Posted on 01/01/2011 5:47:50 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
Winston S. Churchill, The Grand Alliance
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1941/jan41/f01jan41.htm
German air power in Sicily growing
Wednesday, January 1, 1941 www.onwar.com
In the Mediterranean... The strength of the German 10th Air Corps in Sicily is now 96 bombers and 25 fighters. At this time the RAF has only 15 Hurricanes in Malta.
In Berlin... Ribbentrop, the German foreign minister, meets Filov, the Bulgarian prime minister, to discuss arrangements for allowing the passage of German troops across Bulgaria. No agreement is reached but Bulgaria is now nearer to acquiescing to German pressure to join the Tripartite Pact.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/01.htm
January 1st, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM: AA cruiser HMS Coventry is damaged in an air raid on the Shetland Islands.
RAF Coastal Command: Three Coastal Command aircraft encountered two German aircraft 130 miles off east coast of Scotland and shot one down.
A royal proclamation extends the liability of men for military service to the age of 27. Call-up groups are based on year of birth. Men aged 19 will register, but will not be liable for service until they are 20. First to be summoned for service (on 1 March) are those aged 23, and other groups will soon follow. All those eligible will be in uniform by the end of the year.
Fifty women resign from the Auxiliary Fire Service in protest at being told to scrub floors.
Destroyer HMS Puckeridge laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
NORTH SEA: At 1058, SS Lars Magnus Trozelli was torpedoed and sunk by U-58 in the North Sea. The Norwegian SS Ask picked the survivors up the same day. (Dave Shirlaw)
FRANCE: Rail links with Spain are reopened, having been closed down three and a half years ago during the Spanish Civil War.
MAP
ITALY: Rome: Russia recalls its ambassador to Italy following anti-Soviet demonstrations in Rome.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Strength of Philippine Army is only 468 officers and 3,697 enlisted men, including 300 men assigned to the single regiment of the 1st Division.
Quezon cuts defence Program. Franking privileges for Military Advisor’s office and Philippine Army headquarters ended. Number of trainees cut in half. 61 training camps closed, ROTC ended at all but one school, all further military construction and ordnance procurement terminated.
Lt Colonel Charles Willoughby appointed G-4 of the Philippine Department. (Marc Small)
CANADA:
Commissioned for Fisherman’s Reserve and returned to owners 1946 - HMCS Aristocrat, Leola Vivian and Meander. (Dave Shirlaw)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 489 January 1, 1941
Operation Compass. General O’Connor’s Western Desert Force becomes 13th Corps. RAF continues bombing Bardia and Italian airfields at Tobruk, Derna and Benina.
In the Gibraltar Straits, British destroyers HMS Duncan, Firedrake, Foxhound, Jaguar & Hero stop a French convoy returning from Casablanca (steamer Chantilly, tankers Octane and Suroit plus Danish steamer Sally Maersk). HMS Jaguar shells Chantilly (2 killed, 4 wounded). The convoy is captured and taken to Gibraltar.
Let's get all those eggs in one basket. And make sure that they don't have torpedo nets in place.
Sounds like a plan is starting to come together.
"In States which have scarcely ten persons per square kilometer to nourish and which have all the raw materials of the world at their disposal there are ten to twelve million unemployed - that is to say, people expelled from all human happiness - and all that not only because of a lust for profit, corruption and indolence, but also because the stupidity of the rulers in these plutocratic democracies rejected all methods and measures that could put brakes on the limitless egoism of the individual in favor of the life of all."
How did the DNC manage to fax their weekly talking points all the way back in time to 1941? :)
Adm. Richardson will explain this in a week when he forwards Adm. Bloch's 12/30/40 memo on fleet security (See reply #4) to CNO. His reasoning is that since the chance of a Japanese carrier force getting near enough to Hawaii to launch a Taranto-like attack on the fleet is extremely remote, it would not be practical to restrict the use of the harbor by installing torpedo nets.
“Hitler Sees Victory In 1941”
During this period, Hitler is still making several overtures, public and back channel, to the British in hopes of ending the war in the west, to be able to concentrate on the East.
Bump. Keep’n coming. :-)
Hitler: I am a man of peace. I would never invade the Balkans, I have no intention of sending forces to North Africa, and of course I would never think of invading the USSR.
Hmmm... Here I am one year later..... always interesting to re-visit a thread!!
... and looking back, what a year it has been.
Thank you Homer for all of these amazing threads!!
Even at this distance the war seemed more theoretical in Jan. 41 than it did in Jan. 42. Though from some accounts the idea of really being at war hadn't sunk in for many Americans. I imagine the news from the Far East over the next couple months will bring it home to those in denial.
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