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February 14th, 1941

UNITED KINGDOM: London: The Bulgarian ambassador is seen at the Foreign Office by Sir Alexander Cadogan in an attempt to impress on the Bulgarians the great mistake they would be making if they threw in their lot with the Germans.
MS trawler HMS Ronaldsay launched. (Dave Shirlaw)

VICHY FRANCE: Admiral Darlan is appointed interior minister; he keeps his other posts.

GERMANY: Berchtesgaden: Hitler presses the Yugoslav Premier, Dragisa Cvetkovich, to join the Tripartite Pact.

Hitler also issues final orders for the occupation of Bulgaria. The Bulgarians can now complete their mobilisation.

The heavy cruiser ‘Admiral Hipper’ ends a 140 day cruise in which it has sunk eight ships, one of which was sailing independently and seven of which were in unescorted convoy SLS64. (Ric Pelvin)

Ron Babuka adds: An interesting story:

M/S Borgestad NS * 3924 gt
Built in Copenhagen, Denmark 1925.

Captain Lars Grotnæss. Commodore ship in Convoy SLS 64, which left Freetown with 19 ships on January 30-1941 bound for Liverpool without an escort. 12 ships were British, 4 Greek. The Norwegian D/S Bur and D/S Varangberg had ended up so far behind by February 12 they barely had contact with the convoy. Borgestad had a cargo of cotton. Early on the morning of February 12, in position 37 12N 21 20W (between Madeira and the Azores) the German Admiral Hipper attacked, at a distance of 2500 meters. (In fact, the captain on Hipper had just previously been notified of Convoy HG 53 and was given orders to attack, so when SLS 64 showed up in his course, he initially thought he had encountered HG 53 - see D/S Tejo). Captain Grotnæss must have given the order to disperse, because ship after ship turned around and desperately tried to get away, but Borgestad and the other ships at the head of the convoy had no time for such manoeuvres, as Hipper was quickly advancing, and Grotnæss chose to fight, in spite of Borgestad’s inferior armament. He headed directly towards Admiral Hipper, in an effort to get that ship as far away from the convoy as possible, with the gunners loading and firing, loading and firing. When after a fierce battle Borgestad eventually sank, 30 men and 1 woman went down with her. (Other ships lost were the Greek Perseus, 14 died, the British Derrynane, 36 died - Schrewsbury, 20 died, Oswestry Grange, 5 died - Warlaby, 36 lost and Westbury with 5 dead).

The 1st mate on Borgestad, Harald Nergaard had his American wife Norma (born Hayes) with him on the ship. She was employed as a stewardess, was 21 years old and from Tacoma. They are both listed under the first “related link” below. The captain was posthumously awarded the highest ranked Norwegian decoration “Krigskorset” for his actions during this battle, which were officially acknowledged as having saved the convoy from total destruction by the Hipper (Meisel). As it was, 7 went down, while 12 escaped (2 of which were damaged). The distress calls from the fleeing ships were received by the Admiralty, which dispatched the battle ship Renown and the aircraft carrier Ark Royal from Gibraltar that same afternoon, as well as some destroyers, partly to assist the convoy, and partly to catch the German ship. But Admiral Hipper, which had spent a tremendous amount of ammunition in this battle and had no interest in being engaged by the British force in such a state, quickly headed for Brest, arriving there without having been located. For days there was great fear for the remains of Convoy SLS 64. Varangberg finally reached Gibraltar on Febr. 17, while Bur, as one of the last ships, arrived St. Miguel (Azores) on Febr. 18.

MORE on Norma Nergaard (”Krigsseileren” No. 3, 1998): Those of you who live in Scotland and have access to a library might be able to find some articles written by Norma Nergaard in Glasgow Sunday Mail, dated July 16, 23 and 30, and Aug. 6-1938. Her parents were born in England and after having graduated from High School in Tacoma in the summer of 1938 she and her elder sister Mabel travelled to England on board Borgestad, in order to visit relatives in Scotland. Since the ship was not certified for passengers they were hired as mess girls, sailing south along the U.S. coast, stopping in San Pedro, Calif., Panama, Jamaica and through the Caribbean before heading north to London, arriving 45 days later. Once in England they purchased 2 used bicycles and headed for Scotland where Norma was subsequently hired as a journalist for the newspapers Edinburgh Record and Glasgow Sunday Mail, and it was in the latter that she wrote some articles about her travels. When the war broke out she returned to Tacoma, and when Borgestand showed up on the west coast in the spring of 1940 she met up with Harald Nergaard again, and at the end of June that same year they were married. Again she was hired as a mess girl so that the bride and groom could be together. They had a 10 days “honeymoon” in Ceylon while Borgestad was there. Norma was posthumously awarded Krigsmedaljen in May-1946 .

NORTH AFRICA: The 11th Hussars are attacked by a flight of fighter aircraft from Fliegerkorps X the first contact that 7 Armd. Div. has with the Luftwaffe in North Africa.

Libya, Tripoli:

The first troops of Hitler’s new Afrika Korps disembarked today, two days after their commander, General Erwin Rommel, arrived with orders to rescue the wretched Italian army, which in two months has lost 130,000 prisoner of war, 380 tanks and 845 guns to Britain.

Rommel has been promised two divisions, one armoured, but these will not arrive until late April. For the time being, then, he has to face the British with only a reconnaissance battalion and anti-tank battalion. He plans to hoax the enemy with dummy tanks mounted on Volkswagen motor cars.

Despite orders that he should not attempt an offensive until his two divisions arrive, Rommel is already planning a probe into the British defences. He could be luckier than he expects. The British are strung out along the coast of Libya for over 500 miles from the Egyptian border at El Agheila.

General Wavell’s battle-weary 7th Armoured Division has been pulled back to Egypt for rest and refitting. Its place has been taken by the new and inexperienced 2nd Armoured Division. Other British forces have been diverted to Greece, greatly weakening Wavell’s strength in the Western Desert. The key to North Africa is the Mediterranean supply route. German aircraft are bombing Malta from Sicily, so the RAF can no longer strike at Axis shipping sailing for Tripoli. And the British, unable to use the Mediterranean, must take supplies round the Cape of Good Hope.

ITALIAN SOMALILAND: The Italians are on the run in East Africa. Their latest loss is the port of Kismayu, on the Indian Ocean, which was occupied at 14:00 by West, East and South African troops, under the command of Lt. Gen. Alan Cunningham.

The port is the first major prize in what he plans will become a two-pronged drive, up the coast to Mogadishu, the colonial capital, and northwards up the river Juba to Ethiopia. His offensive into Italian territory began in earnest only three days ago, after an eight-week preliminary operation to recapture first parts of Kenya occupied by the Italians and then frontier posts on the Kenya-Somaliland border.

The resistance on the road from Afmadu has been dealt with by the Gold Coast Regiment and an Indian mountain battery, while South African planes have pounded the port. Next stop: Mogadishu.

U.S.A.: In baseball, the entire Brooklyn Dodger team leaves New York City to train in Havana, Cuba for most of the spring. (Jack McKillop)

Destroyer USS Woolsey launched.

Destroyer USS Grayson commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)

PUERTO RICO: Fleet Landing Exercise (FLEX) No. 7, which had begun on 4 February, concludes in the Culebra-Vieques area. (Jack McKillop)

ATLANTIC OCEAN: Scharnhorst and Gneisenau enter the Atlantic through the Denmark Strait, and refuel from tanker Schlettstadt some 150 miles south of Cape Farewell. (Navy News).

At 2257, the Holystone, a straggler from convoy OB-284, was torpedoed and sunk by U-101 west of Ireland. The master, 35 crewmembers, two gunners and two passengers were lost. (Dave Shirlaw)