http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/05.htm
January 5th, 1941
UNITED KINGDOM: Ireland is to take the brunt of the British system of issuing Navicerts. The Minister of Economic Warfare announced that after January 22, exports from Eire will be as liable to search on the high seas as exports from enemy territory, unless the cargo is accompanied by a navicert.
London:
Amy Johnson, the airwoman who made flying history with her 10,000 mile solo flight to Australia ten years ago, is feared to have died when the aircraft she was ferrying for the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) crashed into the Thames Estuary. There was no enemy air activity at the time, and it is thought that 38-year-old Miss Johnson lost her way in bad weather conditions and ran out of fuel. The crew of the naval trawler Haslemere saw her bale out of the trawler’s captain Lieutenant-Commander W E Fletcher, dived into the sea despite the heavy swell and reached her, but was unable to support her. He was so exhausted by his valiant efforts and so frozen by the bitter sea that he died in hospital.
Miss Johnson’s family heard of the accident when they were telephoned by Miss Pauline Gower, the head of the ATA which ferries aircraft from factories to the front line squadrons.
“Amy has been flying as a ferry pilot for six months,” her mother said tonight. “She was intensely happy in the knowledge that she was working for her country in this way; in fact, I have never known her as light-hearted as she has been during recent months.”
Jim Mollison, Amy Johnson’s former husband, is also serving with the ATA.
Amy Johnson took off from Squire’s Gate airfield in Blackpool and was headed for Kidlington in Oxfordshire, in an Airspeed Oxford. (Jack McKillop)
A civilian version of the Oxford, the Envoy was made. One of these, Aus. registration VH-UXY was lost off Hawaii, having left Oakland, California, December 4, 1935. Piloted by Charles Ulm, the plane was named “Stella Australis”. He and his crew, George Littlejohn, copilot and Leon Skilling, navigator were attempting to fly to Australia. Ulm had previously made this trip with Charles Kingsford-Smith in June, 1928, in a Fokker F.VII3m named “Southern Cross”.
VICHY FRANCE: Admiral Leahy arrives in Vichy as US ambassador.
ITALY: RAF bombers hit Palermo, Naples and its suburbs, and a chemical factory at Crotone.
LIBYA: Bardia is captured by O’Connor after an assault of less than four days. 45,000 prisoners including four generals, 462 guns, 130 tanks and over 700 trucks are taken with the town.
Wavell sets out ultimate objective as Benghazi, to be taken within the next week.
CHINA: Maolin: A large Kuomintang force attacks troops of the Communist New Fourth Army.
Were those Italians troops?
Re: Amy Johnson:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Johnson
Disputed circumstances
There is still some mystery about the accident, as the exact reason for the flight is still a government secret and there is some evidence that besides Johnson and Fletcher a third person (possibly someone she was supposed to ferry somewhere) was also seen in the water and also drowned. Who the third party was is still unknown. Johnson was the first member of the Air Transport Auxiliary to die in service. Her death in an Oxford aircraft was ironic, as she had been one of the original subscribers to the share offer for Airspeed.[6]
However, in 1999 it was reported that Tom Mitchell, from Crowborough, Sussex, claimed to have shot the heroine down when she twice failed to give the correct identification code during the flight. He said: “The reason Amy was shot down was because she gave the wrong colour of the day [a signal to identify aircraft known by all British forces] over radio.” Mr. Mitchell explained how the aircraft was sighted and contacted by radio. A request was made for the signal. She gave the wrong one twice. “Sixteen rounds of shells were fired and the plane dived into the Thames Estuary. We all thought it was an enemy plane until the next day when we read the papers and discovered it was Amy. The officers told us never to tell anyone what happened.”[7]
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/05.htm
January 5th, 1942
UNITED KINGDOM: Destroyer HMS GLAISDALE is launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
NETHERLANDS: Amsterdam: The Dutch Council of Churches today delivered a public protest against what it described 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, in Austria began; few deportees survive for more than a few months.
POLAND: 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. (Jack McKillop)
U.S.S.R.: Moscow: Carried away by recent small successes and against the advice of his chief of general staff, General Georgii Zhukov, Stalin orders a general offensive along the entire 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. (Jack McKillop)
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Submarine HMS Upholder sinks an Italian submarine off the Lipari Islands.
MIDDLE EAST: 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 Gen Sir Henry Maitland Wilson in Syria. (Jack McKillop)
EGYPT: The government breaks diplomatic relations with Bulgaria and Finland. (Jack McKillop)
BURMA: HQ of the Indian 17th Division is established at Moulmein. Of 3 the brigades that this division is to contain, only one, the Indian 16th, is in Burma. (Jack McKillop)
MALAYA: The Commander-in-Chief Eastern Fleet moves HQ from Singapore to Batavia, Java, Netherlands East Indies. Lieutenant General Arthur Percival, General Officer Commanding Malaya Command, at a conference in Segamat, plans for a withdrawal into Johore. On the Slim River front, the Indian 11th Division repels an enemy attack down the railway line. (Jack McKillop)
JAPAN: Tokyo accepts Laurenço Marques in Mozambique as a suitable site to exchange diplomats with the United States.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: On Luzon, U.S. and Filipino troops complete their withdrawal to a new line extending along the base of the Bataan Peninsula from Dinaluplhan on the west to Hermosa on the east. During the night 5/6 January, the withdrawal continues through Layac Junction, the funnel through which all roads into Bataan pass, the final elements clearing it by 0200 hours, after which the bridge is blown. A delaying position, called the Layac line, is formed south of Layac Junction and manned by the 71st and 72d Regiments of the 71st Division Philippine Army, the U.S. 31st Infantry of the Philippine Division, and the 26th Cavalry Philippine Scouts. The 31st Infantry, the only completely U.S. regiment in the Philippines, has not yet been in action. The food ration of the Bataan defence force and of garrisons of fortified islands in Manila Bay is cut in half. The Bataan echelon of HQ US Army Forces Far East is established on Bataan under Brigadier General Richard J. Marshall. The Japanese continue daily air attacks on Corregidor and occasional attacks on other targets in the Manila Bay area. (Jack McKillop)
USAAF B-17 Flying Fortresses from Malang, Java, Netherlands East Indies, stage through Samarinda, Borneo, during the night of 4/5 January and attack shipping in Davao Bay on Mindanao Island. (Jack McKillop)
AUSTRALIA: Canberra: The Australian War Cabinet today agreed to a British request for the transfer of the 1st Australian Corps, comprising the veteran 6th and 7th Divisions, from the Middle East to South-east Asia. In December Mr Churchill assured the Australian prime minister, John Curtin, that he would do everything possible to strengthen the whole Far Eastern front from Rangoon to Darwin.
The British 18th and Indian 17th Divisions were both being moved from the Middle East to Bombay, Ceylon and Singapore with “utmost dispatch.”
U.S. Forces in Australia (USFIA) is redesignated U.S. Army Forces in Australia (USAFIA), and Major General George H Brett assumes command. (Jack McKillop)
U.S.A.: The U.S. Senate Committee investigating Hollywood war propaganda is dissolved. (Jack McKillop)
President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders all men between the ages of 20 and 44 to register for the draft (conscription) by 16 February. (Jack McKillop)
CANADA: Minesweeper (ex-fishing vessel) HMCS SMITH SOUND is commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)