1942

Events

January

• January 1 - WWII: The Declaration by United Nations is signed by China, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union, and 22 other nations, in which they agree "not to make any separate peace with the Axis powers".
• January 5 - WWII: Two prisoners, British officer Airey Neave and Dutch officer Anthony Luteyn, escape from Colditz Castle in Germany. After travelling for three days, they reach the Swiss border.
• January 7 - WWII:
• * Battle of Slim River: Japanese forces of the 5th Division, supported by tanks, sweep through sixteen miles of British defenses, shattering the exhausted 11th Indian Division and inflicting some 3,000 casualties.
• * Operation Typhoon, the German attempt to take Moscow, ends in failure.
• January 11 - WWII:
• * Dutch East Indies campaign: Japan declares war on the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies. Japanese forces invade Borneo and Celebes.
• * Malayan Campaign: The Japanese capture Kuala Lumpur, the capital of the Federated Malay States.
• January 12 - WWII:
• * New Zealand Squadron No. 488 loses two aircraft and five damaged against a force of 27 Japanese fighters, in their first combat mission in Singapore.
• January 13
• * Heinkel test pilot Helmut Schenk becomes the first person to escape from a stricken aircraft with an ejection seat.
• * Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile that would be 30% lighter than a conventional car.
• January 14
• * WWII: "Second Happy Time", the German submarine commanders' name for Operation PP, the phase in the Battle of the Atlantic during which German submarines are successful in attacking Allied shipping along the East Coast of the United States, opens early this morning when German submarine U-123 under the command of Reinhard Hardegen sinks a Norwegian tanker within sight of Long Island, before entering New York Harbor and sinking a British tanker off Sandy Hook the following night, as she leaves heading south along the coast. U-boat successes continue until around June 12.
• * The Sikorsky R-4 first flies in the United States; it will become the first mass-produced helicopter.
• January 16 - American film actress Carole Lombard and her mother are among all 22 killed aboard TWA Flight 3 when the Douglas DC-3 plane crashes into Potosi Mountain near Las Vegas while she is returning from a tour to promote the sale of war bonds.
• January 17 - WWII: South African forces of the British 8th Army conquer the Halfaya Pass. The Halfaya garrison of 4,200 men of the Italian 55th Division "Savona" and 2,100 Germans surrender.
• January 19 - WWII:
• * Japanese forces invade Burma.
• * The following Commands of the United States Eighth Air Force are established: VIII Bomber Command initially at Langley Field in Virginia, and VIII Fighter Command at Selfridge Field in Michigan.
• January 20 - The Holocaust: Nazis at the Wannsee Conference convened by Reinhard Heydrich in Berlin decide that the "Final Solution to the Jewish problem" is deportations to extermination camps.
• January 21 - WWII: Erwin Rommel launches his new offensive in Cyrenaica.
• January 23 - WWII: The Battle of Rabaul begins. Before dawn, 5,000 troops of Japan's elite South Seas Detachment storm ashore at Rabaul on the island of New Britain. With control of the air and support from the guns of their own ships, the Japanese overwhelm the small Australian garrison: the majority are either killed or captured. This marks the start of the New Guinea campaign.
• January 25 - WWII:
• * German forces under Erwin Rommel of Panzer Group Afrika reaches Msus. General Alfred Godwin-Austin orders the 4th Indian Division from the British 13th Corps to evacuate Benghazi.
• * Thailand declares war on the United States and the United Kingdom.
• January 26 - WWII: The first American forces arrive in Europe, landing in Northern Ireland.
• January 31 - WWII: Malayan Campaign: The last organized Allied forces leave British Malaya, ending the 54-day campaign, and the Johor–Singapore Causeway is severed.

  February

• February 1
• * WWII: Marshalls–Gilberts raids: Admiral William Halsey Jr sends airstrikes from the carrier USS Enterprise against Kwajalein, Taroa, Wotje in the Marshall Islands. At the same time, cruisers and destroyers bombard Taroa and Wotje. The strikes inflict light to moderate damage on the three islands' naval garrisons, sink three warships and damage several others, including the light cruiser Katori and damage 15 Japanese aircraft. Further south, the carrier USS Yorktown attacks Jaluit, Mili and Makin in the Gilbert Islands. They inflict moderate damage to the Japanese naval installations and destroy three aircraft.
• * WWII: The Kriegsmarine introduces the M4 Enigma machine for U-boat traffic, blinding Allied cryptanalysts to their radio signals for most of the year.
• * WWII: The Command staff of the United States Eighth Air Force reaches England.
• * Mao Zedong makes a speech on "Reform in Learning, the Party and Literature", starting the Yan'an Rectification Movement in the Chinese Communist Party.
• February 3 - WWII: Rommel suspends his offensive in Cyrenaica.
• February 7 - United States Maritime Commission fleet operations are transferred to the War Shipping Administration.
• February 8
• * WWII: Battle of Singapore: Japanese forces of the 5th Division and 18th Division begin to cross the Johor Strait and attack the Australian 22nd Brigade at Singapore.
• * WWII: Daylight saving time goes into effect in the United States.
• * WWII: Top United States military leaders hold their first formal meeting to discuss American military strategy in the war.
• * António Óscar Carmona is elected president of Portugal.
• February 9 - The ocean liner catches fire while being converted into the troopship USS Lafayette for WWII at Pier 88 in New York City; she capsizes early the following morning.
• February 11-13 - WWII: Operation Cerberus: A Kriegsmarine squadron comprising the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen and their escort, dash from Brest through the English Channel to German ports; the British fail to sink any of them.
• February 14-18 - WWII: Battle of Bilin River: Indian forces of the 17th Division under General John Snyth are ordered to halt the Japanese advance but are outflanked and retreat to the Sittang River.
• February 14 - WWII:
• * Battle of Palembang: Japanese paratroopers are dropped near Palembang, and capture the oil refinery complex undamaged. Dutch forces counter-attack and manage to retake the complex but take heavy losses. A planned demolition fails to do any serious damage to the refinery, but the oil stores are set ablaze.
• * The, Scottish steamship, is bombed and sunk by Japanese planes while evacuating nurses and wounded servicemen from Singapore. Rescue boats with many survivors reach Bangka Island.
• February 15 - WWII: Fall of Singapore: Commonwealth forces under General Arthur Percival surrender to the Japanese 25th Army. About 80,000 British, Indian, Australian, and local troops become prisoners of war, joining the 50,000 soldiers taken in the Malayan campaign.
• February 16 - WWII: Bangka Island Massacre: Japanese soldiers machine-gun 22 Australian Army nurses and 60 Australian and British soldiers and crew who have survived the sinking of SS Vyner Brooke.
• February 18 - WWII:
• * Japanese occupation of Singapore: Sook Ching - Japanese forces begin the systematic extermination of perceived hostile elements among Chinese Singaporeans.
• * More than 200 American sailors die in Newfoundland when runs aground near Chambers Cove and runs aground at Lawn Point.
• February 19 - WWII:
• * Bombing of Darwin: The Japanese 1st Air Fleet under Admiral Chūichi Nagumo bombs Darwin, Australia. This force comprises the aircraft carriers Akagi, Kaga, Hiryū and Sōryū and a powerful force of escorting surface ships. During the attack, 188 planes led by Mitsuo Fuchida destroy 11 vessels and wreck a lot of the harbor infrastructure, killing some 240 people.
• * A returning Japanese fighter plane crashes on Melville Island and its pilot, Hajime Toyoshima, becomes the first Japanese captured on Australian soil, when indigenous resident Matthias Ulungura takes him prisoner.
• * President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, allowing the United States military to define areas as exclusionary zones. These zones affect the Japanese on the West Coast, and Germans and Italians primarily on the East Coast.
• February 19–23 - WWII: Battle of Sittang Bridge: Indian forces of the 17th Division are ordered to defend the Sittang Bridge, but eventually blow up the bridge to halt the Japanese advance to Rangoon. Survivors of the 17th Division swim and ferry themselves over the Sittang River.
• February 20 - Lieutenant Edward O'Hare becomes America's first U.S. Navy flying ace of the war.
• February 21 - WWII: Invasion of Sumatra: Japanese forces of the 38th Division under General Tadayoshi Sano capture Tanjungkarang airfield, which is put to work for air operations against Java.
• February 22 - WWII: General George Marshall transmits a direct order to General MacArthur in President Roosevelt's name, ordering MacArthur himself to turn over command of the Philippines to a subordinate, and report to Australia to assume command of the large American force being built up there. The orders are worded to allow MacArthur to choose the exact moment of his departure; for various reasons, he will not leave until March 11.
• February 23 - WWII: fires 17 high-explosive shells toward an oil refinery near Santa Barbara, California, causing little damage.
• February 24
• * Struma disaster:, carrying Jewish refugees from Axis-allied Romania to British-administered Palestine, is torpedoed and sunk by, killing about 791 men, women, and children, with only 1 survivor.
• * Propaganda: The Voice of America begins broadcasting.
• * Internment of Japanese Canadians is ordered.
• February 25 - "Battle of Los Angeles": Over 1,400 AA shells are fired at an unidentified, slow-moving object in the skies over Los Angeles. The appearance of the object triggers an immediate wartime blackout over most of Southern California, with thousands of air raid wardens being deployed throughout the city. At least 5 deaths are related to the incident. Despite the several-hour barrages no planes are downed.
• February 26 - The 14th Academy Awards ceremony is held in Los Angeles; How Green Was My Valley wins Best Picture.
• February 27 - WWII:
• * Battle of the Java Sea: An allied task force of 14 vessels under Dutch command, trying to stem a Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies, is defeated by a 19-vessel Japanese task force in the Java Sea; 2.300 sailors die, including the commander, Admiral Karel Doorman; Japanese attain naval hegemony in East-Asia.
• * The USS Langley, first aircraft carrier of the United States Navy, is attacked by 9 Japanese bombers while ferrying a cargo of USAAF P-40 fighters to Java. Langley is so badly damaged that she has to be scuttled to avoid falling into Japanese hands.