This day in the war in Europe 65 years ago

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FRANCE: The second German submarine involved in Operation Drumbeat, U-123, sets sail from Lorient for North America.

LIBYA: Because of supply difficulties, which increase as pursuit progresses westward, elements of XIII Corps, British Eighth Army, are forced to remain in place. However, the Indian 4th Division seizes Barce, on the coast, and forward elements of the 7th Armoured Division force the Germans to retire from Antelat to Agedabia.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: German submarine U-79 is sunk about 69 nautical miles (129 kilometers) east of Tobruk, Libya, in position 32.15N, 25.19E,, by depth charges from the British destroyers HMS Hasty (H 24) and Hotspur (H 01); all 44 crewmen survive.


ST. PIERRE AND MIQUELON: Free French forces seize control of the colony of St. Pierre and Miquelon, two islands off the coast of Newfoundland. These islands had been governed by pro-Vichy French officials.

U.S.S.R.: The outer ring of Russian forts around Sevastopol is finally captured by the Germans.

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FRANCE: The third German submarine involved in Operation Drumbeat, U-66, sets sail from Lorient for North America.

LIBYA: A detachment of the 7th Armoured Division, XIII Corps, British Eighth Army, enters Benghazi and finds that the Germans have withdrawn.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: German submarine U-568 torpedoes and sinks the British corvette HMS Salvia (K 97) about 104 nautical miles (193 kilometers) west-northwest of Alexandria, Egypt, in position 31.46N, 28.00E. All 106 crewmen on the corvette are killed.

SAINT PIERRE AND MIQUELON: Free French Naval Forces take possession of the two islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon off the south coast of Newfoundland without firing a shot. A strong protest is lodged by U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull but after several weeks of bickering between U.S., Canadian and British diplomats and "the so called Free French" as Hull describes them the coup remains a fait accompli.

UNITED KINGDOM: The Avro Lancaster Mk. I enters service with No. 44 Squadron at RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire, England. The Lancaster does not make its operational debut until 3 March 1942.

UNITED STATES: The USN commissions the light cruiser USS Atlanta(CL-51) at the New York, New York Naval Shipyard. The USN now has 20 light cruisers in commission.

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Russia: The Soviet winter offensives continue to gain ground.
The Germans have lost significant strength at approximately 75 percent of their June strength. Guderian has less than 40 panzers available.

Libya: The British 8th Army enters Benghazi and Agedabia.

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ATLANTIC OCEAN: British submarine HMS/M H-31 (N 31) sailed from
Falmouth, Devon, England, and left its escort on 19 December for a
patrol in the Bay of Biscay, about 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers)
west-southwest of Brest, France. She is reported overdue today. The
cause of her loss is unknown but it is possibly a German minefield or a drifting
British mines. All hands are lost.

EGYPT: General Claude Auchinleck, Commander-in- Chief Middle East
Command, is notified that four RAF fighter squadrons are to be
transferred from the Middle East to the Far East.

U.S.S.R.: Soviet landings at Kerch on the Black Sea in the eastern
Crimea threaten some units of the German 11th Army which continues
their attacks on Sevastopol.

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FRANCE: The last two German U-boats involved with Operation DRUMBEAT,
U-109 and U-130, set sail from Lorient for the North American coast.

LIBYA: The British 7th Armored Division, XIII Corps, British Eighth
Army, attacks the German's Agedabia position, which is well-suited
by nature for defense, but makes no headway.

NORWAY: The first Combined Operations of the war against German-held
territory (Operation ARCHERY) takes place today when the British
Navy lands commandos on the island of Vaagsoe on the Norwegian west
coast. The Royal Navy has eight ships involved in the attack, the light cruiser
HMS Kenya (14); destroyers HMS Chiddingfold (L 31), Offa (G 29),
Onslow (G 17) and Oribi (G 66); submarine HMS/M Tuna (N 94); and troop
transports HMT Prince Charles and Prince Leopold. The commandos are
from the Royal Army's 3 Commando with six troops, supported by two troops
from No 2 Commando and the Norwegian Independent Company 1 known in
Norway as the Linge Company (Kompani Linge) for a total of 51 officers and 525 other ranks (enlisted men). Air cover is provided by the RAF with
two squadrons of Beaufighter Mk. Is and three squadrons of Blenheim Mk.
IVFs supporting the troops while two squadrons of Hampden Mk. Is attack
the fortress at Rugsuns in the target area, including making smoke, six
Blenheim Mk. IVs attack German shipping near Sola Aerodrome to intercept the fighters from flying north to Vaagsoe. Thirteen Blenheims
attacked Herdla Aerodrome, so the German fighters could not land
here after being over the target area and refuel and rearm. The object of this
raid is, while harassing the German defences on the coast of Norway,
is to attack and destroy a number of military and economic targets in the
town of south Vaagsoe, including the nearby island of Maaloy, and to
capture or sink German shipping found in Ulvesund. Once ashore, the
island of Maaloy and the town of south Vaagsoe is to be captured and
anything of value to the Germans, such as fish oil factories, destroyed.
After carrying out a number of rehearsals the force sailed on 24 December,
arriving at an anchorage yesterday. Very heavy weather is encountered.
During the passage the secretary to the captain of one of the infantry
landing ships invites the commanding officer to his cabin and shows
him a table moving rhythmically up and down the wall, a distance of
some 6 inches (25,4 centimeters) . It is eventually discovered that this
levitation is due to the heavy seas, which is literally squeezing the sides of the ship. The infantry landing ships suffer some damage. This is repaired, but since the weather does not immediately abate, it is decided to postpone the operation for 24 hours. The men are therefore able to eat their Christmas dinner in comfort. The weather having improved, the force sails at 1600 hours yesterday with the promise of still further improvement. By the time the Norwegian coast is reached, weather conditions are perfect. In the van was the light cruiser HMS Kenya and in line astern came the infantry landing ships. While it is still dark, landfall is made exactly at the estimated position and time. When the attack was over ten RAF aircraft are lost, two of ten Hampdens over the target area, two of 14 Beaufighters over the target area, four of six Blenheims while attacking a enemy convoy off the southwest coast and two of 13 Blenheims are lost during attacking Herdla Aerodrome.
Ninety eight German prisoners are taken back to the U.K. Probably four
German aircraft were lost over the target area. The attack was a success
and the idea of Combined Operations was adjusted and used later during the
war.
The raid is enough to persuade German Chancellor Adolf Hitler to
divert 30,000 troops to Norway, upgrade coastal and inland defences, and
send the battleships Gneisenau, Scharnhorst and Tirpitz and the heavy
cruisers Admiral Hipper, Lutzow and Prinz Eugen to Norway, a major
diversion of effort and forces that could have had significant impact
elsewhere. Hitler mistakenly thought that the British might invade northern
Norway to put pressure on Sweden and Finland.

UNITED STATES: Rubber rationing is instituted by the U.S. government, due to shortages caused by World War II. Tires are the first items to be restricted by law.

Winston Churchill became the first British prime minister to address a joint meeting of the United States Congress.

U.S.S.R.: The Red Army continues its counter-offensive in the
Kalinin
area 100 miles (161 kilometers) northwest of Moscow.

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CZECHOSLOVAKIA: The British commence Operation ANTHROPOID, the assassination of SS-Obergruppenfuhre r (U.S. Lieutenant General) Reinhard Heydrich, the German Protector of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.� During the night of 28/29 December, two Czech resistance
fighters, Jozef GabcÃ*k and Jan Kubis, are dropped by parachute into Czechoslovakia landing near Pilsen. They are to get in touch with the Czech underground and help them plan acts of resistance.

GERMANY: The final RAF Bomber Command bombing raids of the year are made during the night of 28th/29th December when 217 sorties were flown with Wilhelmshaven, Hüls and Emden the main targets.

LIBYA: XIII Corps, British Eighth Army, continues the assault on Agedabia with the 22d Armoured Brigade, 7th Armoured Division, whose tank strength by this time has been greatly reduced because of mechanical failure. After a futile effort to get behind the Axis position, the 22d
Armoured Brigade falls back to El Haseiat. Both sides suffer heavy tank losses. The Italian Trieste Division captures key documents in a British Command Tank.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: German submarine U-75 is sunk about 138 nautical miles (256 kilometers) east of Tobruk, Libya, in position 31.50N, 26.40E, by depth charges from the British destroyer HMS Kipling (F 91); 30 of the 44 crewmen survive.

NEW ZEALAND: The government scrapes the bottom of the manpower barrel and comes up with three battalions to defend the country. There are no tanks, very few guns, and almost no vehicles. However, the New Zealand 2nd Division is regrouping in Egypt to continue battling the Axis forces.

UNITED STATES: The USN Chief of Bureau of Yards and Docks, Vice Admiral Ben Moreell, requests authority from the Bureau of Navigation to create a contingent of construction units able to build everything from airfields to roads under battlefield conditions. These units will be
known as the "Seabees" for the first letters of Construction Battalion.

U.S.S.R.: The Germans make some gains in the Fort Stalin area during their attacks on Sevastopol with the 22nd and 24th Divisions.

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UNITED STATES: All German, Italian and Japanese aliens in
California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington and are ordered to surrender contraband.

U.S.S.R.: The seaport town of Feodosia, on the shores of the Black Sea on the eastern Crimea, is the scene of new Soviet landings with troops of the 51st and 44th Armies. These forces along with those of the 26th Army at Kerch will pose a serious threat to the German Eleventh Army.
The Germans will halt their advance on Sevastopol to eliminate this threat. Feodosia was captured by the German 46th and 170th Infantry Divisions on 3 November. As the attack on Sevastopol was about to take place, most of the German forces were withdrawn to concentrate on the
forthcoming battle. Left behind in the city were a small detachment of troops and all the wounded soldiers convalescing in the city's hospitals.
On 18 January 1942, after their failure to capture Sevastopol, the Germans are able to return and recapture Feodosia. They find that most of the German military personnel had been murdered. Wounded soldiers had
been thrown out of the windows of the hospital to make room for Russian wounded. Water was then poured on the near dead bodies and then left to freeze. On the beach, piles of bodies are found where they were thrown
from a wall several meters high after being beaten and mutilated, their bodies left in the surf so that the sea water froze and covered them with a sheet of ice. There are about 12 survivors who had hidden in cellars when the Russian troops arrived. Their testimony before a German court of inquiry confirmed that some 160 wounded soldiers are
liquidated this way.

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CANADA: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrives in Ottawa after his talks with U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt over strategy to win the war with Germany. In a speech to Parliament this evening, Churchill quips, "When I warned them (the French) that Britain would fight
on alone, whatever they did, their Generals told their Prime
Minister and his divided cabinet that in three weeks, England would have her neck wrung like a chicken - Some chicken! Some neck!"

LIBYA: After another costly and unsuccessful tank battle for
Agedabia, during which the British 22d Armoured Brigade is rendered ineffective as a fighting force, XIII Corps of the British Eighth Army suspends their assault pending the arrival of reinforcements. German tanks have proved superior both mechanically and in gun power.

U.S.S.R.: While German Army Group South continues their offensive against Sevastopol, Soviet Caucasian troops make an amphibious assault against the eastern Crimea and seize Kerch and Feodosia. On the central front, the Germans continue to withdraw from the Moscow area under
Red Army pressure.

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CANADA: In Ottawa, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill faces the press, and is asked about Yugoslavia, where partisans, Germans, Italians, and German puppet troops are chasing each other round the mountains.
"They are fighting with the greatest vigor and on quite a large scale, and we don't hear very much of what is going on there. It is all very terrible. Guerilla warfare and the most frightful atrocities by the Germans and Italians, and every kind of torture, but the people keep the flag flying."
The RCAF has 14 squadrons operating overseas, seven more authorized; plus 16 at home, including eight on the West Coast.

LIBYA: On the Libyan-Egyptian frontier, the South African 2nd Division. assisted by the 1st Army Tank Brigade of XXX Corps, British Eighth Army, attacks and penetrates the Bardia fortress, on the main road from Tobruk to Egypt.
During the day, the British light cruiser HMS Ajax (22), the
Australian destroyers HMAS Napier (G 97), Nestor (G 02) and Nizam (G3 and the British destroyers HMS Arrow (H 42), Gurkha (G 63) and Kingston (F64), bombard German defenses at Bardia.

UNITED STATES:
America's last automobiles with chrome-plated trim are
manufactured today. Starting tomorrow, chrome plating becomes illegal. It is part of an effort to conserve resources for the American war effort but the chrome is not missed too much because virtually no automobiles are produced in the U.S. from 1942 through the end of World War II.

U.S.S.R: The Germans on the southern front break off attacks on Sevastopol in order to counter Soviet thrusts from Kerch and Feodosia. On the central front. Red Army troops seize Kaluga, southwest of Moscow.
Losses on the Eastern front for the Red Army total at least 5 million casualties, 3 million prisoners, 20,000 tanks and 30,000 guns.
Despite these losses the Soviets will retain initiative on the front well into spring.

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FINLAND: The Red Army starts an offensive against the Finns on the Maaselka Isthmus between the Lake Onega and White Sea. The Soviet force includes six divisions (71st, 186th, 263th, 289th, 313th, 367th), three
Marine Brigades (61st, 65th, 66th) and a ski brigade. Their
objective is to recapture the town of Karhumaki (Medvezhjegorsk) and the western stretch of the Murmansk railway. The defending Finnish II Corps has two divisions (4th and 8th) and one brigade (1st Jaeger), the Soviet
attackers seven divisions and two brigades. The Finnish troops are still suffering from the effects of the six-month long offensive, and the men are eagerly waiting to go home - a partial demobilization had been promised after the Finnish offensive ended in December. The Soviet offensive
is able to penetrate the Finnish defences near the village of Krivi, and the fighting rages on for weeks. In early February, after both sides had suffered considerable losses, the Finns are able to push the Red Army back. (Mikko Harmeinen)

LIBYA: XXX Corps, British Eighth Army, renews their assault on Bardia after nightfall.


NETHERLANDS: The Germans take over Dutch radio stations. Publication of the only authorised program guide, De Luistergids, begins.



UNITED STATES: The Declaration of the United Nations is signed by 26 nations in Washington, D.C. The original signatories are Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, India,
Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Poland, South Africa, the U.K., the U.S., the U.S.S.R., and Yugoslavia. The parties pledge to uphold the Atlantic Charter, to employ all their resources in the
war against the Axis powers and agree not to negotiate a separate peace with Germany, Italy or Japan. The Atlantic Charter and its eight principles are:
(1) the renunciation of territorial aggression;
(2) territorial changes only with consent of the peoples concerned;
(3) restoration of sovereign rights and self-government;
(4) access to raw materials for all nations;
(5) world economic cooperation;
(6) freedom from fear and want;
(7) freedom of the seas;
( disarmament of aggressors are also endorsed by the signatories at the Arcadia Conference.

U.S. Attorney General Francis Biddle, issues orders to all
German, Italian and Japanese aliens to hand in their short-wave radios, cameras and firearms to their local police stations. They are also forbidden to change their address without permission and, if living on the east
coast, to obey a 2100 to 0600 hour curfew.

Joseph Stalin is named "Time" magazine's "Man of the Year" for 1941.

The U.S. Office of Production Management prohibits the sales of new cars and trucks to civilians. All automakers dedicate their plants entirely to the war effort. By the end of the month, domestic car manufacture has stopped. Automobile plants are converted wholesale to the
manufacture of bombers, jeeps, military trucks, and other equipment.

U.S.S.R.: The Red Army continues a broad offensive throughout January with spectacular success in some sectors, but is unable to relieve the besieged ports of Leningrad and Sevastopol.

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FRANCE: During the night of 2/3 January, 27 RAF Bomber Command
Wellingtons and Stirlings attack the German fleet at Brest and nine
Whitleys and Manchesters bomb the port area at St. Nazaire.

LIBYA: The Italian Bardia garrison, under pressure of the South
African 2nd Division and British 1st Armoured Brigade (XXX Corps, British
Eighth Army), surrenders early in day. The British capture 7,000 troops.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: The British tug HMS Daisy founders in the eastern
Mediterranean while on passage from Alexandria, Egypt, to Tobruk, Libya.

UNITED STATES: President Franklin D Roosevelt announces the
beginning of the Liberty Ship program, i.e., the construction of 200 merchant
ships of a standardized design.
The first organized lighter-than- air units of World War II, Airship Patrol Group One (ZPG-1) and Airship Squadron Twelve (ZP-12) are established at Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey. The USN is the only military service in the world to use non-rigid airships--also known as blimps--during the war.

U.S.S.R.: German Chancellor Adolf Hitler forbids the German Ninth Army to make any further withdrawals, "not one inch of ground."
On the central front in Russia, the Soviet Army achieves a breakthrough at Rshev.

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FRANCE: During the night of 3/4 January, 14 RAF Bomber Command
Wellingtons and four Stirlings attack the German fleet at Brest; one
Wellington
is lost.

NETHERLANDS: During the night of 3/4 January, RAF Bomber Command
dispatches ten Hampdens on minelaying mission in the Frisian
Islands; one
aircraft is lost.

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AUSTRALIA: In Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, the War
Cabinet today agrees to a British request for the transfer of the Australian
I Corps, comprising the veteran 6th and 7th Divisions, from the Middle East to Southeast Asia. In December, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill assured the Australian Prime Minister, John Curtin, that he would do everything possible to strengthen the whole Far Eastern front from Rangoon, Burma, to Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.

EGYPT: The government breaks diplomatic relations with Bulgaria and
Finland.

FRANCE: During the night of 5/6 January, RAF Bomber Command
dispatches 154 aircraft, 89 Wellingtons and 65 of other types, to attack German fleet units and the port area at Brest. Eighty seven aircraft are
ordered to bomb the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau; 73 do. The
remainder are ordered to bomb the naval docks and 65 do. A smoke-screen
prevents accurate bombing but large fires are claimed. Another target is the
port area at Cherbourg; 16 of the 37 aircraft dispatched bomb the
port.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: The Italian submarine R.Smg. Ammiraglio Saint Bon
is sunk at 0542 hours local by a torpedo from the British submarine
HMS/M Upholder (N 99) north of Milazzo, Sicily, in position 38.02N,
15.22E. The Italian submarine is en route to Libya carrying 155 tons of
gasoline (petrol) and ammunition. The torpedo hits on the starboard side
causing the gasoline to explode. There are only three survivors.
In the Ionian Sea, the 5,413 ton Italian auxiliary cruiser and
former passenger ship SS Citta di Palermo, is en route from
Brindisi, Italy, to Patras, Greece, escorting the motor vessel MV Calino. On
board SS Citta di Palermo are about 600 Italian troops. At 0800 hours. when
30 miles (48 kilometers) northwest of Cape Dukato, Lefkas Island,
Ionian Islands, Greece, she is struck by two torpedoes fired by HMS/M
Proteus (N 29). The Palermo took only six minutes to sink. There were a few
survivors but almost all on board went down with the ship.

MIDDLE EAST: British General Claude E. Auchinleck, Commander in
Chief Middle East Command, is given responsibility for Iraq and Iran.
Lieutenant General Edward P. Quinan's forces in Iraq become the
British Tenth Army, corresponding to the British Ninth Army under General Sir
Henry Maitland Wilson in Syria.
The British 18th and Indian 17th Divisions are both being moved
from the Middle East to Bombay, India; Ceylon; and Singapore,
Malaya, with "utmost dispatch."

NETHERLANDS: The Dutch Council of Churches today delivers a public
protest against what it describes as "the complete lawlessness" of
the Nazis in their treatment of Dutch Jews. Despite the protest - the
latest of many by the Dutch people - the round-up and deportation of Jews is certain to continue. A year ago all Dutch Jews were ordered to
register with the occupation authorities. Soon afterwards, the deportations
to the stone quarries at Mauthausen slave labour camp, near Linz, Austria,
began; few deportees survive for more than a few months.


POLAND: The Communist Polish Workers Party is founded in Warsaw by
Marceli Nowotko, Pawel Finder and Boleslaw Molojec. The old
Communist Party of Poland had been liquidated at Stalin's order in 1938-39.

UNITED STATES: The government orders all men between the ages of 20
and 44 to register for the draft (conscription) by 16 February.
The U.S. Senate Committee investigating Hollywood war propaganda
is dissolved.
Today is the deadline for enemy aliens in San Francisco, California, to surrender radio transmitters, shortwave receivers and precision
cameras to the U.S. Army's Western Defense Command. Also
Japanese-American selective service registrants are classified as
enemy aliens (IV-C) and many Japanese-American soldiers are discharged or assigned to menial labor such as "kitchen police (KP)." (Jack McKillop)
A change in USN regulations, covering display of National insignia
on aircraft, returned the star to the upper right and lower left
wing surfaces and revised rudder striping to 13 red and white horizontal
stripes.

U.S.S.R.: The Soviet Army lands reinforcements on the Crimean coast
near Eupatoria and Sudak. in an effort to break the siege of the
Sevastopol naval base, but can make little headway against firm
German resistance. On the central front south of Kaluga, Soviet forces hold
Belev, west of the Oka River. Action on northern front along the Volkhov River is indecisive.
Carried away by recent small successes and against the advice
of his chief of general staff, General Georgii Zhukov, Premier Joseph
Stalin orders a general offensive along the entire eastern front.

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Come you guys.... I know there are plenty of experts out there that can contribute.......I would like to learn something about the ETO/MTO theater too.....


AUSTRALIA: The government advises the British Government that the Australian 6th and 7th Divisions will be sent to the Far East. The government of Australia declares war on Bulgaria.

EGYPT: The government breaks diplomatic relations with Vichy France.

FRANCE: During the night of 6/7 January, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 31 Wellingtons to bomb the German warships at Brest; 27 bomb the targets. No special bombing results are claimed but a bomb which fell
alongside the battleship Gneisenau holed the hull and flooded two compartments. Two Wellingtons also bomb the port area at Cherbourg

GERMANY: During the night of 6/7 January, RAF Bomber Command dispatches Hampdens to bomb six cities: five hit Essen, three attack Munster, two each bomb Cologne and Emden, and one each attack Aachen and Oldenburg.

LIBYA: The British 1st Armoured Division, which has recently arrived from the U. K. and relieved the 7th Armoured Division of XIII Corps, British Eighth Army, reaches Antelat. The port at Derna opens to traffic.

The deployment of German and Italian troops along the line El Agheila-Marada is completed. As the Germans take delivery of 55 new tanks, the British advance
reaches Mersa Brega and El Agheila.


NORWAY: RAF Bomber Command dispatches 11 Whitleys to bomb Stavanger Airfield; nine bomb the field.



UNITED KINGDOM: Self-service cafeterias operated by local
authorities as a cheap way of eating out have been named British Restaurants at the suggestion of Prime Minister Winston Churchill. They developed out of emergency services created during the Blitz to feed people who were
bombed out of their homes. Their popularity has led to plans to open more of them. The average price of meals is between 10 pence and a shilling.
For that one can get roast meat, two vegetables, pudding, bread and butter and coffee.

UNITED STATES: In his annual State of the Union message to Congress, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said today that Americas land, sea and air forces would be sent to Britain. He also announces massive increases
in war production, including more than doubling the rate of aircraft building. This was his first speech to Congress since the war began.
Mr Roosevelt spoke warmly of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who recently addressed the same audience, and wished him a safe return.
Roosevelt submits a budget request of US$59 billion for Fiscal Year 1943 (with inflation, that is US$707 billion in year 2005 dollars). He also announces that the first year of a supercharged production schedule would result in 45,000 aircraft, 45,000 tanks, 20,000 antiaircraft guns, and 8 million tons in new ships; this will be upped to Forecasts for 1943 of 125,000 planes, 75,000 tanks and 11 million tons of shipping in 1943. Congressmen are stunned at the proposal, but Roosevelt is undeterred: "These figures and similar figures for a multitude of other implements of war will give the Japanese and Nazis a little idea of just
what they accomplished. "
Leland Ford, Los Angeles, California, member of the House of Representatives, in a telegram to Secretary of State Cordell Hull, asks that all Japanese Americans be removed from the West Coast stating, "I do not believe that we could be any too strict in our consideration of the
Japanese in the face of the treacherous way in which they do things."
The Second Marine Brigade (Brigadier General Henry L. Larsen, USMC) embarked in troop transports (former Matson Line passenger liners) SS Lurline, SS Monterey and SS Matsonia, and cargo ship USS Jupiter (AK-43) and ammunition ship USS Lassen (AE-3) sails from San Diego, California, for Pago Pago, American Samoa. The initial escort is provided by Task Force 17 comprised of the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown (CV-5), the heavy cruiser USS Louisville (CA-2, the light cruiser USS St. Louis (CL-49) and three destroyers.
In baseball, Cleveland Indians star pitcher Bob Feller, winner of 76 games in three previous seasons, follows Detroit Tigers' outfielder Hank Greenberg into the military. Feller, saying, "I've always wanted to be on the winning side," enlists in the Navy and reports to Norfolk, Virginia, for duty. During the 44 months he spent in the Navy, most
of the time he was stationed aboard the battleship U.S.S. Alabama (BB- 60) in the gunnery department where he earned eight Battle Stars.
The Pan American Airways Boeing B-314A, msn 2083, registered NC18609 and named "Pacific Clipper." arrives in New York City after making the first round-the-world trip by a commercial airplane. This aircraft was in Auckland, New Zealand on 8 December 1941, and returned to the
U.S. flying westward via Australia, the East Indies, India, Africa, South America and Trinidad, a total of 31,500 miles (50 594 kilometers).

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FRANCE: During the night of 7/8 January, 62 of the 68 RAF Bomber Command Wellingtons dispatched attack German warships at Brest; and 25 of 27 aircraft dispatched attack the port area at St. Nazaire.

LIBYA: XIII Corps, British Eighth Army, patrols to Agedabia and finds that the Axis forces have withdrawn. A convoy arrives safely at Benghazi but because of rough seas, this port is not put into full operation.

U.S.S.R.: Soviet forces attack to the north and south of Mozhaisk. On the southern flank of the advance, Meshchovsk is captured.

YUGOSLAVIA: German troops launch their second anti-partisan offensive, driving Marshal Josip Tito's forces 50 miles (80 kilometers) south. Despite the retreat and heavy losses, Tito's men fight on.