March 9th
American troops, Task Force 6814 consisting of the HQ of the 51st Infantry Brigade and the 132d and 182 Infantry under the command of Major General Patch, land at Noumea on New Caledonia Island.
President Roosevelt again radios MacArthur to leave the Philippines and MacArthur agrees he will leave Corregidor by 15 March. The original plan was for MacArthur and party to leave in the submarine USS Permit on 14 March. However, the radio press in the U.S. has begun broadcasting demands that MacArthur be placed in command of all Allied Forces in Australia and the Japanese, expecting him to flee, have increased the size and frequency of naval patrols in Subic Bay and off Corregidor. A destroyer division is sighted in the southern Philippines heading north at high speed. Tokyo Rose is broadcasting that MacArthur will be captured within a month, and U.S. Navy officers give MacArthur a one-in-five chance. Therefore, It is decided not to wait for the submarine but to leave by motor torpedo boat as soon as preparations can be completed. The PT boats will take him to Mindanao Island and the party will then board three B-17's at Del Monte Field for a flight to Australia.
March 10th
The Japanese make a landing at Finschhafen on the Huon Peninsula. The Japanese needed to capture towns such as Finschhafen and Salamaua to protect their forward air base at Lae.
TF 11 (Vice Admiral Brown), which includes ships of TF 17 (Rear Admiral Fletcher), on the heels of initial nuisance raids by RAAF Hudsons, attacks the Japanese invasion fleet off Lae and Salamaua. Sixty one SBD Dauntless, supported by from the aircraft carriers USS Lexington and Yorktown fly over the 15,000-foot Owen Stanley Mountains on the tip of New Guinea to hit Japanese shipping. They sink an armed merchant cruiser, an auxiliary minelayer, and a transport; and damage destroyers HIJMS Yunagi, Asanagi, Oite, Asakaze, and Yakaze; a minelayer; seaplane carrier; a transport; and a minesweeper. One SBD is lost to antiaircraft fire.
Japanese troops land on Buka Island, the 190 square mile island just north of Bougainville Island. The two islands are separated by Buka Passage.
A convoy sets out from Darwin carrying Australian troops to New Guinea. It is expected that the Japanese will have consolidated their position before they can arrive, so they will land on the southern part of New Guinea. The USN TF 11 is asked to remain in the area S/SE of the island for long enough to provide the troop convoy with air cover if needed.
March 11th
General MacArthur leaves Luzon with the statement "I shall return!" General MacArthur, Commanding General U.S. Army Forces, Far East, his family, Rear Admiral Rockwell, and their staffs embark from Corregidor and Bataan in four motor torpedo (PT) boats, PT-32, PT-34, PT-35 and PT-41, of Motor Torpedo Boat Squadron Three. The plan is that the boats will make for Tagauayan Island, in the Cuyo Group, and arrive by 0730 hours tomorrow morning.
Three USAAF B-17's takeoff from Australia to fly to Del Monte Field on Mindanao to pick up the MacArthur party. One turns back due to mechanical problems, the second crashes at sea off Mindanao and the third lands at Del Monte however; it is in poor mechanical condition. Meanwhile Major General Jonathan Wainwright assumes command of the 95,000 Americans and Filipinos on Bataan and Corregidor.
In Brazil, President Vargas confiscates up to 30% of the funds of German, Italian and Japanese citizens resident in Brazil, recalls all Brazilian ships to port and confines the Japanese ambassador and his staff to the embassy. These measures are in response to the torpedoing of a fourth Brazilian vessel by the Germans and the mistreatment of the Brazilian ambassador in Tokyo.
More RAF Wellington bombers arrive at Singapore. Park intends to use these in their anti-shipping role (the crews are experienced ones from the Mediterranean), against the Japanese shipping expected to be used against Java. The long range and the two torpedoes of the Wellington allows them to operate from more distant bases, although any daytime attacks will need fighter escorts.
The Combined Chiefs of Staff suggest that General MacArthur be made command of the proposed SW Pacific theatre. Currently the commands envisaged are Burma/Malaya/West DEI (Alexander), DEI/New Guinea/Australia/ SE Islands (MacArthur) and Pacific (Nimitz). The suggesting goes down poorly both in London and Australia. They agree that Alexander and Nimitz are sensible commanders for the theatres suggested, given the nature of the combat expected there, but despite the strident US press support for MacArthur, they fail to see what qualifications he has for the command. 90% of the troops in the area and Imperial or Australian, and the Australians in particular see MacArthur's only contribution to the war so far as to lose the PI. "A clapped out first world war general" is one of the more printable Australian comments. The Australian government counter-proposes Blamey. They point out a number of advantages; he will be commanding mainly Australian troops, he has been working closely with Alexander for some time (useful as it is obvious that in practice the command boundaries between the two will be blurred by operational necessity), and he has fought successfully against the Italians and Japanese. The British, while being more polite about MacArthur, are quite happy to support Blamey. he is seen as being a good infantry commander, and given the expected nature of operations in the theatre, armoured thrusts and grandiose complex assaults are expected to be few and far between.
March 12th
General Alexander authorises preliminary work on the planned attack on Yamashita's troop in Northern Malaya, in particular stocks of artillery shells to allow a heavy bombardment of selected positions. He expects expenditure of artillery ammunition to be high, and the attack itself will wait on his next supply convoy from the Middle East, expected in a few weeks, which will bring both reinforcements and more ammunition. As part of the preparations, the RAF starts to make photo-reconnaissance flights over the Japanese positions and supply lines, disguised as much as possible as part of the continuing operation of small attacks on the Japanese. These are also intended to wear down the Japanese air cover, so that by the time the attack is launched the RAF will have air superiority.
Middle East command inform the CCoS that due to the advanced preparations for troop landings in theatre, they do not feel a US Division can be ready in time. They suggest and early deployment of one brigade from the US 1st Infantry division, followed by the rest of the Division as soon as possible. It would be impractical to include the brigade in the first operations, but it should be achievable for the posited third landing, and the political benefits would be obvious. Delaying until then will also allow the troops to be trained in the techniques required (MEC left out the opinion of a couple of officers sent to the US to look into the possibilities that the US unit would require additional training to bring it up to Allied standards). It would also be possible (depending on timescales) to use the entire division, although only one brigade would likely be trained for an assault landing.
March 13th
The two PT boats carrying General MacArthur and party, PT-34 and PT-41, arrive at Cagayan on Mindanao Island in the early morning. Later in the day, a third boat, PT-35, arrives at Cagayan. The three boats had made the 560-mile voyage in heavy to moderate seas in two days. The next leg of MacArthur’s journey to Australia is to be by B-17, but only one has reached Del Monte Field and it had wheezed in to a wobbly landing. MacArthur, furious, will allow no one to board the "dangerously decrepit" aircraft, and demands the “three best planes in the U.S. or Hawaii," manned by “completely adequate, experienced” airmen be flown to Del Monte. Unfortunately, Major General Brett, Commanding General U.S. Army Forces in Australia, has neither. The party must now await the arrival of three additional B-17's from Australia.
The Japanese, having gained firm positions in the Lae-Salamaua area, replace infantry with naval forces.
A Japanese force from the 4th Fleet sails from Rabaul, New Britain Island, for Buka Island, Solomon Islands, which is eventually seized together with other positions in the northern Solomons.
RAF and USAAF reconnaissance planes are still showing a steady build-up of Japanese forces in the Celebes, as well as preparations in the SouthEast part of Borneo (the area under Japanese control), and an invasion of Java is now expected within two weeks. The Japanese are expected to use around two divisions, and Somerville is making plans to deny them the option of landing anywhere except on the eastern part of the island (he expects Japanese air cover too strong for surface forces to intervene east of Java). US and RN submarines are being redeployed to cover the expected invasion routes. For the time being, the small Japanese operations in the SE Pacific are a lower priority, as Java is seen as the main target. If Java falls, Singapore will be exposed to close range air attacks and possible invasion, and the defence lines for the island, preparations for which had been given a lower priority after the Japanese were held in the north, have again been speeded up.