http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/05.htm
December 5th, 1941
UNITED KINGDOM: AA cruiser HMS Cleopatra commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
FRANCE: Paris: German Major Friese is wounded by two pistol shots from a cyclist on the Left Bank, a fusillade of shots at Germans at the Porte d’Issy and a bomb explosion in Boulevard Blanqui. For the Germans this means not sitting in the cafes’ glass terraces, for Parisians it means body searches, queues and the continual demand for papiers. On the Boulevard Malsherbes there is an attempted assassination of an MSR leader.
GERMANY:
U-175 commissioned.
U-273 laid down.
U-218 launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.S.R.: Hitler agrees to a halt in the offensive towards Moscow, due to growing German weakness.
The Soviets launch a major counter-offensive.
The German Fliegerkorps II and Luftlotte 2 are ordered, by Hitler, from the Eastern Front to the MEDITERRANEAN SEA: The goal is to disrupt the attacks from Malta against the Axis supply convoys for North Africa.
A friendship and mutual aid agreement between the Soviets and General Sikorski, of the Polish Government in Exile in London, is signed in Moscow.
Tokyo: JAPAN: assures the USA that its build-up of troops in Indochina is a purely defensive measure.
AUSTRALIA: The government today cancelled all army leave as the prospect of war with Japan grows more likely. Japanese convoys are on the move in Asia, and the only question now seems to be where, not whether, they will strike.
Allied forces have been brought to the first degree of readiness. Australian service chiefs have been summoned and the Australian war cabinet has issued orders for emergency measures in the Pacific.
However, Australia has the bulk of its army strength - three divisions - in North Africa and the Middle East. So far there is no question of their return, as the war cabinet does not believe that there is an immediate threat to Australia.
Meanwhile, John Curtin, the Australian prime minister, is anxiously following the efforts of the United States to negotiate with the Japanese and thereby avert an extension of the European war to the Pacific. The government here wonders whether, if negotiations fail, the United States will take the lead in armed defence against Japanese aggression. Despite the links with Britain and the British base at Singapore, it is the Americans are seen as potentially the major Allied power in the Pacific.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Visit by Admiral Sir Tom Phillips, commander of the British Far East Squadron. Phillips met with MacArthur and Hart at Cavite. Phillips requests assignment of two destroyer divisions to operate with HMS Repulse and HMS Renown. Hart demurs. Hart receives message from Captain John Creighton, USN, his liaison officer in Singapore, that the British had been informed by the US government that the US would enter the war on the British side if one of several possibilities occurred. Hart requested further information from the Navy Department.
COMYANGPAT is dissolved as the Yangtze gunboats arrive at Cavite. (Marc James Small)
Radar at Iba picks up contact fifty miles off shore after evening dusk and patrol of P-40’s is vectored in to discover a flight of Zero fighters, which turn north when they spot the American aircraft.
Hart receives message from Captain John Creighton, USN, his liaison officer in Singapore, that the British had been informed by the US government that the US would enter the war on the British side if one of several possibilities occurred. Hart requested further information from the Navy Department.
Japanese Foreign Ministry advises Commonwealth Government that the Japanese counsel would be remaining in the Home Islands for a while due to a “cold”.
(Marc Small)
During the late afternoon, MacArthur, through Sutherland, directs that FEAF aircraft encountering unknown aircraft in international airspace are to act defensively but, if such are encountered within Philippine airspace, they are to be attacked and shot down.
Isabel reaches Camranh Bay, is discovered by Japanese patrol aircraft, and is ordered by Hart to return to Manila.
(Marc Small)
U.S.A.: Knox advises cabinet meeting that the Japanese fleet was at sea. He suggested they were heading south, but Roosevelt suggested that they might be headed north. The reference is presumably to the strike force directed against the Philippines and Malaya, as the Pearl Harbor strike force was under radio silence.
Destroyer USS Emmons commissioned.
USS Lexington sails with Task Force 12 to ferry Marine aircraft to Midway, leaving no carriers at Pearl Harbor. (Dave Shirlaw)
Wasn’t it Fliegerkorps X that was sent to the Med?
Have we started the ‘when/where will the Japanese attack’ betting pool yet? My money is that they will attack around the 20th starting near Vladivostok.
Who is in?