Posted on 09/01/2010 5:51:33 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Plus a special guest map from Michael Korda’s, “With Wings Like Eagles,” showing the air defenses of England and Wales, August 1940.
William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
Winston S. Churchill, Their Finest Hour
The News of the Week in Review
One Year – And the War Goes On – 8
(1) Britain’s Battle – 8-9
(2) Balkan Turmoil – 9-10
Twenty News Questions – 10
Fifteen Outstanding Events in the European War – 11
Month-by-Month History of the First Year of the War – 12
First Year of ‘Totalitarian War’ has Taught New Type of Strategy – 13-14
Answers to Twenty News Questions - 14
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/sep40/f01sep40.htm
Italians capture Buna
Sunday, September 1, 1940 www.onwar.com
In East Africa... In Kenya the Italians capture the small town of Buna in the northeast of the country.
Over Britain... The German attacks on the British airfields continue but with less strength than in the previous two days.
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 367 September 1, 1940
Battle of Britain Day 54. Luftwaffe again targets RAF airfields, using the same tactics but on a reduced scale compared to the last 2 days. RAF ignores probing flights of Messerschmitts only in the morning. 3 large raids come across the Channel at 11 AM, 1.30 PM and 5.30. As usual they split up. Airfields at Hawkinge, Lympne, Kenley, Detling & Sherburn and docks in the East End of London are attacked. Biggin Hill is bombed again, in the middle of funerals for those killed in the last 2 days. Luftwaffe loses 17 fighters but the fighter screen is so dense that only 8 bombers are shot down. RAF loses 15 fighters (6 pilots killed). There is less bombing than previous nights, with attacks in Kent, Bristol Channel and South Wales plus Tyne and Tees in the Northeast of England. Oil tanks at Llandarcy, South Wales are bombed and set afire. http://www.battleofbritain1940.net/0032.html
Just after midnight, U-101 sinks Greek SS Efploia, 100 miles Northwest of Ireland. The entire crew abandons ship in two lifeboats and are picked up by destroyer HMS Anthony. At 5.25 PM, U-32 hits British cruiser HMS Fiji with the last torpedo (5 killed) 200 miles West of Isle of Lewis, Scotland. Fiji is badly damaged but returns to the Clyde under her own power escorted by 4 destroyers (out of service until February 1941). Fiji’s place in the expedition to Dakar (Operation Menace) will be taken by Australian cruiser HMAS Australia. http://uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/507.html
Cruisers HMS Orion & HMAS Sydney and destroyers HMS Decoy & Ilex shell the Italian Dodecanese islands of Scarpanto (now Karpathos) and Stampalia (now Astypalea) in the Southern Aegean Sea. HMS Ilex rams and sinks Italian motor torpedo boat MAS537.
British submarine HMS Tigris sinks the small French fishing vessel Sancte Michael with the deck gun near Brest, France. Submarine HMS Sunfish, leaving Grangemouth at 11.30 PM, collides with patrol launch Mesme which sinks (all 3 crew lost).
British minesweeping trawler HMT Royalo sinks on a mine off Penzance, Cornwall, England (7 killed).
THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST POSTS IN THIS SERIES!!
The One Year look back has some very interesting comments..
The idea of “Totalitarian War” was, apparently, rather a new concept to them. The “win or lose”, all or nothing approach was not really the way they had been fighting wars.
Notice... there was ZERO discussion about concern for civilian deaths... this was, Kill, or be killed.. for EVERYONE, not just the soldiers.
It is still amazing to me, that the US was standing idly by... even as this was going on in Britain. Wow...
I have a distant cousin in England whose father died in Nov 1940 in London from “a bomb blast” in his back yard...
he was in the house protecting his wife and my cousin who was just a baby 3 weeks old with his body....
Is it any wonder so many Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders rushed to sign up and fight to protect Jolly ol England ???
6 of my mothers 7 brothers all went ...
I to Europe, the rest to the Pacific...
Date: 1st September 1940
Enemy action by day
Enemy activity was on a reduced scale compared with the previous day and fewer aircraft were employed, but three attacks of importance developed in the East Kent area. During these and in other operations twenty-five enemy aircraft were destroyed (plus 10 probable and 24 damaged). Our casualties were 15 aircraft and six pilots killed or missing. Aerodromes again appeared to be the objectives.
North and East
Reconnaissances by single aircraft were made between Humber and Lowestoft in the forenoon, and in the latter area five plottings were recorded. There were six other reconnaissances in the Harwich - Cromer zone. In the afternoon two reconnaissances were made and in one of these the position of a convoy off Yarmouth was reported. Thick cloud prevented further action. At 1040 hours interception was made of the reports transmitted by enemy aircraft over Derby.
South East
At 1050 hours about fifty enemy aircraft crossed the coast near Dover and other raids followed. By 1100 hours about one hundred enemy aircraft were over Kent and Thames Estuary. Some penetrated to Biggin Hill, Kenley, Gravesend, Hornchurch and North Weald. Two Balloons of the Dover Barrage were shot down. Fighter squadrons intercepted and shot down several enemy aircraft.
At 1340 hours some seventy enemy aircraft crossed the Coast between Dover and Dungeness. A second wave of about eighty aircraft followed. Biggin Hill and Kenley were the objectives. Four squadrons from No 11 Group were sent to intercept; meanwhile No 12 Group provided one squadron from Duxford to patrol North Weald. Casualties were inflicted on the enemy.
At 1530 hours five raids totalling seventy aircraft again crossed the Coast between Dover and Dungeness. Of these abut twenty circled on the Coast line but others penetrated towards Maidstone and the Thames Estuary, and attacked Dunkirk. Further enemy casualties were inflicted.
As in the previous raids hostile patrols were maintained in the Channel whilst the enemy raids were in progress over England.
South West
Reconnaissance aircraft transmitted reports on our Naval Units South West of Lands End at 1050 hours. The position indicated was correct.
By night
Enemy activity was much reduced compared with that of the previous nights and the areas attacked were quite different. Only a small number of isolated raids went to the Industrial Midlands. Main raids were confined to three areas only:
Many early raids were plotted over Kent and into the Thames Estuary. Attacks were reported on Detling Aerodrome, Dunkirk and Rye. This area was however, clear by midnight.
A continuous flow passed to the Bristol Channel and South Wales, some aircraft believed to be on mine-laying. This area appeared to be the main target of the night. A few of these raids passed North as far as the Sealand area.
Shortly after midnight a number of raids appeared off the Norfolk Coast and flew North West to the Tyne/Tees area. Mine-laying is suspected but several raids crossed inland before returning home in the direction of the Dutch Islands.
Other mine-laying is suspected off the Humber, Thames Estuary and Dungeness to Poole.
________________________________________
Statistics
Fighter Command Serviceable Aircraft as at 0900 hours, 1st September 1940
Casualties:
| Enemy Losses | ||
| By Fighters | ||
| Destroyed | Probable | Damaged |
| 14 Me109 | 4 Me109 | 11 Me109 |
| 14 Me109 | 4 Me109 | 11 Me109 |
| 3 Me110 | 2 Me110 | 2 Me110 |
| 1 He111 | 1 He111 | |
| 2 Do17 | 2 Do17 | 4 Do17 |
| 5 Do215 | 3 Do215 | 5 Do215 |
| 1 ?(type) | ||
| 25 | 10 | 24 |
Patrols:
Balloons:
Aerodromes:
Attacks on Aerodromes
Organisation:
Home Security Reports
I to Europe, the rest to the Pacific...
Did any join up in 1940? You must have a lot of inherited war stories accumulated. I hope you can share them with us when as we go along.
Thanks. I enjoy putting the Sunday edition threads together. They take more time but there is usually cool stuff in the News of the Week in Review. Unfortunately I don't think they get noticed much. Wednesday seems to be slow here.
New Zealand went into the war in 1939 with England
Most of my uncles that went to the Pacific were in the Solomon Islands as coast watchers...
(Lt Joe Cable in South Pacific...)
One would tell us funny stories about the way their food was deelivered etc...
I guess we (the USA) was not ready, the draft bill was going through Congress, people were still stunning from the depression.
I think what it would be like today - if say - NK crossed into the south, over ran our positions, kill or captured 30K American troops?
- I bet with our current regime
- we would stand down.
“Unfortunately I don’t think they get noticed much. Wednesday seems to be slow here.”
There is such a chasm between the Times’ account of that epochal era and its public men(Churchill!) and our own seemingly diminished political caste and our diminished expectations of life itself.
This is one post I read avidly every day, I assure you; but I usually feel at a loss to comment.
Thanks for posting this invaluable series.
Stay Tuned for the September 16th Issue of LIFE magazine for more on the plane crash that killed Farmer-Labor Party Senator Lundeen.
I appreciate the kind words. I sort of regret my comment about lack of notice. That was a whiney thing to say. I should have more faith in my fellow freepers. If the threads are interesting and instructive readers will find them.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/01.htm
September 1st, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM:
RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group (Whitley). Bombing - industrial targets at Milan, Turin, Munich and south-east Germany.
51 Sqn. Three aircraft to Fiat works at Turin. All bombed. Three aircraft to Munich marshalling yards. All bombed.
78 Sqn. Three aircraft to Milan. One bombed primary, one bombed French airfield. Two aircraft to BMW works at Munich. One bombed primary, one bombed alternative.
Battle of Britain:
RAF Fighter Command: Tilbury, Chatham are bombed.
South-east airfields attacked include Debden, Biggin Hill (severely damaged), Eastchurch and Detling.
At night Bristol, South Wales, Midlands and Merseyside are bombed.
In the afternoon a clutch of very low flying Dorniers penetrated to Biggin Hill, delivering the third and most damaging bombing of the day when one scored a direct hit with a 250-kg HE on its Sector Operations Room whose reinforced concrete ceiling collapsed into the building where two WAAF’s remained at their posts. Such devotion to duty won both Sergeant Helen Turner and Corporal Elspeth Henderson a Military Medal. A new, temporary, operations room was established in a village shop.
Losses: Luftwaffe, 14; RAF, 15.
Destroyer HMS Ivanhoe working with the 20th Destroyer Flotilla is scuttled in the North Sea off the Dutch Coast at 53 25N 03 48E after suffering mine damage. (Alex Gordon)(108)
GERMANY: Propaganda radio station NBBS declares that ‘Dover is already practically German territory.’
U-131 laid down.
LITHUANIA: Kovno: The Japanese consul Sempo Sugihara, who has been issuing exit visas to Jews, is expelled.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA:
Reinforcements are sent to the Mediterranean Fleet right through until the end of the year. They are covered from Gibraltar by Admiral Somerville and Force H, and then met in the central basin by Admiral Cunningham. The opportunity is taken to run in supplies of men and material to Malta.
Early in September the new fleet carrier HMS Illustrious, with an armoured flight deck, battleship HMS Valiant and two cruisers are transferred in this way in Operation ‘Hats’. On passage with them, aircraft from HMS Ark Royal attack Sardinian targets. HMS Illustrious, having joined with Eagle, sends aircraft against Rhodes. The Italian Fleet sorties during these operations, but fails to make contact. The arrival of HMS Illustrious allows Admiral Cunningham to go ahead with his plans to attack the Italian battlefleet at Taranto.
KENYA Buna falls to the Italians.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Grunert advises Quezon that planning towards both civil defence and economic mobilization should commence immediately.
Grunert advises Marshall that the failure of the US government to adopt a consistent policy towards the Philippines was adversely affecting the morale of the populace.
US Navy announces it will no longer send dependents to the Far East. (Marc Small)
ATLANTIC OCEAN:
Cruiser HMS Fiji is torpedoed by U-32 off Rockall as she escorts troop transports for the Dakar expedition. Her place is taken by the heavy cruiser HMAS AUSTRALIA.
At 0055 hours local, German submarine U-101 torpedoes a Greek merchant freighter, the SS Efploia, which straggled from convoy OB-205. The wreck was scuttled by a British warship with gunfire at 55.43N/13.05W. (Jack McKillop)
thanks Homer I read every day
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