Trends Continue Downward

FRI 23 JAN 1942
Pacific
Roberts Commission, whose work had begun on 18 December 1941, concludes its investigation 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..." The exhibits gathered amount to 2,173 printed pages.

Japanese land at Balikpapan, Borneo, N.E.I.

Japanese occupy Rabaul, New Britain, and land at Kieta, Bougainville, Solomons.

Japanese force lands on southwest coast of Bataan peninsula; local Army commander inserts naval battalion of sailors and marines (Commander Francis J. Bridget) into the battle as a stopgap. It blocks enemy progress. Motor torpedo boat PT-34 is damaged in action with Japanese armed launch while on patrol off Bataan Peninsula.

Oiler Neches (AO-5) is torpedoed and sunk by Japanese submarine I-72, off Hawaiian Islands, 21°01'N, 160°06'W. The loss of the oiler supporting TF 11 (Vice Admiral Wilson Brown Jr.) forces cancellation of the projected raid on Wake.

Destroyer& Edsall (DD-219) is damaged by explosion of own depth charges during attack on submarine contact in Howard Channel, Clarence Strait, one of the approaches to Darwin, Australia.

Submarine Seadragon (SS-194) damages Japanese merchant cargo ship Fukuyo Maru off the northern coast of French Indochina, 12°00'N, 109°00'E.

Atlantic
Unarmed U.S. collier Venore is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-66 about 20 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, 35°50'N, 75°20'W (see 25 January).