WW2 Tweets from 1942

WW2 Tweets from 1942

@RealTimeWWII

5 months ago

I've been live-tweeting the Second World War since 2011. If you find this project interesting or enlightening, I'd value your support. Help keep history alive by joining my Patreon:

WW2 Tweets from 1942

@RealTimeWWII

5 hours ago

In panic, fearing the air raid is prelude to an incoming Japanese invasion, many inhabitants of Darwin & even some Australian soldiers are looting from bombsites & fleeing south.

WW2 Tweets from 1942

@RealTimeWWII

5 hours ago

Japanese bombing has left Darwin port & city wrecked- 8 ships sunk, 200+ Australians dead, just 4 attacking planes shot down.

WW2 Tweets from 1942

@RealTimeWWII

10 hours ago

Japanese bombs rain on Dawin Harbour; freighter Neptuna, loaded with TNT, explodes in a vast pillar of flame, killing 36 crew.

WW2 Tweets from 1942

@RealTimeWWII

10 hours ago

Mitsuo Fuchida, Japanese commander who led attack on Pearl Harbor, has masterminded bombing of Darwin, hoping to paralyze Australian Navy.

WW2 Tweets from 1942

@RealTimeWWII

10 hours ago

City of Darwin, northern Australia, is being bombed: 242 Japanese planes are raiding the country's northernmost harbour, packed with Allied warships.

WW2 Tweets from 1942

@RealTimeWWII

10 hours ago

Only a thin line of British & Indian troops on the Sittang River now stands between the Japanese army & conquering Burma- & reaching border of India, jewel of British Empire.

WW2 Tweets from 1942

@RealTimeWWII

11 hours ago

Japanese troops march in triumph into Singapore, which conquerors have renamed Shonan- "light of the south":

WW2 Tweets from 1942

@RealTimeWWII

a day ago

2

Surcouf, prize of General de Gaulle's Free French Navy, has disappeared with all 130 crew in the Caribbean, after freighter sailed away from collision. It may have been subsequently mistaken for a German U-boat & bombed by American planes.

WW2 Tweets from 1942

@RealTimeWWII

a day ago

The world's largest submarine, the French "undersea cruiser" Surcouf, has sunk near Panama, after a crash with an American freighter in the middle of the night.

WW2 Tweets from 1942

@RealTimeWWII

a day ago

In Burma, Japanese invaders have smashed through Allied defenses on the Bilin River; British are evacuating the heavily bombed capital of Rangoon.

WW2 Tweets from 1942

@RealTimeWWII

2 days ago

2

The first Japanese military plane is flying over Sydney: taking off from a submarine, pilot Nobuo Fujita surveys the Australian city for potential bombing.

WW2 Tweets from 1942

@RealTimeWWII

2 days ago

Victorious Japanese troops marching into Singapore greeted by looting; they've shot 500 Chinese citizens "to set an example & restore order."

WW2 Tweets from 1942

@RealTimeWWII

2 days ago

Before beginning massacre of Bangka Island, Japanese soldiers rape & sexually assault the Australian nurses:

WW2 Tweets from 1942

@RealTimeWWII

2 days ago

Vivian: "A bullet got me in the left loin, went straight through me & out at the front. The force knocked me into the water & there I lay." Feigning death until Japanese leave, she crawls into junge, lone survivor of the Bangka Island Massacre:

WW2 Tweets from 1942

@RealTimeWWII

2 days ago

With the women waist-deep in surf, Japanese start to machine-gun them. Nurse Vivian Bullwinkel: "They just swept the line- girls fell one after another."

WW2 Tweets from 1942

@RealTimeWWII

2 days ago

23 female nurses, shipwrecked on Bangka Island, try to surrender; Japanese soldiers order them to walk into the sea at gunpoint. Matron, Irene Drummond, calls: "Chin up, girls. I'm proud of you & I love you all."

WW2 Tweets from 1942

@RealTimeWWII

2 days ago

Although fighting is over in Singapore, deaths continue; Japanese have shot over 100 wounded survivors from bombed hospital ship Vyner Brooke.

WW2 Tweets from 1942

@RealTimeWWII

2 days ago

Nazi U-boats strike the Caribbean: 7 German submarines have attached Dutch island of Aruba, near Venezuela, shelling oil refineries & sinking tankers.

WW2 Tweets from 1942

@RealTimeWWII

3 days ago

Japan's new Prime Minister, General Tojo, gives speech to the National Diet, celebrating Japanese victories in Malaya & Philippines & promising "new order of coexistence & co-prosperity on ethical principles in Greater East Asia".

WW2 Tweets from 1942

@RealTimeWWII

3 days ago

Thanks to unlocking Kriegsmarine Enigma ciphers, British code breakers at Bletchley Park have been able to crack secret German signals to their submarines within days; the new "Shark" code destroys years of work.