Posted on 10/11/2010 4:52:39 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.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/oct40/f11oct40.htm
Petain encourages French collaboration
Friday, October 11, 1940 www.onwar.com
In Vichy France... Petain broadcasts to the French people, advocating that they abandon their traditional ideas on who are their friends and who are their enemies.
Over Britain... Liverpool is heavily attacked in the continuing German bombing campaign. Four ships in the port are sunk and other damage is inflicted.
In Helsinki... The demilitarization of the Aland Islands is agreed in a Finnish-Soviet convention.
In the Mediterranean... The British light cruiser Ajax is attacked during the night by first three then four Italian destroyers. Two of the attackers are sunk and two damaged.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/11.htm
October 11th, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM:
Battle of Britain:
Losses: Luftwaffe, 7; RAF, 9.
The first production Handley Page Halifax I (L 9485) makes its maiden flight.
Submarine HMS Usk is commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
VICHY FRANCE: Petain tells Frenchmen that they must abandon traditional ideas of who is their ally and who their foe.
GERMANY: Daily Keynote from the Reich Press Chief:
The Minister has once again specified the wishes of the Luftwaffe staff leaders that we issue formal denials in all cases where the English claim to have hit military targets, unless the English have hit the corresponding mock installations. ... the Luftwaffe has repeatedly raised objections to the use of expressions like “air pirates” or “night pirates,” but on the other hand the Reich Chancellery desires that these expressions be used: Therefore the Wehrmacht High Command [the OKW] should take up the matter with the Fuhrer.
U-156, U-705 laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
FINLAND: The Finnish-Soviet convention agrees to the demilitarization of the Åland Islands.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: HMS Ajax, which had served with distinction the previous year at the River Plate against the German “pocket battleship” Graf Spee, encountered three Italian destroyers in a night action in the Mediterranean. She sank Airone and Ariel, and badly damaged Artigliere, which was finished off by HMS York on 12 October. (Dave Shirlaw)
AUSTRALIA: General election results, giving Robert Menzies another term as Prime Minister, are announced.
U.S.A.: The motion picture “Down Argentina Way” opens at the Roxy Theater in New York City. Directed by Irving Cummings, this musical stars Don Ameche, Betty Grable, Carmen Miranda and J. Carrol Nash. This is Grable’s first Technicolor film and Miranda’s first U.S. film. (Jack McKillop)
In New York City, Glenn Miller and his Orchestra record “Make Believe Ballroom Time” for Bluebird Records at the Victor Studios in New York City. This song becomes the theme song for the radio program “Make Believe Ballroom” on radio station WNEW (”Eleven three oh in New York”), in New York City. The show is hosted by Martin Block, America’s first disc jockey.Block creates the aura of doing a “live” radio program, complete with performers (on records) like Harry James or Frank Sinatra, from the ‘Crystal Studios’ at WNEW. His daily program was known to everyone who grew up in the New York City metropolitan area in the 1940s and 1950s (I’ll attest to that). Miller had been so taken with the show’s concept that he actually paid for the “Make Believe Ballroom Time” recording session himself and hired the Modernaires to join in.
The motion picture “Down Argentine Way” is released today. Directed by Irving Cummings, this musical comedy stars Don Ameche, Betty Grable, Carmen Miranda, Charlotte Greenwood, J. Carrol Naish and the Nicholas Brothers. The plot has American woman Grable (in the movie that boosted her to stardom) on vacation in Argentina and falling for Argentinean horse breeder Ameche. This was Carmen Miranda’s first American movie. The film is nominated for a best music and two technical Academy Awards. (Jack McKillop)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-48 sank SS Port Gisborne and Brandanger in Convoy HX-77. (Dave Shirlaw)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 407 October 11, 1940
Battle of Britain Day 94. Fair weather brings a very busy day. Luftwaffe mounts reconnaissance fights, patrols in the English Channel and small raids (less than 10 aircraft) over Southeast England all day. From 10.20 AM until 4 PM, there is a steady stream of larger raids (25-90 aircraft, mostly fighter-only but some have 25% medium bombers), causing damage to towns in Southern England but not penetrating to London. Germans lose 1 Do17 bomber and 4 Bf109s. RAF loses 8 fighters (3 pilots killed). There are overnight bombing raids on London, Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol and the Tyne and Tees areas, but these are halted at midnight by fog. 3 Dornier bombers are shot down by No 611 Squadron over Anglesey after bombing Liverpool (1 RAF fighter shot down, pilot wounded).
Operation Medium. From 3.33 to 3.51 AM, battleship HMS Revenge and destroyers Javelin, Jaguar, Jupiter, Kashmir, Kelvin & Kipling bombard Cherbourg. They are screened by a number of motor torpedo boats, cruisers and destroyers, which see off an attack by German torpedo boats.
Overnight, in the English Channel off the Isle of Wight, German torpedo boats Falke, Greif, Kondor, Seeadler & Wolf sink British anti-submarine trawler HMT Warwick Deeping (no lives lost), French submarine chasers CH.6 (9 killed, 12 taken prisoner) and CH.7 (12 killed, 8 taken prisoner) and French armed trawler Listrac (12 killed, 25 wounded). http://www.bevs.org/diving/wkwdeep.htm
The convoy of 4 merchant ships arrives safely at Malta from Alexandria, escorted by 4 battleships, 2 aircraft carriers, 6 cruisers, 16 destroyers and 6 submarines. At 11.05 AM, 15 miles South of Delimara, Malta, destroyer HMS Imperial hits a mine (1 killed) and is badly damaged (under repair at Malta until April 28). British Mediterranean Fleet begins the return journey to Alexandria but is spotted by an Italian civilian plane 100 miles Southeast of Malta. Italian destroyers and torpedo boats set out to intercept the British warships.
At 9.20 AM, British destroyer HMS Zulu detonates an acoustic mine in the Firth of Forth, Scotland. There are no casualties but Zulu is badly damaged and will be under repair at Rosyth until January 1941.
250 miles Northwest of Ireland, U-48 attacks convoy HX-77 in gale force conditions. At 9.50 PM, Norwegian MV Brandanger is sunk (6 killed, 16 survivors in a lifeboat and on a raft picked up next morning by corvette HMS Clarkia, 8 survivors in another lifeboat picked up on October 16 by British SS Clan Macdonald). At 10.09 PM, British MV Port Gisborne is sunk and the crew abandons ship (26 lost in a lifeboat that capsized). 38 crew are rescued by tug HMS Salvonia on October 22 and by British steamer Alpera on October 24.
British sloop HMS Auckland, escorting convoy BS.6, is bombed by Italian bombers in the Red Sea, 50 miles off the coast of Italian-held Eritrea.
I don’t know how you do the summaries in the subsequent posts but they make an easy quick pass for a read.
Thanks again.
Love the ads that show up in your scans. Democrats for Wilke was also interesting read.
Glenn Miller and his Orchestra record “Make Believe Ballroom Time”. I heard this song when I was young and I was born in 1963!
Thanks for your work.
I don’t know how you do the summaries in the subsequent posts but they make an easy quick pass for a read.
abb started posting those way back in '39 at the beginning of the war. He found the three sites that post daily logs of the war. But he has a daily news blog covering his area of Louisiana which keeps him too busy to keep it up. Since he got me hooked on the daily updates I try to stick them in every morning.
I still follow this thread as best I can. HISTORY! I do love it so!!
Date: 11th October 1940
Enemy action by day
There were 7 main attacks and several small raids during the day. Of the main attacks two consisted entirely of Fighters, the remainder being composed of about 75% Fighters to 25% Bombers. Only one of these raids penetrated to Central London.
Many reconnaissances were flown today and small patrols were maintained continuously in the Straits. Three convoys were reconnoitred.
Reports so far received indicate that our Fighters destroyed 8 enemy aircraft, plus 4 probable and one damaged. We have lost 7 aircraft and 2 pilots by enemy action, plus 2 aircraft and one pilot in collision.
Main Attacks
At 0720 hours 6+ enemy aircraft penetrated to Central London from Dover and left by the same route.
At 1020 hours a wave of 36+ aircraft formed over the Gris Nez area. This was followed by a second wave of 90+ at 1050 hours, a third wave of 38+ at 1100 hours and a fourth wave of 29+ at 1130 hours. The first penetrated into Kent, the second flew to
Dungeness and Dover, the third to Hastings, Dover and the North Foreland, and the fourth to Dover, the Thames Estuary and Whitstable. There were, in addition, several tracks of 1+ and 2+ aircraft in this area.
At 1138 hours 2 raids of 55+ crossed the Coast at Poole from Cherbourg but only penetrated a short distance inland and appeared to have been dispersed.
At 1150 hours a raid of 50+ aircraft crossed the Coast at Hastings and split up inland. One split went to Biggin Hill, the remaining aircraft retired after flying only a few miles inland.
At 1420 hours raids started to form in Northern France and at 1430 hours 60+ were plotted in the Calais/Cap Gris Nez area and crossed the Coast between Deal and Dungeness. Flying North-west towards London. Only one raid flew further West than a line from Hornchurch to Biggin Hill, and penetrated about 5 miles westward of this line. 12+ of these aircraft were plotted up the Thames Estuary and one of them, a four-engined Dornier, flew from Clacton to near North Weald and then South-east over the Estuary and out by Dover. No 11 Group detailed 13 Squadrons to meet this attack and No 12 Group patrolled from Eastchurch to Canterbury with 3 Squadrons.
At 1435 hours 50+ enemy aircraft from Cherbourg flew North and then veered North-westwards to Portland and penetrated about 10 miles inland. No 10 Group despatched 5½ Squadrons to intercept this raid.
At 1600 hours a raid of 25+ approached Dungeness, and splitting up, went towards the Hornchurch, Biggin Hill, and Kenley areas.
Small attacks
At 0632 hours 3 raids, two of 3+ and one of 1+ aircraft flew inland for 10 miles between Dover and the North Foreland.
At 0900 hours 3 aircraft flew up the Thames to the South of North Weald.
At 1340 hours a raid of 9+ went inland near Foreness and returned almost immediately to the Calais area. Two Squadrons were up from Biggin Hill to meet this raid.
Reconnaissances and Patrols
Between 0500 and 0650 hours a reconnaissance was made from Swanage, eastwards to Sherbourne and out over Portsmouth.
At 0632 hours one enemy aircraft patrolled the outer Thames Estuary and from then on patrols were active in the Straits of Dover. Several patrols passed over two convoys off Dover and Deal.
At 0900 hours, two single aircraft reconnoitred off Selsey Bill, another flew to North Weald, Stanmore and Hornchurch, and a fourth entered at Orfordness and went via Martlesham, Debden, Southend, Rochester, and Brighton to Dungeness and out at Dover at 1000 hours.
At 0940 hours, one aircraft flew over Dungeness and Hastings and another over a convoy off the North Foreland.
During the afternoon, one aircraft reconnoitred East Anglia and two towards Newcastle from Denmark. One crossed the Coast at Beachy Head at 1735 hours and recrossed at 1740 hours. A section was despatched from Tangmere.
At 1845 hours, a reconnaissance was flown 100 miles East of Aberdeen by 3 aircraft and at 1900 hours 2+ aircraft crossed the Coast of Aberdeen and patrolled the vicinity for 45 minutes.
At 1945 hours one aircraft entered the Firth of Forth, went North and left the Coast at 1954 hours.
Night Operations - 11th / 12th October 1940
1900 Hours to 2100 Hours
Night raids commenced at 1835 hours, and between that time and 2100 hours approximately 55 raids from Cherbourg, Le Havre, Dieppe and Belgian and Dutch Coasts crossed the Coast towards London, which was again the main objective.
Other raids appeared over Liverpool during the period and attacks on this area were maintained. Enemy aircraft were also plotted over Aberdeen and the Firth of Forth. Minelaying probably took place between Flamborough Head and Berwick.
2100 Hours to 2300 Hours
There was little alteration in the scale of operations during the greater part of this period but a slackening was indicated at about 2245 hours on the London area. Enemy aircraft continued to be plotted over Liverpool, Manchester and Bristol areas. Minelaying diminished.
2300 Hours to 0100 Hours 12.10.40
A slackening in the attack on London was continued during the early part of this period and was confined to isolated raids operating from the Baie De La Seine. There was continued operation towards Liverpool up to 2330 hours, after which time the Country was clear except in the London area and its approaches from the South-west. Activity slightly increased later in this area.
0100 Hours to 0300 Hours
Raids gradually diminished in number operating towards London only and by 0220 hours, the Country was clear of enemy aircraft. Operations were doubtless curtailed on account of fog.
________________________________________
Statistics
Fighter Command Serviceable Aircraft as at 0900 hours, 11th October 1940
Casualties:
| Enemy Losses | ||
| By Fighters | ||
| Destroyed | Probable | Damaged |
| 4 Me109 | 1 Me109 | 1 Me109 |
| 1 Me110 | ||
| 1 Do17 | ||
| 3 Do17 or 215 | 2 Do17 or 215 | |
| 8 | 4 | 1 |
Patrols:
Balloons:
Serviceability of Aerodromes:
Organisation:
Home Security Reports
With another anti-aircraft regiment headed to Hawaii, the base is becoming one of the most fortified positions for the Americans in the Pacific. On the west coast only Puget Sound and San Francisco are more heavily fortified. This is why the argument that Admiral Richardson felt that Pearl Harbor was vulnerable to attack doesn’t hold water with me. Aside from the fact that he said exactly that in his testimony during the Pearl Harbor investigation, San Diego is not nearly as well defended as Hawaii is right now. If he was worried about being attacked then moving it to a weaker defensive line doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Can anyone explain what the deal was with Hungary?
Was Hungary in 1940 an ally or client state of Germany?
So how was it that Germam "supply ships" on the Danube River heading for Romania passed through Hungary with no apparent problem?
And did Romania invite the Germans in, or did German forces come on their own (or rather on Hitler's) initiative?
Richardson also said it directly to President Roosevelt, around this time in 1940. A few weeks later, White House leaks suggested Richardson will be replaced.
But if you look carefully at the sequence of events leading up to Richardson's firing, one thing that stands out is Richardson's later announcement that he intended to put Pearl Harbor on a war-defensive footing.
Hungary was your typical Nazi eastern “ally.” Eastern Europe was mostly a conglomeration of small weak states after the break up of the Hapsburg Empire in 1918, and those states were keenly aware they were small and weak, but some of them did harbor regional ambitions. Despite these ambitions, the Partition of Poland taught Eastern Europe that they faced a choice between two masters, Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. During the “Phony War” Britain made some overtures of “guarantees” to these countries, but Poland’s fate clearly demonstrated that Britain was not a player in this game.
Since most of the leadership (economic, political, intellectual and social elites) were bourgeoise, the choice was a no-brainer. With Nazi Germany, they will have to put up with overbearing arrogant strutting Germans but still keep their positions of power and prestige in their countries. With Soviet Russia, they are headed for the Gulag at best or to be shot in the forest at worst.
So the Germans meet little resistance and open local encouragement as they infiltrate South-Central Europe and the Balkans. After all, it was Ribbentrop who recently brokered the “Vienna Award” that dismembered Romania and gave Transylvania to the Hungarians. So the Hungarians are clearly in Germany’s camp as the junior partner in an uneasy alliance. Romania is in Germany’s camp as the far lesser of two evils.
The volatile nature of Eastern European politics will have serious consequences for Germany. Yugoslavia will have a pro-British coup that throws out the pro-German government, which causes the Germans to move south through Yugoslavia and Greece. Bulgaria is a nominal “ally” with a pro-German government but takes no active role in any hostilities. The Hungarians and Romanians allow the Germans to invade the USSR from their countries, and also provide soldiers to fight with the Germans in the East. The Hungarians sent the 2nd Army, the Romanians sent the 3rd and 4th Armies east; where were the Hungarian 1st Army and the Romanian 1st and 2nd Armies? Their best units were at home glaring at each other across the Carpathians.
The Germans knew they could not have the Hungarians and Romanians fight side-by-side on the Eastern Front; so their solution was to separate them with an Italian Army (let’s see how that worked out). When the roof caves in on the Eastern Front in August 1944, Romania switches sides and their armies go after the Germans and Hungarians to reclaim Transylvania. The Romanians actually seem to have given a better account of themselves against the Hungarians than they did against the Soviets.
So that’s my German Balkans story in a nutshell. I am not aware of any books out there that discuss the war policies of the various Balkan countries, but such a book would be a welcome addition to my library.
His intention was to put the entire fleet on a war-defensive footing not just the ships at Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor is the center of the fleet so it of course becomes the central element of this order. It would curtail the training and put the entire fleet on a more defensive footing. This would also include the Asiatic Fleet which was the small force based in the Philippines and any forces on the West Coast.
A key point to this though in the sequence of things is a shift brought on by events in November. It made the entire naval staff and the Joint Board for that matter take a second look at their current war planning (You think Richardson hates War Plan Orange now, wait a month). As things stand right now, there is no reason to think the Pearl is not completely secure.
That would be an interesting study. The Balkan countries really were at the whim on whomever was the most powerful neighbor at the time. Hungary, late in the war, were on the verge of switching side much like the Rumanians did, but were prevented from doing so by the Nazis. As a result they were completely overrun by their Soviet and Rumanian adversaries.
Seems like the entire British Mediterranean Fleet escorted those four merchant ships to Malta. It’s an impressive naval force. Something tells me this operation was intended as a provocation to get the Italian fleet to come out and rumble. Either the Italians were ignorant of the sortie, or declined the invitation.
I wonder if fuel played a roll even at this early stage. The Italian Navy will be hampered by a severe shortage of fuel oil throughout the war and I know it becomes a major issue by the beginning of 1942. Certainly, if the Italians are not skittish about engaging the British fleet now, they soon will be.
Thanks, much appreciated. Great posts.
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