February 13th, 1942 (FRIDAY)
FRANCE: During the night of the 13-14th, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 28 bombers to Le Havre but they encounter icing and thick cloud and only meagre bombing results were claimed. There are no losses.
GERMANY: Operation Sealion is formally cancelled. This is the plan for the cross channel invasion of England. While postponed many times, this cancellation makes it final.
During the night of the 13-14th, RAF Bomber Command dispatches
39 bombers to Cologne and 18 to Aachen but all encountered icing and thick cloud
and only meager bombing results were claimed. There are no losses.
Admiral Erich Raeder, head of the German Navy, brings a new plan to
Chancellor Adolf Hitler. Raeder proposes that the Germans drive through Libya,
into Egypt, and keep on going through Iraq, Iran, and all the way to India, thus
drying up Britain's oil supply, hooking up with the Japanese, and winning the
war. To do so, the German will have to divert more resources to the
Mediterranean, starting with massive supplies to North Africa. To do that, the
Germans will have to invade Malta. Hitler orders the Luftwaffe's Air Fleet 2 to
hammer Malta and knock out its airfields and will to resist. General Erwin
Rommel, commanding the Afrika Korps, who will lead the drive to India, thinks
it's a great idea.
U-482 laid down.
U.S.S.R.: The Soviet winter offensive continue to meet increasing German resistance. Despite this, the Soviet spearhead has reached Belorussia.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Submarine HMS Tempest is depth charged for 7 hours by Italian gunboat Circe and has to be scuttled in the Gulf of Taranto at 39 11N 17 47E with 39 casualties. 24 survive. The scuttled submarine sinks just after the Italians secure a towrope. (Alex Gordon)(108)
SINGAPORE:
After escaping from the fall of Singapore, river gunboat HMS
Scorpion is sunk by gunfire from IJN destroyers in the Banka Strait off Berhala
Island, Sumatra. Little is known about her fate but it is believed that there
might have been 20 survivors. (Alex Gordon)(108)
The 85,000-man British army is now penned inside a 28-mile (45
kilometer)-long perimeter surrounding Singapore City. The Japanese main thrusts
are against the western part of the South Area. British forward units pull back
during the night of the 13-14th, to cover the Alexandra area, where the main
ordnance depot and ammunition magazine are located. The Japanese seize or damage
most of the reservoirs, leaving the city with only seven days supply of water.
Allied forces are in full retreat, with hordes of deserters causing chaos.
Troops on duty have had barely an hour's sleep in days, and are exhausted. The
famed 15-inch (38,1 cm) guns have been destroyed or captured. Lieutenant General
Arthur Percival, General Officer Commanding Malaya Command, signals General Sir
Archibald Wavell, Commander in Chief American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA)
Command, that he doesn't think he can fight for more than two days. Wavell
orders Percival to fight on. Meanwhile, the advancing Japanese themselves are
desperately short on ammunition, and General YAMASHITA Tomoyoki commanding the
25th Army, is down to his last rounds. All remaining British shipping, small
ships and other light craft, sail from Singapore during the night of the
13-14th. Some personnel are withdrawn in these vessels among them Rear Admiral,
Malaya, and Air Officer Commanding, Far East.
British officers take time to court-martial one of their own, New
Zealand-born Captain Patrick Heenan of the Indian Army, on a charge of treason.
Heenan is charged with leaving RAF supplies intact on bases as British troops
retreated, enabling advancing Japanese air units to take advantage of them. He
has also given information about Malaya's defenses to the Japanese for years.
Heenan is convicted and executed by firing squad at sundown.
Ugaki speaks in his diary: "Enormous numbers of
transports have been sailing to the south from Singapore in the last few days,
escorted by a fair number of cruisers and destroyers. The British have
experienced evacuations at Norway, Dunkirk, or at Crete in Greece... In spite of
our fairly big air strength, attacks against these vessels seem to be rather
mild." (Ed Miller)
NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: On Java, Lieutenant
General John Lavarack, General Officer Commanding 1st Australian Army, tells
General Sir Archibald Wavell, Commander in Chief
American-British-Dutch-Australian Command, the he has drafted a recommendation
that the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) should not be landed in the East
Indies. Wavell asks him to wait until tomorrow until he can prepare a
recommendation and then both are forwarded to the Combined Chiefs of Staff and
the British and Australian War Offices. Wavell also suggests that there were
“advantages in diverting one or both divisions of the AIF to Burma or
Australia.”
An RAF reconnaissance plane sights a large concentration of Japanese
shipping north of Bangka Island, at the same time many boats, full of British
and Australian troops, were fleeing Singapore and found themselves among the
enemy vessels. The launch carrying Rear-Admiral Spooner, Rear Admiral, Malaya,
and Air Vice-Marshal Pulford, Air Officer Commanding, Far East, is driven ashore
on a small uninhabited island north of Bangka Island. Two months later disease
and starvation forced the survivors to surrender; the two flag officers were not
among them and are never seen again.
Submarine USS Seadragon ends her first war patrol at Surabaya. Due to the continuous Japanese air raids on this Dutch base she left for Tjilatjap 21 Feb 1942. Later she was ordered to Fremantle where she arrived Mar 1942.
Submarine USS Sturgeon ends her second war patrol at Surabaya. Due to the Japanese air attacks on that base she departed for Tjilatjap shortly afterwards.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Japanese dive bombers raid the Bataan peninsula, killing their own men by mistake.
On Bataan, the I Corps, after searching entire area of Big Pocket without finding any live Japanese, turns its full attention to the salient, Upper Pocket, in the main line of resistance. Elements released from the Big Pocket assault force join in the battle. In the South Sector, troops complete destruction of Japanese troops in the Silaiim area.
PHOENIX ISLANDS: Chartered U.S. passenger ship SS President Taylor, transporting 900 Army troops to occupy Canton Island, runs aground on a reef off her destination, and becomes stranded.
AUSTRALIA: Gazetted today. Lieutenant Colonel Charles Groves Wright Anderson, VC, MC. Awarded the Victoria Cross. 'During the operations in Malaya from the 18th to 22nd Jan 1942, Lieut. Col. ANDERSON, in command of a small Force, was sent to restore a vital position and to assist a Brigade. His Force destroyed ten enemy tanks. When later cut off, he defeated persistent attacks on his position from air and ground forces, and forced his way through the enemy lines to a depth of fifteen miles. He was again surrounded and subjected to a very heavy and frequent attacks resulting in severe casualties to his Force. He personally led an attack with great gallantry on the enemy who were holding a bridge, and succeeded in destroying four guns. Lieut. Col. Anderson throughout all this fighting, protected his wounded and refused to leave them. He obtained news by wireless of the enemy position and attempted to fight his way back through the eight miles of enemy occupied country. This proved to be impossible and the enemy were holding too strong a position for any attempt to be made to relieve him. On the 19th January, Lieut. Col. Anderson was ordered to destroy his equipment and make his way back as best he could round the enemy position. Throughout the fighting, which lasted for four days, he set a magnificent example of brave leadership, determination and outstanding courage. He not only showed fighting qualities of a very high order but throughout exposed himself to danger without any regard to his own personal safety.' (Daniel Ross)
TERRITORY OF HAWAII: Pearl Harbor: The superstitious Admiral Halsey refuses to take Task Force 13 out as scheduled; renumbered Task Force 16, it will sail tomorrow.
CANADA and U.S.A.: The governments of the two countries approve the construction of a U.S. Military Highway through Canada to Alaska.
CANADA: Patrol vessel HMCS Seiner commissioned.
U.S.A.: A Congressional subcommittee recommends immediate evacuation of all Japanese-Americans from strategic areas on the West Coast. The US Army has already drawn up plans to move the Japanese-Americans east of California's Sierra Nevada mountains. They send a letter to Roosevelt in which they recommend the "immediate evacuation of all persons of Japanese lineage" aliens and citizens alike from the entire strategic area of California, Washington, and Oregon. (Jack McKillop and Scott Peterson) More...
Japanese sub I-17 shells oil depot at Goleta, California, to no effect. (Patrick Holscher)
USS PC-552 launched.
USS YMS-113 launched.