WW2 Tweets @RealTimeWWII@mastodon.muage.org

British government is planning for possible invasion of Ireland (if given pretext by a German advance). Churchill orders "every scheme of which military & naval ingenuity are capable" prepared for moving troops over Irish Channel.

Planes from Rommel's newly-arrived Afrikakorps have begun raiding Allied bases in Libya- Luftwaffe bombing Benghazi now, Australian & British fighters scrambling to fight them off.

Japan's Foreign Minister Yōsuke Matsuoka declares Japan has a right to move into the Pacific, announces "the white race must cede Oceania to the Asiatics- we will fill the lands as they deserve."

Japan urges end to "shameful war" in Europe, offers to act as a "neutral mediator"; suggests USA & UK stay out of Asian affairs to "reduce tension".

British government announces the Royal Navy is laying mines in the waters around Singapore, & fortifying the city due to "rising tensions in Asia".

Australian Prime Minister Menzies King, now on a grand tour of the European theatre of war, stops in recently-captured Tobruk to photograph an Italian ship still burning in harbour:

Overnight, RAF planes carried out furthest "raid" yet- flight over Krakow, Poland, dropping propaganda leaflets urging Poles to revolt against German occupiers.

Fighting at Keren has been brutal- 1 Indian soldier, Richpal Ram, led a bayonet charge with right foot blown off by Italian artillery shell- he has died & been awarded a Victoria Cross.

In Eritrea, the advance of Indian & British troops has been fought to a dead halt in the jagged mountains above the the Italian outpost of Keren.

Noach: Germans exchange Jewish men's wives & "compel them at pistol point to have sexual relations in the presence of the children & all their families." More: https://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/ciechanow/Eichmann_testimony.htm

Noach Zabludowicz reports increasing brutality towards the Jews of Poland: "Germans are breaking into overcrowded Jewish houses with guns" & force Jews into humiliating sexual displays.

Austria has begun deporting its Jewish citizens to the new-built ghettoes of Nazi-occupied Poland; first trainload of 2003 Jews leaving Vienna now.

Another Italian counterattack in Albanian mountains is bloodily repulsed in bitter weather conditions- snow so deep, Greeks are digging trenches in it:

In Nazi-occupied Paris, writer Jean Galtier-Boissière is keeping a record of French collaborators: "Fine wines flow & banned beefsteaks hide under fried eggs. Fat cats rule the New Order... while housewives queue in the snow for turnips."

PM Churchill cables President Roosevelt: "Many drifting straws show Japan's intention to make war on us- to encroach on Indochina, even to attack Australia."

Admiral Nomura, new Japanese ambassador to the USA is meeting the President for first time- assures Roosevelt of "Japanese amity" & peaceful intentions in Pacific .

German General Erwin Rommel has arrived in Tripoli with newly formed "Afrikakorps"- ready to face an Allied army for control of North Africa.

All British commandos in Italy captured- their translator, Anglo-Italian ex-waiter Fortunato Picchi, has been tortured by local fascists & shot as a traitor.

Admirers of American President Franklin Roosevelt send him handmade Valentine's cards, like this one from Wisconsin, celebrating the President's third term of office: https://fdrlibrary.tumblr.com/post/110991655374/through-his-presidency-fdr-received-valentines

Hendrik Koot, a Dutch Fascist, has died of wounds from street-fighting versus Jewish defence groups- Nazi authorities in Amsterdam promise "severe reprisals"