January 6th, 1942 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Self-service cafeterias operated by local authorities as a cheap way of eating out have been named British Restaurants at the suggestion of Mr Churchill. They developed out of emergency services created during the Blitz to feed people who were bombed out of their homes. Their popularity has led to plans to open more of them. The average price of meals is between 10d and a shilling. For that one can get roast meat, two vegetables, pudding, bread and butter and coffee.
FRANCE: During the night of 6/7 January, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 31 Wellingtons to bomb the German warships at Brest; 27 bomb the targets. No special bombing results are claimed but a bomb which fell alongside the battleship Gneisenau holed the hull and flooded two compartments. Two Wellingtons also bomb the port area at Cherbourg
GERMANY: During the night of 6/7 January, RAF Bomber Command dispatches Hampdens to bomb six cities: five hit Essen, three attack Munster, two each bomb Cologne and Emden, and one each attack Aachen and Oldenburg.
U-119 is launched.
U-848 is laid down.
NORWAY: RAF Bomber Command dispatches 11 Whitleys to bomb Stavanger Airfield; nine bomb the field.
LIBYA: The
British 1st Armoured Division, which has recently arrived from U. K. and
relieved the 7th Armoured Division of 13 Corps, British Eighth Army, reaches
Antelat. The port at Derna opens to traffic.
The deployment of German and Italian troops along the line El
Agheila-Marada is completed.
As Rommel takes delivery of 55 new tanks, the British advance reaches Mersa Brega and El Agheila.
EGYPT: The government breaks diplomatic relations
with Vichy France.
CHINA: Having accepted the nomination of Chiang Kai-shek as Supreme Commander of an Allied China Theatre, the Chinese ask that a senior U.S. officer be sent to China to act as chief of the Generalissimo's Allied staff.
MALAYA: On the Indian 11th Division front, the Indian 6/15 Brigade Group reaches the Batang Berjuntai area and takes up defensive positions south of Selangor River. The Kuantan force completes their withdrawal from eastern Malaya through Jerantut during night of 6/7 January and continues west in the Raub area.
NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: A Japanese amphibious force lands at Brunei Bay, British Borneo. During the night, seven Japanese flying-boats attack Ambon Island damaging two RAAF Hudsons and a Buffalo based at Laha.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: After a destructive artillery exchanges on Luzon in the morning, the Japanese, having the advantage of aerial spotting, attack the overextended delaying line south of Layac Junction in force and make a limited penetration entering Dinalupihan without opposition. The withdrawal of this line begins during the night of 6/7 January. Japanese aerial bombardment of Corregidor ends except for nuisance raids. Japanese air attacks during the first week of 1942 have resulted in little damage to the fortifications on Corregidor.
AUSTRALIA:
The government advises the British Government that the Australian 6th and 7th
Divisions will be sent to the Far East.
The government declares war on Bulgaria.
Commander Alvord Sydney Rosenthal RAN of HMAS"> HMAS Nestor is awarded the DSO. This is for courage and resourcefulness in the Mediterranean in Operation Style and Operation Substance, the Malta convoys. (G. A. Mackinley)
Minesweeper HMAS COLAS is commissioned.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: After destructive artillery
exchanges on Luzon in the morning, the Japanese, having the advantage of aerial
spotting, attack the overextended delaying line south of Layac Junction in force
and make a limited penetration entering Dinalupihan without opposition. The
withdrawal of this line begins during the night of 6/7 January. Japanese aerial
bombardment of Corregidor ends except for nuisance raids. Enemy air attacks
during first week of 1942 have resulted in little damage to the fortifications
on Corregidor.
Japanese forces capture eleven US Navy nurses in Manila.
PACIFIC: The Second Marine Brigade (Brigadier General Henry L. Larsen, USMC) embarked in troop transports (former Matson Line passenger liners) SS Lurline, SS Monterey and SS Matsonia, and cargo ship USS Jupiter (AK-43) and ammunition ship USS Lassen (AE-3) sails from San Diego, California, for Pago Pago, American Samoa. The initial escort is provided by Task Force 17 (Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher), formed around aircraft carrier USS Yorktown (CV-5).
CANADA: Corvette HMCS REGINA arrives at Halifax from builders at Sorel, Province of Quebec.
U.S.A.: Washington: President Roosevelt said today that Americas land, sea and air forces would be sent to Britain.
Roosevelt submits a budget request to Congress of $59 billion for Fiscal Year 1943 (with inflation that is $655 billion in year 2002 dollars).
He also announced massive increases in war production, including more than doubling the rate of aircraft building. The president was delivering his annual State of the Union message to Congress in person; it was the first time that he had spoken to Congress since the war began.
He announced that US industry would produce 125,000 aircraft in 1943, compared with 60,000 in 1942; 75,000 tanks instead of 45,000; 35,000 anti-aircraft guns as against 30,000; and eleven million tons of shipping, rather than eight million.
Congressmen were stunned at the proposal, but Roosevelt was undeterred: "These figures and similar figures for a multitude of other implements of war will give the Japanese and Nazis a little idea of just what they accomplished."
Mr Roosevelt spoke warmly of Mr Churchill, who recently addressed the same audience, and wished him a safe return.
The enthusiasm with which the members of Congress greeted the name of each ally - Britain, the Soviet Union, the Netherlands and the rest as the president mentioned them was the clearest sign that, only a month after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the isolationism which for years has dominated US politics is dead.
Cleveland Indians’ star pitcher Bob Feller, winner of 76 games in three previous seasons, follows Detroit Tigers’ outfielder Hank Greenberg into the military. Feller, saying, "I've always wanted to be on the winning side," enlists in the Navy and reports to Norfolk, Virginia, for duty.
Pan-American Airways "Pacific Clipper" arrives in New York after making the first round-the-world trip by a commercial airplane.
Leland Ford, Los Angeles, California, member of the House of Representatives, in a telegram to Secretary of State Cordell Hull, asks that all Japanese Americans be removed from the West Coast stating, "I do not believe that we could be any too strict in our consideration of the Japanese in the face of the treacherous way in which they do things."
The Second Marine Brigade (Brigadier General Henry L. Larsen, USMC) embarked in troop transports (former Matson Line passenger liners) SS Lurline, SS Monterey and SS Matsonia, and cargo ship USS Jupiter (AK-43) and ammunition ship USS Lassen (AE-3) sails from San Diego, California, for Pago Pago, American Samoa. The initial escort is provided by Task Force 17 comprised of the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown (CV-5), the heavy cruiser USS Louisville (CA-28), the light cruiser USS St. Louis (CL-49) and three destroyers.
NORTH ATLANTIC: SS BARON ERSKINE, a straggler from convoy SC-62, is torpedoed and sunk by U-701 north of Rockall. The master and 39 crewmembers are lost. U-701 misidentified her victim as Baron Haig, but it must have been the Baron Erskine since there is no other loss or success report from the area.