9 December 1941

UNITED KINGDOM: LONDON: It is announced that the Netherlands and Soviet governments have agreed to exchange ambassadors.

GERMANY: Even though Germany and the U.S. are not at war, Chancellor Adolf Hitler orders U-Boats to attack American shipping off the East Coast.

U.S.S.R.: The Russian advance from Moscow liberates Elets. Advancing from Leningrad they liberate Tikhvin.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: The 6,310 ton Italian motorship MS Sebastiano Venier is torpedoed by the British submarine HMS/M Porpoise (N 14) about 5 miles (8 kilometers) south of Navarino, Greece. The motorship had sailed from Benghazi, Libya, with about 2,000 British and Commonwealth POWs, including black South African troops, New Zealanders and Australians, captured in North Africa. She is not flying a POW flag. The torpedo strikes between No.1 and No.2 holds on the starboard side, the force of the explosion hurls the heavy hatchway covers to mast height, the falling timbers killing dozens of men trying to escape from the hold. Only five men in flooded No.1 hold survive. Most of the panic stricken crew abandons the ship taking all the lifeboats. The Italian hospital ship Arno appears on the scene but ploughs its way through the men struggling in the water and keeps on sailing, its priority being the rescue of the crew of a German ship sunk nearby. A total of 320 men are lost among t hem 309 British POWs, including 45 New Zealanders. Eleven Italian soldiers also died. The ship does not sink but is beached at Point Methoni near Pilos, Greece. All prisoners who manage to reach the shore are confronted by hundreds of Italian occupation troops and are taken to a makeshift camp where during the next few months many die from frostbite and disease. In May 1942, the prisoners are transferred to Campo 85 at Tuturano in Italy.

EUROPE: Although the news is dwarfed by the dramatic entries of America and Japan into this second world war, several more countries are also now involved. This week Britain has declared war on Finland, Romania and Hungary following their failures to end actions in support of Germany. And China has formally issued a declaration of war against Japan, Germany and Italy.

INDIAN OCEAN: At midnight on the 9th of December 1941 HMS Glasgow in error sank the RIN patrol vessel HMIS Prabhavati with two lighters in tow en route for Karachi, with 6 inch shells at 6000 yards. The vessel was alongside the lighters and appeared to those in Glasgow to be a large Japanese submarine on the surface. HMS Glasgow arrived in Bombay with the survivors on 9th. HMS Glasgow had left Colombo for patrol on 6 December 1941, she returned to Colombo on the 25th.

MALAYSIA: Japanese troops land at Kota Bharu, Singora and Patani. The Japanese force the Indian 9th Division of the Indian III Corps from Kota Bharu Airfield and continue air attacks on other fields, including Kuantan. The RAF abandons Kuantan airfield for Singapore Island and Alor Star airfield, on the northwest coast, for Butterworth. RAF bomber attack on Singora airfield (Thailand) proves very costly since fighter protection is lacking. Dutch planes arrive at Singapore to augment the strength of the RAF.

Japanese aircraft attack Alor Star airfield. Of the Blenheim Mk Is of RAF No. 62 Squadron based there, only one aircraft survives; its pilot, Sqn-Ldr Arthur Stewart King Scarf (b.1913) single-handedly overcomes strong enemy defences to attack Singora airfield in the north. After returning his crew safely to Alor Star, Scarf dies from his wounds, and is posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross five years later when the full facts of his heroism are established.

SOUTH CHINA SEA: The British Navy's Force Z under Admiral Tom Phillips is sighted by the north of Singapore by the Japanese. The force consists of the battleship HMS Prince of Wales (53), battlecruiser HMS Repulse (34) and British destroyers HMS Electra (H 27), Express (H 61) and Tenedos (H 04) and Australian destroyer HMAS Vampire (D 68).

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Far East Air Force B-17s from Mindanao, Philippine Islands fly recon missions. Continuing the neutralization of U.S. airpower on Luzon, Japanese bombers strike Nichols Field, near Manila.

WAKE ISLAND: Japanese "Nell" bombers (Mitsubishi G3M, Navy Type 96 Attack Bombers) of the 24th Air Flotilla based on Roi Island, Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands, bomb the island at 1145 hours, destroying more of the naval air station, the hospital and much of Camp 2.. One "Nell" is shot down by antiaircraft fire and a second is shot down by two Marine F4F-3 Wildcats. This is the first Marine aerial victory of World War II again attack Wake, (Gordon Rottman & Jack McKillop)

BAKER and HOWLAND ISLANDS: These two islands in the central Pacific are shelled by Japanese submarines HIJMS RO 63, RO 64, and RO 68 in the mistaken belief that American seaplane bases exist there.

PACIFIC OCEAN: USS Swordfish makes initial US submarine attack on Japanese ship.

USN Transport USS William Ward Burrows (AP-6), en route to Wake Island, is ordered to return to Honolulu. The ship had departed Honolulu on 29 November towing a barge, PAB-7, and carrying 1,819 tons of cargo. Because of the barge and terrible weather, the ship could only make 5 knots. She crossed the International Date Line on 6 December. On 13 December, she is ordered to Johnston Island and arrives there on 15 December.

Japanese submarine HIJMS I-10 shells and sinks a 4,473 ton unarmed Panamanian motorship about 872 nautical miles (1 616 kilometers) south-southeast of Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii. There are only eight survivors of the 33-man crew; all seven passengers perish.

TERRITORY OF HAWAI'I: Japanese Naval Aviation Pilot First Class NISHIKAICHI Shigenori, from the aircraft carrier HIJMS Hiryu, who had crash-landed his "Zeke" fighter (Mitsubishi A6M2, Navy Type 0 Carrier Fighter) on Niihau Island on 7 December, is placed under guard by the islanders; attempts this day and the next to transport him to Kauai are frustrated by bad weather.

CANADA: Fear of Japanese invasion spreads on British Columbia coast; government orders blackouts; closes Japanese-Canadian newspapers, schools.

Algerine-class minesweepers ordered in Canada - HMS Antares, Arcturus, Aries, Clifton, Friendship, Gozo, and Lightfoot.

River-class frigates ordered in Canada - HMS Inver, Lossie, Parrett, and Shiel.

U.S.A.: Washington: The devastating blow struck by the Japanese at the US Pacific Fleet's base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, came as a complete surprise. How was it that the United States was caught so unawares?

For some months now, US code-breakers have been able to read the top-secret Japanese diplomatic cipher under the codename Magic. The first indication of the imminence of war came on 4 December, when the staff of the Japanese embassy here in Washington began to leave and Magic revealed that they had destroyed their codebooks. On the night of 6-7 December Tokyo began transmitting a long message in code to the ambassador in Washington, to be handed to the US state department. Transcription difficulties caused it to be delayed, but by 7 o'clock in the morning the US codebreakers had deciphered it anyway. They also had reports of Japanese convoys.

The Americans now knew that Japan was bent on war, but not where it would strike first. Suspicion fell on the Philippines, because the Pearl Harbor strike force had maintained strict radio silence since leaving the Kurile Islands on 26 November. Warnings were sent to all Pacific bases, but that to Pearl Harbor was delayed through poor signal handling.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt tells British Prime Minister Winston Churchill that he prefers to meet in Bermuda for security reasons. Churchill convinces Roosevelt to meet with him in Washington. Roosevelt wanted to meet in Bermuda rather than Washington, not for security against the Japanese or Germans, but security from the American press and anti-war advocates.

German SS Obergruppenfuhrer (U.S. Lieutenant General) Reinhard Heydrich, Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, is bumped from the cover of Time Magazine by late-breaking news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

USAAF fighters at Mitchel Field, Hempstead, Long Island, New York are dispatched to intercept a hostile airplane reported (falsely) to be approaching the East Coast.

Although having a 3-C draft deferment due to being the sole support of his family, Cleveland Indians pitcher Bob Feller, last years American League leading pitcher with 27 victories, becomes the first major leaguer to enlist after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The 23-year old Navy recruit has already won 107 major league games.

U-124 was attacked near the island Ascension off Georgetown by ground artillery, but suffered no damages.

U-134 sank SS Steinbek.

U-652 sank SS St Denis.