http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/19.htm
January 19th, 1941
UNITED KINGDOM: Fair Isle, Orkney: The Lerwick lifeboat arrives to collect the German airmen who crashed here two days ago and take them to Shetland. Karl Heinz Thurz, the pilot of the Heinkel He-111, turns 21 today.
GERMANY: Berchtesgaden: A chastened Mussolini arrived here today to plead with Hitler for military aid. The location is significant - until now, the two dictators have met on “equal terms” on their borders. Count Ciano found the Duce “frowning and nervous” on his special train - clearly worried that Hitler would be insultingly condescending to him after Italy’s string of defeats in North Africa, Greece and Albania. Much to his surprise - and obvious relief - Mussolini found Hitler cordial and welcoming. The Fuhrer has already agreed to bolster the Italian army in Libya with anti-tank formations and squadrons of the Luftwaffe, and to send an army corps of two and a half divisions to Albania. The price to the Duce is total subordination to Hitler in all military matters.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: The destroyer HMS Greyhound, escorting a convoy to Greece sinks Italian submarine ‘Neghelli’ off Phalconera in the Aegean.
MALTA: In further aerial attacks, slight damage is done to the damaged aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious. (Jack McKillop)
ERITREA: British forces of the 4th and 5th Indian Divisions in East Africa under Major-General William Platt, acting on information obtained by breaking the Italians’ coded messages, invade Italian-occupied Eritrea. British Intelligence had been privy to secret Italian communiques from Africa for the past five months; every instruction sent from one Italian military unit to another was analyzed by the Brits. The Italian viceroy in Ethiopia was unwittingly receiving and transmitting every Italian military secret-and weakness. Consequently, British forces were able to organize a strategy to advance on Italian-occupied territory, with Italian troop movements in mind. (Jack McKillop)
U.S.A.: Secretary of State Cordell Hull responds to German Chargé d’Affaires Hans Thomsen’s protest over the incident concerning the tearing down of the Reich flag over the consulate in San Francisco yesterday, promising a full investigation. (Jack McKillop)
Day 507 January 19, 1941
British Commander-in-Chief Middle East General Wavell opens a 3-pronged offensive to drive the Italians from East Africa. 4th Indian Infantry Division (fresh from the success of Operation Compass in Egypt) and 5th Indian Infantry Division capture the railway junction at Kassala, Sudan, on the border with Italian Eritrea. Led by British General William Platt, they plan to advance South from Sudan, through Eritrea into Ethiopia. In addition, General Cunningham will swing Northeast from Kenya, through Italian Somaliland into Ethiopia. A planned amphibious assault will retake British Somaliland and all 3 forces aim to converge on the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa. Emperor Haile Selassie crosses the border from Sudan, returning to Ethiopia whence he fled in May 1936 during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War.
At 8 AM, British transport ships Clan Cumming, Clan MacDonald & Empire Song leave Pireaus, Greece, for Alexandria, Egypt, escorted by anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Calcutta and destroyers HMS Greyhound, Defender & Janus. At 11.53 AM 25 miles South of Pireaus, Italian submarine Neghelli damages Clan Cumming with a torpedo. HMS Greyhound sinks Neghelli with depth charges (all 46 hands killed). HMS Janus escorts Clan Cumming back to Pireaus.
Luftwaffe Stukas dive bomb Valletta Harbour, Malta. British aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious and destroyers HMS Imperial and HMS Decoy are damaged by near misses (no serious damage is done). A Fairey Fulmar from HMS Illustrious shoots down a Stuka and is then itself shot down (pilot and navigator are both rescued).
Hitler meets Mussolini at the Berghof, to offer German help to Italian efforts in North Africa (which is accepted) and in Albania (which Mussolini rejects). Hitler says that he will attack Greece if a British presence there threatens the oil refining at Ploieşti, Romania.