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February 12th, 1940 (MONDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM:
U-33 on a minelaying operation in the Firth of Clyde is sunk by minesweeper HMS Gleaner.
Paper rationing is introduced with supplies cut by 40%.

London: Women living in the London postal area whose husbands are away in the services are to receive increased allowances, payable immediately. The rise brings the separation allowance to 3/6 a day and will date back to 4 December. Oliver Stanley, the new Secretary of State for War, promised a full review of the army pay system when he took office last month. This increase follows widespread complaints about hardships experienced by service wives while their husbands are away.

RAF: No.2 AACU (Based in Gosport, Plymouth and Eastchurch) take delivery of the first target towing conversion of the Blackburn Skua (L2978).

Destroyer HS Aegion (ex-HMS Avon Vale) laid down.

GERMANY: U-501 laid down.

FINLAND: The Finnish troops at the Lähde sector are withdrawn to the second line of defence.
 

POLAND: The German government begins the deportation of German Jews to Poland. 

 

EGYPT: Convoy US.1 carrying the (ANZAC Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) New Zealand 4th Brigade and the Australian 16th Brigade arrives at Ismailia. The convoy had left Auckland on 6 January and Sydney on 10 January. 
 

U.S.A.: The motion picture "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" is released. Directed by John Cromwell, this biography of Abe Lincoln's life stars Raymond Massey, Gene Lockhart, Ruth Gordon and Howard da Silva.

“The Adventures of Superman,” a 15-minute transcribed syndicated radio show featuring the comic strip hero, debuts on station WOR in New York City this Monday afternoon. The identity of the actor playing “mild-manned reporter” Clark Kent was unknown to listeners until 1946. The secret eventually leaked out that Superman’s voice was actually that of Bud Collyer, who would later host the hit television program, "To Tell the Truth" on CBS. 

ATLANTIC OCEAN: As part of an operation to intercept six German merchant vessels, the destroyer HMS Hasty captures the 'Morea' in the Atlantic and the cruiser HMS Glasgow captures a trawler off Tromsø , Norway.

The British heavy cruiser HMS Dorsetshire stops German freighter SS Wakama 12 miles (19 kilometres) off Cabo Frio, Brazil; Wakama's crew scuttles her so that their ship will not fall into British hands. 

 

At 0955, the unescorted Nidarholm was hit amidships by one torpedo from U-26 after she had been stopped at 0925 by two shots across her bow. The ship broke in two, the bow sank and the afterpart remained afloat. The U-boat fired two coups de grâce at 1009, one torpedo detonated prematurely while the other sank the wreck. The survivors were picked up about 10 hours later by the Norwegian SS Berto, which was enroute from Torrevieja to Bergen via Gibraltar and Kirkwall.

SS Dalarö sunk by U-53 at 56.44N, 11.44W. 1 dead and 29 survivors.

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