January 22nd, 1941 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Minesweeping trawler HMS Luda Lady mined and sunk off the Humber.
Rescue tug HMS St Cyrus mined and sunk off the Humber.
GERMANY: U-67 commissioned.
POLAND: Lublin: Governor Hans Frank tells a meeting of Nazi officials: "We who for 20 years have been fighting beside the Fuhrer cannot be asked to have any consideration left for the Jews."
YUGOSLAVIA: Belgrade: It is reported that south-eastern Europe, already forced to eat stale black bread and pay exorbitant prices for essential foodstuffs, is now facing new shortages, because so many railway lines have been commandeered for Nazi troop movements and Italian and German shipments of war materials. There is rioting over food regulations in Yugoslavia and Romania.NORTH AFRICA: Tobruk falls to O'Connor along with 30,000 prisoners.
Tobruk: For the past few days the main enemy has been a fierce sandstorm, clogging air-intakes on aircraft, tanks and guns breeches and filling the eyes, ears, mouths and noses of men seeking shelter from its blast. But for the past two days the Italian defenders have also had to endure a bombardment of thousands of tons of HE hurled into Tobruk. The barrage has matched the intensity of that at Ypres in 1917 and stopped only this dawn. Australian sappers went forward to cut the barbed wire on the outer perimeter and clear the way for the infantry who had moved to within 1,000 yards of the Italian trenches during the night. Backed by British armour, the Australians faced stiff resistance at first with many Italians dying at their guns. But eventually the resistance faded and white flags were seen above the defending trenches.
With the outer ring of defences breached the tanks could attack the defenders from the rear. Of the three forts within the town, the first was taken by the infantry after fierce hand-to-hand fighting, the other two surrendered quickly afterwards. With the forts taken the town surrendered.
No Union flag could be found so an Australian "Digger's" hat flies from the flagpole over Tobruk.
EGYPT: Wavell in a telegram to the War Office relays Lt. Gen. Alan Cunningham's request for more equipment for the East African theatre rather than more men. He believes that small forces, well equipped can achieve greater results.
ERITREA: The Italian forces are falling back toward Agordat in the face of General William Platt's (Commander in Chief East Africa Command) attacks. There is also some skirmishing along the border between Kenya and Italian Somaliland.
CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Minas launched North Vancouver, British Columbia.
U.S.A.: Hart informed Navy Department had decided not to accept Rainbow-3 and that the reinforcements set out in that plan would not be assigned to the Asiatic Fleet. (Marc Small)
The heavy cruiser USS Louisville (CA-28) arrives at New
York City, with US$148,342,212.55 in British gold brought from Simonstown,
South Africa, to be deposited in American banks.