January 11th, 1942 (SUNDAY)
U.S.S.R.: Soviet troops on the central front push west and cut the north-south Rzhev-Bryansk railway line.
LIBYA: The South African 2d
Division of 30 Corps, British Eighth Army, attacks Sollum, just across the
Egyptian border, and captures it early on 12 January. 13 Corps pursues Rommel's
forces toward El Agheila, a strong natural position.
Sollum: With bayonets fixed, South African troops stormed this Afrika Korps redoubt today, winkling out snipers from hundreds of caves on the high ground overlooking Sollum. The successful assault means that the 7,000 Axis troops remaining on the Halfaya escarpment are now cut off from seaborne food supplies and their chief source of water. The Halfaya garrison, with its command of the coastal road, is a major hazard for the British Army which is forced to divert through more than 100 miles of desert to reach the front lines.
JAPAN: Japan declares war on the Netherlands.
The Japanese did recognize and treat the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) Government as a separate entity of the Dutch government in exile. The NEI Government operated on its own apparently for the most part independent of the government in London. The NEI Government declared war on Japan on 8 Dec 1941. After the fall of the NEI, the government in London formed a consultative board on the NEI on 17 June 1942. By Royal Decree the NEI Government in exile was established on Ceylon on September 19, 1942. (Gordon Rottman and Jack McKillop)
SINGAPORE: The rapid seizure of the oil-rich Dutch East Indies - a critical target for the Japanese - began today when the Japanese used paratroopers for the first time. They landed on Menado, on Celebes, and took Langoan air base. The Dutch garrison fought hard against the Japanese, who landed from 16 transports, but were forced to capitulate after setting fire to their oilfields. Oil is critical to the Japanese who cannot wage war for long without some external means of supply. Rubber is another key need - explaining the urgency in taking the Malayan peninsula.
MALAYA: A lull develops in the
ground action as the Indian 3 Corps continues their withdrawal into Lahore, but
enemy planes remain active and begin series of strikes against Muar. The
Japanese 5th Infantry Division rumbles into Malaya's capital Kuala Lumpur at
2000 hours local. They find the fuel supplies have been set ablaze, but the
quantity of supplies and equipment captured is immense. Japanese soldiers try
out rare delicacies like corned beef and Johnny Walker Red.
NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: The Japanese invade at two points. The central assault force spotted by the Dutch yesterday, consisting of the 56th Regimental Group and the 2nd Kure Special Naval Landing Force (SNLF) with air support from Jolo Island in the Philippines, lands at rich oil Tarakan Island at 0000 hours. The eastern assault force from Davao, Mindanao, consisting of the Sasebo Combined SNLF and the 1st Yokosuka SNLF, invades Celebes Island at Menado and Kema at approximately 0300 hours. A Japanese Naval paratroop force of 334 men is dropped on the airfield just south of Menado and suffers heavy casualties (30 dead and 90 injured). Allied planes are unable to halt the Japanese, and the small Dutch garrisons are quickly overwhelmed. The Japanese soon put Tarakan and Menado into use as air bases from which to support operations to south.
The Dutch minelayer HNMS Prins van Oranje is sunk off Tarakan Island by the Japanese patrol boat P 38 and the Japanese destroyer HIJMS Yamakaze.
Seven USAAF Far East Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses based at Singosari
Airdrome, Java, are dispatched to attack the Japanese landing forces on Tarakan
Island. Four abort due to mechanical problems and the other three abort due to
poor weather over the target.
USN Patrol Squadron Twenty Two (VP-22), with PBY-5
Catalinas, joins Patrol
Wing Ten (PatWing-10) at Ambon Island, the first aviation reinforcements from
the Central Pacific to reach southwest Pacific Forces opposing the Japanese
advance through the Netherlands East Indies. (PatWing-10 had been based at
Cavite, Philippine Islands on 8 December 1941.) Unfortunately, the PBY-5
aircraft they received in Hawaii were the early models without self-sealing fuel
tanks and armour. PatWing-10 later received five newer model PBY-5
Catalinas from
the Dutch in Java. All of the rest of the PatWing’s original aircraft were the
older PBY-4 models. Almost immediately after arrival several of the VP-22
Catalinas were caught at anchor at Ambon and destroyed.
PACIFIC OCEAN: USS Saratoga (CV-3) is damaged by IJN submarine HIJMS I-6, while cruising 420 miles southwest of Oahu, TERRITORY OF HAWAII, as part of TF-14,aiming for a rendezvous with the aircraft carrier USS ENTERPRISE (CV-6). The torpedo hit on the port side amidships. Six men are killed and three firerooms are flooded. Damage was moderate and caused significant problems for her engines, mostly through shock damage to the turbo-electric drive and through contaminated fuel oil. However, she easily makes 16 knots and can launch and recover aircraft. The carrier returns to Oahu. (Mark E. Horan and Jack McKillop)
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: In the II Corps area on Bataan, the Japanese advancing down the east coast of Bataan drive back the outpost line of the 57th Infantry, Philippine Scouts, cross the Calaguiman River, and after nightfall begin an assault on the main line of resistance, forcing the 57th Infantry to fall back a little. Fighting continues throughout night of 11/12 January. Reserves are committed and the 57th Infantry counterattacks, regaining most of lost ground by dawn of 12th. To the west, another enemy column shifts west in the sector of 41st Division, Philippine Army (PA), and is contained by that division. Advance elements of still another column, pushing slowly south in central Bataan toward the 51st Division (PA), reach the Orani River by morning.
Both Japanese Navy Parachute units jump at Davao on Mindanao in the Philippines.
(Gordon Rottmann)
SAMOA: Naval Station Pago Pago is shelled
by a Japanese submarine.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Operation Paukenschlag ("roll of the kettledrums") descends upon the eastern seaboard of the U.S. like a "bolt from the blue." The first group of five German submarines takes up station off the east coast of the United States on this date. Over the next month, these boats (U-66, U-109, U-123, U-125 and U-130) will sink 26 Allied ships; the presence of the enemy off the eastern seaboard takes U.S. Navy antisubmarine forces by surprise. The first ship, the British freighter SS Cyclops, is sunk by U-123 300 miles (483 kilometres) east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
U.S.A.: The plan to
dispatch the U.S. V Corps, reinforced, and air and supply forces to Northern
Ireland (Operation MAGNET) is approved.