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WWII On This Day: January 2

What happened on January 2 during World War II? This date brings together 3 events from 1941, 1942 and 1945, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1941
Gunners load one of HMS Ladybird's 6-inch guns during the bombardment of Bardia on 2 January 1941.
Gunners load one of HMS Ladybird's 6-inch guns during the bombardment of Bardia on 2 January 1941. Damien Parer / Australian War Memorial 127945 · public domain Source
Operation Compass

Naval and air bombardment prepare Bardia

RAF attacks intensified around Bardia before the ground assault, while HMS Terror and the gunboats carried out harassing fire. On 2 January HMS Ladybird worked close to the coast, using her 6-inch guns against the fortress defences. The bombardment formed one part of a combined plan. The following morning Australian infantry and engineers would create lanes through wire, mines and the anti-tank ditch, then the Matildas would move through the prepared breach.

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1942
Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival and the British surrender party walking to the Ford Motor Factory in Singapore on 15 February 1942.
British official photographer / Imperial War Museums HU 2781 · UK Government public domain · Source
The Fall of the Southern Empires

Japanese Troops Enter Manila

Japanese troops entered Manila on 2 January after the city had been declared open. The main American-Filipino formations were already withdrawing into Bataan, with Corregidor and the other harbour forts still covering the entrance to Manila Bay. Manila’s occupation did not end the campaign. It changed its character. The front contracted into Bataan, where terrain favoured defence and Japanese attempts at a quick decision would fail. Behind that front, however, the decisive calculations increasingly concerned rice, medicine, ammunition and time. A position designed to hold until relief arrived now had…

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1945
A converted cable ship laying pipeline across the English Channel, 1944.
Pipeline laying in the Channel, 1944 ·
Operation PLUTO

The programme is continued

A committee ordered all available HAIS cables and HAMEL pipes to be laid in an effort to reach the planned throughput. The decision transformed DUMBO from a limited winter route into a multiple-line system that could replace failed HAMEL pipes and increase total flow.

Continue in Operation PLUTO →