Posted on 11/09/2010 4:51:36 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
Winston S. Churchill, Their Finest Hour
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/nov40/f09nov40.htm
German maritime bomber strikes liner
Saturday, November 9, 1940 www.onwar.com
In the North Atlantic... The liner Empress of Japan (26,000 tons) is attacked by a German Focke-Wolf Condor but manages to reach port.
In Britain... Neville Chamberlain, the former prime minister, dies at the age of 71.
In the Mediterranean... The Gibraltar based Force H attacked Cagliari with aircraft from Ark Royal.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/09.htm
November 9th, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM: Neville Chamberlain died tonight at the age of 71. It is now stated that he was already suffering from cancer of the stomach when he was forced out of the premiership six months ago during the political crisis over how to fight the war.
Mr. Chamberlain’s distinguished early career as an austere and clear-minded administrator is inevitably forgotten now in the controversy over his policy of appeasement of the European dictators - and in particular for the 1938 “peace for our time” Munich agreement with Hitler. His friends insist that he bought precious time for rearmament and has been the most misunderstood statesman of the century. Mr Churchill said: “He acted in perfect sincerity according to his lights.”
Despite gallant propaganda about plucky Land Girls and “Miss England” being “busier than ever”, more British women are now out of work than before the war. Some women are finding work with the services, but even here their contribution to the war effort is less dramatic than the recruiting posters imply.
Women help to plot enemy aircraft movements in RDF stations and can also be found in anti-aircraft batteries and naval command centres. They are always in non-combatant roles; women may track the targets, but men fire the guns. Lack of direct involvement is by no means the only complaint amongst women who answered the patriotic call to duty - and who overcame parental fears about presumed moral dangers. Many of those who signed up have been dismayed by the menial tasks which they are asked to perform. Though women can be trained to do anything which does not make them into combatants, in practice cooking and cleaning are the commonest assignments.
Outside the services there are still vast numbers of women who were made redundant last autumn be non-essential industries who are still without jobs. Earlier this year a protest was made to parliament by the Federation of Business and Professional Women. More than half of the nearly 7,000 women registered with them were unemployed. The government has so far resisted any coordinated redirection of redundant women into war work. But pressure is growing for some form of intervention, possibly even compulsory female mobilisation.
Westminster:
Questions are asked in parliament about the penalties that have been imposed upon member of the Congress Party in India who have been carrying out a civil disobedience campaign. Reginald Sorensen (Labour), described the sentence of four years imprisonment on Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru as “harsh in the extreme.”
Corvette HMS Columbine commissioned.
Minesweeper HMS Rhyl commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
FRANCE: The Germans start to expel 180,000 Frenchmen from Alsace-Lorraine, which they have annexed.
GREECE:
Northern GREECE: Less that two weeks after crossing the Greek border in great strength, the Italian army is retreating in total disarray. The Italian commander, General Visconti Prasca, has been sacked and Mussolini’s crack ‘Julia’ alpine division routed with huge losses in men and equipment. The Italians have been taken completely by surprise by the speed and ferocity of the Greeks.
Six days after the Italian invasion, Greece’s General Papagos ordered the first counter-attack. A small Greek force crossed the Albanian frontier and took Pissoderi, a mountain near the captured town of Koritsa. The main road out of Koritsa was cut by another Greek force. With their superior knowledge of the terrain, the tough and well-trained Greeks have abandoned the valleys and taken to the mountains from whence they can infiltrate enemy positions.
Fighting at an altitude of over 5,000 feet - in the most severe winter for years - Papagos’s single division has proved more than a match for the numerically superior Italians whose armour is confined to the lower ground. Italian tanks are being knocked out by anti-tank weapons dropped by the RAF.
The Italians have paid the penalty for having allowed the Greeks to hold the mountainous centre of the front. The Julia division found itself trapped. 5,000 men have surrendered, and the Greeks are claiming a further 25,000 dead and seriously wounded.
CANADA:
Corvette HMCS Collingwood commissioned.
Minesweeper HMCS Chignecto laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: Washington: Roosevelt announces that deliveries of aeroplanes and war materials needed by Great Britain and the United States should be divided, generally, on 50-50 basis.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Sloop FS Bouganville sunk off Libreville, Gabon by her Free French sistership Savorgnan de Brazza.
The Canadian Pacific Steamships Line passenger liner Empress of Japan (26,032 GRT) was heavily damaged in the North Atlantic in position 53.54N, 014.28W, when she was bombed by Luftwaffe aircraft. (Dave Shirlaw)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 436 November 9, 1940
Gabon,West Africa. Free French forces under General Koenig fight their way into the Vichy-held capital Libreville. Free French Westland Lysanders from Douala, Cameroon, bomb the airfield at Libreville allowing Koenig to overcome Vichy defences and capture the airfield. Illustrating the irony of these fraternel conflicts, Vichy sloop Bougainville is sunk off Libreville by shellfire from her sister ship, Free French sloop Savorgnan de Brazza. Vichy armed merchant cruiser Cap Des Palmes tries to scuttle herself but is captured by Free French sloop Commandant Domine.
Former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain dies of bowel cancer at the age of 71.
Sebastiano Visconti Prasca is relieved as commander of Italian operations in Greece after the failure of the offensive and ongoing rout of the Alpine Julia Division in the Pindus Mountains. He is replaced by General Ubaldo Soddu who is no better and will be removed in a few weeks.
Before dawn in the Bay of Bengal, German armed merchant cruiser Atlantis poses in the dark as British auxiliary cruiser HMS Antenor. Atlantis sends a boarding party onto Norwegian tanker Teddy, carrying 10,000 tons of fuel oil and 500 tons of diesel oil, which is captured without a shot (all 32 crew will be sent to Japan on another captured Norwegian tanker Ole Jacob). This allows Atlantis to refuel and extend her voyage.
Swedish SS Vingaland, damaged yesterday by German bombers West of Ireland, is sunk by Italian submarine Marconi (19 survivors were picked up by British steamer Danae II).
American steamer City Of Rayville sinks on a mine laid by German auxiliary minelayer Passat 20 miles off Cape Otway, South Australia (1 killed). 39 crew escape in 2 lifeboats and make landfall at Apollo Bay.
The interesting thing to consider is how small these old ships were. Taking the claims at face value, that’s an average tonnage of 4300 per merchant vessel sunk.
Compared to an average modern container ship running in the 150,000 ton range.
Having watched too many movies perhaps, many of us are caught up in the intrigue of WWII, the bindness, the lack of preparedness, the Jews lamb like march, etc.
How do you actually go about getting microfilm articles on any subject. Can anyone do this? Terribly interesting.
Thank you very much.
>>> How do you actually go about getting microfilm articles on any subject.
I’m not the poster of this series but the local college library has extensive microfilm files of various newspapers. Anyone can browse them.
Back as a student I spent some time digging into these reading the London Times as it covered the War of 1812. The funny thing was how little newspaper editorial styles have changed in two centuries. Examples like sternly demanding explanations from the Admiralty how the Royal Navy was losing battles to American frigates, and outrage how unfair an advantage the US claimed by building better ships like the Constitution.
It’s an interesting exercise to see how history was initially reported to the average citizen.
Homer really puts a lot of work into this series by going to the library and copying these from microfiche. According to the title of this thread, today’s paper is from the Monterey Public Library. It really is a testament to Homer’s dedication to this project.
At one point I had looked to see if we could get there articles online from the New York Times archive to save some time for Homer and you can, but even with a full subscription you are only allowed 100 articles per year before you have to pay for them individually. As with today’s paper there are at least 10 articles so you would use up the free ones inside a week.
I can’t match that. The UCSC library has the Times going back to the Civil War but I don’t think it goes all the way to 1812.
As with today’s paper there are at least 10 articles so you would use up the free ones inside a week.
At the Monterey library it costs 25 cents a page, so even a Sunday edition, at $5-$10, is cheaper than the pay-by-the-article method. It is not just the cost that keeps me going to the microfilm* though. I come across many good articles and photos and so on as I scroll through the reels. I would miss those if I was working from an index. I might try again at our local JC – Cabrillo College. In addition to the reels they subscribe to the Times archives on-line. I could get unlimited access by signing up for a class. I need to take continuing education anyway for my accounting license so that could be a bonus. If you can simulate paging through the newspaper day by day it could work. And I wouldn’t have the occasional problem of unreadable copy like I do with the reels. That can be a crap shoot.
*Not microfiche. When I started this project I remembered that microfiche is on the reel and microfilm is the rectangles that you view like microscope slides. Wrong. I recently googled the terms and discovered I had it backwards.
You just reminded me of something that takes me back into my own “Way Back Machine”.
My first professional job involving computers involved working at a bank as a data processor. I maintained a huge NCR 8595 Mainframe and did all the night processing for the bank. Involved in that was making and copying microfiche (the 3X4 squares). The original was made off a tape real I made on the mainframe and was a thick black piece of plastic. The copier would produce these lighter blue copies that I would distribute to those who needed them in the bank. One of the first things I learned was that if you closed the slide on the copier too hard the xenon bulb that flashed the original would detonate lake a grenade.
Ooh. . . I just watched/heard about this in a documentary I was watching over the weekend on the British air defences. They really got caught with their knickers around their ankles on this one, eh what? The nazis claimed to have sunk the whole convoy of 36 vessels, but the Brits claimed it was “only” 15-20. Still, a bloody awful mess, I dare say, don’t I?
Interesting. I didn't realize that the Italians operated in the North Atlantic. I thought they stuck to patrol areas closer to home.
Cougar - you have anything more for me on this?
I didn't realize the Italians were out of the Med with their subs either.
32 Italian subs operated in the Atlantic during the war, mostly from Bordeaux and Casablanca.
Donitz did not have flattering things to say about the Italians under his command. He felt they were undisciplined, often panicked in the face of the enemy, and didn’t have good military skills.
Yet, they accounted for 109 Allied ships sunk, not including human torpedo attacks, an Italian specialty.
Thanks. I’m guessing that they probably put into German controlled French ports for fueling at some point.
Looks like the Italians based their Atlantic boats in Bordeaux, and that they patrolled down into the south Atlantic, as well. I may dig a little more and post it over on the continuing discussion thread.
I imagine they would have too. I wonder if they also attempted some of the refueling at sea methods the Germans tried. Ping me with what you find on the discussion thread, I’d be interested in reading it.
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