Air Operations, Middle East

The RAF bomb and strafe the oil installations at Beirut, Lebanon.

Air Operations, North Africa

Tobruk is hit again by Axis aircraft.

Battle of the Atlantic

• The German tanker Belchen (6367t) is sunk by the British light cruisers Aurora and Kenya near Greenland. U-93 rescues 50 survivors.
• U-48 damages and U-75 sinks the British tanker Inversuir (9456t) in mid-Atlantic. The entire crew is rescued.
• U-75 sinks the Dutch steamer Eibergen (4801t) from convoy OB-327 in mid-Atlantic with the loss of 4 crewmen. The British anti-aircraft ship Cairo rescues 35 survivors on the 7th.
• The British steamer Royal Fusilier (2187t) is badly damaged in a German bombing attack, then sinks 4 miles from May Island. The entire crew is rescued.

Italian East Africa

The British regain control of Debarech, near Gondar, Ethiopia, after the Italians have recaptured it twice.

German Raiders

Over the next 3 weeks British forces successfully intercept and sink 9 German supply ships. 7 of them have been sent to sea to cooperate with the Bismarck and the remaining 2 have been working with the merchant raiders. These interceptions all occur because of the British ablility to decode some German signals.

Iraq

British Gurkha troops enter Mosul. A few German pilots are captured.

Mediterranean

An Italian transport explodes during an attack by RAF Martin Maryland bombers near the Tunisian coast. The explosion badly damages another Italian ship and destroys 1 of the bombers.