February 8th, 1942...Dr. Fritz Todt, Nazi Minister for Armaments
and War Production, promises Adolf Hitler a 55 percent hike in
Nazi arms produciton. He then leaves Rastenberg in East Prussia
to fly to Berlin. He doesn't get far. His plane crashes on take-
off. A shaken Hitler appoints his personal architect, Albert
Speer, to succeed Todt. Speer shows no scruples in employing
slave labor from France, The Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, and
Poland. The German Navy also names a battery of naval guns at
Haringzelles in the Pas De Calais "Batterie Todt." Those massive
guns are still in place, eyed by tourists.

     In Singapore, the Japanese storm across the Johore Strait to
Singapore's northwest corner, which has had its defenses weakened
by British misjudgment. The Japanese 5th and 18th Divisions swarm
all over the poorly-trained 22nd Australian Brigade, which
quickly has to retreat. The Australians, some of whom have been
in the army for only three weeks, desert their positions, and
attack the liquor stores and food dumps of Singapore. It is the
Australian army's worst hour.

     Filipino President Manuel Quezon, watching his country
disintegrate under bombs and occupation, asks President Franklin
D. Roosevelt to grant the Philippines their independence and
declare it a neutral area. FDR, seeing the absurdity of the idea,
gives MacArthur the power to surrender Filipino troops, but not
American. This calls Quezon's bluff. Privately FDR tells his
advisors that the idea the Japanese would recognize an
independent Philippine nation's neutrality is absurd.

     New Zealand politicians announce a potato shortage, which
will continue through 1942.

February 9th, 1942...Japanese troops fan out from their
bridgehead on Singapore island, beneath skies blackened with
smoke from burning oil tanks. At sunset, Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita
crosses the straits, walking over bound British and Indian PoWs.
More than a million civilians have no relief from constant
Japanese air attacks, and food is becoming short. The Japanese
Imperial Guards Division beheads 200 British and Indian PoWs.
Yamashita and his officers make numerous notes in their diaries
about what poor soldiers the British and Indians are. That
misjudgment will cost the Japanese dearly.

     British General Archibald Percival, facing yet another
disaster, opts to form a perimeter defense line around Singapore
city.

     RAF Hurricanes shoot down eight Japanese bombers over
Singapore without loss. Japanese Zeroes pounce and shoot down
five Hurricanes without any loss to themselves. The Hurricane
joins the long list of Allied planes that are inferior to the
Zero.

     In the Philippines, the Japanese get Radio KZRH in Manila
running again, and broadcast propaganda to the embattled American
forces, playing American songs to make GIs feel homesick,
including "Waiting for Ships That Never Came in."

February 10th, 1942...President Franklin D. Roosevelt seeks
guarantees from Vichy France that Vichy will remain neutral. 

     Field Marshal Wavell, who commands the Allied forces in
Southeast Asia, flies into Singapore to find morale at bottom,
the Allied troops retreating, and orders no surrender, fight to
the end. Meanwhile, the Japanese land T95 tanks, which rumble
through the hills, scattering Indian troops as they drive on the
Bukit Timah depots, held up only by the last survivors of the 2nd
Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. The RAF evacuates its last
Hurricane fighters from Singapore.

     In the Philippines, US troops thresh and grind rice in their
own foxholes. Everyone gets malaria because of a shortage of
quinine and mosquito nets. However, the submarine tender USS
Canopus, acting as a repair ship and mother hen to surviving US
Navy PT boats, still offers its crew showers (thanks to its
desalinization unit), clean clothes (thanks to its laundry) and
fresh ice cream (thanks to its refrigerator). The ship survives
constant attacks by Japanese aircraft.

February 11th, 1942...HMNZS Achilles puts to sea from Auckland,
joining up with the heavy cruiser HMAS Australia and the
destroyer USS Lamson. Destination Fiji.

     In Brest, France, the German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and
Gneisenau, packing 11-inch guns and Krupp armor, plow into the
sea, joined by the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, at about 10:45 p.m.
"Operation Cerberus" is underway. This powerful force, however,
is not going to attack North Atlantic convoys. It's going to sail
up the heavily-defended English Channel, and home to Germany. The
ships go undetected by British patrols. Hitler wants his ships to
come home and move on to Norway, which he believes will be the
decisive zone of the war. Hitler's advisers want the battleships
to stay in France. Hitler offers his advisers a choice: sail them
home to Germany or decommission them on site.

     In Montreal, Quebecois riot against conscription plans that
may call for Canadian draftees to be sent overseas to fight, in
violation of government policy. Canadian troops who cannot be
sent overseas are called "Zombies."

     In Australia, American supply officers struggle to find
charter boats and pilots who can sail supplies through the
Japanese blockade to Bataan. They have no luck. They do send in a
submarine to withdraw the Philippines' gold bars.

February 12th, 1942...As the British crumble in North Africa, 2nd
New Zealand Division's 5th Brigade, under Brig. Howard
Kippenberger of Rangiora, is ordered forward forthwith, from its
bases in Syria. It is sent to built a brigade box at El Adem for
an Indian Brigade, and it takes the New Zealanders six weeks to
create the position, using 19,000 mines from Tobruk.

     Singapore is in chaos, covered with smoke, full of half a
million refugees, with military deserters wrecking liquor shops,
stealing cars from showrooms, and attacking food shops. Many
civilians and deserters board ships of all sorts pulling out of
Singapore in a desperate evacuation, which in turn runs into
Japanese aircraft and bombs.

     In the English Channel, the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau are
finally spotted by the British at 11:09 a.m., covered by
fighters. For once the Luftwaffe supports the Navy, and more than
300 fighters (Me-109s, FW-190s, and Me-110s), under General Adolf
Galland, provide Vice Adm. Otto Ciliax's big ships with round-
the-clock cover. German minesweepers and torpedo boats escort the
big ships. At 12:18 the British Dover guns open up, followed by
British Motor Torpedo Boats. The British MTBs, attacking at long
range, score no hits.

     Shortly thereafter, Cdr. Eugene Esmonde, commanding a
squadron of antique Swordfish torpedo biplanes, gives up on
waiting for his Spitfire escort, and attacks the German fleet
anyway. All six of his planes are sh ot down, only five men
survive. Esmonde receives a posthumous Victoria Cross. By now the
Germasn are past Ramsgate.

     At 2:31 p.m., the Scharnhorst hits a British mine and
thunders to a stop. Ciliax shifts his flag and his gear to a
destroyer as British Beaufort torpedo bombers attack. In a
pointless effort to preserve security, the British pilots are
told that the three German targets are merchantmen, not
battleships. No hits. The skies are full of Luftwaffe fighters
and bombers...one Dornier actually attacks Ciliax's
destroyer. Scharnhorst, however, repairs her engines, and sails
on.

     At 3:30 p.m., five British dstroyers try to attack, but
can't close with the Germans due to the Luftwaffe. The RAF
finally brings in heavy bombers, but they fail completely, too.
Meanwhile, the RAF, knowing the German route from Enigma code
intercepts, sows mines in the Wilhelmshaven approaches.

     That evening, right on schedule, Scharnhorst hits one of the
mines, and Gneisenau hits one, as well, and the big ships limp
into Wilhelmshaven somewhat the worse for wear.

     In Britain, the reaction is outrage that the German Navy and
Hitler should succeed where the Spanish Armada had failed...to
sail up the English Channel in broad daylight. The media rages
against the War Office. However, while Hitler has scored quite a
tactical coup, it's a strategic defeat for the Nazis, as their
biggest battleships are no longer sitting astride the Allied
Atlantic lines of communication, but are back in Germany, both
damaged. "This will keep them out of mischief for at least six
months, during which both our Navies will received important
accessions of strength."

     Indeed, that is the case. Scharnhorst will be out of action
for eight months, Gneisenau will never sail again, and Prinz
Eugen gets torpedoed 10 days later, disabling all three.

     And the operation, ordered by Hitler, confirms his faith in
his own intuition and genius, at the expense of his professional
advisers.

February 13th, 1942...USS Enterprise is ordered to sea from Pearl
Harbor as head of Task Force 13. Vice Adm. William Halsey avoids
being Task Force 13 and leaving on Friday the 13th by re-naming
the group Task Force 16 and sailing the following day.

     "Black Friday" in Singapore sees the Japanese seize or
damage most of the reservoirs, leaving the city with only seven
days supply. Allied forces are in full retreat, with hordes of
deserters causing chaos. Troops on duty have had barely an hour's
sleep in days, and are exhausted. The famed 15-inch guns have
been destroyed or captured. Percival signals Wavell that he
doesn't think he can fight for more than two days. Wavell orders
Percival to fight on. Meanwhile, the advancing Japanese
themselves are desperately short on ammunition, and Yamashita is
down to his last rounds.

     Percival summons his top officers to plan their next move.
Gordon Bennett urges Percival to surrender. Bennett, however,
does not plan to join his men in captivity. He has the great
escape all planned.

     Amid the chaos of gunfire and shelling, British officers
take time to court-martial one of their own, New Zealand-born
Capt. Patrick Heenan of the Indian Army, on a charge of treason.

     Heenan's treason is most serious...he has left RAF supplies
and stocks intact on bases as British troops retreated, enabling
advancing Japanese air units to take advantage of them. He has
also given information about Malaya's defenses to the Japanese
for years. The trial's conclusion is foregone. At dusk, Heenan
faces the setting sun and a firing squad.

     That day, Admiral Erich Raeder, head of the German Navy,
brings a new plan to Adolf Hitler. He proposes that the Germans
drive through Libya, into Egypt, and keep on going through Iraq,
Iran, and all the way to India, thus drying up Britain's oil
supply, hooking up with the Japanese, and winning the war. To do
so, the Nazis will have to divert more resources to the
Mediterranean, starting with massive supplies to North Africa. To
do that, the Germans will have to invade Malta, the British-held
island between Sicily and North Africa. Hitler orders the
Luftwaffe's Air Fleet 2 to hammer Malta and knock out its
airfields and will to resist.

     Gen. Erwin Rommel, the top Axis officer in Libya, who will
lead the drive to India, thinks it's a great idea.

February 14th, 1942...HMS Warspite, Britain's toughest
battleship, crosses the International Date Line, and thus avoids
doing so on Friday the 13th of February.

     USS Enterprise and Task Force 16 heads to sea from Hawaii to
attack Japanese-held Wake Island.

     Fiji becomes a revictualling base for the Anzac Naval
Squadron. The Royal New Zealand Army Service Corps will supply
the fleet with bulk foodstuffs.

     Japanese paratroopers land at Palembang in Sumatra. Wavell
signals Percival to fight on in Singapore, but adds it would "be
wrong to enforce needless slaughter." If it is no longer possible
to resist, "I give you discretion to cease resistance...Whatever
happens I thank you for gallant efforts of last few days."
Brigadier Ivan Simson tells Percival that there's only enough
water for 48 hours. "While there's water," Percival says, "We
fight on."

     In Java, the Allied air defenses consist of elderly Dutch P-
36 and Hawk fighters and B-10 bombers. Three squadrons of US P-
40s are sent as reinforcements.

     In Berlin, the state funeral of Dr. Fritz Todt takes place
with the usual Nazi pomp and German melancholy brass. After the
ceremonies, Adolf Hitler talks to his aides, and Josef Goebbels
notes: "The Fuhrer has once more expressed his determination to
clean up the Jews in Europe pitilessly. There must be no
squeamish sentimentalism about it. Their destruction will go hand
in hand with the destruction of our enemies. We must hasten this
process with cold ruthlessness."