Creation Of The "Administrative State"

SAT 31 JAN 1942
General
Office of Procurement and Material is established in the office of the Under Secretary of the Navy; Vice Admiral Samuel M. Robinson, Chief of the Bureau of Ships, is named its director. He must build, from the ground up, an organization that will assure the flow of vital materials essential to the production of ships, planes, and other munitions. He will instill in the production program the need for more production and greater speed, and will apply himself to breaking complex bottlenecks in production, settling conflicts in priorities, solving labor difficulties and curing the multitudinous ills besetting the Navy's production efforts.

Pacific
TF 11 (Vice Admiral Wilson Brown Jr.), formed around carrier Lexington (CV-2), departs Pearl Harbor to cover the retirement of TF 8 (Vice Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr.) and TF 17 (Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher) from the Marshalls and Gilberts (see 1 February).

Japanese troops land on Amboina Island, N.E.I.

Destroyer Helm (DD-388) evacuates civilian radio operators and weather observers from Howland and Baker Islands; she is bombed by a Japanese reconnaissance flying boat (Yokohama Kokutai) off Baker, but is not damaged.

Atlantic
British tanker San Arcadio is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-107 at 38°10'N, 63°50'W (see 11 February).

British tanker Tacoma Star is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-109 at 37°33'N, 69°21'W; destroyer Roe (DD-418), on temporary duty with the Fifth Naval District defense forces due to the increase in ship sinkings off Cape Hatteras, is sent to rescue survivors.