18 Jan 1940 | World War II Database

18 Jan 1940

U-23 began her seventh war patrol. ww2dbase [U-23 | CPC]

Atlantic Ocean

German submarine U-44 sank the Danish vessel Canadian Reefer, sailing for Britain with fruit, in the Bay of Biscay. The crew of 26 were rescued by a Spanish trawler. ww2dbase [Bay of Biscay | CPC]
German submarine U-25 sank Swedish merchant ship Pajala with three torpedoes in the North Sea at 1625 hours. Escort HMS Northern Duke rescued 35 after unsuccessfully depth charging U-25. ww2dbase [North Sea | CPC]
German submarine U-55 sank Swedish merchant ship Foxen in the North Sea, killing 17, at 1745 hours. ww2dbase [North Sea | CPC]
German submarine U-9 attacked Swedish merchant ship Patricia with two torpedoes in the North Sea at 2353 hours, but the torpedoes went astray, hitting and sinking Flandria instead. Norwegian merchant ship Balzac would rescue four survivors two days later. ww2dbase [North Sea | CPC]

Finland

Having already destroyed Soviet 163rd and 44th Divisions, Finnish Army Colonel Siilasvuo was ordered to take the Finnish 9th Division 30 miles south to Kuhmo to attack the Soviet 54th Division under the command of Chuikov. ww2dbase [The Winter War | Hjalmar Siilasvuo | CPC]

United States

Tatsuta Maru departed San Francisco, California, United States; 512 civilian seamen from the scuttled German liner Columbus were supposed to be aboard, but they canceled their journeys at the last moment in fear of possible British interception of the liner which might lead to their imprisonment. ww2dbase [Tatsuta Maru | San Francisco, California | CPC]

Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, Hugh Martyr, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis

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