December 31st, 1941 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Frigate HMCS (ex-HMS) Ettrick laid down Sunderland.
Destroyer HMS Milne launched.
GERMANY: Berlin: Despite its setback outside the gates of Moscow, the territory controlled by the Third Reich is far greater than it was a year ago. Overall the war still appears to be going well for Germany, but how is the Nazi war economy standing up?
For the first year of the war the Third Reich - well prepared for war - suffered few real changes in the life style of its people. The country has had to double its arms production. Britain on the other hand, faced a sixfold increase, and American arms production has soared by a factor of more than eight. In the early days of the war, Germany was able to draw on adequate supplies. Rapid victories in Poland and France used less material than had been planned for. It was the Battle of Britain, followed by the Russian invasion, that began to cause gaps.
The sinking of the Bismarck and other naval losses brought about the mobilization of resources for extra shipbuilding, with workers, factories and raw materials being diverted from civilian goods production.
Germany has become increasingly dependent on imported or confiscated raw materials. In Poland, France and occupied Russia, everything that might be of value is taken. At the beginning of the year, the Nazi regime concluded a trade deal for 9,000 tons of non-ferrous metal with the Soviet Union. Most had been delivered before the invasion.
An officer was washed overboard from U-701, the last casualty of the year. [Leutnant zur See Bernhard Weinitschke].
U-487 laid down.
ARCTIC SEA: During heavy weather a lookout on U-584 broke his arm.
U.S.S.R.: Losses for the Red Army total at least 5 million casualties, 3 million prisoners, 20,000 tanks and 30,000 guns. Despite these losses the Soviets will retain initiative on the front well into spring.
Leningrad: The city is still holding out after four months of siege, but its people are suffering terribly from hunger and cold. It is commonplace to see a sledge with the swaddled body of a child being dragged to a cemetery by the child's mother. Sometimes she falls down dead beside her infant, exhausted by the effort.
It is estimated that some 3,000 people are dying every day from starvation despite the suicide runs of lorry convoys across the frozen ice of Lake Ladoga. These lorries running by night along a marked track, come under fire from the German guns and almost every night one of them slips through the ice to be swallowed up.
There is no fuel for buses and no electric heating for houses. Ancient wood-burning stoves have been recovered from the scrap heap. Many people keep warm only by burning their furniture. The people are also suffering from the diseases of malnutrition.
Scurvy is prevalent. The thick overcoats of the women who queue for bread which often never arrives hide bellies swollen by hunger.
Flour is mixed with sawdust. The strong brave the long dangerous trek to the frozen fields where they dig for potatoes. And as the long agony of Leningrad goes on there are rumours of cannibalism.
The Germans on the southern front break off attacks on Sevastopol in order to counter Soviet thrusts from Kerch and Feodosia. On the central front. Red Army troops seize Kaluga, southwest of Moscow.
Losses on the Eastern front for the Red Army total at least 5 million casualties, 3 million prisoners, 20,000 tanks and 30,000 guns. Despite these losses the Soviets will retain initiative on the front well into spring.
LIBYA: On the Libyan-Egyptian frontier, the South African 2nd Division. assisted by the 1st Army Tank Brigade of XXX Corps, British Eighth Army, attacks and penetrates the Bardia fortress, on the main road from Tobruk to Egypt.
During the day, the British light cruiser HMS Ajax (22), the Australian destroyers HMAS Napier (G 97), Nestor (G 02) and Nizam (G38) and the British destroyers HMS Arrow (H 42), Gurkha (G 63) and Kingston (F 64), bombard German defenses at Bardia.
MALAYA: The Indian 11th Division now holds a relatively well-organized defense position in western Malaya, with the Indian 6/15 Brigade disposed on the main line of resistance at Kampar and the Indian 28th Brigade Group to the east. The Japanese increase pressure against the 28th Brigade Group. On the east coast, the Kuantan defense force completes a concentration west of Kuantan River and destroys the ferry..
BORNEO: The last British troops retreat into the Dutch East Indies.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: A composite US force attacks the Japanese 7th Tank Regiment (part of 48th Division) near Plaridel. The Japanese tanks are massing for an attack on 51st Division (Philippines Army) when Maj-Gen Jones, orders a spoiling attack by two platoons of Company C, 192nd Tank Battalion, covered a six 75mm SPMs. The US tanks rolled into Baliuag village and engage in a close range fight which knocks out 8 Japanese tanks without loss to the Americans.
The Official History (207) says that the SPMs didn't fire until after the US tanks had withdrawn for fear of hitting their own. Therefore it would seem likely that an M3 Light Tank claimed the first tank vs tank kill.
Earlier in the day the Japanese tanks had come under US Field Artillery and tank fire at Plaridel. (Michael Alexander)(207)
The evacuation of Manila is completed as the rear echelon of U.S. Army Forces Far East headquarters leaves. The North Luzon Force closes in final defense positions, Bamban-Arayat, before San Fernando and Plaridel, east of the Calumpit bridge. On the eastern flank, the 91st Division [Philippine Army (PA)] goes into reserve south of Baliuag, leaving the 71st Division (PA) to delay the Japanese briefly at Baliuag; both divisions then retire toward the Calumpit bridge. Firm contact is made between the North and South Luzon Forces in the San Fernando area after the latter crosses the Calumpit bridge. Brigadier General Albert Jones, Commanding General South Luzon Force, is placed in command of all forces east of the Pampanga River.
The USN submarine rescue vessel USS Pigeon (ASR-6) transports an armed party to Sangley Point in Manila Bay and brings out a Luzon Stevedoring Company lighter loaded with 97 mines and eight truckloads of aerial depth charges; USS Pigeon then tows the barge to a point 4.5 miles (7,2 kilometers) off Sangley Point and capsizes it in 11 fathoms (66 feet or 20 meters) of water. The sailors also destroy the aircraft repair shop at Cavite Naval Base and one irreparable PBY Catalina.
EAST INDIES: In the Netherlands East Indies, the air echelon of the Far East Air Force's 30th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) transfers from Batchelor Field near Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia to Singosari, Java, with B-17 Flying Fortresses.
AUSTRALIA: Brisbane, Queensland: General Brett takes command of US forces
here.
Major General George H. Brett was appointed Chief of the Air Corps in May 1941
and then was ordered to Australia to take command of U.S. Forces in Australia,
redesignated U.S. Army Forces in Australia (USAFIA) on 5 January 1942.
He returned to the US and was designated Commanding General Caribeean defence Command and the U.S. Army's Panama Canal Department in November 1942.
Canberra: "This is the gravest hour of our history," declared prime minister John Curtin, on 8 December after Pearl Harbor.
Nothing has prepared this country for the disasters to come. For two years Australia has been fighting a war mainly in overseas theatres as part of the British war effort. But now Australians see themselves in a direct struggle for survival - with combat taking place on or near Australian territory. After the initial shock, the mood here was confident. It was not conceivable that the mighty United States, could be defeated in the war by Japan.
But the debacle at Pearl Harbor, the destruction of the American Far East air forces in the Philippines and the Japanese landings in Malaya and Thailand, together with the sinking of the Prince of Wales and the Repulse have alarmed the Australian people and their government to a marked degree.
After two weeks of war in South-east Asia, the situation is grave. Major-General Gordon Bennett, the Australian army commander in Malaya, has asked for at least one Australian division to be transferred from the Middle East. The Australian government has sent a message to Churchill and Roosevelt, meeting in Washington, asking for Singapore to be reinforced. The loss of the base would mean the isolation of this continent.
TERRITORY OF HAWAII: Admiral Chester W. Nimitz assumes command of the Pacific Fleet in ceremonies on board the submarine USS Grayling (SS-209) at Pearl Harbor.
Japanese submarines shell Kauai, Maui, and Hawaii Islands.CANADA: In Ottawa, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill faces the press, and is asked about Yugoslavia, where partisans, Germans, Italians, and German puppet troops are chasing each other round the mountains. "They are fighting with the greatest vigor and on quite a large scale, and we don't hear very much of what is going on there. It is all very terrible. Guerilla warfare and the most frightful atrocities by the Germans and Italians, and every kind of torture, but the people keep the flag flying."
The RCAF has 14 squadrons operating overseas, seven more authorized; plus 16 at home, including eight on the West Coast.
Corvette HMCS Bittersweet arrived Charleston SC for refit.
U.S.A.: Washington: Churchill's visit will be rounded off with a review of the Anglo-American military staff talks - known as the Arcadian conference - which have been taking place during the past week. One outcome of the talks has been the decision, stubbornly opposed by some on the American side, to identify Hitler's Germany as the main threat to the Allies.
The immediate danger is presented by the Japanese conquest of the East Indies, with their vast stores of strategic raw materials. When Japan has been put on the defensive, a full-scale invasion of Europe will be mounted for the decisive battle with Germany.
Soon after Churchill's arrival in Washington, just before Christmas, agreement was reached on the creation of a joint war council and joint supply council. These two bodies will attempt to match the demands of the military planners to the availability of guns, tanks, aircraft and other war materials.
The Dow-Jones Industrial Average finished the year at 110.96 -15.38%
down on the year.
The War Production Board notes that since 1 July 1940 208,000 trucks have been delivered to the military, of which nearly 84,000 are under 1¼ tons. (Will O'Neil)
Submarine USS Gato commissioned.
Destroyer USS Bancroft launched.
America's last automobiles with chrome-plated trim are manufactured today. Starting tomorrow, chrome plating becomes illegal. It is part of an effort to conserve resources for the American war effort but the chrome is not missed too much because virtually no automobiles are produced in the U.S. from 1942 through the end of World War II. (Jack McKillop
VENEZUELA: Diplomatic relations with Germany, Italy and Japan are severed.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 1954, the Cardita, a straggler from convoy HX-166, was torpedoed by U-87 110 miles 307° from St. Kilda. The vessel foundered in 59°42N/11°58W on 3 January. 27 crewmembers were lost. The master, 16 crewmembers and six gunners were picked up by destroyer HMS Onslow and ten crewmembers by HMS Sabre and landed at Reykjavik.