Historical
Finnish troops started pulling out of the Lähde sector of the Mannerheim line. The Kirvesmäki stronghold on the Taipale River changed hands for the fourth time in three days. The British Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, Osbert Peake, announced in Parliament that a general licence had been granted for British subjects to volunteer for service with the Finnish military.
Five IRA (Irish Republican Army) bombs exploded in Birmingham.
Admiral Graf Spee’s supply ship Altmark, after waiting in the South Atlantic for several weeks, reached Norwegian territorial waters off Trondheim. She was spotted by a Hudson of Coastal Command.
Battle of the Atlantic. German U-boats exacted a heavy toll on merchant ships carrying food and fuel in British waters, sinking four merchant ships. U-57 hit the British tanker SS Gretafield east of Wick, Scotland. U-53 sank the Danish SS Martin Goldschmidt west of Ireland. U-26 sank the British SS Langleeford northwest of Fastnet, Ireland. U-48 sinks the British SS Sultan Star west of Land’s End. The British government announced that merchantmen in the North Sea would be armed for defence.
An authorized Nazi spokesman said that U-boats had a “theoretical right” to attack United States shipping en route to Allied ports.
The Manstein Plan (Fall Gelb) for the attack on Western Europe was tested again in a war game. Heinz Guderian concluded that the plan was viable, but Franz Halder did not share Guderian’s confidence that panzers could cross the Meuse on their own without waiting for infantry support.
Rationing was introduced in the Vatican City.
Game day 167. Japan
The convoy from Japan unloaded six armoured battalions at Shanghai, reinforcing the four infantry battalions already in occupation.
General Whiskers' semi-historical wanderings 