January 23rd, 1942 (FRIDAY)
YUGOSLAVIA: Novi Sad: Hungarian soldiers drive 292 Serbs and 550 Jews onto the frozen Danube river. All 842 are drowned when the ice is then shelled.
U.S.S.R.: Thrusting strongly southwest from Valdal Hills, northwest of Moscow, the Soviet Army reach Cholm, the German center of resistance near the boundary of the Center and Northern Army Groups, and encircle it. To the southeast, Rzhev, another German center of resistance, is at risk of being encircled. (Jack McKillop & Jeff Chrisman)
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Four Swordfish of 830 Naval Air Squadron based on Malta torpedo and sink a heavily escorted Italian storeship bound for Tripoli, Libya.
LIBYA: Axis troops take
Antelat and Saunnu despite the opposition of 13 Corps, British Eighth Army.
One of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's assets is his field codebreaker unit,
under Hauptman Alfred
Seebohm. This outfit performs traffic analysis and has broken most British field
codes. From these intercepts, Rommel knows that the British are
desperately short of gasoline (petrol).
The diplomatic dispatches from the US military attaché
in Cairo, Bonner Fellers (hence these dispatches jokingly referred to by
Rommel, in English, as the "little fellers") are read as either a result of the
Italian SIM (Army Intelligence) stealing the US diplomatic "Black Code" from
the embassy at the Vatican in September 1941 or that the cipher cryptanalyst
branch of the OKW known as the "Chiffrierabteilung" (aka OKW/Chi) broke the
same code. Neither Germans nor Italians told their ally that they had broke
the code. (Mike Yaklich & Russel Folsom)(171)
BURMA: AVG pilot A.B. Christman is lost in action against the Japanese. (Chuck Baisden)
John Newkirk of the AVG becomes an ace. (Skip Guidry)
Japanese aircraft begin a period of intensified attacks on the Rangoon area in effort to destroy Allied aircraft in Burma. Pilots of the 1st and 2d Fighter Squadrons, American Volunteer Group (AVG, aka, “The Flying Tigers”) shoot down five Nakajima Ki-27, Army Type 97 Fighters (to be given the Allied Code Name “Nate”), over Rangoon at 1030 hours local, and five Kawasaki Ki-32 Army Type 98 Light Bombers (to be given the Allied Code Name “Mary”) and seven Ki-27 fighters over Rangoon at 1230 hours.
MALAYA: Rear guards from
the Segamat and Muar fronts complete a withdrawal through Yong Peng at midnight,
23/24 January; West Force then comes under command of the Indian 3 Corps, which
is to defend central Johore State and thereby protect Singapore naval base
until reinforcements arrive. The Japanese are to be kept north of the line Batu
Pahat-Ayer Hitam-Kluang-Jemaluang, if possible. Fighting continues in the Batu
Pahat area, and the road from there to Ayer Hitam is closed. The Japanese
intensify air attacks.
Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival, General Officer Commanding Malaya
Command, orders the implementation of the plan for the withdrawal of British and
Commonwealth troops to Singapore Island.
BORNEO: Japanese forces land at Balikpapan.
NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES:
Japanese Invasion forces move south in two convoys, one through Makassar Strait
to Balikpapan on Borneo and the other through Molucca Passage to Kendari on
Celebes Island. Unopposed landings are made at both places, but the convoy off
Balikpapan is attacked by Dutch planes. On Sumatra, RAF reinforcements from the
Middle East begin arriving at Palembang, where one of the two airdromes is
attacked for the first time by enemy planes.
During the night of 23/24 January soldiers and officers of the Japanese
Sasebo Combined Special Naval Landing Force went ashore north of Kendari,
Celebes Island. Several hours later, they reached their main objective-the
Kendari Airdrome which they captured.
Destroyers USS Parrott, John D. Ford, Pope and Paul Jones
entered Balikpapan Bay where, lying at anchor, were 16 Japanese transports and
three 750 ton torpedo boats, guarded by a destroyer squadron. The foursome fired
several patterns of torpedoes and had the satisfaction of seeing four enemy
transports and one torpedo boat sink as the Japanese destroyers searched
aimlessly in the strait for non-existent submarines.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Manila: Japan sets up a puppet government, in which three-quarters of the pre-war senate agree to serve.
On Bataan, the Philippine Division, on the II Corps
western flank, withstands increasingly heavy pressure. After nightfall, the II
Corps begins a withdrawal to the final defence line. In the I Corps area, the
Japanese maintain heavy pressure against the Mauban main line of resistance and
frustrate further attempts to reduce the roadblock on West Road. In the Service
Command Area, a Japanese amphibious force heading for Cobweb Point, having lost
its way during the night, arrives at two points on the southwestern coast, both
well south of the objective. About a third land at Longoskawayan Point; the rest
land at Quinauan Point. Brigadier General A.C. McBride, responsible for defence
of the southern tip of Bataan except for the naval reservation near Mariveles,
sends Philippine Constabulary elements to Quinauan Point, but they make little
headway. Commander Francis J. Bridget, commanding the naval reservation,
dispatches sailors and marines to Longoskawayan Point; these, reinforced by
personnel of U.S. 301st Chemical Company and a howitzer from the Constabulary,
clear Pucot Hill, but the Japanese return after nightfall.
AUSTRALIA: Australian Prime
Minister John Curtin cables British Prime Minister Winston Churchill stating,
“After all the assurances we have been given, the evacuation of Singapore would
be regarded here and elsewhere as an inexcusable betrayal.”
USN destroyer USS Edsall (DD-219) is damaged by an explosion of its own
depth charges during an attack on a submarine contact in Howard Channel,
Clarence Strait, one of the approaches to Darwin, Northern Territory.
BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: The Japanese 55th Regimental Group, numbering about 5300 troops, lands at Rabaul on New Britain Island while the Maizuru Special Naval Landing Force lands at Kavieng on New Ireland Island. The small Australian garrison at Rabaul numbers 76 officers and 1314 other ranks. Two officers and 26 men are killed today, about 130 men of the 2/22nd Battalion are massacred at Tol, south of Rabaul, in February 1942, about 400 escape to Australia and New Guinea and the remaining 800 become POWs. At Kavieg, six men of the 1st Independent Company are killed and the rest are captured.
One of those Australians captured was Private W. Cook
(NX56978) 2/10 Field Ambulance, in a group of seven others. (Daniel Ross)
Five RAAF Catalinas attempt to attack a Japanese convoy off Wantom Island
which lies a few kilometres north of Rabaul. The mission is aborted due to
darkness and poor visibility.
PHOENIX ISLANDS: The USAAF’s Hawaiian Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses of Task Group 8.9 return from Nandi in the Fiji Islands to Canton Island in the Phoenix Islands.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: Elements of the Japanese Fourth
Fleet invade Kieta on Bougainville Island without opposition.
PACIFIC OCEAN: The oiler USS Neches (AO-5) is torpedoed and sunk by Japanese submarine HIJMS I-72, 136 miles (219 kilometres) west-southwest of Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii, in position, 21.01N, 160.06W. The loss of the oiler supporting Task Force Eleven (TF 11) (Vice Admiral Wilson Brown Jr.) forces cancellation of the projected raid on Wake Island.
U.S.A.: TF 6814 departs New York for New Zealand and then to New Caledonia. This unit with other additions will become the Americal Division. Gen. Hodge in 1943 will designate this as "Organization Day".
New Caledonia was a Free French French colony. With the Japanese war machine rolling, the French asked on 15 December 1941 for military assistance on (protection). Troops from the British Empire (NZ and Aust.) were committed in North Africa. deGaulle had been discussing the possibility of allowing Allied airfield construction prior to Pearl Harbor.
TF 6814 was built around 2 regiments, 132nd and 182nd. These had been declared surplus when the federalized NG 26th and 33rd Divisions had been reorganized into triangular divisions.
The 164th Regiment was later added and thus the units were in place for the creation of the Americal Division. Ameri(cans in New) Cal(edonia) gives you the name.
The Americal saw combat on Guadalcanal, Bougainville in the Solomons, Leyte in the Philippines and was stationed in Japan from 8 September --> November 3 1945 in the Kanagawa, Yamanashi and Nagano Prefectures near Yokohama, Yokosuka and Tokyo.
The Roberts Commission, whose work had begun on
18 December 1941, concludes its investigation to "ascertain and report the facts
relating to the attack made by the Japanese armed forces upon the Territory of
Hawaii on December 7, 1941..." The exhibits gathered amount to 2,173 printed
pages.
Major General Joseph W. Stilwell, in Washington, accepts the China
assignment and takes over part of the staff previously selected by Lieutenant
General Hugh A. Drum.
The USAAF’s Flying Training Command is established under the Chief of Air
Corps and given jurisdiction over the Southeast Gulf Coast and West Coast Flying
Training Centers which had been established on 8 July 40.
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) begins to televise a series of
training programs for air raid wardens in the New York City area, the start of
educational television broadcasting in the U.S.
The Douglas XB-19 is transferred to Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio as a safety precaution.
Japanese Americans in the military on the mainland are segregated out of their units. (Gene Hanson)
The final Naval Aircraft Factory N3N-3 trainer is delivered to the US Navy.
At 1340, SS Leiesten in Convoy ON-56 was hit by two torpedoes from U-82 about 400 miles ESE of Cape Race. The explosions killed the chief engineer and four men on watch below, as well as injuring several others. The master ordered the second mate to take the injured into a lifeboat, while he himself remained on board with eleven others in an effort to save the ship, but the U-boat appeared and started shelling the vessel. The men jumped overboard and managed to get onto a raft, but the British messboy hesitated too long and was killed on board by the shelling. After 32 hours, all 29 survivors were picked up by the Greek SS Agios Georgios and taken to Halifax on 30 January.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: The unarmed U.S. collier SS Venore is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-66 about 20 miles (32 kilometres) southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, in position 35.50N, 75.20W.
SS Thirlby sunk by U-109 at 43.20N, 66.15W - Grid BA 9956.