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• Heinrich Himmler announced his plan to send 100,000 Jewish men and 50,000 Jewish women to concentration camps for use as forced laborers within the following four weeks. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Heinrich Himmler | CPC]
• The first American troops arrived in the United Kingdom via Allied convoy AT10; the 3,900 troops of US 34th Division would set up camp in Northern Ireland. ww2dbase [TH]
• Japanese aircraft attacked Rangoon, Burma for the fourth day in a row. ww2dbase [Invasion of Burma | CPC]
• British, Indian, and Australian troops began to withdraw from the Batu Pahat-Ayer Hitam-Jemaluang defensive line in British Malaya as ordered by Lieutenant General Arthur Percival on the previous day. On the east coast, 1,500 troops of the British Brigade of the Indian 11th Division were cut off at Rengit. At 1100 hours, Japanese 18th Division landed at Endau, 80 miles north of Singapore. At 1500 hours, RAF biplane aircraft attacked the Endau landing force, causing little damage and losing 5 Vildebeest aircraft. At 1630 hours, destroyers HMS Thanet and HMAS Vampire departed Singapore to attack the Japanese ships at Endau. Finally, at 1730 hours, another air attack was conducted by 9 Vildebeest and 3 Albacore aircraft, escorted by some Hurricane fighters; this attack also achieved little, and 9 aircraft were lost. ww2dbase [Invasion of Malaya and Singapore | CPC]
• US and Filipino troops completed the phased withdraw from the Abucay-Mauban defensive line at Bataan, Luzon, Philippine Islands, which was done over three nights. ww2dbase [Invasion of the Philippine Islands | CPC]

• German submarine U-125 sank American ship West Ivis 100 miles off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, United States at 0556 hours, killing the entire crew of 45. Three hours later at 0842 hours, 325 miles southeast of Nova Scotia, Canada, U-106 sank British ship Traveller, killing all 52 aboard. 200 miles south of Newfoundland, U-582 sank British tanker Refast at 1858 hours; 10 were killed, 32 survived. ww2dbase [Second Happy Time | CPC]

• Japanese troops beheaded Australian prisoner of war Lieutenant Lennox Henry at Rabaul, New Britain. On the same day, Three Australian Catalina aircraft from Port Moresby, British Territory of Papua attacked Rabaul, causing minor damage. ww2dbase [New Guinea-Papua Campaign, Phase 1, Bismarck Islands | Rabaul, New Britain | CPC]

• The 4th Canadian Armoured Division and an Army Tank Brigade were established by converting the 4th Canadian Infantry Division. Later in the year the 4th Armoured Division (Major General F. F. Worthington) would arrive in the United Kingdom to form a part of the new 2nd Canadian Corps. The Army Tank Brigade was posted to the United Kingdom in Jun 1943 and disbanded there in Nov 1943. ww2dbase [AC]

• Leonardo da Vinci departed La Pallice, La Rochelle, France at 0850 hours for exercises, returning at 1330 hours. ww2dbase [Leonardo da Vinci | La Rochelle, Poitou-Charentes | CPC]

• Joseph Rochefort's cryptanalytic team in US Territory of Hawaii reported that there were no radio traffic regarding Japanese carriers in the Gilbert Islands and Marshall Islands area, thus concluding that the planned US carrier strike in the two island groups should be able to continue without unexpected threats. ww2dbase [Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Joseph Rochefort | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]

• Yugure departed Davao, Mindanao, Philippine Islands at 2200 hours. ww2dbase [Yugure | Davao, Mindanao | CPC]

• Soviet Deputy Navy Commissar Admiral Gordei Levchenko, sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in a labor camp for the loss of the Crimea region of Ukraine to the Germans, began to be supported by fellow admirals such as Navy Commissar Nikolai Kuznetsov. Levchenko would eventually be cleared, but he would be demoted to the rank of captain 1st class; he would not return to admiral rank until 1944. ww2dbase [CPC]

• USS S-27 arrived at San Diego, California, United States. ww2dbase [S-27 | San Diego, California | CPC]

26 Jan 1942 Interactive Map