15 February 1940

UNITED KINGDOM: London: The BBC's Forces Programme, which takes the air on 18 February, will broadcast dance music on Sundays, removing a ban which has been in force since the BBC was set up in 1922. The service has been brought in because troops in France were bored with the Home Service. They tuned into 'Radio Fecamp', the French commercial station, before it closed down on 4 January. Home listeners can also hear the new service, from 11am to 11pm.

Submarine HMS Tetrarch commissioned.

Minesweeping trawler HMS Mangrove launched.

GERMANY: U-65 commissioned.

DENMARK: Copenhagen: Danish newpapers are full of protests against the sinking of the 5,177 ton 'Chastine Maersk' by a U-boat. U-boat commanders have been ordered by Hitler to torpedo any ship under British control without warning in order to stop the supply of food and war materials reaching Britain. This directive means that any ship sailing towards a British-controlled war zone, such as the English Channel, the world's busiest shipping lane, can be attacked without warning. Any ship which is following a zig-zag course is also to be sunk without warning.
The policy is already in effect as evidenced by the sinking of Danish, Dutch, Norwegian and Swedish ships in the last few days.
Danish, Norwegian and Swedish ship owners have been meeting here and have decided to press for urgent action by their governments; one possibility is that neutral ships should henceforth travel in convoys protected by naval vessels.
Last night the British Admiralty announced the sinking of two more U-boats, including the one which sank a 12,000 ton meat ship in the Bay of Biscay. Any joy at the sinkings needs to be countered by the news that German ship yards are now building U-boats faster than Britain can sink them.

FINLAND: Summa falls to the Soviet army, and the Finns are forced to retreat to the second of the Mannerheim Line defences.

U.S.A.: President Franklin D. Roosevelt embarks in heavy cruiser USS Tuscaloosa (CA-37) at Pensacola, Florida, for a cruise to Panama and the west coast of Central America to discuss Pan-American defence and to inspect the Panama Canal.
The Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet, noting that reports on air operations in the European War stressed the need of reducing aircraft vulnerability, recommended that naval aircraft be equipped with leak-proof or self-sealing fuel tanks and with armour for pilots and observers. Although the Bureaus of Aeronautics and Ordnance had been investigating these forms of protection for two years, this formal statement of need gave added impetus and accelerated procurement and installation of both armour and self-sealing fuel tanks.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 2315, U-14 spotted two steamers in a line and an escort and fired at 2340 a torpedo at the second ship that detonated prematurely. This ship was the Sleipner, which sank after being hit in the bow by a second torpedo at 2355. The other steamer, the Rhone stopped to rescue survivors and send distress signals, but was also hit by a torpedo at midnight and sank.

At 0837, the unescorted and neutral Steinstad was hit amidships by a G7a torpedo from U-26 and sank within 5 seconds about 75 miles west of Aran Island, Ireland. The U-boat had sighted the ship at 1912 the evening before, noticed the Norwegian flag and followed her during the night to stop the vessel according to the prize rules at the first daylight. At 0750, the Germans fired a shot across the bow of Steinstad, which did not react apart from turning towards the U-boat after the third shot was fired. So the following shots were aimed more closely to the ship without actually hitting her and shortly thereafter the crew abandoned ship in two lifeboats. The master and 12 crewmembers in one of the lifeboats were never seen again, despite of an aircraft search in the area. The other lifeboat with 11 survivors made landfall at Arranmore Island on 20 February.

At 1400, the Den Haag was torpedoed and sunk by U-48. The 13 survivors in one lifeboat were picked up by the British SS Glen Orchy. The other lifeboats with bodies were later found adrift; some bodies washed ashore on the French Coast.

At 0207, the Maryland was hit by one torpedo from U-50, broke in two and sank within seven minutes. A first torpedo fired at 0154 had detonated prematurely. The ship was reported missing after sending her position the last time on 10 February, only a wrecked lifeboat was later found at North Uist.