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• Adolf Hitler made his final appeal to Francisco Franco to bring Spain into the war on the Axis side. ww2dbase [TH]
• The British House of Commons voted for the first £1,600,000,000 war credit of the year. ww2dbase [CPC]
• On the Benghazi-Tripoli road in Libya, the trapped Italian Tenth Army attempted to break out without success. Australian 6th Division captured Benghazi while 7th Support Group of British 7th Armoured Division captured Sceleidima; these captures further secured the envelopment of the Italian Tenth Army. ww2dbase [Operation Compass | CPC]
• The German High Command issued the order for Operation Sonnenblume, which called for the organization and transfer of a German force to reinforce Italian forces in North Africa. ww2dbase [Operation Sonnenblume | CPC]
• Near Keren, Eritrea, Italian East Africa, Indian 3rd Battalion of 14th Punjab Regiment attacked Brig's Peak but was pushed back by Italian 65th Infantry Division "Granatieri di Savoia". ww2dbase [Invasion of Italian East Africa | CPC]
• German Motor Torpedo Boats S.30, S.54, S.58, S.59 sank British ship Angularity on the east coast of England, United Kingdom; 2 were killed, 1 was captured by S.30. ww2dbase [CPC]
• German submarine U-107 sank Canadian ship Maplecourt 250 miles northwest of Ireland at 1752 hours, killing the entire crew of 37. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Erwin Rommel, unexpectedly summoned from leave, was instructed by Adolf Hitler's headquarters that he was to proceed to Libya forthwith, as commander of the German troops which would be shortly arriving there and would be called the German Afrika Korps. ww2dbase [Operation Sonnenblume | Erwin Rommel | AC]

• Alessandro Malaspina departed Pauillac, France at 1230 hours and arrived at Bordeaux, France at 1610 hours. ww2dbase [Alessandro Malaspina | Pauillac, Aquitaine | CPC]

• Executions of prisoners by gunfire began at Flossenbürg Concentration Camp; the first victims were Polish political prisoners. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Flossenbürg Concentration Camp | Flossenbürg, Bayreuth | CPC]

• HMS King George V arrived at Scapa Flow, Scotland, United Kingdom after delivering Lord Halifax to the United States. ww2dbase [Scapa Flow | King George V | Scapa Flow, Scotland | CPC]
• The British Royal Air Force established the Directorate of Air Sea Rescue (Motto: "The sea shall not have them"). Operationally it was to become known as Air Sea Rescue Services (ASRS), which later became the RAF Search and Rescue Force. The headquarters of the ASRS was co-located with that of Coastal Command with whom it would operate closely. ww2dbase [AC]

6 Feb 1941 Interactive Map