http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/dec40/f06dec40.htm
Italian commander in chief replaced
Friday, December 6, 1940 www.onwar.com
From Rome... Marshal Badoglio resigns his post as Italian Commander in Chief. His successor is General Count Cavallero.
In the Balkans... The Greek advance north along the coast continues to go well. Sarande is taken.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/06.htm
December 6th, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM: The War Cabinet refuses to allow relief measures in Metropolitan France.
The Canadian Upper Lakes and St. Lawrence Shipping Co. merchantman Watkins F Nisbet (1,747 GRT) ran aground and was wrecked in the Bristol Channel. She was later salvaged and her engines were used in the construction of a new ship. The remainder of the hulk was scrapped. There is no record of casualties in this incident. (Dave Shirlaw)
GERMANY: U-166 laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
AUSTRIA: One of the thousands of victims of the Nazi programme of killing the mentally ill known only as Aloisia V (aged 49), was gassed today. She was a relative of Adolf Hitler. (Julian Gomez)
ITALY: Marshal Pietro Badoglio resigns (although it is rumoured that Mussolini forced him) as Chief of the Italian General Staff - a post he has held since 1925. He is succeeded by Ugo Cavallero.
ALBANIA: Greek forces occupy Sarande on the Adriatic, pushing north along the coast.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: The submarine HMS Regulus is sunk. Believed lost in the Straits of Otranto with all 53 of her crew. It is presumed that she must have been mined or suffered an accident after leaving Alexandria. (Alex Gordon)(108)
Submarine HMS Triton is lost in the lower Adriatic with all 62 crew. Her loss remains a mystery but it is believed that she might have been mined or suffered an accident. Her last action took place when she successfully attacked and sank the freighter Olimpia on this date. (Alex Gordon)(108)
NORTH AFRICA:
Operation Compass:
25,000 British and Commonwealth troops advance more than 40 miles into the Italian occupied desert, before hiding themselves and their equipment from the Italian Air Force.
FAR EAST: Japan and Thailand sign a treaty of friendship.
AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Bathurst commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
PACIFIC OCEAN: German auxiliary cruisers KM Komet and KM Orion sink the merchantman Triona. (Mark Horan)
CANADA: Corvette HMS Spikenard commissioned Quebec City, Province of Quebec.
Corvette HMS Windflower departed Halifax with Convoy HX-94 to UK. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: Submarine USS Flying Fish laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-43 sank SS Skrim. (Dave Shirlaw)