Posted on 08/27/2010 5:23:22 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Plus a special guest map from Michael Korda’s, “With Wings Like Eagles,” showing the air defenses of England and Wales, August 1940.
William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
Winston S. Churchill, Their Finest Hour
Michael Korda, With Wings Like Eagles: The Untold Story of the Battle of Britain
Capital is Circled – 2-3
The International Situation – 4
4 Irish Towns Hit – 5
Full Attack Begun in Air, Reich Says – 6
First Australian Gasoline Promises a Huge Output – 6
Nazi Airmen Whose Raids on England Ended in Capture (photos) – 7
R.A.F. Lists Berlin Among Places Hit – 8
The Texts of the Day’s Communiques on the War – 9-10
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/aug40/f27aug40.htm
In Iceland... The Costal Command of the RAF establishes an air base to help in convoy protection. At this stage there are only outdated Fairey Battle aircraft situated there, but this base will soon expand.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/27.htm
August 27th, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM:
RAF Coastal Command establishes a air base on Iceland to assist with convoy protection. They are equipped with Fairey Battles.
The base was at Kaldadarnes, Iceland, 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Reykjavik, and the squadron was No. 98 Squadron equipped with Battle Mk Is. The ground echelon had arrived on 31 July and the air echelon arrived today. (Jack McKillop)
RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group (Whitley). Bombing - industrial targets at Turin and Milan - aircraft factory at Augsburg - marshalling yards at Mannheim.
51 Sqn. Five aircraft to Augsburg. Three bombed primary.
58 Sqn. Six aircraft to Turin and Milan. Three bombed primaries, two bombed alternative targets.
78 Sqn. Five aircraft to Mannheim. Three bombed primary, two bombed alternative targets.
Battle of Britain:
RAF Fighter Command: Weather restricts enemy action. At night widely scattered raids hit airfields and industrial areas.
Losses: Luftwaffe, 9; RAF, 1.
London: An air raid stops play at Lord’s cricket ground.
Biggin Hill, Kent: Sqn-Ldr Eric Laurence Moxey (b. 1894), RAFVR, volunteered to tackle two unexploded bombs. He was killed when one went off. (George Cross)
Cranfield, Bedfordshire: AC Vivian Hollowday (1916-77) pulled two men from a crashed and burning plane, but they and a third man were dead. He made a similar rescue attempt in July. (George Cross)
HMS Dunvegan Castle proceeding independently to Belfast is attacked and sunk by U-46, 120 miles south-west of Ireland at 55 05N 11 00W. However, she remains afloat long enough for the survivors to be taken off by HMS Harvester and Primrose. (Alex Gordon)(108)
GERMANY:
NBBS extols the British public to horsewhip Churchill and his underlings and to burn their property.
They then deny that the station (NBBS) is German. ‘The fact that we are British must be clear from every word we broadcast.’
LUXEMBOURG: German currency and foreign exchange controls are applied to the country. (Jack McKillop)
VICHY FRANCE:
Laws forbidding anti-Semitism in the press are repealed.
HUNGARY: Locotenent Aviator de reserva [Romanian for Reserve Flight Lieutenant, more or less] Nicolae Polizu of Escadrila 51 of the Royal Romanian Air Force, score Romania’s first aerial victory of the war (as well as a military decoration), when he intercepts a flight of Caproni Ca 135’s (of the 3/III. Bombazoosztaly, or #3 Squadron, Third Bomber Group, Hungarian Air Force). Despite overwhelming odds, Polizu shot up and forced down one of the bombers. (Greg Kelley)
FRENCH CAMEROON: Free French emissaries LeClerc and Boislambert depart Victoria, British Cameroons, in native canoes for Douala, French Cameroon where the Government Palace is occupied without resistance. The next day LeClerc travels by train to Youande to accept the transfer of power from the Vichy authorities. (Jack McKillop)
CHINA:
Britain completes the withdrawal of troops from Shanghai.
NEW ZEALAND: The 3rd Echelon of the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force departs for Egypt; they arrive on 29 September. (Jack McKillop)
CANADA: The 5th Canadian Infantry Brigade with the Calgary Highlanders, embarks for the United Kingdom; they arrive in Scotland on 4 September. (Jack McKillop)
U.S.A.: US President Franklin D Roosevelt signs a joint resolution authorizing the callup of Army Reserve and National Guard units for a period of one year.
The induction of National Guard units will begin on 16 September and continue for a seven-month period until March 1941.
Attorney General Robert H. Jackson gives President Franklin D. Roosevelt a ruling in which the legal framework for the transfer of destroyers to the British can be accomplished. During the day, Roosevelt confers with Secretary of the Navy Knox, Secretary of War Stimson and Secretary of State Hull concerning a compromise to resolve the impasse that has arisen over the proposed destroyers-for-bases agreement. Subsequently, Roosevelt meets with Admiral Harold R. Stark, Chief of Naval Operations, Secretary of the Navy Knox and Secretary of State Hull, and British Ambassador Lord Lothian; these men review the proposal arrived at earlier that day. Admiral Stark certifies that the destroyers involved are no longer essential to the defence of the United States, thus clearing the way for their transfer. (Jack McKillop)
(Jack McKillop)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: AMC HMS Dunvegan Castle sunk by U-46 in Convoy SL-43.
U-28 sank SS Eva in Convoy SC-1.
U-37 sank SS Theodoros T. (Dave Shirlaw)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 362 August 27, 1940
Battle of Britain Day 49. Clouds and heavy rain restrict Luftwaffe to reconnaissance flights during the day. 4 German bombers on reconnaissance missions are shot down (1 by anti-aircraft guns). RAF loses 1 Blenheim which crashes into the sea off Norway and 1 Hurricane which crashes into the sea on patrol over the English Channel. Overnight, there is widespread bombing of industrial targets and RAF airfields.
At 4.03 PM, U-28 Norwegian steamer Eva 200 miles Northwest of Ireland (1 killed). The crew escapes in the lifeboats and make land in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, 3 days later. At 10 PM, U-46 hits British armed merchant cruiser HMS Dunvegan Castle with 3 torpedoes 75 miles Northwest of Ireland (27 killed). 250 crew are picked up by destroyer HMS Harvester & corvette HMS Primrose and landed in Scotland. Dunvegan Castle sinks the next day. At 10.31 PM 300 miles West of Ireland, U-37 sinks Greek steamer Theodoros T. (carrying maize from Argentina to Britain).
http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/489.html
Off Madagascar, German armed merchant cruiser Pinguin stops British tanker British Commander at 4.18 AM and, shortly afterward, stops Norwegian steamer Morviken. Pinguin sinks both ships (both are in ballast with no cargo on board) and takes the crews prisoner.
Thanks for this set of posts Homer: very informative.
I really enjoy scanning thru the NYTimes articles from 70 years ago...and seeing history being reported from the European theatre.
Just curious, I know that the Japanese were also making advances in SE Asia during this period.
I can understand the thrust of the news being from Europe due to our European heritage, but why the scant attention to Japan’s growing threat?
I seem to recall other events/tussles later on in the war that also showed Leigh-Mallory in a poor light.
Not my subject though, so I can’t be sure. Anyway, good job Dowding was on top of things.
Date: 27th August 1940
Enemy action by day
During the day hostile activity was limited to a number of reconnaissance flights chiefly in the Portsmouth - Southampton area.
Three of these reconnaissance aircraft were interrupted and destroyed by our fighters.
North and East
Reconnaissance flights by single aircraft were plotted east of Kinnaird's Head, near a convoy off Harwich and in the North Sea. One of these aircraft was shot down near Chelmsford.
South East
In the morning a small formation crossed North Foreland and turning south, was interrupted near Dover and one Do215 was destroyed.
Later, reconnaissances passed over Dover and Ramsgate.
South and West
During the day, six reconnaissances appeared in the Portland - Portsmouth areas, one of which is suspected to have been on a photographic mission and also two reconnaissances over Plymouth. One enemy aircraft was destroyed near Warmwell.
By night
Enemy activity, although considerable, was not on the extensive scale of the two previous nights. There were scattered raids on the greater part of the country, except in the North where activity was slight.
Raids were reported throughout the Midlands, on East Anglia, Kent and Surrey, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, South Wales, Middlesborough, the Aberdeen district and at Chatham and Portsmouth.
London Central received two read warnings.
AA guns are reported in action at Southampton, Tangmere, Driffield, Tees, Bristol, Falmouth, Cardiff, Derby, Nottingham, Leeds and Manchester.
The only minelaying suspected is between the Wash and the Tees.
Addendum
Six to eight raids were reported in the Thames Estuary between 0400 and 0440 hours, possibly minelaying.
________________________________________
Statistics
Fighter Command Serviceable Aircraft as at 0900 hours, 27th August 1940
Casualties:
| Enemy Losses | ||
| By Fighters | ||
| Destroyed | Probable | Damaged |
| 2 Do215 | 1 Me110 | 1 He111 |
| 1 Ju88 | ||
| 3 | 1 | 1 |
| By Anti-Aircraft | ||
| Destroyed | Probable | Damaged |
| 1 He111 | ||
| 1 |
Own:
Patrols:
Balloons:
Aerodromes:
Organisation:
Air Intelligence Reports
Home Security Reports
Still no mention of the “Air Marshals” directing these aerial battles; Park, Dowding or Leigh-Mallory. Same for the Germans; Sperrle or Kesselring. Some mention of Goering, but he was CinCINO. (I just made that up.)
I recall that after the Fall of France, the Times did a post-mortem on the defeat in a fairly long analytical article. It wasn’t entirely accurate, but at least they wrote one. I’m not sure we are going to see one after the BoB. The Battle of France had a definite end in the wagon lit in Compeigne. The BoB just sort of peters out morphs into the Blitz after the Nazis give up the idea of invasion. It’s just that they don’t bother to tell the world. Of course, why should they? Then they might have to leak out that instead of Britain, Hitler wants to go after the USSR.
So without a definitive end, we may not get a post-mortem until some time next year, if at all.
The Nazis figured at least that Britain was neutralized and wouldn’t be a threat, they could always get back to dealing with them later.
Of course the big mistake was not thinking that inevitably America would get into the war.
We really don’t start getting enmeshed in the U-boat war until next April, IIRC. Donitz knew we were basically at war with Germany, and it was inevitable that sooner or later the informal hostilities would become formal. But by then the die was cast in the east and there was no turning back for Hitler. Hitler’s logic was that by crushing the USSR he would defeat Britain. Interesting theory since the USSR was the “good neighbor” to Germany and was shunning Britain.
I’ve always been an “Eastern Front” enthusiast and quite frankly, I’m looking forward to next Spring. Lots more to talk about then.
Take a look at a Melbourne paper from the same day
Look way back on page 3 — in Aussie - Melbourne Paper
Seems they were not to concerned - but this US Admiral had his crystal ball a working.
EAST WOULD BE
BATTLE-ZONE
U.S. Admiral’s View
(From Our Own Correspondent)
NEW YORK, Monday.
In a widely published article Rear Admiral Yates Stirling, former chief of the Naval Staff, says that war between the United States and Japan is inevitable un- less their ever-mounting differences are composed. At present the viewpoints of the two countries appear to be as far apart as the poles.
Rear-Admiral Stirling predicts that a Japanese-American conflict would be a naval war fought mostly in the Orient.
Concerning the relative naval strengths, he says that American under-age fighting ships consist of 15 battle-ships, 37 cruisers, five aircraft-carriers, 47 destroyers, 31 sub- marines, and numerous over-age warships in the lighter categories. Japan, he esti- mates, has only nine battle-ships, but the same number or more warships of other categories as the United States.
“Japan’s naval advantage over us lies] principally in having her fleet concen- trated where she has decided that all her wars will be fought-in the Orient,” he
adds.
Rear-Admiral Stirling emphasises the importance of naval bases at Hawaii, Mid- way, and Guam Lslands, and the Philip- pines, and tile vital role of air strength in the event of war in the Pacific. He also emphasises the necessity for prevent- ing the capture of Midway, Wake, and Guam islands, as they “form stepping stones for naval patrol planes and enable them to reach the Philippines from where our fleet would operate.”
He concludes: “The ultimate result of a naval and air war between Japan and the United States, when Viewed against the background of the two nations, would seem to be an American victory. Japan is a strong military and naval nation, but is impoverished economically, while America, though not imbued with a martial spirit, is rich and resourceful. Japan’s lack of essential raw materials would in time encompass her defeat, after the arrival of a superior American fleet in the Orient, based probably at Singapore and Hong Kong, with the spearhead of its attack in Philippine waters.”
With regard to the photographs in panel 7
Per the Third Geneva Convention:
Art 12: “prisoners of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity.”
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