Posted on 11/30/2010 4:40:59 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
Winston S. Churchill, Their Finest Hour
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/nov40/f30nov40.htm
Greeks capture Pogradec
Saturday, November 30, 1940 www.onwar.com
In the Balkans... The Greek advance from Macedonia continues. They win an important victory near Pogradec, in southeast Albania, capturing the town after a seven day battle.
In Tokyo... Japan officially recognizes the Nanking government led by President Wang Ching-wei.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/30.htm
November 30th, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM:
Southampton: Following severe night attacks by the Luftwaffe, the King visits to see the damage. The business centre of the city bears the brunt of the attack with churches, shops, houses, a cinema and a newspaper office all destroyed. Some 137 people are feared to have died and nearly 500 injured in an attack lasting more than seven hours.
The style of the attack - using thousands of small incendiary devices to start fires, followed by heavy high-explosive bombs - followed the pattern of the raid on Coventry earlier this month. The HEs fractured 74 water mains cutting water pressure sharply and hampering fire fighting efforts. Many fires had to be left to burn themselves out while water was concentrated on the town centre and the docks. The local fire brigades were reinforced by 200 men from other authorities which sent 160 pumps from London, Newbury, even Newport, Monmouthshire and Nottingham. But many of them could not be used because their hose couplings did not fit Southampton’s hydrants.
Pressure is growing to evacuate all women and children, although some of the bravest ambulance drivers here are female.
Submarine depot ship HMS Adamant launched.
Light cruiser HMS Gambia launched.
Corvette HMS Polyanthus launched.
Minesweeping trawler HMS Chestnut mined and sunk off North Foreland. (Dave Shirlaw)
GREECE: Athens: Greek forces capture Pogradetz in eastern Albania.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA:
MERCHANT SHIPPING WAR: Losses: There are no British or Allied shipping losses in November.
CHINA: Nanking: Japan has formally recognised China’s breakaway Reformed Kuomintang government and its premier, Wang Ching-wei, after last minute secret peace talks with Marshal Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang in Chungking broke down.
Chungking is now expected to go on a diplomatic offensive against what it calls Wang Ching-wei’s puppet government and warn foreign governments that it will break off relations with any power that recognises the new regime.
CANADA: Destroyers HMCS St Croix and Niagara departed Halifax for UK.
Minesweepers ordered - HMCS Bayfield, Caraquet, Canso, Guysborough, Ingonish, HMS Fort York, Parrsborough, Qualicum, Shippigan, Tadoussac, and Wedgeworth.
Corvette HMCS Rosthern launched Port Arthur, Ontario.
(Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN:
BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC: Outward bound OB244 and UK-bound SC11 are attacked by two groups of U-boats west of North Channel. 15 merchant ships are sunk, including seven from SC11 by Schepke’s U-100 on the night of the 22nd/23rd.
Important steps are taken in the air war when an RAF Whitley Mk VI equipped with 1.5m wavelength (approximately 200Mhz) 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 two miles of the target. It is the addition of the Leigh light that will turn it into a powerful night-time weapon as well. Now Coastal Command is using depth charges instead of its ineffective A/S bombs.
Losses: 38 ships of 201,000 tons and 3 armed merchant cruisers.
2 German and 1 Italian U-boats.
Merchant Shipping War in European Waters:
Losses: 48 ships of 93,000 tons.
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 457 November 30, 1940
Greeks continue to push Italians back into Albania. Greek 3rd Army Corps has advanced 20 miles North since taking Korçë on November 22. After 7 days of hard fighting, they capture parts of Pogradec on Ohrid Lake in Southeastern Albania on the border with Macedonia. They advance no further in this sector and the front line will run through the center of town. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Italo-Grecian_War_1940-1941_-_political_map_of_operations.gif
In the Indian Ocean, 2500 miles West of Australia, German armed merchant cruiser Pinguin shells British SS Port Wellington (carrying 5600 tons of frozen meat, butter, eggs, cheese and wheat and 1,750 tons of steel) without warning (2 crew killed). 80 crew and 7 women passenger are taken prisoner. Pinguin’s First Officer returns to the burning ship to get clothes for the women, who are in their nightgowns and the Port Wellington is scuttled. Pinguin now has 405 prisoners on board.
Minesweeping trawler HMT Chestnut hits a mine and sinks (no casualties) in the Thames Estuary off Northeast Kent. British motor torpedo boats MTB.30 and MTB.31 patrolling the Dutch coast meet a German convoy anchored off the River Schelde. MTB.30 is hit by gunfire while MTB.31 damages German steamer Santos by dropping a depth charge alongside.
At 2.04 AM, 400 miles Northwest of Ireland, U-101 sinks British SS Aracataca (carrying 1600 tons of bananas from Jamaica to Britain) after several attempts. 36 crew are killed and 34 survivors are picked up by 2 British merchant ships. http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/682.html
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