11 January 1939

1935 (FRIDAY)

HAWAIIAN ISLANDS: Famous American aviatrix Amelia Earhart Putnam takes off alone from Wheeler Field, Oahu, at 1644 hours local, in her single-engine Lockheed Vega 5C, msn 171, registered NC965Y, and lands in Oakland, California, tomorrow after a 2,408-mile (3 875 kilometer) flight taking 18 hours, 16 minutes. Hawaiian commercial interests had offered a US$10,000 (US$142,550 in 2005 dollars) award to whoever accomplished the flight first.

1936 (SATURDAY)

SYRIA: A general strike begins. The strike is organized and led by the young intellectuals, the bourgeoisie of the larger towns, and the Nationalist bloc. The strike lasts until 1 March.

1937 (MONDAY)

UNITED STATES: Twelve days into a general sit-down strike at the General Motors (GM) factory in Flint, Michigan, GM security forces and the Flint Police Department move in to evict the strikers. A pitched battle breaks out at the Fisher body plant #2, as strikers hold off police and GM security with fire hoses and jury-rigged slingshots, and the police respond with bullets and tear gas. The many picketers outside the plant assist the strikers however they can, breaking windows to ventilate the factory when police fill it with tear gas, and creating barricades with their own vehicles to prevent police from driving past the plant's open doors. Finally, Governor Frank Murphy orders the National Guard in to stem the violence. The sit-down strike lasts 44 days, and ends in GM's surrender to the demands of the United Auto Workers(UAW) Union. GM is the first of the "Big Three" auto makers to make a deal with the UAW. The era of repressive labor practices in the auto industry is endi ng.

1938 (TUESDAY)

SAMOA ISLANDS: Sikrosky S-42 four engine flying boat, msn 4207 registered NC16734 by the American airline Pan American Airways, crashes near Pago Pago, American Samoa, killing all six crewmen aboard. This is Pan American Flight 1 en route from Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, to Auckland, New Zealand, via American Samoa. The aircraft explodes in mid-air as the crew attempts to dump fuel for an emergency landing. Neither the plane nor the bodies of the six crew members are ever found. The aircraft is named "Samoan Clipper."

UNITED STATES: President Franklin d. Roosevelt made a proposal to the British government to convene a world conference to reduce armaments, promote economic security, and ameliorate the more inhuman aspects of a future war. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain rejects the proposal.

January 11th, 1939 (WEDNESDAY)

GERMANY: General Friedrich-Wilhelm von Rotkirch und Panthen takes command of the 13th Infantry Division of the Heer. (Link)

AUSTRALIA: Canberra: A record temperature of 42.2C (108.0F) is recorded today.

11 January 1940

January 11th, 1940 (THURSDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM:

RAF Coastal Command: Three German destroyers are bombed off Horn's Reef.

RAF Fighter Command: Luftwaffe aircraft performed reconnaissance's of East Scotland, Firth of Forth, Humber, South Shields, Newcastle, Thames Estuary. Two trawlers were machine gunned but escaped. Enemy aircraft driven off.

RAF Bomber Command: Leaflet raids on Hamburg, Bremen, Frankfurt and the Ruhr.

4 Group. 'Security Patrols' - Hornum - Borkum. 77 Sqn. Three aircraft. Lights and flak positions machine-gunned. Opposition light. 102 Sqn. Leaflets and Reconnaissance - Hamm - Frankfurt. Two aircraft. Opposition light

The Women's Section of the Air Transport Auxiliary delivers its first airplane from factory to depot. This is one more indication of women's increasing usefulness in the war effort, but not everybody likes it. There has been considerable public protest against the use of women pilots while men are kept idle on the waiting list for the RAF.

At 1632, SS Fredville (enroute to obtain a cargo of coal for Oslo) was torpedoed by U-23 about 100 miles east of the Orkney Islands and broke in two. The forepart remained afloat and five survivors left their lifeboats several times to go back on board and look for more survivors. The survivors were picked up by a Swedish ship and taken to Kopervik.

At 1100, tanker El Oso in Convoy HX-14B, struck a mine laid on 6 January by U-30 and sank six miles 280° from the Bar Lightship, Liverpool. Three crewmembers were lost. The master and 31 crewmembers were picked up by HMS Walker and landed at Liverpool.

FRANCE: The government announces that Friday will be a "meatless day" and that no beef, veal or mutton will be sold on Mondays or Tuesdays.

GERMANY: U-755 is laid down.

FINLAND: The Finns beat off reinforcements attempting to break through to the encircled Soviet 168th Division (north of Lake Ladoga). Soviet forces supply the pocket by air. There is a new Soviet attack in the area of Salla (in the "waist" of the front), toward the Kemijarvi-Tornio railway. Meanwhile, the Swedish volunteer air group, Flygflottilj 19, begins operations from the frozen Lake Kemi, with 12 Gladiator fighters and 4 Hart light bombers.

GIBRALTAR: U.S. freighter SS Tripp is detained by British authorities.

U.S.A.: Escort carrier USS LONG ISLAND is launched.

PUERTO RICO: The USN’s Fleet Landing Exercise (FLEX) No. 6 begins at Culebra. Lack of transports compels the Navy to substitute combatant ships in that role for purposes of the exercise; an important exception is the prototype high speed transport USS Manley (APD-1), converted from a World War I-emergency program "flush-deck, four-pipe" destroyer, which amply proves her worth.

11 January 1941

January 11th, 1941 (SATURDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Portsmouth was again attacked last night by 155 bombers which dropped 140 tons of HE and over 40,000 incendiaries. There was not enough water to fight the fires as the principal water main was hit when the tide was out. Casualty figures would have been higher had not many people left town for the night.

GERMANY: The bitterly cold winter weather across many parts of Europe is also affecting the ordinary Germans, who are finding that their meagre coal rations are insufficient to heat their flats and houses.

The situation seems unlikely to improve. Next week the Security Service of the SS is to produce one of its regular reports for the Berlin government on the conditions and mood of the country, which is expected to reveal acute shortages of coal for households and small businesses throughout the Reich.

This shortage is in spite of current record coal production, and can be blamed mostly on the Nazi government's policy of giving priority to the armaments industry. But in some areas the weather has dealt a double blow: it has boosted demand for coal, but has frozen many of the canals and rivers on which new supplies are carried.

Hitler issues his 22nd war directive, ordering preparations for reinforcements to be sent to aid Italian armies in North Africa (Operation Sunflower) and Albania (Operation Alpine Violets).
"German support for battles in the Mediterranean area. The situation in the Mediterranean area, where England is employing superior forces against our allies, requires that Germany should assist for reasons of strategy, politics, and psychology. Tripolitania must be held and the danger of a collapse on the Albanian front must be eliminated. Furthermore the Cavallero Army Group must be enabled, in co-operation with the later operations of 12th Army, to go over to the offensive from Albania."

U-598 is laid down.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: As the return Malta/Alexandria convoy proceeds eastwards, HMS Gloucester (62) and HMS Southampton (83) sail to join it. Both are attacked by 12 Ju.87 dive bombers to the east of Malta HMS Gloucester is damaged but unable to put out a fire in the after engine room HMS Southampton is abandoned. Whilst the crew are transferred to HMS Diamond, the Italian submarine Settimo fires 3 torpedoes at Southampton, one of which explodes. Later Southampton is dispatched by torpedo fired by HMS Orion. There are 80 casualties, but 727 survive. (Alex Gordon)(108)

All merchantmen reach their destinations safely, but at a cost of a cruiser and a destroyer, and the loss of HMS Illustrious' vital airpower.

NORTH AFRICA: Longmore orders 11 ( Blenheim) and 112 (Gladiator) Squadrons to Greece. To bring No. 11s strength up to establishment, 39 handed its Blenheims over and re-equipped with the first Martin Marylands to reach the Command. With a top speed of 278 mph and a bomb load of 2,000 lb, they were also used for photo-reconnaissance.

U.S.A.: The Army orders two prototypes of Northrops new twin-boom, twin-engine, night fighter the P-61.

11 January 1942

January 11th, 1942 (SUNDAY)

U.S.S.R.: Soviet troops on the central front push west and cut the north-south Rzhev-Bryansk railway line.

LIBYA: The South African 2d Division of 30 Corps, British Eighth Army, attacks Sollum, just across the Egyptian border, and captures it early on 12 January. 13 Corps pursues Rommel's forces toward El Agheila, a strong natural position.

Sollum: With bayonets fixed, South African troops stormed this Afrika Korps redoubt today, winkling out snipers from hundreds of caves on the high ground overlooking Sollum. The successful assault means that the 7,000 Axis troops remaining on the Halfaya escarpment are now cut off from seaborne food supplies and their chief source of water. The Halfaya garrison, with its command of the coastal road, is a major hazard for the British Army which is forced to divert through more than 100 miles of desert to reach the front lines.

JAPAN: Japan declares war on the Netherlands.

The Japanese did recognize and treat the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) Government as a separate entity of the Dutch government in exile. The NEI Government operated on its own apparently for the most part independent of the government in London. The NEI Government declared war on Japan on 8 Dec 1941. After the fall of the NEI, the government in London formed a consultative board on the NEI on 17 June 1942. By Royal Decree the NEI Government in exile was established on Ceylon on September 19, 1942. (Gordon Rottman and Jack McKillop)

SINGAPORE: The rapid seizure of the oil-rich Dutch East Indies - a critical target for the Japanese - began today when the Japanese used paratroopers for the first time. They landed on Menado, on Celebes, and took Langoan air base. The Dutch garrison fought hard against the Japanese, who landed from 16 transports, but were forced to capitulate after setting fire to their oilfields. Oil is critical to the Japanese who cannot wage war for long without some external means of supply. Rubber is another key need - explaining the urgency in taking the Malayan peninsula.

MALAYA: A lull develops in the ground action as the Indian 3 Corps continues their withdrawal into Lahore, but enemy planes remain active and begin series of strikes against Muar. The Japanese 5th Infantry Division rumbles into Malaya's capital Kuala Lumpur at 2000 hours local. They find the fuel supplies have been set ablaze, but the quantity of supplies and equipment captured is immense. Japanese soldiers try out rare delicacies like corned beef and Johnny Walker Red.

NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: The Japanese invade at two points. The central assault force spotted by the Dutch yesterday, consisting of the 56th Regimental Group and the 2nd Kure Special Naval Landing Force (SNLF) with air support from Jolo Island in the Philippines, lands at rich oil Tarakan Island at 0000 hours. The eastern assault force from Davao, Mindanao, consisting of the Sasebo Combined SNLF and the 1st Yokosuka SNLF, invades Celebes Island at Menado and Kema at approximately 0300 hours. A Japanese Naval paratroop force of 334 men is dropped on the airfield just south of Menado and suffers heavy casualties (30 dead and 90 injured). Allied planes are unable to halt the Japanese, and the small Dutch garrisons are quickly overwhelmed. The Japanese soon put Tarakan and Menado into use as air bases from which to support operations to south.

The Dutch minelayer HNMS Prins van Oranje is sunk off Tarakan Island by the Japanese patrol boat P 38 and the Japanese destroyer HIJMS Yamakaze.

Seven USAAF Far East Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses based at Singosari Airdrome, Java, are dispatched to attack the Japanese landing forces on Tarakan Island. Four abort due to mechanical problems and the other three abort due to poor weather over the target.

USN Patrol Squadron Twenty Two (VP-22), with PBY-5 Catalinas, joins Patrol Wing Ten (PatWing-10) at Ambon Island, the first aviation reinforcements from the Central Pacific to reach southwest Pacific Forces opposing the Japanese advance through the Netherlands East Indies. (PatWing-10 had been based at Cavite, Philippine Islands on 8 December 1941.) Unfortunately, the PBY-5 aircraft they received in Hawaii were the early models without self-sealing fuel tanks and armour. PatWing-10 later received five newer model PBY-5 Catalinas from the Dutch in Java. All of the rest of the PatWing’s original aircraft were the older PBY-4 models. Almost immediately after arrival several of the VP-22 Catalinas were caught at anchor at Ambon and destroyed.

PACIFIC OCEAN: USS Saratoga (CV-3) is damaged by IJN submarine HIJMS I-6, while cruising 420 miles southwest of Oahu, TERRITORY OF HAWAII, as part of TF-14,aiming for a rendezvous with the aircraft carrier USS ENTERPRISE (CV-6). The torpedo hit on the port side amidships. Six men are killed and three firerooms are flooded. Damage was moderate and caused significant problems for her engines, mostly through shock damage to the turbo-electric drive and through contaminated fuel oil. However, she easily makes 16 knots and can launch and recover aircraft. The carrier returns to Oahu. (Mark E. Horan and Jack McKillop)

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: In the II Corps area on Bataan, the Japanese advancing down the east coast of Bataan drive back the outpost line of the 57th Infantry, Philippine Scouts, cross the Calaguiman River, and after nightfall begin an assault on the main line of resistance, forcing the 57th Infantry to fall back a little. Fighting continues throughout night of 11/12 January. Reserves are committed and the 57th Infantry counterattacks, regaining most of lost ground by dawn of 12th. To the west, another enemy column shifts west in the sector of 41st Division, Philippine Army (PA), and is contained by that division. Advance elements of still another column, pushing slowly south in central Bataan toward the 51st Division (PA), reach the Orani River by morning.

Both Japanese Navy Parachute units jump at Davao on Mindanao in the Philippines. (Gordon Rottmann)

SAMOA: Naval Station Pago Pago is shelled by a Japanese submarine.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: Operation Paukenschlag ("roll of the kettledrums") descends upon the eastern seaboard of the U.S. like a "bolt from the blue." The first group of five German submarines takes up station off the east coast of the United States on this date. Over the next month, these boats (U-66, U-109, U-123, U-125 and U-130) will sink 26 Allied ships; the presence of the enemy off the eastern seaboard takes U.S. Navy antisubmarine forces by surprise. The first ship, the British freighter SS Cyclops, is sunk by U-123 300 miles (483 kilometres) east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

U.S.A.: The plan to dispatch the U.S. V Corps, reinforced, and air and supply forces to Northern Ireland (Operation MAGNET) is approved.

11 January 1943

January 11th, 1943 (MONDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Escort carrier HMS Hunter commissioned.

Minesweepers HMS Pincher and Pickle laid down.

Minesweeper HMS Ready launched.

GERMANY: U-1226 is laid down.

U.S.S.R.: In the Caucasus, the Russians take Pyatigorsk, Georgivesk and Mineralnye Vody.

Leningrad: In the darkness before dawn this morning, with the thermometer at -23C, the Red Army opened Operation Iskra [Spark] to break the German siege of Leningrad.

2,000 guns and mortars smashed the frozen silence as the white-clad soldiers of the Second Shock Army advanced round the southern shore of Lake Ladoga towards the lakeside town of Schlusselburg. At the same time units of the 67th Amy of the Leningrad front, supported by warships of the Baltic Fleet, struck at their besiegers across the frozen river Neva. The plan, made by General Zhukov, newly arrived from Stalingrad, calls for the Leningrad army and the relieving force to meet at a workers' housing development south of Schlusselburg. This would enable a supply route to be opened round the lake to bring food to the long-suffering citizens of Leningrad.

One daring part of Zhukov's plan has already succeeded. The 12th Infantry Brigade, all expert skiers, has swooped through the freezing mist over Lake Ladoga to take the Germans in the rear. The Russians are only ten miles apart at some points, but they face a well-prepared Germany army which includes the Spanish Blue Division (Azul), "volunteers" sent by General Franco. It will be a bitter struggle.

SOLOMON ISLANDS: The US 3rd Btn 35th Infantry on Guadalcanal capture the Japanese "Sea Horse" position at 1330 hours. This attack began yesterday at 0630.

CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Fort William damaged collision with SS Lisgar at Halifax. Fort William was under repair for a month following the incident. Fort William was transferred to the Turkish Navy after the war and renamed Bodrum. She was removed from service and scrapped in 1971.

Corvette HMCS Louisburg laid down.

U.S.A.: Destroyer USS Stockton commissioned.

Destroyer USS Caperton laid down.

Destroyer escort USS Huse laid down.

China signs a treaty with the United Kingdom and the United States relinquishing extraterritorial rights.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 2025, the CS Flight was shelled and sunk by U-105.

At 0033, the Ocean Vagabond, a straggler from Convoy SC-115, was torpedoed by U-186 south of Iceland and sank at 0307 following two coups de grâce at 0059 and 0145 hours. One crewmember was lost. The master, 41 crewmembers and four gunners were picked up by HMS Wanderer and landed at Liverpool.

At 0040, U-522 attacked Convoy TM-1 NW of the Canary Islands (grid DH 5110) and reported one tanker sunk and one other damaged. In fact, the British Dominion was struck by three torpedoes and was abandoned. After 0300 the wreck was sunk by U-620 by a coup de grâce and gunfire. 33 crewmembers and four gunners were lost. The master, ten crewmembers and five gunners were picked up by corvette HMS Godetia and landed at Gibraltar.

11 January 1944

January 11th, 1944 (TUESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: London: The Soviet government has replied to the declaration by the Polish government in exile on relations between the two countries with a note suggesting that the Curzon Line, the frontier proposed by the Allies in 1919, could form the basis of a settlement. This would amount to the annexation of areas of eastern Poland into the Soviet Union.

Corvettes HMS Bamborough Castle and Pevensey Castle launched.

GERMANY: As part of the strategic bombing of the German aircraft industry, the USAAF raids Brunswick, Aschersleben and Halberstadt; 42 aircraft are lost and 125 damaged.

Over Oschersleben, Lieutenant Colonel James H. Howard (U.S. Army Air Corps) displays conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action against the Luftwaffe.

He is the leader of a group of P-51 aircraft providing support for a heavy bomber formation on a long-range mission deep in German territory. As his group met the bombers in the target area the bomber force is attacked by numerous Luftwaffe fighters. Colonel Howard, with his group, at once engages his enemy and personally destroys a German Me-110.

As a result of this attack Col. Howard lost contact with his group, and at once returned to the level of the bomber formation. He then sees that the bombers are being heavily attacked by enemy airplanes and that no other friendly fighters are at hand. While Col. Howard could have waited to attempt to assemble his group before engaging the enemy, he chose instead to attack single-handed a formation of more than 30 German airplanes. With utter disregard for his own safety he immediately pressed home determined attacks for some 30 minutes, during which time he destroyed 3 enemy airplanes and probably destroyed and damaged others. Toward the end of this engagement 3 of his guns went out of action and his fuel supply was becoming dangerously low. Despite these handicaps and the almost insuperable odds against him, Col. Howard continued his aggressive action in an attempt to protect the bombers from the numerous fighters. (MOH) (William L. Howard)

U-879 launched.

U-246, U-1006 commissioned.

ITALY: Verona: Count Galeazzo Ciano, Mussolini's son-in-law and the former foreign minister, was led in front of a firing squad in the prison here today and shot for treason. Four other fascist ex-leaders were executed with him and 13 others were sentenced in their absence on 8 January.

Ciano's "crime" was to vote with his fellow-Fascists to oust Mussolini from office last July. Ciano and his wife, Edda, were lured to Bavaria last August by a report that their children were in danger. They had been promised safe conduct to Spain - only to be handed to Italy's new puppet Fascist government. Marshal Emilio de Bono, once one of the Duce's stauncest supporters, was also shot.

NEW GUINEA: The airfield at Siador, becomes operational after repairs.

PACIFIC: HMS Tally Ho, one of the Royal Navy submarine flotilla based at Trincomalee, caught the Japanese light cruiser Kuma in the Malacca Strait, one of the very few large Japanese warships then operating in the area, and sank her with two torpedo hits.

Japanese submarine I-11 is lost. There is some dispute as to whether she was sunk by the USS NICHOLAS (DD-449) or lost to mines. (Marc James Small)(220, 221 and 222)

MARSHALL ISLANDS: US aircraft attack Japanese shipping and military bases on Kwajalein atoll as part of preparations for an operation to take the islands.

U.S.A.: Washington: President Roosevelt in his State of the Union message to Congress today announced some controversial new "win-the-war" proposals. He wants to introduce a national service law which will put every able-bodied man and woman at the service of the government. There are to be some exceptions, but no details of these are available yet.

The point of the law is not so much to increase the armed forces as to "prevent strikes" by giving the government new powers over workers at home. Trade union leaders described the law tonight as "quack medicine". They attacked the "evils inherent" in compulsory labour. And they said that the law would not be effective. They pointed out that strikes in Britain are increasing, despite legal controls over labour; Britain had more strikes in the first nine months of 1943 than in all of 1942.

Escort carrier USS Hoggatt Bay commissioned.

Destroyer escort USS Doyle C Barnes laid down.

Destroyer escorts USS Stafford and Richard W Suesens launched.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: The first US attack with forward-firing rockets is made today against a U-boat by two TBF-1C Avengers of Composite Squadron 58 (VC-58) from the escort carrier USS Block Island (CVE-21).

Corvette HMCS Lunenburg attacked by U-953 Oblt Karl-Heinz Marbach Commanding Officer, 50N-18W, the attack was unsuccessful and there was no further contact.

SS Triona damaged by U-532 at 00.03N, 80.43E - Grid LO 52.

11 January 1945

January 11th, 1945 (THURSDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: At 1515, U-1055 attacked some ships from a just dispersed coastal convoy in the Irish Sea west of Anglesey and reported two ships sunk. A first torpedo exploded behind the Yugoslavian steam merchant Senga, while other torpedoes sank the Roanoke and Normandy Coast. The Normandy Coast sank within two minutes, taking 18 crewmembers and one gunner with her. The master, five crewmembers and two gunners were picked up by patrol ship HMS PC-74 and landed at Holyhead on 12 January.

GERMANY:

U-2362, U-4705 launched

U-2352, U-2354 commissioned.

U.S.S.R.: Baltic Fleet: MS "T-33" (ex-"Korall") - mined close to Aegna Is., in Finland Gulf. (Sergey Anisimov)(69)

Soviet minesweeper T-76 Korall sunk by U-745 at 59.45N, 24.47E - Grid AO 3528.

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