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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)

http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/

Day 369 September 3, 1940

Battle of Britain Day 56. The weather is again good for flying. Luftwaffe sends 1 main raid of 50 Dornier Do17 bombers, 80 Messerschmitt Bf110 fighter bombers and 40 Bf109 fighters up the Thames Estuary which splits up and bombs RAF airfields at North Weald, Hornchurch and Debden. All are badly damaged but still operational. Luftwaffe loses 17 fighters and 8 bombers. RAF loses 20 fighters, including 2 Blenheims returning to North Weald accidentally shot down by Hurricanes mistaking them for Bf110s (6 pilots killed). There is relatively little bombing overnight, as on recent nights, with attacks in Kent, Liverpool, and South Wales.

At 3.26 AM, U-60 sinks British collier Ulva about 150 miles Southwest of Isle of Barra, Outer Hebrides, Scotland (3 crew lost). 17 survivors make land at Castlebay, Isle of Barra. U-57 collides with Norwegian steamer Rona and sinks just after midnight at Brunsbüttel, at the Western end of the Kiel Canal (6 dead, 19 survivors). U-57 will be raised in September and returned to service as a training ship in January 1941. 200 miles West of Ireland, U-101 is attacked with depth charges by a British convoy escort. U-101 is damaged and partially flooded but is able to reach base at Lorient, France, on September 16.