December 15th, 1941 (MONDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The production Short Sunderland Mk III flying boat (W 3999) makes its first flight. It mounts a power-operated dorsal gun turret and has a new type of planing bottom to the hull, the forward step being made shallower. (22)
Escort carrier HMS Striker laid down.
GERMANY:
ITALY: Count Ciano notes in his diary: after meeting with Pavelich in Venice) "The monarchical question has for the moment been laid aside. That does not displease me, especially because I still think that it is possible to have a real union under out King (my note: that is, offer the Croatian crown to King Vittorio Emanuele himself, as was done with Albania). Naturally, this is all premature, and we should always have to give the most ample guarantees with reference to local independence." (Mike Yaklich)U.S.S.R.: Northwest of Moscow the Soviets retake Klin and Kalinin.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: A British cruiser
HMS GALATEA is sunk by the U-557 off Alexandria. 469
of her crew were lost.
A British supply convoy bound for Malta
leaves Alexandria.
EGYPT: The Government breaks diplomatic relations with Hungary and Romania.
THAILAND, Bangkok: Burma has become the latest target of the Japanese onslaught in South-east Asia. The invasion began this morning with troops of the Japanese 15th Army advancing from Thailand west across the Kra isthmus and capturing the three key southern airfields, Victoria Point, Tavoy and Tennasserim.
Tokyo decided to give permission to the 15th Army's commander, General Shojiro Iida, to launch the attack, satisfied that the attack on Malaya was going according to plan and that General Yamashita's 25th Army no longer requires the 15th Army to secure its rear.
Iida's first objective is to take Rangoon and cut the main Allied supply line to Chiang Kai-shek's Chinese Nationalists. Logistics favour Iida. At his disposal he has 35,000 men, in two divisions, and 100 planes. He also has in place a "Fifth Column" of Japanese army-trained Burmese nationalists ready to help defeat the British, who are as yet ill-organized, with only a few thousand men.
MALAYA: The British lose heavily in their withdrawal towards Gurun. They succeed for the moment in keeping the Japanese out of Gurun.
HONG KONG: A Japanese attempt to move from Kowloon to Hong Kong is defeated.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: Major General Lewis H Brereton, Commanding General Far East Air Force, receives permission to withdraw the few remaining B-17 Flying Fortresses to Bachelor Field, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. The air defense of the Philippines is left to the few remaining fighters.
JOHNSTON ATOLL: Japanese submarine HIJMS I-122 surfaces and shells this U.S. possession causing slight damage to a few buildings and no casualties. One shell lands astern and another passes over her forecastle of USN transport USS William Ward Burrows (AP-6) but apparently she is unseen by the Japanese and she is not hit. The atoll consists of two small islets, Johnston and Sand Islands, located about 712 nautical miles (1 319 kilometers) west-southwest of Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii.
HAWAIIAN ISLANDS: USN seaplane tender USS Tangier (AV-8), oiler USS Neches (AO-5), and four destroyers sail for Wake Island.
Kahului on northern Maui Island, is shelled by a Japanese submarine from the Second Submarine Squadron. Possible candidates for having carried out the shelling are HIJMS I-2, I-3, I-4, I-5, I-6, or I-7.
CANADA: In Ottawa, Ontario, the Cabinet War Committee discusses financial aid to Britain; "the billion dollar gift."
Minesweepers HMCS Kentville and Mulgrave laid down Port Arthur, Ontario.
NEWFOUNDLAND: Submarine HMS L-27 arrived Harbour Grace for ASW training.
ST. PIERRE and MIQUELON: Submarine FS Surcouf arrives at St Pierre to operate with Free French forces.
U.S.A.:
The Congress passes a military appropriation bill of $10 billion for the defense of the country.
After a brief visit to Hawaii, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox tells the press, "I think the most effective Fifth Column work of the entire war was done in Hawaii with the possible exception of Norway"--this despite the complete lack of evidence of such sabotage.
Norman Corwin's production of "We Hold These Truths," commissioned by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and starring Orson Welles, is broadcast simultaneously on all four national US radio networks CBS, Mutual and NBC's Red and Blue Networks. It reaches an estimated audience of 63 million people, the largest ever for a dramatic production of any kind.
Admiral Ernest J. King is offered the post of Commander in Chief U.S. Fleet. He accepts.
Douglas DC-3A-191, msn 1900, registered NC16060 by the U.S. airline Western Air Lines, crashes at Fairfield, Utah, at 0122 hours local. This is Western Flight 13 from Salt Lake City, Utah to Burbank, California via Las Vegas, Nevada. All four crew and 13 of the 15 passengers are killed. The crash occurred after the aircraft performed a violent maneuver. Failure of the left, or possibly both wing tips and of the horizontal tail surfaces as a result of a sever pull-up which caused unusual and abnormally high air loads. The reason for the pull-up maneuver was not determined.
An American Federation of Labor (AFL) council adopts a no-strike policy in war industries, which include automotive plants being converted to military production (domestic automobile manufacturing stopped completely from 1941 to 1944).
Submarine USS Silversides commissioned.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: Santo Domingo breaks off diplomatic relations with Berlin. (Mike Yared)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: