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• Nigerian, Ghanaian, East African, and South African troops of 11th African Division under British General Harry Edward de Robillard Wetherall and 12th African Division under British General Reade Godwin-Austen crossed into the Italian Somaliland from Kenya. Italian troops withdrew 100 miles behind the Juba River in response. ww2dbase [Invasion of Italian East Africa | CPC]
• HMS Illustrious arrived at Alexandria, Egypt. ww2dbase [Illustrious | CPC]
• After sundown, British minelaying cruiser HMS Latona and destroyers HMS Hero, HMS Hotspur, and HMS Encounter departed Alexandria, Egypt for Tobruk, Libya. They were discovered and attacked by 10 German Stuka dive bombers and 2 Italian S.79 medium bombers 35 miles away from their destination. HMS Latona was hit by a 500kg bomb and sank at 2230 when the fire detonated the magazine; 27 were killed. HMS Hero was damaged by three near misses. ww2dbase [Siege of Tobruk | CPC]
• Ermland was ordered to set sail on a supporting mission for battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisneau, as a part of Operation Berlin. ww2dbase [Operation Berlin | Ermland | CPC]

• Adhering to orders given by General Yasuji Okamura in which all Chinese villages suspected of harboring Chinese communist guerrilla fighters were to be wiped out, 1,230 residents of Panjiayu, Hebei, China were massacred by troops of the Japanese Army. ww2dbase [Panjiayu, Hebei | CPC]

• British Admiral Sir John Tovey departed Scapa Flow, Scotland, United Kingdom with a fleet to intercept German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau believed to be in the Iceland-Faroes passage. ww2dbase [Operation Berlin | Scapa Flow | Scapa Flow, Scotland | CPC]

25 Jan 1941 Interactive Map