Sun Jan. 11. ‘42 8 P.M.
# SUN BRIGHTENS SHARP WINTER WEATHER
# WORSE WAR NEWS FROM EAST
# RUBBER SALVAGE PROCEEDS QUERIED

The Japanese had begun the invasion of Borneo in mid-December 1941, entering part of the British Crown Colonies. British North Borneo and the Dutch East Indies (later, Indonesia), also part of Borneo, fell to the Japanese in January 1942.

British and Allied forces in Malaya were being driven towards the Causeway which linked it to Singapore.

German forces had been driven back to between 50 and 150 miles of Moscow by early January 1942 and the plan to occupy the city had failed.

Malta, as a strategically important island in the Mediterranean, had been effectively under siege since June 1940 when Italy had declared war on Britain. Following a decrease in attacks during 1941, Germany resumed intensive bombing of the heavily defended island early in 1942.

There was no armistice between Finland and Russia in 1942 in spite of speculation (and not until 1944).

Sampson Kirk, brother of Joe (coastguard), had a small-holding, at ‘Nelson Villa’, accessible from upper Wigg Lane, across fields behind ‘Lenton Lodge’

Herbert Henry Asquith had been the Liberal Prime Minister during the first half of the First World War and had been responsible for positive social changes. However his “Wait and See” approach to political events in Ireland before the war was infamous and his weak leadership in wartime had led to his resignation.

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