Posted on 11/22/2010 5:16:33 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
Gordon W. Prange, At Dawn We Slept
Winston S. Churchill, Their Finest Hour
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/nov40/f22nov40.htm
Greeks capture Koritsa
Friday, November 22, 1940 www.onwar.com
In Albania... Greek forces capture Koritsa, a town in the southeast of Albania. They capture 2000 prisoners and some heavy equipment. Almost all the invading Italian forces have now been driven back to Albania.
In Brazil... The Willington Trade Mission arrives in Rio de Janeiro to promote British interests.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/22.htm
November 22nd, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM:
Churchill to Sec. of State for War and CIGS:
...Wavell’s telegram to CIGS does not answer the question I put. The last sentence but one leaves everything unsettled. ... It is not clear that he has made up his mind.
...Every day’s delay endangers secrecy in Egypt...
...We must now call upon Turkey to come in, or face the consequences in the future. A British victory in Libya would probably turn the scale, and then we could shift our forces to the new theatre. How long before the Germans strike at Greece through Bulgaria?
Churchill to Sec. of State for the Colonies.
[Re:- Proposal to ship Mauritius Jewish refugees who had illegally emigrated to Palestine.]
As the action has been announced, it must proceed, but the conditions in Mauritius must not involve these people being caged up for the duration of the war. The Cabinet will require to be satisfied about this. Pray make me your proposals.
Churchill also discusses Admiral Stark’s Plan D. This provides for all possible naval and military aid to go to the European theatre and only defensive measures to be adopted in the Far East against any Japanese aggression until the defeat of Germany.
GERMANY:
U-459, U-706 laid down.
U-72 launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
ITALY: RAF bombers attack Bari.
SICILY: An RAF Wellington Mk. IC of No. 214 Squadron based at RAF Stradishall, Suffolk, England, runs out of fuel because of a navigational error and lands in Sicily instead of Malta. Aboard is Air Marshal Owen Tudor Boyd, Deputy Air Officer Commanding, HQ RAF Middle East (designate) and three lower ranking officers. All are taken prisoner and Boyd is held in the Castle of Vincigliata near Florence. After several escape attempts, Boyd and two generals make another attempt and reach Switzerland in February 1944. (Jack McKillop)
GREECE: Italian planes bomb Keffalonia, Corfu and Samos.
The air echelon of RAF No. 211 Squadron arrives at Menidi and Tatoi Airfields from Egypt with Blenheim Mk. I light bombers. This is the fourth and last RAF Squadron to arrive in Greece. (Jack McKillop)
ALBANIA: A unit of the Greek Army in Albania issues the following dispatch:
To: IX division 17.50 hours, The Infantry Office. “I report that at 17:45 hours today the detachment under my command entered Koritsa and liberated the city. Colonel Begetis” (Steven Statharos)
TURKEY: Martial law is declared in European Turkey after the German ambassador, von Papen, delivers a virtual ultimatum to Turkey to join in the Axis-planned “new European order.”
CANADA: Corvette HMCS Arrowhead commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: The motion picture The Letter opens at the Strand Theater in New York City. Directed by William Wyler, this murder drama, based on W. Somerset Maughams book, stars Bette Davis and Herbert Marshall. (Jack McKillop)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-123 sank SS Cree in Convoy SL-53. (Dave Shirlaw)
Outward bound convoys OB-244 (Liverpool, England to North America) and UK-bound SC-11 (Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada, to U.K.) are attacked by two groups of German submarines west of North Channel. Fifteen merchant ships are sunk, including seven from SC-11 by Schepke’s U-100 on the night of the 22nd/23rd. Important steps are taken in the air war when an RAF Sunderland equipped with 1.5 centimeter wavelength anti-surface vessel (ASV) radar locates a U-boat. This is the first success of its kind with a system that is mainly effective by day as contact is lost within 2 miles (3,2 kilometers) of the target.
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 449 November 22, 1940
Greek 3rd Army Corps finally takes Korçë, 10 miles inside Albania, after a week of heavy fighting against Italian 9th Army. They take 2000 prisoners and capture 135 field guns and 600 machineguns. However, the Greeks are poorly motorised and have no armour, allowing the Italians to withdraw and regroup.
On the coast of Morocco near the Spanish-held city of Melilla, British destroyers HMS Faulknor and HMS Forester approach Vichy French destroyer Boulonnais and freighter MV Charles Plumier. Boulonnais withdraws allowing MV Charles Plumier, which was a French armed merchant cruiser from 1939 until the surrender in May 1940, to be captured. She will be renamed HMS Largs, commissioned into the Royal Navy in November 1941 and will serve as Command Ship for almost every major Allied amphibious landing in Europe including Operations Torch, Husky and Overlord.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Freefrench_british_captured_hms_CHARLES_PLUMIER.jpg
Just after midnight 365 miles West of Ireland, U-123 torpedoes British SS Cree. Cree is carrying 5500 tons of iron ore from Freetown, Sierra Leone, and sinks immediately with all 45 hands lost. http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/662.html
British motor launch ML.127 sinks on a mine in the Thames Estuary (all 11 hands lost).
Italian aircraft bomb Alexandria damaging British tanker Zahra.
I wonder whether it was really a natural heart attack that felled Boyd. Given the circumstances, I’d want to see some pretty convincing evidence that it wasn’t suicide. He passed away very shortly after divorcing his wife for cause.
I can only Imagine how traumatic it must been to finally arrive home after such an ordeal to find your wife hadn't been living up to your expectations.
You can see that Stark has had time to digest the attack on Taranto and has some new anxiety over the fleet at Pearl. The reply by Richardson from the U.S.S. New Mexico will be posted on the 28th.
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