Sorry, didn't see a date.
The obvious answer to that statement is this setup is in December.
there wasn't a date. the tigers saw their first combat on 21 dec. 1941. they attacked a large force of unescorted bombers, bringing down over half of them.
january 1942 was when combat started getting hot n heavy for them. that's also when the raf joined them in their hurricanes, and also when they started escorting b25's.
i think i've got everything bookmarked from my research.