December 12th, 1941 (FRIDAY)
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
UNITED KINGDOM: Destroyers HMS Panther and Paladin commissioned.
GERMANY: U-458 commissioned.
NORWAY: First Combined Operation took part in the attack against Vaagsøy on the Norwegian coast. It was the first time the Royal Navy, Army and Air Force (Bomber command and Coastal Command) "was under one leader". (Torstein)U.S.S.R.: The Red Army forces Guderian back from Stalinogorsk.
Italian GENERAL UGO DE CAROLIS, commanding the infantry elements of the Torino Division, is killed while directing the advance of a column from that division on the Russian front. (Michael F. Yaklich)
ROMANIA declares war on the United States.
SPAIN: U-575 was supported in the Spanish harbor Vigo from 2130hrs to 0200hrs.
EGYPT: British General Claude Auchinleck, Commander-in-Chief Middle East Command, receives the first of a number of notices that forces intended for the Middle East must be diverted to the Far East to help stem the Japanese advance. First call is for the British 18th and Indian 17th Divisions, RAF light bomber squadrons, and antiaircraft and anti-tank guns.
LIBYA: The British Eighth Army's XXX Corps moves to the Libyan-Egyptian frontier to destroy isolated Axis garrisons and open communication lines. XIII Corps begins probing the Axis' new line, which extends from Gazala southward.
THAILAND: Japanese troops infiltrate Burma.
BURMA: 3rd Squadron American Volunteer Group - Chinese Nationalist Air Force, ground echelon, leaves by train from Toungoo for Rangoon's Mingaldon Air Base. Locals aware of our move as we were greeted with at each station stop with smiles and cheers plus gifts if fruit, rice candy and a betel nut chew through the train cars windows. Tried the betel nut for the first and last time ever. (Chuck Baisden)(personal diary)
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.
MALAYA: Last night Japanese units advancing from Singora attack positions of the 11th Indian Division at Jitra. After a brief fight the British forces withdraw.
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.
HONG KONG: Insect
class gunboat HMS Moth is scuttled in dry dock in Hong Kong harbour. She is
raised by the Japanese and renamed Suma, but is finally destroyed on 19 March
1945 when she sets off an American mine in the Yangtse river above Nanking.
British troops evacuate Kowloon in any vessel that can sail to Hong Kong Island. The Royal Engineers destroy anything useful on the north side.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Captain Jesus A.
Villamor led the P-26As of the 6th Pursuit Squadron, the only ones of their type
to see action in World War II. Villamor shoots down a Mitsubishi G3M2 of the 1st
Kokutai over Batangas. (Rob George and Matt Clark)
This was the 6th Pursuit Squadron of the Philippine Air Force, not the US Army
Air Forces. This squadron operated 12 Boeing P-26A Peashooters, open cockpit
monoplane fighters with a top speed of 235 mph (378 km/h), from Batangas, Luzon.
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.
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 Battalion Australian 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.
PACIFIC OCEAN: SS Shinai (2,410 GRT) privately owned (George L. Shaw) Canadian merchantman off Kuching, captured by the Imperial Japanese Navy off northern Borneo. At least one man, the Chief Engineer, is known to have died during his time as a POW of the Japanese. The ship was renamed Shinai Maru and was sunk by Allied a/c on 17 Sep 44.
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 (1 028 kilometers) west-northwest 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 (SS-143) 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 (2,6 kilometers) northeast 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 (CA-24) 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.
WAKE ISLAND: Two Japanese "Mavis" reconnaissance flying boats (Kawanishi H6K4, Navy Type 97 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.
CANADA: Algerine-class minesweepers HMCS Sault Ste Marie (ex-HMCS The Soo), Winnipeg, St Boniface, Portage, Wallaceburg, Border Cities, Middlesex, Oshawa, Kapuskasing and Rockcliffe ordered.
French Vice Admiral Emil Henri Muselier, Commander in Chief of the Free French Naval Force and Merchant Marine, arrives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to inspect the submarine Surcouf and the corvettes Mimosa, Aconit and Alysse which are stationed here on escort duty. In London, French Brigadier General Charles-AndrÇ De Gaulle, Commander-in-Chief Free French Forces, orders Muselier to prepare a Free French Naval Force in Halifax to begin preparations for the liberation of the French islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean about 19 miles (30 kilometers) off the southeastern coast of Newfoundland. Muselier notifies the Canadians and the American Embassy in Ottawa, Ontario, of his orders. Washington attempts to halt the mission and Canada announces its intention to land its own troops on the islands to prevent Axis use of the island's radio transmitter. De Gaulle again orders the expedition to proceed and Saint Pierre and Miquelon are duly liberated by the Free French on 24 December 1941.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: 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.
U.S.A.: Naval Air Transport Service is established.
Haiti, Honduras, Panama declare war on Germany and Italy.
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.
CARIBBEAN SEA: SS Nereus (10,653 GRT) Canadian Saguenay Terminals bulk carrier, (ex-USN collier) disappeared in the Caribbean Sea. There were no survivors from the 61 passengers and crew that were onboard. The cause of her loss has never been established although sabotage was originally suspected. RAdm George van Deurs, USN (Retired) who had served in this class of ship, has suggested the class was poorly constructed to begin with and that the natural acidity of coal seriously weakened the ship's plating and frame. It is now generally accepted that both Nereus and sister ship Proteus were unseaworthy and broke up in heavy seas.
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's envoy Admiral Frederick Horne, Vice Chief of Naval Operations, meets with French Admiral Georges Robert Vichy High Commissioner for the Antilles (Martinique and Guadeloupe), Guiana and Saint Pierre and Miquelon, to discuss terms for neutralization of French possessions in the western hemisphere.