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January 8th, 1942
UNITED KINGDOM: Major General James E Chaney is designated Commanding General US Army Forces in British Isles (USAFBI); he continues as the Chief, Special Observer Group, US Army (SPOBS). (Jack McKillop)
Destroyer HMS AIREDALE is commissioned.
GERMANY: U-611 is launched.
U-604 and U-660 are commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.S.R.: Soviet troops attack Mozhaysk west of Moscow. On the Northern front, the Soviet Army begins an offensive near Lake Ilmen. (Jack McKillop)
IRAQ: Baghdad: A court sentences Rashid Ali, who led an anti-British coup last year, to death in absentia.
NORTH AFRICA: A flag of truce waving from the Italian positions around Hellfire [Halfaya] Pass has for a moment brought a flash of chivalry and mercy into this ruthless war of tanks and bombs and bayonets. The white flag have immunity to an Italian medical officer bringing out five wounded Imperial airmen so that they could receive attention from the South Africans besieging the position. He passed unmolested through the lines - lines from which only a few minutes before men had been sniping and shelling, aiming only to kill - and explained that the besieged Italians had no medical supplies with which to treat the wounded. It was therefore, he said only humane that the airmen - crew of a British bomber that had crashed in the enemy’s lines - should be brought out to their friends.
Then the Italian officer was sent back under a safe conduct with a large supply of surgical dressings for his own wounded.
Daily Mail
Mike Yaklich explains why these Italians were so far behind enemy lines.
A primarily-Italian garrison, built around the Savona Division and under the orders of that division’s commander, Gen. De Giorgis, was still holding on despite being completely surrounded, badly outnumbered, 500 miles in the British rear, and (as seen by the situation with medical supplies cited below) running out of every essential. A sort of advanced outpost position to begin with (protecting the coastal route through the pass but easily outflanked by movement through the desert, which was exactly how the British began the “Crusader” offensive), they had been left behind but refused to surrender. The Italians tried to run some supplies into them using submarines (on one such run the sub in question was attacked by German Stukas as it surfaced near Sollum), but could only bring in a meagre amount in that fashion. The garrison at Halfaya/Sollum would finally give up their resistance on January 17, when they ran out of water...
LIBYA: Axis forces retreat from El Agheila to Agedabia. (Jack McKillop)
Pilots of No. 3 Squadron RAAF flying Curtiss Kittyhawks attack 35 Italian aircraft and 8 Luftwaffe Bf 109s that are preparing to attack advancing British forces southeast of Agedabia. The Aussies claim 7 aircraft destroyed and 4 probably destroyed vs. 1 Kittyhawk lost. (Jack McKillop)
BRITISH NORTH BORNEO:Japanese troops have advanced into Jesselton [Kota Kinabalu], the capital of British North Borneo, and hauled down the Union Flag. The British had little choice but to quit the town. On 15 December, when the Japanese 124th Infantry Regiment came ashore at the burning oilfields at Miri, all the British Empire had to oppose them was one Indian battalion, the local Sarawak Rangers and the police. From Miri two Japanese battalions sailed west to the airfield at Kuching, where they are still fighting; a third sailed east and took Jesselton.
MALAYA: General Archibald Lord Wavell, who has been named Commander in Chief Australian-British-Dutch-American (ABDA) Command, South West Pacific, visits the Malayan front, where preparations are being made for withdrawal of Indian 3 Corps into Johore. The Australian 8th Division (less the 22nd Brigade Group) is ordered to move to northwestern Johore to meet the main Japanese drive on the Gegamat-Mount Ophir-Muar line. The Australians will be supplemented by the last four battalions of the Indian 9th Division. (Jack McKillop)
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: On Luzon, the front is quiet as the Japanese regroup for drive on Bataan and U.S. and Philippine forces organize defence positions. (Jack McKillop)
THAILAND: The Japanese 21st Infantry Regiment and supporting units land on the Kra Peninsula at Singora and Patani.
Pilots of the 3d Fighter Squadron of the American Volunteer Group (the Flying Tigers) shoot down three Mitsubishi Ki-30, Army Type 97 Light Bombers (later given the Allied Code Name “Ann”) over Mesoht. (Jack McKillop)
AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Whyalla is commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
TERRITORY OF HAWAII: The Japanese submarine HIJMS I-19 launches a Yokosuka E14Y, Navy Type 0 Small Reconnaissance Seaplane (later given the Allied Code Name “Glen”) to fly a reconnaissance mission over Pearl Harbor. (Jack McKillop)
U.S.A.: The War Department orders that only Air Corps, antiaircraft, and service troops be sent to Australia, where emphasis will be placed on rapid build up of air forces. (Jack McKillop)
Congress establishes the Office of Civilian defence which will be headed by New York City Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia. (Jack McKillop)
The federal government orders the distillery industry to convert 60 percent of its whiskey-making capacity to ethyl alcohol production, a move that will sharply increase the availability of explosive smokeless powder. (Jack McKillop)
Wavell should never have left Percival in command. He simply was not up to the job in Malaya. His failure to prepare adiquate defences at Singapore was critical. Had the British been able to hold out for just 24 hours longer, the Japanese would have been forced to withdrawal North due to lack of supplies.