Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring finally gets serious about the aerial assault on England on 6 August 1940 and calls a conference at his grandiose hunting lodge Carinhall north of Berlin. The subject is Hitler’s Fuhrer Directive No. 17. While it has been about three weeks since that directive was issued, the weather in between was poor, so large operations were difficult if not impossible. Now, however, the weather has cleared and there appears to be a long period of fine flying weather approaching. So, time to get down to business and see if the RAF can be broken. The main attendees are:
- Inspector General, Generalfeldmarschall Erhard Milch;
- The commander of Luftflotte 5, Generaloberst Hans-Jürgen Stumpff;
- Luftflotte 2’s Generalfeldmarschall Albert Kesselring; and
- Generalfeldmarschall Hugo Sperrle of Luftflotte 3.
The issue is the overall strategy, about which there is no consensus. The basic positions of the main protagonists are:
- Göring wishes to destroys RAF airfields, factories, other infrastructure and beat the RAF into submission through direct attacks;
- Kesselring, perhaps based on his experiences at Warsaw and Rotterdam, pushes for a massive terror raid on London;
- Sperrle advocates attacks on ports to intensify the blockade.
As with virtually all German staff meetings, it doesn’t really matter what any subordinates want, though their suggestions often plant the seeds for future orders by the decisionmakers.
Göring orders (it is not a democracy) that the attacks on the RAF and its infrastructure are to commence on a date to be chosen, designated Adler Tag (“Day of Eagles”). The entire operation, which Göring projects to take four weeks in order for Operation Sealion to take place around 15 September, is given the codename Adlerangriff (“Operation Eagle Attack”). Unlike the others, Göring is privy to plans to attack the Soviet Union in 1941, so he has every reason to try to settle things with England now in an all-out do-or-die series of aerial battles.
Current Luftwaffe forces include about 484 bombers of KG 27, KG 51, 54, KG 55, LG 1, KGr 100, KGr 606, and KGr 806. The Luftwaffe’s fighter force outnumbers the RAF by roughly 2-1.
Overall, it is not a bad plan or at least as bad as histories tend to recite. However, it is a campaign of attrition, and as such must be pursued to the end, otherwise it is all for naught. It would be ineffective to switch from, say, Göring’s attrition campaign to Kesselring’s terror campaign before the RAF is completely neutralized. No one gives Adolf that memo.
The American ambassador to Belgium John Cudahy said that the food situation in Belgium and northern France was desperate and suggested that the Nazis seemed to be expecting outside aid to solve the food shortage for them. This comment would be controversial for touching on the issue of the British blockade.
German occupiers in Belgium impose censorship rules on film making and exhibition.
Invasion fears in Great Britain remain high, stoked by German propagandist Lord Haw-Haw with his nightly broadcasts.
The Nazis in Kraków have reportedly ordered all Jews to leave the city within fourteen days.
Negotiations designed to reach a new concordat between Germany and the Holy See and to restore friendly relations are “progressing satisfactorily,” authoritative Vatican quarters reported tonight.
Estonia was formally incorporated into the Soviet Union as the Estonian SSR. Estonia had been under Soviet occupation and governed by a puppet government since June 17, 1940.
The Red terror in the Sovietized Baltic States, which had already led to the mass arrests of hundreds of persons, including the most prominent members of the old regime, assumed a more ominous note today when the Estonian Government created “people’s” tribunals to try and punish “traitors to the people.” In as much as events in all three former Baltic States are moving along parallel lines, similar courts are expected to arise in Latvia and Lithuania. The Estonian decree creating these tribunals provides the death penalty for traitors and up to ten years’ imprisonment for members of their families and confiscation of their property. According to Bolshevist practice. “traitors to the people” include not only active opponents of the new regime but also “saboteurs and wreckers” — that is, persons who fall short in their political and economic duties, as seen by the new regime.
Cairo announces that the new Long Range Patrol Unit (LRP), formed on 3 July 1940 by Major Ralph Bagnold, has been successfully infiltrating Italian Libya. The LRP is composed largely of New Zealand farmers taken from volunteers in the 2nd New Zealand Division. These are the first patrols of the so-called “Desert Rats.”
Italian troops under Brigadier General Bertello captured Odweina, British Somaliland. The western of the three Italian columns (Lt. General Bertoldi) is in the port of Zeila, screening French Somaliland and preventing any attacks from that quarter. The central column (Lt. General Carlo De Simone) consolidates at the port of Hargeisa. The easternmost column (Brigadier Bertello) takes Odweina. The light British forces under General Reginald Chater are in full retreat and trying to set up a defensive perimeter in the east at Tug Argan.
The 2nd Black Watch Battalion (73rd Regiment) begins the journey from Palestine to join the forces in British Somaliland.
Philippe François Marie Leclerc de Hauteclocque aka “Captain Leclerc” departs from London for Lisbon on the first stage of a journey to French colonies in Africa to promote the Free French cause.
The Battle of Britain: Luftwaffe action by day was slight. Activity during the night was only slight with minelaying operations appearing to be the main objective.
Weather: Marked by strong winds, and fairly heavy low cloud.
At 0630 hours, Hurricane fighters of No. 85 Squadron RAF shot down a German Do 17 aircraft on a reconnaissance mission over a convoy east of Lowestoft, Suffolk, England, United Kingdom. A lone bomber attacks RAF Llandow in South Wales. Shipping attacks few until around 16:30, at which time a large Luftwaffe force bombs a convoy off Clacton without making any hits. The RAF does not make any interceptions of note, perhaps because of the iffy flying conditions, and the only victory of the day on either side is when RAF No. 85 Squadron downs a Dornier Do 17 if III,/KG3 off East Anglia which is stalking a convoy.
The relentless wear and tear on the RAF continue to extort a price, however. A New Zealand pilot of RAF No. 234 Squadron crashes while attempting to land after a night patrol, and a Spitfire of RAF No. 72 Squadron does the same at RAF Acklington. In addition, a Blenheim crashes at Catterick when it hits some barrage balloon cables. Three Spitfires of RAF No. 616 Squadron sustain damage after an unsuccessful interception of a fast Junkers Ju 88 bomber off of Flamborough Head. The Luftwaffe also sustains damage to a Bf 109 of JG 3 upon landing.
RAF Statistics for the day: 119 patrols were flown involving 447 aircraft. Luftwaffe casualties: Fighters – none; Bombers – 1 Do 17 confirmed. RAF casualties: none.
RAF Casualties:
1015 hours. Debden. Hurricane N2456. 17 Squadron Debden. (Aircraft destroyed)
P/O H.W.A. Britton. Killed. (Crashed after taking off from Debden and burnt out)
Southern Rhodesian pilots (SRAF) arrive today to help the RAF defense.
In preparation for Adler Tag, the Luftwaffe accelerates the process of moving fighter formations to forward airfields. Two Gruppen of JG 52 leave Nordholz, Germany and set up operations at Peupelinge on the Pas de Calais. I/JG 54 moves from Eindhoven, Belgium to Guines-En-Calaisis, while II/JG 54 moves from Harlinghem to Campagne-les-Guines and III/JG 54 joins them from Soesterberg, Holland. Anyone seeing these moves would realize that something big is in the offing.
RAF Bomber Command dispatches 40 Blenheims to Le Bourget airfield near Paris during the day but only 1 bombed. 6 Blenheims on sea sweep. No losses.
RAF Bomber Command dispatches 26 Wellingtons overnight to Homberg and Reisholz and to airfields in Holland. 12 Hampdens minelaying, 1 lost.
Focke Wulf FW 200 “Condor” long-range bombers begin operating out of France, attacking British convoys in the Atlantic.
There is another Italian raid on Haifa, Palestine which causes little damage, and also one at Sollum.
Operation TUBE, a submarine supply mission to Malta, concludes successfully when HMS Pandora arrives from Gibraltar with equipment for the Hurricanes which arrived via Operation HURRY.
At Malta, the RAF organizes its new Hurricanes into RAF No. 261 Squadron. This formation includes the remaining Gloster Gladiators. The day is very quiet, with only reconnaissance missions by both sides.
Destroyers HMS Express, HMS Esk, HMS Icarus, HMS Impulsive, and HMS Intrepid of the 20th Destroyer Flotilla departed Immingham on the 5th and met their motor torpedo boat escort. Early on the 6th, the destroyers laid minefield CBX.4 off the Dutch coast in the Schoonveld and West Pit Passages off Thornton Ridge.
Destroyers HMS Achates and HMS Firedrake patrolling off Cape Wrath joined convoy HX.60 A to give anti-submarine protection in Pentland Firth at 2200. The destroyers arrived at Scapa Flow at 1000/7th after escorting the convoy to Pentland Firth.
Destroyer HMS Inglefield (D.3), on passage from Loch Alsh to Scapa Flow, destroyer HMS Anthony, escorting aircraft carrier HMS Furious on practices, proceeded to intercept two Dutch motor coasting vessels proceeding westward through the Pentland Firth. The Dutch ships were intercepted. They were turned over to anti-submarine trawler HMS Regal (409grt) which brought them to port for examination.
Destroyers HMS Cossack and HMS Sikh departed Scapa Flow to carry out anti-submarine patrols from 1700 in Fair Island Channel. No contact was made. The destroyers met convoy WN.5 on the 7th in the Minches near Trodday Island and escorted it to Pentland Firth. The destroyers were relieved at 0400 in convoy WN.5 off Cape Wrath by destroyer HMS Berkeley, which departed Scapa Flow at 2015 on the 8th. Destroyer Berkeley continued south with the convoy to join the Nore Command. Destroyers Cossack and Sikh joined convoy OA.195 at 1515 on the 8th and escorted it to Cape Wrath. Destroyers Cossack and Sikh Arrived at Scapa Flow at 0240.
Destroyer HMS Amazon departed Scapa Flow to investigate a suspicious merchant ship report two miles 080° from Wick.
Destroyer HMS Keppel (D.12), HMS Anthony, HMS Amazon departed Scapa Flow at 2200 and with destroyer HMS Achates of convoy HX.60A proceeded to the Clyde to join the Western Approaches Command.
Submarine HMS Sealion was rammed at periscope depth by German auxiliary anti-submarine vessel UJ.123 while attacking a convoy southwest of Stavanger in 57-51N, 7-24E. The submarine’s periscopes, masts, aerials were wrecked.
German steamer Clare Hugo Stinnes (5295grt) was missed by torpedoes and not damaged.
Submarine HMS Sealion arrived at Rosyth on the 10th. She was repaired in the Tyne from 15 August to 23 October.
Italian light cruisers Barbiano and Guissano with destroyers Pigafetta and Zeno laid mines near Pantelleria escorted by torpedo boats Cassiopea, Cigno, Pleiai, Aldebaran.
In Operation TUBE, submarine HMS Pandora, which departed Gibraltar on 31 July, arrived at Malta with supplies of spares and ground equipment for the Hurricanes aircraft carrier HMS Argus delivered in HURRY.
German steamer Fulda (7744grt) at Dairen was sold to Japan as Takai Maru.
The Clyde section of Convoy WS.2 of British steamers Empress Of Canada (21,517grt), Es (25,689grt), Franconia (20,175grt), Suffolk (11,063grt), Memnon (7506grt), and Lanarkshire (9816grt) departed at 0630 escorted by heavy cruiser HMS Shropshire, light cruiser HMS Emerald, and destroyers HMS Fortune, HMS Fury, HMS Watchman, and HMS Vortigern.
The Liverpool section of Convoy WS.2 of British steamers Clan Macauley (10492grt), Waiwera (10792grt), Aska (8323grt), Ormonde (14982grt), Monarch Of Bermuda (22424grt), Orion (23,371grt), Otranto (20032grt), Stratheden (23772grt), Batory (14287grt), Empress Of Britain (42348grt), and Straithard (22284grt) departed escorted by heavy cruiser HMS Cornwall and destroyers HMS Highlander, HMS Havelock, HMS Hurricane, and HMS Harvester. Steamer Orion was forced to put into the Clyde the same day with engine defects.
Both sections rendezvoused on the 6th and traveled together at sea.
Various ships were detached en route and the troopships arrived safely at Capetown. on the 31st, the “slow group” WS.2 B of liners Orion, Stratheden, Ormonde, and Batory departed Capetown for Bombay. On 12 September, the “fast group” WS.2 A of liners Empress Of Britain, Empress Of Canada, and Andes departed Capetown.
Heavy cruiser HMS Shropshire arrived at Simonstown on the 28th and joined the East Indies Command. Heavy cruiser HMS Cornwall arrived at Simonstown on the 30th.
In the Indian Ocean, WS.2 A was escorted by cruisers HMAS Hobart and HMS Carlisle and destroyers HMS Kandahar and HMS Kingston and WS.2 B was escorted by heavy cruiser HMS Cornwall and armed merchant cruiser HMS Kanimbla.
Convoy OB.194 departed Liverpool escorted by destroyers HMS Warwick and HMS Harvester and corvette HMS Clarkia from 6 to 9 August. Destroyer Warwick and the corvette were detached to convoy SL.41.
Convoy FN.244 departed Southend, escorted by destroyer HMS Vivien, sloop HMS Lowestoft, patrol sloop HMS Guillemot. The convoy arrived in the Tyne on the 8th.
Convoy MT.132 departed Methil. The convoy arrived in the Tyne later that day.
Convoy FS.244 departed the Tyne, escorted by destroyer HMS Winchester and sloop HMS Weston. The convoy arrived at Southend on the 8th.
Convoy BN2A departed Aden, escorted by light cruiser HMS Ceres and sloop HMAS Parramatta. The convoy arrived at Suez on the 12th.
In Washington today, the Senate continued its debate on the Administration bill to call the National Guard for a year’s training; heard Senators Van Nuys and Davis defend Wendell L. Willkie against an attack by Senator Guffey; heard Senator Hatch suggest that the Republican party center all its campaign collections and expenditures, for national, State and local contests, in its national committee’s treasury, and recessed at 5:09 PM until noon tomorrow.
The Senate Labor Committee voted to hold executive hearings on proposed amendments to the Labor Relations Act, and its Interstate Commerce Committee continued hearings on the nomination of Thad Brown as a member of the Federal Communications Commission.
The House passed and sent to the Senate a bill to permit wiretapping by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in cases involving the national defense, with the express authorization of the Attorney General, and adjourned at 2:57 PM until noon tomorrow. Its Banking Committee heard Jesse Jones, Federal Loan Administrator, testify in favor of the proposal to increase the capital of the Export-Import Bank by $500,000,000 to provide emergency financing for inter-American surpluses; its Military Affairs Committee voted to hear no further witnesses on the BurkeWadsworth selective service bill, and a Ways and Means Sub-committee reported an excess profits tax bill designed to amortize the emergency defense expenditures.
President Roosevelt disclosed today that World War I veterans might take over home defense duties now assigned to the National Guard, if and when the guard is brought into federal service. In the broader field of hemispheric cooperation, the chief executive told a press conference that a meeting of minds on defense against non-American nations was one of three extraordinary successful achievements of the Pan-American conference at Havana. He said in response to an inquiry that unity of the Americas is without question more of a fact, now than ever before.
The transfer of obsolete destroyers to Great Britain, as advocated by General Pershing, is illegal, under the same law of 1917 that prohibited the sale to the Allies last June of naval motor torpedo boats, according to an editorial in The Law Journal, out today.
Congressional tempers cracked today under the strain of the great conscription controversy, while that bill, and legislation empowering the president to muster the national guard into active service, remained at a standstill. The senate heard a personal exchange between Senator Holt, West Virginia Democrat, and Senator Minton, Indiana Democrat, in which such epithets as “liar,” and “rat,” were commonplace. Senator Claude Pepper calls isolationist Charles Lindbergh a “Fifth Columnist.”
Senator Byrnes, South Carolina Democrat, told the senate today that “corporation friends” of Wendell L. Willkie were coercing their employees to contribute to the Republican campaign fund, and demanded an investigation. At the same time, Senator Hatch, New Mexico Democrat, drafted amendments to the Hatch law to forestall “evasions” of its curbs on political contributions and expenditures which he charged the Republicans were contemplating. Hatch had told the senate that a proposal by Henry P. Fletcher, general counsel for the Republican party, for state and local Republican committees to operate their budgets independently of the national organization “points the way definitely and certainly as to how a law passed by the congress of the United States may be evaded and avoided.”
The House Ways and Means taxation subcommittee recommended unanimously today an excess profits tax bill designed to raise $300,000,000 for this taxable year and an estimated $500,000,000 thereafter, at a rate on excess profits ranging from 25 to 40 percent. The subcommittee, acting quickly under pressure from the National Defense Advisory Commission and the Treasury Department, made its report to the full committee, which is expected to begin hearings Friday morning with the Senate Finance Committee sitting jointly, in order to expedite the measure. In making its recommendation to the full committee, the group also embraced provisions for a five-year amortization program for industrial plant expansion for national defense purposes and suspension of the profit limitations on naval and aircraft contracts under the Vinson-Trammell Act. The Treasury Department, at the same time, announced that under a ruling of the Internal Revenue Bureau affecting the Vinson-Trammell Act, contractors would be enabled to include as a cost the interest paid on money borrowed for the acquisition of special facilities in connection with contracts under the national defense program.
The American people were called upon by Secretary Hull in a statement issued through the State Department today to “be ready and willing for real sacrifice of time and of substance, and for hard personal service” in a world confronted by forces of conquest and of destruction. The one way for this nation to avoid serious trouble or actual war, Mr. Hull declared, was to be in a position to command respect. Thus the American people must “arm to such an extent that the forces of conquest and ruin will not dare make an attack on us or any part of this hemisphere.” “In the face of terrific problems, and conditions, and until the present serious threats and dangers have disappeared,” Mr. Hull warned, “we cannot pursue complacently the course of our customary normal life.”
A wholesale overhauling of the Hatch Act to outlaw specifically the financial procedure recommended to the Republican National Committee by Henry P. Fletcher, its general counsel, was urged on Congress today by Attorney General Jackson.
Wendell L. Willkie announced today that he would confer with Herbert Hoover and Alfred M. Landon before he headed East to deliver his acceptance speech at Elwood, Indiana, on August 17. The Republican nominee, who returned to his vacation hotel in Colorado Springs this afternoon from Des Moines, where yesterday he attended an all-day conference with agricultural leaders of eleven Midwestern States, said that definite dates had not been set yet for his conferences with the two Republican leaders. Mr. Landon, the party’s Presidential nominee in 1936, was originally expected to come here Friday to have lunch with Mr. Willkie and talk over national problems, but he sent Mr. Willkie a telegram stating that he would be unable to keep the appointment this week and would come here early next week.
Four chiefs of delegations to the recent Pan-American conference at Havana were entertained at luncheon today by President and Mrs. Roosevelt.
The annual trade agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union governing Russian purchases in this country was renewed for the fourth consecutive year through an exchange of notes in Moscow yesterday which was communicated to the State Department today.
The U.S. Army transport American Legion reached Petsamo, Finland, to embark American nationals returning to the United States from European countries (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands) in which they had been residing.
John L. Leech, former Los Angeles county organizer for the Communist party, was reported to have told a grand jury today that the party organized the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League as a rich source of funds from motion picture players.
Major League Baseball:
The Yankees lost their fourth straight game, bowing to the Red Sox, 8–3. Joe DiMaggio’s homer helped the Yankees to an early 8–3 lead but the Sox savaged Spud Chadler and Atlee Donald for 14 hits, including two doubles by Ted Williams.
Calling upon Bobby Feller to squelch a ninth-inning rally, the Cleveland Indians defeated the Chicago White Sox, 3–2, in the second game of a doubleheader after succumbing in the opener, 5–1, to Southpaw Thornton Lee’s two-hit pitching. It was Lee’s second consecutive two-hit game.
Washington Senators’ rookie Sidney Hudson from the Class D Florida State League barely missed a no-hit game today as he shut out the Philadelphia Athletics, 11–0. He yielded a single safety to Sam Chapman in the seventh inning.
The Tigers regained the American League lead with a 6–2 victory over the Browns tonight as Buck Newsom chalked up his fourteenth pitching triumph, although rescued by Archie McKain in the ninth inning.
The Phillies tried but failed today in an effort to end their six-game losing streak, and the Boston Bees swept a doubleheader, 3–0, and 12–2. Manuel Salvo blanked Philadelphia in the opener.
The surging Pirates climbed into a tie for fifth place with St. Louis in the National League race today by trimming the Cardinals, 3–1, behind the fine pitching of rookie southpaw Ken Heintzelman.
New York Yankees 3, Boston Red Sox 8
Cleveland Indians 1, Chicago White Sox 5
Cleveland Indians 3, Chicago White Sox 2
Boston Bees 3, Philadelphia Phillies 0
Boston Bees 12, Philadelphia Phillies 2
St. Louis Cardinals 1, Pittsburgh Pirates 3
Detroit Tigers 6, St. Louis Browns 2
Philadelphia Athletics 0, Washington Senators 11
A $500,000,000 expansion in the lending authority of the Export-Import Bank is essential to hemisphere defense, Secretary Hull telegraphed the House Banking and Currency Committee today as it opened hearings on a bill to that end.
The U.S. Navy destroyers USS Walke and USS Wainwright arrived at Santos, Brazil.
Mahatma Gandhi proposes the use of non-violence against the Germans.
News of the release by the British Government of Satoru Makihara, prominent Japanese business man, was carried by evening newspapers and increased the impression of relaxing tension between the two countries.
Foreign diplomatic sources in Chungking reported today the movement of Indo-Chinese troops toward the China border. No explanation was available here, but it was believed the troop shifts were to be linked with Japanese demands for additional Indo-China concessions in connection with Japan’s war on China. The Chinese in recent weeks have. been strengthening their Indo-China border forces, moving crack troops to Kwangsi and Yunnan Provinces. The Indo-China situation is viewed with grave concern in local foreign and Chinese circles. The French Governor General of Indo-China, Vice Admiral Jean Decoux, has assured Kunming importers that transit across the Indo-China border of non-military cargoes is guaranteed by the Hanoi. government. Nevertheless, the Chinese Red Cross has failed despite weeks of effort to obtain permission for shipment to China of 400 tons of medical supplies and equipment and 125 new ambulances, with gasoline to run them, which are mostly at Haiphong, with some at Rangoon, Burma.
The Reich sells 7,744-ton freighter Fulda to the Japanese, who rename it Taai Maru.
Ba Maw, the pro-Japanese anti-British former Premier of Burma, was arrested for attacking Premier U Pu’s policy of supporting Britain in the war against Germany. Ba Maw received a one year jail sentence.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 125.27 (-1.17)
Born:
Louise Sorel, actress (“BS I Love You”, “Crimes of Passion”), in Los Angeles, California.
Mukhu Aliyev, Russian politician, Head of the republic of Dagestan (2006-2010), in Tanusi, Dagestan ASSR, Soviet Union.
Naval Construction:
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type XB U-boats U-219 and U-220 are ordered from F. Krupp Germaniawerft AG, Kiel (werk 625 and 626).
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type VIIC U-boats U-301 and U-302 are ordered from Flender Werke AG, Lübeck (werk 301 and 302).
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type VIIC U-boats U-359 and U-360 are ordered from Flensburger Schiffsbau-Ges, Flensburg (werk 478 and 479).
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type VIIC U-boats U-445, U-446, U-447, and U-448 are ordered from F Schichau GmbH, Danzig (werk 1505–1508).
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type VIIC U-boats U-707 and U-708 are ordered from H C Stülcken Sohn, Hamburg (werk 771 and 772).
The Royal Australian Navy Bathurst-class minesweeper-corvette HMAS Toowoomba (J 157) is laid down by Walkers Ltd. (Maryborough, Queensland, Australia).
The Royal Navy Assurance-class rescue tug HMS Prudent (W 73) is launched by Cochrane & Sons Shipbuilders Ltd. (Selby, U.K.).
The Royal Navy Dance-class ASW trawler HMS Morris Dance (T 117) is launched by the Goole Shipbuilding & Repairing Co. Ltd. (Goole, U.K.); completed by Amos & Smith.
The Royal Navy Dance-class ASW trawler HMS Saltarelo (T 128) is launched by Henry Robb Ltd. (Leith, U.K.); completed by Whites M.E.
The Royal Navy M 1-class minelayer HMS M 4 (M 68) is launched by George Philip & Sons Ltd. (Dartmouth, U.K.).
The Royal Navy Flower-class corvette HMS Gentian (K 90) is launched by Harland & Wolff Ltd. (Belfast, Northern Ireland).
The Royal Navy Flower-class corvette HMS Salvia (K 97) is launched by William Simons & Co. Ltd. (Renfrew, Scotland).
The Royal Navy Hunt-class (Type II) escort destroyer HMS Blencathra (L 24) is launched by the Cammell Laird Shipyard (Birkenhead, U.K.).
The U.S. Navy Benson-class destroyer USS Madison (DD-425) is commissioned. Her first commander is Lieutenant Commander Thomas Edward Boyce, USN.
History Diaries 