BRITISH BREAK LINE OF FOE IN ERITREA; CAPTURE RAILHEAD (1/27/41)

Microfilm-New York Times archives, Monterey Public Library | 1/27/41 | Hugh Byas, Hanson W. Baldwin

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents World War II Plus 70 Years: Seminar and Discussion Forum
First session: September 1, 2009. Last date to add: September 2, 2015.
Reading assignment: New York Times articles delivered daily to students on the 70th anniversary of original publication date. (Previously posted articles can be found by searching on keyword “realtime” Or view Homer’s posting history .)
To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by freepmail. Those on the Realtime +/- 70 Years ping list are automatically enrolled. Course description, prerequisites and tuition information is available at the bottom of Homer’s profile. Also visit our general discussion thread

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Selections from West Point Atlas for the Second World War
North Africa, 1940: Graziani’s Advance and Wavell’s Offensive, 13 September 1940-7 February 1941 (Map 34a)
Marcks’ Plan, August 5, 1940
Operation Barbarossa (Dir. 21), December 18, 1940
The Mediterranean Basin (Map 33)
The Far East and the Pacific, 1941 – The Imperial Powers, 1 September 1939

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Winston S. Churchill, The Grand Alliance

[Homer_J_Simpson]

John Toland, The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Two more Billboard Top Ten entries for the week of January 25, 1941.

#5 – Yet another Glenn Miller tune: “Anvil Chorus”

And, for some good clean fun, #4, Will Bradley doing “Scrub Me Mama with a Boogie Beat.”

[Homer_J_Simpson]

British Break Line of Foe in Eritrea; Capture Railhead – 2
Italian Reverses Seen Curbing Nazis – 2
Matsuoka Accuses Hull of Distorting Case of Manchuria – 3
Vichy Still Awaiting Answer from Hitler – 3
The International Situation – 4
India Rule Derided at London Meeting – 4
Pravda Belittles Hamsun after He Makes Nazi Plea – 4
Tactics of Desperation – 5
The Texts of the Day’s War Communiques – 6

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1941/jan41/f27jan41.htm

British advancing in Eritrea

Monday, January 27, 1941 www.onwar.com

In East Africa... The British advance in Eritrea reaches Agordat and a battle gradually develops in this area.

In Albania... Ciano and other senior members of the Italian government arrive in Albania to take up active army commands. This measure is presumably designed to boost morale.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/27.htm

January 27th, 1941

UNITED KINGDOM:
RAF Bomber Command: 2 Group: In the event of invasion 21 Blenheims would be used to spray gas if necessary.

Boscombe Down: The prototype Avro Lancaster arrives for acceptance tests. It is fitted with triple fins and lacks either dorsal or ventral turrets.

Minesweeping trawler HMS Dragora mined and sunk in Thames Estuary.

Corvette HMS Azalea commissioned.
Minesweeping trawler HMS Fara launched.

ASW trawler HMS Tarantella launched.

(Dave Shirlaw)

FRANCE: VICHY FRANCE: All civil servants and state officials are ordered to swear an oath of allegiance to Marshal Petain.

GERMANY:

U-371 launched.
U-599 laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)

ALBANIA: Italy’s foreign minister, Count Galeazzo Ciano and other senior members of the Italian government arrive in Albania to take up active military commands. Ciana takes command of a bomber squadron. This measure is designed to boost morale. (Jack McKillop)

ROMANIA: The preparatory work on the Danube bridges to enable them to carry the Wehrmacht’s heavy tanks, begins.

LIBYA: One company of the Australian 2/11th Battalion captures Fort Rudero on the heights above Derna capturing 290 prisoners and 5 field guns. (Jack McKillop)

ERITREA: Barentu: The British advance from the Sudan has been held up at this mountain fortress and the bridge across the river Baraka at Agordat.

The 4th and 5th Indian Divisions and the Sudan Defence Force began by retaking the border town of Kassala eight days ago. Next day they crossed the frontier.

The 5th Indian Div. found Tessanai deserted, its garrison in retreat, and went onto Barentu. Forty miles north a flying column under Colonel Frank Messervy, “Gazelle Force”, penetrated as far as Keru Gorge before being stopped. There the British suffered their only set-back so far. 10th Indian Brigade, trying to outflank the Keru defences, got lost, was strafed by planes, and its commander, Major General Bill Slim, retired with a bullet in his backside. It was two days before Messervy was through the gorge, his artillery fighting off a frontal cavalry charge on open sights. Now Messervy is outside Agordat and the 5th Indian outside Barentu.

JAPAN: Tokyo: The Peruvian ambassador to Japan warns his American counterpart, Joseph Grew, that the Japanese plan to destroy the US fleet at the naval base of Pearl Harbor; Grew passes the information on to Washington.

CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Outarde launched North Vancouver, British Columbia. (Dave Shirlaw)

U.S.A.: Washington: This week, for the first time in history, senior US and British military staff officers will meet here in secret to hammer out a common strategy in case the United States finds itself at war with Germany or Japan (or both) in alliance with Britain. The talks, known as “ABC1”, illustrate how quickly Washington is changing its view of the danger of war. On 12 November Admiral Stark, the chief of US naval operations, sent “Plan Dog” to the navy secretary, Frank Knox, giving priority to war in the Atlantic and urging closer links with Britain.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/

Day 515 January 27, 1941

Operation Compass. The harbour at Tobruk, Libya, is cleared of wrecks and opened to British ships. The first vessels in are troopship Ulster Prince (which takes Italian POWs back to Alexandria, Egypt) and supply ships Cingalese Prince, Rosaura and Chakla which unload men and supplies in a severe sandstorm. Tobruk will become an important supply point for the continued Allied advance across Libya. 100 miles Northwest along the coast from Tobruk, Australian 6th Division takes Fort Rudero overlooking the small town of Derna (capturing 290 Italian prisoners and 5 field guns). However, they meet stiff resistance from Italian troops and artillery dug in the far side of Wadi Derna (a steep ravine, a mile wide and 700 feet deep).

100 miles North of Tripoli, Libya, Fairey Swordfish of Fleet Air Arm 830 Squadron from Malta sink German steamer Ingo (crew rescued by Italian torpedo boat Orione).

Minesweeping trawler HMT Darogah sinks on a mine in the Thames Estuary.

[Larry381]

Here's a rather interesting report from the captain of the German Commerce Raider Atlantis now operating in Indian Ocean waters:

"On 27th January, after four uneventful days, a lookout sighted a cloud of smoke followed by three funnels. I promptly turned away and ran off at fifteen knots. From the shape of her funnels and upper works, the ship was probably the Queen Mary. We could not make out whether she was in convoy, but in any case pursuit was out of the question as she was superior to us not only in speed but probably in armament as well.

I was fully conscious of the wave of disappointment that ran through the ship as I gave my orders to the quartermaster and chief engineer. I cut right through the crew's grumblings by saying: 'Does anyone really think that the British would allow such a valuable ship to sail unescorted? There's sure to be a cruiser beyond her which we cannot see.' As a matter of fact, one of the {captured} British skippers said in casual conversation that evening that the Queen Mary was indeed being used as a transport in those waters, always escorted by a light cruiser."

(After the war I learned that she was not the Queen Mary, but the 22,281-ton Strathaird of the P & O line, operating as a troop-transport.)

[CougarGA7]

[BroJoeK]

from Toland: "...the Japanese intended to make a "surprise mass attack on Pearl Harbor" with all their strength. Crocker passed this on to Ambassador Grew, who cabled Washington..."

Prange has much more to say on this incident.

It corresponds closely with Admiral Stark's memo saying that a Japanese "surprise attack" on Pearl Harbor was "easily possible."

My point as always is that warnings were there, they were seen and understood by the Washington "top brass," and they were not entirely discounted.

[LS]

Prange is not reliable, as detailed as he is. Neither is Toland. His “seaman z” was a fiasco and a lie. The man, Ogg, never said what Toland said he said.

[BroJoeK]

LS: "Prange is not reliable..."

Well, you're going to have to take that up with our professor.
I'm going by his books -- especially when I agree with them! ;-)

Last week I looked carefully through the Pearl Harbor museum book store, to see if they had any of the more notorious "revisionist" books.
They didn't.

But they did have Prange's book, and really, no others of that caliber.
So I think Homer chose well, and suggest you read and learn... pal.