http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/sep40/f03sep40.htm
Germans preparing to invade Britain
Tuesday, September 3, 1940 www.onwar.com
From Berlin... The operational orders for the invasion of Britain are issued. It is confirmed that the decision to go will be taken 10 days before the invasion is to take place. S-Day is now scheduled for September 21st. The Sea Lion plan now provides for elements of 11 divisions to make the assault. Two airborne divisions are to be sent in at once, but the other nine will start 6700 strong and will only reach full strength after several days. About 250 tanks are to accompany the assault. Four divisions of the 16th Army with airborne support are to land near Folkestone, two of the 9th Army near Eastbourne and three more of the 9th Army, also with airborne support, at Brighton. These beachheads will not be mutually supporting in the early stages. At this time the defending British forces have only made a partial recovery from the equipment losses at Dunkirk. There are perhaps four divisions fully equipped and about eight more in a reasonable state. In addition, there are various mobile brigade groups. There are about 350 cruiser and heavy tanks in the country and about 500 antitank guns.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/03.htm
September 3rd, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM:
RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group (Whitley). 51 Sqn. 1 aircraft crashed on take-off from Dishforth on operations. Crew injured. 10 Sqn. 1 aircraft damaged by Flak. Crew unhurt. 1 aircraft bellylanded at Nether Stilton, near Northallerton, on return from Berlin. Crew unhurt.
Bombing - oil plants at Berlin.
10 Sqn. Seven aircraft. All bombed. One damaged by Flak and one crashed on return, crew safe.
Since yesterday a total of 84 RAF bombers have attacked a U-boat base at Lorient in France and tried to set forests alight in South Germany.
Battle of Britain:
RAF Fighter Command: Airfields attacked again include Manston, West Malling and North Weald (severely damaged) and heavy fighting occurs.
At night Merseyside, South Wales and south-east England are bombed.
Losses: Luftwaffe, 16; RAF, 16.
The cabinet approves compensation of up to GBP 2000 for each house destroyed by Luftwaffe air raids.
Lydd, Kent: Mabel Cole, the wife of the publican of the Rising Sun, had every reason to be suspicious when a well-dressed young man knocked on the door at nine o’clock in the morning and asked for a glass of cider. He spoke with a foreign accent in a prohibited area - and he was plainly ignorant of English licensing laws. Mrs Cole sent him across the road to Tilbey’s stores to buy some cigarettes while she summoned help.
The young man, a Dutchman, was one of four well-dressed spies - two of them German - who landed on the beach here today before being arrested.
Corvettes HMS Daniella and Snapdragon launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
Submarine HMS Upright commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
GERMANY:
Berlin: Hitler postpones the invasion of Britain, scheduled for 15 September, to 21 September, but issues Operational orders.
Hitler also asks for an increase in the output of 2,200lb bombs, designed for use against built up areas.
U-57 (Type IIC) is sunk at 0015hrs at Brunsbüttel (the western entrance to the Kiel canal) in position 53.53N, 09. 09E, after a collision with the Norwegian steamship Rona; 6 dead. Raised in Sept 1940. Repaired and returned to service as a training boat on 11 Jan, 1941. Scuttled on 3 May, 1945 at Kiel. (Alex Gordon)
U-455 and U-456 laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
ROMANIA:
Bucharest: King Carol of Romaniasurvives an assassination attempt.
JAPAN: The Japanese army and navy agree on a southern advance strategy.
The land service needed much time to prepare itself for the Southward Advance even after mobilization was approved formally. When the admirals procrastinated, Tanaka Shin’ichi, head of the Army General Staff’s Operations Division, scathingly asked if the navy was up to its old game of using the name of war preparations to secure additional allocations of funds and materials. But he also agreed to a simultaneous attack on Malaya and the Philippines using ten, not six, divisions. This concession got the navy off the hook and, by September 3, it agreed to join the army in pressing for a definitive peace-or-war decision by early October at the latest, as the generals had desired. (201)(Will O’Neil)
CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Wasaga laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces the “destroyers-for-bases” agreement. The President tells Congress that he acted on his own authority in trading the 50 overage destroyers for bases in British colonial territory in the Western Hemisphere.
The US government warns the Japanese government against making aggressive moves in Indochina.
In New York City, the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) television station W2XAB transmits the first high definition color TV broadcast from the Chrysler Building, using 343 lines of resolution. This was the first telecast of any kind from CBS since the closing of their scanner station in 1933.
Clarinetist Artie Shaw and the Gramercy Five records the song “Summit Ridge Drive” for Victor Records. (Jack McKillop)
Destroyer USS Macomb laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: While escorting a convoy, destroyer ORP Blyscawica observed a periscope and attacked a U-boat with depth charges. Two hours later, in fog, she encountered a U-boat on the surface at a distance of 700 meter and attacked it with guns and depth charges. (Dave Shirlaw)
U-60 sinks SS Ulva. (Dave Shirlaw)