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February 1st, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM: A veteran of the Great War commits suicide because he is too old to participate in this one.
10 Squadron RAAF is declared operational using Sunderland Mk1 aircraft, the first Commonwealth Squadron to be declared operational in the current war. (Daniel Ross)
Escort carrier HMS Activity laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
NORTH SEA: Swedish SS Fram sunk by U-13 at 57.43N, 02.06W.
At 2044, the unescorted MS Ellen M was torpedoed andsunk by U-59 NE of Lowestoft. The master and six crewmembers were lost.
U-10 had to abort patrol due to some technical problems and reached the German base at Heligoland. (Dave Shirlaw)
FRANCE: The French 13e Demi-Brigade is consolidated at Pau in the Pyrenees to begin seven weeks of snow and mountain warfare. The Legion called for volunteers from the officers and men of the Algerian and Moroccan garrisons in early November 1939, specifically volunteering for hazardous duties in extreme climate. These volunteers were all carefully screened for their political beliefs and origins, and all to have had at least two years service. (Gordon Angus Mackinlay)
GERMANY: ObLtzS Helmut Rosenbaum is promoted to KptLt.
U-110, U-559, U-560 laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
Manstein appointed to command the German XXXVIII Armee Corps from a position of Chief of Staff at Army Group A, under Runstedt.
GIBRALTAR: The U.S. freighter SS Exminster is detained by British authorities at Gibraltar; the freighters SS Exochorda, detained since 30 January, and SS Jomar, detained since 31 January, are released. (Jack McKillop)
FINLAND: The USSR is reported to have lost 200,000 men in the campaign.
The Soviet armies begin their attack on the Mannerheim Line on the Karelian Isthmus. The failure of General Timoshenko’s attempt to encircle Lake Ladoga from the north-east, does not prevent him from opening his grand offensive on both sides of the railway line from Leningrad to Viipuri.
The day starts with a massive artillery bombardment, and all the day the Red Army troops probe Finnish positions with small units. This is no more the Red Army that assaulted Finnish positions with suicidal charges. The war goes on like this for more than a week, but the Finnish Army is just able to hold the Mannerheim line. For now. (Mikko Härmeinen)
Paratroops are employed for this first time in the air war, during the Soviet army’s attack on Summa, the weakest point along the Mannerheim Line. Soviet paratroops, formed into combat groups, drop behind the lines of the Finnish Army. However, this operation, though it involves units of up to battalion strength, turns out to be a fiasco. The Finns are on guard both at the front and behind the lines. They shoot some of the parachutists while they are still in descent, and capture others immediately after landing.
JAPAN: Expenditure on defence is to account for half of the national budget.
Japan makes a diplomatic protest to the British government concerning the removal of 21 German nationals from the Japanese liner SS Asama Maru by British forces of the cruiser HMS Gloucester and demands they be returned. (Jack McKillop)
CHINA: Yenan: Mao-Tse-tung calls for the US to stand firm against Japan.
CANADA: Corvettes HMCS Collingwood, Orillia, Barrie, Galt, Moose Jaw, Battleford, Drumheller, The Pas, Cobalt, Kenogami, Algoma, Rosthern, Morden, Kamsack Oakville and Weyburn ordered. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: The US Army Air Corps activates the 31st Pursuit Group (Interceptor) and two of its three component squadrons, the 39th and 40th Pursuit Squadrons (Interceptor), at Selfridge Field, Mt. Clemens, Michigan; the third component squadron, the 41st, is activated at Bolling Field, Washington, DC. The three squadrons are initially equipped with Seversky P-35s and will be redesignated Fighter Group/Squadron on 15 May 1942. (Bob Castle)
The keel of the battleship Alabama (BB-60) is laid down at the Norfolk, Virginia, Navy Yard. (Jack McKillop)
President Franklin D. Roosevelt writes to the British First Lord of the Admiralty Winston S. Churchill, concerning the detention of U.S. merchantmen, and frankly informs him of adverse American reaction to the British policy. “The general feeling is,” Roosevelt informs Churchill, “that the net benefit to your people and the French is hardly worth the definite annoyance caused to us.” (Jack McKillop)
The first National Broadcasting Company (NBC) network television program is transmitted from experimental TV station W2XBS in New York City to W2XCW in Schenectady, New York. (Jack McKillop)
Frank Sinatra sings “Too Romantic” and “The Sky Fell Down” in his first recording session with Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra; the session is held in Chicago, Illinois. Sinatra had replaced Jack Leonard as lead singer with the band. (Jack McKillop)
