December 1941

[December 1], 1941 (Monday)

• Japan rejected the latest U.S. proposals as "fantastic and unrealistic".
• The Battle of Pljevlja was fought in the Italian governorate of Montenegro. Italian military forces repulsed an attack by Montenegrin Partisans.
• Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt resigned following the German retreat from Rostov.
• Karl Jäger wrote the Jäger Report, the most precise surviving document of the activities of an Einsatzkommando unit.
• A worldwide electric drill and power saw brand, Hilti was founded in Liechtenstein, that first business start on workshop section.
• The German 15th Panzer Division routed the 20th Battalion of the 2nd New Zealand Division at Belhamed, Libya, but tanks of the British 4th Armoured Brigade drove off the attack.
• U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt cut short his vacation in Warm Springs, Georgia, and returned to Washington, D.C. due to the critical situation in the Pacific.
• The United States Civil Air Defense Services, now known as the Civil Air Patrol, was formed.

  [December 2], 1941 (Tuesday)

• The Battle of Hanko ended in Finnish victory.
• The Red Army set up the Moscow Defence Zone.
• Adolf Hitler issued Directive No. 38, ordering reinforcement of the Luftwaffe presence in the Mediterranean.
• Japanese Rear Admiral Matome Ugaki received an order authorizing the Combined Fleet to attack any time after midnight on December 7, Japan time. Based on this order, Ugaki sent a wireless communication with the coded message "Climb Mount Niitaka", meaning the attacks were to go forward as planned.
• President Roosevelt sent Japan a request for an explanation for the heavy Japanese troop concentrations in French Indochina, exceeding the 25,000 agreed upon between Tokyo and Vichy France.
• U.S. "Magic" cryptologists intercepted Japanese orders to destroy codes at the Japanese embassy in Washington.
• Born: Sean P. F. Hughes, Emeritus Professor of Orthopedic Surgery, in Farnham, Surrey, England
• Died: Edward Rydz-Śmigły, 55, Polish general and politician

  [December 3], 1941 (Wednesday)

• Erwin Rommel's assault toward the garrisons at Bardia, Sallum and Halfaya Pass was repulsed by the Allies.
• The Japanese carrier fleet tasked with the Pearl Harbor attack began approaching the Hawaiian Islands with increased speed.
• U.S. secretary of state Cordell Hull gave a press conference expressing a pessimistic view of U.S.–Japan relations, saying that the months of discussions to this point had never reached a stage where actual negotiations toward a peaceful settlement could take place.
• China Radio International was founded.
• The first issue of the Chicago Sun was published.
• Died: Christian Sinding, 85, Norwegian composer

  [December 4], 1941 (Thursday)

• Japanese invasion fleets departed from various locations for their destinations in Malaya and Thailand.
• Japanese aircraft scouted Wake Island undetected.
• Rainbow Five, the U.S. government's top-secret war plan, was leaked on the front pages of the Chicago Tribune and Washington Times-Herald. The plan alarmed isolationists who took it as proof that President Roosevelt was preparing to lead the United States into war against Germany, despite his pledge during the 1940 election that no Americans would be sent into foreign wars. Senator Burton K. Wheeler, without mentioning his own role in the leak, demanded a congressional investigation.
• German submarine U-599 was commissioned.
• Born: David Johnston, television news presenter, in Melbourne, Australia

  [December 5], 1941 (Friday)

• Britain declared war on Finland, Hungary and Romania.
• Japan responded to Roosevelt's inquiry of December 2 by saying that foreign reports of the number of Japanese troops in French Indochina were exaggerated and the troop concentrations were in full accord with the agreement between Tokyo and Vichy.
• U.S. War Secretary Henry L. Stimson said during a press conference that those responsible for the previous day's leaking of American war plans were "wanting in loyalty and patriotism." Stimson also offered a statement asking, "What would you think of an American general staff which in the present condition of the world did not investigate and study every conceivable type of emergency which may confront this country and every possible method of meeting that emergency?" The White House made no other comment on the matter and it would quickly be forgotten about after the events of December 7.
• German submarine U-175 was commissioned.
• The Soviet Red Army launched a massive counter-offensive against the German Forces during the Battle of Moscow which effectively put Operation Typhoon to an end.

  [December 6], 1941 (Saturday)

• U.S. president Roosevelt wrote a personal appeal to Emperor Hirohito to avoid war between the United States and Japan. "Developments are occurring in the Pacific area which threaten to deprive each of our Nations and all humanity of the beneficial influence of the long peace between our two countries." the president wrote. "Those developments contain tragic possibilities ... I address myself to Your Majesty at this moment in the fervent hope that Your Majesty may, as I am doing, give thought in this definite emergency to ways of dispelling the dark clouds. I am confident that both of us, for the sake of the peoples not only of our own great countries but for the sake of humanity in neighboring territories, have a sacred duty to restore traditional amity and prevent further death and destruction in the world."
• Finnish II Corps and Group "O" captured Medvezhyegorsk.
• The British submarine struck a mine and sank in the Ionian Sea off Cephalonia.
• SS Greenland hit a mine and was sunk in the North Sea near Lowestoft with the loss of nine men.
• Born:
• * Vittorio Mezzogiorno, actor, in Cercola, Italy
• * Bruce Nauman, artist, in Fort Wayne, Indiana
• * Richard Speck, mass murderer, in Kirkwood, Illinois

  [December 7], 1941 (Sunday)

• Japan launched its invasion of British Malaya, at Kota Bharu, at 7:00 am Hawaiian Time.
• The Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor began at 7:55 a.m. Hawaiian Time. 21 American ships and over 300 aircraft were sunk, destroyed or damaged, and 2,403 Americans were killed. Japan lost 29 planes in return.
• Japan declared war on the United States, Great Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa.
• The Japanese midget submarine HA. 19 ran aground and was scuttled at Oahu. Eventually Americans retrieved the sub and Kazuo Sakamaki became the first Japanese prisoner of war to be captured by American forces.
• The Niihau incident began when Japanese pilot Shigenori Nishikaichi crash-landed his damaged A6M2 Zero on the Hawaiian island of Niihau after participating in the attack on Pearl Harbor. The local Hawaiians, who were as yet unaware of the attack and could not communicate with Nishikaichi, sent, in succession, for two locals of Japanese ancestry who agreed to help the pilot to retrieve his papers and escape.
• Winston Churchill was dining at Chequers, the country house of the prime minister of the United Kingdom, with the American diplomats John Gilbert Winant and W. Averell Harriman when the news of the Pearl Harbor attack arrived. Churchill realized that the United States would now enter the war and that Britain would no longer have to fight alone. He later wrote of that night, "Being saturated and satiated with emotion and sensation, I went to bed and slept the sleep of the saved and thankful."
• One hour after the Japanese attack, Australian prime minister John Curtin announced that "from one hour ago, Australia has been at war with the Japanese Empire." War would be formally declared two days later.
• German forces withdrew from Tikhvin.
• Hitler issued the Nacht und Nebel decree, targeting political dissidents for disappearances.
• Realizing that success on the Tobruk front was unlikely at this time, Erwin Rommel pulled his forces back toward the Gazala line.
• German submarine U-208 was sunk off Gibraltar by depth charges from the British destroyers Harvester and Hesperus.
• Canada declared war on Finland, Hungary, Japan, and Romania.
• Panama declared war on Japan.
• The Japanese conducted the First Bombardment of Midway, killing four and wounding 10.
• The American cargo ship SS Cynthia Olson was sunk by the Japanese submarine I-26.
• Born: Melba Pattillo Beals, journalist and member of the Little Rock Nine, in Little Rock, Arkansas
• Died: Isaac C. Kidd, 57, American admiral and posthumous recipient of the Medal of Honor

  [December 8], 1941 (Monday)

• Hitler issued Directive No. 39, cancelling offensive operations on the Eastern Front and ordering the Wehrmacht to switch to defensive formations.
• New Zealand declared war on Japan at 11:00 a.m. New Zealand time.
• The Japanese carried out the Bombing of Singapore, killing 61.
• The Imperial Japanese Army occupies the Shanghai International Settlement. In the midst of this, HMS Peterel is sunk by the gunboat USS Wake, which has been hijacked by Japanese soldiers.
• President Roosevelt made the Infamy Speech to a Joint session of Congress. Within one hour the United States declared war on Japan. Lifelong pacifist Jeannette Rankin was the only member of Congress to vote against declaring war.
• The United Kingdom declared war on Japan.
• Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, the Dutch government-in-exile and Nicaragua also declared war on Japan.
• The British House of Commons convened on short notice in light of recent events. Winston Churchill made a speech concluding, "We have at least four-fifths of the population of the globe upon our side. We are responsible for their safety and for their future. In the past we have had a light which flickered, in the present we have a light which flames, and in the future there will be a light which shines over all the land and sea."
• The Japanese invasion of Thailand occurred. A ceasefire was reached in only a few hours; Thailand formed an alliance with Japan and declared war on the Allies.
• The Malayan Campaign, Philippines Campaign, Dutch East Indies campaign, Battle of Guam, Battle of Wake Island and Battle of Hong Kong began.
• Japanese troops invaded Batan Island.
• The Japanese troopship Awazisan Maru was bombed by a Lockheed Hudson aircraft of No. 1 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force and abandoned off Kota Bharu, Malaya.
• The second day of the Rumbula massacre occurred near Riga, Latvia. A total of about 25,000 Jews were killed on this day and November 30.
• Charles Lindbergh released a statement through the America First Committee that said: "We have been stepping closer to war for many months. Now it has come and we must meet it as united Americans regardless of our attitude toward the policy our government has followed. Whether or not that policy has been wise, our country has been attacked by force of arms and we must retaliate."
• German submarine U-511 was commissioned.
• The U.S. Supreme Court decided Lisenba v. California.