Posted on 02/05/2011 6:08:32 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
B.H. Liddell Hart, History of the Second World War
Winston S. Churchill, The Grand Alliance
Formula for Unity – 2-3
Wadsworth in Service, Son of Draft Sponsor – 3
Dutch Statesman Flies Back to Wife from Exile – 3
The International Situation – 3
Italians Quit Town – 3-4
Nazis Decree Death for 3 Norwegians – 4
NLRB Adopts Rules Barred by Madden – 4-5
33 Officials Replaced in Rome Shake-Up; Strengthening of Party is Announced Aim – 5
Torpedo Boats Hit Convoy in Red Sea – 5
Scenes from Poland Under the Rule of the Nazis (photos) – 6-7
Ford Asks to Make Complete Bomber – 7
Japan Opens Drive Close to Hong Kong – 8
Shift of U.S. Envoys is Revealed in China – 8
Japanese Sailors Parade in Saigon – 8
Public Sentiment Even on War Vote – 9
Invasion in Reverse? – 9
Texts of Day’s War Communiques – 10
Official Schedule of the National League for 1941 – 11
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1941/feb41/f05feb41.htm
British armor reaches Beda Fomm
Wednesday, February 5, 1941 www.onwar.com
In North Africa... The first British armored units reach the coast road near Beda Fomm with armored cars and light tanks after their drive across Cyrenaica. Heavier tank units are following rapidly. The retreating Italian columns are engaged and about 5000 men are captured. In the north the Australians take Barce.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/05.htm
February 5th, 1941
UNITED KINGDOM: The US politician Wendell Wilkie’s morale-boosting visit to Britain ends.
The war is now costing Britain GBP11 million a day. (Jack McKillop)
ASW trawler HMS Tourmaline sunk by German aircraft off North Foreland, Kent. (Dave Shirlaw)
EIRE: A Luftwaffe Focke-Wulf Fw 200C-1 Condor of Kampfgeschwader 40 is returning to its base in France when it crashes near Bantry, County Cork. The only survivor is a gunner who is pulled from the blazing wreckage by a young Irish nurse who later receives a medal and citation signed by Adolf Hitler. (Jack McKillop)
DENMARK: The Royal Danish Navy is constrained to hand over 6 newer Torpedo Boats to the German Occupation Force. As the Torpedo Boats leave the Naval Dock in Copenhagen, King Christian X order the Sovereign Flag at the Naval base lowered to half mast. (Dave Shirlaw)
GERMANY: German dictator Adolf Hitler scolds his Axis partner, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, for his troops’ retreat in the face of British advances in Libya, demanding that the Duce command his forces to resist. (Jack McKillop)
U-563 launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
LIBYA: Due to the bad terrain they are trying to negotiate the tank regiments of 7th Armoured Div. are slowed to the point where they decide to send the faster vehicles and infantry of the Rifle Brigade forward in Bren gun carriers to join the 11th Hussars are now ranging far ahead. This composite forces is under Colonel Combe and hence called “Combeforce”. It comprises some 2,000 men of 11 Hussars, a squadron of the Kings Dragoon Guards and the RAF Armoured Car Squadron.
Combeforce reaches Msus, north-east of Beda Fomm late in the morning and hits the coast road near the village of Sidi Saleh about noon. At 14.30 hrs the first column of Italian lorries came fleeing down the road from the north to find their way blocked by ‘A’ company of the Rifle Brigade. As the Italian traffic is brought to a halt and begins to pile up, the Italians fan out west of the road towards the sea and probe south to engage the rest of Combeforce. Fighting continues throughout the day in spite of a growing shortage of ammunition.
EGYPT: Cairo: British Headquarters in Egypt announced:
Our westward advance inside Libya is continuing. On Monday, forward British units marched into Cyrene. In Eritrea, Italian troops have continued their retreat beyond Agordat. Our troops are approaching Keren. British troops have left Barentu and are pursuing the enemy toward the south. The exact number of Italian prisoners taken has not yet been determined. In Abyssinia our advance has continued east of Gallabat [Anglo-Egyptian Sudan] on the road from Metemma to Gondar. Patrol activity is continuing in Italian Somaliland.
AUSTRALIA: At a meeting of the Advisory War Council in Canberra, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. John Curtin, states that Japan’s policy is one of opportunism and since Great Britain is fully engaged in Europe, the Japanese may attack Australia. Another member of government who has just returned from Malaya and Singapore relates the inadequate defenses of both. (Jack McKillop)
Andrew Barton (Banjo) Paterson, Australian poet widely credited as the author of “Waltzing Matilda,” dies in a private hospital in Sydney, New South Wales, after a two-week illness. (Jack McKillop)
Boom defence vessel HMAS Karangi laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
MARIANA ISLANDS: USN Chief Nurse Marion B. Olds and Nurse Leona Jackson, arrive on Guam. (Jack McKillop)
U.S.A.: Submarine USS Finback laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Scharnhorst and Gneisenau enter the Atlantic through the Denmark Strait, and refuel from tanker Schlettstadt some 150 miles south of Cape Farewell. (Navy News)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 524 February 5, 1941
Operation Compass. At noon, after crossing 150 miles of desert in 30 hours, Combe Force’s armoured cars cut the coast road at the hamlet of Sidi Saleh. 30 minutes later, retreating Italians begin arriving from Benghazi but they cannot break through the British roadblock. By evening, 4th Armoured Brigade reaches the road 10 miles North at Beda Fomm and attacks the Italian column with tanks.
Battle of Keren, Eritrea, East Africa. British and Indian troops launch an attack through the hills on the left side of Dongolaas Gorge on the approach to Keren. 2nd Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders fight to the top of 1616 meter high ridge, which will become known as Cameron Ridge. Although fighting in the Gorge will swing back and forth for almost 2 months, Allied forces will not relinquish Cameron Ridge.
British anti-submarine trawler HMT Tourmaline is bombed and sunk by German aircraft off North Foreland, Kent.
British submarine HMS Sealion sinks Norwegian SS Ryfylke 2 miles off the Norwegian coast near Stadlandet.
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