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• All Italian outposts surrounding Tobruk, Libya were captured by the Allies. Meanwhile, en route to Derna, Libya, Allied troops encountered units of the newly organized Italian Special Armoured Brigade and defeated them near Mechili, destroying 9 Italian tanks at the cost of 7 British tanks. ww2dbase [Operation Compass | CPC]
• German He 114 seaplane from armed merchant cruiser Atlantis attacked British ship Mandasor 300 miles east of the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. Atlantis soon arrived, stopping Mandasor with gunfire, killing 6. A launch from Atlantis drove away sharks with machine gun fire as the Germans rescued 82 survivors. Mandasor was eventually sunk with a torpedo. As the He 114 aircraft attempted to land in the water for recovery, the rough seas caused her to capsize and become lost. Four Allied cruisers later arrived on the scene in response, but Atlantis had already departed. ww2dbase [Atlantis | CPC]
• Lord Halifax arrived at Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, United States aboard battleship HMS King George V. He had arrived to take up his new post as the British ambassador to the United States. ww2dbase [Halifax | CPC]
• German submarine U-123 sank Norwegian ship Vespasian with a torpedo 200 miles west of Ireland at 2148 hours, killing the entire crew of 18. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Seeadler completed laying mines in the English Channel. ww2dbase [Seeadler | English Channel | CPC]
• Alessandro Malaspina shifted her patrol area in the Atlantic Ocean some distance to the south. ww2dbase [Alessandro Malaspina | CPC]

• Thai aircraft bombed the airfield at Angkor near Siem Reap, Cambodia, French Indochina; the resulting dogfights would be the final air battle of the Franco-Thai War. ww2dbase [Franco-Thai War | CPC]

• Joseph Stalin met with Kirill Meretskov at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia, and praised his courage but also informing him that he needed to be more decisive and ruthless. ww2dbase [Joseph Stalin | Kirill Meretskov | Moscow | CPC]

• Comandante Cappellini departed Port of Las Palmas (Puerto de La Luz), Gran Canaria, Canary Islands at 0038 hours to intercept HMS Tribune, but she would not be able to locate her. ww2dbase [Comandante Cappellini | Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canarias | CPC]

24 Jan 1941 Interactive Map