11 January 1940

RAF Fighter Command: Luftwaffe aircraft performed reconnaissance's of East Scotland, Firth of Forth, Humber, South Shields, Newcastle, Thames Estuary. Two trawlers were machine gunned but escaped. Enemy aircraft driven off.

4 Group. 'Security Patrols' - Hornum - Borkum. 77 Sqn. Three aircraft. Lights and flak positions machine-gunned. Opposition light. 102 Sqn. Leaflets and Reconnaissance - Hamm - Frankfurt. Two aircraft. Opposition light

The Women's Section of the Air Transport Auxiliary delivers its first airplane from factory to depot. This is one more indication of women's increasing usefulness in the war effort, but not everybody likes it. There has been considerable public protest against the use of women pilots while men are kept idle on the waiting list for the RAF.

At 1632, SS Fredville (enroute to obtain a cargo of coal for Oslo) was torpedoed by U-23 about 100 miles east of the Orkney Islands and broke in two. The forepart remained afloat and five survivors left their lifeboats several times to go back on board and look for more survivors. The survivors were picked up by a Swedish ship and taken to Kopervik.

At 1100, tanker El Oso in Convoy HX-14B, struck a mine laid on 6 January by U-30 and sank six miles 280° from the Bar Lightship, Liverpool. Three crewmembers were lost. The master and 31 crewmembers were picked up by HMS Walker and landed at Liverpool.

FRANCE: The government announces that Friday will be a "meatless day" and that no beef, veal or mutton will be sold on Mondays or Tuesdays.

GERMANY: U-755 is laid down.

FINLAND: The Finns beat off reinforcements attempting to break through to the encircled Soviet 168th Division (north of Lake Ladoga). Soviet forces supply the pocket by air. There is a new Soviet attack in the area of Salla (in the "waist" of the front), toward the Kemijarvi-Tornio railway. Meanwhile, the Swedish volunteer air group, Flygflottilj 19, begins operations from the frozen Lake Kemi, with 12 Gladiator fighters and 4 Hart light bombers.

PUERTO RICO: The USN’s Fleet Landing Exercise (FLEX) No. 6 begins at Culebra. Lack of transports compels the Navy to substitute combatant ships in that role for purposes of the exercise; an important exception is the prototype high speed transport USS Manley (APD-1), converted from a World War I-emergency program "flush-deck, four-pipe" destroyer, which amply proves her worth.