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• The US Army Far East Air Force was redesignated 5th Air Force; the personnel and aircraft continued to move south to the Dutch East Indies and Australia. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru arrived at Roi, Marshall Islands. ww2dbase [Hikawa Maru | CPC]
• German submarine U-103 sank US tankers India Arrow at 0153 hours (26 were killed, 12 survived) and China Arrow at 1808 hours (all 37 aboard survived) 20 kilometers southeast of Cape May, New Jersey, United States. German submarine U-136 sank British corvette HMS Arbutus (Lieutenant A. L. W. Warren) in the North Atlantic 330 miles west of Ireland at 2236 hours; 43 were killed, 47 survived. ww2dbase [Second Happy Time | AC]
• USS Lexington crossed the Equator. ww2dbase [Lexington (Lexington-class) | CPC]

• 120 P-40 fighters arrived at Brisbane, Australia from the United States. ww2dbase [P-40 Warhawk | Brisbane, Queensland | CPC]

• Kamoi arrived at Rabaul, New Britain to provide support for the occupation of this new conquest. ww2dbase [Kamoi | Rabaul, New Britain | CPC]

• Japanese aircraft attacked Allied shipping off Sumbawa Island and Bali Island in the Dutch East Indies; several P-40 Warhawk fighters of the USAAF 20th Provisional Pursuit Squadron were destroyed at Bali. ww2dbase [Dutch East Indies Campaign, Java | CPC]
• Nachi departed Bangka Roads, Celebes, Dutch East Indies to support the landings at Makassar, Celebes. ww2dbase [Nachi | Dutch East Indies Campaign, Celebes and Moluccas | Bangka Roads, Celebes | CPC]

• 60 British RAF Bomber Command aircraft attacked German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau at Brest, France, causing little damage. ww2dbase [Gneisenau | CPC]

• USS Enterprise and Task Force 8 arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii. ww2dbase [Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Enterprise | Salt Lake City | Northampton | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]

• Tatsuta Maru departed Busan, Korea. ww2dbase [Tatsuta Maru | Busan, Gyeongsangnam | CPC]

• Axis forces captured Derna and Tmimi, Libya. ww2dbase [Operation Crusader | CPC]

• Soviet submarine Shch-421 sank German ship Konsul Schulte in the Porsanger Fjord off Honningsvaag, Norway. ww2dbase [CPC]

• 17 radio intelligence personnel were evacuated from the US Navy Station CAST facility at Corregidor island, Philippine Islands. ww2dbase [Invasion of the Philippine Islands | Corregidor, Cavite | CPC]

• Japanese troops attacked the Pulau Ubin island to the northeast of Singapore, drawing British troops to move to that region; the actual attack would come from the northwest three days later. Out at sea, passenger liner Empress of Asia, with reinforcement for Singapore aboard and fallen behind from fellow BM12 convoy members, was attacked and sunk by 9 Japanese aircraft; although the loss of life was small (16 killed), all the weapons and equipment aboard her were lost; 1,804 survivors were rescued by Australian sloop HMAS Yarra. ww2dbase [Invasion of Malaya and Singapore | Singapore | CPC]
• Japanese troops attacked the Pulau Ubin island to the northeast of Singapore, drawing British troops to move to that region; the actual attack would come from the northwest three days later. Out at sea, passenger liner Empress of Asia, with reinforcement for Singapore aboard and fallen behind from fellow BM12 convoy members, was attacked and sunk by 9 Japanese aircraft; although the loss of life was small (16 killed), all the weapons and equipment aboard her were lost; 1,804 survivors were rescued by Australian sloop HMAS Yarra. ww2dbase [Invasion of Malaya and Singapore | Singapore | CPC]

• Australian high commissioner in London Stanley Bruce sent a cable to Prime Minister John Curtin, recommending Peter Drummond to succeed Air Chief Marshal Charles Burnett as the Chief of the Air Staff of the RAAF. ww2dbase [London, England | CPC]

5 Feb 1942 Interactive Map