Axis Diplomacy

After invading the Celebes and Dutch Borneo, Japan declares war on the Dutch East Indies.

Battle of the Atlantic

• A US steamer is sunk by U-123 off New York. The U-boats operating off the east coast of America enjoy what amounts to peacetime conditions. Neither shipping nor coastal towns are blacked-out, buoys are lit and there are no sophisticated anti-submarine defenses in place.
• The British steamer Quickstep (2722t) sinks on a mine southeast of Harwich with the loss of 12 crewmen. 16 of the crew are rescued.
• U-123 sinks the British steamer Cyclops 125 miles southeast of Cape Sable, Nova Scotia with the loss of 87 passengers and crew. 95 survivors are picked up by the Canadian minesweeper Red Deer and taken to Halifax.
• U-43 sinks the Swedish steamer Yngaren (5246t) 600 miles west of Ireland with the loss of 38 of her crew. 2 survivors are picked up a 10 February by a British fishing trawler.

Black Sea

The battleship Parizhskaya Kommuna again bombards German positions on the Crimean coast.

Diplomatic Relations

The US-Mexican Joint Defense Commission is established.

Dutch East Indies

After fierce fighting Tarakan is taken by the Japanese. Tarakan and Manado in the Celebes are quickly made into air bases to support the Japanese advance.

Eastern Front

Field Marshal Walther von Reichenau, commander of Army Group South, suffers a heart attack. He was an ardent Nazi even before Hitler's rise to power. This misfortune means Hitler will be deprived of a senior field commander he could trust.[MORE]

Germany, Command

As Red Army units threaten to cut off 100,000 troops around Demyansk, the commander of Army Group North, Leeb, requests permission to retreat. Hitler refuses, whereupon Leeb resigns. He is replaced byt Georg von Küchler.

Malaya

Elements of the Japanese 25th Army enter Kuala Lumpur. The capture of the capital enables Japanese forces to resupply its units for he subsequent drive into soutnern Malaya against Johore and Singapore.

Mediterranean

U-374 is sunk by the British submarine Unbeaten off Catania, Sicily with the loss of 42 of her crew. 1 crewman is taken prisoner.

North Africa

Rommel agrees with a proposal from his subordinates that they should prepare a surprise counteroffensive against the British. To preserve security neither the German nor Italian High Command are told of the plans. Even during the retreat in December the Germans were receiving new supplies of tanks and more arrived on 5 January. The British forces are going to be reduced by the withdrawal of the 2 Australian divisions to face the Japanese, and 7th Armored Brigade will also go. Other units earmarked for 8th Army will be diverted in transit.

Rommel Conversing with His Staff near El Agheila, 12 January 1942

Pacific

The Dutch steamer Toboali (984t) is sunk by Japanese bombing at Bagan Siapi, south of Sineboi, in the Malacca Strait. She is later raised and repaired by the Japanese and renamed Aki Maru.

Philippines

On Luzon the Japanese press hard on the eastern sector of the Bataan peninsula, defended by the American-Filipino II Corps. The Filipino 51st Div loses ground, but succeeds in counterattacking when reserves come up as reinforcements. On the east coast of the peninsula the Japanese re-establish the bridgehead over the Calaguiman River lost in the previous day's counterattack by the Americans.

United States, Home Front

The National War Labor Board is established with wide-ranging powers to settle industrial disputes.

War Crimes

(13th?)In a conference in London, leaders of nine occupied European nations and China issue a resolution that says Axis officials will be tried for war crimes 'whether they have ordered them, perpetrated them or in any way participated in them.'

Yugoslavia, Politics

Gen Dusan Simovic resigns and Professor Yovanovic becomes Premier of the exile government. Gen Mihailovic, leader of the Chetniks, Serbian partisans, is appointed Minister of National Defense and Commander-in-Chief of all Yugoslav resistance forces.