January 10th, 1942 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Destroyer HMS MIDDLETON is commissioned.
FRANCE: Paris: Claude Blanchard has been arrested by the Gestapo, then released after a night spent in the police station and an interrogation in the avenue Foch.During the night of 10/11 January, one RAF Bomber Command Wellington bombs the port area at Boulogne.
GERMANY: Berlin radio reports that German troops are defending their positions on the Eastern Front in a "wall of blood."
RAF bombers attack Emden during the night. During
the night of 10/11 January, 93 of 124 RAF Bomber Command aircraft dispatched
attack Wilhelmshaven with the loss of six aircraft. The aircrews report good
bombing but Wilhelmshaven records this only as a small raid with light damage
and six people injured.. A second target is Emden where 23 of 29 aircraft
dispatched bomb the city. Two other aircraft bomb Aurich and Bremerhaven.
Colonel-General Ernst Udet, head of Luftwaffe aircraft production and development, commits suicide for failure to provide adequate replacements and new improved aircraft models. Udet was the second-highest scoring German ace of World War I, the leading surviving ace, and the youngest ace, age 22 when the war ended in 1918.
U-92 and U-354 are launched. U-513 is commissioned. U-392 is laid down.
U.S.S.R.: Soviet submarine "M-175" - is sunk by German U-boat U-584, north of Ribachi Island. (Sergey Anisimov)
Moscow: General Zhukov has launched a powerful offensive against the German "winter line" that runs from Bryansk north through Vyazma to Rzhev. The Germans thought that they would be warm and safe in this campaign until they chose to resume the campaign in the spring. But the Red Army, unlike the Germans, has no intention of stopping until the warm weather comes. It is forcing Germany into a retreat which, in places, is becoming a rout.
The Russians have taken Mosalsk, on the road to Smolensk, and are threatening to encircle the German base at Mozhaisk. Ilyushin Il-62 Sturmovik assault planes are wheeling over the battlefield like starlings before swooping on their targets, and the Luftwaffe has moved all available fighters to forward bases to protect the retreating army. The Germans explain the retreat by claiming that they are "allowing the enemy to shed his blood through this defensive action; then at the right time, we will return to the offensive."
Soviet troops nearly surround 100,000 Germans at Demyansk. Field
Marshal Ritter Von Leeb asks Hitler for permission to retreat. The Fuhrer
refuses.
BURMA: The commander of Indian 17th Division arrives to take charge of Tenasserim operations.
MALAYA: The Indian 3
Corps abandons Port Swettenham and Kuala Lumpur while falling back to cover the
Port Dickson and Seremban area. Japanese planes, which since late December have
been making night attacks on airdromes on Singapore, begin daylight raids on the
airdromes. “Westforce,” consisting of the Australian 8th Division (less 22nd
Brigade), Indian 9th Division, Indian 45th Brigade Group, the 2/Loyal Regiment
(less one company), and supporting units is established.
The Governor of Singapore sends out a message stating, "The day of minute
papers has gone. There must be no more passing of files from one department to
another, and from one officer in a department to another" to which The Straits
Times newspaper responds, "This announcement is about two and a half years too
late."
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Japanese planes drop leaflets calling on Filipino and US troops to surrender.
Bataan: General Douglas
MacArthur, Commander in Chief US
Army Forces Far East, makes his only visit to the peninsula and his failure to
return causes deep bitterness among the defenders. The Japanese make their first
surrender demand, dropping it from the air. In the II Corps area, a Japanese
force driving south along the East Road splits, most of it moving west; both
forces reach the outpost line along the Calaguiman River below Samal and exerts
strong pressure against it. A Japanese column pushing south in central Bataan is
slowed by the jungle terrain. In the I Corps area, the Japanese Western assault
force reaches Olongapo without opposition.
Far East Air Force fighter units complete a movement (begun 24 December
1941) from various bases on Luzon to the Bataan Peninsula.
An endless barrage of artillery shells lights the night sky over the Bataan peninsula, west of Manila, where the 80,000 strong US and Filipino forces under General Douglas MacArthurs continue to deny General Homma's Fourteenth Japanese Army outright conquest of the Philippines.
Despite constant strafing by Zero fighter aircraft, the US II Corps gunners, hidden on the jungle-clad slopes of extinct volcanoes from Mount Natib to Abucay, claim to have wiped out 40 Japanese field guns and several Japanese platoons. This success is credited to accurate aerial reconnaissance by the remaining US planes and careful concealment of the guns by Major-General Edward King, who insists that he foliage canopies above them are renewed daily.
Morale among the US troops is high despite a Japanese leaflet drop telling them to surrender. However, few know that Washington has told MacArthur that there will be no relief force. The main anxiety is the food shortage. In addition to the troops there are also some 26,000 refugees from Manila to feed. With Manila Bay blockaded there is not enough food to last Bataan a month.
NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: General
Archibald Lord Wavell, Commander in Chief Australian-British-Dutch-American (ABDA)
Command, South West Pacific area, flies to Java, where he confers with members
of the ABDA staff; he then establishes headquarters at the Grand Hotel in
Lembang, 10 miles (16 kilometres) north of Bandoeng. Wavell assumes supreme
command of all forces in the area; U.S. Lieutenant General George H. Brett,
USAAF, is deputy commander; and U.S. Admiral Thomas C. Hart is to command the
naval forces.
PACIFIC: Three Allied submarines sink Japanese ships.
(1) USS Pickerel (SS-177) torpedoes and sinks a Japanese gunboat at the mouth of Davao Gulf, off Cape San Augustin, Philippine Islands;
(2) USS Stingray (SS-186) torpedoes and sinks a Japanese cargo ship in the South China Sea off the south coast of Hainan Island;
(3) Dutch
submarine HNMS O-19 torpedoes and sinks a Japanese army cargo ship and torpedoes
a merchant cargo ship at the mouth of the Gulf of Siam.
AUSTRALIA: The landing
ship HMAS Kanimbla sails from Melbourne, Victoria, escorting convoy MS.1
consisting of three ships bound for Singapore and four for the Netherlands East
Indies. Meanwhile, the heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra sails from Sydney, New South
Wales, escorting convoy MS.2 to Singapore.
HQ USAAF’s Far East Air Forces authorizes the activation of the 17th
Pursuit Squadron (Provisional). The unit is based at Brisbane, Queensland,
equipped with P-40s and manned by (1) experienced pilots evacuated from the
Philippines in a convoy that reached Australia on 22 December 1941 and (2)
inexperienced pilots arriving from the U.S. The latter are being trained using
ad hoc courses at RAAF bases.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: During heavy
weather a lookout on U-582
breaks his arm.
U.S.A.: The USN Bureau of
Ships orders that the Cleveland Class light cruiser Amsterdam (CL-59), which is
under construction in Camden, New Jersey, be completed as an aircraft carrier
(CV). She will be commissioned as USS Independence (CV-22) on 14 January 1943
and be reclassified as a small aircraft carrier (CVL-22) on 15 July 1943. This
is the first of nine light cruisers that are completed as small aircraft
carriers.
The Ford Motor Company signs a contract to manufacture Jeeps. The Willys-Overland
Company is the prime contractor for the vehicle but because of the demand for
it, the huge manufacturing capacity of Ford is enlisted.
Congress imposes price controls on most food and goods; the Professional
Golfer's Association (PGA) cancels many of its 1942 championship events; and in
Hollywood, 21-year-old Mickey Rooney marries 19-year-old Ava Gardner; they are
divorced in May 1943.
Anti-Aircraft cruiser USS SAN DIEGO is commissioned.