Joseph Stilwell was designated Chief of Staff to Supreme Commander, China Theater, and was directed to "increase the effectiveness of United States assistance to the Chinese government for the prosecution of the war and to assist in improving the combat efficiency of the Chinese Army."[1]
German submarine U-581 was sunk in the mid-Atlantic Ocean by depth charges from the British destroyer HMS Westcott.[3]
United States tanker W. L. Steed was torpedoed, shelled and eventually sunk about 80 to 90 nautical miles (150 to 170 km) east of the mouth of Delaware River by German submarine U-103.
Erwin Rommel's forces captured Timimi in Libya. The British Eighth Army fell back and began establishing what would soon be known as the Gazala Line.[5]
The British cargo liner Talthybius was bombed and sunk at Singapore by Japanese aircraft. She was later salvaged and put back into service as Taruyasu Maru.
The British government set maximum prices for clothing. A suit could not be sold for more than £4 18s 8d.[6]
Rommel halted his counteroffensive near Gazala. In a little over two weeks he had retaken almost all the ground that the British Eighth Army had taken at the end of 1941.[10]
Vidkun Quisling abolished the Norwegian constitution and established a dictatorship.[11]
The Canadian corvette HMCS Spikenard was torpedoed and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean by German submarine U-136.
A two-day meeting between Ion Antonescu and Adolf Hitler began at the Wolf's Lair.[13] Antonescu pledged to commit large Romanian forces to the upcoming offensive on the Eastern Front but asked for modern equipment as a condition. Antonescu also warned that Romania still claimed all of Transylvania, but promised not to press this demand until the end of the war. Hitler was non-committal, but later instructed all German officials to be careful in their dealings with Hungary and Romania since both would be called upon to make more sacrifices for the Axis war effort.[14]
The last civilian car rolled off the assembly line at the River Rouge Ford plant before the company switched production over to military vehicles such as service trucks and jeeps. Reporters and photographers were on hand to document the event.[16]
The Germans launched the Channel Dash, codenamed Operation Cerberus, with the goal of running a Kriegsmarine squadron of ships from Brest, France through a British blockade to their home bases in Germany.
The American submarine USS Shark was sunk in the Pacific Ocean by the Japanese destroyer Yamakaze.
The British destroyer HMS Maori was bombed and sunk by the Luftwaffe in the MaltaGrand Harbour.
A state funeral was held for Fritz Todt in Berlin. Hitler spoke at the service and then posthumously made Todt the first recipient of a newly created award, the German Order.[18]
The German Navy completed the Channel Dash; they managed to avoid British air and naval attacks, but both battlecruisers were seriously damaged by British sea mines.
The British Air Ministry issued the Area bombing directive, ordering RAF bombers to attack the German industrial workforce and the morale of the German populace through bombing German cities and their civilian inhabitants.
British auxiliary patrol vessel Li Wo singlehandedly attacked a Japanese convoy north of the Bangka Strait, sinking the lead transport before being herself sunk by the squadron of escorting warships.
The British gunboat HMS Grasshopper was bombed and sunk by Japanese aircraft off Rusuk Island.
American converted troopship SS President Taylor grounded on the coral reef at Canton Island and could not be salvaged despite extensive efforts.
Sarawakian steamship Vyner Brooke was bombed and sunk by Japanese aircraft while evacuating nurses and wounded servicemen out of Singapore.
German submarines U-178 and U-336 were commissioned.
President Roosevelt made a special broadcast to the people of Canada. "Yours are the achievements of a great nation," the president said after reviewing Canada's part in the war effort. "They require no praise from me-but they get that praise from me nevertheless. I understate the case when I say that we, in this country, contemplating what you have done, and the spirit in which you have done it, are proud to be your neighbors."[19]
Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo appeared before the National Diet and outlined Japan's goals, in which he spoke of a "new order of coexistence and co-prosperity on ethical principles in Greater East Asia."[22]
The Farrer Park address took place two days after the fall of Singapore when the British Malaya Command formally surrendered the Indian troops of the British Indian Army to Japanese Major Iwaichi Fujiwara. Authority was transferred in turn to the command of Mohan Singh, who addressed the gathered troops declaring the formation of the Indian National Army to fight the British Raj.
The Dutch destroyer Van Nes was bombed and sunk by Japanese aircraft south of Bangka Island.
Japanese occupiers changed the name of Singapore to Shonan, meaning "Light of the South".[20]
The Sook Ching operation commenced as Japanese occupiers in Singapore began to massacre perceived hostile elements among the Chinese.
Dutch submarine K VII was bombed and sunk at the Surabaya harbour by Japanese aircraft.
American destroyer USS Truxton and general stores issue ship Pollux ran aground at Lawn Point, Newfoundland during a storm, resulting in 110 and 93 deaths, respectively.
Free French submarine Surcouf possibly sank north of Cristóbal, Colón, Panama after a collision with American freighter Thompson Lykes, though its fate is uncertain.
Uruguayan President Alfredo Baldomir staged a self-coup, dissolving congress and taking control of the government.[25]
Madame Chiang Kai-shek broadcast her husband's farewell message over Indian radio.[12] "In these horrible times of savagery and brute force, the people of China and their brethren the people of India should, for the sake of civilization and human freedom, give their united support to the principles embodied in the Atlantic Charter and in the joint declaration of the 26 nations, and ally themselves with the anti-aggression front," the message read. "I hope the Indian people will wholeheartedly join the allies-namely, China, Great Britain, America and the Soviet Union-and participate shoulder to shoulder in the struggle for survival of a free world until complete victory has been achieved and the duties incumbent upon them in these troubled times have been fully discharged."[26]
Dutch cargo ship Hanne was bombed and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean by the Luftwaffe.
Died:Stefan Zweig, 60, Austrian novelist, playwright, journalist and biographer (committed suicide with his wife in Brazil in despair over the European situation)
Joseph Stalin marked the 24th anniversary of the founding of the Red Army with a statement broadcast to all Russians declaring that a "tremendous and hard fight" still lay ahead, but now that the Germans had spent the "element of surprise" the Soviets were taking the offensive and that "the Red banner will fly everywhere it has flown before."[27]
President Roosevelt gave a fireside chat on the progress of the war. "We have most certainly suffered losses – from Hitler's U-Boats in the Atlantic as well as from the Japanese in the Pacific – and we shall suffer more of them before the turn of the tide," Roosevelt said. "But, speaking for the United States of America, let me say once and for all to the people of the world: We Americans have been compelled to yield ground, but we will regain it. We and the other United Nations are committed to the destruction of the militarism of Japan and Germany. We are daily increasing our strength. Soon, we and not our enemies, will have the offensive; we, not they, will win the final battles; and we, not they, will make the final peace."[28]
Struma disaster: With an estimated 781 Jewish refugees crammed aboard, the small Panamanian merchant ship MV Struma was torpedoed and sunk in the Black Sea by the Soviet submarine Shch-213. Only one person aboard, 19-year old Romanian David Stoliar, survived the sinking.
German Ambassador to Turkey Franz von Papen survived an assassination attempt in Ankara when a Macedonian student fired a gun that missed and then accidentally blew himself up with a bomb that exploded before he could throw it. Later it was determined that the Soviets had supported the attempt on von Papen's life.[29]
Voice of America began short-wave radio broadcasts. Its initial programmes were in German.[30]
The British tanker Empire Celt was torpedoed and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean by German submarine U-158.
Bishops in Norway resigned from all their positions within the country's Lutheran Church rather than publicly declare allegiance to the Quisling regime.[32]
A mysterious event called the Battle of Los Angeles took place in the early morning hours over Los Angeles, California when an anti-aircraft artillery barrage was fired into the nighttime sky. Secretary of the NavyFrank Knox called the incident a "false alarm" but offered no other information.
German battleship Gneisenau was bombed and heavily damaged in the drydock at Kiel by RAF bombers. The ship would be decommissioned later in the year and never returned to service.
The Battle of the Java Sea was fought in the Pacific, resulting in a Japanese victory. The Allies lost two cruisers and three destroyers while the Japanese only had a destroyer damaged in return.
The American seaplane tender USS Langley was badly damaged south of Java by Japanese dive bombers and had to be scuttled.
The British executed Operation Biting, an overnight attack on a German radar installation at Bruneval in northern France.
^Gregory, Don A.; Gehlen, Wilhelm R. (2009). Two Soldiers, Two Lost Fronts: German War Diaries of the Stalingrad and North Africa Campaigns. Philadelphia, PA: Casemate. p. 229. ISBN978-1-935149-74-3.
^ abcChronology and Index of the Second World War, 1938–1945. Research Publications. 1990. pp. 108–109. ISBN978-0-88736-568-3.
^Delaforce, Patrick (2009). Churchill's Desert Rats in North America, Burma, Sicily and Italy. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military. p. 71. ISBN978-1-84884-039-3.
^Griswold, John (2006). Ian Fleming's James Bond: Annotations and Chronologies for Ian Fleming's Bond Stories. AuthorHouse. pp. 61–62. ISBN978-1-4259-3100-1.
^Sugiman, Pamela (2004). "Memories of internment: narrating Japanese Canadian women's life stories". The Canadian Journal of Sociology. 29 (3): 359–388. doi:10.1353/cjs.2004.0049. JSTOR3654672. S2CID144013114.
^Winkler, Heinrich August (2015). The Age of Catastrophe: A History of the West, 1914–1945. Yale University Press. p. 767. ISBN978-0-300-20489-6.