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• Year-round daylight saving time was re-instated in the United States as a wartime measure to help conserve energy. ww2dbase [CPC]
• George Marshall, Henry Arnold, Harold Stark, and Ernest King attended the first formal meeting of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. ww2dbase [George Marshall | CPC]
• Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru arrived at Kwajalein, departing later on the same day. ww2dbase [Hikawa Maru | CPC]
• Destroyer Yuzuki departed with Destroyer Division 23 to escort the invasion fleet for Gasmata, New Britain, Bismarck Islands. ww2dbase [Yuzuki | CPC]
• USS Trout sank Japanese auxiliary gunboat Chuwa Maru 50 miles northeast of Taiwan. ww2dbase [Trout | CPC]
• German submarine U-654 attacked Allied convoy ON-60 in the Atlantic Ocean 450 miles east of Cape Race, Newfoundland just after 0000 hours, damaging Free French corvette Alysse; 36 were killed, 34 survived. At 2020 hours, German submarine U-85 also attacked ON-60, sinking British ship Empire Fusilier; 9 were killed, 38 survived. ww2dbase [Second Happy Time | CPC]
• German aircraft damaged British cruiser HMS Cleopatra west of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea. ww2dbase [CPC]
• German aircraft damaged British destroyer HMS Farndale off Egypt. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Japanese Special Naval Landing Force troops arrived at Gasmata airfield, renamed Surumi airfield by the Japanese, in southern New Britain to expand the existing grass runway built by the RAAF. ww2dbase [Gasmata, New Britain | CPC]

• Kaga accidentally hit a reef in the Palau Islands, Caroline Islands, damaging her bilges. ww2dbase [Kaga | Palau | CPC]

• Japanese Sasebo Combined Special Naval Landing Force troops landed at Makassar, Celebes, Dutch East Indies at dawn and captured the city. Most Dutch defenders fell back to the fortifications at Tjama. A small number of captured native troops were tied in groups of three and thrown into a river near Makassar to drown. ww2dbase [Dutch East Indies Campaign, Celebes and Moluccas | Makassar, Celebes | CPC]
• Japanese aircraft damaged British river gunboat HMS Scorpion in the Bangka Strait off Sumatra, Dutch East Indies. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Italian aircraft bombed Alexandria, Egypt. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Fitted with a false bow and a temporary bridge, destroyer USS Shaw departed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii for Mare Island, California. ww2dbase [Shaw | Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Pearl Harbor, Oahu | DS]

• Katori departed Kwajalein, Marshall Islands for Yokosuka, Japan. ww2dbase [Katori | Kwajalein | CPC]

• USS S-38 was ordered to patrol off Cape William on the Celebes (Sulawesi) side of the Makassar Strait. ww2dbase [S-38 | CPC]

• Satoru Anabuki, flying a Ki-27 fighter, shot down a P-40 fighter over Bataan, Philippine Islands, his third victory. ww2dbase [Satoru Anabuki | Bataan | CPC]

• During the day, Japanese troops captured Tengah airfield at Singapore while behind the front 10,000 additional troops arrived at the beachheads. At 2100 hours, the Japanese 4th Imperial Guard Regiment landed at Kranji in northern Singapore, but the attempt was driven off by Australian 27th Brigade's heavy machine gun and mortar fire before the Australians fell back in anticipation of another landing. ww2dbase [Invasion of Malaya and Singapore | Singapore | CPC]
• During the day, Japanese troops captured Tengah airfield at Singapore while behind the front 10,000 additional troops arrived at the beachheads. At 2100 hours, the Japanese 4th Imperial Guard Regiment landed at Kranji in northern Singapore, but the attempt was driven off by Australian 27th Brigade's heavy machine gun and mortar fire before the Australians fell back in anticipation of another landing. ww2dbase [Invasion of Malaya and Singapore | Singapore | CPC]

• USS Lafayette (former French luxury liner SS Normandie, impounded by the United States in May 1941), amidst conversion into a troop transport, caught fire and capsized at midnight in New York Harbor, United States. ww2dbase [New York | CPC]

9 Feb 1942 Interactive Map