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January 2nd, 1940 (TUESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM:
The blackout is said to have established the importance of Vitamin A for good eyesight in the dark. Experiments have shown that it improves the ability of the eyes to adjust quickly in going from light to dark - as happens on going outdoors in the blackout. Cod-liver oil is recommended.
Surveys also reveal that 1 in 5 Britons have had an accident in the blackout. Road deaths exceed 2000, 1,700 more than the same period in peacetime. Most of the victims are pedestrians. Things may get better though. There are fewer cars due to petrol rationing and motorists have to paint the bumpers and running boards white. Kerbs and tree trunks are also being whitened. From February a 20 mph speed limit is to be introduced and British Summer Time will begin on February 25th.

RAF Bomber Command: North Sea reconnaissance. Three German aircraft destroyed; two British aircraft lost.

Anti-Aircraft cruiser HMS Coventry damaged in a German air attack on the Shetland Islands.

FRANCE: The Royal Canadian Air Force Air Division Europe Planning Team is formed at Paris to prepare for the establishment of RCAF units on the continent.

GERMANY: U-555, U-556, U-751 laid down.


CZECHOSLOVAKIA: Prague: Journalists and ex-army officers are rounded up in a new wave of arrests by the Nazis.

FINLAND: The Battle of Salla begins. At the Finnish town of Salla, taken by the Soviets in 1939, Finland attempts to outmanoeuvre the Soviet Union, unsuccessfully. Finnish resistance fighters, refusing to give into the Soviets, continue attacks.

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