http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/15.htm
December 15th, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM: Destroyer HMS Cameron (one of the 50 US leases) is severely damaged by German bombing whilst in dry dock at Portsmouth. She topples over and is considered to be beyond repair and broken up. There are no casualties. (Alex Gordon)(108)
Destroyer HMS Ithuriel launched.
Submarine HMS P-32 launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
FRANCE:
Paris: The Germans ceremonially return the ashes of Napoleon II to the city.
This was Hitler’s idea of the supreme tribute to the French. He was to be re-interred during a solemn ceremony at the Invalides, attended by Hitler and Petain. Today is the anniversary of the day when Napoleon’s remains reached Paris from the island of Saint Helena. Everything was arranged, the precise order of ceremonies was worked out to the last detail, Petain and Hitler, standing side by side, would review the German honour guards, and they would both make speeches eulogising the son of Napoleon. The ceremonies took place but neither Hitler nor Petain was present. Petain refused to attend, chiefly because he was in the middle of a cabinet crisis, but also because he had not the slightest interest in the ashes. Someone told Hitler that Petain would not come because he was afraid of being kidnapped by the Germans. ‘It is contemptible to credit me with such an idea, when I meant so well!’ Hitler exploded.
GERMANY: The Germans release the papers (summaries of British CoS reports) captured by the raider Atlantis on November 11 to the Japanese. (Daniel Ross)
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Submarine FS Narval mined off Tunisia. (Dave Shirlaw)
NORTH AFRICA:
Imperial troops cross the frontier into Libya.
The British take in a surprise raid the Halfaya Pass on the Libyan-Egyptian border. The remnants of the Italian Tenth Army withdrew to the fortress of Bardia. The Italians now reinforce the defences of Tobruk and the El Mekili-Derna line, where they station three divisions which they have summoned from the interior.
ATLANTIC OCEAN:
Italian submarine ‘Tarantini’ is torpedoed and sunk by submarine HMS Thunderbolt in the Bay of Biscay as she returns from North Atlantic patrol. The T-class submarine HMS Thunderbolt is the recomissioned/renamed HMS Thetis which failed to surface from its first submerged test trial in Liverpool Bay on 1st. June 1939. (Alex Gordon)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 472 December 15, 1940
Operation Compass. British attention now focuses on the port of Bardia, Libya, which they have surrounded. From 12.20 to 5.17 PM, monitor HMS Terror begins the bombardment of Bardia which is defended by 40,000 Italians commanded by General Annibale Bergonzoli, known as ‘Electric Whiskers’ due to his flaming red beard (now white) worn parted in the middle.
In the Bay of Biscay, 2 miles offshore near the Gironde Estuary, British submarine HMS Thunderbolt sinks Italian submarine Tarantini which is returning from patrol in the North Sea (all 58 hands lost). Free French submarine Narval sinks on a mine in the Mediterranean 40 miles Northeast of Sfax, Tunisia (all 54 hands lost). German motor torpedo boat S.58 sinks Danish steamer N. C. Monberg just off Yarmouth, England (8 crew, 1 gunner lost).