Thursday, January 6, 2011

Day 495 January 7, 1941

Operation Compass. Australian 6th Division and British 7th Armoured Division nearly surround Tobruk. They occupy Acroma, overlooking the coastal road 10 miles West of Tobruk. British submarine HMS Rover attacks an Italian convoy off the coast of Libya, 25 miles West of Tobruk. Italian torpedo boats Clio and Castore counterattack, damaging HMS Rover (repairs take 13 days at Malta).

Admiral Somerville’s Force H (battlecruiser HMS Renown, battleship HMS Malaya, aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, cruiser HMS Sheffield and 7 destroyers) leaves Gibraltar to cover the Excess convoy which left Gibraltar yesterday. Meanwhile, Admiral Cunningham’s Mediterranean Fleet (battleships HMS Warspite and HMS Valiant, aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious and 7 destroyers) departs Alexandria, Egypt, to meet the Excess convoy.

German torpedo boats Kondor and Wolf lay a minefield off Dover but Wolf sinks in a British minefield North of Dunkirk on the way home.

200 miles South of Iceland, Italian submarine Giacomo Nani attacks convoy HX.99 without success. British corvette HMS Anemone and French corvette La Malouine counterattack, sinking Nani (all 58 crew rescued and taken prisoner).

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