Posted on 12/16/2011 4:50:15 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1941/dec41/f16dec41.htm
Axis withdrawing to El Agheila
Tuesday, December 16, 1941 www.onwar.com
In North Africa... Rommel begins his withdrawal to El Agheila through Cyrenaica.
In the Mediterranean... Italians under the command of Admiral Iachino launch the convoy to Africa for a second time, 4 battleships, 5 cruisers and 21 destroyers are in the escort.
In Borneo... Japanese troops from the 16th Infantry Division land at Miri, Seria and Lutong. The small British and Dutch forces fire the oil plants before retreating.
In Malaya... The second wave of Japanese invasions as the 5th and 18th divisions will are brought to full strength. British forces withdraw from Penang on the west coast.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/16.htm
December 16th, 1941
UNITED KINGDOM: American Boyd Wagner while flying with 17 Squadron RAF claims his fifth Luftwaffe victory to become an ace. (Skip Guidry)
GERMANY: U-516 launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.S.R.: Continuing firm pressure against the enemy in the Moscow area, Soviet forces seize Kalinin, northwest of Klin. (Jack McKillop)
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: A second Italian supply convoy for Rommel sails from Italy. Covered by 4 battleships, 5 cruisers and 21 destroyers, this convoy is commanded by Admiral Iachino.
U-557 sunk west of Crete, in position 35.31N, 23.19E, after ramming by the Italian torpedo boat Orione. 43 dead (all hands lost). (Dave Shirlaw)
LIBYA: Axis forces begin withdrawal from the Gazala line toward the next delaying position, Agedabla. The Indian 4th Division of the 13 Corps, British Eighth Army, which has been particularly hard pressed by the enemy, pauses briefly to reorganize before joining other elements of corps in pursuit. (Jack McKillop)
BORNEO: The Japanese land elements of the 16th Division at Miri, Seria and Lutong.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: 1st Lieutenant Boyd D Wagner of the 17th Pursuit Squadron (Interceptor), 24th Pursuit Group (Interceptor), leads a dive-bombing raid on the airfield at Vigan, PI and shoots down his fifth aircraft, thereby becoming the first United States Army Air Forces “Ace” in World War II.
CHINA: The U .S. War Department gives Brigadier General John Magruder, head of the American Military Mission to China (AMMISCA), permission to divert Chinese lend-lease supplies to the British, provided the Chinese agree. (Jack McKillop)
MALAYA: The Indian 11th Division completes a withdrawal behind the Muda River in Wellesley Province and defeats enemy efforts to secure a foothold on the south bank. The Indian 3 Corps decides to withdraw the Indian 11th Division behind the Krian River since it is greatly weakened by sustained fighting without benefit of tank and adequate air support. Fighting develops on the Grik road north of Grik, during the night of 16/17 December, as a small detachment guarding the road encounters the main body of the Japanese Patani force thrusting toward Kuala Kangsar in an effort to isolate Indian 11th Division on the west coast. On the east coast, Kelantan troops begin a withdrawal by rail as the movement of supplies and equipment is completed. The Penang Island fortress is evacuated as planned during night 16/17 December. (Jack McKillop)
TERRITORY OF HAWAII: The USN’s Task Force 14 (Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher), comprising the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3) [with 18 F2A-3 Buffalos of Marine Fighting Squadron Two Hundred Twenty One (VMF 221) embarked], four destroyers; heavy cruisers USS Astoria (CA-34) (flagship), USS Minneapolis (CA-36), and USS San Francisco (CA-38); and five destroyers, sails from Pearl Harbor. These ships will overtake the force formed around seaplane tender USS Tangier (AV-8) and the oiler USS Neches (AO-5) and their consorts that is to relieve Wake Island. (Jack McKillop)
WAKE ISLAND: The Japanese Pearl Harbor Attack Force (Vice Admiral Nagumo Chuichi) detaches aircraft carriers HIJMS Hiryu and HIJMS Soryu, heavy cruisers HIJMS Tone and HIJMS Chikuma, and two destroyers (Rear Admiral Abe Hiroaki) to reinforce the second planned attack on Wake Island. Meanwhile, Japanese naval land attack planes (Chitose Kokutai) bomb Wake. (Jack McKillop)
PACIFIC OCEAN: USS Swordfish sinks Japanese cargo ship Atsutasan Maru. (Dave Shirlaw)
CANADA: Corvette HMCS Calgary commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: The Secretary of the Navy approved an expansion of the pilot training program from the existing schedule of assigning 800 students per month to one calling for 2,500 per month thereby leading to a production of 20,000 pilots annually by mid-1943. (Jack McKillop)
Minesweeper USS Threat laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-68 transferred 60 survivors from the sunken German support ships Python and Atlantis to the Italian submarine Enrico Tazzoli.
U-569 attacked by a Swordfish aircraft in the mid-Atlantic and was damaged so badly that she had to return to base. (Dave Shirlaw)
December 16, 1941:
"As part of an effort to attract German companies to the Warsaw Ghetto, German soldiers film Jewish women at work in a textile factory.
Recognizing the need to bring money into the ghetto to pay for food and medical supplies, the Judenrat (Jewish Council) strove to provide the companies with skilled workers, an effort hampered by the unwillingness of the companies to pay even minimally acceptable wages."
The administration is clearly minimizing the losses at Pearl Harbor.
There was a church in SoCal where the pastor was showing the familiar newsreel footage of the disaster that we all are familiar with today. Family who were in SoCal at the time say that the FBI came and seized the film so people would not know how bad things were, but by then the news was out.
see post #9
Here is some back ground on salvaging the German WWI fleet at scapa flow.
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2011/09/21/raising-the-german-fleet/#more-167125767426207
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