London: The Home Guard mounted guard at Buckingham Palace today in honour of its first birthday and was congratulated on its keenness by the King in an order of the day. Its strength is now 1,500,000 men, organized in 1,200 battalions. Their makeshift weapons have changed to regulation rifles and American Tommy guns.

London: Herbert Morrison, the Home Secretary, has announced the nationalisation of the country's fire services. The 1,450 local fire authorities in England and Wales will be replaced by a central command divided up into 12 Civil Defence regions. The Blitz has shown up the weakness of having a multiplicity of fire brigades, many of them very small, which refuse to amalgamate or co-operate. Some would not go to the help of others until payment was agreed. Their equipment, ranks and words of command all differ, causing confusion when two brigades are fighting the same fire side by side.

No. 121 Squadron Fighter Command is formed. It will be composed of American pilots.

Wavell tells the UK Chiefs of Staff that occupation of Syria will require an entire corps including an armoured division. Fearing a concentrated Axis offensive against the Middle East from the Balkans via Syria, the Chiefs of Staff order Wavell to secure Syria as soon as possible. (Michael Alexander)

Submarine HMS Thrasher commissioned.

FRANCE: Paris:

French police arrest 1,000 foreign Jews and hand them over to the Germans who deport them.

VICHY FRANCE: Darlan tells Petain that he will collaborate with Hitler to prevent France's "Polandization".

GERMANY: Germany declares the Red Sea a danger zone, and the northern part a zone of military operations.

U-82 commissioned.

LIBYA: General Wavell launches operation 'Brevity' designed to counter-attack the German positions at Sollum and around Fort Capuzzo in an attempt to push Rommel back from the frontier and relieve Tobruk. The British front line forces, under Brigadier Straffer Gott, consisted of the Support Group of 7th ARmoured, the 11th Hussars and the motorised 22nd Guards Brigade, together with some artillery, plus the 2nd Royal Tanks from the 7th Armoured Brigade, now equipped with the reconditioned A9 and A10 Cruiser tanks and the 4th RTR equipped with heavily armoured Matildas. The 22 Guards Brigade and the 4th Tanks opened the offensive with an assault on the Halfaya Pass. Here they achieved complete surprise but were then held up by Italian gunners who fought well and knocked out 7 Matildas before being overrun. The fight alerted the Germans at Fort Capuzzo, who greeted the advancing tanks of A Squadron, 4 RTR, with a hail of shellfire. Although the fort fell, it was quickly recaptured. Gott's forces continued to press forward during the night, but with more German tanks coming forward and the opposition steadily increasing, he decided to pull back and defend the Halfaya Pass above Sollum, which was held by a squadron of the 4th Tanks in Matildas, and 3rd Bn. the Coldstream Guards.

The 1st Free French Fighter Squadron leaves Libya and moves to Palestine. (Yannis Kadari)

ETHIOPIA: The South African force moves north from Addis Abba, Ethiopia and has joined the battle at Amba Alagi.  Italian forces suffer from Allied attacks and by Ethiopian guerrilla attacks which are fierce and undisciplined.

 

SYRIA: A British reconnaissance plane observed a German Junkers 90 transport plane taking off from Palmyra. The reconnaissance plane flew a second mission at noon and determined that several axis transport planes had landed there. Later that afternoon 3 British Blenheim bombers with 2 Curtiss Tomahawk fighters flying cover, made a low-level strafing attack on Palmyra without visible success. This was the first time that Curtiss Tomahawks were deployed in the war.

Alep is also attacked. 

The 1st Free French Fighter Squadron leaves Libya and moves to Palestine. (Yannis KADARI)