This day in the war in Europe 65 years ago

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SOUTH AFRICA: Pro-Axis extremists blow up five power stations in an attempt to sabotage supplies to the Rand gold mines.

RASTENBURG: Hitler decorates the Luftwaffe ace pilot Adolf Galland with the Diamonds to the Knight's Cross. G�oering is appalled that the jewels are paste.

BRAZIL: The Brazilian government breaks off relations with the Axis.

ATLANTIC: �"Sighted sub, sank same." During an antisubmarine sweep astern of convoy HX 172, the crew of a PBO-1 Hudson of USN Patrol Squadron Eighty Two (VP-82) based at NAS Argentia, Newfoundland, attacks a
surfaced submarine off Cape Race, Newfoundland. Although the pilot (Aviation Machinist's Mate First Class Donald F. Mason) reports "sighted sub, sank same," no U-boat is lost on this date.

BRAZIL: The Third Conference of Foreign Ministers of the (21) American Republics at Rio de Janeiro is concluded. Despite the efforts of Argentina and Chile, Pan-American unity is preserved; within days, all Latin American nations that had not already done so (except Argentina and Chile) sever ties with Germany, Italy, and Japan. Today, Brazil and Paraguay break diplomatic relations with Germany, Italy and Japan.

LIBYA: The Indian 4th Division is authorized to withdraw from Benghazi since armored elements of the 13 Corps, British Eighth Army, are too busily engaged to assist it. The Indian 7th Brigade, the last to withdraw, finds its line of retreat blocked but breaks out to the south and
eventually makes its way back to Eighth Army. Rommel's troops enter Benghazi as the British retreat; this is the fourth time the city has changed hands.

U.S.: The Air Force Combat Command activates Headquarters 8th Air Force at Savannah AAB, Savannah, Georgia, under command of Brigadier General Asa N Duncan. The 8th is originally designated as the U.S. air
element of Operation GYMNAST, the early plan for the Allied invasion of northwest Africa.

U.S.S.R.: Soviet Marshal Konstantin Timoshenko advances into the Ukraine. The Ukrainians are happy to see him, as the Germans have been practicing massacres.

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ECUADOR: The government breaks diplomatic relations with Germany,
Italy and Japan.

ICELAND: US Coast Guard gunboat USCGC Alexander Hamilton (WPG-34) is
torpedoed by German submarine U-132 at 1312 hours local 20 miles (32
kilometers) west of Reykjavik, Iceland. One torpedo, of a four-
torpedo spread, smashed into the ship's starboard side, directly abeam of
the stack. It hit the fireroom bulkhead and flooded the two largest
compartments of the ship, blew up two boilers, exploded directly under the main electrical switchboard, demolished the starboard turbines and
flooded the auxiliary engine room, and wrecked the auxiliary radio generator and emergency diesel generator as well. The blast also destroyed three
of the ships seven boats. The interior of the ship was plunged into
darkness--no heat, steam, nor electricity remained. As the ship settled by the stern, it is abandoned. Later, a tug attempts to take her to port
but high seas prevent this.

IRAN: Great Britain and the Soviet Union sign a treaty of alliance
with Iran, wherein Iran agrees to remain neutral; Britain and the USSR
promise to withdraw their troops from Iranian territory six months
after hostilities with the Axis cease. The Persian Corridor is to become
the principal route for movement of supplies to the USSR. The alliance
started off shakily: the Soviets bought up most of Iran's grain harvest,
which caused a bread shortage and riots in the streets. Allied troops put
the rebellion down, and the United States shipped in grain to compensate
for the losses. The Soviet Union then attempted to agitate for the
overthrow of the shah by supporting the Tudeh (Farsi for "masses")
party, which the Soviets believed would be more generous in oil
concessions. Tudeh forces did manage temporarily to take over northern Iran in December 1944.

LIBYA: The Axis main forces remain in the Msus area, but elements
pursue the Indian 4th Division of the British Eighth Army as it
falls back slowly toward the Derna line. Rommel's Axis forces enter Benghazi
and capture 1,300 trucks.

U.S.: Five-inch (12.7 cm) projectiles containing radio-proximity fuzes are test fired at the Naval Proving Ground, Dahlgren, Virginia, and 52 percent of the fuzes functioned satisfactorily by proximity to water at the end of a 5-mile (8 kilometer) trajectory. This performance, obtained with samples selected to simulate a production lot, confirmed that the radio proximity fuze would greatly increase the effectiveness of anti-aircraft batteries and led to immediate small scale production of the fuze.

U.S.S.R.: On the central front, the Soviet Army continues to deepen
its salient southwest of Kaluga and the Soviets report the capture of
Sukhinichi.

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BERLIN: Hitler turned up at Berlin's Sports Palace today
to celebrate the ninth anniversary of his coming to power. There was
little to celebrate. He admitted that the offensive on the eastern front
was stalled, and blamed the extreme cold, with temperatures of minus 42
Fahrenheit. He confessed: "I do not know if the war will end this year."
He also warns: "The result of this war will be the complete annihilation of the Jews ... the most evil universal enemy of all time will be finished."

ICELAND: The hulk of the US Coast Guard gunboat USCGC Alexander
Hamilton (WPG-34), torpedoed by a German U-boat yesterday, is again
taken in tow by a tug. The tow progresses 18 miles (29 kilometers) but the
cutter's list increases rapidly to starboard and she suddenly capsizes at
1728 hours.

U.S.: The last pre-war automobiles produced by General Motors'
Chevrolet Division and Chrysler's DeSoto Division roll off the
assembly lines today.
An unarmed U.S. tanker is torpedoed, shelled, and sunk by
German submarine U-106 about 150 miles (241 kilometers) east-northeast of
Norfolk, Virginia.
The Secretary of the Navy authorizes a glider program for the
Marine Corps consisting of small and large type gliders in sufficient numbers for the training and transportation of two battalions of 900 men each. California Governor Culbert Olson revokes the professional and
business licenses of 5,000 Japanese, German and Italian aliens in
California. The revocations mostly affect Japanese-Americans.
The Congress passes the Emergency Price Control Act which allows the Office of Price Administration (OPA) to place ceilings on prices and rents.

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ATLANTIC: Two British merchant tankers are torpedoed and
sunk by German submarines: the first by U-107 about 590 miles southeast of New York City and the second by U-109 about 320 miles southeast of Atlantic City, New Jersey.
While escorting troop convoy NA2 from St, John's, Newfoundland, RN destroyer Belmont is torpedoed by U-81 and sinks with the loss of her entire ship's company.
USS Satterlee (DD-190), was commissioned as HMS Belmont (H-46) on 8 Oct. 1940, as part of the bases for destroyer s deal.
HMS Culver (ex USCGC Mendota) was torpedoed by a U-boat in the mid-Atlantic on 31 Jan 42.

FRANCE: RAF Bomber Command attacks four targets visually during thenight:
(1) 50 bombers attack the German fleet at Brest; five
aircraft are lost;
(2) 14 attack the port area at St. Nazaire;
(3) six attack the port area at Le Harve;
(4) one attacks the port area at Cherbourg.

IRAQ: The U.S. Military Mission to USSR, which is to advise and assist Russians on lend-Iease matters, arrives at Basra; the group subsequently proceeds to Tehran, Iran, where headquarters is established.

U.K.: The British government recognizes the independence of Ethiopia.

U.S.: Major General Ira C Eaker is designated Commanding General, Bomber Command, U.S. Army Forces in British Isles (USAFBI) and ordered to proceed to the UK.
The last pre-war automobiles produced by Chrysler, Plymouth, and Studebaker roll off the assembly lines today.

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1942: Vidkun Quisling is appointed head of the Nazi puppet government in Norway.
At a meeting in the Velodrome d'Hiver in Paris, Jacques Doriot,
speaks to a PPF crowd of 50,000, according to his parties estimate, 30,000
according to the Propaganda Abteilung. The crowd roared in turn for Hitler, Petain and Rommel. [PPF stands for Parti Populaire Francais - a Fascist party formed in 1936 by Jacques Doriot, which collaborated with the Germans.]
Germany begins rationing tobacco, with women receiving only half the
male allowance.

LIBYA: British General Sir Neal Ritchie, General Officer Commanding
Eighth Army, orders a general withdrawal of 13 Corps, to the line
Gazala-Bir Hacheim in order to avoid envelopment. The Indian 4th
Division, which reverts to 13 Corps command, completes a withdrawal to the
Derna line during the night of 1-2 February.

SOUTH AFRICA: Two bombs are planted in Johannesburg. (Jack McKillop)

U.K.: British intelligence suffers its most serious setback of the war when the Germans change the Enigma code used by their U-Boats. The British won't break this code, called "Shark," for a year, giving the Germans a major advantage in the Battle of the Atlantic. To make matters worse, the Germans break the British merchant ship code and now the Germans know where the British are, instead of vice versa.

U.S.: The USAAF activates the VIII Bomber Command at Langley Field,
Virginia; VIII Interceptor Command at Selfridge Field, Michigan; and
the IX Interceptor Command at New Orleans AAB, Louisiana.

U.S.S.R.: The Soviet Army continues its powerful offensive throughout February but with diminishing success as German resistance stiffens with the arrival of reinforcements. Further efforts to break through to
Leningrad and Sevastopol are futile, but some success is achieved in
other sectors. Soviet forces in the Crimea are reinforced.

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ATLANTIC: An unarmed U.S. tanker is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-103 about 90 miles (145 kilometers) east of the mouth of the Delaware River. Exposure to the frigid weather will eventually kill 34 of the 38-man crew who survive the loss of the ship at the outset.

EGYPT: The Cabinet resigns after a dispute with King Farouk regarding his pro-Axis sympathies.

LIBYA: General Claude Auchinleck, Commander in Chief Middle East Command, orders the British Eighth Army to hold Tobruk as a supply base for a future offensive.

U.K.: The British Naval Staff reports that the German battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst will probably attempt to leave Brest, in occupied France, and pass up the English Channel through the Straits of Dover.

U-581 (Type VIIC) is sunk in the mid-Atlantic south-west of the Azores,
in approximate position 39.00N, 30.00W, by the British destroyer HMS
Westcott. 4 dead and 41 survivors. U-581 was sunk near the coast of
Pico Island, in front of a place called Guidaste.
One of the officers, Ltn. Walter Sitek, managed to swim 6 km to shore where he was picked up by the locals. He then managed to pass through neutral Spain and make his way to Germany again when he again went to sea on a U-boat. Oblt. Walter Sitek commanded 3 boats (U-17, U-981 and U-3005) during the rest of the war and survived the fighting. The rest of the crew, 37 men, were picked up by the British destroyer and taken to POW camp being finally released in 1947.

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1942: ATLANTIC: A Panamanian freighter is torpedoed, shelled, and sunk by German submarine U-103 approx. 15 miles south of Fenwick Island light located on the Delaware/Maryland border in the U.S.

CANADA: The Canadian Women's Auxiliary Air Force is renamed the Royal Canadian Air Force (Women's Division).

LIBYA: The British evacuate Derna.

U.S.: The major league baseball club owners hold a special meeting to discuss wartime regulations, they decide to allow 14 night games for each club, with the Washington Senators allowed 21. Two All-Star Games will be played, one with a military All-Star team. Curfews are set for night games with no inning to start after 0050 hours local.

U.S.S.R.: German forces of Army Group Middle launch a counterattack at Vjasma, cutting off and encircling several Soviet divisions.

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1942: USS Branch (DD-197), which was commissioned as HMS Beverley (H-64) on 8 Oct, 1940, part of the destroyers-for- bases deal, today attacks and sinks U-187.

EGYPT: The British ambassador to Egypt, Sir Miles Lampson, presses King Farouk to appoint a pro-Allied government by surrounding his palace with tanks.

ATLANTIC: An unarmed U.S. tanker is torpedoed, shelled, and sunk by German submarine U-103 about 20 miles (32 kilometers) southeast of Cape May, New Jersey.

LIBYA: 13 Corps, British Eighth Army, completes a withdrawal to the line Gazala-Bir Hacheim and is fortifying it while Axis forces hold the line Tmimi-Mechili. A lull ensues until summer during which both sides conduct harassing operations and prepare to renew the offensive. The British gradually relieve battle-weary forces with fresh troops as they become available.

U.K.: Canadian press baron Max Beaverbrook is appointed Britain's Minister of Production. His steamrolling determination as Minister of Aircraft Production has already resulted in Britain producing more fighters than Germany.

U.S.: Attorney General Francis Biddle orders Japanese, German and Italian aliens to leave 31 areas in the states of Washington and Oregon by 15 February.

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IRAN: The government breaks diplomatic relations with Vichy France.

LIBYA: General Erwin Rommel's offensive is halted by the British
at Gazala, just west of Tobruk. The British forces lose 40 tanks, 40
field guns and 1,400 troops. This was a disaster for the Allies in more
ways than one; now the Allied convoys to Malta must pass between Axis
occupied Crete and Axis airfields in Benghazi. The Axis forces are
also in trouble; they have run to the end of their supply line, and his
southern flank is hanging in mid-air, vulnerable to British raiders like the
Special Air Service. Both sides gasp for breath in the intense
desert heat. Rommel's engineers repair the damaged port of Benghazi, and
motorize some units with captured British trucks (which are actually captured
American lend-lease 2-1/2 ton trucks, which are very survivable). Another
gain for Rommel is the recapture of Axis ammunition stocks in Benghazi,
which had been left behind in the December retreat, and inactivated
by removing their lighters. Now these stocks are made serviceable.

NORTHERN IRELAND: US Naval Operating Base, Londonderry in County
Derry is established to serve as a turnaround point for transatlantic
convoys.

U.S.: HQ USAAF redesignates the four named overseas air forces with
an Arabic numeral: the Alaskan Air Force becomes the 11th Air Force;
the Caribbean Air Force becomes the 6th Air Force; the Far East Air
Force becomes the 5th Air Force; and the Hawaiian Air Force becomes the
7th Air Force.
An unarmed U.S. tanker is torpedoed, shelled, and sunk by German submarine U-103 about 175 miles (282 kilometers) east-northeast of Norfolk, Virginia.

YUGOSLAVIA: The British kick off Operation Disclaim, parachuting a
team of agents near Sarajevo to join up with the partisans.

In WW2 a British Commonwealth sailor could be awarded one of four
awards for gallantry in action; the Victoria Cross, the Conspicuous
GallantryMedal, the Distinguished Service Medal or be mentioned in
dispatches. Only the Victoria Cross or the mentioned in dispatches could be awarded posthumously in WW2.

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ATLANTIC: An unarmed U.S. freighter, en route from Fajardo, Puerto Rico, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-10. There are no survivors from the 35-man crew.
The five German U-boats that have been raiding Allied shipping along the U.S. east coast break off Operation Drumbeat to return to their bases in France. They have sunk 25 ships in 25 days, including nine by U-123. Still,precautions along the coast are few: many oceanside communities are not blacked out at night; lighthouses and buoys are still lit; ships do not zig-zag; and the Navy has too few vessels to organize convoys. Admiral Karl Donitz is sending 15 subs to replace the first five; ten will stalk the Atlantic seaboard and five will prowl the Caribbean. During February this second wave of U-boats will sink 48
ships nearly half of them tankers.
U-82 (Type VIIC) is sunk north of the Azores, in position 44.10N, 23.52W, by depth charges from the British sloop HMS Rochester and the corvette Tamarisk. 45 dead (all hands lost). The boat was lost during an attack on convoy OS-18 while returning from operations off the US East Coast (Operation Drumbeat).
The British ships HMS ROCHESTER and HMS TAMARISK, escorting convoy OS-18, sink an attacking U-boat in the Atlantic.

EGYPT: A new Wafd (nationalist) government is formed under British
pressure in Egypt.

FRANCE: During the night of the 6-7th, RAF Bomber Command dispatches
57 Wellingtons and 3 Stirlings to attack the German fleet at Brest; only 21 aircraft claimed to have bombed the primary target area, in thick cloud; one Wellington is lost.

GERMANY: In Berlin, Adolf Hitler orders the Minister of Armaments
and War Production, Dr. Fritz Todt, to chair a committee to coordinate
all ministries involved in armaments design, manufacture and production.
One of the grave problems facing Germany is its inability to organize
its war effort. The various companies, ministries, and Nazi party
organizations bicker and feud amongst themselves for priorities and
resources, hamstringing the war effort.
During the day, the RAF Bomber Command dispatches 33 Hampdens and
13 Manchesters to carry out minelaying operations in the Frisian Islands; one Hampden is lost.

US: The first Combined Chief of Staff Conference in Washington, DC.
begins. [This conference is the combined high military leaders of the
UK and the US.] This is a followup to the Arcadia Sumit of December,
1941.
The Navy Department redesignates Naval Coastal Frontiers--Eastern,
Gulf, Caribbean, Panama, Hawaiian, Northwest, Western, Philippine's
Sea Frontiers.

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FINLAND: The month-long battles at Maaselk Isthmus culminate
today as the Finnish reinforced 19th Brigade (Col. Kai Savonjousi) finish
destroying the encircled Soviet 367th Rifle Division in Krivi. The recapture of Krivi, which the Red Army had captured on the first day of their
offensive on 1 Jan, brings the battles to close, and the front-line
is back where it was before the Soviet offensive.
The encircled Russians fought back furiously, and the last two days have been bloody. The final Finnish offensive starts at 3 am, and by 2.45 pm the pocket has been destroyed. Finns count 4000 Russian corpses from the battlefield, only 152 POWs are taken. Finnish losses are 121 killed or missing. During the last month, both sides have suffered heavy losses and are now very exhausted.

GERMANY: The Nazi armaments and munitions minister, Fritz Todt, returning to Berlin after talks with Hitler, is killed when his plane crashes on take-off. Albert Speer is appointed as Minister of Munitions in his place.
During the day, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 32 Hampdens on a
minelaying mission in the Frisian Islands; Luftwaffe fighters attack
and three Hampdens are lost.

LIBYA: Rommel's forces stop near Gazala.

U.S.: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9054
establishing the War Shipping Administration (WSA) to bring the
control and operation of all U.S. merchant shipping under a single head. The
WSA's most pressing task is to mobilize the shipping capacity of the
country (the majority of which is still in private hands by the end of the
year 1941) to bring it under single control so that vessels can be
allocated more readily on the basis of overall shipping needs of the U.S. and
the Allies.
The federal government orders passenger car production stopped
and the automobile industry converted to wartime purposes. The
government offers automakers guaranteed profits regardless of production costs throughout the war years. Furthermore, the Office of Production
Management allocates US$11 billion to the construction of war manufacturing
plants that would be sold to the automobile manufacturers at remarkable
discounts after the war.

U.S.S.R: Soviet forces attack Rzhev, to the west of Moscow.

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1942: ATLANTIC: A British freighter is torpedoed and sunk by
German submarine U-108 about 100 miles east-northeast of Norfolk,
Virginia.

U.K.: The third contingent of Canadian troops arrives in Great
Britain

USSR: Soviet General Kurochkin's troops encircle 90,000 German
soldiers at Demyansk in the USSR.

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CANADA: Canadian Anti-conscription candidates are soundly
defeated in four by-elections.

U.K.: The Pacific War Council, composed of representatives from the
U.K., Australia, Netherlands East Indies, and New Zealand, is formed
in London.

U.S.: The 85,000 ton French passenger liner SS Normandie, built in
1931 and regarded by many as the most elegant ocean liner ever built,
burns and sinks in New York Harbor during its conversion to a USN
transport to be named Lafayette (AP-53). When France surrendered to the
Germans in June 1940 and the puppet Vichy regime was installed, the Normandie was in dock at New York City. The US Navy immediately placed it in "protective custody," since the U.S. government did not want a ship
of such size and speed to fall into the hands of the Germans, which it
certainly would if it returned to France; the Navy took control of the ship
shortly after Pearl Harbor. While undergoing conversion to a transport, a
welder accidentally set fire to a pile of flammable life preservers with
his torch, and by early the next morning the ship lay capsized in the
harbor, a gutted wreck. Salvage from this ship will be auctioned in July, 1945.

On this day, Congress pushes ahead standard time for the United
States by one hour in each time zone, imposing daylight saving
time--called at the time "war time."
The Screen Actors Guild rejects General Hershey's plan to defer
movie stars that was announced yesterday.
The 78th Pursuit Group (Interceptor) and its three subordinate
units, the 82d, 83d and 84th Pursuit Squadrons (Interceptor) , USAAF
are activated at Baer Field, Fort Wayne, Indiana.

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ATLANTIC: Two Canadian ships are sunk: (1) German submarine U-564 sinks a Canadian motor tanker about 450 miles southeast of Atlantic City, New Jersey, and (2) Canadian corvette HMCS Spikenard is torpedoed and sunk by U-136 off Iceland; 57 crewmen are lost.

FRANCE: Fifteen bombers of RAF Bomber Command attack the German fleet at Brest visually during the night without loss.

GERMANY: RAF Bomber Command attacks five cities visually during the night without loss:
(1) 34 bombers attack Bremen;
(2) six attack Emden;
(3) and one bomber each attacks Borkum, Cruxhaven and
Wilhelmshaven.

UK: The 1st meeting of the Pacific War Council in London
begins. Represented are Britain, New Zealand, Australia and Holland.

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CANADA: In Montreal, Quebecois riot against conscription plans that may call for Canadian draftees to be sent overseas to fight, in violation of government policy. Canadian troops who cannot be sent overseas are called "Zombies."

FRANCE: During the night of the 11-12, 25 Wellingtons and 6 Whitleys of RAF Bomber Command bomb Le Havre; one Wellington is lost. Other operations include 18 Wellingtons attacking Brest (one Wellington is lost) and
five aircraft flying leaflet missions.

Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Prinz Eugen begin their "Channel Dash" in Operation Cerberus. They will leave Atlantic port of Brest move through the English Channel in daylight to naval bases in Germany.

GERMANY: During the night of the 11-12th, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 49 aircraft to bomb Mannheim while one Manchester drops mines in the Frisian Islands.

VICHY FRANCE: Admiral William D. Leahy, USN (Retired), U.S. Ambassador to Vichy France, receives instructions from President Franklin D. Roosevelt that the U.S. government has learned that French ships are to be
used to transport war materiel between France and Tunisia, and that unless the French government gives assurances that no military aid would go forward to any Axis power, and that French ships would not be used in the furtherance of Axis acts of aggression in any theater of war, the
ambassador would be recalled to the United States "for consultation in a determination of American future policy with regard to the government of Vichy."

WEST INDIES: U.S. Army troops arrive at Curacao and Aruba to assume occupation duty (with the cooperation of the British and Dutch governments) at this naval operating base whose primary mission will be port security, convoy routing, and protection of tankers transporting oil to U.S. ports.

USSR: The Soviet Black Sea Fleet and Azov Flotilla: Shipping loss: ML "Doob" - mined in Kazachiya bay in Sevastopol