The Official Chronology of the U.S. Navy in World War II. Robert J. Cressman
Pearl Harbor Attack Force (Vice Admiral Nagumo Chuichi) detaches carriers Hiryu and Soryu, heavy cruisers Tone and Chikuma, and two destroyers (Rear Admiral Abe Hiroaki) to reinforce second planned attack on Wake Island.
Japanese naval land attack planes (Chitose Kokutai) bomb Wake.
Submarine Tambor (SS 198), damaged by operational casualty, retires from the waters off Wake.
Submarine Swordfish (SS 193), attacking Japanese convoy south of Hainan Island, torpedoes army transport Atsutasan Maru, 18°06′N, 109°44′E.
Gunboat Erie (PG 50) boards Panamanian motor vessel Santa Margarita and orders her to proceed to Puntarenas, Costa Rica. Later the same day, the gunboat tows disabled motorboat Orion into Puntarenas.
17 Wednesday
PACIFIC. Vice Admiral William S. Pye, Commander Battle Force, becomes Acting Commander in Chief Pacific Fleet, pending the arrival of Rear Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, who is ordered on this date to relieve Admiral Husband E. Kimmel.
Small reconnaissance seaplane from Japanese submarine I 7 reconnoiters Pearl Harbor.
Unarmed U.S. freighter Manini is torpedoed and sunk by Japanese submarine I 175, 180 miles south of Hawaii, 17°45′N, 157°03′E (see 27 and 28 December).
USMC SB2Us (VMSB 231), led by a plane-guarding PBY (VP 21) (no ships are available to plane-guard the flight), arrive at Midway, completing the longest over-water massed flight (1,137 miles) by a single-engine aircraft.54
Japanese submarine RO 66 is sunk in collision with sister ship RO 62 off Wake Island.
Philippine steamship Corregidor, crowded with about 1,200 passengers fleeing Manila for Mindanao, hits an army mine off Corregidor and sinks with heavy loss of life. Motor torpedo boats PT 32, PT 34, and PT 35 pick up 282 survivors (196 by PT 32 alone) and distribute them between Corregidor and the requisitioned French steamship Si-Kiang; seven of those rescued die of injuries suffered in the tragedy.55
Navy takes over French motor mail vessel Marechal Joffre, Manila Bay (see 18 December).
Japanese land at Miri, Sarawak, Borneo.
18 Thursday
UNITED STATES. President Roosevelt signs Executive Order No. 8984 that provides that Commander in Chief U.S. Fleet will take supreme command of the operating forces of all Navy fleets and Coastal Frontier commands, and be directly responsible to the President.
In another executive order, President Roosevelt directs a commission, to be headed by retired Supreme Court Chief Justice Owen J. Roberts (Roberts Commission), to “ascertain and report the facts relating to the attack made by the Japanese armed forces upon the Territory of Hawaii on December 7, 1941 . . . to provide bases for sound decisions whether any derelictions of duty or errors of judgment on the part of United States Army or Navy personnel contributed to such successes as were achieved by the enemy on the occasion mentioned; and if so, what these derelictions or errors were, and who were responsible therefor.” In addition to Justice Roberts, the commission’s membership includes Admiral William H. Standley, USN (Retired), Rear Admiral Joseph W. Reeves, USN (Retired), Major General Frank R. McCoy, USA (Retired), and Brigadier General Joseph T. McNarney, USA (see 23 January 1942).
Congress passes First War Powers Act.
CARIBBEAN. State Department announces that Rear Admiral Frederick J. Horne and Admiral Georges A. M. J. Robert, French High Commissioner at Martinique, French West Indies, have reached an agreement neutralizing French Caribbean possessions.
PACIFIC. French motor mail vessel Marechal Joffre, manned by a scratch crew that includes aviation personnel from Patrol Wing 10, departs Manila Bay for Borneo.56
Dutch Dornier 24 bombs and sinks Japanese destroyer Shinonome off Miri, Borneo.
19 Friday
PACIFIC. TF 8 (Vice Admiral William F. Halsey Jr.), formed around carrier Enterprise (CV 6), heavy cruisers, and destroyers, sails from Pearl Harbor proceeding to waters west of Johnston Island and south of Midway to cover TF 11 and TF 14 operations (see 14–16 December). Destroyer Craven (DD 382), in TF 8, is damaged by heavy sea soon after departure, however, and returns to Pearl Harbor for repairs.
Japanese naval land attack planes (Chitose Kokutai) bomb Wake Island, targeting installations on Wake and Peale islets.
Unarmed U.S. freighter Prusa is torpedoed and sunk by Japanese submarine I 172 about 150 miles south of Hawaii, 16°45′N, 156°00′W; nine crewmen perish (see 27 December).
UNITED STATES. U.S. Naval Academy Class of 1942 is graduated six months early because of the national emergency.
20 Saturday
UNITED STATES. In the wake of the signing of Executive Order No. 8984, Admiral Ernest J. King is announced as the designated Commander in Chief U.S. Fleet (see 30 December).
PACIFIC. SBDs (VB 6 and VS 6) from carrier Enterprise (CV 6) accidentally bomb submarine Pompano (SS 181) twice, at 20°10′N, 165°28′W, and 20°15′N, 165°40′W.
PBY (VP 23) arrives at Wake Island to deliver information to the garrison concerning the relief efforts then under way (see 21 December).
Japanese troops land at Davao, Mindanao, P.I.
Unarmed U.S. tankship Emidio is shelled, torpedoed, and sunk by Japanese submarine I 17 about 25 miles west of Cape Mendocino, California, 40°33′N, 125°00′W (see 21 December).
Unarmed U.S. tanker Agwiworld is shelled by Japanese submarine I 23 off the coast of California, 37°00′N, 122°00′W.
Panamanian motor vessels Florinha and Lindinha are seized by the Japanese at Fort Bayard, Kwangchowan.
21 Sunday
PACIFIC. PBY (VP 23) departs Wake Island; Japanese concern over the potential presence of patrol planes at Wake, occasioned by the large amount of radio traffic that accompanies the sole PBY’s arrival at the island, prompts advancing the date of the first carrier strikes. Consequently, planes from carriers Soryu and Hiryu bomb Wake Island for the first time. Later that day, land attack planes (Chitose Kokutai) bomb Wake.
Naval local defense forces in Philippine Islands (Rear Admiral Francis W. Rockwell) move headquarters to Corregidor.
Destroyer Paul Jones (DD 230) is damaged when her starboard propeller strikes a sunken object off Makassar, N.E.I.
Coast Guard cutter Shawnee rescues 31 survivors of U.S. tanker Emidio, sunk the previous day by I 17 off Cape Mendocino, California, from Blunt’s Reef Lightship.
Survivors of U.S. freighter Lahaina (sunk on 11 December by Japanese submarine I 9) land at Sprecklesville Beach, near Kahului, Maui, having lost four of their number during their ordeal in their one lifeboat.
ATLANTIC. Light cruiser Omaha (CL 4) and destroyer Somers (DD 381), operating out of Recife, Brazil, encounter darkened ship that acts suspicious and evasive when challenged. Omaha fires starshell and illuminates the stranger; Somers sends armed boarding party that learns that the merchantman nearly fired upon is Soviet freighter Nevastroi.
Destroyer Edison (DD 439), in TU 4.1.3 en route to MOMP to pick up convoy ON 47, depth charges sound contact without result.
22 Monday
GENERAL. President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill open discussions (ARCADIA conference) in Washington, D.C., leading to establishment of Combined Chiefs of Staff. The ARCADIA conference, which lasts into January 1942, results in a formal American commitment to the “Germany First” strategy. In addition, the United States and Britain agree to form a Combined Chiefs of Staff as the supreme body for Allied war planning, to confer