World war II timeline - January 1941

1 January 1941	German bombers drop bombs on Ireland, in four counties and the capital, Dublin. Over 100 British bombers hit Bremen, Germany, causing large fires and damaging the Fock-Wulf factory.
2 January 1941	For the second (and final) time, German bombs fall on Ireland. British Bomber Command aircraft make attacks on Bremen, Germany.
3 January 1941	British forces assault the Italian army at Bardia, inside the Libyan frontier. They capture 45,000 troops, 129 tanks, 400 guns, and 706 trucks. British Bomber Command aircraft make attacks on Bremen, Germany.
6 January 1941	American President Franklin Roosevelt makes his annual address to Congress. He says the country should support those nations resisting aggression, to keep war from this Hemisphere, to increase manufacture of war supplies and loan to nations in need of them. Roosevelt says the world should be founded on four freedoms: speech and expression, to worship God in his own way, economic health, and reductions in arms, so that no nation can threaten any neighbor.
8 January 1941	The Soviet general staff conducts war games over four days, to examine the possibilities of a German attack and Russian counter-attack. Two basic scenarios are considered, one concentrating on the northwest (Lithuania and East Prussia), the other on a Southwestern Army Group attack south of Brest-Litovsk. An initial defensive stage of the war is not simulated. Both attack scenarious show overall difficulties, but the southern approach is shown to advance 55-100 miles into Poland.
9 January 1941	Adolf Hitler issues orders to discontinue preparations for Operation Felix (Gibraltar) and Sea Lion (England), to continue Attila (France) preparations, and continue undertaking Marita (Balkans).
10 January 1941	Graf von Schulenburg of the German Government and V. Molotov of the USSR sign a secret protocol transferring a small piece of Lithuanian territory to the USSR for 31.5 million reichmarks (US$7.5 million). In the Mediterranean, German planes make a dive bombing attack on the British carrier Illustrious causing major damage. The carrier slowly makes its way to Malta.
11 January 1941	Adolf Hitler issues Directive No. 22, ordering support for allies defending Tripolitania and Albania. Britain's prime minister Winston Churchill decides against increasing British forces on Hong Kong, concluding that it could not be held in the event of a Japanese invasion. Canadian Prime Minister William King bans Canadian citizens of Japanese ancestry from joining the armed forces. The United States and Britain agree that if the US joins the war against Japan and Germany, that the first priority would be the defeat of Germany. Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Commander in Chief of the Combined Fleet, writes a letter to the navy minister, favoring a massive attack on the United States Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor.
15 January 1941	The British Air Ministry issues a directive to Bomber Command regarding the importance of German oil targets.
17 January 1941	French forces with one old light cruiser and four old gunboats, attack Siam along the Koh-Chang island anchorage. They sink the new battleship Dhonburi, force the new battleship Ayuthia to run aground, and sink three small destroyers.
21 January 1941	Australian infantry with 16 Matilda tanks attack Tobruk, Libya, forcing the surrender of 25,000-30,000 Italians and 87 tanks.
23 January 1941	British carrier Illustrious sets sail from Malta, headed to the United States for repairs. Five Norwegian ships transport 25,000 tons of special steel products from Sweden to Britain, in a move called Operation Rubble. All five ships make it through German-controlled water, to Royal Navy escort to Kirkwall, Scotland.
28 January 1941	Vichy France ceases hostilities with Siam.
29 January 1941	Greek Prime Minister General Ioannis Metaxas dies unexpectedly of throat cancer. The new Greek prime minister invites British forces in for protection against Germany and Italy.
30 January 1941	Japan agrees to co-ordinate its intelligence collection efforts in the US with Germany and Italy.
31 January 1941	A formal armistice is signed by Siam and Indochina.