http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/02.htm
December 2nd, 1941
UNITED KINGDOM:
Destroyers HMS Musketeer and Blackmore launched.
Destroyer HMS Marne commissioned.
Submarine HMS Turbulent commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
FRANCE: Paris: German army doctor Kerscher is wounded by a pistol shot. In the Boulvard Auguste Blanqui there is a bomb attack on the RNP offices.
FINLAND: The last Soviet troops evacuate Hanko (Hangö), the base forcibly leased from Finland after the Winter War. (Mikko Härmeinen)
U.S.S.R.: With the Kremlin in sight, at 20 miles, some German units reach the northern suburbs of Moscow. Kluge’s forces west of Moscow renew their efforts but General Winter’s cold temperatures are not on the German’s side.
NORTH AFRICA: Between today and the 6th, the fighting in is very confused for both the Germans and the British. The British armour is regrouping near Bir el Gubi in the south. Rommel is trying to contain Tobruk, disrupt the British armour and aid Axis troops at Bardia, Sollum and Halfaya Pass. These scattered efforts further weaken the Germans.
JAPAN: Tokyo: The Premier, Hideki Tojo, publicly rejects US proposals for peace. The Japanese carrier force “Kido Butai” sailing for the Hawaiian Islands and the target of Pearl Harbor receives a special radio signal: “Climb Mount Niitaka 1208”, from Japanese Combined Fleet Commander Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto. This is the order to execute the attack on Pearl Harbor.
SINGAPORE: HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse arrive. The capitol ships represent a British deterrence in the Far East.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: IJN reconnaissance plane spotted over Clark at dawn.
Unknown aircraft off Luzon coast tracked by radar at Iba.
CANADA:
Destroyer HMCS St Clair completed refit and assigned to EG-14.
Patrol vessel HMCS Elk completed refit and departed for Trinidad.
Tug HMCS Andy assigned to Halifax, Nova Scotia. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: President Roosevelt orders that three small ships, former yachts, be sent off the coast of Indo China as pickets in Admiral Hart’s Asiatic Squadron. One of them is Fleet Yacht USS ISABEL, LANIKAI is one of the others. (73, 74) (Matt Clark and Marc James Small)
15 atomic scientists, including the Soviet spy Klaus Fuchs, arrive from Britain to join the US atomic research project.
First Naval Armed Guard detachment (7 men under a coxswain) of World War II reports to Liberty ship, SS Dunboyne. (Dave Shirlaw)
Interesting piece on Japanese commentary concerning God, Hawaii and peace. Sounds like something coming from an Islamic state in current events.
When you receive a "War Warning" it might be a good idea to have a Combat Air Patrol over your bases in case your potential enemy tries something.
An Imperial Japanese Navy plane that deep into American airspace should have been shot down and we should have been demanding that Japan explain this aggressive act. Instead it just flies off. Crud like this is why Brereton and MacArthur bear a lot of responsibility for the disaster in the Philippines.