Question: What was the date of the first retreat by the Commonwealth back to India in WWII
About the article "World War II", section "Pacific (1942–43)".

Candidate passages:
 "GURPS WWII" - Core Rules.
"GURPS WWII: All the King's Men" - British and Commonwealth forces.
*"GURPS WWII: Their Finest Hour" - Scenario detailing the Battle of Britain.
"GURPS WWII: Dogfaces" - United States.
*"GURPS WWII: Leyte Gulf" - Scenario detailing the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
"GURPS WWII: Doomed White Eagle" - Poland.
"GURPS WWII: Grim Legions" - Italy.
"GURPS WWII: Frozen Hell" - Finland.
"GURPS WWII: Hand of Steel" - Commando forces.
"GURPS WWII: Iron Cross" - Greater Germany.
"GURPS WWII: Michael's Army" - Romania.
"GURPS WWII: Red Tide" - USSR.
"GURPS WWII: Return to Honor" - France.
"GURPS WWII: Weird War II" - An alternate setting in which Magic, Super-Science, and the Supernatural are real.
"GURPS Weird War II: The Secret of the Gneisenau" - Scenario detailing the Gneisenau.
"GURPS WWII: Motor Pool" - Pre-made WW2-era vehicles using the variant "WWII Modular Vehicle Design System" from the core rulebook.  
  December 1 – WWII: * Fiorello La Guardia, Mayor of New York City and Director of the Office of Civilian Defense, signs , creating the Civil Air Patrol under the authority of the United States Army Air Forces.
* A state of emergency is declared in British Malaya and the Straits Settlements.
December 2 – WWII and Attack on Pearl Harbor: The code message "Climb Mount Niitaka" is transmitted to the Japanese task force, indicating that negotiations have broken down and that the attack is to be carried out according to plan.
December 4 – The State of Jefferson is declared in Yreka, California, with judge John Childs as a governor.
December 6 – WWII: * Soviet counterattacks begin against German troops encircling Moscow.
The Wehrmacht is subsequently pushed back over 200 miles.
* The United Kingdom declares war on Finland.
December 6 – WWII: British submarine is sunk by a mine off Cephalonia.
December 7 (December 8 – 3:18 a.m., Japan Standard Time) – WWII: * Attack on Pearl Harbor: Aircraft flying from Imperial Japanese Navy carriers launch a surprise attack on the United States fleet at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, thus drawing the United States into World War II.
The attack begins at 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian Standard Time and is announced on radio stations in the U.S. at about 11:26 p.m. PST (19.26 GMT).
* The Japanese declaration of war on the United States and the British Empire is published in Japanese evening newspapers but not formally delivered to the U.S. until the following day.
Canada declares war on Japan.
* Tobruk's British and Commonwealth garrison is relieved after Axis forces under Rommel withdraw.
December 8  * WWII: The Battle of Hong Kong begins shortly after 8:00 a.m. (local time), less than eight hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, when Japanese forces invade Hong Kong, which is defended by British, Canadian and local troops.
The United Kingdom officially declares war on the Empire of Japan.
* WWII: The Japanese occupation of the Philippines begins ten hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor when Japanese forces invade Luzon and destroy U.S. aircraft on Clark Field.
* WWII: President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt delivers his "Infamy Speech" to a Joint session of the United States Congress at 12:30 p.m. EST (17.30 GMT).
Transmitted live over all four major national networks it attracts the largest audience ever for an American radio broadcast, over 81% of homes.
Within an hour, Congress agrees to the President's request for a United States declaration of war upon Japan and he signs it at 4:10 p.m. * WWII: Australia, New Zealand, The Netherlands, the Free French, Yugoslavia, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador Guatemala and Honduras also officially declare war on Japan, and the Republic of China declares war on the Axis powers.
* WWII: Japanese also attack British Malaya and Thailand.
* WWII: The German advance on Moscow (Operation Typhoon) is suspended for the winter.
* Holocaust: the Nazi German Chełmno extermination camp opens in occupied Poland near the village of Chełmno nad Nerem.
Between December 1941-April 1943 and June 1944-January 1945 at least 153,000 people will be killed in the camp.
December 10 – WWII: The British battleship HMS "Prince of Wales" and battlecruiser HMS "Repulse" are sunk by Japanese aircraft in the South China Sea north of Singapore.
December 11 – WWII * Germany and Italy declare war on the United States.
The U.S. responds in kind.
* Mildred Gillars ("Axis Sally") delivers her first propaganda broadcast to Allied troops.
December 12 – WWII: * Hungary and Romania declare war on the United States.
* British India declares war on the Empire of Japan.
* The United States seizes the French ship .
* The Kimura Detachment of the Japanese Imperial forces is occupied in Legaspi, Albay in Eastern Philippines.
December 13 – Sweden's low temperature record of -53°C is set in a village within the Vilhelmina Municipality.
December 19 – WWII: Hitler becomes Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the German Army.
December 21 – Thailand and Japan sign a military alliance.
December 22 – WWII: Arcadia Conference opens in Washington, D.C., the first meeting on military strategy between the heads of government of the United Kingdom and the United States following the latter's entry into the war.
December 23 – WWII: A second Japanese landing attempt on Wake Island is successful, and the American garrison surrenders after a full night and morning of fighting.
December 24 – WWII: * British forces capture Benghazi.
* Dutch submarine HNLMS K XVI is the first Allied ship to sink a Japanese warship, sinking the destroyer "Sagiri" near Sarawak; K XVI is herself torpedoed the following day by Japanese submarine I 66.
December 25 – WWII: * The Battle of Hong Kong ends after 17 days with surrender of the British Crown colony to the Japanese.
* Admiral Émile Muselier seizes the archipelago of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, the first part of France to be liberated by the Free French Forces.
December 26 – WWII: Winston Churchill becomes the first British Prime Minister to address a joint session of the United States Congress.
December 27 – WWII: British Commandos raid the Norwegian port of Vaagso, causing Hitler to reinforce the garrison and defenses, drawing vital troops away from other areas.  
  February – C. S. Lewis's "The Screwtape Letters" first published in book format in England.
February 1 – WWII: The Command staff of the Eighth Air Force reaches England.
February 2 – WWII: President of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an executive order directing the internment of Japanese Americans and the seizure of their property.
February 3 – WWII: Rommel suspends his offensive in Cyrenaica.
February 7 – United States Maritime Commission fleet operations transferred to the War Shipping Administration (lasting until September 1, 1946).
February 8 * António Óscar Carmona is elected president of Portugal.
* WWII: Top United States military leaders hold their first formal meeting to discuss American military strategy in the war.
* Daylight saving time goes into effect in the United States.
February 9 – The ocean liner catches fire while being converted into the troopship USS "Lafayette" (AP-53) for WWII.
February 10 – In the early hours of the morning the capsizes at pier 88 in New York City.
February 11 – Operation Cerberus A flotilla of Kriegsmarine ships dash from Brest through the English Channel to northern ports; the British fail to sink any of them.
February 15 – WWII: Singapore surrenders to Japanese forces.
February 18 – WWII: More than 200 American sailors die in Newfoundland when the runs aground near Chambers Cove and the runs aground at Lawn Point.
February 19 – WWII: * Japanese warplanes bomb Darwin, Australia.
* A returning Japanese fighter plane crashes on Melville Island (Australia) and its pilot, Hajime Toyoshima, becomes the first Japanese captured on Australian soil when indigenous resident Matthias Ulungura takes him prisoner.
* President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs executive order 9066 allowing the United States military to define areas as exclusionary zones.
These zones affect the Japanese on the West Coast, and Germans and Italians primarily on the East Coast.
February 19-23 – WWII: Battle of Sittang Bridge – British forces retreat to the Sittang River.
February 20 – Lieutenant Edward O'Hare becomes America's first U.S. Navy WWII flying ace.
February 22 – General George Marshall transmits a direct order to General MacArthur in President Roosevelt's name, ordering MacArthur himself to turn over command of the Philippines to a subordinate and report to Australia to assume command of the large American force being built up there.
The orders are worded to allow MacArthur to choose the exact moment of his departure; for various reasons, he will not leave until March 12 (Eastern Date).
February 23 – The fires 17 high-explosive shells toward an oil refinery near Santa Barbara, California, causing little damage.
February 24 * "Struma" disaster: , carrying Jewish refugees from Axis-allied Romania to British-administered Palestine, is torpedoed and sunk by the , killing about 791 men, women and children, with only one survivor.
* Propaganda: The "Voice of America" begins broadcasting.
February 25 * The Princess Elizabeth registers for war service in the U.K. * Battle of Los Angeles: Over 1,400 AA shells are fired at an unidentified, slow-moving object in the skies over Los Angeles.
The appearance of the object triggers an immediate wartime blackout over most of Southern California, with thousands of air raid wardens being deployed throughout the city.
In total there are 6 deaths.
Despite the several-hour barrage no planes are downed.
February 26 * The worst coal dust explosion to date, in Honkeiko, China, claims 1,549 lives.
* The 14th Academy Awards ceremony is held in Los Angeles; "How Green Was My Valley" wins Best Picture.
February 27 – WWII: Battle of the Java Sea: An allied (ABDA) task force of 14 vessels under Dutch command, trying to stem a Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies, is defeated by a 19 vessel Japanese task force in the Java Sea; 2.300 sailors die, including the commander, admiral Karel Doorman; Japanese attain naval hegemony in East-Asia  
The 9th Indian Infantry Division was formed on 15 September 1940 at Quetta, India before being transferred to Malaya.
On 15 September 1940 the three original brigades of the division were the 15th, 20th, and 21st Indian Infantry Brigades.
The 3/17th Dogra Regiment from the 9th Division was the first British Commonwealth Army unit to see action against the Japanese at the Battle of Kota Bharu on 8 December 1941.
The 9th Indian Division fought a relatively successful defensive retreat down Malaya's east coast until the 22nd Brigade was cut off from the rest of the division at a demolished railway bridge near the village of Layang Layang in the state of Johore.
Major-General Barstow was killed crossing the bridge, while attempting to contact the brigade.
The 22nd Brigade was destroyed whilst trying to find another way to Singapore.
What was left of the division was amalgamated with the 11th Indian Division. 
The monarchy of India was the system of government in which a hereditary monarch was the sovereign of the India from 1947 to 1950.
India shared the same person as its sovereign with the United Kingdom and the other Dominions in the British Commonwealth of Nations.
The monarch's constitutional roles were mostly carried out by the Governor-General of India.
The royal succession was governed by the Act of Settlement 1701.
The monarchy was abolished on 26 January 1950, when India became a republic within the Commonwealth, the first Commonwealth country to do so.