After crossing 150 miles of desert in 30 hours, armored cars of British 7th Armoured Division set up roadblocks at Sidi Saleh south of Benghazi, Libya, just in time to meet and stop the leading elements of the retreating Italian Tenth Army. In the evening, the British 4th Armoured Brigade reached Beda Fomm 10 miles north of the roadblocks, preventing Italian retreat to the east.
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 force 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.
After a few scattered attacks by the 10th Bersaglieri, the British 4th Armoured Brigade arrives with its 29 cruiser tanks and the Italians give up for the day. Rather than mount a major attack to break through, the Italians encamp for the night and prepare to attack in the morning. The day ends with the relatively small (but well-armed) Combe Force of about 2000 men, reinforced with the tanks of the 4th Armoured Brigade, blocking the road against about 5,000 Italian troops, who are equipped with 107 tanks and 93 guns. The Italians spread out on both sides of the road looking for an escape route, but there is nowhere to go.
The Australians, meanwhile, are advancing on the Italians from the rear, effectively surrounding the Italian troops with the Jebel Akhdar (Green Mountain) on one side and the sea on the other. They take Barce, sealing off the north, while the terrain to the south is rough and not suitable for a breakout — which in any event is in the direction of approaching British reinforcements. This collectively becomes known as the Battle of Beda Fomm.
The main body of Italian troops in Libya, falling back upon Benghazi just ahead of the pursuing British armored battalions, was reported tonight to have been pushed to a point 60 to 70 miles from that strongly fortified base in a retreat proceeding at the rate of 30 miles a day.
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.”
The British, anticipating total victory in Libya, name Henry Maitland Wilson as the Military Governor and General Officer Commanding Cyrenaica.
Greek forces in hand-to-hand bayonet fighting have stormed a “key village” on the central Albanian front in a two-pronged drive aimed at the vital Italian bases of Valona and Berat, a government spokesman reported tonight. More than 180 Italian soldiers, including officers, were captured, In addition to “great food stores and a large munitions dump, which was intact,” the spokesman said. The spokesman said that two Italian counterattacks In the coastal sector had been repulsed. (It was believed that the “key village” might be Tepelini, which the Italians were reported abandoning and fleeing toward Valona.)
In the East African Campaign, the Battle of Keren began. British and Indian troops attacked Italian-held hills near Dongolaas Gorge en route to Keren, Eritrea, Italian East Africa. Today, 5 February 1941, generally is considered the start of the Battle of Keren. This is one of the hardest-fought battles during the war south of the North African desert and salvages some of the Italian military honor lost in Libya and Albania.
The 11th Indian Brigade of the 4th Indian Division now has had time to reconnoiter the area around Keren, Eritrea. Its commander decides not to wait for the main force to arrive from Agordat and instead attack straightaway. Attacking from the left of the Dongolaas Gorge (the gateway to Keren), the 2nd Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders quickly take a key ridge (feature 1616, Cameron Ridge) near Mt. Sanchil (overlooking the Gorge) and appear nicely positioned to occupy the higher peaks (Sanchil and Brig’s Peak) which dominate the Gorge the next day. Once in possession of those, the British would be able to sweep the Gorge with gunfire and completely break the Italian defenses.
However, the Italians still occupy the high ground nearby, particularly to the right of the pass. These positions remain well-defended and stocked with ample supplies. The most advanced British troops, meanwhile, are forced to bring their supplies over an exposed hill of up to 1500 meters to their positions on the ridge, under the watchful gaze of the Italians on the peaks nearby. More British troops are approaching on the road from Agordat, so resumption of attacks appears likely on the 6th, but this first British attack accomplishes less than it seems due to the Italians’ still-dominant possession of the high ground.
Prime Minister Robert Menzies resumes his lengthy journey from Melbourne to London. He flies from Gaza to Lydda (Lod). Reflecting on recent Italian reversals in Libya, he makes a fairly common military assessment for the period in his diary, namely that “One German is worth 15 Italians.”
Prime Minister Winston Churchill continues his efforts to shape the news flow. He sends a letter to Cecil King, director of the Daily Mirror, urging him not to “try to discredit and hamper the Government in a period of extreme danger and difficulty.” Instead, he urges King to have his paper focus on British “war aims.”
The U.S. politician Wendell Willkie’s morale-boosting visit to Britain ends. Wendell Willkie’s parting denunciation of the Nazi regime made in a direct radio message to the land of his ancestors already is on the way to the German people by the “underground route” and will be scattered far and wide over Germany in a special “leaflet raid.” “Tell the German people that we German-Americans reject and hate the aggression and lust for power of the present German government,” Willkie said in the message he left in London. It was his parting gift to the bomb-battered land in which he has spent the last 10 days and was intended for a country where listening to foreign broadcasts is a crime. “I am purely of German descent,” the 1940 Republican presidential contender said In his message. “My family name is not Willkie, but Willicke. My grandparents left Germany 90 years ago because they were protestants against autocracy and demanded the right to live as free men. I, too, claim that right. “I am proud of my German blood. But I hate aggression and tyranny.”
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.
General Walter Dornberger, an artillery officer who has been working closely with Wernher von Braun, is told to focus on research and development of rockets, not production. This is a sign of extreme confidence by Hitler that the Reich is not in any jeopardy. Neither the V-1 flying bomb nor the V-2 ballistic missile is ready for production yet anyway.
After solid pressure from the Germans the Royal Danish Navy handed over six of its newer torpedo boats, without armament, to the German occupation forces. As the torpedo boats left the naval dock in Copenhagen, Kong Christian X ordered the Sovereign Flag at the naval base lowered to half-mast.
Dutch Premier De Geer returns from Lisbon to the Netherlands.
Germany and Italy threatened Wednesday night, by press and radio, to tear up their armistice agreement and plunge defeated France back into the war unless Marshal Henri Philippe Petain submits to demands which would place Pierre Laval over him as a virtual Nazi dictator. The 84-year-old Petain is in the midst of a struggle as historic as his stand against the Germans at Verdun 25 years ago when he uttered his defiant “They shall not pass!” If he rejects Laval’s demands which Adolf Hitler fully supports because they are designed to make Laval a German puppet ruler at Vichy the armistice of Compiegne forest suddenly may be revoked and France again placed at war against Germany and Italy. If he is compelled to submit, then France may be plunged into the war against her former ally, Britain, because Laval, once in power, might throw France’s immobilized fighting strength into the scales in Hitler’s “blow of decision.”
Virginio Gayda, writing in II Giornale d’ltalia, asserted today that Jews were trying “to drag” the United States into war in an attempt “at supreme recovery of the Semitic Internationale.” The Fascist editor named 14 prominent United States citizens, including heads of broadcasting companies, publishers of newspapers and political figures at Washington, whom he identified as Jewish in an attempt to show “the prevalence of Jews in the United States war movement.” He expressed belief that the “agitation” would result In an “anti-Semitic reaction among the American people.” The newspaper II Piccolo carried a similar article.
The Luxembourgish and Belgian francs were withdrawn from circulation and replaced with the Reichsmark.
In an extremely odd incident, a Luftwaffe KG 40 Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor crashes into a mountain near Dunbeacon, West Cork, apparently after getting lost. Local nurse Mary Nugent is on the scene quickly and finds the plane in flames. Five of the crew are dead, but one of the plane’s crew, radio operator Max Hohaus, is alive, though trapped in the plane. Mary and her brother drag Hohaus out of the plane, saving his life despite his massive burns and a broken leg. The Red Cross takes care of him and eventually repatriates Hohaus to Germany.
Well, all that is not all that unique, as planes crashed in Ireland many times during the war. The odd part is that the Germans are very grateful to Mary for saving the crewman’s life. The Luftwaffe later arranges to present her with a medal for bravery personally signed by Adolf Hitler. Thus, Mary Nugent becomes the only Irish native decorated during the war by the Wehrmacht.
RAF Bomber Command dispatches 12 Blenheims during daylight on Circus operation to St-Omer airfield; 9 bombed. 1 further Blenheim to Le Havre turned back. The Luftwaffe is ready and waiting and shoots down nine of them. It is a stunning setback for the RAF and its new offensive philosophy. The Luftwaffe, meanwhile, continues its random attacks on various parts of eastern England, with a small raid against London after dark.
The Air Training Corps (ATC) was officially established taking over the function of the Air Defence Cadet Corps. King George VI agreed to be the Air Commodore-in-Chief, and issued a Royal Warrant setting out the Corps’ aims. The ATC would train young men under 18 to fly so they would have training once they were old enough to join the RAF. The ATC is an instant success.
RAF No. 71 Squadron became the first of the Eagle Squadrons to become operational. Eagle squadrons were composed of volunteer American pilots. The squadron was assigned defensive duties.
German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau continue into the Atlantic. They are heading further west than the British expect them to, with a scheduled rendezvous with a tanker south of Cape Farewell, Greenland. After topping off their fuel tanks there, the two German ships will be excellently positioned to wreak devastation on the Allied convoys passing just to the south.
Aircraft carrier HMS Furious arrived in the Clyde from Operation MONSOON, flying off Hurricanes to Takoradi. The aircraft carrier began refitting at Greenock.
Light cruiser HMS Phoebe at 1153 departed Scapa Flow for the Clyde arriving on the 6th. The light cruiser departed the Clyde on the 8th to escort convoy WS.6 from the Clyde through to the Mediterranean, then join the Mediterranean Fleet for operations.
Destroyers HMS Nizam, HMS Cottesmore, HMS Atherstone, and HMS Keppel departed Scapa Flow at 1115. Destroyer Nizam proceeded to Greenock, where she arrived at noon on the 6th. Destroyers Cottesmore, Atherstone, and Keppel proceeded to Londonderry, where they arrived at 0900/6th to escort convoy WS.6.
Light cruiser HMS Neptune arrived at Scapa Flow at 1806 on the 5th after duty in the South Atlantic. On the 8th, the light cruiser proceeded to Plymouth, then on to Chatham for refitting. The ship was under refit from March to 1 May. The light cruiser was damaged by bombing on the 9th at Plymouth. On the 16th while in dockyard at Chatham, she was damaged again. Damage from both bombings and the refit were completed on 1 May.
British steamer Merchant Royal (5008grt) was in convoy WN.74, escorted by escort vessel HMS Jason and minesweeping trawlers HMS Cape Nymemtski (422grt) and HMS North Coates (277grt), five miles northwest of Duncansby Head when her steering gear was disabled. Escort vessel Jason was ordered to assist the steamer. Light cruiser HMS Aurora departed Scapa Flow to join. Tug Abeille 4 was sent from Peterhead to take the steamer in tow.
Submarine HMS Sealion sank Norwegian steamer Ryfylke (1151grt) two miles north of Kvitenaes Point near Stadlandet.
Anti-submarine trawler HMS Tourmaline (641grt, Lt H. P. Carse RNVR) was sunk by German bombing off North Foreland.
T/Sub Lt (A) S. G. Burden RNVR, of HMS Kestrel, was killed when his Fulmar, being ferried from Worthy Down, crashed Minerva Mountain, near Wrexham.
Special service vessel Minnie De Larinaga (5046grt) was sunk as a blockship at Dover.
Greek steamer Ioannis M. Embiricos (3734grt) was sunk by German bombing in 55-41N, 12-26W. The crew was all rescued.
Captain A. L. Poland DSO, DSC, succeeded Captain H. Hickling as commander of the Inshore Squadron. Captain Hickling, formerly of light cruiser HMS Glasgow, had been appointed to this command on 8 January.
A motor schooner was mined at Tobruk. Lost on the schooner was the Assistant King’s Harbor Master, Tobruk, Lt Cdr J. Cochrane.
British steamer Ranee (5060grt) was sunk by a mine in the Suez Canal. Nine crew members were lost. The forepart of the wreck was taken to Port Said for Navy use.
Submarine HMS Upright made an unsuccessful torpedo attack on Italian shipping off Kerkenah.
Submarine HMS Otus left her station in the Azores patrol, which began on 17 January, for Portsmouth, arriving on the 12th. The submarine was relieved by submarine HMS Tuna on the 6th which came from Holy Loch after patrol off Gironde. The patrol was terminated on the 12th and the submarine proceeded to Gibraltar, arriving on the 16th.
Italian convoy of steamers Esperia (11,398grt), Conte Rosso (17,879grt), Marco Polo (12,272grt), and Calitea (4013grt), escorted by destroyers Freccia, Saetta, and Tarigo departed Naples for Tripoli. The convoy was joined by light cruiser Giovanni Della Bande Nere on the 6th. The convoy safely arrived at Tripoli on the 7th. The convoy made an uneventful return trip from 9 to 11 February.
Italian steamer Snia Amba (2532grt) was scuttled at Benghazi. The steamer was later salved.
Heavy cruiser HMS Cornwall was refitting at Simonstown from 5 to 22 February. Heavy cruiser Cornwall departed Simonstown on the 28th.
Convoy OG.52 departed Liverpool, escorted by destroyers HMS Belmont, HMS Vanquisher, HMS Whitehall, and HMS Winchelsea, sloops HMS Egret and HMS Weston, corvette HMS Gentian, and anti-submarine trawler HMS Rubens. On the 6th, ocean boarding vessel HMS Registan escorted the convoy. On the 9th, sloop HMS Scarborough relieved the destroyers and sloops of the escort. Destroyer HMS Isis from Gibraltar joined the convoy on the 20th, and arrived at Gibraltar on the 21st, escorted by destroyer Isis, sloop Scarborough, and corvette Gentian.
President Roosevelt received Dr. Aurello Fernandez Concheso, the new Cuban Ambassador, who presented his credentials; presented the Herbert Schiff Memorial Trophy to Lieutenant Commander Harold B. Miller, and conferred with several government officials.
The Senate was in recess. The Foreign Relations Committee heard James S. Kemper and other witnesses in opposition to the Lend-Lease Bill.
The House ended general debate on the Lend-Lease Bill at 10:49 PM. It completed Congressional action on the bill to finance the construction of 200 cargo ships for the merchant marine.
The U.S. House of Representatives, with but a small fraction of its membership present, droned through an evening session on the Lend-Lease bill tonight, while administration leaders weighed the possibility of new amendments designed to increase support for the bill. In prospect was a modification to limit the overall period of time in which war supplies could be delivered to England. But, after studying the question, the leadership was veering away from proposals that the bill restrict the cost of the program to a stipulated figure. Both these changes had been proposed by Representative Wadsworth, New York Republican, an influential member of the minority, who although ready to vote for the measure, thought his amendments might allay apprehension lest a dictatorship emerge from the operations of the bill.
American business men oppose American involvement “in any foreign war,” according to James S. Kemper, president of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, who testified before the Senate Foreign relations Committee today in opposition to the Administration’s Lend-Lease bill.
House Democratic Leader John W. McCormack of Massachusetts tonight praised Wendell L. Willkie’s appeal to the German people, saying: “By his courageous action, Mr. Willkie has made himself one of the outstanding Americans of his generation, casting aside personal or political considerations when danger confronts our country. As I view it, while members of the Republican Party may reject his leadership, by his action he has crystallized the fact that he is the real leader of the Republicans throughout the country.”
Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt told 1,200 striking employees of the Leviton Manufacturing Company at a strike rally in Brooklyn yesterday that all workers should join labor unions and that educational projects should be set up for employers as well as workers.
President Roosevelt’s intervention has made possible the centralization of authority over defense buying in the purchasing division of the Office of Production Management, it was reported today when it appeared that Donald M. Nelson had won his fight for the powers he had requested in heading the defense purchasing organization.
An emergency program calling on Congress for two supplementary appropriations totaling $156,750,000, to provide homes for workers in defense areas, and for an amendment to the National Housing Act designed to expedite participation by private industry in the government’s defense housing effort, was announced today by C.F. Palmer, Defense Housing Coordinator.
Lieutenant Colonel Edwin E. Aldrin of Montclair, New Jersey, accepted today Mayor Meyer C. Ellenstein’s offer to become manager of Newark Airport at $10,000 a year and was directed by the Mayor to report back in two weeks with a plan for reopening the field, which has been closed since last May. Apopos of nothing — except that his 11-year-old son, named Edwin Jr., will eventually become well known. He usually goes by, “Buzz.”
General Walter C. Short arrived in Hawaii. Short had been appointed to command the Army’s Hawaiian Department and had been promoted to the temporary rank of lieutenant general. In this position, Short was responsible for the ground defense of the Hawaiian Islands, including air defense employing ground-based anti-aircraft artillery and the Hawaiian Air Force, and jointly responsible with the U.S. Navy for the Islands’ aerial defense.
The U.S. Navy’s Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Harold R. Stark, prepared a memorandum for U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt consisting of an analysis of the situation in Indochina. This memorandum stated Admiral Stark’s views that Japan had some fear that the British and the United States would intervene if Japan moved into southern Indochina and Thailand; that the size of Japanese land forces in Formosa and Hainan were insufficient for occupying Indochina and Thailand, for attacking Singapore, and for keeping an expeditionary force ready to use against the Philippines, and so far as Admiral Stark could tell, that the Japanese had an insufficient number of transports was assembled for a major move; and, that as Admiral Stark saw the situation, Japan desired to move against the British, the Dutch, and the United States in succession, and not to take on more than one at a time, and at present she desired not to go to war with the United States at all.
The Greek Government, acting through its Minister in Washington, has rejected, at least for the time being, the offer by the United States oil thirty Grumman naval planes how on the aircraft carrier USS Wasp, Secretary Knox revealed today.
The Bureau of Standards developed a photoelectric detector to simplify measurement of height of clouds.
The Japanese 11th Army torches Nanyan and occupies Tangho in China.
Japanese troops, going overland from Bias Bay supported by planes, have occupied Shayuchung and Tamshui, northeast of Hong Kong, in the Mirs Bay area, partly cutting the route to Shiukwan by which supplies entered Free China from abroad. The small force of Chinese troops in this area retreated after brief fighting. Valuable stores and much gasoline were captured at Tamshui. Chinese reports say reinforcements, including Kwangsi Province troops, are rushing to Waichow, seventy-five miles east of Canton, which is believed to be the Japanese objective.
The Thailand-French Indo-China peace conference will open in Tokyo Friday, it was announced today. Regarding the conference with great satisfaction as the first fruit of his South Sea policy, Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka will head the Japanese delegation, numbering eleven.
Imperial Japanese Navy Transport ship No. 74 under construction at Kawasaki Shipbuilding Corporation’s shipyard at Kobe, Japan was named Irako. She was assigned to the Sasebo Naval District.
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.
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.
The Australian Women’s Australian Auxiliary Air Force (WAAAF) is established.
USN Chief Nurse Marion B. Olds and Nurse Leona Jackson, arrive on Guam. They would in December 1941 be among the first five Navy Nurse Corps Officers to be captured as POWs. In 1942 their captors transported them to Japan. They were held for three months in Zentsuji Prison on Shikoku Island and were then moved to Eastern Lodge in Kobe. They were repatriated in August of 1942.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 124.14 (+1.51)
Born:
Stephen J. Cannell, American television director and producer (“The Rockford Files”, “The A-Team”, “21 Jump Street”), in Los Angeles, California (d. 2010).
David Selby, American actor (“Falcon Crest”), in Morgantown, West Virginia.
Barrett Strong, American R&B vocalist (“Money (That’s What I Want)”), piano player, and songwriter (“I Heard It Through the Grapevine”; “Just My Imagination”; “Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone”; “War”), in Detroit, Michigan (d. 2023)
Roberto Rodríguez, Venezuelan MLB pitcher (Kansas City-Oakland A’s, San Diego Padres, Chicago Cubs), in Caracas, Venezuela (d. 2012).
Kaspar Villiger, businessman and politician, in Pfeffikon, Switzerland.
Naval Construction:
The Royal Australian Navy Bar-class boom defence vessel HMAS Karangi (T 216) is laid down by the Cockatoo Docks and Engineering Co. Ltd. (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia).
The U.S. Navy Gato-class submarine USS Finback (SS-230) is laid down by the Portsmouth Navy Yard (Kittery, Maine, U.S.A.).
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type VIIC U-boat U-563 is launched by Blohm & Voss, Hamburg (werk 539).
History Diaries 