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February 3rd, 1942 (TUESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM:

Destroyer HS Adrias (ex-HMS Border) launched.

Destroyer HMS Goathland launched.

ÉIRE: Dublin: Eire will need 250,000 soldiers, many more than at present, to defend its neutrality, says the prime minister, Eamon de Valera. Speaking at Kildare he predicted that the war would continue for at least four more years.

"The war has only just begun," he asserted. "It will become more fierce. In all probability Ireland will be more and more cut off. We should be able to defend ourselves militarily. If you are attacked by one it is almost certain you will be attacked by the other side."

The arrival of American troops in Northern Ireland has provoked fears in Dublin that the Americans might assist the British in an invasion to secure the Atlantic bases now denied them. The watchful Germans maintain a full diplomatic mission in Dublin.

GERMANY:

U-165 commissioned.

U.S.S.R.:  German forces of Army Group Centre launch a counterattack at Vjasma, cutting off and encircling several Soviet divisions. 

LIBYA:  The British evacuate Derna. 

INDIAN OCEAN: Port T, a top secret British naval base on Addu Atoll, becomes operational.

BURMA: Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek agrees to let the Chinese 5th Army take over the Toungoo front and the balance of the Chinese 6th Army is ordered to move into Burma. The Indian 48th Brigade is ordered to the zone of the Indian 17th Division,  under which it is to fight. 
     Pilots of the 2d Fighter Squadron, American Volunteer Group (AVG, aka, “The Flying Tigers”) shoot down a Japanese Army bomber over Toungoo Airdrome at 1600 hours local. 

NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: The Japanese begin preinvasion air attacks on Java. Japanese Navy aircraft from Kendari on Celebes Island attack Soerabaja, Madionen, and Malang. While returning to base, the crew of a Japanese aircraft reports the presence of Allied naval off Madoera.

At Singosari Airdrome, four fully loaded USAAF Far East Air Force (FEAF) B-17s are destroyed and a fifth B-17 is shot down. Three Royal Netherlands Navy Catalina flying boats are destroyed at Soerabaja and a FEAF B-18 Bolo bringing radar technicians from Australia to Java is shot down with the loss of everyone aboard the aircraft.

At the fighter base, Blimbing Airdrome, FEAF P-40s are unable to climb to altitude to intercept the bombers but they manage to shoot down two Japanese fighters and a bomber vs. one P-40 lost. 

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: On Bataan, the II Corps, finding the enemy bridgehead clear, advances the outpost line in that sector. I Corps continues to make little headway against enemy pockets in sectors of the 1st and 11th Divisions, Philippine Army. In the South Sector, Philippine Scouts and tanks are still unable to make much progress against the Quinauan Point beachhead. Progress is also limited in Anyasan-Silaiim sector although tanks of the U.S. 192d Tank Battalion and artillery assist the Scouts there. 
     The submarine USS Trout (SS-202) unloads 3,500 rounds of ammunition; refuels; loads two torpedoes, and requests additional ballast. Since neither sandbags nor sacks of concrete are available, she is given 20 tons of gold bars and silver pesos to be evacuated from the Philippines. She also loads securities, mail, and State Department dispatches before submerging shortly before daybreak to wait at the bottom in Manila Bay until the return of darkness. She gets underway that night using the gold as ballast on the return voyage to Pearl Harbor.  

NEW GUINEA: Japanese aircraft bomb Port Moresby.

AUSTRALIA: Thirteen P-40s of the USAAF Far East Air Force’s 20th Pursuit Squadron (Provisional) depart Darwin, Northern Territory, for Java. 

CANADA:   The Canadian Women’s Auxiliary Air Force is renamed the Royal Canadian Air Force (Women’s Division). 

U.S.A.: The major league baseball club owners hold a special meeting to discuss wartime regulations, they decide to allow 14 night games for each club, with the Washington Senators allowed 21. Two All-Star Games will be played, one with a military All-Star team. Curfews are set for night games with no inning to start after 0050 hours local. 

Destroyer USS Fitch commissioned.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: A Panamanian freighter, the San Gil, is torpedoed, shelled, and sunk by German submarine U-103 approximately 15 miles (24 kilometres) south of Fenwick Island light located on the Delaware/Maryland border in the U.S. 

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