From the AAF logbook for this date:
USMC F4F Wildcats sink four large Japanese vessels off Wake. This is the first significant American victory of the Pacific war.
LUZON - More than 100 Japanese aircraft hit targets at Clark Field, Batangas, and Olongapo on Luzon Island. No hits are scored by the single B-17 that is sent against Japanese transports at Vigan. The 3d Pursuit Squadron (Interceptor), 24th Pursuit Group (Interceptor), transfers from Nichols Field to Ternate, Luzon and operating from Del Carmon, Luzon with P-40's. Japanese forces begin landing on Luzon
Elsewhere:
BURMA: The Japanese begin small-scale operations, using infiltration tactics. From Thailand, a small force crosses into lower Tenasserim unopposed. British General Sir Archibald P. Wavell, Commander-in-Chief India, is given responsibility for Burma, previously within Air Chief Marshal Sir Robert Brooke-Popham' s Far Eastern Command, and is promised reinforcements to strengthen the small garrison, fighting strength of which does not exceed 30 battalions during the campaign. Lieutenant General D. K. MacLeod's Burma Army, charged with protecting the Burma Road and Tenasserim airfields, is a heterogeneous group of Burmese, Indian, and British forces, some poorly trained, formed into the Burma 1st Division (Burma 1st and 2d Brigades and Indian 13th Brigade) and Indian 16th Brigade. The 16 obsolete RAF fighters on hand are augmented by a squadron of the American Volunteer Group (AVG) fighters, which is flown in to Mingaladon from the AVG base in China. Air strength is eventually increased but not enough to alter ground operations materially.
EAST INDIES: The bulk of the Australian "Sparrow Force" arrives at Koepang, Dutch Timor. This Force is the garrison given the code-name Sparrow Force that is to defend the island and protect the airfield at Penfui. The troops begin to take up defensive positions around Koepang, the capital of west Timor, and the aerodrome at Penfui.
This component of the Force comprises the Tasmanian 2/40th BattalionAustralian Imperial Force (AIF) supported by artillery, signals, medical and headquarters troops. Sparrow Force's anti aircraft capability is provided by a British unit, 79th Anti Aircraft Battery Royal Army, veterans of the Battle of Britain. They are joined by one of Australia's new Independent Companies, the largely Western Australian, No.2 or the 2/2nd Independent Company. The Australian elements of Sparrow Force total 70 officers and 1330 men. The existing Netherlands East Indies garrison numbers about 500. At Penfui RAAF Hudson medium bombers from No. 2 Squadron begin flying anti shipping sorties.
HAWAIIAN ISLANDS: Japanese Naval Aviation Pilot First Class NISHIKAICHI Shigenori begins, with the aid of HARADA Yoshio, a Japanese resident of Niihau Island, to terrorize the inhabitants of the island into returning papers confiscated on 7 December. In response to this campaign of intimidation, the islanders flee to the hills.
HONG KONG: British troops evacuate Kowloon in any vessel that can sail to Hong Kong Island. The Royal Engineers destroy anything useful on the north side.
INTERNATIONAL: Declarations of war:
- Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia declare war on the U.K. and U.S.
- Croatia and Romania declare war on the U.S.
- Haiti, El Salvador and Panama declare war on Germany and Italy
MALAYA: British Lieutenant General Arthur Percival, General Officer Commanding Malaya Command, decides to withdraw the Indian III Corps from Kelantan since the airfields there are already in possession of the Japanese; movement of surplus supplies to rear is begun. Troops fight delaying actions while awaiting rolling stock in which to withdraw. The Japanese penetrate the Jitra position and force the Indian 11th Division task force back to the Kedah River. The Indian 11th Division force, called the Krohcol force, on the Kroh-Patani road, also falls back under pressure and at midnight 12/13 December, passes to the direct command of corps. The Indian 12th Brigade Group is released from reserve for action on the west coast.
PACIFIC OCEAN: The unarmed 6,210 ton U.S. freighter SS Vincent en route from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, to Panama, is shelled and sunk by Japanese armed merchant cruisers Aikoku Maru and Hokoku Maru about 555 nautical miles WNW of Easter Island in position 22.41S, 118.19W. All 36 crewmen are captured by the Japanese; two die in captivity.
In the Sulu Sea, USN submarine USS S-38 mistakenly torpedoes and sinks Norwegian merchantman SS Hydra II west of Cape Calavite, Mindoro, Philippine Islands, believing her to be a Japanese auxiliary. SS Hydra II had been en route from Bangkok, Thailand, to Hong Kong, when she is diverted to Manila by the outbreak of war.
In the South China Sea, Dutch submarines operate off Malaya against Japanese invasion shipping. HNMS K XII torpedoes and sinks a Japanese army cargo ship about 1.4 nautical miles NE of Kota Bharu, in position 06.08N, 102.16E.; meanwhile, HNMS O 16 torpedoes and damages three Japanese army cargo ships off Patani/Singora, Thailand.
The USN heavy cruiser USS Pensacola departed Pearl Harbor 29 November 1941 with a convoy bound for Manila in the Philippines. Today, the U.S. troops aboard the troop transports are organized as Task Force South Pacific and placed under command of Brigadier General Julian F. Barnes. The convoy is ordered to proceed to Australian.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: The Japanese make another preliminary landing, at Legaspi, southern Luzon. The task force of 2,500 men from Palau Islands, Caroline Islands, goes ashore unopposed and secures Legaspi and the airfield. Major General George M. Parker, Jr., whose South Luzon Force consists of 41st and 51st Divisions (Philippine Army), sends elements of the 51st forward to delay the Japanese, but contact is not made for several days. Tuguegarao Airfield falls to the Aparri force early in morning. Japanese planes attack Luzon in force. Over 100 Japanese aircraft hit targets at Clark Field, Batangas, and Olongapo on Luzon Island. The single Far East Air Force B-17 Flying Fortress that is sent against Japanese transports at Vigan damages a transport.
Captain Jesus A. Villamor led the open-cockpit monoplane P-26A Peashooter fighterss of the 6th Pursuit Squadron Philippine Air Force, the only ones of their type to see action in World War II. Villamor shoots down a Japanese "Nell" bomber (Mitsubishi G3M2, Navy Type 96 Attack Bomber) of the First Kokutai (Naval Air Corps) based at Tainan, Formosa, over Batangas.
UNITED STATES: The Government seizes French ships in U.S. ports. One of the ships seized is the largest and most luxurious ocean liner on the seas at this time, France's SS Normandie, while it is docked at New York City. The ship is 1,029 feet (314 meters) long and a beam of 119 feet (36 meters), displaces 85,000 tons and can do 32.1 knots. She was placed in "protective custody" by the Navy when France surrendered to the Germans in June 1940; it was clear that the U.S. government was not about to let a ship of such size and speed fall into the hands of the Germans, which it certainly would upon returning to France. She is formally requisitioned by the Maritime Commission on 16 December, transferred to the USN on the 24th, renamed Lafayette and assigned hull number AP-53. A contract for her conversion to a troop transport is awarded to Robins Dry Dock Repair Co., a subsidiary of Todd Shipyards, Inc., on 27 December.
The Naval Air Transport Service (NATS) is established under the Chief of Naval Operations to provide rapid air delivery of critical equipment, spare parts, and specialist personnel to naval activities and fleet forces all over the world.
WAKE ISLAND: Two Japanese "Mavis" reconnaissance flying boats of the Yokohama Kokutai (Naval Air Corps) based in the Marshall Islands bomb the island in a pre-dawn raid. One is shot down by a Marine F4F Wildcat pilot.