http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/31.htm
October 31st, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM:
This month, 6,350 civilians have been killed and 8,700 injured by enemy action.
Blackpool, Squire’s Gate: The Wellington V High Altitude bomber reaches 30,000 feet, for the first time.
London: The government is to release 5,000 building workers from the army to try to catch up with the urgent task of repairing bomb damage. In London 60,000 houses are uninhabitable, 130,000 less badly damaged, and 16,000 totally destroyed. Three-quarters of the houses in the East End are of Stepney are estimated to be wrecked.
So far only 7,000 people have been rehoused by local authorities, out of 250,000 made homeless, at least temporarily. No more repair workers are to be called up until further notice. In the meantime, 5,000 men of the Pioneer Corps are clearing debris. London’s “Rest Centres” are badly overcrowded, with 25,000 homeless people seeking shelter each night.
Submarine HMS Upholder commissioned.
Destroyer HMS Bleasdale laid down.
Corvettes HMS Dahlia, Kingcup and Spirae launched.
Destroyer HMCS Athabaskan (ex-Iroquois) laid down Vickers-Armstrong Ltd, Newcastle-on-Tyne. (Dave Shirlaw)
GERMANY: The Protestant cleric Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who is banned from preaching and teaching, this month issued a “confession” that the church has been “silent when it should have screamed, because the blood of the innocent cries to heaven.”
U-74 commissioned.
U-587, U-588, U-589, U-590 laid down.
U-71 launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: British troop reinforcements land on Crete.
EGYPT: Telegram from HQ RAF, Middle East , to the Air Ministry, repeated to the Minister at Athens and C-in-C, Med.
“... it has become absolutely essential to send token force to Greece even at the expense of my forces here. I have despatched to Athens 1 Blenheim Sqn. of which half the aircraft are equipped as fighters, half as bombers. This makes no provision for fighter defence of the fleet base at Crete for which no aerodrome available. It also reduces fighter defence of Alexandria.”
CANADA:
Corvette HMCS Trillium commissioned Montreal, Province of Quebec.
Corvette HMS Windflower arrived Halifax from builder Quebec City, Province of Quebec. (Dave Shirlaw)
BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC (Summary for October):
Pocket battleship Admiral Scheer sails from Germany for the Atlantic and later Indian Oceans. She gets back home in March.
Raider ‘Widder’ arrives in France after six months of operations in the central Atlantic where she has sunk or captured 10 ships of 59,000 tons.
The Luftwaffe’s long range aircraft are now flying from bases in Norway. Inter-service rivalry between the Luftwaffe and the Navy means the Kondor will never be fully integrated into the German effort in the BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC.
Escort limits are now being pushed out to 19 degrees west. In a series of pack attacks on lightly defended Canada/UK convoys, U-boats sink more than 30 ships from SC7 and HX79 between the 17th and 20th a rate of loss that will soon bring Britain to her knees. Fortunately a number of measures are being taken to ease the dire situation and provide some of the foundations from which Britain and her Allies will go on to defeat the U-boat.
- The old US destroyers are coming into service and the British building programme is starting to deliver the escorts needed.
- The need for permanent escort groups to develop and maintain expertise is being accepted and greater emphasis given to A/S training.
- Co-operation between RAF Coastal Command and Western Approaches Command is steadily improving.
However, there is still a long way to go and vast areas of the Atlantic are still without air or sea anti-submarine cover.
U-124 sank SS Rutland in Convoy HX-82. (Dave Shirlaw)
Losses:
ATLANTIC OCEAN: 56 ships of 287,000 tons and 1 destroyer
1 U boat
European Waters: 43 ships of 132,000 tons.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: 1 ship of 3,000 tons.
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 427 October 31, 1940
Battle of Britain Day 114 – Last Day. Despite cloud, haze and drizzle, Luftwaffe mounts numerous reconnaissance flights and ineffective single aircraft bombing raids on RAF airfields in South England. The weather and lack of real threat prevent RAF from responding so there are no losses on either side. Bad weather also hampers overnight bombing. London is bombed from 6.30 – 9 PM while London and the Midlands are bombed from 2.45 – 6 AM. Although night bombing continues for many months and there are sporadic German daytime raids, Luftwaffe has been contained by RAF and the threat of a German invasion of Britain is over. RAF has lost 915 fighters while 1733 German planes have been shot down. RAF recognizes 2936 Fighter Command aircrew (mostly pilots) from14 countries who were awarded the Battle of Britain Clasp to the 1939–45 Star by flying at least one authorised operational sortie from July 10 to October 31 1940. 544 were killed in Battle of Britain and another 795 died later in the war, leaving 1597 who survived WWII. About 100 of those are still alive today. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_RAF_aircrew_in_the_Battle_of_Britain
At 9.58 PM, 300 miles Northwest of Ireland, U-124 sinks British SS Rutland which is carrying bananas from Jamaica (all 24 hands lost).
German armed merchant cruiser Widder arrives at Brest after 179 days at sea in the mid-Atlantic, sinking 10 ships for 58,645 tons. Captain Helmuth von Ruckteschell will be convicted after the war as a war criminal for his conduct on this short voyage and die in prison. http://www.bismarck-class.dk/hilfskreuzer/widder.html
Italy’s invasion of Greece begins to stall. Their troops lose momentum in the face of resistance from Greek screening forces in the rugged terrain of the Epirus Mountains along the Albanian border. Many Italians die in frontal assaults on well dug-in Greek positions. With the agreement of the Greek government, British forces land on the islands of Lemnos and Crete in the Aegean Sea, as a defensive move to prevent their occupation by an Italian amphibious landing. Greek destroyers Spetsai and Psara depart the Gulf of Patras and use their 120mm guns to bombard Italian troops on the Ionian coast of Albania and Northern Greece. Greek naval activity and the presence of the British Royal Navy persuade the Italian Navy to abandon plans for landing on Corfu.