The Battle of Britain: Luftwaffe activity by day was on a much-reduced scale. Reconnaissances were made of shipping and the few raids which penetrated inland only inflicted minor damage. The chief feature was the lack of determination of the Luftwaffe to press home attacks. Several times, raids – whether large or small or large size – turned away when 10-20 miles from the coast when RAF fighter squadrons were sent up. [battleofbritain1940 web site]
The weather was disastrous. Low dark cloud and heavy rain all over Britain made any flying almost impossible, but still the Luftwaffe persisted with spasmodic bombing attacks by Fliegerkorps VIII. Their targets were channel shipping south of the Isle of Wight. Fighter Command alerted Tangmere to send a flight to meet the raiders. 601 Squadron Hurricanes responded and managed to shoot down two German bombers although one Hurricane was shot down and crashed into the Channel and another flown by F/O J.H. Riddle was damaged by gunfire but managed to return to base. A few attacks were made along the Channel coast at midday, and 238 Squadron Middle Wallop (Hurricanes) responded, one Hurricane was damaged just off the coast at Swanage but the pilot managed to return to base but otherwise it was a quiet day in the south.
The few attacks that do get through cause little damage. At first light, a lone wolf attacker bombs Mayfield and Hastings.
A large formation of Bf 109s flying south of the Isle of Wight is intercepted by Hurricanes of RAF No. 601 Squadron. The German planes shoot down a Hurricane and damage another but sustain damage to several of their own planes.
Another raid on Portland is turned back around noontime, with the Luftwaffe losing a Bf 109 from II,/JG 27 and one from III,/JG27.
During the afternoon, another large force of Luftwaffe planes approaches the Isle of Wight, but again is turned back. The RAF is maintaining standing patrols in the area which are effective.
After dark, the Luftwaffe sent over several solo raiders. The Bristol Aeroplane Company at Filton, Bristol proper, some Channel shipping, Kent and Brentwood, Essex all suffer some damage.
A number of cities were bombed:
Hastings, Kent. A number of bombs were dropped and casualties were recorded.
Weymouth, Devon. Bombs fell in the vicinity, but no other details are known.
Bristol. Again shipping in the Channel was recorded to have been hit as well as some land based areas.
Aberdeen, Scotland. Bombing was recorded in the area with little or no serious damage.
London, N.E. Estimated 120 bombs fell as well as incendiaries. Only a few civilians were killed.
By night Luftwaffe aircraft were active over a widespread area. Thirteen raids approached and crossed the coast in the vicinity of Portland, flying north-northeast and some continued to the Bristol area. Bombs were reported to have been dropped without causing serious damage.
RAF Statistics for the day: 144 patrols were flown involving 612 aircraft. Luftwaffe casualties: Fighters – 3 confirmed 1 unconfirmed; Bombers – 1 confirmed 1 unconfirmed. 1 unknown aircraft type also confirmed as shot down.
RAF Casualties: July 26, 1940
1000hrs: St Catherines Point. Hurricane P2753. 601 Squadron Tangmere. (Aircraft lost)
P/O P. Chalenor Lindsay. Posted missing. (Shot down by Bf109 over Channel and crashed into sea)
A number of aircraft were damaged upon landing at various airfields in heavy rain. These included a Spitfire of 266 Squadron Wittering, and a Hurricane of 601 Squadron Tangmere. A Spitfire of 603 Squadron Turnhouse went nose first into mud upon landing. All aircraft were repairable.
The Admiralty prohibits ships from venturing past Dover during daylight hours due to the strain that such convoys are putting on resources.
Some help for the weary RAF planes arrives in the form of Canadian-built Hurricanes manned by Canadian pilots.
RAF Bomber Command dispatches 14 Blenheims on bombing and reconnaissance operations during daylight, only 3 aircraft bombed. No losses.
RAF Bomber Command sends a risky daylight raid against the Dortmund power station. Operations during the daylight hours are more precise, but they invite fighter interception and more accurate anti-aircraft fire. Today, though, the weather is so poor that it is almost like bombing at night anyway. Not much damage is done.
RAF Bomber Command dispatches 18 Wellingtons and 9 Whitleys to attack Hamm and Ludwigshafen overnight; 1 Whitley lost 12 Hampdens minelaying. 6 O.T.U. sorties.
Air Intelligence reports that the German high command is concerned about RAF raids on Germany because they are causing substantial damage. Delayed action bombs also are causing concern.
The Axis raids Gibraltar during the night without causing much damage at all.
The RAF bombs the Italian airfield at Derna, Libya, damaging or destroying half a dozen aircraft.
The Italians bomb Mersa Matruh, causing four casualties, and armored cars at Sidi Rezegh.
A raid on Malta at 02:37 causes damage at Valletta, Grand Harbour, Marsa Creek, Kirkop, and RAF Ta Silch. The bombs hit a power station which puts the local electrical supply out of operation.
Home Guard chief Sir Alan Brooke confides that he is growing pessimistic about the prospects of heading off an invasion. The power of the Royal Navy, in his opinion, diminishes greatly in value as the Luftwaffe becomes more ascendant.
Brooke, of course, is right. The feasibility of a successful German landing with the forces available is probably at its height during this period. However, on the German side, Hitler’s preconditions for Operation Sea Lion as set forth in his Fuhrer Directive of 16 July are not being met. Those preconditions, such as sealing off the English Channel with mines, are extremely unrealistic in any event, but they underscore the fact that nobody in the Wehrmacht really wants to make the attempt. One problem is that the German invasion plan envisages a landing where the British are strongest, in the south, rather than in the north where perhaps Scapa Flow could be neutralized with a quick assault and a sustainable beachhead grabbed nearby.
At the heart of the matter, Hitler’s complete ignorance about naval operations and unbridled German pessimism about the Kriegsmarine’s abilities is the ultimate barrier to any attempt. It is easier to simply punt and wait for the completion of the battleships Tirpitz and the Bismarck and perhaps the aircraft carriers, with the shaky assumption that they will make a difference, rather than risk everything on a weak navy and a Luftwaffe which is showing distinct weaknesses operating over the Channel. Meanwhile, the British are scrambling successfully to upgrade their defenses with each passing day, though the RAF’s attrition remains a serious matter.
Hitler meets Rumanian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister and advises them to accept settlement with Hungary. Hitler concludes his talks with the Rumanians, who then leave for Rome to see Mussolini. A topic of conversation is two Rumanian tankers detained in Port Said by the British. Hitler also advises them to give Hungary the territory it wants.
Next on Hitler’s diplomatic list are the Bulgarian Premier and Foreign Minister, who arrive in Salzburg ready to make the drive up to Berchtesgaden.
Joachim von Ribbentrop was updated by German agents in Spain and Portugal regarding the attempt to dissuade the Duke of Windsor, the former King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, from leaving for the Bahamas. Under orders from Hitler, he dispatches SS officer Walter Schellenberg to the neutral city of Lisbon, Portugal to see if the pair, who have refused Ribbentrop’s attempts to have them return to German voluntarily, can be kidnapped. Schellenberg hopes to lure the couple back to Fascist Spain, where presumably Franco will play along and arrest them on some pretext. Schellenberg begins spreading rumors that the British secret service has orders to kill the couple due to their pro-German leanings.
The Duke and Duchess are staying near Estoril while they await passage to the Duke’s new posting as Governor-General of the Bahamas. They are in a villa owned by the banking brothers, Espirito Santos. They have been traveling in a small party of three cars, a trailer and a truck. It is unclear at this point if the Royal Navy will send a destroyer to take them, or they will fly the Clipper. Their presence in Portugal is well-known around the world and news of them appears in society pages everywhere.
Joseph Avenol, the Secretary-General of the League of Nations, resigned from his post. Avenol, the French Secretary-General of the League of Nations, resigns effective at the end of August. He is considered sympathetic to Vichy France. The League of Nations itself has dwindled to about 100 employees of all kinds as Avenol has sanctioned the firing of the British employees.
Charges of plotting against the security of the French State were filed today at Meknes, Morocco, against Georges Mandel, the former Minister of the Interior.
Soviet General Golikov becomes Deputy Chief of the General Staff (Stavka), while General Nikolai Vatutin becomes Head of the Operations Directorate.
At Malta, hotels now are advertising that passersby may shelter in them during air raids.
The Italian Stefani news agency asserts that Malta has been destroyed as a British military base, though it remains active as an airbase.
U-34, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Wilhelm Rollmann, sank the British steamer Accra (9337grt) in 55-40N, 16-28W. Accra carried 499 passengers and crew. The U-34 also sank the British motor merchant Vinemoor (4359grt) in 55-43N, 16-25W. At 1447 hours, U-34 fired a spread of three torpedoes at ships in convoy OB.188 about 320 miles west of Bloody Foreland and hit two ships with one torpedo each, the Accra and Vinemoor. The Accra (Master John Joseph Smith) sank after one hour and 15 minutes. Four crew members and one passenger were lost. Eight crew members and eleven passengers drowned when a motorboat capsized in choppy seas. The master, 153 crew members and 311 passengers were rescued: 215 survivors were picked up by Hollinside, 126 survivors by the Norwegian steam merchant Loke, 27 crew members and 52 passengers by HMS Enchantress (L 56) (Cdr A.K. Scott-Moncrieff, RN) and 45 survivors by HMS Clarkia (K 88) (LtCdr F.J.G. Jones, RNR). The warships landed the survivors at Liverpool. The 9,337-ton Accra was bound for Freetown with 1700 tons of general cargo.
The Vinemoor (Master David John Jones) settled slowly by the stern and sank the next day in 55°25N/16°05W. The master and 31 crew members were picked up by HMS Clarkia (K 88) (LtCdr F.J.G. Jones, RNR), transferred to Hollinside and landed at Liverpool. The 4,359-ton Vinemoor was carrying ballast, bound for Naura.
German E-boats are not troubled by the weather and attack a convoy off of Shoreham. They sink 821-ton British freighter Lulonga, 1,013-ton cargo ship Broadhurst, and 646-ton freighter London Trader.
Anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Naiad arrived at Scapa Flow after commissioning trials.
Destroyers HMS Zulu and HMS Maori departed Scapa Flow at 1300 to search for a German submarine reported by aircraft in 60-55N, 00-53E at 2105/25th and in 61-00N, 00-20E at 0840/26th. No contact was made.
Destroyers HMS Fortune and HMS Fury departed Scapa Flow at midnight to sweep toward North Minch then escort east bound convoy WN.3, escorted only by anti-submarine trawlers HMS St Elstan (564grt) and HMS King Sol (468grt). No submarines were encountered. The destroyers escorted the convoy was far as Rattray Head and joined outbound convoy OA.191 for the return passage to Cape Wrath.
Submarine HMS Cachalot arrived at Rothesay.
Submarine HMS H.31 arrived at Blyth.
Dutch submarine HNLMS O.23 escorted by Dutch torpedo boat Z.5 departed Rothesay for Dundee. They arrived at Stornoway on the 27th, departed on the 28th, but were then diverted to Rosyth because mining had closed Dundee. O.23 and Z.5 arrived at Rosyth on the 29th.
Nine Skuas of 801 Squadron from Hatston attacked German installations near Haugesand. One Skua was lost with S/Lt J. E. H. Myers and Naval Airman S. A. Bass who were killed when their aircraft collided with another Skua. The second Skua was able to return to Sumburgh but was not repairable.
Steamer Haytor (1189grt) was sunk on a mine in 51-47N, 01-48W. One crewman was lost.
Norwegian steamer Balzac (963grt) was sunk on a mine one mile 124° from Roker Pier Light, Sunderland. Six crew were lost.
German minesweepers M.61, M.89, and M.136 were sunk on mines laid off Hook of Holland by the 20th Minelaying Destroyer Flotilla on 15 May.
German steamer Montan (1275grt) was sunk on an aerial mine off the Ems river mouth.
Light cruiser HMS Danae arrived at Penang.
Italian submarine Gugliemotti and destroyers Battisti and Nullo sortied from Massawa to search for a British steamer reported en route through the Red Sea from Suez.
Light cruiser HMS Orion departed Haifa and joined destroyers HMAS Vampire and HMS Vendetta, which had refuelled at Alexandria on the 26th, with armed boarding ships HMS Chakla and HMS Fiona. The ships proceeded to Castellerizo with the armed boarding ships and simulated a landing for diversion purposes, arriving back at Alexandria on 30 August.
Troopship Athlone Castle with civilian evacuees departed Gibraltar, escorted by destroyer HMS Velox. After being detached at 1200/27th, the destroyer proceeded to a position off Casablanca to embark a party during the night of 27/28 July. No contact was made and she returned to Gibraltar. Velox sailed again on the 29th, in an attempt to embark the party, but again returned to Gibraltar on the 30th without making contact.
Convoy OG.39 with 21 ships departed Liverpool escorted by corvette HMS Geranium from 26 to 29 July and sloop HMS Folkestone from 26 July to 6 August, and arrived at Gibraltar on 6 August.
Convoy OA.190 departed Methil escorted by sloop HMS Fowey and corvette HMS Hibiscus from 26 to 30 July and sloop HMS Hastings. Sloop Fowey and corvette Hibiscus were detached to inbound convoy HX.59.
Convoy FN.233 departed Southend, and arrived in the Tyne on the 28th.
Convoy MT.121 departed Methil, and arrived in the Tyne later that day.
Convoy FS.233 departed the Tyne, escorted by sloops HMS Black Swan and HMS Hastings, and arrived at Southend on the 28th.
The War at Sea, Friday, 26 July 1940 (naval-history.net)
Anti-aircraft cruiser NAIAD arrived at Scapa Flow after commissioning trials.
Destroyers ZULU and MAORI departed Scapa Flow at 1300 to search for a German submarine reported by aircraft in 60-55N, 00-53E at 2105/25th and in 61‑00N, 00‑20E at 0840/26th. No contact was made.
Destroyers FORTUNE and FURY departed Scapa Flow at midnight to sweep toward North Minch then escort east bound convoy WN.3, escorted only by anti-submarine trawlers ST ELSTAN (564grt) and KING SOL (468grt). No submarines were encountered.
The destroyers escorted the convoy was far as Rattray Head and joined outbound convoy OA.191 for the return passage to Cape Wrath.
Submarine CACHALOT arrived at Rothesay.
Submarine H.31 arrived at Blyth.
Dutch submarine HrMs (HNMS) O.23 escorted by Dutch torpedo boat HrMs (HNMS) Z.5 departed Rothesay for Dundee. They arrived at Stornoway on the 27th, departed on the 28th, but were then diverted to Rosyth because mining had closed Dundee. O.23 and Z.5 arrived at Rosyth on the 29th.
Nine Skuas of 801 Squadron from Hatston attacked German installations near Haugesand. One Skua was lost with S/Lt J. E. H. Myers and Naval Airman S. A. Bass who were killed when their aircraft collided with another Skua. The second Skua was able to return to Sumburgh but was not repairable.
Convoy OG.39 with 21 ships departed Liverpool escorted by corvette GERANIUM from 26 to 29 July and sloop FOLKESTONE from 26 July to 6 August, and arrived at Gibraltar on 6 August.
Convoy OA.190 departed Methil escorted by sloop FOWEY and corvette HIBISCUS from 26 to 30 July and sloop HASTINGS. Sloop FOWEY and corvette HIBISCUS were detached to inbound convoy HX.59.
Convoy FN.233 departed Southend, and arrived in the Tyne on the 28th.
Convoy MT.121 departed Methil, and arrived in the Tyne later that day.
Convoy FS.233 departed the Tyne, escorted by sloops BLACK SWAN and HASTINGS, and arrived at Southend on the 28th.
U-34 sank steamers ACCRA (9337grt) in 55‑40N, 16‑28W and VINEMOOR (4359grt) in 55‑43N, 16‑25W.
ACCRA carried 499 passengers and crew. Four passengers and four crew were killed, and eight passengers and eight crewmen missing in the sinking. The entire crew from VINEMOOR and the survivors from ACCRA were picked up by Sloop ENCHANTRESS (79 survivors), corvette CLARKIA (45 survivors), British steamer HOLLINSIDE (4172grt) (215 survivors), and Norwegian steamer LOKE (2421grt) (126 survivors).
Steamer HAYTOR (1189grt) was sunk on a mine in 51‑47N, 01‑48W. One crewman was lost.
Norwegian steamer BALZAC (963grt) was sunk on a mine one mile 124° from Roker Pier Light, Sunderland. Six crew were lost.
German minesweepers M.61, M.89, and M.136 were sunk on mines laid off Hook of Holland by the 20th Minelaying Destroyer Flotilla on 15 May.
German steamer MONTAN (1275grt) was sunk on an aerial mine off the Ems River mouth.
Light cruiser DANAE arrived at Penang.
Italian submarine GUGLIEMOTTI and destroyers BATTISTI and NULLO sortied from Massawa to search for a British steamer reported en route through the Red Sea from Suez.
Light cruiser ORION departed Haifa and joined destroyers HMAS VAMPIRE and HMAS VENDETTA, which had refueled at Alexandria on the 26th, with armed boarding ships CHAKLA and FIONA. The ships proceeded to Castellerizo with the armed boarding ships and simulated a landing for diversion purposes, arriving back at Alexandria on 30 August.
Troopship ATHLONE CASTLE with civilian evacuees departed Gibraltar, escorted by destroyer VELOX. After being detached at 1200/27th, the destroyer proceeded to a position off Casablanca to embark a party during the night of 27/28 July. No contact was made and she returned to Gibraltar. VELOX sailed again on the 29th, in an attempt to embark the party, but again returned to Gibraltar on the 30th without making contact.
In Washington today, President Roosevelt proclaimed his latest embargo of war materials but, through regulations, restricted the export licensing system to aviation gasoline and lubricating oil, tetraethyl lead and one grade of iron and steel scrap. The President stated that he would inspect on Monday the defense Installations around Norfolk, Virginia.
The Senate was in recess and the Military Affairs Committee agreed on the final terms of the military conscription bill and approved the nomination of Robert Patterson of New York as Assistant Secretary of War.
The House was in recess. Its Military Affairs Committee heard Mayor La Guardia of New York, Owen D. Young and Norman Thomas testify on the Burke-Wadsworth Compulsory Selective Service Bill. The Appropriations Committee heard members of the Advisory Defense Commission on the $4,800,000,000 Deficiency Defense Appropriation Bill.. The Foreign Affairs Committee approved a bill authorizing evacuation of British refugee children in United States ships.
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt invoked the Export Control Act that prohibited the export of airplanes, parts, machine tools, and aviation gasoline, unless under license, to countries outside the Americas generally and to Britain. This move is seen as an anti-Japanese measure because it halted the flow of these important commodities to Japan. President Roosevelt defined in a proclamation and regulations late today his latest virtual embargo of exports of certain essential war materials to include petroleum products, tetraethyl lead and iron and steel scrap.
Legislation authorizing use of American ships to bring children here from Europe’s war zone, if the belligerents will promise safe passage, was approved unanimously today by the house foreign affairs committee. It acted after President Roosevelt said at a press conference the United States had a deep desire to do all possible to remove children from England, but it would be a big responsibility to send ships for them without assurances there would be no torpedoings. Tho committee-approved bill, in addition to requiring a pledge from the warring nations that the ships would not be molested, directs each ship have an American flag painted on each side “and a statement that such vessel is a refugee-child rescue ship of the United States or under United States registry, so that night or day there can be no mistake as to the identity of such vessel.”
The U.S. Congress approached a history-making battle over compulsory military training today as the senate military affairs committee agreed upon final details of a measure granting the president broad powers to conscript an army. One of the committee’s final acts was to insert penalties of five years in prison and $10,000 fine for “draft dodgers.” Mayor Fiorello La Guardia of New York City and Owen D. Young, industrialist, told the house military committee they favored compulsory training while Norman Thomas, presidential candidate of the Socialist party, protested the peacetime conscription proposal as “getting Hitlerism without Hitler.”
Preparations to put five “dormant” shipyards to work and to speed production of warplanes and munitions of all kinds were disclosed today by William S. Knudsen in a guardedly optimistic report on the pace of the industrial phase of the defense drive, but he struck a sobering note when he cautioned that it takes time to gear industry for the mass production of war materials which the nation expectantly awaits. Mr. Knudsen emphasized, in his “progress report” on his eight weeks of action, that “with the continued cooperation of industry and the interested government agencies, we can be confident of a production machine capable of attaining the definite goal specifically stated. in the request now before Congress for funds to completely equip a modern army of 2,000,000 men.”
Almost simultaneously an important step in rounding out the aircraft engine phase of the industrial expansion program was disclosed with an announcement by Jesse H. Jones, Federal Loan Administrator, of a loan of $92,000,000 to the Wright Aeronautical Corporation for construction of a huge new plant in Hamilton County, Ohio, to add 12,000 motors per year to the aircraft engine industry’s capacity for producing radial air-cooled engines. Mr. Jones disclosed that the War Department had revised its program so that a previously planned loan of $55,500,000 to the Wright company had been increased to the new figure.
Mr. Knudsen, meeting the press In the club-like library of the Federal Reserve Board governors, made public the first official figures on the current rate of military aircraft production, stating that the August schedule called for delivery of 895 complete combat and large transport commercial planes (usable for troop transport in emergency) during August. Of these, 396 will be delivered to the Army and Navy, 236 to the British Government, and eighty-four to other foreign governments, with 174 large commercial transports going for domestic use, and five planes unclassified.
New York exporters said the Nazis were buying supplies in the United States to fulfill contracts they had made in Latin America for October deliveries. This was interpreted as an indication that the expected quick victory over the British now did not seem so immediate. The American exporters expressed resentment at the German effort to maintain prestige in Latin America by servicing the contracts with American goods.
After it had refused approval of the chartering of American tankers to carry oil to Spain and Japan, the Maritime Commission granted permission for the charter of a tanker to carry a load of oil across the Pacific to Soviet Russia.
Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace, director of a program which touches the economic lives of more than 30,000,000 farmers, will leave the cabinet permanently or on leave soon after he officially accepts the Democratic vice-presidential nomination on Aug. 20.
Wendell L. Willkie announced today at his press conference that he was planning to conduct an active campaign in the South. Since the third-term nomination of President Roosevelt the Republican nominee has received hundreds of telegrams from anti-New Deal Southern Democrats, pledging support to Mr. Willkie’s candidacy and predicting that he had a good chance of breaking the Solid South. While Mr. Willkie and his supporters were said to be planning to campaign throughout the South, it was stated that they would give particular attention to Texas, North Carolina and Tennessee.
The historical romantic drama film “Pride and Prejudice,” starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier, is released. While the film is very well received by critics, it produces a loss of $241,000 for MGM. There is criticism that Garson is too old for the part and that the entire thing has been “Hollywoodized” by changing the time period of the original Jane Austen novel and overly compressing the narrative.
Major League Baseball:
The Dodgers’ Lippy Leo Durocher and Cardinals’ Billy Southworth master-minded themselves all over Ebbets Field yesterday, but after 2 hours and 40 minutes accomplished nothing aside from creating a 3–3 tie.
After giving up only two hits in six innings, Kirby Higbe blew up in the seventh tonight and the first-place Reds bunched four hits for four runs to beat the Phillies, 9–5. A three-run homer by Frank McCormick puts the game out of reach. Paul Derringer got the win for Cincy.
The Cubs crushed the Giants, 14–1. The Cubs caught up with the Giants long before the rain did at the Polo Grounds yesterday. A three-run cluster in the second inning while the sun poured its stifling heat gave the Chicagoans all the runs they needed. But the Cubs added eight more in the seventh inning and another three in the ninth, after a rain delay.
The Pirates blanked the Bees, 9–0, today behind the five-hit pitching of Ken Heintzelman, their young southpaw. The Pirates scored twice in the first inning and Heintzelman needed little more.
New York Yankees’ pitcher Spud Chandler beats the White Sox with his bat, knocking in 6 runs with a single and 2 home runs, one a grand slam off Pete Appleton. The 6 RBI by a pitcher ties the Major League record held by Appleton, George Uhle, and Wes Ferrell. Joe Gordon also hits a homer, his 7th in 8 games. Tonight’s game was the last night game for New York this year: their record after dark is 3–2.
Bob Feller wins his 16th in pitching the Indians to a 13–2 win over the Senators. Feller fans four and, for the first time in his career, does not walk a batter. He also collects a pair of doubles. Ken Keltner drives in 5 runs on a pair of triples, and Lou Boudreau has 2 singles, a double and triple. The Indians now trail the league-leading Tigers by a half-game.
The league-leading Tigers bowed today to their “jinx” opponents, the Athletics, by a 7–4 count, as George Caster held them to eight hits, all singles. The loss cut the Tigers’ margin over Cleveland to a half-game. The Athletics shelled Tommy Bridges from the mound in the fifth, and the last two runs were scored off Paul Trout, his successor. Caster, after yielding a run in the second, kept the Tigers scoreless until the eighth when he lost his control and Detroit pushed across three runs.
Scoring six runs on six hits in a big fifth-inning outburst, the Red Sox outlasted the St. Louis Browns, 14–7, in a heavy-hitting contest tonight brightened only by five home runs. The Browns went ahead with two runs in the fourth inning on a single by Don Heffner, an error by Bobby Doerr, a wild pitch by Denny Galehouse and George McQuinn’s triple to deep left-center field. The Red Sox bounced back in the following inning, then added another run in the seventh and three more on two homers in the ninth. Ted Williams hit two homers and Joe Cronin and Jim Tabor one each for the Red Sox, while Johnny Berardino hit one for the Browns.
St. Louis Cardinals 3, Brooklyn Dodgers 3
Pittsburgh Pirates 9, Boston Bees 0
New York Yankees 10, Chicago White Sox 2
Washington Senators 2, Cleveland Indians 13
Philadelphia Athletics 7, Detroit Tigers 4
Chicago Cubs 14, New York Giants 1
Cincinnati Reds 9, Philadelphia Phillies 5
Boston Red Sox 14, St. Louis Browns 7
A compromise between the positions of the United States and Argentina on the proposed collective trusteeship plan for Western Hemisphere possessions of European nations appeared in prospect at Havana last night. Previously it had been feared a deadlock in the committee would seriously interfere with other conference business.
The U.S. Navy light cruiser USS Phoenix (CL-46) departed Callao, Peru, concluding her goodwill cruise to Chilean and Peruvian waters.
There is increasing evidence that the Japanese campaign in South China has been halted by unexpected Chinese opposition. The campaign in Southwest Kwangsi in June met stiff opposition, but French Indo-China’s capitulation to the Japanese demands to cease the traffic to China lessened the necessity for thrusting further along the Indo-China border and must have been a relief to the Japanese command. Recently the fighting resumed and the Chinese report that all Japanese attempts to push northward from Lungchow, near the Indo-China border, were heavily repulsed.
Meanwhile the appearance of regular Chinese troops near the Hong Kong border has resulted in continuous brushes with the Japanese, whose efforts to cut off supplies of food along this border have largely failed. In the past two days small bodies of Chinese troops could be seen from the British side. Most of the Japanese in this vicinity have withdrawn to the interior because their land communications were threatened.
In the vicinity of Portuguese Macao and on the outskirts of Canton the Japanese are having trouble trying to keep the China puppet government troops in hand, some of them behaving like bandits and others are suspected of plans to mutiny if the occasion offers. Reports from Fukien also indicate the Japanese naval and military operations in the new blockade are not meeting with much success because of the stubborn opposition of shore batteries.
Conclusion of a new trade treaty with Russia, Nationalist China’s only source of foreign war supplies since the closing of the trade route through British Burma, was announced today. The Japanese have been so successful at cutting off supply routes over the Himalayas and through French Indochina that the Chinese Nationalists resort to trading with the Soviet Union. This requires using pack mules and camels to cross the roadless deserts.
Prime Minister Konoe announces a new, more aggressive policy. He plans to step up efforts to isolate China from the supply of goods from the Allies. Konoe also focuses on the Dutch East Indies to replace the oil and metal supplies denied to Japan by President Roosevelt’s ban on such exports to Japan of the 25th. Surprise and irritation were officially expressed by the Japanese at the United States action in placing an embargo control system on war supplies. Observers saw it as accelerating consummation of Japanese plans for hegemony over all East Asia, Out of sheer military necessity, they said, Japan may commandeer the entire tin and rubber output of the Netherlands Indies.
The government forms the Royal Australian Air Force Nursing Service (RAAFNS).
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 122.05 (+0.12)
Born:
Mary Jo Kopechne, political campaign specialist and aide to Ted Kennedy, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania (d. 1969, asphyxiated when a car driven by U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy left a narrow road on Chappaquiddick Island and overturned into Poucha Pond after they had left a party. According to reports, Kennedy left the party at 11:15 PM. Kopechne’s body and the car were not reported until the next morning, approximately nine to ten hours later.).
Bobby Rousseau, Canadian NHL right wing and centre (NHL All-Star, 1965, 1967, 1969; Montreal Canadiens, Minnesota North Stars, New York Rangers), in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Naval Construction:
The Royal Navy “U”-class (Third Group) submarine HMS P-36 is laid down by Vickers Armstrong (Barrow-in-Furness, U.K.).
History Diaries 