It was a day for British news, albeit news spread all over the globe, just like the British Empire and Commonwealth.
Off the coast of Australia the Australian light cruiser engaged the German auxiliary cruiser Komoran in surface action, something that people tend to imagine didn't occur during World War Two, but which in reality occurred a fair amount. Both ships were so heavily damages that they were both lost. The action occurred in the Indian Ocean off of the western coast of Australia.
The loss is a bit odd, however, in that the Sydney was sunk in the engagement but the Komoran had to be scuttled. This is explained by the Komoran running as a disguised merchant ship and having the jump on the Syndney as its identity was about to be discovered.
It was an Australian tragedy. All hands were lost from the over 600 man crew.
In North Africa, the British took Sidi Rezegh, ten miles south of besieged Tobruk. On the same day Sir John Dill retired from his position as Chief of the General Staff and was replaced by Sir Alan Brooke.
Dill was a remnant of the Chamberlin administration and was not a favorite of Churchill's. Churchill promoted him uphill to remove him as Chief of Staff, at which point he was assigned to the British diplomatic mission in the United States, which he proved to be very adept at. Well liked and well respected in the United States, he died of aplastic anemia in Washington in 1944.
Brooke would remain as Chief of the Imperial Staff through the rest of the war and into 1946.
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