In a surprise reversal of its previous policy, the German government has advised the U.S. State Department that it is willing to release upwards of 450,000 political and racial refugees, providing they proceed direct to the United States, high officials disclosed today. The German government proposes to send the refugees across Europe in sealed trains to Lisbon for shipment aboard United States Line vessels into American ports. The plan is still under study by the State Department, with various American organizations pleading for its approval. The refugees are now in Germany and its conquered territories, principally in concentration camps. They include Germans, Austrians, Czechs, Poles, Dutch, Belgians and French. Most of them are Jewish. The German government’s decision to release “undesirables” as Berlin calls the refugees came as a great surprise to the State Department. A high State Department official explained that the United States government did not initiate the proposed plan. From other sources, it was learned that private American organizations had a hand in sounding out the German government on the question of releasing refugees. Officials, however, admitted that the German offer had been transmitted to the State Department through regular diplomatic channels. The Germans agreed to release the refugees 500 at a time. The Germans would release only those refugees who obtained American visas, guaranteeing their admission to the United States. This would enable the American government to control the identity of the refugees, to some degree. The Germans propose to transfer the refugees from concentration camps to the port of Lisbon in sealed trains with doors sealed and all windows blackened for delivery to United States Line ships at their docks. The Germans made this condition that the State Department must agree to take every one of these refugees into the United States to prevent them from roaming over Europe. Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, president of the American Jewish congress, today, declared the reported German proposal to release 450,000 refugees with the proviso they proceed directly to the United States was intended to hurt the United States. “One can only say,” Dr. Wise observed, “that it is a subtle and yet clumsy attempt not to help refugees but to do a maximum of hurt to our country.”
Italian artillery at Wadi Derna, Libya continued to pin down Australian 6th Division. Bad going, heavy rain, numerous mechanical breakdowns and a shortage of petrol have brought the advancing troops of O’Connor’s force to a halt, allowing the Italians under General Babini to escape from Mechili. At Derna, the Italians hold out throughout the day as Operation COMPASS grinds forward. However, the Australian 2/4th Battalion and British 7th Armored Division are threatening to cut the coast road. Rather than risk another catastrophe with the loss of the entire garrison, the Italian commanders order the evacuation of Derna during the night. While pulling out, the Italian Babini Group conducts a skillful retreat, harassing the advancing British troops, laying mines and wrecking the coast road. Italian artillery, situated north of Wad Derna, is particularly effective in slowing down the Australians and covering the retreat.
Elsewhere, the British consolidate at Mechili, which the Italians also abandoned. The issue is not one of tiredness or casualties, but more of fuel and supplies. The key supply port of Tobruk opened on the 27th, which will ease the supply situation going forward, but it will take time to resupply the troops, give the tanks proper maintenance, and the like. The Italians also are showing a bit more fight than they have before. In addition, the weather is lousy and heavy rain is causing issues.
Taking advantage of the start of a lull in the Libyan operations, British Middle East Commander General Wavell flies to Nairobi to discuss with General Cunningham plans for an offensive into Italian Somaliland. Wavell also meets with General Platt, commander of the forces entering Eritrea. Wavell will stay here for several days, leaving on 1 February.
General Charles de Gaulle’s “free French” forces, sweeping 825 miles across the wildest wastes of the eastern Sahara, have driven into the heart of Italian Libya from the south and annihilated Fascist forces at the oasis of Marzuck, it was announced tonight. Opening up a new invasion front in Libya, the “free French” appeared to be joining Britain’s imperial army of the Nile in a huge encirclement of the badly-battered Fascist army of Marshal Rodolfo Graziani. Sweeping up in a blitzkrieg rush from the Lake Chad area “in the heart of darkest Africa,” mechanized units and fleet camel cavalry of the French forces drove 225 miles across Libya’s southern desert to Marzuck. At Marzuck, where the Italian garrison was wiped out, the town sacked and airdrome burned, the “free French” were about 475 miles south of Italy’s great Mediterranean coastal base of Tripoli. Gen. Georges Catroux, who announced the daring sweep in a radio broadcast, said the French forces fell back after destroying Marzuck. It was not indicated whether they would attempt to push on northward. The big-scale “raid” caught the Italians completely by surprise, it was said, the French column having traveled by night and taken cover by day.
Taking the Italian prisoners at Tobruk to prison camps once again becomes a major operation. Net layer HMS Protector sails from Suda Bay to bring prisoners from there to Alexandria.
The weather at Malta is overcast and it is a quiet day. While fears remain high about a planned German invasion from Sicily, reports from spies and observers (such as Americans) are mixed about what may actually be going on there.
The Italians and Greeks continue to battle over the heights of Trebeshina (specifically Height 1923) in Albania on 28 January 1941. Two Italian Blackshirt battalions have recovered the peaks in appalling weather, while the Cretan 5th Division of II Corps is trying to dislodge them again. The Blackshirts, heavily indoctrinated political troops akin to the SS, are fighting strongly. A large-scale Greek offensive, launched as the war with Italy entered its fourth month, early today was reported along a 75-mile-long front, with Hellenic troops rushing through Italian barbed wire entanglements in fierce bayonet charges. The assault, opened in some sectors in heavy rain and almost knee-deep mud, was said in front-line dispatches to be pushing upon Italy’s Albanian port of Valona, toward Berati above Klisura and up through the mountains toward Elbasan further to the north. The Italians, according to these reports, threw swarms of tanks, infantry and bombing planes at the Greeks in an effort to stall their drive. Italian warships shelled Greek rear lines along the Adriatic coast south of Chimara to the Greek frontier. Part of the historic Greek monastery at Pikernion was demolished by the shellfire of the warships.
In Eritrea, the Italian 4th Colonial Division under General Orlando Lorenzini is making a stand at Barentu Agordat. He has 76 guns and a company of both medium and light tanks, not an inconsiderable force in the area. Major-General Noel Beresford-Peirse, in command of the 4th Indian Division, sends his troops (3rd Battalion of the 14th Punjab Regiment) on a flanking move to the Cochen Hills to the south of the Italian defenses. Elsewhere, the British troops are advancing to catch up with the retreating Italians.
Minus tin hat, Wendell L. Willkie plunged cheerfully about London today through four air raids, acting as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened and permitting nothing to disturb his strenuous schedule. In the first Nazi visitation of the day, and the first he had experienced, he was caught without the steel helmet he had brought from the United States and he likewise succeeded in entering the House of Commons without a gas mask, ordinarily required equipment for all admitted there.
Having read and pondered the handwritten note from President Roosevelt brought to him by Wendell Willkie, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill writes a lengthy “Personal and Secret” response. He notes the following:
“All my information shows that the Germans are persevering in their preparations to invade this country”;
“[A]dvance parties of the German air force have already to the extent of several thousand infiltrated themselves into Bulgaria”;
“[Hitler] could carry out both offensives [in the East and against Britain] at the same time.”
The reply does not really break any new ground, but definitely continues the brewing bromance between the two men.
In the British House of Commons in Westminster tonight, Herbert Morrison, the Home Secretary and Minister of Home Security, was given the overwhelming backing of MPs for his decision to shut down the Daily Worker, the newspaper of the Communist Party of Great Britain, because its anti-war stance was subversive and calculated to help the enemy. Morrison, whose war responsibilities include censorship and the detention of potential enemies of the state, said the paper had conducted a sustained campaign of vilification, telling people that they were being killed and injured in enemy air-raids because the government wanted to make big profits for capitalists and imperialists. It was “cruel and cynical, sheer sniveling hypocrisy” to preach defeatism to people who were enduring great hardship. Aneurin Bevan, the left-wing Labour MP, said that although he detested the Daily Worker’s propaganda, he believed the ban did a disservice to the cause of freedom. Despite his plea, MPs voted 297 to 11 to back the Home Secretary.
Minister of Food Robert Boothby gives a speech in the House as well, defending himself against charges of self-dealing. Churchill rises and reflects upon this “heartbreaking business” without really taking a position. In a note to his son Randolph, Churchill states that Boothby’s speech was “a remarkable parliamentary performance.” The House continues to consider the matter.
British naval authorities made a terse announcement maintaining that the Empress of Australia was “safe in port”.
The British steamer Urla was sunk by the Italian submarine Luigi Torelli 250 miles west of Ireland; all 42 crewmen survived.
British cruiser HMS Naiad spotted German warships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in the Iceland-Faroes passage at 0649 hours. Fearing this might lead to the arrival of a stronger British fleet, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau turned to the north, attempting to enter the Atlantic Ocean via the Denmark Strait instead.
Hitler orders that the entry into Bulgaria must be delayed until the last possible moment.
General Keitel meets with Hitler and gives him the conclusion of the OKH (army high command) regarding Operation FELIX (invasion of Gibraltar). They believe that:
“[I]n the event of preparations being resumed on 1 February, the attack on Gibraltar was not possible before the middle of April and that therefore the forces envisaged for this operation would not be available in time for ‘BARBAROSSA.’ “
Hitler may wish to invade Gibraltar, but he wants to invade the Soviet Union more. Accordingly, he states that “Operation FELIX will have to be dropped because it was impossible to create the political prerequisites.” While Hitler continues to cajole Franco into joining the Axis and permitting Operation FELIX, a project which remains on the docket for years (like Operation SEALION), this marks the death knell for the planned operation.
Two hundred Norwegian volunteers, recruited by the SS, swear an oath of allegiance to Hitler. These Norwegian volunteers are to serve in the “Wiking” Division. They will be part of Army Group South, heading toward the Ukraine, where numerous atrocities will take place (of course, atrocities will take place across the entire front). Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler watches with approval.
Horia Sima, vice-premier under General Antonescu and Iron Guard chieftain named by Rumanian government as leader of rebels against it, is reported under arrest in Bucharest and facing execution.
German bombers ended London’s four-day respite from raids with a shower of incendiaries and explosives which caused considerable damage to houses and brought the city’s anti-aircraft defenses into vigorous action today. German long-range guns also renewed shelling across the Dover strait tonight. The lousy winter weather continues to hamper air operations in northern Europe. The Luftwaffe continues its random nuisance raids on scattered targets in the southeast, dropping a few bombs dropped on London.
The RAF raids the Naples airport, railway facilities, and marshaling yard. The bombers also attack Catania and Comiso airfields, the bases of Fliegerkorps X.
Four Royal Air Force men were killed and nine wounded in air raids on Malta before dawn today. Some government property was damaged during the raids which prompted four alerts.
Italian submarine Torelli sank British steamer Urla (5198grt), which was straggling from convoy HX.102, in 54-54N, 19W. All the crewmen were rescued.
Light cruiser HMS Naiad on blockade duty sighted German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau at 0649 briefly to the east of Iceland. However, the German ships turned away at high speed and were gone before a definite sighting was made. Battlecruiser HMS Repulse and destroyers HMS Bedouin, HMS Tartar, HMS Matabele, and HMS Punjabi were ordered at 0738 to join cruiser Naiad. At 1601, both of destroyer Tartar’s steering units were out of action.
Admiral Lütjens, under strict orders not to engage capital ships, immediately turns around 180 degrees and heads back to the northeast. Hitler, in particular, is prone to giving his ship captains very cautious instructions which some feel unduly inhibit their discretion and opportunism. This time, Lütjens follows such orders, which is likely a good thing in this instance. Being too aggressive in the Atlantic can pay big rewards for German raiders — but it also, as will be seen in May 1941, be extremely hazardous to one’s health. The entire British Home Fleet is at sea waiting in the general vicinity for the two German ships, and there would be a very little margin of error should a lucky Royal Navy hit slow them down or disable one of them.
Admiral Lütjens does not intend to give up the mission but instead plans a rendezvous with tankers Adria and Schlettstadt in the far north near Bear Island and considers going north of Iceland instead of south.
The weather is extremely rough in the North Atlantic. This causes collisions, ship sightings that are hard to confirm, and similar issues. The Luftwaffe can’t get enough planes in the air to provide proper scouting reports for the U-boats, due to the lack of sufficient Focke Wulf Fw 200 Condors in KG 40.
Battleship HMS Prince of Wales departed Liverpool for Rosyth. Light cruiser HMS Nigeria and destroyers HMS Inglefield, HMS Maori, and HMAS Nizam departed Scapa Flow at 0900/29th to meet battleship Prince of Wales, escorted by destroyer HMS Highlander and anti-aircraft ship HMS Curacoa off Cape Wrath. The ships arrived at Rosyth on the 30th at 1445. Light cruiser Nigeria and destroyers Inglefield, Maori, and Nizam back arrived at Scapa Flow at 0200/31st.
Convoy OB.279 departed Liverpool, escorted by destroyers HMS Arrow, Mistral, and Ouragan, corvettes HMS Aubretia and HMS Hollyhock, and anti-submarine trawler HMS King Sol. Destroyer HMS Churchill joined on the 29th. The destroyers were detached on 1 February and the remainder of the escort on 2 February when the convoy dispersed.
Convoy FN.394 departed Southend, escorted by destroyer HMS Wallace and sloop HMS Fleetwood, and arrived at Methil on the 30th.
Corvette HMS Bluebell was in a collision with Destroyer HMS Westcott in the Western Approaches. Tug HMS Salvonia stood by the damaged corvette, which proceeded to Londonderry accompanied by destroyer Westcott. Corvette Bluebell departed Londonderry on the 30th for Liverpool, but had to shelter from weather at Belfast on 4 and 5 February. The corvette arrived at Liverpool on 5 February. Repairs were completed at Cammell Laird on 4 March. The damage to the destroyer was slight and was repaired at Liverpool on the 29th.
British tanker War Pindari, which had come from the Clyde, departed Scapa Flow at 1000 escorted by destroyers HMAS Napier and HMS Somali. The tanker proceeded to the Skaalefjord, Faroes, arriving on the 29th, to refuel destroyers operating at sea.
British steamer Pandion (1944grt) was sunk by German bombing in 55-34N, 10-22W. The steamer anchored off Loch Swilly. She was grounded and later abandoned. The steamer broke in two due to heavy weather.
British steamer Grelrosa (4574grt) was sunk by German bombing in 55-12N, 15-41W. Five crewmen were lost.
British steamer oil refinery Tafelberg (13,640grt) was badly damaged on a mine in 51-21N, 3-16W. She was beached at Porthkerry, refloated and taken to Whitmore Bay, then reconstructed as a tanker and renamed Empire Heritage.
British steamer Baron Renfrew (3635grt) was damaged by German bombing in 55-50N, 10-18W. The steamer had engine room damage. Corvette HMS Candytuft stood by the damaged steamer. Sloop HMS Leith was also in the escort of this convoy. The steamer was taken in tow for Loch Lathaich and anchored about 7 February. Steamer Baron Renfrew was taken to the Clyde under tow arriving on 25 February. She was later taken to Glasgow.
Greek steamer Kate (5197grt) was sunk on a mine in Greek waters N. Akres, Griva.
Submarine HMS Rorqual laid 29 mines two miles off Sansego Island and twenty one mines off Ancona. On the 31st, Italian torpedo boat Francesco Stocco was mined off Fiume on the first barrage. The boat broke into two parts and was towed into Fiume on the 27th and 10 February. On 27 February, Italian steamer Ischia (5101grt) was mined off Monfredonia on the second barrage.
Submarine HMS Upholder damaged steamer Duisberg (7389grt) off Cape Bon. Italian torpedo boat Orione with Ingo’s survivors stood by Duisberg until a tug arrived. The steamer was towed into Tripoli.
Greek submarine Papanicolis unsuccessfully attacked a large tanker off Brindisi.
Light cruiser HMS Ajax and Australian light cruiser HMAS Perth were operating in the Aegean.
Convoy AN.14 departed Port Said for Piraeus, escorted by corvette HMS Gloxinia. Bad weather prevented the Alexandria section from sailing. British steamer Levernbank (5150grt) and tanker Desmoulea (8120grt) departed Alexandria on the 29th, escorted by anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Calcutta and corvette HMS Peony, to overtake the convoy. British steamer Ethiopia (5574grt), carrying RAF personnel for Crete and Greece, departed Port Said during the morning of 29 January, escorted by destroyer HMS Hasty to overtake the convoy and pass through Kaso Straits during the night of 30/31 January. The Port Said section was delayed by weather and the Alexandria section and steamer Ethiopia continued independently. Destroyers HMS Dainty and HMS Jaguar swept the Kaso Strait prior to the convoy’s passage. At daylight on the 31st, anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Calcutta and destroyer Jaguar joined convoy AN.14. Destroyer Dainty remained with the two Alexandria ships. Light cruisers HMS Ajax and HMAS Perth provided cover for all these movements.
Submarine HMS Truant departed Alexandria to patrol off Benghazi.
Netlayer HMS Protector was ordered to sail from Suda Bay to collect prisoners at Tobruk and take them to Alexandria. The vessel sailed from Suda Bay during the morning of 29 January to arrive at Tobruk on the 30th. She was escorted by destroyer HMS Jaguar to latitude 35N. The netlayer arrived at Tobruk on the 30th.
Battlecruiser HMS Renown, aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, and destroyers HMS Foresight, HMS Encounter, HMS Firedrake, and HMS Jersey, joined later by destroyers HMS Foxhound and HMS Jupiter, departed Gibraltar to exercise. That evening, destroyer Firedrake attacked a submarine contact. On 29 December, battlecruiser Renown entered Gibraltar, followed later in the afternoon by aircraft carrier Ark Royal.
Today in Washington, President Roosevelt was sufficiently recovered from a cold to confer with Sir Walter Citrine, secretary of the British Congress of Labor, and William Green, president of the American Federation of Labor, who presented to the President a birthday cake on behalf of the International Confectionery Workers Union. He canceled his press conference and devoted his time to executive matters.
The Senate was in recess. Its Foreign Relations Committee heard Secretary Morgenthau on the Lend-Lease Bill.
The House also was in recess, but its Foreign Affairs Committee finished hearings on the Lend-Lease Bill, and the Immigration Committee reported favorably a bill calling for the deportation of Harry Bridges, C.I.O. Maritime Union leader on the West Coast, who is an Australian.
Secretary Morgenthau told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today that Great Britain, Greece and China could not continue to fight unless Congress passed the pending Lend-Lease bill. The Secretary made the statement at the morning hearing and amplified it when the committee reconvened after luncheon. “Lacking a formula by which Great Britain can buy supplies here,” Mr. Morgenthau said in a colloquy with Senator Nye, “I think Britain will just have to stop fighting, that’s all. I am convinced after having lived with this for several years, wanting to satisfy myself as to the financial necessity. “I have come to the conclusion they haven’t any dollars left and I am convinced, if Congress does not make it possible for them to buy more supplies, they will have to stop fighting.”
The reply was given in answer to Senator Nye when he asked why the situation has suddenly become “so urgent as to necessitate this all-out effort on our part.” Just before the committee recessed for luncheon, Mr. Nye asked the Secretary of the Treasury if he considered Great Britain a good loan risk. At that time, Mr. Morgenthau replied that he did consider Great Britain a good risk, not thinking in terms of dollars, but with a view to gaining time for the rearmament program of the United States. For many reasons, which he outlined at various points, he had asked the British Government to make known its financial position.
General George C. Marshall today expressed the opinion that Britain could whip Germany with the American aid contemplated under the Lend-Lease bill, and Secretary Morgenthau declared that unless the bill is passed the British must stop fighting. The views of the army’s chief of staff, expressed to reporters after he had testified at a secret session of the house foreign affairs committee, recalled the testimony given last week by Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh. Lindbergh said that even with the full military assistance of the United States, Britain could not hope successfully to invade the continent of Europe unless Germany collapsed internally. Reporters congregated around Marshall after he emerged from the house hearing. In response to one query, he said all signs indicated that Hitler would make an all-out attempt to invade England this spring and that his opening move would be a stupendous aerial onslaught. “Do you believe that Great Britain with the aid of the United States could whip Germany?” Marshall was asked. “Yes,” he said.
Wendell L. Willkie’s visit to England stirred speculation today that President Roosevelt might ask the Republican standard bearer to help him administer aid to Britain, Greece and China under the pending Lend-Lease bill. Assuming that the bill will pass, some officials expressed belief that the job of administering assistance to the British, especially in the next few months, would require the full time of the president or someone authorized to work directly under him. Among the problems that would demand swift solutions, these persons declared, would be the reconciliation of sometimes conflicting desires of American and British military officials as to what equipment should be released for use abroad. Another was said to be the encouragement of industry and labor to expedite production to the utmost, a task shared by the president himself, William S. Knudsen, director-general of the office of production management.
A majority of American voters favor the Lend-Lease bill, first returns from a nation-wide survey by the American Institute of Public Opinion indicate, according to Dr. George Gallup, the institute’s director.
A survey of the eight proposed radar sites in Alaska determines that only three are acceptable and additional surveys are required for the other five. Continuing an effort to increase the defence of the territory, U.S. Secretary of War Henry Stimson approves the establishment of 12 radar stations. All of the sites are south of Cape Prince of Wales. Both Japan and the U.S. fear an air attack using the Aleutian island chain, so these stations are oriented toward Japan, not the USSR. Commander General DeWitt of the Ninth Corps Area and Fourth Army is in charge of construction, while Colonel Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. is in charge of U.S. troops in Alaska. Troops are being slowly inserted into Alaskan naval bases such as Sitka, Kodiak and Dutch Harbor due to rising war fears with Japan.
With unfilled orders on the books of the United States Steel Corporation equal to three months’ shipments at present rates of delivery, or about 4,600,000 net tons of finished steel products, the demand for steel thus far in 1941 has continued to exceed the rate of shipment, although somewhat below the high levels prevailing in December, Irving S. Olds, chairman, said yesterday after a meeting of the board of directors of the corporation.
“The Pepsodent Show” aka “The Pepsodent Radio Show Starring Bob Hope” aka “The Bob Hope Show” features Basil Rathbone today.
Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek said today his action in dissolving the Communist new Fourth Chinese Army was solely to preserve military discipline and was not prompted by political considerations.
The Battle of Southern Honan continues, with the Japanese 11th Army continuing its attacks against the Chinese 5th War Area near Hsianghokuan.
B-10 medium bombers of the Thai 50th Bomber Squadron, escorted by 13 Hawk 75N fighters of the Thai 60th Fighter Squadron, bombed Sisophon, Cambodia, French Indochina. This raid induces the Vichy French somewhat belatedly to agree to mediation by Japan, an offer previously accepted with some alacrity by Thailand. There is no question — from the outcome — which side Japan favors in this border war. An effective but unofficial ceasefire now takes place, which is formalized later. Negotiations proceed aboard HIJMS Natori, anchored off Saigon.
Hồ Chí Minh (Nguyễn Ái Quốc), a committed Chinese communist of Vietnamese descent who has studied in Europe, returns to Indochina today after 30 years overseas. Ho at first lives in a cave in Pác Bó and sets to work preparing for the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP) 8th Party Congress. His ultimate goal is to form an organization eventually called the Vietnam Độc Lập Đồng Minh Hội (Vietnam Independence League), or Viet Minh. The Viet Minh is a Communist front organization to organize resistance against French colonial rule and occupying Japanese forces. It ostensibly is more nationalist than communist (in order to appeal to a wider audience), and equally, voices outrage about “French jackals” and the “Japanese fascists.” However, Ho’s ICP actually controls the Viet Minh behind the scenes. Having learned from his experiences in China, Hồ successfully stresses the unity of opposition within Indochina to achieve independence, contrary to the infighting between the Kuomintang and the Communists in China which hampers their opposition to the Japanese.
A suggestion that Japan should abandon negotiations with the Netherlands Indies because of the colonial government’s stubborn attitude was rejected in Parliament today by Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka. The idea that threats could be employed instead of negotiation was evidently in the interpellator’s mind but Mr. Matsuoka knows that physical conditions make it exceedingly difficult for Japan to use any weapon except diplomacy at present.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 128.6 (-0.43)
Born:
Joel Crothers, American actor (“The Edge of Night”), in Cincinnati, Ohio (d. 1985).
Larry Benz, NFL safety (NFL Champions-Browns, 1964; Cleveland Browns), in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Butch Maples, NFL linebacker (Baltimore Colts), in Mount Vernon, Texas (d. 2014).
King Tubby [Osbourne Ruddock], Jamaican sound engineer and record producer, in Kingston, Jamaica (d. 1989).
Naval Construction:
The Royal Canadian Navy Bangor-class (VTE Reciprocating-engined) minesweeper HMCS Courtenay (J 262) is laid down by the Prince Rupert Dry Dock and Shipyards Co. (Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Canada).
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type VIIC U-boat U-411 is laid down by Danziger Werft AG, Danzig (werk 112).
The Royal Canadian Navy Bangor-class (Reciprocating-engined) minesweeper HMCS Georgian (J 144) is launched by the Dufferin Shipbuilding Co. (Toronto, Ontario, Canada).
The Royal Navy Flower-class corvette HMS Mignonette (K 38) is launched by Hall, Russell & Co. Ltd. (Aberdeen, Scotland); completed by N.E. Marine.
The Royal Navy Flower-class corvette HMS Myosotis (K 65) is launched by J. Lewis & Sons Ltd. (Aberdeen, Scotland).
The Royal Navy “U”-class (Third Group) submarine HMS P-33 is launched by Vickers Armstrong (Barrow-in-Furness, U.K.).
The Türk Donanması (Turkish Navy) destroyer TCG Demirhisar (H80), lead ship of her class of 4, is launched by William Denny and Brothers (Dumbarton, U.K.).
The Royal Navy “P”-class destroyer (Flotilla leader) HMS Pakenham (G 06) is launched by Hawthorn Leslie & Co. (Hebburn-on-Tyne, U.K.).
The Royal Fleet Auxiliary Ranger-class fleet tanker RFA Black Ranger (X 48; postwar A 163) is commissioned.
The Royal Navy Fairmile B-class motor launch HMS ML 186 is commissioned.
The Marynarka Wojenna (Polish Navy) “U”-class (Second Group) submarine ORP Sokół (“Falcon”) (N 97), launched as the Royal Navy submarine HMS Urchin and subsequently transferred to Poland, is commissioned. Her first commanding officer is Kpt. mar. (Lieutenant Commander) Borys Karnicki, ORP.
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