This day in the war in Europe 65 years ago

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EASTERN FRONT: 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.

NORTH AFRICA: 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.

NORTH AFRICA: 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.

EASTERN FRONT: Soviet landings at Kerch on the Black Sea in the eastern Crimea threaten some units of the German 11.Armee which continues their attacks on Sevastopol.

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

NORTH AFRICA: 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 3Commando 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.

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

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

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.

NORTH AFRICA: 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: 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.
.... The government of New Zealand 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.

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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.

EASTERN FRONT: 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!"

NORTH AFRICA: 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.

EASTERN FRONT: While German Heeresgruppe Sud 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.

NORTH AFRICA: 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.

EASTERN FRONT: 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)

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

WESTERN FRONT: 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.

EASTERN FRONT: 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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WESTERN FRONT: 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.

NORTH AFRICA: 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: 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.

EASTERN FRONT: 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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WESTERN FRONT: 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.
....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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NORTH AFRICA: The government of Egypt breaks diplomatic relations with Bulgaria and Finland.

WESTERN FRONT: 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.
....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.

MEDITERRANEAN: 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.
....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."

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)."
....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.

EASTERN FRONT: 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.
....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.

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EASTERN FRONT: The government of Australia declares war on Bulgaria.

NORTH AFRICA: The government of Egypt breaks diplomatic relations with Vichy France.
....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.

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

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.

ENGLAND: 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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WESTERN FRONT: 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.

NORTH AFRICA: 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.

EASTERN FRONT: 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.

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NORTH AFRICA: Axis forces retreat from El Agheila to Agedabia.
....A flag of truce waving from the Italian positions around Halfaya Pass (Hellfire Pass) has for a moment brought a flash of chivalry and mercy into this ruthless war of tanks and bombs and bayonets. The white flag have immunity to an Italian medical officer bringing out five wounded Allied airmen so that they could receive attention from the South Africans besieging the position. He passes unmolested through the lines - lines from which only a few minutes before men had been sniping and shelling, aiming only to kill - and explained that the besieged Italians had no medical supplies with which to treat the wounded. It was therefore, he said only humane that the airmen - crew of a British bomber that had crashed in the Italian lines - should be brought out to their friends. Then the Italian officer is sent back under a safe conduct with a large supply of surgical dressings for his own wounded.
....The interesting question here-- just what were those Italians doing at Halfaya (Hellfir") Pass on 8 January 1942? The Axis forces had retreated from the Tobruk area (itself a good ways west of Halfaya) a month earlier, on 8 December, after losing the "Crusader" battle, and were now almost 500 miles (805 kilometers) to the west! The answer: a primarily-Italian garrison, built around the 55th Division Savona and under the orders of that division's commander, Lieutenant General Fedele De Giorgis, is still holding on despite being completely surrounded, badly outnumbered, 500 miles (805 kilometers) in the British rear, and (as seen by the situation with medical supplies cited below) running out of every essential. A sort of advanced outpost position to begin with (protecting the coastal route through the pass but easily outflanked by movement through the desert, which was exactly how the British began the "Crusader" offensive), they had been left behind but refused to surrender. The Italians tried to run some supplies into them using submarines (on one such run the sub in question was attacked by German Stukas as it surfaced near Sollum), but could only bring in a meager amount in that fashion.
....Pilots of No. 3 Squadron RAAF flying (P-40) Kittyhawks attack 35 Italian aircraft and eight Luftwaffe Bf 109s that are preparing to attack advancing British forces southeast of Agedabia. The Aussies claim seven aircraft destroyed and four probably destroyed vs. one Kittyhawk lost.

WESTERN FRONT: During the night of 8/9 January, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 151 aircraft to bomb German warships and the port area at Brest; 69 aircraft attack the warships and 49 hit the port area. In a second raid, 11 of 31 aircraft attack the port area at Cherbourg.

MEDITERRANEAN: In Baghdad, a court sentences Rashid Ali, who led an anti-British coup last year, to death in absentia.

ENGLAND: U.S. Major General James E Chaney is designated Commanding General US Army Forces in British Isles (USAFBI); he continues as the Chief, Special Observer Group, US Army (SPOBS).

UNITED STATES: Congress establishes the Office of Civilian Defense (OCD) which will be headed by New York City Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia.
.....The Federal Government orders the distillery industry to convert 60 percent of its whiskey-making capacity to ethyl alcohol production, a move that will sharply increase the availability of explosive smokeless powder.

EASTERN FRONTSoviet troops attack Mozhaysk west of Moscow. On the Northern front, the Soviet Army begins an offensive near Lake Ilmen.

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WESTERN FRONT: Unternehmen Paukenschlag ("roll of the kettledrums" ) descends upon the eastern seaboard of the U.S. like a "bolt from the blue." The first group of five German submarines takes up station off the east coast of the United States on this date. Over the next month, these boats (U-66, U-109, U-123, U-125 and U-130) will sink 26 Allied ships; the presence of the enemy off the eastern seaboard takes U.S. Navy antisubmarine forces by surprise. The first ship, the British freighter SS 'Cyclops', is sunk by 'U-123' 300 miles (483 kilometers) east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

NORTH AFRICA: The South African 2d Division of 30 Corps, British Eighth Army, attacks Sollum, just across the Egyptian border, and captures it early on 12 January. 13 Corps pursues Rommel's forces toward El Agheila, a strong natural position.

U.S.: The plan to dispatch the U.S. V Corps, reinforced, and air and supply forces to Northern Ireland (Operation MAGNET) is approved.

EASTERN FRONT: Soviet forces continue to push west ward on central front and cut the north-south Rzhev-Brvansk railway line.