February 12th, 1940 (MONDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: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troops at the Lähde sector are withdrawn to the second line of defence.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.
SS Dalarö sunk by U-53 at 56.44N, 11.44W. 1 dead and 29 survivors.