February 6th, 1941 (THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:
Destroyer HMS Quantock commissioned.
GERMANY: Hitler offers Rommel command of a new formation to be made up of the 5th Light Division and 15 Panzer Division and intended for operations in North Africa. This force was designated Afrika Korps and equipped with PzKw III and IV tanks. The operation will be codenamed 'Sunflower'
Berlin: Hitler issues his War Directive No. 23 - Directions for Operations against the English War Economy. It says that the bombing campaign has had "least effect of all, so far as we can see, on the morale and the will to resist of the English people. No decisive success can be expected from terror attacks on residential areas."
However, bombing is to be intensified on shipping and the ports to inflict the greatest possible damage on the British economy "and also to give the impression that an invasion is planned for this year."
U-176 laid down.
LIBYA: 4th Armoured Brigade arrive to strike the blocked Italians in the flank at Beda Fomm further north than Combeforce. The Italians fought hard and bravely throughout the day but by evening their position was desperate. 7th Armoured pinned down a mass of vehicles and men in complete confusion along some 20 miles of the one possible escape road from Solluch to Agedabia. In repeated attempts to break through the Italians lost more than 80 tanks.
O'Connor orders a fast-moving detachment - about a brigade group in strength - along the main road from Barce to Benghazi and on to Ghemines, to complete the encirclement of the Italians.
Benghazi: British and Australian troops enter the town.
Telegram from HQ RAF ME to the Air Ministry:
We continue to attack Italian Air Force and harass his retreating army, Cyrenaica, Abyssinia and Eritrea. Every available operational aircraft, including Gauntlets, employed full intensity.
Only squadron with defensive role is No. 33 Hurricane defending Alexandria and Suez Canal, where German mine laying has sunk three ships in the canal and temporarily blocked it.
There is a great shortage of spares, tools and equipment of all sorts ... no less than 32 Merlins now in depots awaiting spares before overhauls can commence. ...behind programme in Blenheims (over 90). Mohawks out of sight with major engine defect and Tomahawks unknown quantity.
AUSTRALIA: Destroyer HMAS Quickmatch laid down.
U.S.A.: Washington: John Gilbert Winant is appointed the new ambassador to Britain.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: The Canadian United Towing and Salvage Co. merchantman Maplecourt (3,388 GRT) was sunk west of Northern Ireland in position 55.39N, 015.56W, by U-107, Kptlt Günther Hessler, Knight’s Cross, CO. All of her thirty-seven crewmembers and DEMS gunners were lost. Maplecourt had been travelling in Convoy SC-20 and was bound for Preston, England. She was one of four ships sunk by U-107 on her first combat patrol. Although Maplecourt was a member of convoy SC-20, most sources indicate that SC-20 arrived in Liverpool on 08 Feb 41 with all of its 38 ships intact. This probably indicates that she was either a ‘straggler’ or she had already detached and was proceeding independently for her destination. British records do not indicate convoy losses for ships that were lost outside of the main body of the convoy.