January 11, 1942...The Dutch East Indies feels the teeth of the Japanese drive south as Japanese troops land on the island of Tarakan, off the Borneo coast, seizing the island's oilfields. Other Japanese troops land at Manado in the northeastern Celebes. Dutch, American, and Australian aircraft counterattack with negligible results.

In Malaya, the Japanese 5th Infantry Division under Gen. Takuyo Matsui rumble into Malaya's capital Kuala Lumpur at 8 p.m. They find the petrol stocks 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.

In the Philippines, the Japanese finally hit the American main line of resistance in Bataan. The 2nd Battalion of the 141st Infantry charges the Philippine Scouts with a banzai attack. Waves of Japanese troops charge the defenders at midnight, throwing themselves on barbed wire against point-blank fire from 75mm guns, forming a bridge of corpses over which subsequent waves will pass. The slaughter is heavy on both sides, and American reserves stop the drive. All Japanese attacks in Bataan are stopped cold. The Japanese realize their shortage of maps, poor communications, and lack of jungle training will delay their conquest of Bataan.

In North Africa, British troops re-take Sollum, as the wild "Crusader" battles go on into extra innings. The Italian defenders are happy to surrender, as usual.

New Zealand Air Vice Marshal Sir Keith Park is appointed to command all Allied airpower in Egypt. Park, a brilliant strategist and tactician, was the victor of the Battle of Britain. He swiftly moves to reform the poorly-organized Desert Air Force.

In the Pacific, USS Enterprise goes to sea on her first war patrol, to cover the despatch of Marines to Samoa.

January 12, 1942...In the Pacific, the day starts with a bang and another disaster for the US as a Japanese submarine torpedoes the carrier Saratoga, cutting the Pacific Fleet's strength even more. Saratoga limps into Pearl Harbor and is sent to the West Coast for repairs.

Japanese naval paratroopers (a designation apparently made up to confuse future historians) land in Celebes in the Dutch East Indies.

In Singapore, the Governor, Sir Shenton Thomas publishes the following order: "The day of minute papers has gone. There must be no more passing of files from one department to another, and from one officer in a department to another."

A local newspaper comments, "The announcement is about two and a half years too late."

The same day, a British officer commanding a detachment of ambulances drives up to a bungalow on a rubber plantation near Kuala Lumpur. The manager pops out to ask angrily how the officer dare trespass on private property. The manager threatens a formal complaint on this breach of regulations. The officer replies, "We will be leaving very soon, as the Japanese will be arriving. Perhaps they will listen to your complaints."

Meanwhile, New Zealand's 488 Squadron has its first encounter with Japanese aircraft. 488 operates the Brewster Buffalo, and the Japanese are flying the Mitsubishi Zero. The battles are foregone conclusions.

In Russia, murder is the order of the day. Nazi Operational Situation Report USSR No. 173 says that "104 political officials, 75 saboteurs and looters, and about 8,000 Jews" have been shot. In Kovno, Lithuania, 5,000 Jews brought from Germany and Austria, are shot.

In Odessa, the Nazis start deporting 19,583 Jews to concentration camps, in cattle cars. Many die in the trains. SS men haul the corpses out of the cars at station stops, pour petrol on the bodies, and burn the corpses before the horrified eyes of their families. More than 15,000 of these deportees will be dead within a year and a half, of starvation, severe cold, untreated disease, or repeated mass executions.

Off the US Eastern seaboard, the British merchant ship Cyclops is torpedoed and sunk by a Nazi U-Boat. Cyclops is sailing unescorted, as the US Navy has not organized coastal convoys. Cyclops' sinking marks the start of Operation Paukenschlag (Drum Roll), in which German U-Boats will take on America's East Coast.

U-Boats lie on the bottom all day to avoid detection, then surface to attack by night, picking off their targets, merchant ships that are silhouetted against the fully-lit coastal cities and resort towns. By month's end, 46 Allied merchant ships will be sunk off the US coast, a total of 196,243 tons of ships and supplies. Some of the British Sailors whose bodies are washed up on American shore will be buried in US war cemeteries.

In Washington, Lt. Gen. Joseph Stilwell, summoned from his post as commander of US 3rd Corps in California, records his impressions of the US efforts to fight the war in a letter to his wife. "...A rush of clerks in and out of doors, swing doors awlays swinging, people with papers rushing after other people with papers, groups in corners whispering in huddles, everyobyd jumping up as soon as you start to talk, buzzers ringing, telephones ringing, rooms crowded with clerk all banging away at typewriters. 'Give me ten copies of this AT ONCE.' 'Get tha secret file out of the safe.' 'Where the hell is the Yellow Plan (Blue Plan, Green Plan, Orange Plan, etc.?' Everyobdy furiously smoking cigarettes, everybody passing you on to somone else etc., etc. Someone with a loud voice and a mean look and a big stick ought to appear and yell 'HALT. SILENCE.' You imitation ants. Now half of you get out of town before dark and the other half don't move for an hour. Then they could burn up all the papers and start fresh."

January 13, 1942...Early in the morning, the Japanese attack Bataan. The 21st Philippine Division counterattacks to stall the enemy assault.

In the Dutch East Indies, Japanese troops seize more Dutch towns and holdings.

In Malaya, the defenders get some good news when a convoy arrives bringing in the 18th British Division, all fresh troops. All trained for desert warfare. Also in the convoy are 51 Hurricane fighters, which are expected to be superior to the Japanese Zero.

488 RNZAF Squadron's Brewster Buffalos try to intercept attacking Japanese bombers. The Buffalo turns out to be slower than the bombers. 488 loses five planes for no enemy damage. The squadron's diary records, "No blame can be attached to the pilots, who have done their best with Buffaloes. Until we fly as Wings of 36 aircraft, we shall be unable to inflict heavy damage to the enemy."

The rising tide of Nazi atrocities provokes an Allied response in London. The representatives of nine occupied countries there sign a declaration that all those guilty of "war crimes" will be punished after the war. General Sikorski signs for Poland and General Charles De Gaulle for France. Among their "principal war aims" is "the punishment, through the channels of organized justice, of those guilty of, or responsible for, these crimes, whether they have ordered them, perpetrated them, or participated in them."

"At 3:30 a.m. we were awakened, rolled our hammocks, snapped them up, and marched about 1.5 miles under the palms to a mess hall in the harbor," writes Seaman 2nd Mel Beckstrand of Warwick, N.D. "At 8:30 we boarded the Dahlgren. I'll never forget that four-hour ride to my new home, the USS Washington. I was sick, and anyone experiencing sea-sickness knows that you don't care if you live or die. We pulled alongside the Washington and unloaded. First there was inspection by the XO, then chow, and we were assigned to our quarters and jobs. I got a locker, but I sleep on the table in the supply office; it's either that or a hammock, because there aren't enough bunks. Next morning we all got our eyes and ears on all of this mammoth creature, she really is a Wow! It's a new life, like night and day compared with being a civilian. But so far, I don't cater to it: too crowded. Still, you can't expect Dakota prairies out here in the Atlantic. I am assigned to Section 2, stores and supplies."

January 14, 1942...Japanese aircraft bomb Rangoon in Burma. They also bomb Singapore, where a blackout is in force at last, but lamplighters have to snuff out gas lampposts in low-income districts one at a time when the Air Raid warning screams.

With the Japanese advancing, Singapore begins to panic. Chinese shopkeepers demand payment in cash, instead of chit, shocking the European residents of a city that has lived on credit systems for a century. There is a run on food, with grocers raising the prices of tea, coffee, sugar, and flour. However, major department stores like Robinson's still offer brand-new refrigerators, gas stoves, and ritzy clothing, which frightened refugees can only gaze at. Many evacuees are housed in schools. Adding to the mess is the monsoon, which soaks everyone.

Nazi forces react to the Allied war crimes declaration the day before by leading 807 Byelorussian Jews to a pit near the village of Ushachi, and shooting them. As the Jews lie dying, local peasants who have witnessed the massacre climb down into the pit to pull what gold they can from the teeth of the dead and dying. At nearby Kublichi, 925 Jews are murdered, and local peasants again loot the dead.

In Washington, Lt. Gen. Joseph Stilwell meets with the Secretary of War, Henry Stimson. Stilwell is appointed Chief of Staff of the Chinese Army and commander of US forces in China. Historians will later call Stilwell the unluckiest US officer of World War II.

Late in the day, the big new German battleship Tirpitz (35,000 tons) takes up anchorage in Norway's Trondheimfjord. This product of Krupp's Germania Shipyard boasts 15-inch armor plate, radar-directed 15-inch guns, and bristles with anti-aircraft armament. From her position in Norway, Tirpitz is poised to either break out into the Atlantic or into the Barents Sea, to savage convoys to Russia. She will be the major Allied naval headache for the next two years.

January 15, 1942...In Rio De Janeiro, the Pan-American Conference gets down to business, discussing hemispheric defense. Soon the Brazilian Navy will be convoying ships in the central and south Atlantic, while a division of Brazilian troops (and a squadron of fighters) will fight in Italy, the first troops from a South American nation ever to fight in Europe.

In the Philippines, Japanese troops reach the northernmost moutains of the Bataan peninsula. "Help is on the way from thye United States," Gen. Douglas MacArthur tells his men. "Thousands of troops and hundreds of planes are being despatched." But no such reinforcements are on their way. War Department planners know that a relief convoy would take tremendous losses. And the Navy lacks sufficient ships and planes to escort such a convoy.

But that day, the US 34th Infantry Division arrives in Britain.

In Malaya, Japanese troops continue their advance, reaching the Muar River. In Singapore, Martial Law is declared. More chaos ensues. Chinese messenger boys wearing German-style helmets (Chinese army surplus) are arrested as spies. The military demands 1,000 bicycles, so policemen seize machines on the spot. Next day, the military admits it only needed 100 bikes, and puts out the rest at Fort Raffles to be claimed...if their owners can get there and identify their machine.

More bizarre thinking goes on late that evening at Berchtesgaden in Germany, where Adolf Hitler, facing retreats and defeat in front of Moscow, instead discusses museums. He plans to build a museum in Konigsberg with all the trophies from Russia, as Konigsberg lacks a cultural facility. He also plans a "new, Germanic museum" in Nuremberg, and a new city at Trondheim in Norway.

January 16, 1942...Japanese troops enter Burma from Thailand at the former's southernmost point. Burma is isolated geographically by a great horseshoe of jungle-covered an malaria-infested mountains, that reach as high as 10,000 feet. The British colony is uncrossed by any vehicular road, except the Burma Road, which connects Lashio with China, and is the sole supply route to China. Rainfall averages 80-200 inches ayear. This appalling climate will be the scene of bloody war for the next four years.

Filipino troops counterattack at dawn in Bataan, but the Japanese are expecting it. They hurl the Filipinos back and threaten to break through the line.

In the Pacific Ocean, an SBD Dauntless dive bomber landing on the carrier USS Enterprise tears loose an arresting wire and plunges off the flight deck onto a catwalk, killing AMMC G.H. Lawon, one of the ship's plank-owners. Later that day, a TBD Devastator is lost at sea. The crew of three, however, survive for 34 days in their 8-by-4 rubber raft, battling dehydration and starvation to travel 750 miles to Puka Puka Island and safety. They reach that island one day before a typhoon hits Puka Puka. Had they been at sea during the typhoon, they would have been killed.

January 17, 1942...South African Nationalists push a motion in Parliament to make the nation a republic disassociated from Britain, that would declare neutrality. The Parliament rejects the Afrikaners' motion.

Japanese troops bomb Moulmein and Rangoon in Burma. Japanese troops advance in Bataan, threatening to envelope the Americans. Japanese forces advance in Malaya and the Dutch East Indies. A Japanese submarine shells Pago Pago in American Samoa. Everywhere the enemy advances.

In North Africa, the last Italian garrison on the Egyptian- Libyan border, at Halfaya Pass, surrenders, momentarily securing that border. However, Gen. Erwin Rommel, head of Germany's Afrika Korps, is tired of retreating, and is preparing his counterattack with additional supplies and something new, the Panzer 3 J model, equipped with a deadly longbore 50mm guns, superior to the famed 88.

Against this the British are re-equipping. The 7th Armoured Division (The Desert Rats) and 22nd Armoured Brigade, battered in the Crusader battles, have gone to Palestine to repair damaged vehicles, while the untried 1st Armoured Division replaces it.

Rommel is nearly ready to strike.