Posted on 08/03/2010 5:20:09 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Winston S. Churchill, Their Finest Hour
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/aug40/f03aug40.htm
Italians invade British Somaliland
Saturday, August 3, 1940 www.onwar.com
In East Africa... The Italians invade British Somaliland. In Abyssinia the Italians have a total force of 350,000 men of whom 70 percent are native troops. The British forces in East Africa, also including many colonial troops, are less than 25,000 men of whom only four battalions are in Somaliland. The Italians allot seven times this force to the invasion along with an overwhelmingly superior artillery contingent. General Nasi is in command. There are three main lines of advance: toward Zeila in the north, Hargeisa in the center and Odweina on the right.
In the English Channel... There are German attacks on shipping.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/03.htm
August 3rd, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM: RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group (Whitley). Bombing - oil refineries at Mannheim and Dusseldorf.
77 Sqn. Eight aircraft to Mannheim. All bombed primary.
78 Sqn. Three aircraft to Dusseldorf. One bombed primary, two bombed Mannheim as alternative. Two force landed on return.
RAF Fighter Command: Weather, cloudy, bright intervals. Luftwaffe attacks shipping by day. At night South Wales, Crewe and Liverpool are bombed.
Losses: Luftwaffe, 4; RAF 0.
Dull weather reduces German Channel activity, nuisance sorties include one by a Ju88 which flew so low by Wembury Cliff searchlight site that gunners fired down upon it. Scotland, Tyneside, Humber, Harwich and Crewe had night raids or mining. Swansea had the heaviest raid with 10 HEs being dropped.
The Icelandic trawler Skutull saved 27 shipwrecked men from the Atos which was torpedoed near Scotland. Among these men was a survivor from the Swedish merchant Tilia Gorthon, which was sunk by U-38 on 20 June.
At 1900, the Rad was stopped with gunfire by UA and the crew had to abandon ship after it was discovered that she carried contraband. At 2015 a coup de grâce was fired that broke the ship in two and caused her to sink within 15 minutes.
Minesweeper HMS Romney launched.
Destroyer HMS Quorn commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.S.R.: The Soviet Union annexes Lithuania which becomes a Soviet Socialist Republic. (Jack McKillop)
BRITISH SOMALILAND:General de Simone crosses the Ethiopian frontier into British Somaliland with 12 Eritrean battalions and four Blackshirt battalions. He has six battalions in reserve.
On the morning of the invasion he spoke to his motor-cycle troops, “as only a valorous soldier can speak”, according to one present. “Your task is to be the vanguard, an arduous and difficult work which I know you will carry out to your uttermost. Our end is to reach Berbera and reach it we will.”
The British force of five battalions and a camel corps cannot hold out for ever - something of an understatement considering Somaliland’s defence budget of just GBP 900.
JAPAN: Tokyo: Japan protests at the US embargo on aviation fuel exports.
U.S.A.: Destroyer USS Livermore launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 338 August 3, 1940
Battle of Britain Day 25. Typical British weather comes to the rescue. Widespread fog in the morning and heavy low cloud in the afternoon covers most of Southern England and the Midlands. There are a few German raids on shipping. Overnight, Luftwaffe bombs Bradford, Liverpool, Crewe (Northern England) and the Firth of Forth Scotland.
At 8.10 AM North of Ireland, U-57 sinks Swedish steamer Atos (1 dead, 21 crew and 6 passengers picked up by Icelandic trawler Skutull). 1 passenger is a sailor from Swedish steamer Tilia Gorthon (sunk by U-38 on 20 June) being repatriated from Liverpool to Sweden.
At 7 PM 300 miles off the coast of Senegal, West Africa, UA stops Yugoslavian steamer Rad with gunfire and discovers she is carrying chemicals from USA to Durban, South Africa. The crew takes to the lifeboats and UA sinks Rad at 8.15 with a torpedo. All 29 crew are picked up by British steamer Grodno and landed at Freetown, Sierra Leone. http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/448.html
British Somaliland on the East coast of Africa is surrounded by Italian colonies (Italian Somaliland, Ethiopia and Eritrea) and is a tempting target for Mussolini to win an early victory against the British. It is lightly held by about 4,000 colonial soldiers under Brigadier Arthur Reginald Chater, including the Somaliland Camel Corps, with little artillery and no tanks, armoured cars or anti-tank weapons. In the early hours, 25,000 Italian troops commanded by General Guglielmo Nasi (with armoured vehicles including some tanks, artillery and air support) attack British Somaliland from Ethiopia.
Thought you might be interested in an article in the 6th image, "New Curbs Placed on Jews in Reich," from the NY Times of 70 years ago (August 3, 1940).
ML/NJ
Date: 3 August 1940
Enemy action by day
Enemy activity was again confined to reconnaissances of shipping off the south and south east coast, and only a few raids approached near coasts; of these only two crossed inland.
Interceptions were attempted but none were successful. Low cloud and poor visibility was prevalent up to midday.
South and West
Four raids approached the coast between Swanage and Land's End in the morning and one of these crossed the coast at St Alban's Head. It flew to Bristol and Cardiff by the usual route and returned on the same track. This aircraft is reported to have bombed a trawler which claims to have shot it down off St Alban's Head. The type is unknown.
One reconnaissance was made of the Isle of Wight; two tracks were reported south of Beachy Head, and in one case inshore coastal patrols are reported to have been bombed. One track was plotted over Wexford.
Sections of our fighters were ordered to intercept various raids.
South East
Reconnaissances were made off Pevensey and Dover in the forenoon, and four raids of 15+ aircraft in all approached Dover at various times in the afternoon, fading before reaching the English Coast. Other indeterminate reconnaissances were made in the Straits, none of which came further than halfway across. Interception was not effected.
East
The East Coast was approached at Harwich, Cromer and Orfordness where a convoy was inspected. Off the Tyne a meteorological flight took place in the early morning.
North East
Two meteorological flights took place between 1100 and 1600 hours, one near the Orkneys and one off St Abb's Head. In the late evening a raid was detected 25 miles east of Aberdeen.
France
Various tracks were plotted throughout the day mostly in the Baie de la Seine and Cherbourg areas.
By night
Although enemy raids were again widespread there does not appear to have been an exceptional number of enemy aircraft involved, since in several instances one aircraft was responsible for a succession of areas to go "red7quot;.
At 2135 hours a raid came in via Southend to North Weald, and a split off this raid turned towards Chelmsford. London Central was "purple" as a result.
At 2245 hours the usual activity developed along the East Anglian coast and some raids crossed inland. Similarly the usual raids crossed in over Weymouth area and proceeded to South Wales. As on the previous night some of theses passed on to Crewe,
Liverpool, Manchester and Bradford areas. At about 0100 hours a further raid was sound-tracked on the same course to Crewe and Liverpool. It then turned east to Leeds and flew a track over Digby, North Weald and out over Beachy Head towards a point between Dieppe and Le Havre.
Heat fog was reported between the Thames and Duxford, which made interception difficult.
Activity between Kinnaird's Head and the Forth was rather heavier than usual, and in addition to minelaying, many raids crossed inland. Other minelaying is suspected in the Thames Estuary, East Anglia and Humber to Berwick.
Two raids appeared over the Pembroke area, but few plots were obtained.
________________________________________
Statistics
Fighter Command Serviceable Aircraft as at 0900 hours, 3 August 1940
Casualties:
Patrols:
Balloons:
Aerodromes:
Organisation:
Air Intelligence Reports
Home Security Reports
Lots of interesting items in today’s paper. I noticed that they mentioned that Chamberlain was down after having surgery. Not a lot of detail as to what his condition is.
I had to laugh when I read the article on the First Army maneuvers. With the mechanized vehicles having the sirens to simulate Stuka bombers. What it seems like they are practicing is the ability of infantry to fend off an attack from an ambulance brigade.
The article states that the sirens are not intended to simulate diving Stukas, but only to alert the infantry so they can get out of the way of the vehicles. I'm not sure that feature will find its way into actual combat. Assuming there will be actual combat.
You’re right, I misread that. I do hope the siren feature doesn’t make it to the final production model. It will make crossing the Rhine that much more difficult.
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