This day in the war in Europe 65 years ago

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30 December 1941
NORTH AMERICA: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrives in Ottawa after his talks with U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt over strategy to win the war with Germany. In a speech to Parliament this evening, Churchill quips,

"When I warned them (the French) that Britain would fight on alone, whatever they did, their Generals told their Prime Minister and his divided cabinet that in three weeks, England would have her neck wrung like a chicken - Some chicken! Some neck!"

NORTH AFRICA: After another costly and unsuccessful tank battle for Agedabia, during which the British 22d Armoured Brigade is rendered ineffective as a fighting force, XIII Corps of the British Eighth Army suspends their assault pending the arrival of reinforcements. German tanks have proved superior both mechanically and in gun power.

EASTERN FRONT: While German Heeresgruppe Sud continues their offensive against Sevastopol, Soviet Caucasian troops make an amphibious assault against the eastern Crimea and seize Kerch and Feodosia. On the central front, the Germans continue to withdraw from the Moscow area under Red Army pressure.

 

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31 December 1941
NORTH AMERICA: In Ottawa, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill faces the press, and is asked about Yugoslavia, where partisans, Germans, Italians, and German puppet troops are chasing each other round the mountains.

"They are fighting with the greatest vigor and on quite a large scale, and we don't hear very much of what is going on there. It is all very terrible. Guerilla warfare and the most frightful atrocities by the Germans and Italians, and every kind of torture, but the people keep the flag flying."

The RCAF has 14 squadrons operating overseas, seven more authorized; plus 16 at home, including eight on the West Coast.

America's last automobiles with chrome-plated trim are manufactured today. Starting tomorrow, chrome plating becomes illegal. It is part of an effort to conserve resources for the American war effort but the chrome is not missed too much because virtually no automobiles are produced in the U.S. from 1942 through the end of World War II.

NORTH AFRICA: On the Libyan-Egyptian frontier, the South African 2nd Division. assisted by the 1st Army Tank Brigade of XXX Corps, British Eighth Army, attacks and penetrates the Bardia fortress, on the main road from Tobruk to Egypt.

During the day, the British light cruiser HMS 'Ajax' (22), the Australian destroyers HMAS 'Napier' (G 97), 'Nestor' (G 02) and 'Nizam' (G38 ) and the British destroyers HMS 'Arrow' (H 42), 'Gurkha' (G 63) and 'Kingston' (F64), bombard German defenses at Bardia.


EASTERN FRONT: The Germans on the southern front break off attacks on Sevastopol in order to counter Soviet thrusts from Kerch and Feodosia. On the central front. Red Army troops seize Kaluga, southwest of Moscow. Losses on the Eastern front for the Red Army total at least 5 million casualties, 3 million prisoners, 20,000 tanks and 30,000 guns. Despite these losses the Soviets will retain initiative on the front well into spring.

 

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1 January 1942
EASTERN FRONT: The Red Army starts an offensive against Finland on the Maaselka Isthmus between the Lake Onega and White Sea. The Soviet force includes six divisions (71st, 186th, 263th, 289th, 313th, 367th), three Marine Brigades (61st, 65th, 66th) and a ski brigade. Their objective is to recapture the town of Karhumaki (Medvezhjegorsk) and the western stretch of the Murmansk railway. The defending Finnish II Corps has two divisions (4th and 8th) and one brigade (1st Jaeger), the Soviet attackers seven divisions and two brigades. The Finnish troops are still suffering from the effects of the six-month long offensive, and the men are eagerly waiting to go home - a partial demobilization had been promised after the Finnish offensive ended in December. The Soviet offensive is able to penetrate the Finnish defences near the village of Krivi, and the fighting rages on for weeks. In early February, after both sides had suffered considerable losses, the Finns are able to push the Red Army back. (Mikko Harmeinen)

The Red Army continues a broad offensive throughout January with spectacular success in some sectors, but is unable to relieve the besieged ports of Leningrad and Sevastopol.

NORTH AFRICA: XXX Corps, British Eighth Army, renews their assault on Bardia after nightfall.

WESTERN FRONT: The Germans take over Dutch radio stations. Publication of the only authorised program guide, De Luistergids, begins.

NORTH AMERICA: The Declaration of the United Nations is signed by 26 nations in Washington, D.C. The original signatories are Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Poland, South Africa, the U.K., the U.S., the U.S.S.R., and Yugoslavia. The parties pledge to uphold the Atlantic Charter, to employ all their resources in the war against the Axis powers and agree not to negotiate a separate peace with Germany, Italy or Japan. The Atlantic Charter and its eight principles are:
(1) the renunciation of territorial aggression;
(2) territorial changes only with consent of the peoples concerned;
(3) restoration of sovereign rights and self-government;
(4) access to raw materials for all nations;
(5) world economic cooperation;
(6) freedom from fear and want;
(7) freedom of the seas;
(8 ) disarmament of aggressors are also endorsed by the signatories at the Arcadia Conference.

U.S. Attorney General Francis Biddle, issues orders to all German, Italian and Japanese aliens to hand in their short-wave radios, cameras and firearms to their local police stations. They are also forbidden to change their address without permission and, if living on the east coast, to obey a 2100 to 0600 hour curfew.

Joseph Stalin is named "Time" magazine's "Man of the Year" for 1941.

The U.S. Office of Production Management prohibits the sales of new cars and trucks to civilians. All automakers dedicate their plants entirely to the war effort. By the end of the month, domestic car manufacture has stopped. Automobile plants are converted wholesale to the manufacture of bombers, jeeps, military trucks, and other equipment.

 

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2 January 1942
WESTERN FRONT: During the night of 2/3 January, 27 RAF Bomber Command Wellingtons and Stirlings attack the German fleet at Brest and nine Whitleys and Manchesters bomb the port area at St. Nazaire.

NORTH AFRICA: The Italian Bardia garrison, under pressure of the South African 2nd Division and British 1st Armoured Brigade (XXX Corps, British Eighth Army), surrenders early in day. The British capture 7,000 troops.

MEDITERRANEAN: The British tug HMS 'Daisy' founders in the eastern Mediterranean while on passage from Alexandria, Egypt, to Tobruk, Libya.

NORTH AMERICA: President Franklin D Roosevelt announces the beginning of the Liberty Ship program, i.e., the construction of 200 merchant ships of a standardized design.

The first organized lighter-than- air units of World War II, Airship Patrol Group One (ZPG-1) and Airship Squadron Twelve (ZP-12) are established at Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey. The USN is the only military service in the world to use non-rigid airships--also known as blimps--during the war.

EASTERN FRONT: German Chancellor Adolf Hitler forbids the German 9.Armee to make any further withdrawals,

"not one inch of ground."

On the central front in Russia, the Soviet Army achieves a breakthrough at Rshev.

 

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3 January 1942
WESTERN FRONT: During the night of 3/4 January, 14 RAF Bomber Command Wellingtons and four Stirlings attack the German fleet at Brest; one Wellington is lost.

During the night of 3/4 January, RAF Bomber Command dispatches ten Hampdens on minelaying mission in the Frisian Islands; one aircraft is lost.

 

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5 January 1942
NORTH AFRICA: The government of Egypt breaks diplomatic relations with Bulgaria and Finland.

WESTERN FRONT: During the night of 5/6 January, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 154 aircraft, 89 Wellingtons and 65 of other types, to attack German fleet units and the port area at Brest. Eighty seven aircraft are ordered to bomb the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau; 73 do. The remainder are ordered to bomb the naval docks and 65 do. A smoke-screen prevents accurate bombing but large fires are claimed. Another target is the port area at Cherbourg; 16 of the 37 aircraft dispatched bomb the port.

The Dutch Council of Churches today delivers a public protest against what it describes as "the complete lawlessness" of the Nazis in their treatment of Dutch Jews. Despite the protest - the latest of many by the Dutch people - the roundup and deportation of Jews is certain to continue. A year ago all Dutch Jews were ordered to register with the occupation authorities. Soon afterwards, the deportations to the stone quarries at Mauthausen slave labour camp, near Linz, Austria, began; few deportees survive for more than a few months.

MEDITERRANEAN: The Italian submarine R.Smg. 'Ammiraglio Saint Bon' is sunk at 0542 hours local by a torpedo from the British submarine HMS/M 'Upholder' (N 99) north of Milazzo, Sicily, in position 38.02N, 15.22E. The Italian submarine is en route to Libya carrying 155 tons of gasoline (petrol) and ammunition. The torpedo hits on the starboard side causing the gasoline to explode. There are only three survivors.

In the Ionian Sea, the 5,413 ton Italian auxiliary cruiser and former passenger ship SS 'Citta di Palermo', is en route from Brindisi, Italy, to Patras, Greece, escorting the motor vessel MV 'Calino'. On board SS 'Citta di Palermo' are about 600 Italian troops. At 0800 hours. when 30 miles (48 kilometers) northwest of Cape Dukato, Lefkas Island, Ionian Islands, Greece, she is struck by two torpedoes fired by HMS/M 'Proteus' (N 29). The 'Palermo' took only six minutes to sink. There were a few survivors but almost all on board went down with the ship.

MIDDLE EAST: British General Claude E. Auchinleck, Commander in Chief Middle East Command, is given responsibility for Iraq and Iran. Lieutenant General Edward P. Quinan's forces in Iraq become the British Tenth Army, corresponding to the British Ninth Army under General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson in Syria. The British 18th and Indian 17th Divisions are both being moved from the Middle East to Bombay, India; Ceylon; and Singapore, Malaya, with "utmost dispatch."

NORTH AMERICA: The government orders all men between the ages of 20 and 44 to register for the draft (conscription) by 16 February. The U.S. Senate Committee investigating Hollywood war propaganda is dissolved. Today is the deadline for enemy aliens in San Francisco, California, to surrender radio transmitters, shortwave receivers and precision cameras to the U.S. Army's Western Defense Command. Also Japanese-American selective service registrants are classified as enemy aliens (IV-C) and many Japanese-American soldiers are discharged or assigned to menial labor such as "kitchen police (KP)."

A change in USN regulations, covering display of National insignia on aircraft, returned the star to the upper right and lower left wing surfaces and revised rudder striping to 13 red and white horizontal stripes.

EASTERN FRONT: The Soviet Army lands reinforcements on the Crimean coast near Eupatoria and Sudak. in an effort to break the siege of the Sevastopol naval base, but can make little headway against firm German resistance. On the central front south of Kaluga, Soviet forces hold Belev, west of the Oka River. Action on northern front along the Volkhov River is indecisive. Carried away by recent small successes and against the advice of his chief of general staff, General Georgii Zhukov, Premier Joseph Stalin orders a general offensive along the entire eastern front.

The Communist Polish Workers Party is founded in Warsaw by Marceli Nowotko, Pawel Finder and Boleslaw Molojec. The old Communist Party of Poland had been liquidated at Stalin's order in 1938-39.

 

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6 January 1942
EASTERN FRONT: The government of Australia declares war on Bulgaria.

NORTH AFRICA: The government of Egypt breaks diplomatic relations with Vichy France.

The British 1st Armoured Division, which has recently arrived from the U. K. and relieved the 7th Armoured Division of XIII Corps, British Eighth Army, reaches Antelat. The port at Derna opens to traffic.

The deployment of German and Italian troops along the line El Agheila-Marada is completed. As the Germans take delivery of 55 new tanks, the British advance reaches Mersa Brega and El Agheila.

WESTERN FRONT: During the night of 6/7 January, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 31 Wellingtons to bomb the German warships at Brest; 27 bomb the targets. No special bombing results are claimed but a bomb which fell alongside the battleship 'Gneisenau' holed the hull and flooded two compartments. Two Wellingtons also bomb the port area at Cherbourg.

RAF Bomber Command dispatches 11 Whitleys to bomb Stavanger Airfield; nine bomb the field.

GERMANY: During the night of 6/7 January, RAF Bomber Command dispatches Hampdens to bomb six cities: five hit Essen, three attack Munster, two each bomb Cologne and Emden, and one each attack Aachen and Oldenburg.

UNITED KINGDOM: Self-service cafeterias operated by local authorities as a cheap way of eating out have been named British Restaurants at the suggestion of Prime Minister Winston Churchill. They developed out of emergency services created during the Blitz to feed people who were bombed out of their homes. Their popularity has led to plans to open more of them. The average price of meals is between 10 pence and a shilling. For that one can get roast meat, two vegetables, pudding, bread and butter and coffee.

NORTH AMERICA: In his annual State of the Union message to Congress, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said today that Americas land, sea and air forces would be sent to Britain. He also announces massive increases in war production, including more than doubling the rate of aircraft building. This was his first speech to Congress since the war began. Mr Roosevelt spoke warmly of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who recently addressed the same audience, and wished him a safe return. Roosevelt submits a budget request of US$59 billion for Fiscal Year 1943 (with inflation, that is US$707 billion in year 2005 dollars). He also announces that the first year of a supercharged production schedule would result in 45,000 aircraft, 45,000 tanks, 20,000 antiaircraft guns, and 8 million tons in new ships; this will be upped to Forecasts for 1943 of 125,000 planes, 75,000 tanks and 11 million tons of shipping in 1943. Congressmen are stunned at the proposal, but Roosevelt is undeterred:

"These figures and similar figures for a multitude of other implements of war will give the Japanese and Nazis a little idea of just what they accomplished. "

Leland Ford, Los Angeles, California, member of the House of Representatives, in a telegram to Secretary of State Cordell Hull, asks that all Japanese Americans be removed from the West Coast stating,

"I do not believe that we could be any too strict in our consideration of the Japanese in the face of the treacherous way in which they do things."

The Second Marine Brigade (Brigadier General Henry L. Larsen, USMC) embarked in troop transports (former Matson Line passenger liners) SS 'Lurline', SS 'Monterey' and SS 'Matsonia', and cargo ship USS 'Jupiter' (AK-43) and ammunition ship USS 'Lassen' (AE-3) sails from San Diego, California, for Pago Pago, American Samoa. The initial escort is provided by Task Force 17 comprised of the aircraft carrier USS 'Yorktown' (CV-5), the heavy cruiser USS 'Louisville' (CA-28 ), the light cruiser USS 'St. Louis' (CL-49) and three destroyers.

In baseball, Cleveland Indians star pitcher Bob Feller, winner of 76 games in three previous seasons, follows Detroit Tigers' outfielder Hank Greenberg into the military. Feller, saying,

"I've always wanted to be on the winning side,"

enlists in the Navy and reports to Norfolk, Virginia, for duty. During the 44 months he spent in the Navy, most of the time he was stationed aboard the battleship U.S.S. 'Alabama' (BB- 60) in the gunnery department where he earned eight Battle Stars.

The Pan American Airways Boeing B-314A, msn 2083, registered NC18609 and named "Pacific Clipper." arrives in New York City after making the first round-the-world trip by a commercial airplane. This aircraft was in Auckland, New Zealand on 8 December 1941, and returned to the U.S. flying westward via Australia, the East Indies, India, Africa, South America and Trinidad, a total of 31,500 miles(50 594 kilometers).

 

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7 January 1942
WESTERN FRONT: During the night of 7/8 January, 62 of the 68 RAF Bomber Command Wellingtons dispatched attack German warships at Brest; and 25 of 27 aircraft dispatched attack the port area at St. Nazaire.

NORTH AFRICA: XIII Corps, British Eighth Army, patrols to Agedabia and finds that the Axis forces have withdrawn. A convoy arrives safely at Benghazi but because of rough seas, this port is not put into full operation.

EASTERN FRONT: Soviet forces attack to the north and south of Mozhaisk. On the southern flank of the advance, Meshchovsk is captured.

MEDITERRANEAN: German troops launch their second anti-partisan offensive in Yugoslavia, driving Marshal Josip Tito's forces 50 miles (80 kilometers) south. Despite the retreat and heavy losses, Tito's men fight on.

 

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8 January 1942
NORTH AFRICA: Axis forces retreat from El Agheila to Agedabia.

A flag of truce waving from the Italian positions around Halfaya Pass (Hellfire Pass) has for a moment brought a flash of chivalry and mercy into this ruthless war of tanks and bombs and bayonets. The white flag have immunity to an Italian medical officer bringing out five wounded Allied airmen so that they could receive attention from the South Africans besieging the position. He passes unmolested through the lines - lines from which only a few minutes before men had been sniping and shelling, aiming only to kill - and explained that the besieged Italians had no medical supplies with which to treat the wounded. It was therefore, he said only humane that the airmen - crew of a British bomber that had crashed in the Italian lines - should be brought out to their friends. Then the Italian officer is sent back under a safe conduct with a large supply of surgical dressings for his own wounded.

The interesting question here-- just what were those Italians doing at Halfaya (Hellfire") Pass on 8 January 1942? The Axis forces had retreated from the Tobruk area (itself a good ways west of Halfaya) a month earlier, on 8 December, after losing the "Crusader" battle, and were now almost 500 miles (805 kilometers) to the west! The answer: a primarily-Italian garrison, built around the 55th Division Savona and under the orders of that division's commander, Lieutenant General Fedele De Giorgis, is still holding on despite being completely surrounded, badly outnumbered, 500 miles (805 kilometers) in the British rear, and (as seen by the situation with medical supplies cited below) running out of every essential. A sort of advanced outpost position to begin with (protecting the coastal route through the pass but easily outflanked by movement through the desert, which was exactly how the British began the "Crusader" offensive), they had been left behind but refused to surrender. The Italians tried to run some supplies into them using submarines (on one such run the sub in question was attacked by German Stukas as it surfaced near Sollum), but could only bring in a meager amount in that fashion.

Pilots of No. 3 Squadron RAAF flying (P-40) Kittyhawks attack 35 Italian aircraft and eight Luftwaffe Bf 109s that are preparing to attack advancing British forces southeast of Agedabia. The Aussies claim seven aircraft destroyed and four probably destroyed vs. one Kittyhawk lost.

WESTERN FRONT: During the night of 8/9 January, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 151 aircraft to bomb German warships and the port area at Brest; 69 aircraft attack the warships and 49 hit the port area. In a second raid, 11 of 31 aircraft attack the port area at Cherbourg.

MIDDLE EAST: In Baghdad, a court sentences Rashid Ali, who led an anti-British coup last year, to death in absentia.

UNITED KINGDOM: U.S. Major General James E Chaney is designated Commanding General US Army Forces in British Isles (USAFBI); he continues as the Chief, Special Observer Group, US Army (SPOBS).

NORTH AMERICA: Congress establishes the Office of Civilian Defense (OCD) which will be headed by New York City Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia.

The Federal Government orders the distillery industry to convert 60 percent of its whiskey-making capacity to ethyl alcohol production, a move that will sharply increase the availability of explosive smokeless powder.

EASTERN FRONT: Soviet troops attack Mozhaysk west of Moscow. On the Northern front, the Soviet Army begins an offensive near Lake Ilmen.

 

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11 January 1942
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Unternehmen Paukenschlag ("roll of the kettledrums" ) descends upon the eastern seaboard of the U.S. like a "bolt from the blue." The first group of five German submarines takes up station off the east coast of the United States on this date. Over the next month, these boats (U-66, U-109, U-123, U-125 and U-130) will sink 26 Allied ships; the presence of the enemy off the eastern seaboard takes U.S. Navy antisubmarine forces by surprise. The first ship, the British freighter SS 'Cyclops', is sunk by 'U-123' 300 miles (483 kilometers) east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

NORTH AFRICA: The South African 2d Division of 30 Corps, British Eighth Army, attacks Sollum, just across the Egyptian border, and captures it early on 12 January. 13 Corps pursues Rommel's forces toward El Agheila, a strong natural position.

NORTH AMERICA: The plan to dispatch the U.S. V Corps, reinforced, and air and supply forces to Northern Ireland (Operation MAGNET) is approved.

EASTERN FRONT: Soviet forces continue to push west ward on central front and cut the north-south Rzhev-Brvansk railway line.

 

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12 January 1942
GERMANY: Adolf Hitler orders plans are to be made for the battle cruisers 'Gneisenau' and 'Scharnhorst' to sail from Brest, France, to Norway.

NORTH AFRICA: Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, General Officer Commanding Panzer Gruppe Africa, adopts his subordinates' plan to prepare a surprise counteroffensive against the British. Neither the German nor the Italian High Command are informed of the plans. As a result, British codebreakers who are reading top-secret German messages with their Enigma machine can't warn the unprepared 8th Army.

MEDITERRANEAN: 'U-374' (Type VIIC) is sunk in the western Mediterranean east of Cape Spartivento, in position 37.50N, 16.00E, by torpedoes from the British submarine HMS 'Unbeaten'. 43 dead, but 1 survivor taken into captivity.

 

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13 January 1942
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Despite opposition, Admiral Karl Donitz, Flag Officer U-Boats, begins Unternehmen "Drum Roll" (Paukenschlag) , the use of U-boats in the waters off the eastern coast of North America. The submariners are surprised to find peacetime conditions on the U.S. coast, with lighthouses and marker buoys still lit. In addition there is no radio silence and positions of merchant ships are frequently given away in radio communications. These conditions and the inexperience of the USN escort vessels lead to a loss of 150,000 tons in the first month of the operation. The fact that "Drum Roll" could not begin until some weeks after the German declaration of war on the US indicates how unprepared the Navy was for this sudden development.

UNITED KINGDOM: Representatives of nine German-occupied countries meet in London to declare that all those found guilty of war crimes would be punished after the war ended. Among the signatories to the declaration were Polish General Wladyslaw Sikorski and French General Charles de Gaulle. The core of the declaration was the promise of;

"the punishment, through the channels of organized justice, of those guilty of, or responsible for, these crimes, whether they have ordered them, perpetrated them, or participated in them."

It increased the resolve and solidarity among the Allies to defeat the Axis.

NORTH AMERICA: The Combined Chiefs of Staff attending the ARCADIA conference in Washington, D.C., agree to move USAAF units and contingents to bases in the U.K. as soon as possible.

The Ford Motor Company patents a plastic-bodied automobile which was 30 percent lighter than ordinary cars. Plastic, a relatively new material in 1942, was revolutionizing industry after industry in the United States.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt establishes the U.S. War Production Board, with business executive Donald M. Nelson as its chairman. The War Production Board, created to establish order out of the chaos of meeting extraordinary wartime demands and needs, replaced the Supply Priorities and Allocations Board. As chairman, Nelson oversaw the largest war production in history, often clashing with civilian factories over the most efficient means of converting to wartime use and butting heads with the armed forces over priorities. Despite early success, Nelson made a major judgement error in June 1944, on the eve of the Normandy invasion, when he allowed certain plants that had reached the end of their government/military production contracts to reconvert to civilian use. The military knew the war was far from over and feared a sudden shortage of vital supplies. A political battle ensued, and Nelson was eased out of his office and reassigned by the President to be his personal representative to Chiang Kai-shek in China.

Nineteen West Coast shipyards adopt around-the-clock, seven-day-a-week work schedules.

EASTERN FRONT: The Soviet Army has driven deep a salient between the German 2.Panzerarmee and 4.Armee on the central front southwest of Kaluga; the salient deepens with the capture of Kirov.

 

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14 January 1942
EASTERN FRONT: Following their seizure of Kirov yesterday, Soviet forces recapture Medya, on the central front northwest of Kaluga, driving a wedge between two Panzer divisions.

MEDITERRANEAN: Malta receives 14 air raid alerts in 19 hours today. A total of 262 air raids are sounded in Malta this month.

NORTH AMERICA: New York: Banner headlines in this evening's newspapers have sent tremors all around the island of Manhattan. The news of the torpedoing of the Panamanian tanker 'NORNESS' just 100 miles from the piers where liners berth has brought home the realities of war to New Yorkers. The SS 'NORNESS' falls victim to 'U-123', 73 miles south-southwest of Nanucket Island, Massachusetts. Only two days ago the British merchant ship 'CYCLOPS' was sunk 300 miles off the eastern seaboard. These two attacks are the first signs of what Admiral Dönitz called the Paukenschlag - roll of drums - to mark America's entry in the war. Dönitz has sent his finest long-range U-boats into the Atlantic to prey on America's coastline. They lie on the seabed by day, and surface at night to pick off ships silhouetted against the bright lights on America's coast. With orders to "sink as much shipping as possible in the most economical manner", U-boat commanders are relishing the prospect of a second "happy time". The first "happy time" began in 1940 when the U-boats enjoyed a rich crop of sinkings in British home waters.

The Anglo-American ARCADIA Conference, held in Washington, DC starting on 20 December 1941, developed plans for the proposed Anglo- American offensive against Germany. Participants include President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill and their
military staffs. Among the major decisions reached are:
(1) an agreement to establish Combined Chiefs of Staff to direct the British-American war effort;
(2) the main effort must be made first against Germany;
(3) occupation of French North Africa (Operation GYMNAST) is of strategic importance in Atlantic area.

As discussions are begun in Washington to consider who shall go to China instead of Lieutenant General Hugh A. Drum, General George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff U.S. Army, proposes Major General Joseph W. Stilwell, who is being considered for command of Operation GYMNAST.

President Roosevelt orders all aliens in the United States to register with the government. The brunt of these orders later will fall on Japanese-Americans on the West Coast.

 

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15 January 1942
ATLANTIC OCEAN: While tracking Convoy HG 78 (Gibraltar to the U.K.), German submarine 'U-93' is sunk about 219 nautical miles (406 kilometers) north-northeast of the Madeira Islands by the British destroyer HMS 'Hesperus' (H57), a convoy escort; 40 of the 46 crewmen survive.

German submarine 'U-123' sinks its third ship during Operation DRUMBEAT, a 6,768 ton British tanker about 88 nautical miles (163 kilometers) south-southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.A., in position 40.25N, 70.50W.

WESTERN FRONT: RAF Bomber Command sends five Blenheims and four Wellingtons to bomb airfields: three aircraft bomb Schipol Airfield, with the loss of one aircraft, and two each bomb Soesterberg and Texel Airfields.

SOUTH AMERICA: Representatives from 21 American republics meet in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for an Inter-American Conference to unite the American republics to coordinate policies in the defense of the Western Hemisphere. The delegates unanimously adopt a resolution which calls for all of the American states to sever diplomatic relations with the Axis powers. All of the governments involved at the conference, with the exceptions of Argentina and Chile, break off relations with the Axis states. The conference ends on 28 January.

GERMANY: During the night of 15/16 January, RAF Bomber Command aircraft attack three cities:
- 96 bombers are dispatched to bomb Hamburg; 60 aircraft bomb with the loss of five bombers. Hamburg reports 36 fires, three large, three people killed and 25 injured, but no major incidents.
- 60 aircraft are sent to bomb Emden; 42 aircraft bomb the target with the loss of two bombers. Bomber aircrews claim many fires.
- One aircraft bombs Kiel.

MEDITERRANEAN: German submarine 'U-577' is sunk about 56 nautical miles (103 kilometers) northeast of Tobruk, Libya, by depth charges from a British Navy Swordfish Mk. I, aircraft "G" of No. 815 Squadron based at Landing Ground 75, Maaten Bagush, Egypt; all 43 crewmen are lost.

UNITED KINGDOM: An agreement is signed in London between Greece and Yugoslavia for the constitution of a Balkan Union. (The Balkan Pact, signed in February 1934 by Greece, Romania, Turkey and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The Pact which consisted of 39 articles promoting the principles of friendship and non-aggression, mutual assistance and defense of common security and the protection of the rights of minorities.)

NORTH AMERICA: In Washington, Secretary of War Henry Stimson says nearly 2 million men will be inducted into the military this year. By years end it will have 3.6 million men under arms.

The State Department issues a memorandum outlining its position with respect to French sovereignty over bases the United States intends to build in French Oceania.

In baseball, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gives baseball the go-ahead to play despite the war. In his famous "green light" letter, the President says,

"I honestly think it would be best for the country to keep baseball going."

He encourages more night baseball so that war workers may attend. Ironically, the Chicago Cubs, who had signed contracts to install lights at Wrigley Field, drop their plans because of the military need for the material. There will be no lights at Wrigley for 35 more years.

The first "blackout" Cadillacs are completed by General Motors. Due to restrictions on materials necessary for the war effort, these cars have painted trim rather than chrome. They also lack spare tires and other luxuries.

EASTERN FRONT: Heeresgruppe Mitte (Field Marshal Gunther Hans von Kluge) evacuates the Kaluga sector and takes up winter positions 20 miles (32 kilometers) further west.

 

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16 January 1942
ATLANTIC OCEAN: 'U-248' (Type VIIC) Sunk in the North Atlantic in position 47.43N, 26.37W, by depth charges from the US destroyer escorts USS 'Hayter', 'Otter', 'Varian' and 'Hubbard'. 47 dead (all crew lost).

NORTH AFRICA: The HQ of the Australian 9th Division is established at Tripoli.

EASTERN FRONT:The Soviet government publishes the contents of a document found at Klin, northwest of Moscow, and signed by deceased Field Marshal von Reichenau. It was prepared during his command of the German 6.Armee, earlier in the campaign, and instructs German troops to be "merciless" with the civil population.

German units take Theodosia in the Crimea and capture 10,000 Soviet troops. Adolf Hitler has ordered the Wehrmacht to wipe out a Russian force in the eastern Crimea, then overwhelm Sevastopol in western Crimea, home port of the Soviets' Black Sea Fleet.

 

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17 January 1942
NORTH AFRICA: The Italian positions around Hellfire Pass surrender. They have been besieged by a South Africans unit. The Italian a garrison unit, built around the Savona Division and under the orders of that division's commander, General De Giorgis, is still holding on despite being completely surrounded, badly outnumbered, 500 miles in the British rear. This unit has held this position since being bypassed during Operation Crusader on December 8, 1941.The Italians have tried to maintain the position by using submarines. 30 Corps, British Eighth Army, receives the surrender of the Halfaya garrison and takes 5500 German and Italian prisoners. The 1st Free French Brigade Group was to have participated in the attack on Halfaya, had the garrison not surrendered. With the destruction of the Axis forces in East Cyrenaica and reopening of communication line from there into Egypt, the first phase of Libyan campaign is successfully concluded. In West Cyrenaica, British 13 Corps reconnoiters the Germans El Agheila position.

Destroyer HMS 'Gurkha' is torpedoed and sunk by 'U-133', North of Bardia at 31 50N 26 14E. There are 9 casualties, with survivors being taken off by Dutch destroyer 'Isaac Sweers' which towed the wreck clear of the burning oil field.

EASTERN FRONT: Field Marshal Walter von Reichenau, Commander in Chief Heeresgruppe Sud, dies of a stroke while returning to Germany.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: Convoy PQ-8, en route from Iceland to Archangel, U.S.S.R., is attacked by German submarines; the first such attack on an Arctic convoy. German submarine 'U-454' sinks the Tribal class destroyer HMS 'Matabele' and a merchant ship. There are only 3 survivors, as the destroyer explodes when hit a second time a few hours later.

SOUTH AFRICA: South African Nationalists push a motion in Parliament to make the nation a republic disassociated from Britain, that would declare neutrality. The Parliament rejects the Afrikaners' motion.

 

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18 January 1942
WESTERN FRONT: A Fireman called Kremer is severely wounded by a revolver fired by a resistant in Port Maillot.

One of the greatest race horses of his time, Epinard, was stolen during the German occupation of France. On this day, newspaper accounts disclosed that the famous equine was being used as a delivery wagon horse.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: German submarines attack three unarmed U.S. merchant ships off the east coast of North America:
(1) a freighter is torpedoed and sunk by 'U-552' off St. John's, Newfoundland; there are no survivors from the 28-man crew;
(2) a tanker is torpedoed and sunk by 'U-66' about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina; there are 13 survivors from the 35-man crew
(3) a tanker is shelled and damaged by 'U-123' off Oregon Inlet, North Carolina; although the tanker is torpedoed by 'U-123' upon the U-boat's return and damaged further, the holed tanker reaches Hampton Roads, Virginia, safely the next day; one man perishes in the shelling and four drown when the ship is abandoned after she is torpedoed.

GERMANY: German civilians are to get a taste of the fare being eaten by their soldiers at the front - in the form of "field-kitchen meals" to be served in all German restaurants on Mondays and Thursdays. Customers who bring meat, fat or bread vouchers are entitled to change them for the "voucher-free meal of the day" which usually consists of soup of boiled vegetables. Neither meal - "served from the same pot as their soldiers" - appears to be winning popular approval. They tend to lack the calorie-rich foods like potatoes, peas or noodles, and there is precious little meat in them.

Germany, Italy, and Japan sign a new military pact in Berlin.

EASTERN FRONT: The Soviet Army encircles several German divisions at Demjansk near Lake Ilmen. In the Crimea, German troops of Heeresgruppe B recapture Feodosia and seal off the Soviet bridgehead at Kerch.

MEDITERRANEAN: Haifa: Burma's prime minister, U Saw, was arrested here today when his plane touched down while he was returning to Burma from talks with British representatives. He had been trying unsuccessfully to secure a British promise of Burmese independence in return for supporting the war effort. The nationalist U Maung Saw is unpopular with the British authorities, who see him as a demagogue of suspect loyalty. This suspicion now seems justified, because he contacted Japan's legation in Lisbon on his return flight. He was unaware that Britain had broken Japanese codes and knew of these overtures.

NORTH AMERICA: The first increment (1,400 men) of US forces to be sent to the United Kingdom sails for Northern Ireland.

In baseball, New York Yankees center fielder Joe DiMaggio is named 1941's Player of the Year.

 

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19 January 1942
ATLANTIC OCEAN: In attacks against unescorted coastal shipping, German submarines sink two unarmed merchant ships off the East Coast of the U.S..
(1) A U.S. steamship is torpedoed and sunk by 'U-123' 32.5 miles (52 kilometers) northeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, in position 35.42N, 75.21W
(2) a Canadian steamer is sunk 192 miles (309 kilometers) east of Cape Hatteras in position 35.00N, 72.30W.

EASTERN FRONT: The Red Army recaptures Mozhaisk, 100km west of Moscow. Heavy fighting continues on the southern front; the Germans in the Crimea recapture Feodosia. Soviet paratroopers are landed south of Smolensk to help organize partisan action in the German rear.

GERMANY: Directors of German armament firms were told today that they must increase production by 10% this year. The message was delivered by Robert Ley, the leader of the German Work Front. Increasing number of foreign workers, as well as PoWs, will be forced to work in German factories during the course of the year. Armaments remain the main priority and the Nazi authorities intend to offer productivity bonuses in the form of tobacco or brandy for armament workers. Improved conditions for working mothers are also promised, but there is a sterner side to the productivity drive, too: the workforce is also to be motivated by the threat of various punishments for "slackness", including transfers to concentration camps. Reports by the Security Service of the SS speak of "idleness" and "insubordination" towards superiors. Certainly Germans do not like the longer working hours - the average working week is up from 47 to 49.2 hours this year.

NORTH AFRICA: General Claude E. Auchinleck, General Officer Commanding Middle East Command. issues operations instructions to Commander, British Troops in Egypt (BTE), and Commander, Eighth Army, restating that the objective in Libya is Tripoli and outlining a plan for a defensive stand in the event the Libyan offensive cannot be continued.

 

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20 January 1942
GERMANY: At what will become known as the Wannsee Conference, Heydrich presents plans to the leaders of Germany for the "Final Solution". While Hitler was not present, it is commonly assumed that he knew of the conference and the "Final Solution". Nazi officials meet to discuss the details of the "Final Solution" of the "Jewish question." Reinhard Heydrich, SS general and Heinrich Himmler's number-two man, met with Adolf Eichmann, chief of the Central Office of Jewish Emigration, and 15 other officials from various Nazi ministries and organizations at Wannsee, a suburb of Berlin. The agenda was simple and focused: to devise a plan that would render a "final solution to the Jewish question" in Europe. Various gruesome proposals were discussed, including mass sterilization and deportation to the island of Madagascar. Heydrich proposed simply transporting Jews from every corner of Europe to concentration camps in Poland and working them to death. Objections to this plan included the belief that this was simply too time-consuming. What about the strong ones who took longer to die? What about the millions of Jews who were already in Poland? Although the word "extermination" was never uttered during the meeting, the implication was clear: anyone who survived the egregious conditions of a work camp would be "treated accordingly." Shortly after this conference, the elimination camps of Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau began their work.

NORTH AMERICA: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill that decrees Daylight Savings Time for the duration of the war. It goes into effect on 9 February.

EASTERN FRONT: Mozhaisk, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) west of Moscow, falls to Soviet forces.

 

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21 January 1942
NORTH AFRICA: Rommel's Axis forces, with strong air support, go on the offensive in West Cyrenaica, pushing rapidly eastward in three columns astride the main road; the British are taken completely by surprise. The British Eighth Army's 13 Corps commander orders a withdrawal to the line Agedabra-El Haseiat at once and a further retreat if necessary; he also orders the Indian 4th Division to check the coastal advance toward Benghazi.