18 December 1941

Frigate HMS Spey launched.

Submarine HMS United launched.

Minesweeping trawlers HMS Earraid and Sir Galahad launched.

Corvette HMS Potentilla launched.

Destroyer HS Kanaris (ex-HMS Hatherleigh) launched.

FRANCE: The first German submarine involved in Operation DRUMBEAT (Paukenschlag), U-125, sails from Lorient. Operation DRUMBEAT is an attack on shipping along the North American coast by five U-boats.

During the day, RAF Bomber Command aircraft bomb Brest and the crews reported that, at long last, the German battleship Gneisenau, still harbored in the port, is hit during an attack by 47 aircraft.

GERMANY: Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch, Commander in Chief of the Army, resigns his post due to ill health. U-707 is launched.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: The British convoy reaches Malta and Force B heads back for Egypt, leaving Force K to search for the Italian naval force. Ships of Force K, the British Flotilla assigned to protect Malta and its shipping, hit an Italian moored minefield 20 miles (32 kilometres) east of Tripoli, Libya. The light cruiser HMS Neptune and destroyer HMS KANDAHAR are sunk, the light cruiser HMS Aurora is badly damaged and the light cruiser HMS Penelope is slightly damaged. The sinking of HMS Neptune causes the death of 150 New Zealanders, the nation's greatest loss at sea in World War II. The site of the stricken ships limping back to the Grand Harbour brought a sense of fear into the Maltese people, who depend on the protected convoys to survive.

CHINA: Following an operational loss of an American Volunteer Group (Flying Tigers) aircraft and the ensuing confrontation between the pilot, Eriksen Shilling, and a group of Chinese, "blood chits" are developed. The first blood chits are printed on silk by Chinese Intelligence and stitched on the back of the American's flight jackets. It shows the flag and promised a reward for assisting the bearer. The message is printed in several languages.

HONG KONG: The days appear to be numbered as a British colony as 40,000 Japanese troops stand by to storm and island defended by just 8,000. This evening a contingent of Japanese troops succeeded in establishing a bridgehead at Tai Koo on Hong Kong Island, after crossing the 500-yard stretch of water separating the island from the mainland and landing between North Point and the Lei U Mun Channel. The landings are successful despite counterattacks by the undermanned British and Canadian Royal Rifles of Canada. The first wave of Japanese troops land in Hong Kong with artillery fire for cover and the following order from their 23rd Army commander, Lieutenant General Sakai Takashi: "Take no prisoners".

Japanese gunners, aided by superb intelligence, have targeted and destroyed pillboxes, fixed defences and air-raid shelters on the island's North Shore. After overrunning a battery of anti-tank guns manned by local volunteers, Takashi's men rope together all 20 survivors of the action, and bayonet them to death. Japanese shoot and bayonet to death eight Canadians, four RAMC soldiers, and three St. John's Ambulance men. After seizing the Lei Yu Mun Channel, the Japanese 38th Division storms across Hong Kong Island from east to west, splitting the two British defending brigades. The Japanese quickly take control of key reservoirs, threatening the British and Chinese inhabitants with a slow death by thirst.

The Hong Kong governor, Sir Mark Young, urged on by messages from Mr Churchill, continues to reject Lt-Gen Takaishi Sakai's offers to surrender "on the grounds of humanity." Today Sir Mark "flatly rejected" the third such offer in five days.

On 27 August 1946, the Chinese War Crimes Military Tribunal of the Ministry of National Defence in Nanking sentenced SAKAI Takashi. He was executed by firing squad on 30 September 1946.

MALAYA: The Indian 11th Division completes their withdrawal behind the Krian River and is held in reserve in the Taiping area. Forces defending the Grik road are further reinforced. After visiting forward areas, Lieutenant General Sir Arthur E. Percival draws up plans for a withdrawal behind the Perak River; he also decides to amalgamate certain units, among them the Indian 6th and 15th Brigades (to be designated the Indian 6/15 Brigade) and to incorporate the Indian 12th Brigade Group in the Indian 11th Division.
The Japanese occupy Penang which was evacuated by the British yesterday.
All combat-worthy aircraft in Malaya are ordered to fly to Singapore.

BORNEO: For a second day, Dutch reconnaissance aircraft from Singkawang, Borneo, make reconnaissance flights over the Japanese invasion fleet. A Dutch Dornier Do-24 bombs and sinks Japanese destroyer HIJMS Shinonome off Miri, Borneo.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: On Luzon, the Japanese Legaspi detachment reaches Naga.
The French 14,000-ton motor mail vessel Marechal Joffre, manned by a scratch crew that includes aviation personnel from Patrol Wing Ten (PatWing 10), departs Manila Bay for Balikpapan, Borneo, and then to Australia, New Zealand and finally, San Francisco arriving in April 1942. Marechal Joffre will be formally acquired by the Navy and commissioned as the transport USS Rochambeau (AP-63) on 27 April 1942.

U.S.A.: Censorship is imposed with the passage of the first American War Powers Act. The War Powers Act is passed by Congress, authorizing the president to initiate and terminate defence contracts, reconfigure government agencies for wartime priorities, and regulate the freezing of foreign assets. It also permitted him to censor all communications coming in and leaving the country. President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed the executive news director of the Associated Press, Byron Price, as director of censorship. Although invested with the awesome power to restrict and withhold news, Price took no extreme measures, allowing news outlets and radio stations to self-censor, which they did. Most top secret information, including the construction of the atom bomb, remained just that. The most extreme use of the censorship law seems to have been the restriction of the free flow of "girlie" magazines to servicemen-including Esquire, which the Post Office considered obscene for its occasional saucy cartoons and pinups. Esquire took the Post Office to court, and after three years the Supreme Court ultimately sided with the magazine.
In another executive order, President Roosevelt directs a commission, to be headed by retired Supreme Court Chief Justice Owen J. Roberts (Roberts Commission), to "ascertain and report the facts relating to the attack made by the Japanese armed forces upon the Territory of Hawaii on December 7, 1941...to provide bases for sound decisions whether any derelictions of duty or errors of judgment on the part of United States Army or Navy personnel contributed to such successes as were achieved by the enemy on the occasion mentioned; and if so, what these derelictions or errors were, and who were responsible therefor." In addition to Justice Roberts, the commission's membership includes retired Admiral William H. Standley and Rear Admiral Joseph W. Reeves; Major General Frank R. McCoy, USA (Retired) and Brigadier General Joseph T. McNarney, USA.

An order is promulgated giving CINCUS direct operational control over the USN's forces. (Keith Allen)

President Roosevelt signs Executive Order No. 8984 that provides that the Commander in Chief U.S. Fleet will take supreme command of the operating forces of all Navy fleets and coastal frontier commands, and be directly responsible to the President.

The State Department announces that Rear Admiral Frederick J. Horne and Admiral Georges Robert, French High Commissioner at Martinique, French West Indies, have reached an agreement neutralizing French Caribbean possessions.

Corvettes HMCS Halifax and Vegreville arrived Halifax from builders Montreal, Province of Quebec.

Corvette HMCS Charlottetown arrived Halifax from builder Quebec City, Province of Quebec.

Corvette HMCS Fredericton arrived Halifax from builder Sorel, Province of Quebec.

NORTH ATLANTIC: The German submarine U-434 is sunk north of Madeira, Portugal, in position 36.15N, 15.48W, by depth charges from the British escort destroyer HMS Blankney and the destroyer HMS Stanley. 42 of the 46-man crew survive.