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http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/12.htm

December 12th, 1941

UNITED KINGDOM: Destroyers HMS Panther and Paladin commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)

GERMANY: U-458 commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
NORWAY: First Combined Operation took part in the attack against Vaagsøy on the Norwegian coast. It was the first time the Royal Navy, Army and Air Force (Bomber command and Coastal Command) “was under one leader”. (Torstein)

U.S.S.R.: The Red Army forces Guderian back from Stalinogorsk.

Italian GENERAL UGO DE CAROLIS, commanding the infantry elements of the Torino Division, is killed while directing the advance of a column from that division on the Russian front. (Michael F. Yaklich)

ROMANIA declares war on the United States. (Dave Shirlaw)

SPAIN: U-575 was supported in the Spanish harbor Vigo from 2130hrs to 0200hrs. (Dave Shirlaw)

THAILAND: Japanese troops infiltrate Burma.

BURMA: 3rd Squadron American Volunteer Group - Chinese Nationalist Air Force, ground echelon, leaves by train from Toungoo for Rangoon’s Mingaldon Air Base. Locals aware of our move as we were greeted with at each station stop with smiles and cheers plus gifts if fruit, rice candy and a betel nut chew through the train cars windows. Tried the betel nut for the first and last time ever. (Chuck Baisden)(personal diary)

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Captain Jesus A. Villamor led the P-26As of the 6th Pursuit Squadron, the only ones of their type to see action in World War II. Villamor shoots down a Mitsubishi G3M2 of the 1st Kokutai over Batangas. (Rob George and Matt Clark)

This was the 6th Pursuit Squadron of the Philippine Air Force, not the US Army Air Forces. This squadron operated 12 Boeing P-26A Peashooters, open cockpit monoplane fighters with a top speed of 235 mph (378 km/h), from Batangas, Luzon. (Jack McKillop)

2,500 Japanese soldiers of the 16th Division land at Legaspi, Luzon. Known as the Kimura Detachment, this landing on southern Luzon forms part of a pincer tactic.

MALAYA: Last night Japanese units advancing from Singora attack positions of the 11th Indian Division at Jitra. After a brief fight the British forces withdraw.

HONG KONG: Insect class gunboat HMS Moth is scuttled in dry dock in Hong Kong harbour. She is raised by the Japanese and renamed Suma, but is finally destroyed on 19 March 1945 when she sets off an American mine in the Yangtse river above Nanking. (Alex Gordon)(108)

PACIFIC OCEAN: SS Shinai (2,410 GRT) privately owned (George L. Shaw) Canadian merchantman off Kuching, captured by the Imperial Japanese Navy off northern Borneo. At least one man, the Chief Engineer, is known to have died during his time as a POW of the Japanese. The ship was renamed Shinai Maru and was sunk by Allied a/c on 17 Sep 44. (Dave Shirlaw)

CANADA: Algerine-class minesweepers HMCS Sault Ste Marie (ex-HMCS The Soo), Winnipeg, St Boniface, Portage, Wallaceburg, Border Cities, Middlesex, Oshawa, Kapuskasing and Rockcliffe ordered. (Dave Shirlaw)

U.S.A.: Naval Air Transport Service is established. (Dave Shirlaw)

Haiti, Honduras, Panama declare war on Germany and Italy. (Dave Shirlaw)

CARIBBEAN SEA: SS Nereus (10,653 GRT) Canadian Saguenay Terminals bulk carrier, (ex-USN collier) disappeared in the Caribbean Sea. There were no survivors from the 61 passengers and crew that were onboard. The cause of her loss has never been established although sabotage was originally suspected. RAdm George van Deurs, USN (Retired) who had served in this class of ship, has suggested the class was poorly constructed to begin with and that the natural acidity of coal seriously weakened the ship’s plating and frame. It is now generally accepted that both Nereus and sister ship Proteus were unseaworthy and broke up in heavy seas. (Dave Shirlaw)