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January 12th

1940/41

1940 - At 0650, SS Denmark was hit by one torpedo from U-23 when she was anchored in a Bay in the Shetlands. She exploded, broke in two and drifted ashore. On 21 January, the afterpart sank and the forepart was refloated, taken to Inverkeithing and used as storage hulk

1941 - RAF Hurricane fighters based on Malta attack Catania airfield on Sicily in an attempt to prevent German and Italian planes from attacking Malta while temporary repairs are carried out on the crippled aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious
1941 - Minesweeping trawler HMS Celia commissioned
1941 - SS Manhattan ran aground off Palm Beach FL

1942/43

1942 - Destroyer HMS Venus laid down
1942 - Minesweeper USS Zeal laid down
1942 - During heavy weather in the North Atlantic a lookout on U-654 broke his arm
1942 - U-649 laid down
1942 - SS Yngaren sunk at 57N, 26W - Grid AL 1938 by U-43
1942 - At 0157, U-77 sighted two destroyers off Tobruk and fired at 0238 hours a spread of four torpedoes of which one hit the stern of HMS Kimberley. The explosion blew her stern off and immediately stopped the vessel, which was missed by a coup de grâce at 0245. HMS Heythrop towed the destroyer to Alexandria. After temporary repairs towed in February 1942 to Bombay, where she was repaired and returned to service in January 1944
1942 - Submarine HIJMS I-121 mines Clarence Strait, the body of water connecting Van Diemen Gulf and the Timor Sea, off Australia's Northern Territory, at the approaches to Darwin, the Asiatic Fleet's main logistics base
1942 - Hitler orders the battle cruisers Gneisenau & Scharnhorst to sail from Brest, France, to Norway
1942 - U-374 (Type VIIC) is sunk in the western Mediterranean east of Cape Spartivento, in position 37.50N, 16.00E, by torpedoes from the British submarine HMS Unbeaten. 43 dead, but 1 survivor taken into captivity
1942 - Amchitka Island is occupied by a small American force. The AMULET FORCE consisted of 2,000 men under command of Brigadier General Lloyd E. Jones. The invasion was covered by the USN's Task Group 8.6 (TG 8.6) consisting of the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis, light cruisers USS Detroit & Raleigh with four destroyers, which patrolled off Amchitka & Kiska Islands. The transport group consisted of the transports USS Arthur Middleton, USAT Delarof, SS Lakona, cargo ship USS Vega escorted by destroyers USS Dewey, Gillespie, Kalk & Worden. There is no enemy opposition but a fierce storm hits and continues for two weeks. The transport USS Arthur Middleton, manned by a US Coast Guard crew, runs aground as it rescues 175 sailors from the destroyer USS Worden. USS Worden was guarding the transport USS Arthur Middleton as that transport put the preliminary Army security unit on the shores of Constantine Harbor Amchitka Island. The destroyer maneuvered into the rock-edged harbor and stayed there until the last men had landed and then turned to the ticklish business of clearing the harbor. A strong current, however, swept USS Worden onto a pinnacle that tore into her hull beneath her engine room and caused a complete loss of power. USS Dewey passed a towline to her stricken sister and attempted to tow her free, but the cable parted, and the heavy seas began moving USS Worden totally without power inexorably toward the rocky shore. The destroyer then broached and began breaking up in the surf; Commander William G. Pogue, the stricken destroyer's commanding officer, ordered abandon ship, and, as he was directing that effort, was swept overboard into the wintry seas by a heavy wave that broke over the ship. Commander Pogue was among the fortunate ones, however, because he was hauled, unconscious, out of the sea. Fourteen of his crew drowned. USS Worden, herself, was a total loss
1942 - HMCS Red Deer, a Bangor-class minesweeper, rescued survivors from the British merchant ship SS Cyclops, 125 miles south-east of Cape Sable. Cyclops was the first ship sunk in the German U-boat campaign against the East Coast of North America, known as Operation Paukenschlag (Drumbeat). She was sunk by U-123, Kptlt. Reinhard Hardegen, CO. The first group of five German submarines comprised U-66, U-109, U-123, U-125 and U-130. In total they sank 26 Allied ships U-123 was a long-range Type IXB submarine built by AG Weser, at Bremen. She was commissioned on 30 May 40. U-124 conducted 12 patrols and compiled a most impressive record of 45 ships sunk for a total of 227,174 tons and six ships damaged for a further 53,568tons. U-124 survived the war and was taken out of service at Lorient, France, on 17 Jun 1944. She was scuttled at Lorient on 19 Aug 1944. U-124 was salvaged by the French and entered service with the French navy as Blaison. She was subsequently renamed Q165, and was stricken on 18 Aug 59. Reinhard Hardegen was born in 1913, at Bremen. He joined the navy in 1933. When the war began, he was serving as the Signals Officer at the naval airfield at Kamp, in Pomerania. He joined the U-boat force in Nov 39 and completed his conversion training in Jun 40. He was selected immediately for command and completed his U-boat Commander's Course in Aug 40. Next, Hardegen served as the First Watch Officer, and simultaneously underwent U-Commander sea training, in U-123 Kptlt. Georg-Wilhelm Schulz, Knight's Cross, CO. On 11 Dec 40, he was appointed to command the Type IID training boat U-147. Next, Hardengen was appointed to command U-123 on 17 May 41, at the age of 27. He completed his tour of duty in U-123 after four very eventful patrols. His first patrol off West Africa resulted in five ships sunk for a total of 21,507 tons. On his next patrol he heavily damaged the armed merchant cruiser HMS Aurania (13,984 tons). He was awarded the Knights Cross 23 Jan 42, the 44th presented in the U-boat force. Due to injuries suffered during a plane crash in 1936, Hardegen was actually unfit for service in U-boats. He suffered from a shortened leg and chronic stomach bleeding. Hardegen's success on his first two patrols resulted in Admiral Donitz granting him special permission to carry out two further patrols. These were also extremely successful and he was awarded the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves on 23 Apr 42, the 11th awarded in the U-boat force. Hardegens' health deteriorated further and he was posted ashore in Aug 42 as the Training Officer for the 27th U-Flotilla. In Mar 43, he was promoted to KKpt. and assigned to the Torpedo School at Mürwick. In Oct 44, he was transferred to the naval headquarters where he was an advisor to the Office of Torpedo Ordnance. At the end of the war he was assigned to command a battalion of naval infantry. KKpt. Hardegen was detained after the capitulation and was released on 9 Nov 46. After the war, Hardegen built a successful oil trading company and was also the Member of Parliament for Bremen for 32 years. He sank 23 ships for a total of 119,014 tons and damaged five ships damaged for a further 46,500 tons. Reinhard Hardegen was the 23rd highest-scoring U-boat 'ace' of the war
1942 - Barrage balloon cuts power to Seattle and causes air raid scare

1943 - Minesweeping trawler HMS Prophet commissioned
1943 - ASW trawler HMS Kingston Jacinth mined & sunk off Portsmouth
1943 - Destroyer escort USS Pope launched
1943 - Destroyer escorts USS Brackett, Donaldson, Mitchell & Reynolds laid down
1943 - Submarine USS Guardfish, patrolling the waters of the Bismarck Archipelago on her third patrol, fires three torpedoes during a night underwater radar attack. One torpedo finds the mark and destroys the ex-destroyer Shimakaze, now re-named patrol boat P 1. She sinks about 10 miles SW of the Tingwon Islands near New Hanover in position 02°51'S, 149°43'E
1943 - U-342 commissioned
1943 - USS PT-28 damaged beyond repair in a storm at Dora Harbor Alaska
1943 - Destroyer USS Worden wrecked off Amchitka Aleutian Islands
1943 - Patrol Vessel District YP-183 destroyed by grounding on the west coast of Hawaii
1943 - During heavy weather in the North Atlantic a lookout on U-258 broke his arm

1944/45

1944 - Leighton McCarthy presented his letters of credentials to President Roosevelt as the first Canadian Ambassador to the United States
1944 - Submarine USS Albacore, sailing through the waters between Truk and the Admiralty Islands on her eighth patrol, conducts a twilight periscope attack firing eight fish. The Japanese vessel Choko Maru #2 is rocked by four torpedoes about 350 miles SW of Truk in position 03°30'N, 147°27'E. Albacore's attack also apparently damages PGM Hayabusa-Tei #4. The motor gunboat had been under tow by Choko Maru #2 proceeding from Truk to Rabaul. Gunfire from a Japanese escort latter scuttles the gunboat in position 03°37'N, 147°27'E
1944 - Submarine USS Hake, on her third patrol cruising at night on the surface in the northern reaches of the Philippine Sea, fires four torpedoes at SS Nigitsu Maru. Two torpedoes hit and down goes the aircraft transport south of the Daito Islands in position 23°15'N, 132°49'E
1944 - U-323 launched
1944 - U-1271 commissioned
1944 - Frigate HMS Inglis commissioned
1944 - Minesweeper USS Devastator commissioned
1944 - Destroyer escorts USS Marsh & Price commissioned
1944 - Destroyer HMS Trafalgar launched
1944 - Escort carrier USS Rudyerd Bay launched
1944 - Destroyer escorts USS George A Johnson & Metivier launched
1944 - Submarine USS Lagarto laid down
1944 - Escort carrier USS Makin Island laid down
1944 - Destroyer escorts USS Tabberer & Robert F Keller laid down

1945 - Submarine USS Swordfish missing south of Kyushu Japan
1945 - USS LCI(L)-600 sunk by undetermined explosion at Ulithi
1945 - Coast Guard-manned Army vessel FS-284 was commissioned at Wheeler Shipyard, Whitestone NY with LTJG Byron G. Crawford, USCGR, as commanding officer. She was assigned to and operated in the Southwest Pacific area during the war. She was decommissioned 22 August 1945
1945 - 3 Commando Brigade of the Royal Marines conducted an amphibious assault at Myebon in Burma, seizing the position from the Japanese and threatening their line of retreat
1945 - Minelayer Louhi hits a mine off Hanko and sinks with loss of 10 men
1945 - Aircraft from Task Force 38, under the command of Vice Admiral John S. McCain, hits Japanese shipping, airfields, and other shore installations in the South China Sea and in SE French Indochina. Among the sunken vessels is the Ch 43. This subchaser, with the help of Ch 15 and W18, sank the submarine USS Wahoo in La Perouse Strait on 11 Oct 43
1945 - U-2355, U-2356, U-3021, U-3520, U-4702 commissioned
1945 - U-427 attacked heavy cruiser HMS Norfolk off Egersund (Norway) with five torpedoes, but all missed
1945 - Submarine USS Swordfish reported missing, presumed lost. Believed sunk by Japanese ASW forces near Okinawa. No survivors
1945 - Minesweeper HMS Regulus (ex-HMCS Long Branch) is mined during clearance operations off Sista Island near Corfu and loses her propellers. She is taken in tow, but capsizes an hour later