http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/29.htm
October 29th, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM: Battle of Britain:
RAF Fighter Command: Portsmouth, Ramsgate and North Weald are bombed. Tactical foresight leads to the shooting down of 11 high-flying Me-109s in 6 minutes.
The Italians reappear briefly by day with 15 BR.20 bombers escorted by 39 CR.42 and 34 G.50bis fighters attacking Ramsgate. The CR42 biplanes causing more puzzlement than anxiety. Extra.
Losses: Luftwaffe (RA), 19; RAF, 7.
Wales: A new type of German mine, set off by the noise of a ship is discovered near Porthcawl. Two Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve officers, Lieutenant Baker and Sub-Lieutenant Cummins, succeeded in recovering safely a German acoustic mine from the River Ogmore near Porthcawl, allowing its mechanism to be studied at HMS Vernon and counter-measures developed. (Dave Shirlaw)
GREECE: The British occupy Crete, a key position in the Mediterranean within bomber range of the Romanian oilfields.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: The Royal Navy attacks the Dodecanese island of Stampalia.
CHINA: Nanning: Japan’s strategy for seizing control of southern China suffered a major setback today as its troops were forced to withdraw south into Indochina after losing Nanning, the capital of Kwangsi, China’s southern border province. The loss of Nanning, a key city on the Hanoi-Peking line, counterbalances Japan’s recent gain in being allowed to station troops in French Indochina. During seven months of bitter fighting for Nanning both sides suffered heavy losses.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: This weeks toll of shipping losses is 88,000 tons, the worst week since the war began and eight times greater than the average weekly loss in the spring.
U-31 sank SS Matina. (Dave Shirlaw)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 425 October 29, 1940
Battle of Britain Day 112. Despite overcast skies, Luftwaffe mounts strenuous attacks from 10.25 AM until 5 PM (4 raids towards London and 2 over Portsmouth on the South coast). These are more than the nuisance raids of previous days, with up to 40 medium bombers escorted by Messerschmitt fighters (London and Portsmouth both suffer some bomb damage). At dusk, airfields in East Anglia, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire are attacked by dive bombing Ju88s and Bf109s. Germans lose 22 Bf109s, 3 Bf110s and 2 Dornier Do17 bombers. RAF loses 7 fighters including 2 destroyed by bombs when taking off from North Weald airfield (2 pilots killed). 15 Fiat BR20M bombers of the Corpo Aereo Italiano bomb Ramsgate in formation, wing tip to wing tip, and 5 are hit by anti-aircraft fire. There is heavy night bombing of Birmingham and Coventry & London is also bombed.
Following invasion by Italian troops from Albania, Greece requests help from Britain by invoking Chamberlain’s guarantee of 13 April 1939 (”in the event of any action being taken which clearly threatened the independence of Greece, His Majesty’s Government would feel themselves bound at once to lend all the support in their power”). A joint reconnaissance party of all 3 British services lands at Suda Bay on the island of Crete in a flying boat. A flotilla of 4 British battleships, 2 aircraft carriers, 19 destroyers and various other vessels leaves Alexandria, Egypt, to sweep the seas around Crete of Italian warships. They are carrying 158 sailors from damaged cruiser HMS Liverpool as a base defense party to reinforce Suda Bay.
At 10.00 PM, U-31 torpedoes and sinks the drifting wreck of SS Matina (destroyed by U-28 on October 26). In the Bay of Biscay, U-29 rendezvous with German armed merchant cruiser Widder. Widder is returning from raiding in the mid-Atlantic with worn out engines at a speed of 5 knots (the journey has taken 13 days). http://ahoy.tk-jk.net/MaraudersWW2/4Widder.html