http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/10.htm
August 10th, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM: RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group (Whitley). Bombing - industrial targets at Frankfurt-am-Main.
58 Sqn. Ten aircraft. Two returned early, four bombed primary, two bombed alternatives. One crashed at Hemswell on return.
RAF Fighter Command: Weather, cloud and rain. Little Luftwaffe activity, no aircraft losses.
Some activity in the Channel and Bf110 pilots of Erpro 210 attempt a surprise evening strike on Norwich. A lone undetected Do 17 put 11 HEs close to RAF West Malling despite 501 Squadron’s attempts to stop it.
During the night serious damage was done to the Llandore GWR (Great Western Railway) viaduct near Swansea where a direct hit on a shelter killed four.
Bombs fall for the first time on Abergavenny, Rochester and Wallasey along with heavy raids on Swansea and Weymouth.
Submarine HMS P 222 laid down.
Destroyer HMS Holderness commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
RAF Coastal Command: 608 Sqn. carries out its first operation with its new Blackburn Botha general reconnaissance aircraft.
Despite the threat of invasion, Churchill decides to send three regiments of tanks (about 150) to North Africa.
FRANCE: VICHY FRANCE: Laval offers Germany 200 pilots to help fight the Battle of Britain.
GERMANY: U-56 sank AMC HMS Transylvania.
U-94 commissioned.
U-132 and U-655 laid down.
U-143 launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
AUSTRIA: Vienna: Baldur von Schirach becomes Gauleiter of Vienna; Artur Axmann will take over as Reich youth leader.
ROMANIA: Anti-Semitic legislation is passed.
AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Lismore launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
PACIFIC OCEAN: The Japanese naval blockade of the coast of China is extended to South China. (Jack McKillop)
CANADA: Corvette HMCS Spikenard launched Lauzon Province of Quebec. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: The motion picture “The Return of Frank James” is released. This western, directed by Fritz Lang, stars Henry Fonda, Gene Tierney (her film debut), Jackie Cooper, Henry Hull, John Caradine and Donald Meek. The plot has Frank James (Fonda) seeking revenge against the men who killed his brother Jesse. (Jack McKillop)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Armed Merchant Cruiser HMS Transylvania of the Northern Patrol is lost to U-56 to the north of Ireland 40 miles off Malin Head at 55 50N 08 03W. (Alex Gordon)(108)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 345 August 10, 1940
Battle of Britain Day 32. Göring’s planned offensive against RAF airfields is cancelled due to the weather. Clouds, squalls and thunder storms again preclude much flying. Luftwaffe mounts reconnaissance patrols and sporadic attacks on isolated trawlers and merchant ships. Overnight, Germans drop mines at several points on the coast of Britain. No aircraft are lost by either side.
In mid-Atlantic, 300 miles Southwest of the Azores, German armed merchant cruiser Widder stops Finnish barque Killoran. The steel-hulled 3 mast sailing ship built in 1900 is carrying a British-owned cargo of 2500 tons of maize & 500 tons of sugar from Buenos Aires to Las Palmas. Although most of Widder’s crew is against sinking the old sailing ship, Widder’s surgeon wants a dramatic finale for the Nazi propaganda film of the voyage he is making. He persuades Captain Ruckteschell to blow up Killoran with all sails still set, after taking off Killoran’s 18 crew. http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/ConGalleryCollection.18/Gustaf-Erikson-and-his-ships.html
British troopship SS Neuralia leaves Gibraltar, escorted by destroyer HMS Gallant, with 2000 civilian evacuees bound for the Portuguese island of Madeira 600 miles West in the Atlantic. http://www.merchantnavyofficers.com/Troopships.html
Just off the North coast of Scotland, Dutch MV Albula and American steamer Crescent City collide in convoy OA-196. MV Albula sinks after the entire crew is taken off by British destroyer HMS Jaguar.
At 1.00 AM, 20 miles North of Ireland, British armed merchant cruiser HMS Transylvania is hit with U-56’s last torpedo but does not sink (36 lives lost). Destroyer HMS Ashanti and several trawlers rescue 300 survivors before Transylvania is taken in tow but later sinks. http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/457.html