19 January 1942

In a letter to General Ismay, Churchill writes regarding the defences of Singapore; paragraph 4:

"An attempt should be made to use the fortress guns on the northern front [land side] by firing reduced charges and by running in a certain quantity of high explosives if non exists."[p.51]. The Chiefs of Staff followed with a letter the next day, also quoted directing Wavell to make full preparations for using fortress guns on landward defence against attacks. (Wyatt Reader)

Minesweeping trawler HMS Sir Gareth launched.

Submarine HMS Sahib launched.

Submarine HMS Splendid launched.

GERMANY: Directors of German armament firms were told today that they must increase production by 10% this year. The message was delivered by Robert Ley, the leader of the German Work Front. Increasing number of foreign workers, as well as PoWs, will be forced to work in German factories during the course of the year. Armaments remain the main priority and the Nazi authorities intend to offer productivity bonuses in the form of tobacco or brandy for armament workers. Improved conditions for working mothers are also promised, but there is a sterner side to the productivity drive, too: the workforce is also to be motivated by the threat of various punishments for "slackness", including transfers to concentration camps.

Reports by the Security Service of the SS speak of "idleness" and "insubordination" towards superiors. Certainly Germans do not like the longer working hours - the average working week is up from 47 to 49.2 hours this year.

Field Marshal Fedor von Bock is appointed to succeed Field Marshal Walter von Reichenau as Commander in Chief Army Group South, Eastern Front. Von Reichenau died of a stroke on 17 January.

U.S.S.R.: The Red Army recaptures Mozhaisk, 100km west of Moscow.
Heavy fighting continues on the southern front; the Germans in the Crimea recapture Feodosia. Soviet paratroopers are landed south of Smolensk to help organize partisan action in the German rear.

MIDDLE EAST: General Claude E. Auchinleck, General Officer Commanding Middle East Command. issues operations instructions to Commander, British Troops in Egypt (BTE), and Commander, Eighth Army, restating that the objective in Libya is Tripoli and outlining a plan for a defensive stand in the event the Libyan offensive cannot be continued.

BURMA: Japan takes Tavoy, with a good airstrip. Because of this, it is decided to withdraw the Mergui garrison by sea to Rangoon at once, although Mergui has not yet been attacked. The balance of the Chinese 93d Division, Chinese 6th Army, is ordered to move into Burma.

MALAYA: After fierce battles to defend road-blocks in the Muar/Yong Penang area, only 850 out of 4,500 Allied troops escape.
Bitter fighting continues in the Muar-Yong Peng area. The 53d Brigade of the British 18th Division, under command of the Indian 11th Division, takes responsibility for the strategic positions west of Yong Peng, a defile and a bridge, but loses them. The Muar force (Indian 45th Brigade and two Australian battalions), now isolated, is ordered to withdraw; HQ of the Indian 45th Brigade is bombed and most of the senior officers are killed and an Australian takes command of the brigade. “East Force” is formed consisting of the Australian 22nd Brigade, 2/17th Dogra Battalion and the Jat Battalion.
With Japanese troops 30 miles (48 kilometres) from Singapore island, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill cables his top commander on the spot, General Archibald Lord Wavell, General Officer Commanding Australian-British-Dutch-American (ABDA) Command, South West Pacific, to ask what sort of defences the island has. Wavell's answer, “There are neither plans nor fortifications to defend the north side of this ‘impregnable fortress.’ " Churchill is staggered, and orders what Wavell has been pushing for, digging entrenchments. The defenders of Singapore react by hiring local labour to dig trenches...then waste five days arguing over how much overtime pay they should get.
Churchill orders Wavell and Lieutenant General Arthur Percival, General Officer Commanding Malaya, to fight to the last man, and refuse to surrender. Wavell is happy to comply, but Singapore's immense 15-inch (38 cm) guns face the ocean...not the north, where the Japanese armies are.

BORNEO: Beginning at 0700 hours, the Japanese landing force from the ships that had anchored in Sandakan Harbour yesterday because of the weather, come ashore unopposed in Sandakan. The British Governor surrenders British North Borneo to the Japanese and they send the European residents home where they will remain until May 1942.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: On Bataan, the II Corps continues their efforts to regain positions along the Balantay River on the west flank, the 45th Infantry (-), Philippine Scouts, reaching the river in the region between the U.S. 3lst Infantry and the Philippine Army (PA) 41st Division. The 31st Infantry, however, is under increasingly strong pressure. The Japanese column driving down the Abo-Abo River valley reaches positions near Guitol and is engaged by the 31st Division and elements the 21st Division, PA. The I Corps restores the outpost line in a counterattack but is forced to abandon it a£ter nightfall. Elements of the 92d Infantry, PA, are sent to block Japanese infiltrators from Mt Silanganan, on the corps’ eastern flank.
Nine USAAF Far East Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses based at Singosari Airdrome on Java, are dispatched to attack shipping at Jolo Island in the Philippine Islands. Three aircraft abort due to weather but the remaining six bomb the ships and then land at Del Monte Field on Mindanao Island in the Philippines.
Motor torpedo boat PT-31 is damaged when her engines fail because of what is believed to be sabotaged gasoline and she runs aground on reef north of Mayagao Point, Bataan.

AUSTRALIA: The ground echelons of two USAAF B-17 Flying Fortress squadrons that arrived in Australia by ship on 22 December, depart for service at Singosari Airdrome on Java, Netherlands East Indies.

PHOENIX ISLANDS: USAAF Hawaiian Air Force B-17s of Task Group 8.9 fly antisubmarine mission from Canton Island in the Phoenix Islands.

CANADA: Patrol craft HMCS Valdes (ex-fishing vessel Departure Bay II) commissioned.

U.S.A.: Lindbergh meets with two friends, Juan Trippe of Pan Am and Guy Vaughan of Curtiss-Wright. At the meeting, both are enthusiastic about hiring him but several days later, Trippe calls and tells him that "obstacles had been put in the way." Several days later, Trippe tells him that "The White House was angry with him for even bringing up the subject and told him 'they' did not want Lindbergh to be connected with Pan Am in any capacity." Vaughan also told him that the situation was "loaded with dynamite." It became clear that any company with a government contract had to get clearance from the Administration before employing Lindbergh.

Lindbergh's cousin was Chairman of the US Maritime Commission and he arranged a 15-minute meeting with "Wild Bill" Donovan, who became head of the OSS. They discussed the possibility of Lindbergh studying international air transportation but nothing came of it. Another friend was Lieutenant Colonel P.R. Love, commanding officer of the 50th Transport Wing at Wright Field, Ohio. Love tried to get Lindbergh back in the military but was told to dismiss the idea. Then the president of United Aircraft came up with several projects that he thought Lindbergh could handle for the company.

Ten days later, it was leaked that United had sold aviation equipment to Japan and Germany before the war (like many other companies) and the offer was withdrawn. United did not need any other adverse publicity.

The 317 Nisei members of the HTG (Hawaiian Territorial Guard) are discharged without explanation and classified as 4-C, “enemy aliens”. (Gene Hanson)

Actor James Stewart receives his wings and is commissioned into the USAAF. (Jay Stone)

ATLANTIC OCEAN: In attacks against unescorted coastal shipping, German submarines sink unarmed merchant ships off the East Coast of the U.S.

(1) At 0516, the unescorted and unarmed SS Norvana was hit just after the stack by one torpedo from U-123 south of Cape Hatteras after a first torpedo fired at 04.41 hours had missed. The explosion sent pieces of the ship into the air, some of them hitting the U-boat in a distance of 450 meters and caused the ship to sink within one minute, leaving no survivors among the eight officers and 21 crewmen on board. The US Navy later found an empty lifeboat from the Norvana off Wimble Shoals;

(2) At 0909, the unescorted and unarmed SS City of Atlanta was torpedoed by U-123 about 12 miles south of the Wimble Shoals Buoy and about eight or ten miles off the coast of North Carolina, after Hardegen had spotted the navigational lights of her. The torpedo struck the port side forward of the #3 hold. The ship quickly took a sharp list, making it difficult for the crew of eight officers and 38 crewmen to abandon ship. The vessel rolled over in about ten minutes before any of the four lifeboats could be lowered. The U-boat surfaced on the starboard side flashed a searchlight to read the name of the ship and left. Only one officer and two men survived by clinging to wreckage and were picked up by the American railway car carrier Seatrain Texas after six hours;

(3) At 1034, the unarmed SS Malay was shelled by U-123 off Oregon Inlet, while steaming in an unescorted convoy of five ships with dim navigational lights set. The U-boat fired ten shots of which five or six struck from about 650 meters. The shelling killed one man, destroyed two lifeboats, damaged the crew’s quarter and started a fire on the tanker. Then the U-boat left to follow another ship, torpedoed at 1201 hours the Ciltvaira and returned to the tanker. In the meantime the passing Scania helped the crew of Malay by passing fire fighting equipment. The eight officers and 26 crewmen got the fire under control and the ship under way. U-123 fired at 1244 hours, her last torpedo, hitting the #7 starboard side tank, just aft of amidships in 35°40N/75°20W. The crew abandoned ship in three lifeboats, but one capsized and four men drowned. The survivors circled the ship for about an hour before re-boarding her. The dead man and three badly injured were later taken off by boats from the Chicamacomico Coast Guard Station. The Malay reached Hampton Roads, Virginia under own power the same day;

(4) At 1201, the unescorted SS Ciltvaria was torpedoed and damaged by U-123. She was taken in tow, but was later abandoned and sank off Carolina in 35.46N/74.37W. The ship had a crew of Finns, Swedes, Danes, Estonians and a few other nationalities;

(5) a Canadian steamer is sunk 192 miles (309 kilometres) east of Cape Hatteras in position 35.00N, 72.30W. SS Lady Hawkins of the Canadian National Steamships Company passenger-liner, sunk off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina by U-66 (Zapp). The ship had been proceeding alone from Boston to Hamilton, Bermuda. Approximately 250 crewmembers and passengers were lost from the 321 persons onboard. Three lifeboats were launched as the ship sank but two were never seen again. The SS Coamo recovered one lifeboat, containing 71 survivors, after five days adrift. Five other people in the boat died before they were rescued.