World War II As It Happened
A MaritimeQuest Daily Event Special Presentation
Tuesday, January 20, 1942
Day 873

January 20, 1942: Front page of the News and Chronicle, London, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 2: "A Submarine Has Two Nights Out"
(The report states HM Submarine Talisman sank a 15,00-ton troopship, a U-boat and damaged an Italian destroyer. The largest ship sunk by Talisman was the 8,194-ton Théophile Gautier. Talisman did engage U-561, but the boat was not sunk.)
Also note the report in column 7: "The Voice Is Back on Rome Radio"


January 20, 1942: Front page of The Daily Mail, Hull, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 7: "German Brutality To Serbs"


January 20, 1942: Front page of The Yorkshire Post and Leeds Mercury, Leeds, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


January 20, 1942: Front page of the Western Mail and South Wales News, Cardiff, Wales.
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January 20, 1942: Front page of the Post and Journal, Aberdeen, Scotland.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 6: "Nazis Fear Leprosy"


January 20, 1942: Front page of The Examiner, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


January 20, 1942: Front page of The Sydney Sun, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
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January 20, 1942: Front page of The Telegraph, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


January 20, 1942: Front page of The Lethbridge Herald, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 8: "Typhus Epidemic Moving South; British Cautious"


January 20, 1942: Front page of The Winnipeg Tribune, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report at bottom left: "Spy Bares Japan's Program - Invasion Of Coastal U.S. States Climaxes Pacific Control Plan"
(Blair Bolles writes that a book, written by a Korean patriot, who is "dedicating his life to hate for the Japanese" states that Japan's overall war plan is to invade the Panama Canal [now owned by China] Alaska and the west coast states of California, Oregon and Washington. According to the report, nobody in Washington, D.C. believed this information, and in this case, they were correct. The source of the information was thought by officials to be dubious, which it clearly was. This proves that even people in Washington, D.C. can get it right occasionally.

Japan had no plan to invade the United States, at least no serious plan. There may have been a plan devised in military circles, but we have the same plans to invade every other country on the earth, even Allies. Japan's goal was to push the Americans, British and Europeans out of Asia, not to make a conquest of the American homeland. They did not even want to invade Hawaii, they just wanted to control all the islands west of there. For places such as Wake and Guam, they occupied them to keep the Americans from using them as a jumping-off point to start a counteroffensive against Japan. They did try to take Midway, but as we all know, that was a failure. They did occupy several islands in the Aleutians off the coast of the Territory of Alaska, but this was only a diversionary move. The distances involved, the extended supply lines, the number of transport ships to move troops, the number of warships to escort and defend the massive convoys that would be required to make a full-scale invasion of the United States was well out of reach of the Japanese. This is still true today, however, the invention of intercontinental ballistic missiles does mean that the United States can be devastated, but invaded by sea, no.)


January 20, 1942: Front page of the Biddeford Daily Journal, Biddeford, Maine.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the headline report: "U.S. Army Bombers Sink Jap Cruiser"
(Up to this point in the war, no Japanese cruisers had been sunk. Mikuma was the first Japanese cruiser sunk which happened at the Battle of Midway on June 6, 1942.)


January 20, 1942: Front page of The Evening Star, Washington, D.C.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 8: "U.S. Intensifies Hunt for U-Boats Off East Coast"
[The report is concluded here.]


January 20, 1942: Front page of The Evening Gazette, Xenia, Ohio.
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January 20, 1942: Front page of The Port Arthur News, Port Arthur, Texas.
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January 20, 1942: Front page of the Tucson Daily Citizen, Tucson, Arizona.
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January 20, 1942: Front page of The Bakersfield Californian, Bakersfield, California.
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January 20, 1942: Front page of the Teltower Kreisblatt, Kreis Teltow, Brandenburg, Germany.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
1. Krim - Hafen Feodosia wiedererobert.
(Crimea - Feodosia port recaptured.)


January 20, 1942: Front page of the Völkischer Beobachter, the official newspaper of the NSDAP.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
1. Feodosia den Sowjets in harten Kämpfen entrissen - 4600 Gefangene, 73 Panzer und 77 Geschütze.
(Feodosia snatched from the Soviets in hard fighting - 4600 prisoners, 73 tanks and 77 guns.)
Historical note: On this day in a building near Berlin the Wannseekonferenz [Wannsee conference] took place. This meeting, held by SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, was to outline a final solution to the Jewish question. It was the final stamp of approval, with instructions on how to complete the extermination of Europe's Jews.
[Read an English translation of the Wannsee Protocol here.]
[Read "The Wannsee Conference in the Development of the Final Solution by Peter Longerich here.]



   
Page published January 20, 2023