January 6th, 1941 (MONDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: London: Churchill today promised that Britain would go to the help of Greece in the event of a German advance in the Balkans. In a letter to the Chiefs of Staff Committee the Prime Minister says: "It is quite clear to me that supporting Greece must have priority after the western flank of Egypt has been secured."He says that more Hurricane squadrons should be sent from the Middle East along with some artillery regiments and "some or all of the tanks of the 2nd Armoured Division, now arrived and working up in leisurely fashion in Egypt."
Corvette HMS Dianella commissioned.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Malta Convoy: Operation 'Excess' - Another complex series of convoy movements around Malta lead to carrier HMS Illustrious being badly damaged and the RN losing its comparative freedom of operation in the Eastern Mediterranean. This follows the arrival of the Luftwaffe in Sicily.
'Excess' leaves Gibraltar for Malta and Greece covered by Force H. At the same time the Mediterranean Fleet from Alexandria prepares to cover ships to Malta and bring empty ones out. Mediterranean Fleet cruisers HMS Gloucester and HMS Southampton carry troops to Malta and then carry on west to meet 'Excess'. Force H returns to Gibraltar.
Ju87s of the Luftwaffe's X, Fliegerkorps under General Geisler begin operating out of Sicily.
LIBYA: Advance units of the
Allied force reach the outer defenses of Tobruk after taking El Adem
airfield to the south. Patrols to examine the Italian defenses begin
immediately. The Tobruk garrison is 25,000 men with 220 guns and 70 tanks.
Lieutenant General Enrico P. Manella is in command. There are other Italian
units still in positions farther west in Libya.
SUDAN:
Wavell flies to Khartoum to see Platt and urge him to bring forward his
attack on the Italians in Eritrea, now assisted by 4th Indian Division. He also sees Haile
Selassie to discuss he re-entry to his country.
SOUTH AFRICA: The heavy cruiser USS Louisville (CA-28) departs Simonstown for New York, having taken on board US$148,342,212.55 in British gold for deposit in U.S. banks. (Considering inflation, that is over US$1.9 trillion in year 2002 dollars.)
CHINA: The Chinese buy the Curtiss P-40B fighters used until now by the American Flying Tigers. (Chuck Baisden)
U.S.A.: Washington: President Roosevelt today promised that the United States would serve as an arsenal for the democracies, and would support all those who struggle on behalf of the four freedoms: freedom of speech and of religion, freedom from want and from fear. He also proposed that the United States should not lend money to Great Britain, but should supply weapons to be paid for after the war was over.
The President said that Britain and its allies did not need American manpower. They did need billions of dollars' worth of weapons. The time was near, the President went on, when the Allies would not be able to pay for those weapons in ready cash: "We cannot and we will not tell them they must surrender because of their present inability to pay for weapons which we know they must have." The President therefore did not recommend to Congress that the United States should grant Britain and the Allies loans which would have to be repaid in dollars.
"I recommend," he said, "that we make it possible for those nations to continue to obtain war materials in the United States, fitting their orders into our own programme." Mr Roosevelt said that he spoke at a moment of unprecedented danger in American history.
"The democratic way of life," he said " is at this
moment being directly assailed either by arms or by the secret spreading of poisonous
propaganda." Recalling the example of Norway, he said that German agents might seize
strategic points in America.
Boston: MIT,
Battleship USS Missouri laid down.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: SS Empire Thunder, a straggler from convoy OB-269 due to an engine breakdown, was torpedoed and sunk by U-124 NNE of Rockall. Nine crewmembers were lost. The master and 29 crewmembers were picked up by the armed boarding vessel HMS Kingston Onyx and landed at Stornoway, Hebrides on 8 January.
The German Hilfskreuzer (Auxiliary Cruiser) Kormoran sinks Greek freighter Antonis. This Greek ship, carrying 4.800 tons of coal is sunk in mid-Atlantic; her 28 man crew (and one blind passenger) being taken on board. In keeping with his normal policy, Kormorant's skipper, Korvettenkapitän (Commander) Theodore Detmers, asked Antonis' captain to stay with his crew despite the cabins on board the raider specifically built for captured captains and any possible female "passengers." This policy, he believed, helped ease possible communication problems and the maintenance of order among the captured crews.