December 13th, 1941 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Destroyer HMCS Restigouche enroute to join convoy ON-44 suffered storm damage; requiring extensive repairs at Greenock.
Minesweeper HMS Cromarty commissioned.
FRANCE: An explosion in Brest killed one crewman on U-201; Maschinenobergefreiter Josef Zander.
GERMANY: U-258 and U-441 launched.
BULGARIA declares war on the United States.
U.S.S.R.: Moscow: The Germans have admitted that they have been defeated before Moscow, but they are blaming it on the weather rather than the Red Army. "The army", said Berlin tonight, "does not expect to capture Moscow this year. Major campaigning must be suspended until the spring. Then Moscow can be taken ..." "Officers and men trying to take cover freeze to the ground," said a spokesman. "Fighting under these conditions is practically impossible. We have no reason to expose our troops to the terrible rigours of the Russian winter."
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Battle of Cape Bon. In a brilliant night action the Italian 4th Cruiser Division, Contrammiraglio Admiral Antonio Toscano, Commander, is attacked by the British 4th Destroyer Flotilla, Commander G. H. Stokes, Commander. Two Italian Barbiano-class light cruisers, Alberico Da Barbiano and Alberto Di Giussano are sunk. The allied force is composed of destroyers HMS Sikh, Maori, Legion and HNLMS Isaac Sweers. The Italian torpedo boat Cigno, Capitano di Corvetta Riccardi, CO, which had been a last-minute substitute for the cruiser Bande Nere when that cruiser had mechanical problems, escaped. The Italians also begin a major convoy to Benghazi using their main fleet, with battleships, as escort. Two of the transports are sunk today by a British submarine.
NORTH AFRICA: British forces close the Gazala position despite heavy losses to German counterattacks.
BURMA: The Japanese occupy the Victoria Point airfield after evacuation by the British. This airfield is in the far south on the Kra Isthmus.
Mingaldon Air Base, Rangoon: The 3rd Squadron American Volunteer Group- Chinese Nationalist Air Force, ground echelon, arrive. Mingaladon barracks had the smell of curry, urine, and mildew. Our 18 P-40s came in on the 13th. AVG40s and RAF Buffalos ( mostly New Zealand pilots) scrambled on an alert but no contacts. (Chuck Baisden)
THAILAND: Bangkok: In a move causing deep concern to neighbouring Burma and Malaya, the Thai government will tomorrow sign a formal treaty legitimizing the Japanese invasion on 8 December. In return for free passage for its troops, Japan has "promised to respect Thailand's integrity". Japanese troops now occupy Singora and Patani, near the Malayan border and Siemrap, on the Indochinese frontier.
HONG KONG: The British forces stationed on the mainland withdraw. Japanese troops reach the Kowloon waterfront across the harbor from Hong Kong Island. The British Governor rejects a Japanese demand for the surrender of Hong Kong. The defense of the island is organized into a West Brigade, commanded by Canadian Brigadier J.K. Lawson, and including The Winnipeg Grenadiers; and an East Brigade, under British Brigadier C. Wallis, including The Royal Rifles of Canada. British Major General Christopher Maltby, General Officer Commanding Hong Kong, deploys both Canadian units to defend the southern beaches against a seaborne attack, as heavy Japanese artillery fire and air raids begin.
Britain's Crown Colony is in a full state of siege following the evacuation today of the last British, Canadian and Indian troops from the mainland across the harbour to Hong Kong Island after five days of fighting. The decision to evacuate came after the Japanese 38th Division broke through the last mainland line of defence, the reinforced redoubt known as the Gindrinkers' Line. Hong Kong lost its limited air force in the first few hours of the conflict and has been hit by incessant air bombardment since.
BURMA: The British have to evacuate their airfield at Victoria Point and the Japanese follow and move in. This airfield is in the far south of the Burma on the Kra Isthmus.
MALAYA: Five days after their first surprise landings Japanese forces now control northern Malaya's two key airfields, following the capture today of Alor Star on Malaya's northwest coast. The town was taken by Japanese troops advancing across the Thai isthmus from Singora, in south-east Thailand, the site of major landings five days ago.
Japan's commander, General Yamashita, now has overwhelming air and sea superiority following the sinking of four of the six ships in the British Far East Fleet, including the battle-cruiser HMS Repulse and the battleship HMS Prince of Wales with the loss of 840 lives three days ago. With four times as many aircraft Yamashita's 25th Army is well positioned to strike south to take Singapore, Britain's naval base for the Far East, inside the 100-day target set by Tokyo.
However, British strategists believe that Yamashita cannot stage a full attack on Malaya until he has consolidated his forces in Thailand in order to attack Burma. Yamashita is not expected to push south from the airfield captured at Kota Bharu, on the north-east coast, because of dense jungle.
BORNEO: A small Miri detachment (Indian company and engineers), having destroyed the oil fields and installations in British East Sarawak and West Brunei to deny them to the Japanese, sails for Kuching, capital of Sarawak, where the rest of the Indian battalion, with local and administrative attachments, is disposed to defend the airdrome. Dutch planes based on Singkawang assist RAF units on Malaya in searching for Japanese shipping heading southward from Indochina.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Manila: Japanese forces enjoying total air and sea superiority have now gained footholds at several strategic points on the main Philippines island of Luzon. Landings and parachute drops at three locations have placed them within 250 miles of the capital Manila.
Three detachments of General Homma's Formosa-based 14th Japanese Army, each with 2,000 men are now at Aparri in the north, Vigan in the north-west and Legaspi in the south-east. Japanese marines and Filipino soldiers fought hand-to-hand at Aparri. US authorities in Manila are claiming the situation is "well in hand."
Yet most acknowledge that, now that there is no air cover, it is only a matter of time before the Japanese try to invade Manila in force. Only ten US bombers and a few fighters have survived the Japanese raids on airfields here, while the US Navy yard at Cavite has been destroyed. General Homma, however, has lost only seven of his 490 planes.
52 soldiers of the 48th Material Squadron the US Army Air Corps volunteer to go on an operation that has been dubbed a "suicide mission." These men include Armand Toussaint and Louis G. Kolger.
They are to build a secret airfield in San Jose on Mindoro Island. One in a chain of airfields south to Australia where Allied aircraft can be refuelled and repaired.
"They told us, 'You're not coming back,'" Louis G. Kolger, on of the few surviving members of Toussaint's squadron said during a telephone interview from his home in Cincinnati. Kolger, 86 (in 2004), a staff sergeant at the time, said even after hearing those words, no one balked at going.
"We were all pretty naïve but it was a good bunch of guys and they stepped forward because they had to do it," he said.
In a telephone interview from his home in Baton Rouge, La., one of those men, Kenneth Calvit, said they boarded a steamer and sailed through Manila Bay disguised as Filipino fishermen to trick Japanese pilots. It worked.
They arrived at San Jose, a small village based around a sugar plantation and set up the airfield where B-17 bombers and P-40s could be serviced.
By February 1942, more than half of the squadron had malaria. A month later, about 500 Japanese landed near San Jose, forcing the Americans into secondary camps they had set up in the mountains.
Calvit was sitting in a library they had built on the island when he saw the Japanese troops.
"I jumped out of the window and ran like hell," Calvit said. After burning more than 70,000 gallons worth of fuel and burying tools, the Americans fled into the mountains but continued to relay intelligence about the Japanese to Bataan.
Then on April 10, 1942, Bataan surrendered. The squadron was on its own.
At the end of the month, the squadron relocated to avoid capture. Pvt. Paris J. Palmer, Toussaint's close friend, developed tropical ulcers on his feet and could not continue so Toussaint "refused to leave him and stayed behind," according to records.
Palmer was eventually captured and beheaded. Toussaint joined a guerrilla movement of Filipinos against the Japanese, according to testimony from Maj. Jose L. Garcia, who told United States officials that Toussaint was his executive officer. Toussaint fought with the guerrillas until August 1943 when he became ill and was captured by the Japanese.
Records of Masutaro Iwasaki's trial revealed that Toussaint was tortured in an effort to force him to tell where the Americans had buried aircraft tools and equipment. They also describe how a Japanese commanding officer asked Toussaint what he wanted after he had been savagely beaten.
"Pvt. Toussaint replied that they had already kicked his eyes out and that they might just as well kill him," the records said. He was then bayoneted to death.
A United States military court in Yokohama, Japan, sentenced Masutaro Iwasaki, a 39-year-old major in the Japanese Imperial Army to 15 years in prison for ordering his troops to beat and kill Toussaint.
"Witnesses testified Toussaint was tied to a flagpole and beaten by Japanese soldiers with firewood and kicked by hobnail boots for two hours," the article said. "They said he was beaten so badly that one eyeball was bulging when he was ordered to dig his own grave. On the brink of the grave, the witnesses said, Toussaint was blindfolded and bayoneted in the stomach and back until he fell into the grave."
(Alaine Griffin forwarded by Peter Kilduff)(214)
AUSTRALIA: Prime Minister John Curtin sends a message to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt welcoming the opportunity of co-operating with the U.S., and offering the use of Australian facilities. He also seeks U.S. help in securing the French territory of New Caledonia in the southwest Pacific east of Queensland.
TERRITORY OF HAWAI'I: The occupation of Niihau Island by Japanese Naval Aviation Pilot First Class NISHIKAICHI Shigenori ends: a party of Hawaiians sets out for Kauai to inform the outside world of events on Niihau; in the meantime, NISHIKAICHI burns his plane (it will not be until July 1942 that the U.S. Navy will be able to obtain an intact "Zeke" fighter to study) and the house in which he believes his confiscated papers are hidden. Later, in confrontation with a local Hawaiian, Benny Kanahele, a scuffle to grab the pilot's pistol ensues. Although Kanahele is shot three times, he picks up Nishikaichi bodily and dashes the pilot's head into a stone wall, killing him; HARADA Yoshio, the Japanese resident of Niihau who had allied himself with the pilot, commits suicide. Kanahele survives his injuries. On the basis of the report by the islanders who have arrived on Kauai after a 15-hour trip, meanwhile, Commander, Kauai Military District (Colonel Edward W. FitzGerald, USA) dispatc hes expedition (squad of soldiers from Company M, 299th Infantry Regiment) in the unarmed U.S. Coast Guard buoy tender USCGC Kukui to proceed from Kauai to Niihau.
CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Bellechasse commissioned.
Minesweepers HMCS Melville and Medicine Hat arrived Halifax from builders Quebec City, Province of Quebec and Montreal, Province of Quebec respectively.
Corvette HMCS Charlottetown commissioned.
U.S.A.: The US makes its first request to Japan to exchange diplomats.
Washington: Shocked by the perfidy of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Americans are flocking to volunteer for the United States Navy and the Marine Corps, which do not take conscripts. In the meantime the US Army has grown almost tenfold since the Selective Service Act introduced conscription, known here as the "draft", in 1940.
In September 1939 the US Army's strength was only 174,000 men, less than Portugal. The Burke-Wadsworth Act of June 1940 provided for a year of training for 1.4 million men.
Some concern has been expressed about the poor physical condition of conscripts, especially those from the industrial regions and southern states.
Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama, El Salvador and Nicaragua all break off diplomatic relations with Germany. (Mike Yared)
COSTA RICA: USN gunboat USS Erie (PG-50) receives 50 Japanese POWs at Puntarenas, Costa Rica, from Costa Rican government, and sends a prize crew to take charge of the motor vessel MV Albert.
ATLANTIC OCEAN:
U-453 sank SS Badalona.
Commander William A. Sullivan designated the first Supervisor of Salvage with office in New York City.