January 5th, 1942 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Destroyer HMS GLAISDALE is launched.
NETHERLANDS: Amsterdam: The Dutch Council of Churches today delivered a public protest against what it described as "the complete lawlessness" of the Nazis in their treatment of Dutch Jews. Despite the protest - the latest of many by the Dutch people - the round-up and deportation of Jews is certain to continue.
A year ago all Dutch Jews were ordered to register with the occupation authorities. Soon afterwards, the deportations to the stone quarries at Mauthausen slave labour camp, near Linz, in Austria began; few deportees survive for more than a few months.
FRANCE: During the night of 5/6 January, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 154 aircraft, 89 Wellingtons and 65 of other types, to attack German fleet units and the port area at Brest. Eighty seven aircraft are ordered to bomb the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau; 73 do. The remainder are ordered to bomb the naval docks and 65 do. A smoke-screen prevents accurate bombing but large fires are claimed. Another target is the port area at Cherbourg; 16 of the 37 aircraft dispatched bomb the port.
POLAND: The Communist Polish Workers Party is founded in Warsaw by Marceli Nowotko, Pawel Finder and Boleslaw Molojec. The old Communist Party of Poland had been liquidated at Stalin's order in 1938-39.
U.S.S.R.: Moscow: Carried away by recent small successes and against the advice of his chief of general staff, General Georgii Zhukov, Stalin orders a general offensive along the entire eastern front.
The Soviet Army lands reinforcements on the Crimean coast near Eupatoria and Sudak. in an effort to break the siege of the Sevastopol naval base, but can make little headway against firm German resistance. On the central front south of Kaluga, Soviet forces hold Belev, west of the Oka River. Action on northern front along the Volkhov River is indecisive.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Submarine HMS Upholder sinks an Italian submarine off the Lipari Islands.
The Italian submarine R.Smg. Ammiraglio Saint Bon is sunk at 0542 hours local by a torpedo from the British submarine HMS/M Upholder (N 99) north of Milazzo, Sicily, in position 38.02N, 15.22E. The Italian submarine is en route to Libya carrying 155 tons of gasoline (petrol) and ammunition. The torpedo hits on the starboard side causing the gasoline to explode. There are only three survivors.
In the Ionian Sea, the 5,413 ton Italian auxiliary cruiser and former passenger ship SS Citta di Palermo, is en route from Brindisi, Italy, to Patras, Greece, escorting the motor vessel MV Calino. On board SS Citta di Palermo are about 600 Italian troops. At 0800 hours. when 30 miles (48 kilometres) northwest of Cape Dukato, Lefkas Island, Ionian Islands, Greece, she is struck by two torpedoes fired by HMS/M Proteus (N 29). The Palermo took only six minutes to sink. There were a few survivors but almost all on board went down with the ship.
MIDDLE EAST: British General Claude E. Auchinleck, Commander in Chief Middle East Command, is given responsibility for Iraq and Iran. Lieutenant General Edward P. Quinan's forces in Iraq become the British Tenth Army, corresponding to the British Ninth Army under Gen Sir Henry Maitland Wilson in Syria. The British 18th and Indian 17th Divisions are both being moved from the Middle East to Bombay, India; Ceylon; and Singapore, Malaya, with "utmost dispatch."
EGYPT: The government breaks diplomatic relations with Bulgaria and Finland.
BURMA: HQ of the Indian 17th Division is established at Moulmein. Of 3 the brigades that this division is to contain, only one, the Indian 16th, is in Burma.
MALAYA: The Commander-in-Chief Eastern Fleet moves HQ from Singapore to Batavia, Java, Netherlands East Indies. Lieutenant General Arthur Percival, General Officer Commanding Malaya Command, at a conference in Segamat, plans for a withdrawal into Johore. On the Slim River front, the Indian 11th Division repels an enemy attack down the railway line.
JAPAN: Tokyo accepts
Laurenço Marques in Mozambique as a suitable site to exchange diplomats with
the United States.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: On Luzon, U.S. and Filipino
troops complete their withdrawal to a new line extending along the base of the
Bataan Peninsula from Dinaluplhan on the west to Hermosa on the east. During the
night 5/6 January, the withdrawal continues through Layac Junction, the funnel
through which all roads into Bataan pass, the final elements clearing it by 0200
hours, after which the bridge is blown. A delaying position, called the Layac
line, is formed south of Layac Junction and manned by the 71st and 72d Regiments
of the 71st Division Philippine Army, the U.S. 31st Infantry of the Philippine
Division, and the 26th Cavalry Philippine Scouts. The 31st Infantry, the only
completely U.S. regiment in the Philippines, has not yet been in action. The
food ration of the Bataan defence force and of garrisons of fortified islands in
Manila Bay is cut in half. The Bataan echelon of HQ US Army Forces Far East is
established on Bataan under Brigadier General Richard J. Marshall. The Japanese
continue daily air attacks on Corregidor and occasional attacks on other targets
in the Manila Bay area.
USAAF B-17 Flying Fortresses from Malang, Java, Netherlands East Indies,
stage through Samarinda, Borneo, during the night of 4/5 January and attack
shipping in Davao Bay on Mindanao Island.
AUSTRALIA: Canberra: The Australian War Cabinet today agreed to a British request for the transfer of the 1st Australian Corps, comprising the veteran 6th and 7th Divisions, from the Middle East to South-east Asia. In December Mr Churchill assured the Australian prime minister, John Curtin, that he would do everything possible to strengthen the whole Far Eastern front from Rangoon to Darwin.
The British 18th and Indian 17th Divisions were both being moved from the Middle East to Bombay, Ceylon and Singapore with "utmost dispatch."
U.S. Forces in Australia (USFIA) is redesignated U.S. Army Forces in Australia (USAFIA), and Major General George H Brett assumes command. Headquarters is located in the MacRobertson Girls High School in Melbourne, Victoria.
TERRITORY OF HAWAII: The air echelon of the Far East Air Force's 22d Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 7th Bombardment Group (Heavy), which has been operating from Hickam Field, Territory of Hawaii, since 18 December 1941, departs for Singosari Airfield, Java, Netherlands East Indies, with B-17 Flying Fortresses. The ground echelon is at Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
U.S.A.: The U.S. Senate
Committee investigating Hollywood war propaganda is dissolved.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders all men between the ages of 20 and 44 to register for the draft (conscription) by 16 February.
Today is the deadline for enemy aliens in San Francisco, California, to surrender radio transmitters, shortwave receivers and precision cameras to the U.S. Army's Western Defence Command. Also Japanese-American selective service registrants are classified as enemy aliens (IV-C) and many Japanese-American soldiers are discharged or assigned to menial labour such as "kitchen police (KP)."
A change in USN regulations, covering display of National Insignia on aircraft, returned the star to the upper right and lower left wing surfaces and revised rudder striping to 13 red and white horizontal stripes.
CANADA: Minesweeper (ex-fishing vessel) HMCS SMITH SOUND is commissioned.