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| 16/01/1941 |
French inflict a naval
defeat on Thai forces at Koh-Chang. |
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| 14/05/1941 |
Large Royal Navy reinforcements
arrive in Singapore. |
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| 30/07/1941 |
17 Japanese ‘spy’ fishing
boats seized by US in Hawaiian waters. |
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| 19/11/1941 |
The cruiser HMAS Sydney
and German raider Kormoran sink each other off Western Australia.
There are no survivors from HMAS Sydney. |
| 26/11/1941 |
Japanese 1st Air Fleet sets sail
for Pearl Harbour, from its anchorage in the Kurile Islands.
Commanded by Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, its consists of 6 aircraft
carriers, 2 battleships, 3 cruisers, 9 destroyers and 8 oil
tankers and has strict orders to observe strict radio silence. |
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| 02/12/1941 |
The Battleship Prince
of Wales and the Battle Cruiser Repulse arrive in Singapore. |
| 05/12/1941 |
Japanese fleet is officially reported
moving south. |
| 07/12/1941 |
At 6:15 Honolulu time, the first wave
of Japanese aircraft take of from their carriers which are
located about 200 miles north of Hawaii. At 7:50, 43 fighters,
51 dive-bombers, 70 torpedo-bombers and 50 ordinary bombers
arrive over Hawaii. They launch attacks against the airfields
at Wheeler, Kaneohe, Ewa and Hickham and against the American
warships anchored at ‘Battleship Row’. Surprise
was complete and within a few minutes 5 battleships and 2 light
cruisers had been sunk and a large number of aircraft (180)
destroyed on the ground. Within an hour, the second wave of
Japanese strike aircraft (36 fighters, 80 dive-bombers, 54
bombers) had arrived over the target, sinking a further 3 destroyers
and damaging another battleship. By 10:00 the attack was over
and the casualties could be accounted for. The Americans lost
2,729 killed and 1,178 wounded, while the Japanese losses amounted
to just 29 aircraft (59 airmen) and five mini-submarines. |
| 08/12/1941 |
The British battleships Prince of
Wales and Repulse, set sail from Singapore in an attempt to
intercept and destroy the Japanese landings that are taking
place at Kota Bharu on the north eastern coast of Malaya, while
the RAF manages to damage three of enemy's transports. |
| 10/12/1941 |
Due to the RAF's heavy losses, the
British Battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse are attacked
and sunk of the north eastern coast of Malaya by Japanese aircraft
flying from occupied French Indo-China. |
| 13/12/1941 |
A US naval task force
under Rear-Admiral Frank J. Fletcher sets sail from Pearl Harbour
with orders to relieve Wake Island. |
| 31/12/1941 |
Admiral Chester W. Nimitz is appointed
to command the US Asiatic Fleet. |
