13 January 1942

UNITED KINGDOM: London: The perpetrators of atrocities in Nazi-occupied Europe were publicly warned today that they will be called to account after the war and punished. The warning was issued by representatives of nine countries under German occupation, meeting in St James's Palace. This is the first joint Allied decision on trials for war crimes, although the three main Allies have made similar statements individually. Today's action was initiated by General Sikorski of Poland. Other countries represented were Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France (that is, de Gaulle's French National Committee), Greece, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Norway and Yugoslavia.

FRANCE: RAF Bomber Command sends bombers to mine off two Bay of Biscay ports: five aircraft mine off St. Nazaire and four mine off Lorient.

GERMANY: An He-280 V2 pilot (Fritz Schaefer) is the first airman to safely use an ejection seat to escape a crash. The He-280 uses a compressed air ejection seat. (Ron Babuka)

POLAND: Lodz: 700 Jews are deported to Chelmno death camp, the first of 10,000 down for "resettlement".

U.S.S.R. : The Soviet Army has driven deep a salient between the German 2d Panzer and 4th Armies on the central front southwest of Kaluga; the salient deepens with the capture of Kirov.

BORNEO: The Dutch commander on Tarakan Island surrenders to the Japanese and they complete mopping up the island. The Japanese assault force boards ships tomorrow for the assault on Balikpapan.

BURMA: The Joint Military Council recommends the construction of the Ledo and Imphal roads.

MALAYA: General Archibald Lord Wavell, Commander in Chief Australian-British-Dutch-American (ABDA) Command, South West Pacific, again visits the front and confers with commanding officers. The withdrawal of the Indian 3 Corps into Johore State reaches its final stage; all vehicles are being moved through Segamat.
A convoy with badly needed reinforcements reaches Singapore and unloads the first echelon of the British 18th Division (the 53d Brigade Group), antiaircraft units, and 51 crated Hawker Hurricane fighters with crews.

EAST INDIES: The air echelons of two Far East Air Force bombardment squadrons (heavy), arrive at Singosari Airfield, Java, Netherlands East Indies, from the U.S. with B-17 Flying Fortresses; the air echelon of a third squadron arrives at the same airfield from the Territory of Hawaii. The ground echelons are at Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: On the east flank of the II Corps on Bataan, the 21st Infantry, Philippine Army (PA), counterattacks at 0600 hours after an artillery preparation and reduces part of the Japanese salient on the left flank of the 57th Infantry, Philippine Scouts. The Japanese are thus prevented from launching a planned offensive in that area, but make progress to the west against the 51st Division, PA, forcing it back to the main line of resistance along the Balantay River. The Japanese column driving south in central Bataan, with the task of turning the corps' left flank, is not yet in position for an attack.

U.S.A.: Charles Lindbergh meets with Hap Arnold and Lovett; Lovett said there were many ways that he could help the government but they were afraid of the public and press reaction which was double talk for, "We don't want you." Lindbergh asked if the administration would oppose his working for private industry and Lovett said "that as far as the War Department was concerned he thought they would support such a move." Note that Lovett said the War Department, not the entire administration. Hap Arnold told him, "I think you can find some way to straighten all this out."
What Lindbergh did not realize was that his enemies were attacking him with memos to FDR. Harold Ickes wrote that he should not be accepted for service and Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox stated that Lindbergh should enlist as an aviation cadet. Stimson reported to FDR that he was unwilling to place such a man in a position of command. At a meeting with several U.S. Senators, FDR said, "I'll clip that young man's wings."

The Combined Chiefs of Staff attending the ARCADIA conference in Washington, D.C., agree to move USAAF units and contingents to bases in the U.K. as soon as possible.
     The Ford Motor Company patents a plastic-bodied automobile which was 30 percent lighter than ordinary cars. Plastic, a relatively new material in 1942, was revolutionizing industry after industry in the United States.
     President Franklin D. Roosevelt establishes the U.S. War Production Board, with business executive Donald M. Nelson as its chairman. The War Production Board, created to establish order out of the chaos of meeting extraordinary wartime demands and needs, replaced the Supply Priorities and Allocations Board. As chairman, Nelson oversaw the largest war production in history, often clashing with civilian factories over the most efficient means of converting to wartime use and butting heads with the armed forces over priorities. Despite early success, Nelson made a major judgement error in June 1944, on the eve of the Normandy invasion, when he allowed certain plants that had reached the end of their government/military production contracts to reconvert to civilian use. The military knew the war was far from over and feared a sudden shortage of vital supplies. A political battle ensued, and Nelson was eased out of his office and reassigned by the President to be his personal representative to Chiang Kai-shek in China ; he was replaced by Julias A. Krug. Soviet intelligence penetrated the WPB, including several members of the Perlo group and its head Victor Perlo who by 1943 was chief of the Aviation Section of the WPB. The Perlo group of spies, which he headed, included a Senate staff director, and supplied the Soviet Union with United States aircraft production figures and shipments to various fronts. The head of the Silvermaster group, Nathan Gregory Silvermaster, also penetrated the agency. Silvermaster was able to provide the Soviet Union with a large amount of data on arms, aircraft, and shipping production.
      Nineteen West Coast shipyards adopt around-the-clock, seven-day-a-week work schedules.

The number 1 song in the U.S.A. on this date, according to Billboard magazine, is "Chattanooga Choo Choo" by Glenn Miller

ATLANTIC OCEAN: Despite the opposition of Vice Admiral Karl Donitz, Commander-in-Chief U-Boats, Operation "Drum Beat" (Paukenschlag) is scheduled to begin. Doenitz requested that 12 boats be made available for an operation along the North American coast, but the Naval Staff allowed him only six, of which one, the newly commissioned U-128, had to be withdrawn because of mechanical problems. The other five are U-123, type IXB; U-125, type IXB; and U-66, type IXC, which are to form Gruppe Hardegen for attacks in U.S. waters; and U-109, type IXB; and U-130, type IXC, which are to form Gruppe Bleichrodt for attacks southeast of Halifax and in Cabot Strait off Cape Breton Island. To their joint operation Doenitz gives the code-name Paukenschlag "beat on a kettledrum" or "Drumbeat." What is meant here is no "drumroll," as some would have it but a single percussion of a timpani stick on the stretched head of a brass-barreled kettledrum; a sudden blow "einen kraeftigen Paukenschlag" since, as Kapitänleutnant (Lieutenant Commander) Reinhard Hardegen, commander of U-123, insisted to the writer (Michael Gannon), the aim was to deliver a simultaneous surprise attack on a given day, later signaled to be 13 January. Though many waves of additional U-boats were to follow the first five to North America, their latter operations were not called Paukenschlag. None of the original five boats would make their assigned positions by the 13th, but, two days before the deadline, U-123 sank the 9,076 ton British freighter, SS Cyclops about 167 nautical miles (310 kilometers) south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The submariners are surprised to find peacetime conditions on the U.S. coast, with lighthouses and marker buoys still lit. In addition there is no radio silence and positions of merchant ships are frequently given away in radio communications. These conditions and the inexperience of the USN escort vessels lead to a loss of 150,000 tons in the first month of th e operation. The fact that "Drum Beat" could not begin until some weeks after the German declaration of war on the US indicates how unprepared the U.S. Navy was for this sudden development. (Alex Gordon)

At 0118, SS Frisco was hit by two torpedoes from U-130 off Long Island and sank. The master, the first mate, the second mate/radio operator and an ordinary seaman were killed. In the afternoon of the Danish merchant Mjoanes picked up three survivors in a lifeboat in 46°24N/57°20W and taken to North Sydney, arriving two days later. Another lifeboat with 9 men was never seen again.

At 0948, the unescorted and unarmed SS Friar Rock was sunk by U-130 about 110 miles SW of Cape Race. Two of three torpedoes fired by U-130 had hit the vessel, which sank later in 45.51N/50.52W. A ship rescued only seven survivors. One of them, the second mate, died ashore.