January 5, 1942 – a very busy day in war.
Starting with Japanese forces have been streaming southward through that southernmost state of Malaya, taking up assault around Johore Bahru, defenders last Fripositions, day night and early Saturday finally pulled back into their strategic island, blasting the causeway behind them, to await the invaders’ attempt to cross Johore Strait or outflank the island. A small party of picked British soldiers stayed behind to harass Japanese communications but have rejoined their comrades on none island after completing their mission. Johore Strait, the curving, inletstudded waterway which makes Singapore an island, has become a water no-man’s-land. Ranging in width from a half mile to a mile and a half, the strait, backed by artillery and troops on a shortened line, has become the greatest obstacle encountered by the Japanese in their march through Malaya. Even a feint at crossing is bound to be a costly maneuver. The Japanese, no doubt, are counting on gaining domination of the air by ruthless bombing and strafing to pave the way for any attempt to force the strait. Nearly 300 civilians have been injured in the last two days-63 fatally. They are virtually without shelter.
But the Japanese have not yet put down the British challenge in the air. Hurricane fighters intercepted a large formation over Singapore this morning, shot down one of the attackers f for sure, probably got a second and damaged a third. The raids caused comparatively “little damage or casualties,” said today’s communique.
And Red Army troops on the Kursk-Kharkov front continue to advance. and every effort by the Germans to stop their drive has failed. On the Kalinin front, north-west of Moscow, Kuibychev radio reports violent fighting at the approaches to town V. with the Russians to town V. with the Russians breaking the Germans’ resistance and repelling all Soviet mid-day communique recounter ports: ” During the night our troops continued active operations against the German troops.” A supplement to the communiqué says: “In two days’ fighting, our troops, under the command of Yasov, captured 36 machine-guns, three guns, three trench mortars a radio station, and a great many shells and other booty. More than three hundred German officers and men were killed.
On a south-western sector at the village of ‘S’ a group of retreating Germans tried to counter-attack in an attempt to stop the advance of our troops. They screened themselves behind some thirty Soviet citizens. old men, women, and children. * Automatic riflemen made a flank attack on the Germans and destroyed them, while the old men, women, and children remained unharmed. 66 Ukrainian guerrilla fighters ambushed and shot a long column of German soldiers. Under the cross fire of machine-guns and automatic rifles the Germans lost more than 150 officers and men killed.
And finally, as Batavia told of the second Japanese air raid in three days on Surabaya, location of the main Dutch naval base on Java, the United States army announced that American flyers had shot down two planes in battling a superior force over that Dutch East Indies island. Lack of news from Amboina aroused Dutch fears that their second biggest naval base had fallen.
And that’s just a small slice of news for February 5, 1942 as reported by NBC News Of The World.
