February 23rd, 1940 (FRIDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:
RAF Bomber Command: Leaflets and Reconnaissance - Prague - Pilsen. 77 Sqn. Two aircraft. No opposition.In a victory parade celebrating the destruction of the German pocket battleship Graf Spee in the battle of the River Plate, 700 officers and men of the cruisers HMS Ajax and HMS Exeter march through cheering crowds to Guildhall in London.
NORTH SEA: The German Leberecht Maas and Max Schulz are sunk in the North Sea. These ships had been attacked in error by German aircraft and whilst attempting to evade, had strayed into British mines that had been laid to foul the swept channel. (Alex Gordon)
Minesweeping trawler HMS Benvolio mined and sunk off Spurnhead.
FINLAND:
Helsinki: Finland repeats its request to Sweden and Norway to grant transit rights to
foreign troops.
U.S.S.R.:
Moscow: The Soviet government today sent its "final" peace terms to Finland,
with Sweden acting as intermediary. The terms are even harsher than the demands whose
refusal led to the war. The USSR wants the whole of the Kerelian isthmus including
Viipuri, Finland's second largest city; the naval base at Hango, which the Finns regard as
the key to their country; and all the land round Lake Ladoga. The Russians will evacuate
the territory they have seized around Petsamo in the far north if the Finns agree to a
treaty guaranteeing the security of the Gulf of Finland against external threats. It is
still not certain if the Finns will accept these demands, but there is one more card they
can play: they can invite the Allies to intervene. But Sweden seemed to rule that out
today by banning Allied troops from moving across its territory.
GIBRALTAR: U.S. freighter SS Lehigh is detained for several hours at Gibraltar by British authorities, but is allowed to proceed the same day.
TURKEY: A state of emergency is declared following the alleged crossing of the Caucasian border by a Soviet detachment.
CANADA: Bangor-class minesweepers HMCS Cowichan, Malpeque, Ungava, Mahone, Chignecto, Outarde, Wasaga, Minas, Quinte, Chedabucto, Miramichi, Bellechasse, Clayoquot, Quatsino ordered. The RCN originally intended to build Bramble-class sloops (990 tons, 250 feet), a dual-purpose design capable of both escort and minesweeping duties. However, sloops were regarded in Canada as being too large for minesweeping and were quite expensive at £175,000 each. With the advent of the cheaper Flower-class corvette (950 tons, 205 feet, £90,000 each), the RCN decided to split the functional requirement and go with two classes of ships to satisfy the need for anti-submarine escorts and minesweepers. The Bangor-class (650 tons, 180 feet) was chosen as the minesweeper. Many of the escort features of the sloops were deleted from the Bangor-class, such as Asdic and depth charges. However, in 1940 this was reconsidered and they were added back into the design, which resulted in significant delays in delivery. As the war in the Atlantic progressed, the most urgent requirement was for escort vessels and the Bangors were pressed into this role. Their plumb bows and shortness made them even worse seakeepers than the Flower-class corvettes. They also had significantly lower endurance (3,450 at 12 knots versus 2,950 at 11.5 knots). But, their minesweeping duties meant they had been fitted from the outset with a gyrocompass that gave them the most accurate Asdic set in early Canadian escorts. Eventually, it was realized that the Bangors were too small to function effectively as minesweepers, which was due mainly to the new requirements for influence sweeping equipment for use against magnetic mines. The Algerine-class minesweepers, which also spent most of their careers in escort work, were designed to meet the requirement for a larger minesweeper. At 990 tons and 225 feet in length they approached the size of the original Bramble-class sloops. However, with only 4,500 miles of endurance at 11.5 knots they could not match the 6,000 miles at 12 knots of the Brambles. Meanwhile, sloops emerged as the pre-eminent escort vessel design of the interwar period, even outperforming fleet destroyers in anti-submarine efficiency, endurance, and seakeeping. Eventually, the Flower-class corvette design was modified to make it a better ocean escort. The Castle-class ended up with dimensions almost identical to a sloop - 1,060 tons, 250 feet, 6,200 miles endurance at 15 knots.
U.S.A.: The motion picture "Northwest Passage (Book I - Roger's Rangers)," is released. Directed by King Vidor, this story about Colonial America based on Kenneth Roberts' book on Roger's Rangers in colonial America, it stars Spencer Tracy, Robert Young, Walter Brennan and Ruth Hussey.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Destroyer HMS Gurkha on passage south of the Faeroes encounters and sinks U-53 in the mid-Orkneys, in position 60.32N, 06.14W, by depth charges, as she returns from operations in the Western Approaches. 42 dead (all hands lost).