harold Alexander, top British general in Burma, and learns that the RAF is evacuating Burma. Stilwell's troops won't attack. "Two days ago it would have been easy," Stilwell writes, "but now...they'll drag it out and do nothing unless I can somehow kick them into it ...Hot as hell. I am mentally about shot."