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• German submarine U-86 sank Greek ship Dimitrios G. Thermiotis off Newfoundland at 0613 hours, killing all 33 aboard. German submarine U-66 sank US tanker Allan Jackson 30 kilometers northeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, United States at 0833 hours, killing 23 of 35 aboard. Also off North Carolina, just to the southwest, U-123 damaged US tanker Malay, killing 5. At 0644 hours, German submarine U-552 sank US ship Frances Salman, killing all 28 aboard. ww2dbase [Second Happy Time | CPC]

• The Dutch began to destroy oil facilities at Balikpapan, Dutch Borneo. ww2dbase [Dutch East Indies Campaign, Borneo | Balikpapan, Borneo | CPC]
• Submarine USS Saury crossed the equator for the first time while patrolling the Makassar Strait east of Borneo. ww2dbase [Saury | Line Crossing Ceremony | Makassar Strait | DS]

• Alpino Bagnolini departed La Pallice, La Rochelle, France at 1545 hours, starting her seventh war patrol. ww2dbase [Alpino Bagnolini | La Rochelle, Poitou-Charentes | CPC]

• German and Italy signed two secret military agreements with Japan in Berlin, Germany, one with the Japanese Army and the other with the Japanese Navy. The two agreement divided the world into two operational zones along the 70th meridian east longitude line, the west of which would be under the operational jurisdiction of Germany and Italy, and east of which of Japan. The agreements also committed the three powers to intelligence sharing. ww2dbase [Berlin | TH, CPC]

• British anti-submarine trawler HMS Erin and minesweeping trawler HMS Honjo were destroyed by a mysterious explosion in Gibraltar, which also damaged anti-submarine trawler HMS Imperialist. Spanish saboteurs and Italian frogmen were the main suspects. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Joseph Rochefort's cryptanalytic team in US Territory of Hawaii intercepted Japanese Navy radio messages that mentioned an invasion or occupation force against a target code named "R", which Rochefort guessed was Rabaul, New Britain. He would pass this information to Chester Nimitz via Edwin Layton. ww2dbase [Edwin Layton | New Guinea-Papua Campaign, Phase 1, Bismarck Islands | Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Joseph Rochefort | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]

• Japanese battleship Mutsu towed the old Italian-built armored cruiser Nisshin as a target ship during battleship Yamato's gunnery trials off Kurahashi Island, Japan. ww2dbase [Yamato | Kurahashi, Hiroshima | CPC]
• Mutsu towed the old Italian-built armored cruiser Nisshin as a target ship for battleship Yamato's gunnery trials off Kurahashi Island, Japan. ww2dbase [Mutsu | Kurahashi, Hiroshima | CPC]

• Australian troops destroyed 9 Japanese tanks north of Bakri, Malaya at 0645 hours, but by the evening the Japanese were able to get through this area. ww2dbase [Invasion of Malaya and Singapore | Bukit Bakri | CPC]

• USS Plunger sank Japanese freighter Eizan Maru 23 miles off Honshu, Japan. ww2dbase [Plunger | CPC]

• German 11.Armee captured Feodosiya in the Crimea region of Russia, sealing off the Soviet bridgehead near Kerch. ww2dbase [Battle of Sevastopol | Feodosiya, Krym | TH, CPC]
• German II and X Korps were cut off at Demyansk, Russia; the Luftwaffe maintained an aerial supply line to these surrounded troops. ww2dbase [Rzhev-Vyazma Offensive and the Demyansk Pocket | Demyansk, Leningrad | TH]
• Soviet 54th Army broke through German defenses at Pogoste, Russia, 75 kilometers southeast of Leningrad. Further south, Soviet 2nd Shock Army penetrated German lines near Spasskaya Polisk on the Volkhov River. ww2dbase [Siege of Leningrad | Pogoste, Leningrad | CPC]

• Soviet troops attacked across the Donets River in southern Russia and eastern Ukraine, hoping to cut off German forces around the Sea of Azov. ww2dbase [TH]
• Feldmarschall Fedor von Bock succeeded Walther von Reichenau as the head of German Armeegruppe Süd fighting in Ukraine. ww2dbase [Fedor von Bock | TH]

18 Jan 1942 Interactive Map