http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/oct40/f11oct40.htm
Petain encourages French collaboration
Friday, October 11, 1940 www.onwar.com
In Vichy France... Petain broadcasts to the French people, advocating that they abandon their traditional ideas on who are their friends and who are their enemies.
Over Britain... Liverpool is heavily attacked in the continuing German bombing campaign. Four ships in the port are sunk and other damage is inflicted.
In Helsinki... The demilitarization of the Aland Islands is agreed in a Finnish-Soviet convention.
In the Mediterranean... The British light cruiser Ajax is attacked during the night by first three then four Italian destroyers. Two of the attackers are sunk and two damaged.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/11.htm
October 11th, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM:
Battle of Britain:
Losses: Luftwaffe, 7; RAF, 9.
The first production Handley Page Halifax I (L 9485) makes its maiden flight.
Submarine HMS Usk is commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
VICHY FRANCE: Petain tells Frenchmen that they must abandon traditional ideas of who is their ally and who their foe.
GERMANY: Daily Keynote from the Reich Press Chief:
The Minister has once again specified the wishes of the Luftwaffe staff leaders that we issue formal denials in all cases where the English claim to have hit military targets, unless the English have hit the corresponding mock installations. ... the Luftwaffe has repeatedly raised objections to the use of expressions like “air pirates” or “night pirates,” but on the other hand the Reich Chancellery desires that these expressions be used: Therefore the Wehrmacht High Command [the OKW] should take up the matter with the Fuhrer.
U-156, U-705 laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
FINLAND: The Finnish-Soviet convention agrees to the demilitarization of the Åland Islands.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: HMS Ajax, which had served with distinction the previous year at the River Plate against the German “pocket battleship” Graf Spee, encountered three Italian destroyers in a night action in the Mediterranean. She sank Airone and Ariel, and badly damaged Artigliere, which was finished off by HMS York on 12 October. (Dave Shirlaw)
AUSTRALIA: General election results, giving Robert Menzies another term as Prime Minister, are announced.
U.S.A.: The motion picture “Down Argentina Way” opens at the Roxy Theater in New York City. Directed by Irving Cummings, this musical stars Don Ameche, Betty Grable, Carmen Miranda and J. Carrol Nash. This is Grable’s first Technicolor film and Miranda’s first U.S. film. (Jack McKillop)
In New York City, Glenn Miller and his Orchestra record “Make Believe Ballroom Time” for Bluebird Records at the Victor Studios in New York City. This song becomes the theme song for the radio program “Make Believe Ballroom” on radio station WNEW (”Eleven three oh in New York”), in New York City. The show is hosted by Martin Block, America’s first disc jockey.Block creates the aura of doing a “live” radio program, complete with performers (on records) like Harry James or Frank Sinatra, from the ‘Crystal Studios’ at WNEW. His daily program was known to everyone who grew up in the New York City metropolitan area in the 1940s and 1950s (I’ll attest to that). Miller had been so taken with the show’s concept that he actually paid for the “Make Believe Ballroom Time” recording session himself and hired the Modernaires to join in.
The motion picture “Down Argentine Way” is released today. Directed by Irving Cummings, this musical comedy stars Don Ameche, Betty Grable, Carmen Miranda, Charlotte Greenwood, J. Carrol Naish and the Nicholas Brothers. The plot has American woman Grable (in the movie that boosted her to stardom) on vacation in Argentina and falling for Argentinean horse breeder Ameche. This was Carmen Miranda’s first American movie. The film is nominated for a best music and two technical Academy Awards. (Jack McKillop)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-48 sank SS Port Gisborne and Brandanger in Convoy HX-77. (Dave Shirlaw)