Posted on 11/08/2010 5:55:06 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
Winston S. Churchill, Their Finest Hour
The (in)famous Tacoma-Narrows Bridge??
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/nov40/f08nov40.htm
Italian division cut off by Greeks
Friday, November 8, 1940 www.onwar.com
In the Balkans... The Italian 3rd Alpini Division is trapped in the area of the Pindus Gorges by the Greek counterattacks. The Greeks take over 5000 prisoners by November 10th.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/08.htm
November 8th, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM: Destroyer HMS Southdown commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
GERMANY: Berlin: The RAF bombs the city, forcing Hitler to delay his traditional speech marking the anniversary of his attempted coup in 1923. When he finally gets to speak Hitler asserts the certainty of German victory and that his determination to continue the struggle to a clear decision was unalterable. “Today I reject any compromise,” he declared.
ROMANIA: 1,000 people are feared dead in an earthquake which has damaged oilfields.
AUSTRALIA, BASS STRAIT: The M.V. City of Rayville, a freighter carrying a cargo of lead, wool and copper from Australia to New York, is sunk by a mine, the first US merchant ship to be lost in the war. One seaman drowned while trying to recover personal items from the sinking vessel but the 37 other crew survived.
U.S.A.: Washington: The government ponders raising the US debt limit from $49 billion to $65 billion to fund rearmament.
The US Navy commissions Motor Torpedo Squadron (MTBRons) 2. (Jack McKillop)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-47 damaged SS Gonçalo Velho. (Dave Shirlaw)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 435 November 8, 1940
Italians abandon the stalled invasion of Northern Greece and begin the retreat from the Kalamas River in Epirus. In the Pindus Mountains, remaining elements of the Italian Julia Division do not get the message but retreat anyway after learning of the coming Greek offensive from radio broadcasts from London.
Gabon,West Africa. Late in the evening, Free French forces (French Legionnaires plus colonial troops from Senegal and Cameroon) under General Marie Pierre Koenig land North and South of the capital Libreville and meet stiff resistance from defenders loyal to the Vichy regime. Libreville is also pressed inland by Free French troops from Cameroon.
Operation Crack. Aircraft from British carrier HMS Ark Royal, escorted by cruisers HMS Berwick and HMS Glasgow, attack the Italian seaplane base at Elmas near Cagliari, Sardinia. This is part of complex movements of several convoys with warship escorts through the Mediterranean (Operation MB8), including troops and anti-aircraft guns for Malta. The raid is also designed to distract from the planned attack on the Italian naval base at Taranto (Operation Judgement).
British WWI-era tug HMS Muria hits a mine and sinks off Isle of Thanet, just North of Dover, England (all hands lost). German bombers attack a convoy in the Thames Estuary, sinking or damaging several merchant ships. Convoy escort destroyer HMS Winchester shoots down 2 Ju87 dive bombers. HMS Winchester then hits a mine and, while anchored to make emergency repairs, she is bombed again and damaged by near misses (under repair in London until June 6 1941).
300 miles West of Ireland, Swedish steamer Vingaland is damaged by German bombers. Dutch submarine O-22 disappears in the North Sea 40 miles Southwest of the Norway, either lost on a mine or sunk by German submarine chasers UJ.117 and UJ.1102 (Dutch crew of 42 and 3 British sailors are lost). http://www.dutchsubmarines.com/boats/boat_o22.htm
I also wsa shocked by the $60 billion debt limit. Yikes, that about a two week's deficit in Obamaland.
Also Today:
Anthony Eden returned to London from Cairo and informs the Prime Minister of an offensive proposed by General Archibald Wavell that would be launched at Italian units in the Western Desert beginning next month. Churchill was so please with the prospect that he said, “I purred like six cats.”
the famous Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse!!
I remember watching a film of that in high school physics
an unfortunate way for people to learn about wave oscillations but at least it wasn’t completely lined with cars and people (I think 4 people died? could have been so much worse)
It was the wind that did it. Normally, the wind caused the bridge to sway, but on this date the wind came at a peculiar angle and caused a twisting effect.
Here’s a site with a good history of the bridge:
http://www.nwrain.net/~newtsuit/recoveries/narrows/gg.htm
No people died; only the one unfortunate dog.
As a result of the collapse, bridges designs are now subject to aerodynamic testing.
They learned a lot from that failure, as people should.
On another thread I indicated that the Japanese had the worst National Command Authority during the war; even worse than Italy. One look at the map and I have to reconsider. Could the Italians have picked worse terrain to conduct their invasion of Greece?
Another note: Looks like the PT boat had a very short development period in the U.S. In a year and half they will be a prominent feature in naval operations in the South Pacific. They were ideally suited for work in the shallow waters around the many islands there. One will carry to safety a well-known American general, whom some will accuse of abandoning his men to their fate.
I thought our infrastructure was crumbling - so we need stimlus to rebuild this bridge - and all the other falling down bridges across the land.
OOps! my bad - 70 years ago, I guess we will give those republican engineers a break who design this crumbling bridge.
LMAO
ah, thanks, it would help if I’d read the article!!
My brain retained “4” and the word “death” from the sub-heading but didn’t think I was going to post anything about the bridge collapse until I’d already left the NY Times page about it.....
I saw in the article that the one reporter who left his car on the bridge also left his daughter’s dog inside. I bet he caught hell for that.
On the PT boats. The one thing that really stood out to me is it is apparently based on a British design. I was always under the impression that the PT boats of WWII were upgraded versions of the Coast Guard patrol boats used to attempt to chase down rum-runners in the late 20s.
As to Dugout Doug, he did abandon his men to their fate, though it was on the President’s orders.
In 1940, US GDP was about $100 billion, with federal debt around $50 billion.
Depending on how you count it, that's around half the current debt to GDP ratio.
During the war, US GDP doubled, while the debt more than quadrupled -- to the only time it was ever higher than today's.
The first chart below stops in 2007.
Today's debt level is about 100% of GDP and rising rapidly.
Note recent deficits in second chart below:
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