February 8th, 1942...Dr. Fritz Todt, Nazi Minister for Armaments and War Production, promises Adolf Hitler a 55 percent hike in Nazi arms production. He then leaves Rastenberg in East Prussia to fly to Berlin. He doesn't get far. His plane crashes on take- off. A shaken Hitler appoints his personal architect, Albert Speer, to succeed Todt. Speer shows no scruples in employing slave labor from France, The Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, and Poland. The German Navy also names a battery of naval guns at Haringzelles in the Pas De Calais "Batterie Todt." Those massive guns are still in place, eyed by tourists.

In Singapore, the Japanese storm across the Johore Strait to Singapore's northwest corner, which has had its defenses weakened by British misjudgment. The Japanese 5th and 18th Divisions swarm all over the poorly-trained 22nd Australian Brigade, which quickly has to retreat. The Australians, some of whom have been in the army for only three weeks, desert their positions, and attack the liquor stores and food dumps of Singapore. It is the Australian army's worst hour.

Filipino President Manuel Quezon, watching his country disintegrate under bombs and occupation, asks President Franklin D. Roosevelt to grant the Philippines their independence and declare it a neutral area. FDR, seeing the absurdity of the idea, gives MacArthur the power to surrender Filipino troops, but not American. This calls Quezon's bluff. Privately FDR tells his advisors that the idea the Japanese would recognize an independent Philippine nation's neutrality is absurd.

New Zealand politicians announce a potato shortage, which will continue through 1942.

February 9th, 1942...Japanese troops fan out from their bridgehead on Singapore island, beneath skies blackened with smoke from burning oil tanks. At sunset, Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita crosses the straits, walking over bound British and Indian PoWs. More than a million civilians have no relief from constant Japanese air attacks, and food is becoming short. The Japanese Imperial Guards Division beheads 200 British and Indian PoWs. Yamashita and his officers make numerous notes in their diaries about what poor soldiers the British and Indians are. That misjudgment will cost the Japanese dearly.

British General Archibald Percival, facing yet another disaster, opts to form a perimeter defense line around Singapore city.

RAF Hurricanes shoot down eight Japanese bombers over Singapore without loss. Japanese Zeroes pounce and shoot down five Hurricanes without any loss to themselves. The Hurricane joins the long list of Allied planes that are inferior to the Zero.

In the Philippines, the Japanese get Radio KZRH in Manila running again, and broadcast propaganda to the embattled American forces, playing American songs to make GIs feel homesick, including "Waiting for Ships That Never Came in."

February 10th, 1942...President Franklin D. Roosevelt seeks guarantees from Vichy France that Vichy will remain neutral.

Field Marshal Wavell, who commands the Allied forces in Southeast Asia, flies into Singapore to find morale at bottom, the Allied troops retreating, and orders "no surrender, fight to the end." Meanwhile, the Japanese land T95 tanks, which rumble through the hills, scattering Indian troops as they drive on the Bukit Timah depots, held up only by the last survivors of the 2nd Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. The RAF evacuates its last Hurricane fighters from Singapore.

In the Philippines, US troops thresh and grind rice in their own foxholes. Everyone gets malaria because of a shortage of quinine and mosquito nets. However, the submarine tender USS Canopus, acting as a repair ship and mother hen to surviving US Navy PT boats, still offers its crew showers (thanks to its desalinization unit), clean clothes (thanks to its laundry) and fresh ice cream (thanks to its refrigerator). The ship survives constant attacks by Japanese aircraft.

February 11th, 1942...HMNZS Achilles puts to sea from Auckland, joining up with the heavy cruiser HMAS Australia and the destroyer USS Lamson. Destination Fiji.

In Brest, France, the German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, packing 11-inch guns and Krupp armor, plow into the sea, joined by the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, at about 10:45 p.m. "Operation Cerberus" is underway. This powerful force, however, is not going to attack North Atlantic convoys. It's going to sail up the heavily-defended English Channel, and home to Germany. The ships go undetected by British patrols. Hitler wants his ships to come home and move on to Norway, which he believes will be the decisive zone of the war. Hitler's advisers want the battleships to stay in France. Hitler offers his advisers a choice: sail them home to Germany or decommission them on site.

In Montreal, Quebecois riot against conscription plans that may call for Canadian draftees to be sent overseas to fight, in violation of government policy. Canadian troops who cannot be sent overseas are called "Zombies."

In Australia, American supply officers struggle to find charter boats and pilots who can sail supplies through the Japanese blockade to Bataan. They have no luck. They do send in a submarine to withdraw the Philippines' gold bars.

February 12th, 1942...As the British crumble in North Africa, 2nd New Zealand Division's 5th Brigade, under Brig. Howard Kippenberger of Rangiora, is ordered forward forthwith, from its bases in Syria. It is sent to built a brigade box at El Adem for an Indian Brigade, and it takes the New Zealanders six weeks to create the position, using 19,000 mines from Tobruk.

Singapore is in chaos, covered with smoke, full of half a million refugees, with military deserters wrecking liquor shops, stealing cars from showrooms, and attacking food shops. Many civilians and deserters board ships of all sorts pulling out of Singapore in a desperate evacuation, which in turn runs into Japanese aircraft and bombs.

In the English Channel, the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau are finally spotted by the British at 11:09 a.m., covered by fighters. For once the Luftwaffe supports the Navy, and more than 300 fighters (Me-109s, FW-190s, and Me-110s), under General Adolf Galland, provide Vice Adm. Otto Ciliax's big ships with round- the-clock cover. German minesweepers and torpedo boats escort the big ships. At 12:18 the British Dover guns open up, followed by British Motor Torpedo Boats. The British MTBs, attacking at long range, score no hits.

Shortly thereafter, Cdr. Eugene Esmonde, commanding a squadron of antique Swordfish torpedo biplanes, gives up on waiting for his Spitfire escort, and attacks the German fleet anyway. All six of his planes are shot down, only five men survive. Esmonde receives a posthumous Victoria Cross. By now the Germans are past Ramsgate.

At 2:31 p.m., the Scharnhorst hits a British mine and thunders to a stop. Ciliax shifts his flag and his gear to a destroyer as British Beaufort torpedo bombers attack. In a pointless effort to preserve security, the British pilots are told that the three German targets are merchantmen, not battleships. No hits. The skies are full of Luftwaffe fighters and bombers...one Dornier actually attacks Ciliax's destroyer. Scharnhorst, however, repairs her engines, and sails on.

At 3:30 p.m., five British destroyers try to attack, but can't close with the Germans due to the Luftwaffe. The RAF finally brings in heavy bombers, but they fail completely, too. Meanwhile, the RAF, knowing the German route from Enigma code intercepts, sows mines in the Wilhelmshaven approaches.

That evening, right on schedule, Scharnhorst hits one of the mines, and Gneisenau as well, and the big ships limp into Wilhelmshaven somewhat the worse for wear.

In Britain, the reaction is outrage that the German Navy and Hitler should succeed where the Spanish Armada had failed...to sail up the English Channel in broad daylight. The media rages against the War Office. However, while Hitler has scored quite a tactical coup, it's a strategic defeat for the Nazis, as their biggest battleships are no longer sitting astride the Allied Atlantic lines of communication, but are back in Germany, both damaged. "This will keep them out of mischief for at least six months, during which both our Navies will received important accessions of strength."

Indeed, that is the case. Scharnhorst will be out of action for eight months, Gneisenau will never sail again, and Prinz Eugen gets torpedoed 10 days later, disabling all three.

And the operation, ordered by Hitler, confirms his faith in his own intuition and genius, at the expense of his professional advisers.

February 13th, 1942...USS Enterprise is ordered to sea from Pearl Harbor as head of Task Force 13. Vice Adm. William Halsey avoids being Task Force 13 and leaving on Friday the 13th by re-naming the group Task Force 16 and sailing the following day.

"Black Friday" in Singapore sees the Japanese seize or damage most of the reservoirs, leaving the city with only seven days supply. Allied forces are in full retreat, with hordes of deserters causing chaos. Troops on duty have had barely an hour's sleep in days, and are exhausted. The famed 15-inch guns have been destroyed or captured. Percival signals Wavell that he doesn't think he can fight for more than two days. Wavell orders Percival to fight on. Meanwhile, the advancing Japanese themselves are desperately short on ammunition, and Yamashita is down to his last rounds.

Percival summons his top officers to plan their next move. Gordon Bennett urges Percival to surrender. Bennett, however, does not plan to join his men in captivity. He has the great escape all planned.

Amid the chaos of gunfire and shelling, British officers take time to court-martial one of their own, New Zealand-born Capt. Patrick Heenan of the Indian Army, on a charge of treason.

Heenan's treason is most serious...he has left RAF supplies and stocks intact on bases as British troops retreated, enabling advancing Japanese air units to take advantage of them. He has also given information about Malaya's defenses to the Japanese for years. The trial's conclusion is foregone. At dusk, Heenan faces the setting sun and a firing squad.

That day, Admiral Erich Raeder, head of the German Navy, brings a new plan to Adolf Hitler. He proposes that the Germans drive through Libya, into Egypt, and keep on going through Iraq, Iran, and all the way to India, thus drying up Britain's oil supply, hooking up with the Japanese, and winning the war. To do so, the Nazis will have to divert more resources to the Mediterranean, starting with massive supplies to North Africa. To do that, the Germans will have to invade Malta, the British-held island between Sicily and North Africa. Hitler orders the Luftwaffe's Air Fleet 2 to hammer Malta and knock out its airfields and will to resist.

Gen. Erwin Rommel, the top Axis officer in Libya, who will lead the drive to India, thinks it's a great idea.

February 14th, 1942...HMS Warspite, Britain's toughest battleship, crosses the International Date Line, and thus avoids doing so on Friday the 13th of February.

USS Enterprise and Task Force 16 heads to sea from Hawaii to attack Japanese-held Wake Island.

Fiji becomes a revictualling base for the Anzac Naval Squadron. The Royal New Zealand Army Service Corps will supply the fleet with bulk foodstuffs.

Japanese paratroopers land at Palembang in Sumatra. Wavell signals Percival to fight on in Singapore, but adds it would "be wrong to enforce needless slaughter." If it is no longer possible to resist, "I give you discretion to cease resistance...Whatever happens I thank you for gallant efforts of last few days." Brigadier Ivan Simson tells Percival that there's only enough water for 48 hours. "While there's water," Percival says, "We fight on."

In Java, the Allied air defenses consist of elderly Dutch P-36 and Hawk fighters and B-10 bombers. Three squadrons of US P-40s are sent as reinforcements.