December 14th, 1941 (SUNDAY)
GERMANY: U-757 launched.
FINLAND: The Soviet 114th Division attacks in the Svir sector and takes the village of Gora. Battles continue for nearly a month.
U.S.S.R.: German forces evacuate Kalinin 100 miles (161 kilometers) northwest of Moscow.
SPAIN: U-434 refuelled from the German supply ship Bessel in Vigo.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: The Italian battleship Vittoria Veneto is damaged by British submarine HMS/M Urge (N 17) while escorting an Italian convoy to Benghazi, Libya. The attack happens south-southwest of Messina, Sicily, in position 37.53N, 15.29E. This with previous losses prompts the Italians to recall the convoy and return the battleship to base for repairs.
Light cruiser HMS Galatea (71) is torpedoed by U-577 (OLtzS. Ottokar Paulshen, CO). She is hit by multiple torpedoes and sinks in three minutes, 30 miles West of Alexandria at 31 12N 29 15E. There are 470 casualties but 144 survivors are rescued by HMS Griffin and Hotspur. (Alex Gordon)(108)
JAPAN: Imperial General Headquarters orders Japanese Navy submarines to shell the U.S. West Coast. Vice Admiral SHIMIZU Mitsumi, commander of the Advance Expeditionary Force (Sixth Fleet), issues a detailed order on the targets. The HIJMS I-15, -9, -10, -17, -19, -21, -23, -25 and -26 are each to fire 30 rounds on the night of 25 December. Rear Admiral SATO Tsutomu, aboard the I-9, is charged to execute the order.
MALAYA: The Japanese force advancing from Patani has reached Kroh.
Japanese forces land on Penang Island. Penang's military importance lay in the island's port facilities and its stocks of ammunition and stores. When the Allies were unable to stop the Japanese advance on the mainland it became clear that the island would have to be evacuated.
On the west coast, the Indian 11th Division completes their withdrawal to Gurun; the Japanese, in close pursuit, penetrate the new positions, during the night of 14/15 December. The Krohcol force is dissolved and its components, which are put under command of the Indian 12th Brigade, move to the Baling area, about 9 miles (15 kilometers) west of Kroh. The Indian III Corps sends small detachments to guard the Grik road, which is now uncovered. On the east coast, the Kelantan force continues fighting withdrawal. Since airdromes on Singapore Island are becoming congested, preparations are being made to base air units in the Netherlands East Indies.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: The Japanese Vigan and Aparri detachments are placed under the same command and ordered, after the Aparri force joins the Vigan at Vigan, to march south to Lingayen Gulf.
The USN withdraws the few remaining PBY Catalinas of Patrol Wing Ten (PatWing 10) and the three tenders servicing the aircraft from the Philippine Islands. The ships are the seaplane tenders (destroyer) USS Childs (AVD-1) and William B. Preston (AVD-7) and the small seaplane tender USS Heron (AVP-2).
Far East Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses are sent against the Japanese beachhead at Legaspi, Luzon, and damage a freighter and a tanker. First Lieutenant Hewitt T Wheless is later awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) for bringing his bullet-riddled B-17 back from the mission to an emergency crashlanding at Cagayan, Mindanao Island.
A USN boarding party transported in commandeered yacht Gem, seizes the 14,242 ton French motor mail vessel SS Marechal Joffre, in Manila Bay. The majority of the crewmen, pro-Vichy or unwilling to serve under the U.S. flag, are transported ashore. The ship, manned by a scratch crew that includes aviation personnel from Patrol Wing Ten (PatWing 10), departs Manila Bay on 18 December bound for Balikpapan, Dutch Borneo, whence she proceeded to Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S. She arrives in San Francisco, California, with a cargo of wool and zircon sand on 19 April 1942. The following day, she is taken over by the U.S. Maritime Commission and transferred to the USN. She as commissioned on 27 April 1942 as transport USS Rochambeau (AP-63).
AUSTRALIA: The Australian "Gull Force" departs Darwin, Northern Territory, for Ambon Island in the Netherlands East Indies. The force consists of 2/21st Battalion of the 23d Brigade, "C" Troop of the 18th Antitank Battery and supporting troops. The troops are in two Dutch ship escorted by the Australian light cruiser HMAS Adelaide D 47) and minesweeper HMAS Ballarat (J 184).
PACIFIC OCEAN: Norwegian motorship MS Hoegh Merchant is torpedoed and sunk by Japanese submarine HIJMS I-4 about 29 miles (47 kilometers) off Cape Makapuu on the southeastern tip of Oahu Island. All hands (35-man crew, 5 passengers) survive the loss of the ship.
USN gunboat USS Erie (PG-50), off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, boards and takes charge of motor vessel MV Sea Boy, and takes off a Japanese POW; she orders Sea Boy into Balboa, Canal Zone, the following day.
WAKE ISLAND: Two raids by Japanese naval aircraft are flown by aircraft based in the Marshall Islands. Early in the morning, "Mavis" flying boats (Kawanishi H6K4, Navy Type 97 Flying Boats) bomb the island. At 1100 hours, 30 "Nell" bombers (Mitsubishi G3M2, Navy Type 96 Attack Bombers) arrive from Roi Island in Kwajalein Atoll. They kill two marines and wound another but more seriously, they destroy one of the two remaining F4F-3 Wildcats.
HAWAIIAN ISLANDS: USN Task Force 11 (Vice Admiral Wilson Brown Jr.), comprising the aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV-2), three heavy cruisers, nine destroyers, and oiler USS Neosho (AO-23), sails to raid Japanese forces in Jaluit Atoll in the Marshall Island to relieve pressure on Wake Island.
U.S. Coast Guard buoy tender USCGC Kukui reaches Niihau Island with squad of soldiers from Company M, 299th Infantry Regiment. The detachment learns of the events that have transpired on Niihau since Japanese Naval Aviation Pilot First Class NISHIKAICHI Shigenori crashed there on 7 December.
CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Port Hope launched Levis, Province of Quebec.
U.S.A.: The USAAF 77th Bombardment Squadron (Medium) departs Gowen Field, Boise, Idaho destined for Alaska.
ATLANTIC OCEAN:
U-160 lost 7 men dead and one wounded in a fire at Danzig during the boat’s working up exercises.
Oblt. Hans-Jürgen Radke of U-657 was killed in a fire on the living quarters ship Black Prince. That fire killed 28 men. The boat was still going through trials at the time.
U-A met the Italian submarine Luigi Torelli in the mid-Atlantic and transferred 50 survivors from the German support ship Python and Atlantis.