Air Operations, East Africa

There are night raids by the RAF on Benghazi.

Air Operations, North Africa

The RAF continues to bomb shipping in Benghazi harbor, Libya. There are night raids by the RAF on Assab, Eritrea.

Battle of the Atlantic

The Italian submarine Capellini sinks the British steamer Eumaeus (7472t) off Freetown with the loss of 27 of her crew.

German Raiders

The German disguised raider Pinguin captures a Norwegian whaling fleet consisting of 3 factory ships and 11 whale catchers in the Antarctic. Skeleton crews are put on board the ships to take them to France. They arrive in March.

Greece

Gen Wavell and Air Marshal Arthur Longmore are in Athens for 2 days worth of talks with Prime Minister Metaxas and the Greek Commander in Chief, Gen Papagos. The Greeks ask for 9 divisions and a substantial air component to be sent to support their forces. On the Albanian front the Greeks have 12 divisions and 3 brigades of infantry. 4 divisions are guarding the Bulgarian frontier, but one is to be transferred from Macedonia to Albania where the Italians are regularly receiving reinforcements.

At this stage the Germans have 12 divisions in Rumania and in Bulgaria German officers in civilian clothes are directing road and airport development. To meet such a force Wavell is able to offer only a small contribution now consisting of one regiment of artillery, one anti-tank and one anti-aircraft regiment and about 60 tanks. He hopes to be able to provide more later.