In the ATS, women are trained to do almost anything that does not involve them directly in combat. Many are learning to operate the aiming mechanisms of anti-aircraft guns, though they are not allowed to fire them; large numbers are also trained as drivers and mechanics. Cooking, cleaning and clerical work are the commonest jobs.

The most novel, and the physically hardest job in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) is crewing the barrage balloon operations. The balloons are so heavy that teams of ten men are being replaced by 16 women. WAAFs also train as mechanics, photographers, bombplotters and radio operators. But not everyone believes that the women are doing a good job. One woman told a mass observation survey: "Those ATS girls are a disgrace. They come in this pub at night and line up against that wall. Soldiers then give them drinks and when they're blind drunk they carry them out into the street."

NETHERLANDS: Amsterdam: SS troops arrest 400 Jews after a German officer is accidentally hurt in a Jewish-owned bar.

GERMANY:

POLAND: Warsaw Ghetto: The daily bread ration is set at three ounces, as deaths from starvation reach 400 a week.

BULGARIA: German military staff arrive in Sofia as 17 divisions, eight of which are heading for Greece, cross the border.

GREECE: Athens: The Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden, arrived in Athens today with a senior military mission including Sir John Dill, CIGS, General Wavell, Admiral Cunningham and Air-Marshall Longmore. The main item for discussion with King George and his government is the question of British military aid to Greece.

There is some reluctance on the part of the Greeks to accept the help offered by Eden, on the grounds that insufficient British help might serve only to precipitate an attack by the Germans.

Eden's task is to reassure the Greeks that, although the forces being offered, which would have to be withdrawn from the army fighting the Italians in North Africa, are all that Britain can spare at the moment, they are well-equipped and trained and will acquit themselves well.

Talks are well under way this evening, and look like lasting well into the night, with the Greeks insisting that they will fight with or without British help.

LIBYA: The Monitor HMS Terror (15 inch guns) is damaged by bombing off Tobruk in position 32 40N 22 30E and loses all steam power. She is abandoned by her crew and sinks, but is hastened on by depth charges from HMS Salvia and Fareham.  There are no casualties, 204 of the crew survive. (Alex Gordon)(108)

ITALIAN SOMALILAND: The cruiser HMS Shropshire bombards Brava, on the coast between Kismayu and Mogadishu.

General Cunningham's forces attack the main Italian position at Jelib, from both flanks and from the rear. The Italians are completely routed, over 30,000 being killed, captured or dispersed into the bush. SAAF fighters kept the Regia Aeronautica out of the picture.

INDIAN OCEAN: Pocket battleship Admiral Scheer operates successfully off Madagascar before preparing to return to Germany.

AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Echuca laid down.

CANADA: Corvette HMCS Edmunston launched Esquimalt, British Columbia.

HMC MTB 01 completed refit.

Corvette HMCS Chambly completed refit Halifax , Nova Scotia.

U.S.A.: The big-scale Western film "Western Union," directed by Fritz Lang, and starring Robert Young, Randolph Scott, Dean Jagger, John Carradine, Chill Wills and Barton MacLane is released.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, sink five unescorted ships, the British merchantmen Kantara (3,240 tons), Trelawney (4,690 tons), Canadian SS AD Huff (6,219 GRT), tanker Lustrous (6,156 tons), and Harlesden (5,500 tons), 650 miles east of Newfoundland before heading for the Sierra Leone routes. 

SS AD Huff, Canadian Atlantic Transportation Line freighter, 625 miles east of Cape Race in position 47.12N, 40.13W, by the Gneisenau. Two crewmembers are lost and the remaining 37 taken prisoner and eventually returned to Germany in the supply ship Ernland. AD Huff had been returning in ballast with a convoy after delivering a cargo of steel and newsprint to the UK.

The Fleet Commander is Vice-Admiral Lütjens, Flagship Gneisenau is commanded by Kapitan Otto Fein, newly appointed when her previous Commander: Harold Netzbandt had been appointed Admiral Lütjens' Chief of Staff. Kapitan Kurt Caesar Hoffmann was commanding Scharnhorst . 

Italian submarine 'Marcello' is believed sunk to the west of the Hebrides by ex-US destroyer HMS Montgomery (ex USS Wickes [DD-75]) and other escorts of Liverpool-out convoy OB287. The convoy is reported by Kondors which sink two and damaged four merchantmen, but no other U-boats were able to make attacks.

SS Texelstroom hit by a torpedo by U-108 at 2224 below the rear mast. Surprisingly, nothing happened aboard the ship, which set course for the coast and made light signals towards the coast. A coup de grâce exploded prematurely, a third torpedo also malfunctioned and hit the bow as a surface-runner. The ship sank in three minutes and Scholtz reported lifeboats, which fired flares. They were only 25 miles from Iceland, but there were no survivors.

Motor tanker Scottish Standard sunk by U-96 at 59.20N, 16.12W.