Monday 16 December 1940

A British Tommy watches over a horde of Italian prisoners from a Bren Gun carrier. The Western Desert, 16 December 1940.

Battle of the Mediterranean: Operation Compass reaches its terminal phase on 16 December 1940 - having achieved vastly greater results than envisaged by anyone. The 7th Hussars and 2nd Royal Tanks of the British 4th Armoured Brigade of the Western Desert Force now stand in Sidi Omar and Sollum, while the Italians abandon Fort Capuzzo and other frontier outposts. The British continue resorting to the same trick, circling around behind the Italian camps and attacking from the southwest, and this continues to work because the Italian artillery faces east.

The British gladly take over the fortified Italian positions. Tobruk continues to hold out but is bombarded by sea and surrounded on land. The British turn Fort Capuzzo into their own supply depot, designating it Number 9 Field Supply Depot.

The British are now across the border in force. The Italians are forming a defensive line along the coast road far to the northwest. The next objective is Bardia, and the British plan is to leave a "Golden Road" open from Bardia to the seemingly impregnable Tobruk so that the Italians in Bardia will attempt to get there - and be cut down in the process.

The Italians send a large force of planes from Italy, including 23 CR 42 fighters and 23 Savoia-Marchetti SM.79s. The SM 79 is considered the best Italian bomber, but the Italian biplane fighters are hopelessly outclassed.

Much further south, in Kenya, the British begin stirring as well. South African troops under Major General Goodwin Austin retake a frontier outpost, Wajir, along the border with Italian Somaliland. The RAF lends support with a small force.

In very poor weather, the Royal Navy Mediterranean Fleet based at Alexandria embarks upon Operation Hide. This is a typical, very elaborate convoy mission to Malta which includes various ancillary distractions. Battleships HMS Valiant and Warspite and the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious lead the fleet, which is running interference for Convoys MC 2, MW 5A, MW 5B, AS 9 and AN 10. Several of the ships stop off at Suda Bay to refuel, illustrating the value of Crete to naval operations.

As part of the fleet movement, HMS Illustrious launches raids against the Italian bases at Rhodes and Stampalia. HMS Warspite and Valiant, meanwhile, bombard the Italian base at Valona. The Greek Navy joins in, sending half a dozen destroyers to help cover the British battleships.

Royal Navy submarine HMS Truant (Lt Cdr Haggard) torpedoes and sinks 8177-ton Italian tanker Bonzo off Punta Stilo, Calabria in the Ionian Sea.

"Italian prisoners captured at Sidi Barrani are marched into captivity, 16 December 1940." © IWM (E 1378).

Italian/Greek Campaign: The Greek offensive is stalled virtually everywhere except in the coastal sector, primarily because of the weather. Heavy snow and winds, especially in the mountains, have reduced the pace of advance to a crawl. Greek I Corps (2nd, 3rd, and 4th Divisions) make some progress toward Himarë after restarting their offensive from Porto Palermo on the 15th. Greek II Corps is attempting to capture a key mountain pass near Klisura and facing more difficulty from the weather than the Italians. Greek V Army Corps (a corps in name only, it only has the 10th Division), attempts to secure Mount Tomorr, which divides II and III Corps. The RAF raids the Italian supply depot at Durazzo.

Life Magazine, 16 December 1940.

European Air Operations: RAF Bomber Command sends 134 bombers against Mannheim (200 bombers had been readied, but weather prevents the use of the full force). Codenamed Operation Abigail Rachel, this attack constitutes the intentional destruction of Mannheim as a laboratory experiment for the development of RAF area bombardment techniques. As originally constituted, Operation Abigail Rachel is the largest RAF aerial attack to date against a single target (and still only about a third of a Luftwaffe maximum effort).

This is a standard area bombing raid of the type the Germans have been sending against British cities since 7 September 1940. Mannheim, in theory, is a significant target because it contains the Mannheim Motorenwerke and naval arms factories. However, those are not the night's real targets (though that is what the official RAF Operation Record Books states, as a cover-up in advance). Rather, the orders from the RAF to the pilots, apparently only given verbally, simply are to aim for the center of town and hope to cause as much chaos as possible.

The bombers drop 100 tons of high explosives and 14,000 incendiaries, but bombing aim is poor and, as with many of the Luftwaffe's raids, the damage causes is not nearly commensurate with the ordnance used. The problem is that the pathfinder bombers, which go in advance of the main force and drop flares (a tactic used by both sides) for guidance, drop them in the wrong spot - so all the following heavy bombers drop their bombs also in the wrong spot. Some bomb loads even drop on Ludwigshafen, some distance away. This incident causes the RAF to rethink its tactics and draws it closer to the concept of the "Bomber Stream," wherein bombers fly in tight formations that concentrate bomb loads closer together and thus wipe out entire sections of a city.

Mannheim straddles the Rhine, and the incendiaries start fires on both sides of the river that burn for days. The RAF loses three planes due to various causes. This is considered the first "area bombardment" by the RAF on a German city, which is a euphemistic term for a standard terror raid. There are 34 killed and 81 injured, with 240 buildings destroyed, including a military hospital. These figures still pale in magnitude with what the Luftwaffe is achieving in England at this time. This raid is considered "experimental" and is not publicized by the British government.

While not a resounding success, it is the first British step toward the RAF's large-scale city raids that characterize the last half of the war. That said, the RAF returns to its precision attacks on military targets after Operation Abigail Rachel until... well, we'll get to that when it happens.

The RAF has enough planes now that this isn't the night's only raid, either. It also sends bombers against Berlin, Heilbronn, and Speyer-am-Rhein as well. The British bombing offensive is still at such an early stage that the Germans in Berlin immediately send out crews to repair the damage to railway lines.

The Luftwaffe sends only occasional raiders against East Anglia and southeast England during the day. After dark, bombers hit London, Liverpool, and the Midlands.

This photo was taken during the first raid on Mannheim on 16 December 1940. For those who know Mannheim, "1" are incendiary fires burning in the Lindenhof and Schwetzingerstadt areas, "2" are the Heinrich Lanz AG factory, "3" is the Hauptbahnhof (train station), and "4" are the marshaling yards for the Hauptbahnhof. Notice that some of these intended targets did not receive much damage, notably the railway, which was the real prize. The Rhine is toward the lower left.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-37 (Kptlt. Asmus Nicolai Clausen), on its 9th patrol out of Lorient and with a new captain, remains surfaced and sinks 223-ton wooden Spanish freighter San Carlos with its 88mm deck gun about 30 miles south of Cape Juby, Morocco. Clausen apparently used his deck gun because he missed with a torpedo and didn't feel like wasting two on such a small target. However, after 21 shots, the gun breaks down and the shells that do hit the ship didn't penetrate the solid wooden hull - sometimes old tech is better than new. The Spanish crew abandons ship, and ultimately the Germans just row over to the San Carlos and scuttle it. There are one death and 28 survivors. U-37 is a wildly successful boat, this is its 49th victim under four different captains. Some boats just have that magic touch, whoever sails them starts getting victories. Some sources place this action on the 15th.

German 103-ton trawler Heltraud sinks due to unspecified enemy action, perhaps a mine.

Italian 103-ton freighter Arrigoni sinks in the Adriatic off Francavilla, Italy. There aren't any accessible records of what happened to it, it perhaps ran aground.

The Luftwaffe bombs 3921-ton Canadian freighter Bic Island in the Northwest Approaches, but it manages to make port.

Royal Navy submarine HMS Tribune spots 6864-ton German tanker Karibisches Meer and attacks but misses.

Captain Lindemann of the Bismarck takes holiday leave, and Korvettenkapitän Adalbert Schneider takes temporary command.

Canadian troop Convoys TC 8A (fast) and TC 8B (slow) depart from Halifax. As with all troop convoys, it has elaborate destroyer protection (for the time), with 8 destroyers protecting two liners in TC 8A and five destroyers protecting two liners in TC 8B.

Convoy OB 260 departs from Liverpool, Convoy FN 360 departs from Southend.

U-401 launched.

U-761 laid down.

Finnish/German Relations: Finnish Major General Paavo Talvela arrives in Berlin for talks with the Reich's top soldiers, Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering and General Halder. He has been recalled from civilian life for this task after retiring following the end of the Winter War and will remain on active duty. Talvela is considered to be a "specialist" at interacting with the Germans, most likely because he commanded a Finnish Jaeger battalion in Germany during 1916 and 1917.

Italian Military: General Giovanni Messe forms the Special Army Corps of the Italian 11th Army.

US Military: Heavy cruiser USS Louisville continues an extended "Show the Flag" mission in Latin America, departing from Rio de Janeiro for Bahia, Brazil.

The US Asiatic Fleet forms Patrol Wing 10.

Taiwan: Admiral Kiyoshi Hasegawa becomes the new Governor-general of Taiwan.

Sweden: The Nobel Committee cancels the Peace Prize for 1940.

Girls in costume skating in Volendam, Holland, 16 December 1940. (ANPFOTO/CO ZEYLEMAKER)

December 1940

December 1, 1940: Wiking Division Forms
December 2, 1940: Convoy HX 90 Destruction
December 3, 1940: Greeks Advancing
December 4, 1940: Italian Command Shakeup
December 5, 1940: Thor Strikes Hard
December 6, 1940: Hitler's Cousin Gassed
December 7, 1940: Storms At Sea
December 8, 1940: Freighter Idarwald Seized
December 9, 1940: Operation Compass Begins
December 10, 1940: Operation Attila Planned
December 11, 1940: Rhein Wrecked
December 12, 1940: Operation Fritz
December 13, 1940: Operation Marita Planned
December 14, 1940: Plutonium Discovered
December 15, 1940: Napoleon II Returns
December 16, 1940: Operation Abigail Rachel
December 17, 1940: Garden Hoses and War
December 18, 1940: Barbarossa Directive
December 19, 1940: Risto Ryti Takes Over
December 20, 1940: Liverpool Blitz, Captain America
December 21, 1940: Moral Aggression
December 22, 1940: Manchester Blitz
December 23, 1940: Hitler at Cap Gris Nez
December 24, 1940: Hitler at Abbeville
December 25, 1940: Hipper's Great Escape
December 26, 1940: Scheer's Happy Rendezvous
December 27, 1940: Komet Shells Nauru
December 28, 1940: Sorge Spills
December 29, 1940: Arsenal of Democracy
December 30, 1940: London Devastated
December 31 1940: Roosevelt's Decent Proposal

2020

Wednesday 11 December 1940

"Only one very badly damaged house still stands amidst the huge piles of timber and rubble following an air raid on Queen's Road, Aston, Birmingham. This site was damaged during the longest raid sustained by Birmingham, lasting 13 hours, which occurred on 11 December 1940. A few other houses can be seen in the background: all are without a roof." © IWM (D 4130).

Battle of the Mediterranean: Outside Sidi Barrani - held by the British on 11 December 1940 - the English Army goes to work reducing the remaining pockets of Italian troops. Selby Force attacks the 1st Libyan Division Sibelle and forces it to surrender. Their surrender uncovers the 4th Blackshirt Division 3 Gennaio, which also surrenders. The British bring 7th Armoured Brigade forward to relieve 4th Armoured Brigade near Buq Buq on the western sector of the front - 4th Armoured is being pulled out of the line and sent south after it completes its current operations.

The Italians, meanwhile, are either surrendering or running. Italian 63rd Division Cirene abandons Rabia and Sofafi and they run so fast - literally, in many cases - that British 4th Armoured Brigade is too late to cut them off. Retreating down the coast road, the Italians build up their position at Halfaya, the critical defensive position further west. Today the Italians have suffered 2184 killed, 2287 wounded and 38,000 taken prisoner. Usually, such a high ratio of KIA to wounded suggests that a military force is fighting hard, but in essence, all the Italians who weren't killed outright in the first British assault and could still walk have bugged out immediately to the West. Overall, 15,000 Italians have surrendered during Operation Compass - though the British aren't stopping to count. There are "5 acres of officers and 200 acres of other ranks," as put by a Coldstream Guards officer.

The Royal Navy has large forces approaching from both the east and west, but, given the outcome of Operation Compass so far, their presence would be purely superfluous. Monitor Terror and two gunboats shell the retreating Italians in the Sollum area overnight, later joined by British battleships HMS Barham and Valiant. Royal Navy submarine HMS Truant damages Italian torpedo boat Alcione off the Libyan coast, but it escapes.

The Royal Air Force has command of the air in North Africa - and during World War II this almost invariably is a tell as to who is winning. Flight Officer C.H. Dyson, flying a Hurricane in RAF No. 33 Squadron, has no difficulty with the biplanes the Italians are flying. He shoots down a record seven Italian fighters in one sortie before being shot down himself. He is uninjured, an ace-and-a-half (almost) in one day. Elsewhere, though, the news is not quite so good for the RAF, as two Swordfish of RAF No. 810 Squadron flying off HMS Ark Royal collide off Europa Point, with three deaths.

Fleet Street has great fun with the Italian collapse in Egypt. By Strube, The Daily Express, December 11, 1940.

Italian/Greek Campaign: While the Greeks are still making progress in Albania, the weather is horrible and there aren't any towns to mark their progress. Greek Commander-in-chief Papagos knows that the real prize is Valona, the key Italian supply port, and without that, the Italian ability to strike back after it builds up reinforcements and supplies remains intact. Valona, however, remains well-defended by the Greeks, who, by and large, have occupied a lot of worthless mountain goat territory and only a few significant towns. The Greeks are approaching Himara on the left of the line.

European Air Operations: The Luftwaffe sends a major effort against Birmingham after dark. Dropping 277 tons of high explosives and 685 incendiaries, 278 bombers destroy 6 churches, 11 schools and hundreds of homes.

RAF Bomber Command concentrates on power stations and communications junctions in western Germany and the usual Channel ports. The main target is Mannheim, with 42 bombers attacking.

Battle of the Atlantic: The other shoe drops in the Caribbean when 6049-ton German freighter Rhein, the second ship (with the Idarwald, already sunk) to make a jailbreak from Tampico, Mexico to Occupied France. Dutch warship Van Kinsbergen alerted to the situation by US destroyers Simpson and MacLeish shadowing the Rhein as part of the Neutrality Patrol, intercepts the Rhein near the Dry Tortugas (off Key West). Just like the crew of the Idarwald, Rhein's crew sets fire to the ship and attempts to scuttle it. After taking the German crew prisoner, the destroyer HMS Caradoc sinks the flaming wreck with gunfire as destroyers USS MacLeish and McCormick watch. The Rhein now is a popular dive wreck for experienced divers. Incidentally, Adolf Hitler mentions this sinking - along with that of the Idarwald - in his declaration of war upon the United States on 11 December 1941 - exactly one year from today.

U-94 (Kptlt. Herbert Kuppisch), on its first patrol out of Kiel (heading for Lorient), torpedoes and sinks 5306-ton freighter Empire Statesman in the shipping lanes west of Ireland. All 32 onboard ultimately perish in the frigid seas. The Empire Statesman is a straggler from Convoy SLS 56 due to engine issues - convoys don't slow down to help those who can't keep up.

U-96 (Kplt. Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock), also on its first war patrol out of Kiel, stumbles upon scattered Convoy HX 92. First, at 15:12, it torpedoes and sinks 10,890 British passenger ship Rotorua, the ship carrying the convoy commodore (Rear Admiral J. U. P. Fitzgerald Rtd), who perishes. There are 23 deaths, but most of the passengers survive. U-96 picks up a couple of survivors and takes them as prisoners. Royal Navy destroyer HMS Mashona later picks up the other 108 survivors.

Next, U-96 torpedoes 5419-ton Dutch freighter Towa from the same Convoy HX 92. However, this ship takes its time sinking, so the U-boat puts a second torpedo into it at 21:30. Somehow, this also does not sink the freighter, so the U-boat surfaces and begins shelling it. This induces the 37 crewmen to abandon ship, and the freighter finally sinks at 22:42. There are only 19 survivors after one of the lifeboats capsizes in the rough seas. The Towa was carrying 7778 tons of grain and 48 trucks.

U-96 also attempts to torpedo 8,237-ton freighter Cardita, but misses. There are still plenty of targets on the horizon for U-96 as the day ends.

U-65 (Kptlt. Hans-Gerrit von Stockhausen), on an extended three-month cruise, crosses the Equator. It is the first U-boat to do so.

British 208 ton British trawler Robinia hits a British-laid mine in the North Sea. Everybody survives.

The Luftwaffe attacks shipping in the Thames Estuary and damages 482-ton British freighter Saxon Queen and 1130 ton Swedish freighter Tor.

British battleship King George V, the first of a new class of battleships, finishes her sea trials and joins the Home Fleet at Scapa Flow. The days of the battleship may be waning, but King George V is a handy ship to add to the fleet. However, while it won't be discovered for a while, there are issues with her main guns that still require attention.

Convoy OB 257 departs from Liverpool, Convoy FN 357 departs from Southend, Convoy FS 359 departs from Methil, Convoy BS 10A departs from Port Sudan.

U-147 (Kapitänleutnant Reinhard Hardegen) commissioned.

U-172 laid down.

Destroyer HMAS Napier commissioned. It heads to Scapa Flow for trials.

"Image: a view of the Royal Navy battleship HMS King George V at sea, with a destroyer also visible on the water." December 1940. War Artists Advisory Committee commission artist Muirhead Bone. © IWM (Art.IWM ART LD 1366).

Anglo/US Relations: The British have been remarkably composed about requesting aid from the US to date - especially compared to the French in May and June. Today British Ambassador to the US Lord Lothian states that:

But with your help in airplanes, munitions, in ships and on the sea, and in the field of finance now being discussed between your Treasury and ours, we are sure of victory.

He further warns that the British Isles and other island chains such as the Azores are essential to the US strategic defense because,  if they are lost, "your power to strike back at an enemy disappears because you have no bases from which to do so."

Typical street scene, Nameoke Street, Far Rockaway Boulevard, New York City. The street still has cobblestone, which was quite common in New York around this time, but most of it since has been paved over. December 11, 1940 (Baumwoll Archives, New York Public Library).

British Military: Air Marshal A. W. Tedder is appointed Deputy to Air Officer Commander-In-Chief, Middle East. He replaces Air Vice-Marshal O.T. Boyd, captured on Sicily recently after his plane made a forced landing there on a trip to Malta.

Romania: Romania agrees to export three million tons of oil to Germany during 1941. That would be double what it has exported in 1940, but the Wehrmacht war machine is exceedingly thirsty. Romania is virtually Germany's only oil source, and this fact informs many of Hitler's strategic decisions.

Future  History: Donna Jean Miller is born in Chicago, Illinois. Donna graduates early from high school and goes off to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, but the dancing bug bites and she leaves school to perform in summer stock productions. Her big break comes when she lands a spot in a touring production of My Fair Lady, which brings her to New York. Adopting the stage name of Donna Mills, she gets another big break by landing a six-month role on ABC-TV soap opera The Secret Storm in 1966, then appears the following year in "The Incident" with Martin Sheen (born 3 August 1940), Beau Bridges and Ed McMahon. More soap and stage work follows, followed by guest appearance son numerous '70s television shows. Donna Mills comes to national attention when she is cast as Abby Cunningham, a prime-time soap that runs throughout the '80s. Donna remains active in soap operas and occasional film work, winning Outstanding Special Guest Performer in a Drama Series for her performance in General Hospital, in a three-way tie with Fred Willard and Ray Wise in 2015.

M/S Rhein WWII Wreck from Anton Kozhevnikov on Vimeo.
December 1940

December 1, 1940: Wiking Division Forms
December 2, 1940: Convoy HX 90 Destruction
December 3, 1940: Greeks Advancing
December 4, 1940: Italian Command Shakeup
December 5, 1940: Thor Strikes Hard
December 6, 1940: Hitler's Cousin Gassed
December 7, 1940: Storms At Sea
December 8, 1940: Freighter Idarwald Seized
December 9, 1940: Operation Compass Begins
December 10, 1940: Operation Attila Planned
December 11, 1940: Rhein Wrecked
December 12, 1940: Operation Fritz
December 13, 1940: Operation Marita Planned
December 14, 1940: Plutonium Discovered
December 15, 1940: Napoleon II Returns
December 16, 1940: Operation Abigail Rachel
December 17, 1940: Garden Hoses and War
December 18, 1940: Barbarossa Directive
December 19, 1940: Risto Ryti Takes Over
December 20, 1940: Liverpool Blitz, Captain America
December 21, 1940: Moral Aggression
December 22, 1940: Manchester Blitz
December 23, 1940: Hitler at Cap Gris Nez
December 24, 1940: Hitler at Abbeville
December 25, 1940: Hipper's Great Escape
December 26, 1940: Scheer's Happy Rendezvous
December 27, 1940: Komet Shells Nauru
December 28, 1940: Sorge Spills
December 29, 1940: Arsenal of Democracy
December 30, 1940: London Devastated
December 31 1940: Roosevelt's Decent Proposal

2020

Monday 9 December 1940

Cameron Highlanders march past the Pyramids, 9 December 1940.

Battle of the Mediterranean: Mussolini's military problems expand exponentially on 9 December 1940, as the British launch Operation Compass. This is an offensive by two divisions (more or less) of the British Army Western Desert Force against ten divisions of the Italian 10th Army. Anyone familiar with the respective capabilities of the two armed forces knows that a 1:5 British disadvantage in an assault against entrenched Italian positions is a complete mismatch... in favor of the British.

The British advanced troops, after assembling in their jump-off points at 01:00, commence a diversionary artillery barrage from the east against the southernmost Nibeiwa encampment at 05:00. This plays into Italian preconceptions of where an attack must arise - the East - and their defenses all point in that direction. At 07:15, the main artillery barrage commences. Shortly afterward, the 11th Indian Infantry Brigade jumps off against Nibeiwa from the northwest and swarms the Italians from the rear. The British occupy the camp by 08:30, killing 818 Italians (including commander General Pietro Maletti of the Maletti Group), wounding 1338 and taking 2,000 prisoners. Maletti personally mans a machine gun against a British tank, which cuts him down.

At 13:50, the British attack another encampment just to the north known as Tummar West. This camp holds out until 16:00, but the result is basically as same as in the morning attack: 1351 Italians killed, 840 wounded, and numerous prisoners. The surviving Italians either surrender or engage in wild flight north to the coast.

The Selby Force (1800 men under Brigadier A. R. Selby) moves forward to surround the remaining Italians at Maktila, but, in the best news of the day for Mussolini, the defenders there manage to escape. They don't get very far, however. By nightfall, the fleeing Italians are backed against the sea near Sidi Barrani with nowhere else to run. The Royal Navy controls the seas, so the Italians have no escape, though they hold out through the night. Basically, their position becomes an armed prison camp.

The RAF and Royal Navy support Operation Compass without much interference from the Italians. The RAAF chips in with dive-bomber attacks by Gloster Gauntlets (open-cockpit biplanes are perfectly satisfactory weapons against minimal opposition), and the Hurricanes of RAF No. 274 Squadron clear the way by shooting down four biplane Fiat CR 42s.

It is fair to say that, while individual Italians fight with great bravery and distinction (there are reports of piles of bodies everywhere), overall today's battle is perhaps the most cataclysmic example in history of well-supplied, numerically superior, elite troops either being unable or unwilling to resist. Leaders are on sides are dumbfounded at the ease of British success. General O'Connor's British Army troops suffer only 56 deaths during the day.

The RAF also raids the Italian airfield at Benina in East Africa, and Gallabat and Gherile in Somaliland.

The British attack on 9 December 1940. The Italians have built elaborate fortifications facing East, so the British march around them and attack from the southwest. Incredibly, the British are able to march 30,000 men and hundreds of tanks 70 miles across the open desert without the Italians noticing.

European Air Operations: The Luftwaffe attacks London throughout the night of 8/9 November in one of the heaviest sustained assaults of the entire campaign. Radio Berlin makes a point of claiming that this is in retaliation for the RAF bombing of German cities. After dark, the Luftwaffe again takes a night off, and there are few flights during the day, either. The London raid thus acquires the air of a one-off stunt rather than a prolongation of the Battle of Britain.

The RAF bombs the ports of Bremen, Lorient, and Boulogne.

While the Germans are loudly proclaiming that they are retaliating against the British, the air war remains far from even. Estimates are that the Luftwaffe drops 7,455 tons of bombs on Great Britain during the month of  November, while the RAF drops 475 tons on German. Of course, the British are dropping the majority of their loads on the occupied countries nearby, but in terms of damage to the combatant nations, there is no question that Great British is suffering many times worse than Germany.

Italian/Greek Campaign: The Italian Air Force bombs the island of Levkas (Santa Maura) and Arta Bay. The Greek army continues to grind forward in horrendous weather.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-103 (Kplt. Viktor Schütze) spots 5186-ton British freighter Empire Jaguar (Master Hywel Tudor Thomas) about 300 miles due west of Ireland. At 01:32, he torpedoes and sinks it. The Empire Jaguar is alone, a straggler of Convoy OB 252, and the odds of surviving a quick sinking in the middle of the night with nobody around to rescue you are slight. All 37 aboard perish.

British 1527-ton troopship Royal Scot (formerly Royal Sovereign - it was renamed when requisitioned) hits a mine and sinks in the Bristol Channel near Barry. One crewman perishes. The Royal Scot had an active history during the first year of the war, including evacuations of children from Dagenham and Gravesend to Great Yarmouth, troop evacuations from Cherbourg, and nine trips to Dunkirk to rescue 16,000 troops.

The RAF bombs and damages German barge Usaramo at Bordeaux, causing the crew to run it on the beach and abandon it.

Armed merchant Cruiser Dunnottar Castle and auxiliary minelayer Manchester City collide, but the damage is slight.

Battleship Bismarck reaches its new anchorage at Hamburg.

A small Vichy French flotilla (a sloop and four submarines) departs from Toulon in southern France with the intention of exiting the Mediterranean to make port at Dakar. The British have been very uncertain in their treatment of Vichy French warships passing through the Strait of Gibraltar, so all such passages are rife with tension. At this stage of the war, the British have not yet closed off the Strait.

Convoy FN 355 departs from Southend, Convoy OG 47 departs from Liverpool and Bristol, Convoy HG 48 (nineteen ships) departs from Gibraltar.

U-75 and U-76 are commissioned.

U-461 is laid down, while U-83 is launched.

This Bellanca Aircruiser (NC-2111, CF-BLT) in Canadian service is destroyed today, 9 December 1940, by a hangar fire in Whitehorse, Canada.

US/Japanese Relations: Japanese Foreign Minister Matsuoka Yosuke downplays the likelihood of an armed conflict between his country and the United States, stating:

. . if both of us attend to our own business I cannot think there will be any serious clash. . . . We have no difference that cannot be surmounted if we keep our heads cool and mind our business. . . . We do not pass judgment on what the United States does in the West, and we try to confine ourselves to this part of the world.

Yosuke, however, knows that neither side is "minding its business" at this point. There is rampant Japanese aggression in China, while effective US sanctions are helping to cause the Japanese to look longingly at the Dutch/Indonesian oilfields to the south.

Italian Military: Admiral Angelo Iachino, the former Italian Naval attaché in London, becomes the new Commander-in-chief of the Italian Navy (Regia Marina), replacing Inigo Campioni.

British Military: Major General Sir Giffard Le Quesne Martel, a veteran of the abortive counterattack against Erwin Rommel's 7th Panzer Division at Arras, becomes the Commander of the Royal Armoured Corps. Perhaps due to his lengthy name, Martel is known simply as "Q." He is one of the leading British tank strategists, having written a prescient paper in November 1916 in which he envisaged entire tank armies - before a single tank had yet to see combat.

On December 9, 1940, the boys on Sewall St. in Somerville, Massachusetts have a big sled race. (Boston Globe Archive).

Indochina: The Vichy French government, still engaged in a border war with Thailand, forms the French Groupe Occasionnel squadron. It has a light cruiser and four patrol boats (avisos). The battle in southern Indochina is as much a naval war as it is a ground campaign, as the area is dominated by the Mekong Delta and its tributaries.

British Homefront: The government announces official statistics showing that 705,279 workers are unemployed in Britain. This is down substantially from the start of the war. Ordinarily, a lower unemployment rate would be considered a positive for the country, but factories producing war goods and shipyards finishing warships are running flat-out. Men are being sucked out of the factories into the Army, Navy, and RAF. The specter of a labor shortage looms - or a military one.

American Homefront: John Philip Sousa Bridge opens in Washington, D.C. before a crowd of more than 12,000. Sousa's two daughters, Jane and Helen, and his sister Catherine are present. Naturally, the US Marine Band provides musical entertainment. The Sousa bridge replaces earlier bridges in the same spot, one of which the retreating US forces (from the British) burned down during the War of 1812 in 1814. It's an interesting juxtaposition to the current world situation.

Life Magazine, 9 December 1940. The cover girl, Ginger Rogers, is up for an Academy Award for her performance in "Kitty Foyle" (don't tell her - she wins).

December 1940

December 1, 1940: Wiking Division Forms
December 2, 1940: Convoy HX 90 Destruction
December 3, 1940: Greeks Advancing
December 4, 1940: Italian Command Shakeup
December 5, 1940: Thor Strikes Hard
December 6, 1940: Hitler's Cousin Gassed
December 7, 1940: Storms At Sea
December 8, 1940: Freighter Idarwald Seized
December 9, 1940: Operation Compass Begins
December 10, 1940: Operation Attila Planned
December 11, 1940: Rhein Wrecked
December 12, 1940: Operation Fritz
December 13, 1940: Operation Marita Planned
December 14, 1940: Plutonium Discovered
December 15, 1940: Napoleon II Returns
December 16, 1940: Operation Abigail Rachel
December 17, 1940: Garden Hoses and War
December 18, 1940: Barbarossa Directive
December 19, 1940: Risto Ryti Takes Over
December 20, 1940: Liverpool Blitz, Captain America
December 21, 1940: Moral Aggression
December 22, 1940: Manchester Blitz
December 23, 1940: Hitler at Cap Gris Nez
December 24, 1940: Hitler at Abbeville
December 25, 1940: Hipper's Great Escape
December 26, 1940: Scheer's Happy Rendezvous
December 27, 1940: Komet Shells Nauru
December 28, 1940: Sorge Spills
December 29, 1940: Arsenal of Democracy
December 30, 1940: London Devastated
December 31 1940: Roosevelt's Decent Proposal

2020

Sunday 22 September 1940

On 22 September 1940, Japanese troops burst into French Indochina from China. French Indochinese Colonial troops and Foreign Legionnaires offer resistance but are forced to retreat. The Japanese appeal to local Vietnamese communist partisans to rise up against the French, and the communists set up local governments which the French later suppress. Taking the longest view, this is the first act of the later Vietnam War.

Battle of the Atlantic: The Wolfpack shadowing Convoy HX 72 on 22 September 1940 about 600 miles west of Ireland already has a bunch of successes, but it is not done yet. The U-boats sink a remarkable amount of tonnage in this convoy during a running battle that takes several days and ends today. U-100 under the command of Joachim Schepke completes the greatest attack by a single U-boat on any convoy. In all, U-100 sinks 7 ships from HX-72.

U-100 (Kapitänleutnant Joachim Schepke) at 00:22 resumes his successful attack on the convoy, torpedoing 6561-ton British iron ore freighter Empire Airman. There are four survivors while 33 men perish. The ship is taken in tow but sinks on the 23rd. There is a memorial to the men lost on the ship at the Tower Hill Memorial in London.

U-100 torpedoes 10,525-ton British tanker Frederick S. Fales. There are 32 survivors and 11 men perish. The dead crewmen perish when the ship capsizes on their lifeboat.

U-100 torpedoes 3940-ton British lumber/cotton freighter Scholar using its stern tubes. The ship remains afloat and is taken in tow, but eventually becomes unmanageable and is scuttled. All 45 men on board survive.

U-100 torpedoes 6031-ton Norwegian freighter Simla. There are 31 survivors. The ship sinks within minutes and five men perish when they jump overboard in a panic. Fortunately, there is a ship nearby that picks up the survivors in under an hour.

U-100 also attacks the 5415-ton freighter Harlingen but misses. The Harlingen returns fire accurately with its stern gun and causes some minor damage to the U-boat.

U-32 (Kapitänleutnant Hans Jenisch) then attacks a straggler from HX 72. It performs a rare surface attack, shelling British freighter Collegian from long range (7 km) and damaging it. The freighter returns fire and escapes as it runs off. This practically defines a "low probability attack."

HX72 now is in ruins, scattered all across the North Atlantic. In total, it has lost 11 ships of 72,727 tons. Kapitänleutnant Joachim Schepke sinks a phenomenal seven ships in the convoy, while Kapitänleutnant Otto Kretschmer in U-99 sinks three. They achieve their successes by infiltrating the convoy and attacking from within. Credit ultimately belongs to Kapitänleutnant Günther Prien, who spotted and reported the convoy but could not attack himself because he was out of torpedoes. The rest of the 30 ships make it to port.

Anti-aircraft duty in Paris, 1940.

U-31 (Kapitänleutnant Wilfried Prellberg), a hundred miles south of the Faroe Islands, also uses its deck gun. This attack at 17:55 is more successful, as it sinks a local Faroese trawler, the 87 ton Union Jack. All seven men survive, reaching land late on the 23rd.

Kriegsmarine auxiliary minesweeper M-1604 Österreich sinks about 40 miles west of Hoek van Holland. The cause has not been definitively determined, most likely from a mine laid by HMS Cachalot.

Royal Navy trawler HMT Loch Inver (1930, Captain Thomas Hardcastle) is torpedoed and sinks off Harwich just after midnight. All 14/15 crew perish (no survivors). The Board of Enquiry reports states that Loch Inver, on patrol, was sunk by torpedo, though some sources say it hit a mine. This sinking may have taken place on 21 September, the sources are unclear, but the Board of Enquiry report suggests shortly before 00:50 on the 22nd. This sinking occurs during an attack by E-boats, and a little sleuthing suggests that German E-boat S13 sank the Loch Inver. Fellow trawler Edwina, on patrol with the Loch Inver, observes the attack from a distance and then engages the E-boats, but is undamaged. The Loch Inver is declared missing and presumed lost on 24 September 1940, which leads some sources to pin that as the date of loss, which is correct only in a legalistic sense.

Kriegsmarine 356-ton auxiliary minesweeper (Sperrbrecher 2) Athen is badly damaged by RAF air attack in the harbor of Boulogne. Hit by an aerial mine, it is beached. The ship is refloated later.

The Luftwaffe damages Dutch tanker Barendrecht in the River Thames.

Some accounts have HMS Tuna sinking Norwegian liner (and German prize ship) Tirranna today, but sources vary and I placed that on the 21st.

Convoy OA 218 departs from Methil, Convoy FN 288 departs from Southend.

Battle of Britain: The weather is fine over most of England, with only some morning fog, but the Luftwaffe continues scaling down its daylight operations now that Operation Sealion has been suspended. Some Bf 109s do a "Freie Jagd" over London in the morning, and they ease their boredom by attacking RAF Fowlmere. There, they do some damage, destroying a Spitfire and damaging others. A Junkers Ju 88 is shot down south of the Isle of Wight by RAF No. 234 Squadron. Otherwise, there are only some lone raiders doing minimal damage

After dark, things change. The Luftwaffe sends heavy raids against London, and by some accounts, this is the heaviest attack to date. Fires start at the Royal Arsenal Timber Field which spread, causing a major conflagration. This results in the loss of 100 residences lost and another 100 damaged. Direct hits on two air raid shelters kill dozens of people and injure more, while the supposedly safe Tube system suffers a direct hit at Mile End. The British Museum takes a hit, but the treasures have been secreted to underground storage. The fires are very difficult to put out and serve as a beacon for more waves of bombers.

The Luftwaffe is trying a new tactic of sending its own night fighters over England to engage RAF ones. Tonight, they shoot down a Whitley from RAF No. 58 Squadron, their first victory.

Three Hurricanes of RAF No. 85 Squadron crash in foul weather along the coast after running out of fuel. Overall, the losses are fairly minimal on both sides, basically those mentioned above.

A Luxembourgish policeman gives the Hitler salute to Heinrich Himmler during the latter's visit to Luxembourg in September 1940 (Federal Archives).

European Air Operations: RAF Bomber Command attacks the Channel ports and airfields along the coast with 95 aircraft. It also targets the big aluminum factory about 25 miles northeast of Dresden (Lauta), a repeated target until the last months of the war. A raid on Berlin causes minimal damage.

HMS Furious, parked 50 miles off Trondheim, launches six Skuas and 11 Swordfish at around 03:00. The weather fails to cooperate, and the raid turns into a disaster ... for the British. A Swordfish and a Skua wind up crashing in Sweden, while three Swordfish crash in Norway and a Swordfish runs out of fuel and crashes while looking for the carrier. Overall, three men perish, 9 are captured in Norway, and five are interned in Sweden. Furious returns to Scapa Flow.

Battle of the Mediterranean: With the Italians digging in at Sidi Barrani, the RAF and Royal Navy take turns raining destruction on them. The Italians are moving their camps further inland to avoid the daily bombardments, today by British destroyers HMS Jervis, Janus, Juno and Mohawk on the airfield at Sidi Barrani.

The Italians respond by raiding Mersa Matruh 80 miles ahead of their own lines.

British submarine HMS Osiris torpedoes and sinks 875 ton Italian Navy torpedo boat Palestro west of Durrës in the Adriatic.

British submarine HMS Truant (Lt.Cdr. Hugh Alfred Vernon Haggard), on its first Mediterranean patrol, torpedoes, and sinks 8459-ton Italian freighter Provvidenza 3.5 nm off Punta Imperatore, Ischia (10 miles west of Naples) in the Tyrrhenian Sea.

At Malta, at 11:30 the Italians send five SM 79 bombers escorted by four CR 42 fighters to bomb Luga Airfield. While the airfield receives minimal damage, the poor aim of the bombers completely devastates the village of Luga. One civilian boy is killed. Several unexploded bombs in the village cause further problems but are quickly found to be inactive (they have safety pins in place). At Kalafrana Airfield, a French Latecoere plan leaves to drop leaflets over Bizerta and Tunis in Tunisia.

Italian aircraft raid Cyprus for the first time.

Danish actress Anna Katrina, born on 22 September 1940.

German Military: The unpowered airframe of the Heinkel He 280 twin turbojet fighter is taken aloft, towed by a Heinkel He 111B, for gliding tests. The He 280 V1 is sort of a follow-up to the Heinkel He 178 that flew in August 1939 (this project originally had the designation He-180). The Luftwaffe is not particularly interested, having other jet planes in development so Ernst Heinkel, with designer Robert Lusser, has been pursuing the project on his own. The HeS 8 engines, however, are nowhere near ready yet. Among the innovations of the Heinkel He 280 is the first compressed-air powered ejection seat.

German/Finnish Relations: The Germans and Finns continue negotiating the terms of transit rights for Wehrmacht troops and supplies to Narvik via ports of the Gulf of Bothnia. The Germans agree to supply the Finns with arms.

Soviet/German Relations: The Soviets broadcast that the British have destroyed the German invasion fleet assembling in the English Channel.

Vichy French/Japanese Relations: The entire situation in Indochina is confused and fluid. The local Vichy French agree to give the Japanese three airfields in French Indochina during their continued discussions about the Japanese presence there. On or about this date the two sides sign an agreement for the Japanese to send troops into the country. The Japanese already are sending troops into French Indochina, sometimes against French resistance - the Japanese 5th Infantry Division crosses into Indochina at Lang Son by force and compels the French to retreat. The Japanese appeal to anti-Western elements in the country and urge local communists to rise up against the colonial administration. Many do, and they set up local communist governments in some areas where French administration is weak. The French are not beaten, however, and later suppress many of these revolts. The revolutionary fervor, however, has been ignited.

A 50-year-old itinerant Vietnamese who has spent most of his life abroad serving in the Comintern and working as a sort of community organizer, Nguyễn Ái Quốc, is in China as an adviser to the Chinese Communist armed forces. Sometime around this date in 1940 - nobody knows exactly when - Quốc begins regularly using the name "Hồ Chí Minh." This is a Vietnamese name combining a common Vietnamese surname (Hồ, 胡) with a given name meaning "He Who has been enlightened" (from Sino-Vietnamese 志 明: Chí meaning 'will' (or spirit) and Minh meaning "bright"). He keeps a close eye on developments in his homeland.

It is hunting season in parts of the United States. Here are 73 Deer hanging at the Klamath Falls, Oregon Train Depot. September 22, 1940.

Vichy French/German Relations: The German Armistice Control Commission sends a delegation to Dakar in French West Africa. The visit is timely, as the Royal Navy is about to pay a visit as well in Operation Menace.

Free France: Charles de Gaulle expresses support for former French Indochina Governor Admiral Decoux, who he sees as his representative in Asia.

Latvia: The Soviets integrate Latvian submarines Ronis and Spidola into the Navy. Since Latvia now is part of the USSR, it is wrong to characterize this as a "seizure."

Australia: Convoy US 5 departs from Freemantle, composed of Dutch liners Christian Huygens, Indrapoera, Nieuw Holland and Selamat. There are 4262 troops embarked, and its first stop is in Colombo.

American Homefront: Ben Musick a.k.a. Bill Morris of Dallas Texas, widely rumored to be associated in some tangential fashion with the moonshine business, wins the time trials at the Big Car Races at the Kansas State Fairgrounds. Attendance "In excess of 12,000." He does one lap at the half-mile track in 26.63 and later wins the 15-lap Sweepstakes Race in a time of 7:14.

Future History: Hanne Karin Blarke Bayer is born in Solbjerg, Denmark. Under the name Anna Karina, she becomes a major collaborator/muse/wife of Jean-Luc Godard during the French New Wave in the 1960s. She starred in classic films such as "A Woman is a Woman" (1961) and "Alphaville" (1965). Anna Karina appears to have retired from the business, her last film was "Victoria" in 2007.

In Section 6 of the 22 September 1940 Chicago Sunday Tribune, Dick Tracy shows how a private dick cross-dresses.

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

Wednesday 18 September 1940

Survivors of the City of Benares. Left to right, Kenneth Sparkes, Derek Capel, Freddie Steele, Billy Short, and Howard Clayton.

Battle of Britain: Adolf Hitler insists on continuing the bombing of London, against the inclinations of Reichsmarschall Goering and others in the Luftwaffe. Hitler typically imbues a political perspective to his military decisions, a tendency that becomes more pronounced as the war lengthens. In this case, he perhaps feels that the damage to British morale and industry is more important than resuming an all-out offensive against the RAF and actually defeating it.

At this stage, 18 September 1940, the Luftwaffe is engaging in a hybrid strategy, where it challenges Fighter Command by day and bombs London, Liverpool and other favored targets such as Brighton and South Wales by night. It is overstating matters to claim that the Luftwaffe has lost the initiative, but it cannot be said to be defeating the RAF, and, with the invasion called off, there is no pressing need to do so. The damage to English cities is, of course, horrible, but it does not impair growing British military strength.

The weather is fairly clear over England, but with storms to the north. The first raid comes across between 09:00 and 10:00, with a few bombers heading for the London Docks. The main force is fighters searching for trouble over the Thames estuary, but Fighter Command focuses on the bombers and leaves the fighters alone. There are isolated dogfights, but nothing on the scale of previous days. It is a wasted morning for the German fighters.

The bombers head over around noontime. Once again, the number of bombers is small compared to the numerous escorts. This time, Fighter Command gives battle. JG 26 has a good day, with Commander Major Adolf Galland shooting down three Hurricanes. This leaves him with 35 victories.

Another raid approaches around 15:30, and this time composed mostly of bombers. Fighter Command springs into action, with No. 11 Group fully engaged and helped by No. 12 Group's "Duxford Wing." Douglas Bader leads his Big Wing against bombers heading up the Thames, and there is very predictable carnage. They shoot down 19 bombers in one of those imponderable decisions by the Luftwaffe, sending largely unescorted Dornier Do 17 and Junkers Ju 88 bombers into the teeth of the fighter defense. The silver lining for the Luftwaffe is that dozens of bombers do get through and hit the central areas of the city, but at quite a cost to themselves.

Darkness falls around 1930, and that is when the night bombers arrive. The bombers continue coming across through the night, with London the objective for the vast majority of them. Smaller raids are made in Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol, and the Newcastle area.

Overall, the RAF wins the day but takes a dozen losses itself to about 20 for the Luftwaffe.

Hauptmann Walter Oesau of Stab III./JG 51 gets his 28th victory over Ashford.

Hans-Joachim Marseille, who got off to a fairly slow start in the Battle of Britain, gets his fifth kill just one day after receiving the Iron Cross First Class for his fourth kill.

Hauptmann Günther "Fränzl" Lützow of JG 3 is awarded the Ritterkreuz (Knight's Cross).

The Richmond Times-Dispatch repeats the mantra that the British want to convey, that they are barely holding off the German invaders and really could use more American help. In fact, the British leadership already know they basically have won the Battle of Britain.

European Air Operations: RAF Bomber Command takes no chances with a possible invasion despite having learned on the 17th - via the Ultra decrypts - that the invasion is off. It targets the invasion ports all along the coast, and also main supply points such as Brussels, Osnabruck, Ehrang, Hamm, and Mannheim. Coastal Command chips in with raids on Cherbourg, a convoy near Borkum, and De Kooy Airfield 5 km south of Den Helder in Holland (just south of Texel).

U-boat Captain Heinrich Bleichrodt.

Battle of the Atlantic:  U-48 (Kapitänleutnant Heinrich "Ajax" Bleichrodt), operating out of L'Orient, has been shadowing Convoy OB 213 west of Scotland (about 255 miles southwest of Rockall) for much of the 17th. Bleichrodt has an extremely successful day during one of the best patrols of any U-boat during the war. It begins just after midnight when Bleichrodt sinks the liner City of Benares (discussed below under War Crimes).

After quickly reviewing the situation with the City of Benares with his searchlight and seeing that its situation is hopeless, Captain Bleichrodt heads east and torpedoes British freighter Marina at 00:07. There are two deaths, with 37 survivors.

Bleichrodt continues stalking the convoy throughout the day. As the sun sets at 18:49, he strikes again and sinks the 3118-ton British iron ore freighter Magdalena. It is a straggler from Convoy OB 213. All 31 onboard perish.

Elsewhere, the RAF bombs and sinks 1626 ton German transport Johann Blumenthal (apparently named after the shipping company) near Cherbourg in the English Channel. There are some survivors, how many is unclear, picked up by German destroyer Lody. German torpedo boat TB T.11 also is heavily damaged in this attack, as is minelayer Schiff 23.

The RAF also bombs and sinks 3145-ton French freighter Dunkerquois at Le Havre.

British lumber schooner Minas Prince is caught in a storm and founders 60 miles from the southeastern tip of Nova Scotia. The storm caused the ship, carrying rock plaster, to settle lower and lower in the rough seas, putting out her engine and finally causing the crew to abandon ship a few hours before it sinks. Six men, including Captain Murray Will Igar, are picked up by a passing freighter and reach the shore at St. John, New Brunswick.

There are violent storms off Aberdeen, Scotland, too. British ships (HMS Versatile and freighter Lady of Mann) take weather damage.

The Luftwaffe damages British freighter Rudmore at Gravesend Reach, London, and also damages freighter Ling in at the Liverpool docks.

A tanker and escorting ship for Vichy French Force Y, on a quick "Show the Flag" mission in the Cameroons, are spotted by the British, who shadow them. The Royal Navy is busy positioning its capital ships for Operation Menace against Dakar and sends battleship Barham from Freetown to join the gathering force outside that harbor. Vichy French Force itself also begins its journey back to Dakar. The Royal Navy's orders are not to sink Vichy French ships, but to order them to make port in Casablanca - another about-face in British handling of the situation, where sometimes they sink Vichy French ships, sometimes they don't.

The Admiralty and War Cabinet are undecided about Operation Menace. It is an on-again, off-again operation. At the moment it is on again and scheduled to begin within a few days.

The Germans seize 1059 ton Swedish freighter Frisia at Bordeaux

The US re-commissions USS S-31, a Great War submarine, at Philadelphia and assigns it to SubDiv 52 at New London, Connecticut. Destroyer USS Mayo (DD 422, Lt. Campbell D. Emory) also is commissioned.

Destroyer HMS Cleveland (L 46,  Lt. Commander William S. Clouston) is commissioned.

U-143 (Oberleutnant zur See Ernst Mengersen) is commissioned.

The Minas Prince.

Battle of the Mediterranean: The loss of Sidi Barrani to the Italians is having subtle but growing adverse effects on the British hold on the Mediterranean. The RAF airbase there had been extremely useful for launching raids against Italian-held Libya and for shuttling planes to Malta. The next-nearest airfield is at Benghazi, and fighters cannot make it from there to Malta even with extra fuel tanks. Even Blenheim bombers can barely make it, with little room for error. Thus, losing Sidi Barrani makes reinforcement of Malta much more difficult, and curtails transits between there and the main base at Alexandria. Loss of Sidi Barrani also deprives Royal Navy ships from Alexandria of fighter cover over the Italian positions further west such as Bardia. And, of course, the reverse situation applies, with the Regia Aeronautica now in a position to bomb RAF airfields further east and give more cover to its ships at Tobruk and other eastern Libyan ports. All in all, the tepid Italian advance has had far more effect on the British military posture than its small gains might suggest.

One of the odder bomb disposal efforts takes place when a well is pumped dry in order to retrieve a 400 lb bomb that fell down it. The operation requires special lifting gear and of course special handling. In addition, for the first time a German bomb is found and has to be defused - previously, only Italian bombs have been used.

War Crimes: The incident described here was found not to be a war crime. However, it illustrates the types of situations in which one might have been found.

U-48 has been trailing the zigzagging City of Benares, a liner with guns at either end, for ten hours as the 17th of September ends. Just before midnight on the 17th, he fires two torpedoes and misses (most accounts thus place this incident on the 17th, but in fact, the sinking occurs on the 18th). Still in firing position, just seconds after midnight, Bleichrodt fires a third torpedo. It hits the 11,081-ton British liner in the stern. The ship sinks within 30 minutes. Bleichrodt steps back from the periscope and quietly mutters his verdict:

A success.

Bleichrodt surfaces and plays a searchlight over the scene, giving hope to survivors. It is chaotic, with people in the sea and lifeboats everywhere. The ship is obviously kaputt. Satisfied, he leaves the scene and heads east, where he spots another ship from the convoy and sinks it, too.

The crew of the stricken ship acts incredibly quickly and gets as many lifeboats in the water as possible before the ship sinks. There are 260 deaths, while 147 people survive (sources vary on all the numbers). Among the passengers are 90 British children being sent to Canada as refugees; 77-83 of them perish before seeing land again. HMS Hurricane, 300 miles away, receives a message about the sinking and immediately heels over to race to the scene. When it arrives a day later, there is massive confusion because another ship in the convoy, the Marina, also has been torpedoed around the same time. This causes one of the lifeboats from the City of Benares to be overlooked, and the passengers spend eight days drifting before finally being spotted and picked up by HMS Anthony.

This incident spells the end for the Children's Overseas Reception Board (CORB), which has been relocating children to Canada. However, private evacuations of the sort continued for another year.

As a reward, Captain Bleichrodt in mentioned in the daily Wehrmachtsbericht, an incredible honor, a few days later on 21 September 1940 for his successful patrol (8 ships sunk as of that date). A top U-boat ace, he suffers some kind of mental breakdown a couple of years later and is given shore duty - but even so, he is considered the war's tenth-most-successful U-boat ace.

Bleichrodt is tried after the war for the sinking. One of U-48's crew, a Corporal Solm, had described the sinking after his capture, "“We knew there were kiddies on board before the tin fish were fired. We bagged a kiddie ship! Six thousand tons. We heard on the radio what was on board. No one survived.” However, Bleichrodt himself denies any knowledge of the presence of children in the City of Benares when he fired the torpedo and refuses to show remorse. The court agrees with the captain after some helpful testimony from the British Admiralty, Bleichrodt is cleared, and he retires to Munich. Bleichrodt passes away in 1977. Very clearly, if he had been found to have known there were children aboard, Bleichrodt would have been found guilty. Very, very close call.

Survivors of the City of Benares.

Anglo/US Relations: More US destroyers arrive at Halifax for the British to take over pursuant to the destroyers-for-bases deal. The ships are:

• USS Kalk, 
• USS Maddox, 
• USS Cowell, 
• USS Foote, 
• USS Hopewell, 
• USS Abbot, 
• USS Thomas, and 
• USS Doran

The Greenslade Board, inspecting the new US bases under the deal, heads from St. John, Nova Scotia for Argentina aboard the USS St. Louis.

Soviet Military: Soviet Minister of Defence Marshal S.K. Timoshenko and Chief of General Staff K.A. Meretskov submit to the Politburo their plan for the invasion of Germany. It proposes an advance north of the Pripet Marshes - very similar to the opening stages of World War I. Those who prefer to see Operation Barbarossa as the most epic military mistake of all time tend to overlook the fact that the Soviets are considering something similar. In fact, this plan has a great resemblance to some of the initial planning for Barbarossa - in reverse.

Japanese Military: Japanese carrier Akagi arrives at Hiroshima Bay, Japan en route to Kure.

Vichy France: The United States continues to recognize Vichy France, and today the American Library in the occupied zone of France reopens in Paris.

British Somaliland: British troops stage a small-scale raid on the Italian border station at El Uach.

China: Emperor Kangde of the puppet state presides over the dedication ceremony of the National Martyr Shrine of Manchukuo in Xinjing.

The Nationalists open the Chungking University of Technology.
American Homefront: The Cincinnati Reds win the National League Pennant again, beating the Philadelphia Phillies in 13 innings.

Future History: Philadelphia has a better day than it realizes at the time with that Phillies loss. Francis Thomas Avallone is born there today. He becomes a child actor and changes his name to Frankie Avalon, appearing on television shows such as "The Jackie Gleason Show." His main passion, though, is singing, and he gets No. 1 hits "Venus" and "Why" in 1959. He goes on to team up with Annette Funicello in the "Beach Blanket" movies. Frankie Avalon remains active as of this writing and continues to tour. (Some sources say that Avalon was born on this date in 1939.)

Amongst other national tragedies, the National Chess Center is hit by incendiary bombs on 18 September 1940 and destroyed. It had opened less than a year earlier.

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