http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/13.htm
September 13th, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM:
RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group (Whitley). Bombing - invasion fleet at Calais and Dunkirk.
58 Sqn. Nine aircraft to Dunkirk. All bombed, causing large fires.
77 Sqn. Nine aircraft to Calais and Dunkirk. All bombed with good results.
All forces of Bomber Command, day and night, attack invasion ports and continue during the next fortnight.
Battle of Britain:
RAF Fighter Command: Small daylight raids on London, causing little damage. At night London is raided.
Buckingham Palace is again hit. At 11:10 building is straddled by a stick of six bombs dropped by a low-flying aircraft. Two of these burst in the Quadrangle, some eighty yards from the window behind which the King and Queen were discussing the day’s arrangements with the King’s secretary, Sir Alexander Hardinge. The blast showered them with broken glass.
Two other bombs fell in the forecourt. One wrecked the Royal Chapel and one exploded harmlessly in the garden.
Other raids include one on Belfast Loch and incendiaries are dropped on Bangor, NI.
Ten bombs dropped on Eastbourne’s centre start large fires and cause 20 casualties.
At West Ham (London) the Ravenshill School where homeless were being accommodated is hit mid-morning and 50 casualties result.
The main eight-hour raid on London commences at 20:45. Although only five night fighter sorties are flown, Flg Off M.J. Herrick in ZK-A of 25 Squadron manages to bring down a He-111H 5J+BL of 3/KG 4 near North Weald.
Losses: Luftwaffe, 4; RAF, 1.
The battleships HMS Rodney and HMS Nelson at Rosyth in Scotland, and HMS Revenge at Plymouth move to likely invasion sites. HMS Hood is at Rosyth.
Luxury liner SS City of Benares leaves Liverpool with British children being evacuated to Canada to escape World War II. The ship is torpedoed by U-boat during the night about 600 miles out to sea; only 13 of the over 90 children survive. (Dave Shirlaw)
NORTH AFRICA:
An Italian offensive starts at Sollum, on the border of Libya and Egypt.
After months of prodding by a Mussolini hungry for victory, Marshal Graziani’s army is making a ponderous advance in North Africa and has finally crossed the barbed-wire fence that marks the Egyptian border with Libya. Bells are being rung in Rome to celebrate the capture of Sollum, a tiny settlement of mud huts.
Graziani has insisted on “digging in” at frequent points along the coastal road, harassed continually by British defenders.
The attack on British forces in Egypt was to coincide with Operation Sealion (the invasion of England by Germany). When it became apparent to Benito Mussolini that “Sealion” was postponed indefinitely, he orders Marshal Graziani, Governor-General of Libya and Commander in Chief North Africa, to launch an attack into Egypt by the seven divisions of his 10th Army. British tanks and armored cars make bold attacks into Libya, forcing the Italians to transfer troops from the 5th Army to the 10th and acquiring 2,500 motor vehicles and gaining the delivery of 70 M-11 medium tanks from Italy. The British retreat to buy time and receive reinforcements. After four days and a 60 mile (97 kilometer) advance into Egypt, Graziani halts his attack due to logistics. Graziani was now 80 miles (129 kilometres) west of the British defenses in Mersa Matruh; to risk going any farther, Graziani said, would risk being defeated until supplies were available. Mussolini, angered over the sudden stop of the 10th Army, urges Graziani to continue 300 miles (483 kilometres) into the port of Alexandria. Graziani is appalled. Eventually Field Marshal Pietro Badoglio, Chief of the Supreme General Staff, promises 1,000 tanks to Graziani but this promise is never kept. The recent military operations in Ethiopia and Spain drained Italy of many needed supplies and equipment and Graziani is forced to change his attack plan and he cannot penetrate further than Sidi Barrani. (Jack McKillop)
EAST AFRICA:
Italian troops from Ethiopia advance 20 miles into the British colony of Kenya.
CHINA:
Pre-production Mitsubishi A6M2, Navy Type 0 Carrier Fighter Model 11s, assigned to the 12th Rengo Kokutai (12th Combined Naval Air Corps), are flown in combat for the first time over Chungking, China. The Japanese pilots destroy 99 Chinese aircraft for the loss of two A6M2s to ground fire. (Andy Etherington and Jack McKillop)
U.S.A.: Destroyer USS Kearny commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 379 September 13, 1940
Battle of Britain Day 66. Bad weather again restricts German attacks during the day, with single bombers coming across at a rate of about 7 per hour to drop bombs on London and RAF airfields. Bombs land in front of Buckingham Palace, slightly damaging the Victoria Memorial, and in the Palace courtyard where much damage is done. The Royal Family is at the Palace at the time but they are not injured. Luftwaffe has 3 aircraft shot down. RAF loses 2 Blenheims (1 does not return from a reconnaissance flight over Norway; the crew bales out of another near Calais and are taken prisoner). Bombing of London overnight is more widespread than previously (Westminster, Battersea, Mitcham, Clapham Junction, Wembley and Hammersmith). Cardiff is also bombed. With tides the next few nights favouring invasion by Germany, Royal Navy moves battleships HMS Nelson & Rodney to Rosyth and HMS Revenge to Plymouth, to support cruisers and destroyers defending the English Channel. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/theroyalfamily/6200463/Queen-Mothers-biography-on-bombing-raid-on-Buckingham-Palace.html
North Africa. Italian 1st Blackshirt Division (23 Marzo, in honour of the founding of the Italian Fascist Party on 23 March 1919) recapture Fort Capuzzo, taken by the British in June, just inside Libya on the border with Egypt. Soon after, Italian troops cut the barbed wire on the Libyan/Egyptian border and begin the invasion of Egypt.
Vichy French steamers carrying demilitarized troops home from North Africa to France hit mines west of Sardinia (SS Ginette Le Borgne and SS Cassidaigne are sunk and SS Cap Tourane is damaged). German minesweeping trawler Hermann Krone hits a mine and sinks off Hanstholm, Denmark.
British steam passenger ship SS City of Benares departs Liverpool bound for Quebec and Montreal, carrying 90 British children being evacuated to Canada. She is the flagship of the convoy commodore Rear Admiral Mackinnon and the first ship in the center column of convoy OB-213.