January 20th, 1940 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:RAF Coastal Command: Four German Flak vessels were sighted which opened fire and were bombed.
RAF Bomber Command: 4 Grp. 'Security Patrol' - Hornum - Borkum. 51 Sqn. One aircraft. Opposition light.
London: Churchill asks the uncommitted nations of Europe to join the Allies, and condemns Russia's invasion of Finland.
Tanker Caroni River struck a mine laid the day before by U-34 and sank in Falmouth Bay, while carrying out paravane trials and defensive armament tests. The master, 42 crewmembers, Cdr J.G. Bradshaw RN and eleven naval personnel were picked up by the Falmouth lifeboat and a naval cutter and landed at Falmouth.
Submarine HMS Thorn laid down.
NETHERLANDS: Submarine HNLMS O-22 launched.
GERMANY: Adolf Hitler reduces the "alert period" before the implementation of Operation Yellow (Fall Gelb) from 4 days to 24 hours for security reasons.
FINLAND: There is a lull in the ground fighting as the Russians prepare for the expected "big push", but the war goes on as fiercely as ever in the air with the Russian bombers trying to make up for the superior skill of the Finns on the ground.
They attack the Finnish positions every day, not only in the front line but ranging over most of the country. The news has been released that the historic castle at Aabo on the Baltic coast has been destroyed by incendiary bombs.
The port of Viipuri, only 70 miles from Leningrad, is under constant attack. A hospital has been hit and many patients have been killed
The Finns, though, have fought back. Flying Bristol Blenheim bombers they have carry out raids on the Soviet island bases of Oesel and Dagoe.
EUROPE: All Europe is held in the icy grip of one of its severest frosts on record. Switzerland has recorded 34 degrees of frost, the lowest since 1920. Heavy snow has fallen in Oporto, Portugal for the first time for 40 years and in Corunna, Spain, for the first time since 1800.
On the borders of Norway and Sweden the mercury froze in the thermometers. The Danube is frozen in Hungary and 1,200 ships are held by ice. In the Baltic islands ships can only move preceded by ice-breakers, and German mines off Heligoland are being exploded by ice-floes. A German ship was sunk by an iceberg off Iceland.
On the Finnish front, a temperature of 100 degrees of frost was recorded. Nearly 1,000 Russian soldiers are believed to have died of exposure. In China 20,000 have died and the war has been halted.
The expected German attack on the Western Front has not materialised, presumably at least partly because of the weather. Both Holland and Belgium are expecting an onslaught at any moment. The Germans have evacuated civilians from the area adjoining the Dutch border and trains passing through have to draw their blinds.
GIBRALTAR: The United States protests British treatment of American shipping in the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, the U.S. freighter SS Examelia is detained at Gibraltar by British authorities and the passenger liner SS Washington, bound for Genoa, Italy, is detained only a few hours before being allowed to proceed.
U.S.A.: Washington: The USA protests to Britain over the detention of its ships in Gibraltar.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: SS Ekatontarchos Dracoulis sunk by U-44 at 40.20N, 10.07W - Grid CG 1963.
At 2026, SS Miranda was hit by one torpedo from U-57 and sank within five minutes about 30 miles northwest of Peterhead. The three survivors were picked up by a unknown vessel and taken to Kirkwall.