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• The Fleet Landing Exercise No. 6 began in the Caribbean Sea, participated by US Navy and US Marine Corps personnel. The Marine participants were the 1st Marine Brigade and the 1st Marine Aircraft Group under the command of Brigadier General Holland M. Smith, taking part. ww2dbase [Holland Smith | CPC]
• Captain Tomozo Kikuchi was named the commanding officer of light carrier Hosho. ww2dbase [Hosho | CPC]
• HMS Cumberland under refit in HM Dockyard Simonstown, South Africa. ww2dbase [Cumberland | DS]
• U-56 ended her fifth patrol. ww2dbase [U-56 | CPC]

• The Fredville, a 1,150-ton Norwegian steam merchant, was attacked and sunk approximately 100 miles east of the Orkney Isles at 1632 hours. There had been two explosions in the hold, the first seemed to cause little damage but 10 minutes later a much larger explosion broke the ship in two. The ship in ballast was on her way to Methil, Scotland, United Kingdom. 5 of the crew found time to get into a lifeboat and made repeated attempts to find any more survivors from the after part of the ship that remained afloat but none were found. The 5 men were picked up by a Swedish ship and taken to Kopervik, Karmøy Island, Norway. It was probable that the ship was sunk by German submarine U-23 (Otto Kretschmer), though at the enquiry held later the crew said that they thought there could have been bombs put into the coal bunkers by the Wollweber Group who were a group of Communist saboteurs who were responsible for the loss of several Scandinavian ships; they also stated that the ship was marked with the Norwegian flag and had navigation lights on. ww2dbase [Start of the Battle of the Atlantic | U-23 | North Sea | CPC, HM]

• Finnish IV Corps pinned Soviet 168th Division north of Lake Lagoda in Finland. ww2dbase [The Winter War | CPC]

• Karl von Le Suire was awarded the Sudetenland Medal. ww2dbase [Karl von Le Suire | CPC]

• Training began for 350 Hungarian men to fight in Finland. Nearly 25,000 others waited for the approval for their volunteer service. ww2dbase [CPC]

• British oil tanker SS El Oso hit a naval mine and sank 6 miles west of the Bar Lightship, Liverpool, England, at about 1100 hours. 3 men were killed, 32 were rescued by destroyer HMS Walker. ww2dbase [Liverpool, England | CPC]

11 Jan 1940 Interactive Map