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De Gaulle and Churchill met in Marrakesh.
The US Army's 34th Infantry Division took Cervaro.
The Red Army's 13th Army took Sarny, then properly a part of Poland.
Seventy-four members of the Solf Circle, a group of anti-Nazi intellectuals, were arrested.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff determined to invade the Gilbert Islands and Nauru, to be followed by the Marshalls.
The Battle of Bairoko was fought on New Georgia, in which the U.S. Army and Marine Raiders attacked Japanese defensive positions unsuccessfully.
A stateside soldier's letter this day:
February 1, 1942: US ships and aircraft from carriers USS Enterprise and USS Yorktown strike the Marshall and Gilbert Islands in the first offensive action by the US in the war.
The raids were of no long term consequence, but did provide valuable experience to the US Navy.
Interesting how many of these events occurred on Sunday.
That item, of course, is from Sarah Sundin's blog on daily events of World War Two.
Also, from it, for this day:
German Navy starts using 4-rotor Enigma machines, throwing off Allied code-breaking for eleven months. Nazis form puppet government in Norway with Vidkun Quisling as prime minister. Blue Star Mothers of America is established in Flint, MI, for mothers of servicemen and women.
Quisling was an odd character who had served as Norwegian Defense Minister from 1931-33. Oddly, his first attempt to seize power in a coup, coincident with the German invasion, failed as it was not supported by Germany.
