Hitler gave a speech before 18,000 people at the Berlin Sportpalast on the eighth anniversary of the Nazis’ coming to power. Hitler declared that any ship carrying aid to England within the range of German U-boats would be torpedoed, and also warned the United States that if anyone on the American continent tried to interfere in the European conflict, Germany’s war aims would quickly change. Hitler, in his speech at the Berlin Sportpalast, reminds his audience of his prophecy concerning the fate of the Jews exactly two years earlier. He added that the coming months and years would show that here too he had seen things correctly… the end of the Jewish role in Europe. Convinced that 1941 will be “the crucial year of the great New Order in Europe”, Hitler threatens to blow up U.S. aid ships bound for Britain. Germany announced that any ship bringing goods into Britain, regardless of nationality, would be attacked. German Chancellor Adolf Hitler warned the United States about aiding Britain during a speech in Berlin: “…That the German nation has no quarrel with the Americans is evident to everybody who does not consciously wish to falsify truth. At no time has Germany had interests on the American Continent except perhaps that she helped that Continent in its struggle for liberty. If States on this continent now attempt to interfere in the European conflict, then the aim will only be changed more quickly. Europe will then defend herself. And do not let people deceive themselves. Those who believe they can help England must take note of one thing: every ship, whether with or without convoy which appears before our torpedo tubes will be torpedoed. We are engaged in a war which we did not desire. On the contrary, one cannot stretch his hand out to the other fellow more often than we did. When, however, others are looking for a fight and aim at extirpating the German nation, then they are in for a terrific surprise.”
Hitler is feeling very confident and expounds that this will be “the crucial year of the great New Order in Europe.” He, in fact, will be absolutely correct, but not in the way that he intends or desires.
Finnish Chief of General Staff General Axel Erich Heinrichs visits Berlin for a meeting with OKH Chief of Staff Generaloberst Franz Halder (under cover of giving lectures about the Winter War). Halder at this point is preoccupied with developing the plans for Operation Barbarossa, and he makes the first official mention — more of a hint, but a broad hint — of the proposed operation to the Finns (of course, have been many rumors and hints previously, but this was semi-official and reasonably direct).
Halder expresses interest in the condition of the Finnish Army and the sort of terrain it would encounter during offensive operations. He notes that the Reich particularly is interested in the nickel mine at Kolosjoki, Petsamo, in Finnish Lapland, which now lies just across the border in the USSR. In fact, the mine is one of the top German strategic targets on the entire 2000-mile (projected) front. Neither side makes any commitments at this time, and officially, the Reich and USSR remain allies.
However, as noted, rumors are flying about in all sorts of different directions, with some casting all the talk about Operation BARBAROSSA as simply a diversion intended to cover the true objective: an invasion of Great Britain. While the Finns remain in doubt after this meeting about how serious the plans are to invade the Soviet Union, there now is no doubt that they are aware that the Germans are at least thinking and talking about it.
Rudolf Höss was promoted to the rank of SS-Sturmbannführer.
Otto Skorzeny was promoted to the rank of Untersturmführer; he would not receive the notification for this promotion until Mar 1941, however.
Friedrich Flick and Albert Vögler were among the recipients of the War Merit Cross.
The third major Italian bastion to fall in Libya, Derna, 175 miles west of the Egyptian frontier, was occupied today by British imperial troops after four days of the bitterest resistance offered by the Fascists in the whole of the African campaign. The town had been defended by less than 10,000 Italians. British sources disclosed, but they fought with a violence encountered nowhere else in Gen. Sir Archibald P. Wavell’s long continued thrust to the west. While the conquering British consolidated their position in Derna, mechanized units struck on toward Bengasi. For the first time in this desert war, British and Australian troops of the 19th Brigade found themselves facing a major counter-attack as Italian troops covered the evacuation of civilians — most of them Italian settlers — and the bulk of the garrison from the once-thriving seaport town of Derna. Eight days after their successful attack on Tobruk, armor and infantry found the defenders making the best use of the rugged, hilly countryside, their artillery directing heavy and accurate fire with 20mm guns mounted on lorries. The Italian air force, which has not been seen for several days, joined in the attack, dive-bombing and machine-gunning British positions. As they forced the Italians back to an escarpment, the British faced two more desert foes — blinding sandstorms and thirst as water supplies, carried over 100 miles of desert, began to run out. Derna has an ample supply of good “sweet” water — and perhaps that was one major incentive for the infantry and tanks to make the final assault on the escarpment and literally run down the other side into the town where the few remaining Italian troops waited with their hands up in surrender. As the bulk of the Allied forces moves westwards across Cyrenaica, the strength of the resistance here suggests a tough fight at Benghazi, the ultimate objective.
The Italians spend much of the morning extricating the last civilians and stores from Derna. The evacuation is aided by attacks by the Regia Aeronautica and well-placed artillery, all intended to pin the advancing Australians down for sufficient time to make the evacuation succeed. The Italians make good their escape, and then the Australians walk in basically unopposed. It is another brilliant success for Operation COMPASS.
After taking the town, General O’Connor in the evening decides to ask Middle East Commander Archibald Wavell for permission to have the Australians pursue the retreating Italians northwest of Derna along the Via Balbia. More desert sandstorms hinder operations, and the supply lines once again are becoming quite extended, a serious issue particularly in terms of having sufficient water supplies. Wavell, in Nairobi until the 1st, will give O’Connor his answer upon his return.
The next town is Giovanni Berta, but it will take at least another few days to get there. The plan is for the 7th Armoured Division to proceed cross-country south of the Jebel Akhdar (Green Mountain) via Msus and Antelat. Thus, the British forces would be divided by the mountain, the Australians to the north and the 7th Armoured to the south. As it will be slow going for the British tankers, General O’Connor proposes to split off his fast wheeled vehicles under the command of Lieutenant Colonel J.F.B. Combe and send them ahead. This Combe Force will head to the northwest to try to cut the fleeing Italian 10th Army off south of Benghazi, whose capture is seen as the climax of Operation COMPASS.
On Malta, the military authorities consider using a burning petroleum mixture to defend against an invasion. Rather than burn the invaders, the intent is to create a thick smokescreen. The idea’s main flaw is that the island does not have enough benzene to enact the strategy.
General Ugo Cavellero’s Italian forces are evacuating Tepelini, central Albanian Fascist stronghold and barrier to the Greek drive on Valona, Greek military officials reported tonight. The Italians were said to be falling back upon Valona. Coincident with the evacuation of Tepelini, Greek troops were reported to have stormed and taken the first lines of the Italian defense north of Klisura, Greek-held town 11 miles east. The new Greek offensive came after an attempted Fascist counter-offensive had failed in the central sector. A government spokesman said that the Italians resumed heavy attacks Thursday, four of which were repulsed in the central sector with heavy Fascist losses. More than 200 prisoners have been taken in the past 24 hours, he said.
The Greeks continue on 30 January 1941 trying to pry the two Italian Blackshirt Battalions off Mount Trebeshina. The Cretan 5th Division of III Corps has joined II Corps in the effort. The Italians are dedicated fascists and continue to hold out.
In Greece, General Metaxas is succeeded as Minister President by Alexander Koryzis, a civilian and a much less strong character.
At Mount Cochen in East Africa, five Italian colonial battalions supported by artillery push back the 14th Punjab Regiment and 1st Battalion of the 6th Rajputana Rifles Regiment. It is a rare victory by the Italians, matching one recently in a similar manner in Albania.
The 5th Indian Division, meanwhile, is attacking the Italian 2nd Colonial Division commanded by General Angelo Bergonzi at Barentu. Bergonzi has nine battalions containing 8000 men and 32 guns, a not inconsiderable force in the interior. Not only is Bergonzi successfully defending his position, but he is able to launch some occasional counterattacks. His position, however, depends on flank protection on other forces holding Agordat, and that is in doubt.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s assistant private secretary, Jock Colville, records in his diary that Churchill drafts a telegram to Turkish President İsmet İnönü today for delivery on the 31st requesting that the RAF be permitted to base some squadrons on its territory in order to counter assumed German aggression in Bulgaria. Turkey is firmly neutral, however, and being closely watched (and courted) by the Germans as well, so it has to tread carefully.
There will be no Grand National steeplechase this year for the first time since the classic was instituted 104 years ago, Herbert Morrison, Minister of Home Security, announced today: “I have carefully considered the proposal to hold a substitute race in Cheltenham but came to the conclusion that the fixture was undesirable and I am accordingly asking the steward of the National Hunt Club not to proceed with the proposal.”
General Oliver Leese becomes commander of the British 15th Infantry Division.
Lavrentiy Beria, head of the NKVD (forerunner of the KGB), is elevated to be the Soviet Union’s “top cop, becoming Commissar General of State Security. Beria, already a candidate member of the Politburo, is a particularly rough character who, it is said, personally strangled his predecessor, Nikolai Yezhov — but this may simply be Soviet mythmaking. Perhaps. Beria is one of Stalin’s favorites because he does a lot of the state’s “dirty work,” which usually involves eliminating people. He also plays a direct role in the war at certain critical points, again in his role as “enforcer.”
German bombers stabbed at London, Dover, the eastern midlands and southeast England today with the heaviest daylight raids in weeks, shooting down some of the big bags in Dover’s balloon barrage and causing an undetermined number of casualties. Three alerts were sounded in the capital up to dusk. The ministry of home security announced that some shops and houses were damaged. Officers’ quarters adjoining a London hospital were struck, and several persons were believed to have been buried in the wreckage. One body was recovered.
It is cloudy and the flying weather is poor again. The Luftwaffe sends pirate raiders across during the day to hit London with random bomb drops. Luftwaffe fighter pilots, apparently bored, amuse themselves with knocking down some barrage balloons at Dover.
The Front Flying Clasp of the Luftwaffe was established. This is awarded in Bronze, Silver, and Gold, with various elaborations above those levels contemplated similar to those for the Knight’s Cross (Ritterkreuz). There are slightly different permutations of the medal for different types of missions completed.
The Luftwaffe’s attacks on the Suez Canal pay off quickly when one sinks a dredger of the British Suez Canal Company in Lake Timsah. The dredger is later raised and repaired.
German submarine U-94 attacked Allied convoy SC.19 northwest of Ireland at 0310 hours, sinking British ship Rushpool; the entire crew of 40 survived and rescued by destroyer HMS Antelope. Rushpool was the sixth and final ship sunk in a series of German submarine attacks in 24 hours, totaling 33,723 tons.
U-94, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Herbert Kuppisch, sank British steamer Rushpool (5125grt), which was straggling from convoy SC.19, in 56N, 15-42W. At 0247 hours on 30 Jan 1941 the unescorted Rushpool (Master William George Stewart Hewison), a straggler from convoy SC-19, was hit amidships by one torpedo from U-94 southeast of Rockall. The ship had been spotted at 0040 hours and missed with a spread of two torpedoes at 0209 hours. She sank by the bow 35 minutes after being hit by a coup de grâce at 0310 hours. The master and 39 crew members were picked up by HMS Antelope (H 36) (LtCdr R.T. White, DSO and Bar, RN) and landed at Greenock. The 5,125 ton Rushpool was carrying grain and was bound for Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Destroyer HMS Boreas arrived at Scapa Flow from the Nore to join the Home Fleet.
Submarine HMS Sunfish attacked an escorted convoy off Kristiansand. The submarine unsuccessfully fired torpedoes against a tanker.
German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau refueled at sea from German tanker Adria (6358grt). Following the refueling, the German ships ran the Denmark Strait on 2 February. On 5 February, the battleships refueled from German tanker Schlettstadt (8028grt) south of Cape Farewell.
The British Suez Canal Company’s Dredger was sunk by German bombing in Lake Timsah.
Submarine HMS Upholder attacked a convoy of Italian steamers Motia (2473grt) and Delfin (5322grt), which departed Palermo on the 27th for Tripoli, unsuccessfully in 32-55N, 12-41E, thirty miles north of Zavia. The submarine was counter-attacked by convoy escort torpedo boat Aldebaran.
Destroyer HMS Vimiera, which departed Rosyth on the 27th, was damaged by German aircraft machine gunning while joining convoy FS.397 in the North Sea. The damage caused no time out of service and reach Rosyth on 2 February after the convoy escort.
Norwegian steamer Austvard (3677grt) was sunk by German bombing 130 miles west of Galway Island. Twenty three crew of a twenty eight man crew were lost.
Belgian steamer Olympier (5266grt) was badly damaged by German bombing 250 miles southwest of Ireland. The steamer was attacked again on the 31st in 56-04N, 11W.
German steamer Konigsberg (2530grt) was sunk on a mine near ELBE I lightship.
Aircraft carrier HMS Eagle was undocked and proceeded to sea for exercises escorted by destroyers HMS Greyhound, HMS Griffin, HMS Juno, and two other destroyers. The British ships returned to Alexandria the next day.
Convoy HX.106 departed Halifax, escorted by battleship HMS Ramillies and corvette HMS Collingwood. The corvette was detached the next day.
Convoy BHX.106 departed Bermuda on the 28th escorted by ocean escort armed merchant cruiser HMS Maloja. The convoy rendezvoused with convoy HX.106 on 2 February and the armed merchant cruiser was detached. The battleship was detached on 10 February. On 12 February, destroyers HMS Burnham, HMS Malcolm, HMS Saladin, HMS Sardonyx, and HMS Skate and corvette HMS La Malouine joined the escort. Destroyer Saladin departed the escort on 14 February and destroyers Burnham and Malcolm on 15 February. On 15 February, corvette HMS Kingcup and anti-submarine trawlers HMS Northern Pride and HMS Vizalma joined the escort. Destroyer Sardonyx and corvettes Kingcup and La Malouine were detached and the remainder on 18 February, and arrived at Liverpool on 18 February.
Convoy SL.64 departed Freetown escorted by armed merchant cruiser HMS Arawa to 17 February and corvettes HMS Asphodel and HMS Calendula to 2 February. Destroyer HMS Harvester, sloop HMS Fleetwood, and corvettes HMS Arbutus, HMS Camellia, and HMS Erica joined on 17 February. Destroyer HMS Wolverine joined on 18 February. All were detached on 20 February. Anti-submarine trawler HMS York City joined on 22 February, and arrived on 22 February.
Convoy SLS.64 departed Freetown. On 12 February, the convoy dispersed when attacked by German heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper.
President Roosevelt conferred separately with Senator Norris, Senator Pepper and Senator Downey, had luncheon with motion-picture performers here for the President’s birthday balls and made a speech at the birthday balls celebration.
The Senate was in recess. The Foreign Relations Committee continued hearings on the Lend-Lease Bill.
The House considered the Independent Offices Appropriations Bill, received the President’s request for a $375,000,000 deficiency appropriation for the Work Projects Administration and adjourned at 5:30 PM until noon tomorrow. The Foreign Affairs Committee approved the Lend-Lease Bill with amendments and the Ways and Means Committee approved the bill to increase the national debt limit to $65,000,000,000.
German Chancellor Adolf Hitler’s threat to torpedo all ships carrying United States supplies to Great Britain was interpreted in some congressional circles tonight as an attempt to frighten congress into curbing President Roosevelt’s powers under the pending Lend-Lease bill. Senator Claude Pepper, Florida Democrat, who frequently speaks for the administration, described the threat “as just the same old Hitler technique.” “Once again,” he said, “Hitler is trying to divide the forces of democracy by sowing the seeds of suspicion.”
When Viscount Halifax presented his letters of credence as British Ambassador to the United States he was assured by President Roosevelt of the firm determination of this country “to continue on an ever-increasing scale our assistance to Great Britain and to make available munitions and supplies now flowing from the rapidly expanding industrial facilities of the United States.”
Production of armaments for British use on an “ever-increasing” scale was declared by Under-Secretary of State Sumner Welles last night to be “the course least fraught with danger” and most likely to keep the United States out of war. Passage of the Lend-Lease Bill, he said, “would greatly facilitate” such aid.
A 17-to-8 majority of the House Foreign Affairs Committee urged the House tonight to pass the Lend-Lease bill, asserting in a formal report that its prompt enactment was “of the highest importance to the vital interests of our country and even of our civilization.” House Speaker Rayburn said that it was planned to start debate on the measure in the House Monday and that efforts would be made to pass it by the end of the week. Today the Senate Foreign Relations Committee heard James W. Gerard, who was American Ambassador to Germany at the outbreak of the World War, and Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr, Professor of Applied Christianity at the Union Theological Seminary, New York City, testify in favor of the pending bill. The witnesses agreed that the downfall of Great Britain would mean that the United States would be menaced immediately and directly by a victorious Nazi Germany, and that the proposed legislation appeared to provide the only effective means of extending efficient aid to Great Britain in time to make its resistance effective.
The question of how many Americans share the viewpoint of Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh in favoring a negotiated peace between Germany and England, how many want the British to try to make the best peace they can now, instead of continuing the war, has been put to voters in a nation-wide survey by the American Institute of Public Opinion. The results, according to Dr. George Gallup, the institute’s director, show that the negotiated peace idea is shared by only a small minority — 15% — approximately one voter in every seven.
President Roosevelt suggested to his countrymen to night that American birthdays were happier this year than they would have been otherwise “because all of us are still living under a free people’s philosophy.” He spoke from the White House by radio to thank people from coast to coast who were observing his own fifty-ninth birthday by attending parties, balls and other activities to raise money to combat infantile paralysis. To all who labored “in this great cause,” he voiced his gratitude “from the bottom of my heart.”
President Roosevelt signed today the bill authorizing the expenditure of $300,000,000 on anti-aircraft defenses for fifty-eight major naval vessels. Congress will be asked soon to appropriate $126,000,000 of this amount, of which the Navy’s Bureau of Ordnance will obtain about half. While he was Secretary of the Navy, Charles Edison revealed that our capital ships had insufficient protection against air attack as developed during the European war. The authorization covers only fighting ships now in service. Vessels now under construction or to be constructed will have the latest anti-aircraft devices incorporated.
New York Mayor La Guardia revealed yesterday that the Navy Department, as part of its total defense program, was planning to double the capacity of the Navy Yard in Brooklyn by constructing, at a minimum estimated cost of $15,000,000, two new shipbuilding drydocks, in each of which super-battleships of at least 45,000 tons could be built. Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, the Mayor said, has asked for and will receive the fullest cooperation from the city in obtaining the additional land needed to make possible the proposed expansion of Navy Yard facilities, even if it means radical readjustment or relocation of city facilities now in the area to be acquired. The Mayor said that he had taken the matter up with his colleagues on the Board of Estimate, after receiving an urgent letter from Secretary Knox, and had been assured of their full cooperation.
In the event of a national emergency, the greater part of the domestic air fleet of the United States could be mobilized for active service in less than a day, T.B. Wilson, chairman of the board of Transcontinental Western Air, Inc., asserted last night before a gathering of aeronautical experts attending the annual meeting at Columbia University of the Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences.
A long-standing conspiracy among the Aluminum Company of America, the great German dye trust, four other concerns and nine individuals was charged yesterday in three federal indictments handed up in New York. The effect of the combination, it was alleged, has been to curtail the supply of magnesium both here and in England and to set up arbitrary and excessive prices for the metal, which is one-third lighter than aluminum. According to the indictments, the conspiracy led the Dow Chemical Company, sole American producer of magnesium, named as a defendant, to sell its product for 21 cents a pound, delivered at the docks in Germany, while its price in this country was 30 cents a pound. Another effect was that competition in Europe was eliminated, according to the charges. Thus, it was alleged, the Dow company sold only to such English concerns as were licensed by the German dye trust. In 1938, the last full year before the war began, England bought only 208 tons of American magnesium, while it had to turn to German sources for the additional 1,600 tons required.
Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, who addressed the American Youth Congress here a year ago and defended it against charges of “Communist domination,” has declined an invitation to speak at a gathering in Washington next month sponsored by the congress.
Although the Ford Motor Company submitted the lowest bid for 11,781 Army trucks the contract was awarded today to the Fargo Motor Company of Detroit because, the War Department stated, the Ford company refused to abide by the specifications governing the labor provisions.
Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies continues his lengthy and tortuous journey to London, flying to Rangoon and then to Calcutta.
The Battle of South Henan began. The Japanese 11th Army is attempting, in three separate columns, to take over the southern section of the Ping-Han Railway. The Chinese 5th War Area (Li Zongren) does not oppose the Japanese frontally but instead forms a “crescent” which proves a danger to the Japanese flanks. Today, the Japanese take Wuyang, meeting little opposition from the Chinese.
The purpose of Japan’s insistence that only she was competent to mediate the hostilities between French Indo-China and Thailand was cleared up today when the price of that “mediation” was revealed. Among other concessions, it entails a virtual Japanese monopoly on the purchase of Indo-China’s rice crop.
The death penalty for collecting forbidden information is provided in a new anti-espionage bill now before the Japanese Diet. The proposed law makes the gathering of political information an offense in certain cases, in addition to military and economic information, which are already drastically protected.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 124.05 (-1.95)
Born:
Dick Cheney, American Republican politician, 46th Vice President of the United States (2001-2009), in Lincoln, Nebraska (d. 2025).
Gregory Benford, American science-fiction author (“In the Ocean of Night”) and scientist, in Mobile, Alabama.
Joe Terry (Terranova), American Doo-wop singer (Danny & The Juniors — “At The Hop”), in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 2019).
Tineke Lagerberg, Olympic swimmer, in Bussum, Netherlands.
Paul Flatley, NFL wide receiver (Pro Bowl, 1966; Minnesota Vikings, Atlanta Falcons), in Richmond, Indiana.
Naval Construction:
The U.S. Navy SC-497-class (110-foot wooden hull) submarine chasers USS SC-503 and USS SC-504 are laid down by Rice Brothers Corp. (East Boothbay, Maine, U.S.A.).
The U.S. Navy 77-foot Elco patrol motor torpedo boat USS PT-26 is laid down by the Electric Boat Company Ltd. (Elco Works), (Bayonne, New Jersey, U.S.A.).
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type IXC U-boat U-175 is laid down by AG Weser, Bremen (werk 1015).
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type VIID U-boat U-217 is laid down by F. Krupp Germaniawerft AG, Kiel (werk 649).
The Royal Navy Hunt-class (Type III) escort destroyer HMS Goathland (L 27) is laid down by the Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. (Govan, Scotland).
The Royal Navy Flower-class corvette HMS Clover (K 134) is launched by Fleming & Ferguson Ltd. (Paisley, Scotland).
The Royal Navy Hunt-class (Type II) escort destroyer HMS Croome (L 62) is launched by A. Stephen & Sons Ltd. (Glasgow, Scotland).
The U.S. Navy minesweeper USS Goldfinch (AM-77) is commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard. She was converted from the trawler M/V Fordham (Launched 1930). Her first commanding officer is Lieutenant Commander William Reed McCaleb, USN.
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type VIIC U-boat U-555 is commissioned. Her first commanding officer is Kapitänleutnant Hans-Joachim Horrer.
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