Friday 13 September 1940

A Japanese Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" fighter.

Overview: The British know that today, 13 September 1940, is the decisive period of the Battle of Britain; a glance at the calendar can tell them that, as Prime Minister Winston Churchill said in his speech to the nation on the 11th. Tide conditions also are favorable to a landing. Accordingly, the Royal Navy begins final preparations to counter an invasion, including transferring battleships HMS Nelson and from Scapa Flow to Rosyth and HMS Revenge to Plymouth. HMS Hood also is detailed to Rosyth.

Meanwhile, Hitler is in the final stages of deciding whether to authorize an invasion. He requires Luftwaffe air superiority, and there is no sign of that. In addition, the barges assembled for the invasion require low winds and calm seas, and the weather has not been cooperating. The Wehrmacht wants to invade, the Kriegsmarine wants to do other things, and the Luftwaffe basically wants the issue to just go away.

Hitler has lunch with his senior Luftwaffe commanders (Hermann Goering, Milch, Kesselring etc.) and Wehrmacht operations staff where he makes equivocal statements about Operation Sea Lion. He seems much more interested in the bombing of London than in actually invading England. However, he reserves his decision until the morrow.

F/O Francis N "Fanny" Brinsden undertakes a cockpit check of Spitfire Mk I QV-B prior to takeoff from RAF Fowlmere on 21 September 1940. The aircraft was received by No 19 Squadron RAF on 13 September 1940.

Battle of Britain: The weather remains unsettled, with rain and clouds. The Luftwaffe concentrates on "pirate raids," lone bombers taking advantage of cloud cover to bomb selected targets. These daylight raids are light and sporadic, but they also can hit targets further to the West than usual.

Among these targets are the Air Ministry offices at Harrowgate, a railway junction outside of Reading, and an aluminum factory in Oxfordshire. A Junkers Ju 200 Condor even attacks shipping off of Northern Ireland, a rarity during daylight hours, but it misses.

A small raid just before noontime by Heinkel He 111s splits up to hit various targets, including Wiltshire, but to little purpose. Many bombers abort their missions when intercepted by the RAF. Some bombers hit RAF Tangmere. A couple of bombers penetrate to central London and bomb Whitehall, Downing Street, Chelsea Hospital and Buckingham Palace grounds again. The raid on Buckingham Palace is the third one so far, and the King is in residence when the bombs miss. A few bombs hit the buildings and cause damage, but no royal lives are lost.

After dark, things pick up a bit, with London the primary target. Various areas in the vicinity are hit, including Westminster, Battersea, Mitcham, Clapham Junction, Wembley, and Hammersmith. The raids slack off after midnight but then resume about an hour later with hits on the London docks and areas nearby. The raids continue almost until daylight.

Overall, the day is pretty much a wash. The RAF loses a few planes and the Luftwaffe about 10 planes. The Luftwaffe, though, loses over a dozen aircrew.


European Air Operations: In line with the general strategy of frustrating an invasion, the RAF steps up its attacks on German shipping along the coast. It makes a daylight raid on a convoy of tankers off Zeebrugge; the plane crews report sinking one, that it is unclear if that actually happened. Bomber Command shifts its priority from strategy targets in Germany to the likely invasion ports.

The King and Queen inspecting bomb damage to Buckingham Palace, 13 September 1940.

Battle of the Atlantic: Mines take a huge toll on shipping today, and for once the British are not on the receiving end. While the British have developed countermeasures to the feared German magnetic mines, they are costly and bulky. The only silver lining for the British is that the much scarcer Axis shipping is equally vulnerable to them, as shown by today's events.

A Vichy French convoy of 11 troopships in the Mediterranean near the island of San Pietro, off Sardinia, blunders into a minefield laid by the Italians, the "San Pietro minefield." The day turns into a series of explosions as one ship after another is struck.

The first to hit a mine is the Cap Tourane at 09:10. It is badly damaged but is able to proceed to Ajaccio. Along the way, it hits another mine, a rare instance of a non-military ship hitting two mines and surviving.

Next is 1544 ton ship Cassidaigne. It comes to the Cap Tourane's assistance and, at 09:22, also hits a mine. It sinks in five minutes. Everybody aboard survives.

The third ship in the convoy to hit a mine is the 1610 ton Ginette Le Borgne at 09:28. It explodes, breaks apart into two pieces, and sinks within two minutes.

Minefield troubles also occur elsewhere.

Kriegsmarine auxiliary minesweeper M-1306 "Hermann Krone" hits a mine and sinks off Hanstholm, Denmark in the Skagerak.

Soviet minesweeper T-104 hits a mine and sinks in the Gulf of Finland.

Other incidents also take a toll on shipping. The oddest thing about the day is that none of the day's many shipping incidents involve direct attacks, they are all passive.

Kriegsmarine trawler UJ-173 Hinrich Wesselhöft runs aground at Harandgerfjord, Norway and is badly damaged. It is floated off, but the damage is too significant and it sinks on the 14th while in tow.

The British, preparing for an invasion, is sinking blockships at the entrances to vulnerable harbors. While towing the British 9577 ton cargo ship Protesilaus to Scapa Flow to sink as a blockship, the Protesilaus - previously very badly damaged on 21 January 1940 by a mine - springs a leak. The ships are scuttled to no purpose off Skerryvore.

The British remain in pursuit of Vichy French Force Y, three cruisers which the British permitted to escape through the Straits of Gibraltar en route to Dakar. British Force H from Gibraltar combines with Force M coming up from Freetown, but there is no sign of the French cruisers.

British Convoy OB 213 departs Liverpool with passenger ship City of Benares. The Benares is transporting British schoolchildren being evacuated to Canada.

USS destroyer USS Kearny (DD 432, Commander Anthony L. Danis) is commissioned.

The Italian Army's plan, September 1940.

Battle of the Mediterranean: After several days trudging through the hot desert sand, the Italian invasion force (Operation E) of 200,000 men from Libya finally reaches the Egyptian frontier in force. Two divisions of the 10th Army's XIII Corps (five divisions) advance along the coast road. A southern prong of the Italian advance, led by the Maletti Group (armored), has been canceled due to difficulties navigating in the desert, so the advance along the vulnerable coast road constitutes the entire invasion, though it has been split into closely separated prongs.

In the northern prong, the 1st Blackshirt Division (23rd Marzo, in honor of the date of the founding of the Fascist party in 1919) retakes Fort Capuzzo at just west of Sollum, which the British had taken at the start of the war. This is still on the Libyan side of the border. The Italians bombard Musaid, which is a British base just across the border. The Italians also open fire on Sollum airfield, which the British have not used. An Italian attack takes the barracks near the airfield, so the Italians "take Sollum," though the British still hold the port.

Meanwhile, slightly inland on the southern prong, the Italians send two divisions and the Maletti Group toward Halfaya Pass. This creates a converging attack, as these troops will be met at the other end of the pass by the two divisions advancing past Sollum.

Opposing the Italians are two divisions of the British Western Desert Force under General O'Connor, the 7th Armoured and the 4th Indian. The British have orders to hold their positions. The Italians cut the barbed wire along the frontier but do not yet advance very far across it.

The British Long Range Patrol Unit (the "Desert Rats") reaches Siwa near the Libyan border, where they stock up on supplies.

In Ethiopia, the Italians also are on the move, but on a much smaller scale. Light forces penetrate 20 miles north into Kenya.

One apparent side effect of the Italian operations in North Africa is a period of quiet at Malta, which experiences no air raids again. Four Short Sunderland flying boats arrive for three days of operations, otherwise, it is a quiet day. Governor Dobbie informs the War Office that compulsory evacuation of British civilians would harm island morale, though voluntary evacuations at the person's own risk would be acceptable.

The Luftwaffe filming for the newsreels, 13 September 1940 (Jaeger, Federal Archive, Bundesarchiv Bild 146-2007-0200).

German/Japanese Relations: German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop has his aide Heinrich Stahmer meet with Japanese Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka. They reach a tentative agreement for an alliance, which of course must be negotiated further, written up and approved by both governments.

US Military: The USAAC drops the P-44 program, an attempt to upgrade a high-altitude Republic P-43 Lancer fighter with a Pratt & Whitney R-2180-1 Twin Hornet engine rated at 1,400 hp (1,000 kW). This is due to combat reports from Europe suggesting that the basic P-43 design already is obsolete. Incidentally, although the designation for the P-44 is "Rocket," it was never intended to use an actual rocket engine - a fact which confuses a lot of people.

China: Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" fighters have been operational for months now, with pilots qualifying on the planes which are a quantum leap ahead of previous Japanese fighters. The workup period, however, is now complete and they are ready for action.

To date, they have seen little action aside from routine escort duties. Today, however, 13 Zeros led by Lieutenant Saburo Shindo serve as an escort for a bombing raid on the Nationalist capital, Chungking, and all that changes. For once, the Nationalist air force sends up a large formation to challenge the bombers, which have been ravaging the city for months. They meet the Zeros in combat with nine I-16 (monoplane) and 25 Polikarpov I-15 (biplane) fighters.

The Zeros shoot down 27 of the Nationalist fighters. They only suffer damage to four of their own planes. It is perhaps the most one-sided encounter in military aviation history.

Now, admittedly the Nationalists only have old Soviet fighters, Polikarpov I-15s and I-16s. These are not up to the standards of the European combatants, though of course, they have machine guns that are fully capable of taking down a Zero. Thus, the victory is not quite as fantastic as it appears from the numbers alone. However, this incident begins to open the world's eyes to the new kid on the block, a Japanese fighter that quickly gains the reputation of being unbeatable. It also imbues the Imperial Japanese Air Force with extreme confidence, perhaps overconfidence, in its new fighter.

The 27 Japanese G3M bombers thus get through to the target.

German Homefront: The government bows to reality and completes a plan to help parents voluntarily evacuate their children from Berlin.

Future History:  Óscar Arias is born in Heredia, Costa Rica. becomes President of Costa Rica and a Nobel laureate.

Australian Imperial troops, 13 September 1940. They likely are headed to the Western Desert.

September 1940

September 1, 1940: RAF's Horrible Weekend
September 2, 1940: German Troopship Sunk
September 3, 1940: Destroyers for Bases
September 4, 1940: Enter Antonescu
September 5, 1940: Stukas Over Malta
September 6, 1940: The Luftwaffe Peaks
September 7, 1940: The Blitz Begins
September 8, 1940: Codeword Cromwell
September 9, 1940: Italians Attack Egypt
September 10, 1940: Hitler Postpones Sealion
September 11, 1940: British Confusion at Gibraltar
September 12, 1940: Warsaw Ghetto Approved
September 13, 1940: Zeros Attack!
September 14, 1940: The Draft Is Back
September 15, 1940: Battle of Britain Day
September 16, 1940: italians Take Sidi Barrani
September 17, 1940: Sealion Kaputt
September 18, 1940: City of Benares Incident
September 19, 1940: Disperse the Barges
September 20, 1940: A Wolfpack Gathers
September 21, 1940: Wolfpack Strikes Convoy HX-72
September 22, 1940: Vietnam War Begins
September 23, 1940: Operation Menace Begins
September 24, 1940: Dakar Fights Back
September 25, 1940: Filton Raid
September 26, 1940: Axis Time
September 27, 1940: Graveney Marsh Battle
September 28, 1940: Radio Belgique Begins
September 29, 1940: Brocklesby Collision
September 30, 1940: Operation Lena

2020

Friday 23 August 1940

Heinkel He 115 seaplane.

Battle of Britain: The poor weather that has characterized the entire summer continues on 23 August 1940. Strangely, the Luftwaffe tends to do better on such days despite - or perhaps because of - the fact that flying operations are restricted. As usual, during such days, there is only limited reconnaissance in the morning, but things pick up during the afternoon.

A Luftwaffe raid on RAF Manston at 13:25 and Thorney Island around the same time. There are several other attempted penetrations that either can't find their targets in the clouds or abort their missions before they even reach the coast.

After dark, the Luftwaffe once again attacks the Bristol and South Wales sector, with Cardiff and RAF Filton taking damage. There are solo raids all along the coast up to York, with a raid on Aberdeen as well.

Heinkel He 115 seaplanes of Küstenfliegergruppe (KGr) 506 (based at Stavanger, Norway) torpedo and sink 5035 ton British cargo ship Llanishen in the Moray Firth and 6680 ton Makalla in the Pentland Firth.  There are eight deaths on the Llanishen. Both the Llanishen and Makalla have been travelling with Convoy OA 203. This is a change in tactics by the seaplanes, which heretofore have been dropping bombs to little purpose. Using torpedoes seems to be a much more effective plan. Heinkel He 115 seaplanes are the largest in action during the war (as opposed to flying boats, which are much larger).

The Luftwaffe bombs and sinks ferry HMS New Royal Sovereign at Bridlington, Yorkshire. There are no casualties as nobody was aboard.

Kriegsmarine trawler No. 13 "Düsseldorf" hits a mine off Dieppe and is beached where it can be salvaged.

During the day, the RAF raids the big German coastal guns at Cap Gris Nez again, without success. After dark, there are scattered raids by Bomber Command against airfields, railway installations at Mannheim and the Ruhr industrial valley.

The Luftwaffe drops mines in the Thames estuary and outside ports along the eastern coast. RAF Bomber Command also sends 40 planes on mine-laying missions.

Friendly fire incidents continue to bedevil the RAF. Anti-aircraft fire downs a Hurricane of RAF No. 73 Squadron operating out of Church Fenton. It crashes west of Beverley, Yorkshire at 01:30, but the pilot bails out safely. Another Hurricane force-lands at Withyham, Kent after running out of petrol, and that pilot is ok as well.

The score for the day shows minimal losses for both sides, between 1-5 planes for both sides. Exactly how many planes each side loses depends on whether or not you count things like the friendly fire incidents, planes lost on the ground and so forth, and when you don't count those, the RAF figures tend to improve substantially.

Pilot Officer Petrus Hendrik Hugo, of RAF No. 615 Squadron is awarded the DFC for downing five Luftwaffe planes in June and July.

RAF No. 304 (Polish) Squadron forms at RAF Bramcote. This takes the name "Land of Silesia" and is led by Wing Commander William Graham.

RAF No. 307 (Polish) Squadron forms to fly night fighters.

RCAF No. 1 Squadron is operational and sorties against some Luftwaffe planes today, but has no victories or losses.

Reichsmarschall Goering continues his purge in the Luftwaffe fighter units (so far, other units have been spared):

• Hauptmann Hannes Trautloft becomes Geschwaderkommodore of JG 54;
• Walter Oesau replaces Trautloft as Gruppenkommandeur of III./JG 51;
• Leutnant Wolfgang Kosse was appointed Staffelkapitän of 5./JG 26.

The British Purchasing Commission takes over a French order for 53 Grumman G-36a Martlet Is, and 6 Grumman G-36a Martlet IIIs. They now will go to various RAF units when they arrive in the UK in the following months.

On August 22, 1940, some bombs fell on neighborhoods inside the London Civil Defense Area, though technically not in London proper. Here, on the 23rd, a sailor from a destroyer holds up a bicycle found at a bombed cinema. Many consider this the first raid upon London of World War II, but this was not an intentional attack on London. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

Battle of the Atlantic: U-37 (Kapitänleutnant Victor Oehrn) torpedoes and sinks 5242-ton British cargo ship Severn Leigh about 500 miles west of Ireland around 13:00. There are 33 deaths and ten survivors who sail two lifeboats to the Outer Hebrides in a harrowing journey that takes almost two weeks. The Severn Leigh was sailing with Convoy OA 200. This is an instance where the U-boat really skirts the law of committing a war crime, as it uses its deck gun to keep the Severn Leigh from using its radio to send a distress call, and in the process sinks 2 lifeboats.

U-37 also sinks 1,718-ton Norwegian freighter Keret in the same convoy. Some sources place this sinking on the 22nd, others on the 23rd. There are 10 survivors and 33 crew perish.

Battle of the Mediterranean: British destroyer HMS Hostile hits a mine at 03:17 and eventually sinks (torpedoed by HMS Hero to avoid it falling into Italian hands) in the Strait of Sicily off Cape Bon. This is where the Italians recently laid a minefield. There are 141 survivors and five crew perish.

The Italians cautiously return to Fort Capuzzo, which they evacuated after a recent Royal Navy attack.

Admiral Cunningham in Alexandria has a flotilla led by the Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney attack the Italian seaplane base at Bomba, Libya.

The First Lord of the Admiralty A.V. Alexander during an inspection of the Western Approaches Command on 23 August 1940. © IWM (A 266)

Battle of the Pacific: The British know there is a raider somewhere in the Tasman Sea, but it is a big area. Several warships search, but there are no sightings.

US Military: Cruisers USS Wichita and Quincy continue their "Show the flag" cruise along South America and make port in Montevideo, Uruguay. Meanwhile, destroyers USS Wake and Wainwright depart Pará, Brazil for the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.

Destroyer USS Allen (DD-66) is recommissioned (originally commissioned on 24 January 1917) as part of the Pacific fleet now based at Pearl Harbor. It is the oldest destroyer in the fleet.

British Government: British Prime Minister Churchill officially changes the name of the local volunteer defense forces to Home Guard. The Home Guard now (finally) is receiving uniforms, weapons, ammunition, and some training to make it a somewhat more professional force.

King George VI issues a proclamation striking all Italians and Germans from the lists of British titles and decorations. This deprives Italian Duce Benito Mussolini and King Victor Emmanuel II of decorations.

Greece: The Greek army, alarmed by recent Italian provocations such as the sinking of the light cruiser Helle, takes anti-invasion precautions.

American Homefront: Shirley Temple's final film for 20th Century Fox, "Young People," premieres at the Roxy in New York City.

Sergeant Felix Ferranto, a radio operator, uses his Primus torch to thaw out the wheel motors of the Snow Cruiser in the Antarctic on August 23, 1940.

August 1940

August 1, 1940: Two RN Subs Lost
August 2, 1940: Operation Hurry
August 3, 1940: Italians Attack British Somaliland
August 4, 1940: Dueling Legends in the US
August 5, 1940: First Plan for Barbarossa
August 6, 1940: Wipe Out The RAF
August 7, 1940: Burning Oil Plants
August 8, 1940: True Start of Battle of Britain
August 9, 1940: Aufbau Ost
August 10, 1940: Romania Clamps Down On Jews
August 11, 1940: Huge Aerial Losses
August 12, 1940: Attacks on Radar
August 13, 1940: Adler Tag
August 14, 1940: Sir Henry's Mission
August 15, 1940: Luftwaffe's Black Thursday
August 16, 1940: Wolfpack Time
August 17, 1940: Blockade of Britain
August 18, 1940: The Hardest Day
August 19, 1940: Enter The Zero
August 20, 1940: So Much Owed By So Many
August 21, 1940: Anglo Saxon Incident
August 22, 1940: Hellfire Corner
August 23, 1940: Seaplanes Attack
August 24, 1940: Slippery Slope
August 25, 1940: RAF Bombs Berlin
August 26, 1940: Troops Moved for Barbarossa
August 27, 1940: Air Base in Iceland
August 28, 1940: Call Me Meyer
August 29, 1940: Schepke's Big Day
August 30, 1940: RAF's Bad Day
August 31, 1940: Texel Disaster

2020