Day 859 January 6, 1942

Operation Kitbag. At 3 AM British cruiser HMS Sheffield and destroyers HMS Inglefield and HMS Intrepid leave Scapa Flow, Scotland. 11 RAF Coastal Command bombers raid Sola Airfield at Stavanger to prevent Luftwaffe attack. In the evening, the warships shell Florø, Norway, destroying trawlers and fish processing facilities, and then return to Scapa Flow overnight. A Commando raid of the same name in December was cancelled due to the accidental explosion of hand grenades during embarkation (6 killed, 11 wounded).

RAF aircraft sink Italian freighter SS Perla returning from Tripoli, Libya, to Trapani, Sicily, near the Italian island of Pantellaria off the Tunisian coast.

Malaya. Japanese 42nd Regiment commander Colonel Ando plans to outflank Indian 11th Division defenses at Slim River by moving through the dense jungle. However, Major Shimada persuades Ando to allow his company of tanks to attack straight down the road. The attack will go in overnight.

On Luzon, Philippines, US and Filipino forces continue falling back onto Bataan and prepare a defensive line across the neck of the peninsula from Mauban in the West to Abucay in the East.

Japanese aircraft again bomb Rabaul on the Australian-held island of New Britain, New Guinea.