9 A Japanese brokered peace treaty signed in Tokyo ends the
French-Thai War.
July
3 US intelligence through its MAGIC intercepts discover Japanese plans to attack South East Asia.
26 In response to the Japanese occupation of
French Indochina, US President
Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the seizure of all Japanese assets in the United States.
28 Japanese troops occupy southern French Indochina. The Vichy French colonial government is allowed by the Japanese to continue to administer
Vietnam. French repression continues. The Vichy French also agree to the occupation by the Japanese of bases in Indochina. Japanese yen became valueless and Japanese dollar bonds reduced in value to 20 to 30% of their par value on Wall Street.
31 The Japanese naval ministry accuses the United States of intruding into their territorial waters at
Sukumo Bay, and then fleeing. No evidence is offered to prove this allegation.[citation needed]
August
1 The US announces an oil embargo against "aggressors" Japanese occupy
Saigon, Vietnam.
6 American and British governments warn Japan not to invade
Thailand.
September
6 Japanese imperial conference decides Japan will go to war with the United States if the oil embargo is not lifted
October
17 The government of Japanese prime minister Prince
Fumimaro Konoye collapses, leaving little hope for peace in the Pacific.
18 Red Army troop reinforcements arrive in Moscow from Siberia; Stalin is assured that the Japanese will not attack the USSR from the East. General
Hideki Tōjō becomes the 40th
Prime Minister of Japan.
21 Negotiations in Washington between the US and Japan seem headed toward failure.
November
17
Joseph Grew, the United States ambassador to Japan, cables the
State Department that Japan had plans to launch an attack against
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (his cable was ignored).
26 A Japanese attack fleet of 33 warships and auxiliary craft, including six aircraft carriers, sails from northern Japan for the Hawaiian Islands. The
Hull note ultimatum is delivered to Japan by the United States.
December
The state of the Allies and Axis powers in December 1941USS Arizona burned for two days after being hit by a Japanese bomb. Parts of the ship were salvaged, but the wreck remains at the bottom of Pearl Harbor to this day and is a major memorial.FDR delivers his
Infamy Speech to Congress.
2 Prime Minister Tojo rejects "peace feelers" from the US.
3 Riley Fox ship gets bombed by Japanese War Boats.
4 Japanese naval and army forces continue to move toward Pearl Harbor and South-east Asia.
7 (December 8, Asian time zones) Japan launches an attack on
Pearl Harbor, declares war on the United States and the United Kingdom and invades
Thailand and
British Malaya and launches aerial attacks against
Guam, Hong Kong, the
Philippines, Shanghai, Singapore and
Wake Island. Canada declares war on Japan. Australia declares war on Japan.
8 The United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and New Zealand declare war on Japan. Japanese forces take the Gilbert Islands (which include Tarawa).
Clark Field in the Philippines is bombed, and many American aircraft are destroyed on the ground. Japanese troops attack Thailand in the
Battle of Prachuab Khirikhan. The
Battle of Hong Kong begins The
Malayan Campaign begins.
9
China officially declares war on Japan, although a de facto state of war has existed between the two countries since the
Marco Polo Bridge Incident of July 7, 1937. Australia officially declares war on Japan. South Africa declares war on Japan, regarded as if at war from eight December 1941.
11 Germany and Italy declare war on the United States. The United States reciprocates and declares war on Germany and Italy. US forces repel a Japanese landing attempt at
Wake Island. Japanese invade Burma.
12 Japanese landings on the southern Philippine Islands—Samar, Jolo, Mindanao. India declares war on Japan. US seizes French ship
Normandie.
13 Japanese under General Yamashita continue their push into Malaya. Under General Homma the Japanese forces are firmly established in the northern Philippines. Hong Kong is threatened.
20 The battle for Wake Island continues with several Japanese ships sunk or damaged.
22 The Japanese land at Lingayan Gulf, on the northern part of Luzon in the Philippines.
23 A second Japanese landing attempt on
Wake Island is successful, and the American garrison surrenders after hours of fighting. General MacArthur declares
Manila an "Open City". Japanese forces land on
Sarawak (Borneo).
6: Malta receives more fighters for its on-going defence.
8: The Japanese land at
Lae and
Salamaua, on Huon Bay, New Guinea, beginning their move toward Port Moresby, New Guinea, and then Australia.
9: Japanese troops entered
Rangoon, Burma, which was abandoned by the British two days earlier.[1] It appears that the Japanese are in control of Java, Burma, and New Guinea.
11: The Japanese land on Mindanao, the southernmost island in the Philippines.
12: American troops begin to land in
Nouméa,
New Caledonia; it will become an important staging base for the eventual invasion of Guadalcanal.
14: Japanese land troops in the
Solomon Islands, underscoring Australia's dangerous situation, especially if, as it is soon made clear, an airfield is built on Guadalcanal.
The Japanese are now threatening American forces around
Manila Bay; the retreat to
Corregidor begins.
17: U.S. General
Douglas MacArthur arrives in Australia, after leaving his headquarters in the Philippines.
22: A fractured convoy reaches Malta, after heavy losses to the Luftwaffe and an Italian sea force. Continued heavy bombing attacks on the island with slight opposition from overtaxed RAF air forces.
April
1: The
Eastern Sea Frontier, desperately short on suitable escort vessels after the
Destroyers for Bases Agreement, institutes an interim arrangement known as the "Bucket Brigaid," wherein vessels outside of protected harbors are placed in anchorages protected by netting after dark, and move only under whatever escort is available during the day. As word of this and similar measures reaches
Dönitz, he does not wait to test their effectiveness, but instead shifts his U-boats to the area controlled by the
Gulf Sea Frontier, where American anti-submarine measures are not as effective. As a result, in May more ships will be sunk in the Gulf, many of them off the Passes of the Mississippi, than off of the entire Eastern Seaboard.
The
Pacific War Council meets for the first time in Washington. Intended to allow the smaller powers involved in fighting the Japanese to have some input into US decisions, its purpose is soon outstripped by events, notably the collapse of the
ABDA Command.
2: Over 24,000 sick and starving troops (American and Filipino) are now trapped on the
Bataan Peninsula.
Japanese make landings on New Guinea, most importantly at
Hollandia.
3: Japanese forces begin an all-out assault on United States and
Filipino troops in Bataan.
Sustained Japanese air attacks on
Mandalay in
Burma.
5: On Bataan, the Japanese overwhelm Mt. Samat, a strong point on Allied defensive line.
Bataan falls to the Japanese. The "
Bataan Death March" begins, as the captives are taken off to detention camps in the north. Corregidor, in the middle of Manila Bay, remains a final point of resistance.
10: Japanese land on
Cebu Island, a large middle island of the Philippines.
Soldiers of the
I Burma Corps begin to destroy the infrastructure of the
Yenangyaung oil fields to prevent the advancing Japanese from capturing them intact.
Adolf Hitler summons
Benito Mussolini and
Galeazzo Ciano to a summit conference at
Salzburg. Like most Hitlerian conferences, this one is actually a thinly-disguised attempt to harangue the invitees into compliance with the Fuehrer's will; in this case, the Italians are to commit more troops to the
Eastern Front. Hitler is successful, and Mussolini agrees to send an additional seven divisions, as well as the two already promised. These unfortunate troops will be formed into the
Eighth Italian Army and attached to
von Bock's (later
von Weichs's)
Army Group B.
May
1: Rommel readies for a new offensive during the early part of this month.
Howell and his party of 114, mostly Americans, begin their trek to the Indian border and safety. To reach India, Stilwell will not only have to stay ahead of the Japanese, but beat the coming monsoon.
In the
Coral Sea, both Japanese and American carrier aircraft spend this day and the following one searching for each other's ships, with no success, even though at one point the opposing carrier groups are separated by less than a hundred miles of ocean.
General
Stilwell abandons his trucks, which constantly become stuck and so are actually impeding progress rather than aiding it. He retains his
Jeeps, which do better. Late in the day his party arrives at
Indaw.
6: On
Corregidor, Lt. General
Jonathan M. Wainwright surrenders the last U.S. forces in the
Philippines to Lt. General
Masaharu Homma. About 12,000 are made prisoners. Homma will soon face criticism from his superiors over the amount of time it has taken him to reduce the Philippines, and be forced into retirement (1943).
After a pep talk, General
Stilwell and his party of 114 set out from
Indaw on foot, with only 11 Jeeps to carry their supplies and any incapacitated, to reach the Indian border. He sends a last radio message which ends, "Catastrophe quite possible." The radio is then destroyed.
In the
Coral Sea, Japanese search planes spot refueling ship
USS Neosho and destroyer
USS Sims, which have retired from
Fletcher'sTask Force 17 into what should have been safer waters to refuel Sims. They are mistaken for an aircraft carrier and a cruiser. Japanese Admiral
Takagi, believing he has at last found the location of Fletcher's main force, orders a full out attack by carriers
Shōkaku and
Zuikaku and sinks both ships. This distraction helps prevent the Japanese from finding the real location of Fletcher's carriers. Meanwhile, Fletcher has a similar false alarm, the spotting of two cruisers and two destroyers being mistakenly encrypted as "two carriers and four cruisers." By chance, though, planes from
USS Lexington and
USS Yorktown stumble across light carrier
Shōhō while pursuing the false lead and sink her, leading to the first use in the American Navy of the signal, "Scratch one flattop." Admiral
Inoue is so alarmed by the loss of Shōhō he halts the Port Moresby invasion group north of the
Louisiades until the American carriers can be found and destroyed.
In Burma, General
Stilwell must abandon his Jeeps. From here on all in the party will have to march. The fifty-nine-year-old General decides a cadence of one hundred five beats per minute will best match the disparate abilities of his party, and they march fifty minutes and rest ten each hour.
8: In the
Coral Sea, each side finally locates the other's main carrier groups, consisting of Japanese carriers Shōkaku and Zuikaku, and American carriers Lexington and Yorktown. Several attacks follow. Only Zuikaku escapes unscathed; Shōkaku has her flight deck bent, requiring two months' repairs; Lexington is sunk and Yorktown damaged. Fletcher retires; this action closes the Battle. While arguably a stalemate or even tactical victory for the Japanese, who have sunk the most tonnage and the only large carrier, the Battle of the Coral Sea is usually seen as a strategic victory for the United States, as Admiral
Inoue cancels the Port Moresby operation, the first significant failure of a Japanese strategic operation in the
Pacific Theatre. In addition, Yorktown will be repaired in time to make important contributions at
Midway (although she will not survive), whereas neither the damaged Shōkaku nor Zuikaku (which, although not directly attacked, has suffered unsustainable losses in aircraft), will be able to refit in time for Midway, giving the Japanese only four operable carriers available for that battle.
9: On the night of 8/9 May 1942, gunners of the
Ceylon Garrison Artillery on
Horsburgh Island in the Cocos Islands rebelled.
Their mutiny was crushed and three of them were executed, the only British Commonwealth soldiers to be executed for mutiny during the Second World War.
USS Wasp and
HMS Eagle deliver a second contingent of
Spitfires to
Malta in
Operation Bowery. A few days later, a grateful
Churchill will signal Wasp "Who says a Wasp can't sting twice?" These aircraft, employed more aggressively than those previously delivered, turn the tide in the skies over Malta during the next few days, and the Axis is forced to abandon daylight bombing. This is a major turning point in the Siege, and thus in the
North African Campaign, although the approaches to the island remain subject to deadly and accurate Axis air attack, preventing efficient re-supply of the island.
In Burma, General
Stilwell and his party begin crossing the
Uyu River. Only four small rafts are available, and the crossing takes the better part of two days.
10: Unaware that the tide is turning even as he speaks,
Kesselring informs
Hitler that
Malta has been neutralized.
Churchill, growing ever more frustrated with
General Auchinleck's inactivity, finally sends him a telegram with a clear order; attack in time to cover for the Harpoon/Vigorous convoys to
Malta during the dark of the moon in early June. This places Auchinleck in the position of complying or resigning. Auchinleck does not immediately reply, leaving Churchill,
CIGS, and the
War Cabinet in a state of suspense.
13: General
Stilwell and his party cross the
Chindwin River. They are now almost certainly safe from the Japanese, but still dependent on their own supplies in a very remote area and racing to beat the monsoon.
14: In Burma, General
Stilwell and his party begin ascending the
Naga Hills. They are met at Kawlum by a relief expedition headed by British colonial administrator Tim Sharpe. "Food, doctor, ponies, and everything," notes a grateful Stilwell in his diary.
18: ::The
Assam Rifles give General
Stilwell's party a formal salute in honor of their arrival at
Ukhrul, but can offer no motorized transport; the nearest road passable by trucks is still a day's march away, and there are no Jeeps yet in this part of India.
19: General
Stilwell and his party at last reach the truck roadhead at Litan; by this time the monsoon rains have started.
General
Auchinleck at last replies to Churchill's somewhat urgent telegram of the 10th, saying he will have an attack ready by the sailing of the Harpoon/Vigorous convoys for
Malta.
20: The
Japanese conquest of Burma is complete; it is called a "military catastrophe". Coincidentally, on this same day General
Stilwell arrives in
Imphal and dismisses his evacuation party. All 114 have arrived, although some have to be hospitalized due to exhaustion; one of whom, Major
Frank Merrill, later commander of
Merrill's Marauders, is diagnosed to have had a mild heart attack en route.
At
Kharkov, as
Kleist's and
Paulus' forward elements draw ever closer together,
Timoshenko sends his subordinate General Kostenko into the salient to organize a fighting retreat, or, failing that, maximize what can be saved.
25: In preparation for the next battle, the Japanese naval strategists send diversionary forces to the Aleutians.
26: The Anglo-Soviet Treaty: their foreign secretaries agree that no peace will be signed by one without the approval of the other. (An important treaty since Himmler and others will attempt to separate the two nations at the end of the war.)
27:
USS Yorktown, damaged at the Coral Sea, limps into Pearl Harbor; it is ordered to get repaired and ready as fast as possible for the impending battle.
29: Japanese forces have large successes south of Shanghai.
30:
USS Yorktown leaves Pearl after hasty repairs and moves to join
USS Enterprise for the next expected battle.
31: Japanese midget subs enter Sydney harbour and sink one support ship; fears of invasion grow.
June
The state of the Allies and Axis powers in June 1942
1: First reports in the West that gas is being used to kill the Jews sent to "the East".
2: Further heavy bombing of industrial sites in Germany, centred mainly on Essen.
The
Battle of Midway opens with ineffective attacks by land-based American
B-17s on the approaching Japanese fleet. Admiral
Nagumo, in charge of the Japanese carrier force (
Hiryu,
Soryu,
Akagi, and
Kaga) is unable to locate any American aircraft carriers and decides to attack Midway's land-based air defences the first thing the next morning, which in any event is one of his planned tasks.
4: In the
Battle of Midway, the day opens with Admiral
Nagumo's attack on the air defences of the island.
A good deal of damage is done and many aircraft destroyed on both sides, but in the end the island's airbase is still functional. Nagumo plans a second attack on the island, and begins refueling and rearming his planes. Meanwhile, attacks are launched from all three American aircraft carriers in the area. Planes from
USS Hornet,
Yorktown, and
Enterprise all find the targets, although most of the planes from Hornet follow an incorrect heading and miss this attack.
Torpedo Squadron 8 from Hornet breaks and follows the correct heading. The
Devastators of "Torp 8" are all shot down without doing any damage; there is only one survivor,
George H. Gay, Jr. of Waco, Texas, who watches the battle unfold from the water. The torpedo attack fails, but draws the Japanese Combat Air Patrol down to low altitude, and they are unable to effectively repel the dive bombers from Yorktown and Enterprise when they arrive. The bombs find the Japanese flight decks crowded with fueling lines and explosive ordnance, and Akagi,Kaga, and Soryu are all soon reduced to blazing hulks, Akagi hit by only one bomb dropped by Lt. Commander
Richard Halsey Best; only Hiryu escapes with no hits. Admiral Nagumo shifts his flag from Akagi to another ship, the cruiser
Nagara, and orders attacks on the American carriers, one by a group of
Aichi D3A dive bombers and a second by
Nakajima B5N torpedo bombers. The Japanese planes find Yorktown (thinking Yorktown already sunk, the second attack group assume it must be Enterprise) and damage it so badly that Yorktown must be abandoned. Admiral
Fletcher shifts his flag to cruiser
Astoria and cedes operational command to Admiral
Spruance. The attacks on Yorktown give away Hiryu's continued operations, though, and it is promptly attacked and will sink the next day, Admiral
Yamaguchi choosing to go down with it. Of note, Hiryu and the other three destroyed Japanese carriers had participated in the attack on
Pearl Harbor.
The Battle of Midway comes to a close; USS Yorktown sinks; four Japanese carriers and one cruiser are sunk. The battle is viewed as a turning point in the Pacific war.
8: A Japanese submarine fires several shells into a residential area in Sydney but with little effect.
20: After landing in the Buna-Gona area, the Japanese in New Guinea move across the Owen Stanley mountain range aiming at Port Moresby in the south-eastern part of the island, close to Australia; a small Australian force begins rearguard action on the
Kokoda Track.
29: The Japanese take
Kokoda, halfway along the Owen Stanley pass to Port Moresby.
8: The naval
Battle of Savo Island, near Guadalcanal; the Americans lose three cruisers, the Australians one.
9: Numerous riots in favour of independence in India;
Mahatma Gandhi is arrested.
12: American forces establish bases in the
New Hebrides islands.
Fighting increases as the Germans approach Stalingrad.
17: Raid on Makin Atoll by elements of the US Marine 2nd Raider Battalion against the Japanese garrison. The Marines are withdrawn the following day under difficult circumstances.
18: In New Guinea, both Japanese and Australian reinforcements arrive.
20:
Henderson Field on Guadalcanal receives its first American fighter planes.
21: Japanese counter-attack at Henderson Field; in another foray at the
Tenaru (or Ilu) River, many Japanese are killed in a banzai charge.
24: The naval battle of the Eastern Solomons; USS Enterprise is badly damaged and the Japanese lose one light carrier, Ryujo.
26:
Battle of Milne Bay begins: Japanese forces land and launch a full-scale assault on Australian base near the eastern tip of
New Guinea.
28: Incendiary bombs dropped by a Japanese seaplane cause a forest fire in
Oregon.
September
1: US Navy Construction Battalion personnel,
Seabees, began to arrive at Guadalcanal.[1]
5: Australian and U.S. forces defeat Japanese forces at
Milne Bay, Papua, the first outright defeat for Japanese land forces in the
Pacific War. Their evacuation and the failure to establish an airbase eases the threat to Australia.
9: A Japanese plane drops more incendiaries on Oregon, but with little effect.
14: The Japanese retreat again from Henderson Field, Guadalcanal.
The Japanese are now within 30 miles of Port Moresby, New Guinea, on the Kokoda trail.
15: Americans send troops to Port Moresby as reinforcements for the Australian defenders.
Light carrier
USS Wasp is sunk by a Japanese submarine off Guadalcanal.
23–27: In the
Third Battle of Matanikau River, Guadalcanal, Japanese naval bombardment and landing forces nearly destroy Henderson Field in an attempt to take it, but the land forces are soon driven back.
On the Northwest coast of
Guadalcanal,
United States Navy ships intercept and defeat a Japanese fleet on their way to reinforce troops on the island. With the help of radar they sink one cruiser and several Japanese destroyers.
18: Admiral
William "Bull" Halsey is given command of the South Pacific naval forces.
23: Second Battle of El Alamein begins with massive Allied bombardment of German positions. Then Australian forces, mainly, begin advance while offshore British naval forces support the right flank (n.b. the ongoing concurrent victories being prepared at Guadalcanal and Stalingrad).
25: Rommel hurriedly returns from his sickbed in Germany to take charge of the African battle. (His replacement, General Stumme, had died of a heart attack).
The Japanese continue their attacks on the Marines west of Henderson Field.
15: The naval battle of Guadalcanal ends. Although the
United States Navy suffers heavy losses, it still retains control of the sea around
Guadalcanal.
17: Japanese send reinforcements into New Guinea; Americans are stymied at Buna.
21: American army moves to shove Japanese off the extreme western end of Guadalcanal.
Red Army troops complete the encirclement of the Germans at Kalach, west of Stalingrad.
26: Hostilities erupt between the American and Australian soldiers in
Brisbane. Fighting breaks out which results in fatalities, it is dubbed the
Battle of Brisbane.
30: The naval
Battle of Tassafaronga (off Guadalcanal); this is a night action in which Japanese naval forces sink one American cruiser and damage three others.
December
1: Gasoline rationing begins in the United States.
The US cruiser
Northampton is sunk as Japanese destroyers attempt to come down "the Slot" to Guadalcanal.
2: Below the bleachers of Stagg Field at the
University of Chicago, a team led by
Enrico Fermi initiate the first
nuclear chain reaction. A coded message, "The Italian navigator has landed in the new world" is sent to President Roosevelt.
7: On the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack,
USS New Jersey, America's largest battleship is launched (commissioned five months later).
9: The Marines turn over Guadalcanal to the American army.
13: The Luftwaffe flies in meagre supplies to the beleaguered Stalingrad troops.
15: American and Australian troops finally push Japanese out of
Buna, New Guinea.