http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/09.htm
July 9th, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM: RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group (Whitley). Operations cancelled due to weather conditions.
Britain is alive with reports of parachute landings, which were officially denied today. In the invasion of Holland, some parachutists were disguised as clergymen. Some rumours say that they have been disguised as nuns in Scotland. Other rumours of “fifth column” activity include secret rays in operation, which stop car engines dead, and spy messages concealed in the personal column of The Times. It is now an offence to spread rumours - a man was fined GBP 25 today for saying that 20 parachutists had landed in Kent. The Ministry of Information has asked people to join the “Silent Column” and to report defeatist talk.
RAF Bomber Command: 2 Group ( Blenheim). 21 Sqn and 57 Sqn. 12 aircraft bombed Stavanger/Sola airfield in Norway. 7 aircraft lost to fighters.
Submarine HMS Salmon sailed on patrol on 4 July but was not heard from since. After the war it was found that she had been routed across a German minefield that had just been laid at 57 22N 05 00E. All 30 crew lost. (Alex Gordon)(108)
Corvette USS Temptress (ex-HMS Veronica) laid down.
Corvettes HMS Dianthus and Jonquil launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
FRANCE: VICHY FRANCE: The French Chamber of Deputies votes for the reform of the Constitution by 395 votes to 3. Thus the French parliament grants Marshal Petain the power to make and alter the constitution.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Action off Calabria: Battle of Punto Stilo - Italian aircraft based out of Sicily start five days of high-level bombing against Admiral Cunningham’s force (and Force H out of Gibraltar) and cruiser HMS Gloucester is hit and damaged.
In a series of actions, Skua II fighters from 800 and 803 Sqns, FAA, break up most of the attacks, downing three and damaging several more of the attackers. No hits are obtained.
Mediterranean fleet heads for a position to cut off the Italians from their base at Taranto.
Eagle’s aircraft fail to find the Italians and first contact is made by a detached cruiser squadron which is soon under fire from the heavier ships. HMS Warspite comes up and damages battleship ‘Giulio Cesare’ with a 15in hit. As the Italian battleships turn away, the cruisers and destroyers engage but with little effect. Mediterranean fleet pursues to within 50 miles of the Calabrian coast before withdrawing.
In what might be the best single incident of long-range shooting on record, the WARSPITE scores a 15-inch hit on the CESARE, almost dead amidships on a moving target, without radar, at a range of over 15 miles. Meanwhile, Italian bombing attacks obtain loads of near misses and one solid hit, which lands on the bridge of the cruiser GLOUCESTER killing the captain and 19 others. No ship is sunk in the actual engagement, but the British destroyer ESCORT is sunk by an Italian sub while on the way home. (Mike Yaklich)
Force H is the subject off repeated bombing attacks by Sicilian based aircraft of Reggio Aeronautica. In a series of actions, Skua II fighters from 800 and 803 Sqns, FAA, break up most of the attacks, downing three and damaging several more of the attackers. No hits are obtained.
Meanwhile, Swordfish I search planes from 813 Sqn, FAA aboard HMS Eagle having established contact with the Italian Fleet for Admiral Cunningham’s Mediterranean Fleet, the 9 Swordfish Is of 824 squadron, FAA, also aboard HMS Eagle, deliver two separate torpedo attacks on Italian warships in the Ionian Sea. Unfortunately for the Royal Navy, the Italian cruisers outmanoeuvre both attacks. The second of the two attacks is delivered within sight of the British Fleet during the gunnery engagement between HMS Warspite and the Italian battleships Conti di Cavour and Giulio Cesare. These are the first aerial attacks delivered by carrier-based aircraft on the Italian Navy in the Mediterranean. (Mark Horan)
Mussolini has told his fleet: “You have obtained our first naval victory!”
AUSTRALIA: Destroyer HMAS Nestor launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: Submarine USS Unbeaten launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
The All-Star baseball game between the American and National League All-Stars is played in Sportsman’s Park, St. Louis, Missouri. The National League is the home team. Before one man is retired, the National League scores three runs on Boston Braves’ right fielder Max West’s home run with two men on. Five National League pitchers, the Reds’ Paul Derringer and Bucky Walters, the Dodgers’ Whit Wyatt, the Cubs’ Larry French, and the Giants’ Carl Hubbell hold the American League’s All-Stars to three hits giving the National League a 4-0 win, the first shutout in All-Star history. (Jack McKillop)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: SS Tiiu sunk by U-34 at 50.20N, 12W.
At 2119, the unescorted Aylesbury was torpedoed and sunk by U-43 about 200 miles SE of Ireland. The master and 34 crewmembers were picked up by HMS Harvester and Havelock and landed at Liverpool. (Dave Shirlaw)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 313 July 9, 1940
Battle of Calabria, first major sea battle in the Mediterranean. At 3.15 PM, Italian convoy to Benghazi, Libya (2 battleships Giulio Cesare & Conte di Cavour, 14 cruisers, 16 destroyers, 4 torpedo boats, 5 cargo ships) runs into a British convoy from Alexandria, Egypt to Malta (3 battleships HMS Warspite, Royal Sovereign & Malaya, 1 aircraft carrier HMS Eagle, 5 cruisers, 16 destroyers) 50 miles South of the heel of Italy. A 15-inch shell from HMS Warspite hits Giulio Cesare at a range of 24 km, one of the longest naval artillery hits equaling the shelling of HMS Glorious by German battleship Scharnhorst on June 8. Giulio Cesare does not sink but the Italian battleships withdraw; an indecisive cruiser battle ensues. 76 Italian high altitude bombers attack the British fleet, causing no damage but forcing a withdrawal, but 50 Italian aircraft bomb their own ships (also without damage). At 5 PM, battle ends & both sides withdraw.
Southwest of Ireland, U-34 sinks Estonian steamer Tiiu at 12.32 PM (all 20 crew picked up by a British trawler and landed at Milford Haven) and U-43 sinks British steamer Aylesbury at 9.19 PM (all 35 crew picked up by destroyers HMS Harvester & Havelock and landed at Liverpool). http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/416.html
British submarine HMS Salmon is lost, presumed sunk by a mine, 60 miles of Stavanger, Norway (all 39 hands lost).
German armed merchant cruisers Komet departs Bergen, Norway, to raid in the Pacific Ocean via the Arctic Ocean, assisted by Soviet icebreakers. Komet, with a crew of 270 under Kapitän zur See Robert Eyssen, is equipped with a strengthened bow and a special propeller for ice navigation. Germany plans to send 26 ships via this route but Komet is the only one to attempt the Northern passage. http://www.bismarck-class.dk/hilfskreuzer/komet.html
Luftwaffe again bombs shipping in the English Channel and near the British coast.
Is there a good analysis of how it was that the French Assembly voted so heavily for Fascism? Were the non-Fascists not in Vichy or were they cowed into going along by the collapse of the Republic in the face of German aggression?