February 1st, 1940 (THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: A veteran of the Great War commits suicide because he is too old to participate in this one.10 Squadron RAAF is declared operational using Sunderland Mk1 aircraft, the first Commonwealth Squadron to be declared operational in the current war. (Daniel Ross)
Escort carrier HMS Activity laid down.
NORTH SEA: Swedish SS Fram sunk by U-13 at 57.43N, 02.06W.
At 2044, the unescorted MS Ellen M was torpedoed and sunk by U-59 NE of Lowestoft. The master and six crewmembers were lost.
U-10 had to abort patrol due to some technical problems and reached the German base at Heligoland.
FRANCE: The French 13e Demi-Brigade is consolidated at Pau in the Pyrenees to begin seven weeks of snow and mountain warfare. The Legion called for volunteers from the officers and men of the Algerian and Moroccan garrisons in early November 1939, specifically volunteering for hazardous duties in extreme climate. These volunteers were all carefully screened for their political beliefs and origins, and all to have had at least two years service. (Gordon Angus Mackinlay)
GERMANY: ObLtzS Helmut Rosenbaum is promoted to KptLt.
U-110, U-559, U-560 laid down.
Manstein appointed to command the German XXXVIII Armee Corps from a position of Chief of Staff at Army Group A, under Runstedt.
GIBRALTAR: The U.S. freighter SS Exminster is detained by British authorities at Gibraltar; the freighters SS Exochorda, detained since 30 January, and SS Jomar, detained since 31 January, are released.
FINLAND: The USSR is reported to have lost 200,000 men in the campaign.
The Soviet armies begin their attack on the Mannerheim Line on the Karelian Isthmus. The
failure of General Timoshenko's attempt to encircle Lake Ladoga from the north-east, does
not prevent him from opening his grand offensive on both sides of the railway line from
Leningrad to Viipuri.
The day starts with a massive artillery bombardment, and all the day the Red Army troops probe Finnish positions with small units. This is no more the Red Army that assaulted Finnish positions with suicidal charges. The war goes on like this for more than a week, but the Finnish Army is just able to hold the Mannerheim line. For now.
The Times reports that paratroops are employed for this first time in the air war, during the Soviet army's attack on Summa, the weakest point along the Mannerheim Line. Soviet paratroops, formed into combat groups, drop behind the lines of the Finnish Army. However, this operation, though it involves units of up to battalion strength, turns out to be a fiasco. The Finns are on guard both at the front and behind the lines. They shoot some of the parachutists while they are still in descent, and capture others immediately after landing.
(No Finnish sources mention any of these alleged para drops, and neither -- it appears -- do the Russian ones.)
After more than a month of quiet trench warfare, the Soviet troops at
Karelian Isthmus launch a new phase in the war. The day starts with a massive
artillery bombardment, and all the day the Red Army troops probe Finnish
positions with small units. This is no more the Red Army that assaulted Finnish
positions with suicidal charges. The war goes on like this for more than a week,
but the Finnish Army is just able to hold the Mannerheim line. For now.
JAPAN:
Expenditure on defence is to account for half of the national budget.
Japan makes a diplomatic protest to the British government
concerning the removal of 21 German nationals from the Japanese liner SS Asama
Maru by British forces of the cruiser
HMS Liverpool and demands they be
returned. (Jack McKillop & Ric Pelvin)
CHINA: Yenan: Mao-Tse-tung calls for the US to stand firm against Japan.
CANADA: Corvettes HMCS Collingwood, Orillia, Barrie, Galt, Moose Jaw, Battleford, Drumheller, The Pas, Cobalt, Kenogami, Algoma, Rosthern, Morden, Kamsack Oakville and Weyburn ordered.
U.S.A.: The US Army Air
Corps activates the 31st Pursuit Group (Interceptor) and two of its three
component squadrons, the 39th and 40th Pursuit Squadrons (Interceptor), at
Selfridge Field, Mt. Clemens, Michigan; the third component squadron, the 41st,
is activated at Bolling Field, Washington, DC. The three squadrons are initially
equipped with Seversky P-35s and will be
redesignated Fighter Group/Squadron on 15 May 1942. (Bob Castle)
The keel of the battleship Alabama (BB-60) is laid down at the Norfolk,
Virginia, Navy Yard.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt writes to the British First
Lord of the Admiralty Winston S. Churchill, concerning the detention of U.S.
merchantmen, and frankly informs him of adverse American reaction to the British
policy. “The general feeling is,” Roosevelt informs Churchill, “that the net
benefit to your people and the French is hardly worth the definite annoyance
caused to us.”
The first National Broadcasting Company (NBC) network television program is
transmitted from experimental TV station W2XBS in New York City to W2XCW in
Schenectady, New York.
Frank Sinatra sings "Too Romantic" and "The Sky Fell Down" in his first
recording session with Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra; the session is held in
Chicago, Illinois. Sinatra had replaced Jack Leonard as lead singer with the
band.