NETHERLANDS:
General Reynders, the Dutch Commander-in-chief, resigns over Holland's lack of military preparedness.

GERMANY: U-652 laid down.

SWEDEN: The Finnish Foreign Minister Väinö Tanner is in Stockholm to determine the Swedish attitude to the war and the sincerity of Soviet willingness to start the negotiations. Today he meets the Soviet ambassador Alexandra Kollontay, and tells Finland wants peace, and is willing to cede territory.

In these early February days the Finnish and Soviet governments had been in touch to determine whether there is basis for starting the peace negotiations. Finns had tried to start the negotiations on the same basis as in last autumn (Finnish concessions in Karelian Isthmus and Gulf of Finland), but the Soviets consider this too little, too late. Blood had been shed, and the Soviet 'honour' demands more substantial concessions. As the fierce fighting in the Karelian Isthmus goes on, Stalin knows time is on his side, at least as long as the British and French don't intervene.
 
 

GIBRALTAR: U.S. freighter SS Exford is detained at Gibraltar by British authorities. 

CANADA: AMC HMCS Prince Robert purchased from CNR for $738,310.

U.S.A.:
Boeing, Douglas, Martin and Convair all receive the official requirement for a "Hemisphere defence Weapon"; a bomber designed to carry 2,000 pounds of bombs for 5,333 miles, with a speed of 400 m.p.h. A heavy defensive armament was wanted, plus self-sealing fuel tanks, armour protection, and a maximum bomb-load of 16,000 pounds.

One of the great classic songs of the Big Band era, “Tuxedo Junction,” is recorded by Glenn Miller and his Orchestra at the RCA Victor studios in New York City. The flip side of the record (released on the Bluebird label) was "Danny Boy." 
     The US Maritime Commission announces that Britain and France are buying 113,000 tonnes of old American cargo ships. 

US Maritime Commission announces that Britain and France are buying 113,000 tonnes of old American cargo ships.
 

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-41 sinks one ship from Liverpool-out convoy OB84 south of Ireland, and is then sent to the bottom by the lone escort, destroyer HMS Antelope.

At 0332, the unescorted and unarmed Dutch tanker Ceronia was hit by a torpedo, but made it to Rotterdam under her own power. The attacker must have been U-41, which was herself lost during a second attack on Convoy OA-84 the same day.

SS Beaverburn (9,874 GRT) Canadian Pacific Steamships Line, Capt Thomas Jones, Master, was sunk in the Western Approaches, in position 49.20N, 010.07W, by torpedoes from U-41, OLtzS Gustav-Adolf Mugler, CO. She was proceeding outbound from Southampton in the 11-ship Convoy OA-84. Despite being in an outbound convoy she was fully loaded with general cargo. One other ship from this convoy was damaged before it was dispersed to proceed to its various ports, the normal procedure in the early days of the war. Only one crewmember was lost in this incident. The American tanker Narragansett picked up the remaining 76 survivors. Beaverburn was one of five state-of-the-art Beaver-class cargo-liners operated by the CPR. She was a fast and roomy ship that made her useful for wartime service. Two of Beaverdales's lifeboats were used to rescue British soldiers during the evacuation of Dunkirk. None of the Beaver-class ships survived the war.