World War II Database

• Home
• » Events
• » WW2 Timeline
• » 11 Feb 1941

• Indian 3rd Battalion captured Sanchil hill in the Dongolaas Gorge near Keren, Eritrea, Italian East Africa, but the Italian Savoia Grenadiers conterattack recaptured the hill as well as Brig's Peak by the end of the day. To the South, British troops from Kenya captured the road junction at Afmadow at the north end of the Juba River. ww2dbase [Invasion of Italian East Africa | CPC]
• British monitor HMS Erebus bombarded Ostend, Belgium between 0100 and 0140 hours. ww2dbase [CPC]
• The first German troops arrived at Tripoli, Libya. ww2dbase [Operation Sonnenblume | CPC]
• British submarine HMS Snapper, en route from the River Clyde in Scotland, United Kingdom to the Bay of Biscay off France. The crew of 41 was never seen again. She probably ran into a minefield or was sunk by German minesweepers M-2, M-13, and M-25. ww2dbase [CPC]
• German cruiser Admiral Hipper sank British ship Iceland of Allied convoy HX53 800 miles west of Gibraltar; the entire crew of 23 survived and were picked up by Admiral Hipper. Admiral Hipper would soon detect the rest of the convoy on radar at the distance of 15 kilometers. ww2dbase [Admiral Hipper | CPC]

• British RAF bombed Hannover, Germany. ww2dbase [Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | Hannover | TH]

• At 0030 hours, British paratroopers blew up the Tragino aqueduct in southern Italy. All but one were captured during their escape, remaining prisoners of war until 1943. The aqueduct they destroyed would soon be repaired and returned to service. ww2dbase [Operation Colossus | Calitri, Campania | CPC]

• British submarine HMS Triumph (Lieutenant Commander W. J. W. Woods, RN) departed from Valetta, Malta for her 11th war patrol. She was to proceed to the Gulf of Salerno to pick up a group of airborne commando troops participating in Operation Colossus, near the mouth of the River Sele. The pick up was cancelled when it was feared that the Italians might intercept the submarine. ww2dbase [Operation Colossus | HM]

• Just before 0730 hours, the British submarine HMS Rover, commanded by Lieutenant Commander H. A. L. Marsham, RN heard a loud explosion and observed a destroyer at 8,000 yards moving slowly. The explosion was most probably a bomb dropped by a CANT seaplane of 142nd Squadriglia (Sottotenente di Vascello Tenti). Closing on the submarine was a German convoy: Arta (2,452-ton), Maritza (2,910-ton), and Heraklea (1,927-ton), escorted by the destroyer Baleno which had sailed from Taranto for Naples, Italy. Following the attack on the submarine Salpa, Italian naval headquarters Supermarina had ordered the destroyers Alfredo Oriani and Giosuè Carducci to reinforce the escort and they had joined up after midnight. Oriani had taken over as escort leader and ordered Baleno to zigzag ahead and the latter was probably the destroyer observed by Rover. The submarine dived to 90 feet and heard two destroyers passing over her but was not attacked. The convoy continued undisturbed and the destroyers observed nothing. The submarine chaser Albatros coming from Messina, Sicily, Italy was guided to the scene by the seaplane but failed to find the British submarine. ww2dbase [HM]
• In operations by the 10th SM Flotilla east of the Tunisian coast, the British submarine HMS Unique commanded by Lieutenant A. F. Collet, RN attacked a large transport east of Kerkenah in Tunisia. The ship was the Arcturus (2,576-ton), she was in company with Alicante (2,140-ton) and the Ankara (4,768-ton) being escorted by the Italian destroyer Turbine and Torpedo Boat Orsa heading for Tripoli, Libya. The Arcturus reported three deep explosions which were the torpedoes hitting the ocean floor. ww2dbase [HM]

• Wall Street lawyer and Republican Party candidate Wendell Wilkie, who Franklin Roosevelt had soundly defeated in the November 1940 US presidential election, having returned that morning from a fact-finding mission to London at his own expense, addressed a packed meeting of the House Foreign Affairs Committee at the US Senate's Caucus room. He warned the Committee that should Britain fall the United States would find itself at war in a month and advocated that every American bomber save training planes should be sent to Britain post-haste together with five or ten destroyers a month. ww2dbase [Washington | AC]

11 Feb 1941 Interactive Map