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• The Soviet 18th Division attacked across the frozen Lake Suvanto in the Taipale Sector near Lake Lagoda in eastern Karelian Isthmus. Finnish defenders, with concentrated artillery fire, halted the attack after inflicting nearly 1,000 fatalities. ww2dbase [The Winter War | TH]
• German submarine U-23, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Otto Kretschmer, torpedoed and sank Britisher steamer Tiberton east of the Orkney Islands, Scotland at 0405 hours. Tiberton sank in 30 seconds, taking the lives of the entire crew of 30. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Adolf Hitler, alarmed by the Altmark Incident of 16 Feb 1940, ordered to hasten the planning of the invasion of Norway. ww2dbase [Invasion of Denmark and Norway | CPC]

• German destroyers Wilhelm Heidkamp and Karl Galster, participants of Operation Nordmark, were dispatched from the main body for a mission in the Skagerrak between Denmark and Norway and beyond. ww2dbase [North Sea | CPC]
• Seeadler began patrolling the Skagerrak strait between Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. ww2dbase [Seeadler | Skagerrak | CPC]
• U-23 sank British merchant ship Tiberton with a G7e torpedo at 0405 hours in the North Sea about 33 miles east of Kirkwall, Orkney Islands, Scotland, United Kingdom. It broke in two and sank within 30 seconds, killing all 34 aboard. The ship was carrying iron ore from Norway, bound for Britain. ww2dbase [Start of the Battle of the Atlantic | U-23 | North Sea | CPC]

• US Secretary of State Cordell Hull extended the American moral embargo to include the Soviet Union. ww2dbase [Cordell Hull | CPC]

19 Feb 1940 Interactive Map