US Navy aircraft carrier USS Saratoga (CV-3) is cruising about 420 nautical miles (780 km, 480 miles) southwest of Pearl Harbor on 11 January 1942 toward a rendezvous with USS Enterprise when Japanese I-6 torpedoes it. The torpedo blast floods three of Saratoga's boiler rooms, reducing her speed to a maximum of 16 knots (30 km/hour, 18 mph). Six crewmen perish. Saratoga returns to Pearl Harbor and arrives there on the 13th. The final report on the incident is issued on 15 November 1942 and concludes that Japanese torpedoes are not, as commonly believed, more destructive than American torpedoes: "[The damage] was little if any more than might be expected from one of our submarine torpedoes carrying 500 lbs of explosive."

The attack keeps Saratoga out of two critical battles, the Battle fo the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway. However, it returns to service just after the latter battle when the U.S. Navy carrier fleet needs it.

Monday 3 March 1941

British commando training during World War II.

Western Front: British commandos are at sea en route to the Lofoten Islands on 3 March 1941. This is Operation Claymore, an attack on fish-oil plants at these islands in northern Norway. The Royal Navy task force is Operation Rebel. The British ships have not been spotted and are heading into the islands from the west.

Italian/Greek Campaign: The Italians continue their aggressive operations in Greece, bombing Larissa north of Athens. The RAF shoots five of the bombers down. This attack adds insult to injury, as Larissa has been devastated by earthquakes recently.

The Greeks are looking forward to the British expeditionary force. However, issues of strategy continue. There are multiple proposed lines, with the Metaxas Line on the Bulgarian border, the Aliakhmon Line behind the Metaxas, and the Nestos Line. The Greeks refuse to contemplate any territorial losses, so they want to try to hold the most advanced lines, while the British are more realistic and believe only lines further back have any likelihood of holding.

To try to reach some kind of resolution to this disagreement, both Middle East Commander General Wavell and Lustreforce commander Henry Maitland Wilson fly into Tatoi airfield. They will meet with Anthony Eden and CIGS John Dill, who remain in Athens to address just this kind of issue. However, no agreement is possible, because the two allies have different priorities. In any event, the first convoy for Lustreforce is scheduled to leave Alexandria tomorrow.

East African Campaign: The British at Mescelit Pass make some tentative moves forward. The 1st Royal Sussex advance across the Anseba Road and reach the vicinity of Mendad. Other troops head toward Massawa. There is only scattered Italian opposition on the road to Massawa.

The Italians at the port of Massawa see the British approaching and know what that invariably means - the same thing that happened at Kismayu and Mogadishu. So, the captains of three Italian submarines - Archimede, Guglielmotti, and Ferraris - set out to run the British blockade into the Indian Ocean.

European Air Operations: RAF Bomber Command sends 71 bombers against Cologne (Koln) during the night. The Luftwaffe bombs Cardiff again with 47 bombers.

"The railings being dismantled in Berkeley Square, Mayfair on 3 March 1941." © IWM (HU 57684).

Battle of the Atlantic: German heavy cruisers Gneisenau and Scharnhorst reach the vicinity of the Cape Verde Islands. Admiral Lütjens plans to intercept British convoys en route to and from Freetown. This is a major convoy route, with supplies for England flowing north and troop convoys heading south.

U-97 (Kptlt. Udo Heilmann) loses a man (Bootsmannsmaat, or Petty Officer, Artur Mei) overboard in the Bay of Biscay. Such incidents are very disheartening to the confined crews in U-boats.

U-124 (Kptlt. Georg-Wilhelm Schulz) is operating around the Canary Islands. Today, it refuels from German tanker Charlotte Schliemann. It will work in loose conjunction with Gneisenau and Scharnhorst, which now are in the same general area.

Royal Navy T-class submarine HMS Taku (Lt. John Frederick Beaufoy Brown, RN), on a passage from Holy Loch to Halifax, has been in trouble since 27 February due to weather damage. The aft hydroplanes have become locked in the vertical position due to wave damage, leaving the submarine immobile. Today, three Royal Navy ships (HMS Enchantress, Gladiolus and HMRT Salvonia) arrive. Salvonia after great difficulty takes the damaged submarine in tow to Londonderry.

The Luftwaffe bombs and sinks 275-ton Royal Navy trawler HMT Cobbers off Lowestoft. There are 9-11 deaths, including Skipper L. Turner RNR, of her 15-man crew.

The Luftwaffe (KG 27 Heinkel He 111) bombs and disables 866-ton British freighter Port Townsville in St. George's Channel. There are two deaths, and the Port Townsville eventually sinks.

The Luftwaffe bombs and sinks Royal Navy 5 ton auxiliary yacht HMY Tiny while at the dock at Sutherland.

Royal Navy destroyer HMS Burnham collides with its fellow destroyer HMS Malcolm in the Northwest Approaches. Both destroyers proceed to Liverpool for repairs lasting into April.

British mine destructor ship HMS Corfield collides with British freighter Cormead in the Thames Estuary. The Corfield is lightly damaged and goes to Blackwell for repairs lasting until mid-March.

Royal Navy gunboat MGB 13 hits a mine off Milford Haven. It eventually sinks.

Convoy HG 55 departs from Gibraltar.

Royal Navy corvette HMS Begonia (K 66, Lt. Thomas A. R. Muir) and the escort destroyer HMS Liddesdale (L100) are commissioned, minesweeping trawler HMS Inchcolm and corvette Alysse are launched, and destroyer HMS Holcombe is laid down.

U-125 (Kapitänleutnant Günther Kuhnke) is commissioned.

The Port Townsville ablaze in St. George's Channel, 3 March 1941.

Battle of the Mediterranean: General Rommel, commander of the growing Afrika Korps, only has the 5th Light Division at his disposal (and allied Italian troops). Nevertheless, he moves more troops forward, adopting an aggressive posture. Rommel's most advanced troops now are in the vicinity of El Agheila, where they begin forming a defensive line based around a narrow pass 17 miles (30 km) west of the British lines. He also forms blocking lines to the south so that the British cannot just bypass his main defensive positions, as they have done repeatedly to the Italians.

Another supply convoy for Rommel's Afrika Korps departs from Naples bound for Tripoli. It has four freighters and is escorted by two destroyers and a torpedo boat.

British 1553-ton freighter Knight of Malta runs aground near Ras Azzaz, Libya (north of Bardia). Everybody survives. The cargo is salvaged, but the ship is written off due to air attacks.

At Malta, the conscription recently ordered by Governor Dobbie begins. Men line up at Birkirkara School to be processed. In addition, Police Constable Carmel Camilleri is awarded the George Medal for actions he took on 4 November 1940. On that date, Camilleri rescued an RAF pilot from a cliff into which his plane had crashed.

Battle of the Pacific: Convoy AP 14 departs from Wellington, New Zealand.

Panzer III in Bulgaria, March 1941.

Soviet/Bulgarian Relations: The Soviet Union considers Bulgaria within its sphere of control, and it is not amused that has Bulgaria joined Germany's Tripartite Pact. Foreign Minister Molotov denounces the signing, saying that a German presence there will only lead to problems.

Turkish/Bulgarian Relations: Turkey also reacts to the Bulgarian signing of the Tripartite Pact. It abrogates the non-aggression pact that it signed with Bulgaria in February.

US/Bulgarian Relations: The United States also reacts negatively to the Bulgarian signing of the Tripartite Pact. President Roosevelt immediately freezes all Bulgarian assets in the US. There, in fact, are very few Bulgarian assets in the US, but this is another instance of Roosevelt using his economic powers as a means of punishment.

US/Vichy French Relations: Vichy France agrees not to supply the German war machine with oil from French North Africa.

US Military: Rear Admiral John H. Newton, Commander Cruisers Scouting Forces, leads a flotilla of cruisers and destroyers on a training/scouting mission from Pearl Harbor to the US Naval base at Samoa. However, this mission also has other possible destinations that have not yet been finalized.

Australian Government: Prime Minister Robert Menzies, visiting London, gives an address to the Foreign Press Association on diplomatic relations in the Pacific region. As he puts it in his diary, the solution is:

Policy vis a vis Japan is not appeasement in the sense of offering sops to Cerberus, but a proper blend of friendliness & a plan statement that we can and will defend ourselves and our vital interests.

Churchill is sick with a cold and absent from Whitehall. Menzies notes that the British War Cabinet refuses to take any major decisions in his absence, and vows to find "the secret of having my cabinet unwilling to decide any important questions in my absence."

There are persistent theories that, around this time, several highly placed individuals in the British government are considering replacing Churchill with Menzies. Churchill is seen as a ruthless autocrat, while Menzies is far more amenable (and quite level-headed). However, this is a highly debatable theory based on scant evidence, though there is little question that Menzies is making a smashing impression in London. His absence from Melbourne, though, is gradually causing his highly placed political supporters there to look elsewhere. This is a fairly typical and recurrent political scenario, where a domestic leader becomes more popular abroad than at home (a more modern example is Mikhail Gorbachev in Russia).

Wehrmacht marching, Karnobat, Bulgaria, March 1941. Military marching band parades are a standard tactic the Germans use after occupying a city to show ownership and also provide some entertainment and show the locals it isn't all bad.

Dutch Homefront: Anton Mussert, leader of the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands (NSB), visits German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels in Berlin. Mussert has been busy forming the 23rd SS Volunteer Panzer Grenadier Division "Nederland," but this visit probably concerns the recent General Strike centered in Amsterdam that the SS brutally put down.

The Germans execute Ernst Cahn. Cahn is one of the owners of the Koco ice cream joint, held by rebels, which the Germans stormed in February. The German forces incurred several casualties during that raid, which led to the General Strike, which led to the Germans killing literally dozens of people for protesting. This reportedly is the first execution of a civilian in cold blood in Holland (other than during incidents like the Koco battle), but it won't be the last.

The famous "Crying Man" or "Weeping Frenchman" shot, published on 3 March 1941 in Life Magazine on page 29. This is from newsreel footage used in the the Frank Capra film "Why We Fight - Chapter III - Divide and Conquer." The footage was taken long after the French surrender as fleeing Frenchmen were leaving a southern port.

French Homefront: The famous "Crying Man" image that is universally mistaken as happening during the fall of Paris, but actually happened much later in Marseille, is published in Life Magazine. This becomes the start of the picture's (it is a frame from a film) gradual elevation to iconic status. While the exact details are a subject of scholarship, according to "Marseille sous l'occupation" by Lucien Gaillard, this is a shot of Monsieur Jerôme Barzetti, taken in Marseilles on February 20, 1941. Other sources place this in September 1940 (the date being in 1940 makes sense, since it occurred during the transfer of the French flags to North Africa which happened then, but as I noted, this is a matter of scholarly research). There is no further information on the further history of Monsieur Barzetti.

American Homefront: The US Supreme Court issues its decision in Railroad Commission v. Pullman Co., 312 U.S. 496 (1941). This case introduces what is known as "Pullman Abstention," wherein federal courts abstain from hearing cases that involve questions of sensitive application of US Constitutional claims to state policy. In short, when state social policy is at issue, the proper court to decide a case is the state court in the state in question despite the presence of questions relating to the US Constitution. If deciding the state law ground for relief could obviate the need to adjudicate the federal issue, then the state court should be the proper court to hear the case. This Pullman Abstention doctrine leads to decades of refinement and a clear set of rules for deciding the issue, and the general result is that the state court hears the case first, and if the application of state law does not determine the outcome, then a federal court can hear the claims based on the US Constitution.

Australians about to ship out to Greece muster to lifeboat stations during a drill, 3 March 1941 (Australian War Memorial).

Below is the 1943 Frank Capra film which contains the newsreel footage from which the "Weeping Frenchman" shot is taken. The Weeping Frenchman appears at 54:50 (this clip is only a few minutes long, it is toward the end).

Friday 24 January 1941

In a somewhat confusing picture for historians, British soldiers sport a captured Italian flag on a British Matilda tank en route into Tobruk, Libya, 24 Jan 1941 (Australian War Memorial). You can only pull stunts like this after the fighting is really over, else you risk unwanted attention from your own side.

Italian/Greek Campaign: The Greeks continue consolidating their newly acquired territory in the area of the Klisura Pass on 24 January 1941. The Italians are bringing up troops for a counteroffensive, their previous attempts to recover the pass - gateway to the main Italian supply base of Valona - having come to naught.

East African Campaign: The Italian 4th and 5th Indian Divisions continue advancing past Keru Gorge, abandoned by the Italians. They are proceeding in the direction of Agordat. On the Kenya front, Lieutenant General Cunningham's forces move alongside South African troops into the Moyale frontier districts. Cunningham has 75,000 men at his disposal, though most are locals from the colonies.

European Air Operations: Activity remains light due to the weather. The Luftwaffe barely appears over Great Britain at all during the day and night, and the RAF is grounded as well.

HMS King George V arriving in the Chesapeake Bay, 24 January 1941. The battleship brings Lord Halifax to the United States.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-123 (Kptlt. Karl-Heinz Moehle) torpedoes and sinks 1570 ton Norwegian freighter Vespasian in the shipping lanes northwest of Ireland. There are 18 deaths. Vespasian is a straggler from Convoy OB 276 due to the weather.

British 1096 ton freighter Corheath hits a mine and sinks near the Botany Buoy in the Thames Estuary. There are three deaths.

British 6405 ton freighter Tasmania hits a mine off Rattray Head, Aberdeenshire. The weather is horrendous and the stricken steamer cannot make port anywhere nearby, but instead must head back to Methil where she makes port.

Finnish 4028 ton freighter Wirta runs aground at Skerjafjord, Iceland. The ship is wrecked, but the crew is saved.

German supply ship Nordmark meets the cruiser Admiral Scheer in the South Atlantic and replenishes it. The Scheer continues to travel in company with captured Norwegian tanker Sandefjord, but the pickings have been lean for the Scheer up to this point.

Convoy OB 278 departs from Liverpool.

Royal Canadian Navy minesweeper HMAS Lismore (J-145, Lt. Stanley H. Crawford) is commissioned and HMAS Gawler is laid down.

U-562 launched.

Australian soldiers using captured Italian M11/40 tanks and M11/39 tanks (note the white kangaroos on the tanks' sides) watch Tobruk burn, 24 January 1941 (© IWM (E 1766).

Battle of the Mediterranean: Concluding another successful phase of Operation Compass, the Australians and British mop up around Tobruk. They take possession of all Italian outposts in the vicinity. The real action has shifted north along the coast road, where the Italian Special Armoured Brigade (Brigata Corazzato Speciale) under the command of General Valentino Babini (the "Babini Group") and the overall command of General Giuseppe Tellera has formed a defensive line outside of Derna. While the British Army has the upper hand militarily, they are having supply difficulties and their tanks are low on fuel. This slows their operations.

The Italians for the first time in the campaign show some real fight, and fierce battles break out around the outskirts of Derna. Babini sends about fifty M13/40 tanks against the advancing 7th Hussars as they are advancing to cut the important Derna/Mechili road. The new Italian tanks give a good account of themselves against British Mk. VIs, forcing the advanced British elements to pull back and call for help. The request is ignored for a time by the 2nd Royal Tank Regiment (2 RTR), perhaps partly because the Italians heretofore have not been fighting and the feeling may simply be that nothing regarding the Italians could have much urgency. Eventually, the British tankers return with Matildas, 2-pounders and even 25-pounder field guns. This time, they route the Italian armor, sending them retreating into an ambush and destroying about 8 of the Italian tanks while capturing another. For their pains, the British lose a cruiser tank and six light tanks. The reasonably equal losses indicate how hard the fighting has become. However, the advantage still lies with the British, as the Italians are forced to retreat to Mechili.

Supporting the Babini Group is the Italian 60th Infantry Division Sabratha, which holds the line from Derna to Mechili. There, the 2/11th Australian Battalion also finds its going blocked for the moment. It calls for reinforcements.

At Malta, the islanders are still recovering from the massive air raids by the Luftwaffe's Fliegerkorps X during the "Illustrious Blitz." The aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious has left, but many unexploded bombs remain to be defused.

The Luftwaffe continues to attack Illustrious as she heads for Alexandria. Fliegerkorps X sends 30 aircraft to bomb it about 130 miles north of Benghazi. The Stukas and Junkers Ju 88s manage some near misses but cause little damage to the battleships, cruisers, and destroyers escorting the stricken aircraft carrier away. In fact, the Luftwaffe does not even spot the carrier and must content itself with attacking vessels better able to defend themselves.

Italian armor with For Mechili in the background. 1941-42.

Battle of the Indian Ocean: German raider Atlantis is back on the prowl after its extended Christmas break at the Kerguelen Islands. About 300 miles east of the Seychelle Islands, it attacks 5145-ton British freighter Mandasor. The British ship gets off a distress message before it sinks after the crew ingeniously rigs a second aerial after the first is disabled by the Atlantis' scout plane. There are 5 deaths and the remaining 76 onboard become POWs. The crew of the Mandalor does accomplish a major victory when it destroys the Atlantis' Heinkel He 114 seaplane. Captain Hill of the Mandasor later receives the OBE for his handling of the ship during this incident, but he spends the rest of the war in a POW camp. The crew of the Atlantis saves many of the sunken ship's crew from death when they chase off sharks with machine gunfire.

Knowing its position, the Royal Navy in the area organizes four cruisers into Force V to hunt down the raider. They have known about raiders in this part of the world for some time, and the Christmas raid on Naaru inflamed their passion to track them down. Unfortunately for the British, they have no long-range aerial reconnaissance available and Captain Rogge in the Atlantis gets away. This incident does impel local Royal Navy authorities to give greater priority to allocating forces in that region of the Indian Ocean, but the British do not have many available assets to spare at this time.

Anglo/US Relations: Lord Halifax, erstwhile Foreign Secretary, arrives in the Chesapeake Bay aboard the battleship King George V, having departed Scotland on 15 January. He is in the United States to replace the deceased Lord Lothian as ambassador to the United States. At Winston Churchill's urging, President Roosevelt is there to greet him. Few men in history have had as honored a trans-Atlantic journey on both ends as Halifax, considering that the King, Queen, and Churchill saw him off from Scapa Flow and Roosevelt was there to greet him upon his arrival.

Anglo/Australian Relations: Prime Minister Robert Menzies flies from Melbourne for a visit to England, taking off in a flying boat from Rose Bay, Sydney. The first major stop is Darwin, which will take two days to reach. Due to the war situation, he will take a roundabout journey through central Africa and thence up to Lisbon. The entire journey to London will take about a month.

Menzies' mission is to impress upon the British high command the perilous situation in the Pacific Theater. He wants better defenses in Singapore and more wartime industry sited in Australia. The timing of the trip is striking, coinciding with the battles of Australian troops in North Africa.

German/Spanish Relations: The Germans remain optimistic that they can convince the Spanish leader Francisco Franco to join the Axis. Foreign Minister Ribbentrop gets involved in this effort, which so far has gone nowhere and which shows no signs of changing Franco's attitude of military neutrality.

Some unknown person in Seattle, Washington owns this classic Plymouth Army P11 staff car of 1941 and appears to keep it driveable. There's another classic military vehicle in the driveway, so someone is really into World War II-era vehicles. (Photo: Ryan Haarsager).

US Government: Navy Secretary Frank Knox writes a memorandum to Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson. Knox warns that it:

is believed easily possible that hostilities would be initiated by a surprise attack upon the fleet or the naval base at Pearl Harbor.

Knox foresees "inherent possibilities of a major disaster" and lists the following "dangers envisaged in order of their importance and probability," to wit:

air attack
torpedo plane attack
sabotage
submarine attack
mining
bombardment by gunfire.

Knox suggests that army and navy plans be coordinated in the event of such an air raid against Hawaii.

The Jackson, Mississippi Daily News, 24 January 1941.

Romania: With the Iron Guard rebellion now over, some of its leaders and participants flee to Germany to avoid certain execution by a vengeful Prime Minister Ion Antonescu. Showing their equivocal role in the entire affair, the Germans help the Legionnaires to escape and provide them with the safe harbor in the Reich.

Indochina: Thai bombers raid the French airbase at Angkor, Cambodia, near Siem Riep. This is the final battle of the conflict.

At this point, the Japanese decide they have seen enough squabbling over territory they covet, so they step in as mediators. The Thais accept Japanese mediation in the conflict with the French colonial administrators despite US warnings that the Japanese are simply managing events for their own benefit. The two parties, Thailand and Vichy France, enter into negotiations on Japanese cruiser Vatori, which arrives in Saigon on or about this date. Naturally, the Japanese have a seat at the table and guide things to benefit the Thais.

Antarctica: USMS North Star, an Arctic supply ship, arrives to pick up the crew of Admiral Richard E. Byrd's third expedition to Antarctica at West Base.

Holocaust: A ghetto is opened in Sochaczew, Poland, with the Jews having to leave their homes in the town and get to the ghetto within 24 hours. The Judenrat provides ten carts for 2000 people, limiting to the extreme the number of personal possessions that families can take. Many notice the actions of the Judenrat, whose members appropriate for themselves and their families the best lodgings and manage to travel more comfortably.

Future History: Today is quite a day in the world of music, though nobody will realize if for about 30 years.

Neil Leslie Diamond is born in Brooklyn, New York. He attends Erasmus Hall High School, where one of his classmates is Barbra Streisand. On his 16th birthday, Neil receives a guitar as a gift, and he develops a love for singing at a summer camp in upstate New York. He begins writing poetry to pick up girls, and this informs his music, and he begins writing songs. Sunbeam Music Publishing offers him a temporary job writing songs, so he drops out of NYU. However, he is not retained after the temporary gig ends, so he begins recording demos. He writes several hit songs recorded by The Monkees, including "I'm a Believer," "A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You," and others. Other big artists like Elvis Presley begin recording his songs, and he begins to establish himself as a performer as well. After signing with Uni (Universal) Records in 1968, he gains some traction performing, and in 1969 begins a string of major hits with "Sweet Caroline." He becomes one of the top performers of the '70s, and turns to films in 1980 with "The Jazz Singer." His song "Heartlight" inspired by the hit movie "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial" in 1982 becomes a huge hit. Neil Diamond remains a household name and continues to perform.

Aaron Neville is born in New Orleans, Louisiana. Neville records with brothers Art, Charles and Cyril as The Neville Brothers, and later becomes a top solo act. His hit singles include "Tell it Like It Is," "Don't Know Much" with Linda Ronstadt, and "Everybody Plays the Fool," among many others. Aaron Neville continues to perform and release albums.

Michael Chapman is born in Leeds, Yorkshire, England. He becomes a professional musician, writing songs and performing in the "progressive music scene" in England. Chapman continues to perform and has recorded over 40 albums to date.

Destroyers USS Butler and Gherardi under construction at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, 24 January 1941.

January 1941

January 1, 1941: Muselier Arrested
January 2, 1941: Camp Categories
January 3, 1941: Liberty Ships
January 4, 1941: Aussies Take Bardia
January 5, 1941: Amy Johnson Perishes
January 6, 1941: Four Freedoms
January 7, 1941: Pearl Harbor Plans
January 8, 1941: Billions For Defense
January 9, 1941: Lancasters
January 10, 1941: Malta Convoy Devastation
January 11, 1941: Murzuk Raid
January 12, 1941: Operation Rhubarb
January 13, 1941: Plymouth Blitzed
January 14, 1941: V for Victory
January 15, 1941: Haile Selassie Returns
January 16, 1941: Illustrious Blitz
January 17, 1941: Koh Chang Battle
January 18, 1941: Luftwaffe Pounds Malta
January 19, 1941: East African Campaign Begins
January 20, 1941: Roosevelt 3rd Term
January 21, 1941: Attack on Tobruk
January 22, 1941: Tobruk Falls
January 23, 1941: Pogrom in Bucharest
January 24, 1941: Tank Battle in Libya
January 25, 1941: Panjiayu Tragedy
January 26, 1941: Churchill Working Hard
January 27, 1941: Grew's Warning
January 28, 1941: Ho Chi Minh Returns
January 29, 1941: US Military Parley With Great Britain
January 30, 1941: Derna Taken
January 31, 1941: LRDG Battered

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