23 Jan 1941
- Charles Lindbergh testified before the US Congress, recommending that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Germany. ww2dbase [CPC]
- Allied troops captured Tobruk, Libya, but fighting would continue at outposts outside the city for another day. In the harbor, British minesweeping trawlers HMT Arthur Cavanagh and HMT Milford Countess began clearing sunken Italian ships. ww2dbase [Operation Compass | CPC]
- USS Arizona became the flagship of Battleship Division 1's Rear Admiral Isaac Kidd. ww2dbase [Arizona | CPC]
- German Fw 200 aircraft bombed British ship Lurigethan 200 miles west of Ireland; 16 were killed in fires while 35 were taken off. ww2dbase [CPC]
- British aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious, damaged by Stuka dive bombers on 10 Jan, completed temporary repairs and departed Malta for Alexandria, Egypt with destroyers HMS Jervis, HMS Juno, HMS Janus, and HMS Greyhound in escort. ww2dbase [Illustrious | CPC]
- German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were spotted in the Great Belt between mainland Denmark and the island of Zealand by a British agent who alerted the Admiralty in London, England, United Kingdom. ww2dbase [Operation Berlin | Gneisenau | Scharnhorst | CPC]
- Destroyer USS Edsall attacked a submarine contact in the Vernon Islands 30 miles northwest of Darwin, Australia; Edsall suffered damage from one of her own depth charges in this attack. ww2dbase [CPC]
- Seeadler began laying mines in the English Channel. ww2dbase [Seeadler | English Channel | CPC]
- Leonardo da Vinci departed Pauillac, France at 1315 hours and sailed southward up the Gironde estuary, reaching Bordeaux, France at 1600 hours. ww2dbase [Leonardo da Vinci | Pauillac, Aquitaine | CPC]
- 600 Polish prisoners arrived at Flossenbürg Concentration Camp from Auschwitz Concentration Camp in occupied Poland. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Flossenbürg Concentration Camp | Flossenbürg, Bayreuth | CPC]
- Commander Vittorio Moccagatta was made the head of the Special Weapons Section of 1a Flottiglia MAS at La Spezia, Italy. ww2dbase [La Spezia, Liguria | CPC]
23 Jan 1941 Interactive Map
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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