The Battle of Britain: During the day the Luftwaffe’s activity was light. There was light minelaying activity at night.
Weather: Bad weather caused the postponement of many planned operations, there was just the odd reconnaissance flight by both sides but as the days wore on it was decided that getting back to base and enjoying a few good ales would be more constructive.
Hermann Göring believed Luftwaffe had control of the air having successfully attacked many convoys and excluded Royal Navy ships from the English Channel during daylight. Overestimated downed RAF planes and underestimated Luftwaffe losses further convinced him the RAF was almost beaten; in reality, RAF was stronger than a month ago, with losses (84 fighters) less that half the Luftwaffe’s (227 aircraft). Göring ordered new tactics to destroy RAF’s fighting capacity by attacking their airfields, control centers and radar. These tactics could not be put into effect, however, as cloudy weather allowed only reconnaissance patrols; 1 He 111 aircraft was shot down.
A lone raider bombs the Sunderland shipyard at 11:40. RAF No.79 Squadron intercepts and shoots it down shortly thereafter. While lone bombing runs sound benign, they can be quite deadly: this one kills four people and injures 78. The bomber causes extensive damage not only to the shipyard but also to a railway bridge, a hotel, and several houses.
Another lone raider attacks Flamborough Head and also is shot down, this time by effective anti-aircraft fire.
A pair of Bf 109s, apparently with bored pilots looking for a thrill, strafe Dover Harbour late in the afternoon. Nothing comes of it, and the fighters are shooed away by the RAF.
The RAF’s recent spate of accidents and miscues, almost certainly due in large part to the strains of the conflict, continues. A Hurricane of RAF No. 605 Squadron has some sort of engine trouble and crashes off Dunbar, killing pilot Sgt. R. Ritchie. Later, a Blenheim bomber of RAF No. 600 Squadron is operating near the coast when British Flak units open up on it as well as a nearby Bf 109, sending it down. The two crew both survive, and 8,/JG 2 takes credit for the “kill.”
During the night, the Luftwaffe (KG 26) attacks Northumberland port and railway facilities, causing 73 casualties. Another attack on Filton Airfield near Brighton around midnight involves some leaflet dropping as well as bombs.
The Luftwaffe has begun using Guernsey Island airfield in the Channel Islands, so RAF Bomber Command raids Guernsey airfield. It is the first raid on the Channel Islands since the Luftwaffe raid at the end of June, and it sets airfield buildings ablaze but does not interfere with operations. Friederich Schumacher becomes the new German administrator of the islands.
RAF Statistics for the day: 142 patrols were flown involving 431 aircraft. Luftwaffe casualties: None. RAF casualties: 1 bomber.
RAF Casualties: (August 9th 1940)
1645 hours. Dunbar Coast (Scotland). Hurricane L2103. 605 Squadron Drem. (Crashed into sea)
Sgt R.D. Ritchie Killed. (Crashed into sea after aircraft had glycol leak. Rescued by boat, pilot dead)
The Blitz – The Bombing of England: The first bombs were dropped on the Prenton and Wirral districts of Liverpool.
The first air raid of the Birmingham Blitz took place when a single aircraft bombed Erdington.
RAF Bomber Command dispatches 15 Blenheims during the day to Brittany and the Channel Islands; only 2 bombed — at Brest and at Le Bourg in Guernsey. This was the first bombing of the British Channel Islands, now occupied by the Germans. No aircraft lost.
RAF Bomber Command dispatches 38 Wellingtons and Whitleys to attack Cologne and Ludwigshafen and airfields in the Netherlands overnight. 3 O.T.U. sorties. No losses.
RAF Blenheim bombers attack Tobruk, Libya.
There are no air raid alerts on Malta during the day. Governor-General Dobbie reports that ammunition stocks are running low and that supply estimates must be raised by 50% from pre-war estimates. He needs ammunition, and fast.
Italian fighters raid Berbera. South African Air Force planes bomb Italian positions at Neghelli airfield in Abyssinia. Italian land forces are approaching the British positions around Berbera cautiously.
Bowing to German pressure, Romania agrees to cede Southern Dobruja (Dobrogea de sud) to Bulgaria, with the 100,000 population to be re-located within Romania. The official agreement is not yet signed.
In probably the longest and most informal press conference they have ever given, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor today assured questioners of their plan to visit the United States after they became established in the Bahamas, but they were unable for the present to set a time.
German radio, which is widely listened to in Great Britain (broadcasting in perfect English), continues to stoke fear and panic. They announce, for instance, that swarms of parachutists are standing by to drop in England wearing British uniforms.
Friederich Schumacher was named the German civilian administrator of the occupied Channel Islands.
Localized Albanian rebellion in the north, with Italian troops subsequently dispatched to burn villages.
A special income tax surcharge of 15% is imposed on Polish citizens living in the Reich for the costs of the German occupation of Poland.
German military commander Alfred Jodl issued a directive titled Aufbau Ost (“Reconstruction East”), ordering that transport and supply facilities be improved in the east so the logistics would be in place for an attack on the Soviet Union in 1941.
The Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic was officially incorporated into the Soviet Union.
Italian fighters raid Berbera. South African Air Force planes bomb Italian positions at Neghelli airfield in Abyssinia. Italian land forces are approaching the British positions around Berbera cautiously.
Charles de Gaulle announces that he has the support of French in the New Hebrides.
U-30, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Fritz-Julius Lemp, sank Swedish steamer Canton (5779grt) seventy miles west of Tory Island. At 2032 hours the unescorted Canton was hit by one torpedo from U-30 and sank 70 miles west of Tory Island. Sixteen crewmembers were missing in the loss of the steamer. The 5,779-ton Canton was carrying pig iron, linseed, general cargo, and hessian and was headed for Liverpool, England.
Destroyer HMS Javelin departed Scapa Flow at 1415 for Lerwick to escort British steamer Rognvald to Aberdeen. At Aberdeen, destroyer Javelin met steamer Lochnagar and escorted her to Lerwick, arriving at 1545 on the 11th. Destroyer Javelin then arrived at Scapa Flow.
Italian destroyers Maestrale, Grecale, Libeccio, and Scirocco laid mines off Pantelleria.
Convoy OA.196 departed Methil escorted by sloop HMS Rochester and corvette HMS Primrose on the 9th. Anti-submarine trawlers HMS King Sol and HMS Ayrshire escorted the convoy on the 11th.
Convoy FN.247 departed Southend, escorted by destroyer HMS Winchester, sloop HMS Weston, and patrol sloop HMS Sheldrake. The convoy arrived in the Tyne on the 11th.
Convoy MT.135 departed Methil. The convoy arrived in the Tyne later that day.
Convoy FS.247 departed the Tyne, escorted by destroyers HMS Vega and HMS Westminster. The convoy arrived at Southend on the 11th.
The Senate began debate on the Burke-Wadsworth Selective Service Bill in Washington today and recessed at 3:51 PM until noon Monday. The Interstate Commerce Committee heard former Senator Hastings of Delaware deny allegations of a payment to a Wilmington court official to obtain postponement of a case against the Radio Corporation of America. The Campaign Expenditures Committee announced receipt of complaints of improper procedure in current campaigns in Delaware.
The House was in recess. The Ways and Means Committee began hearings on the excess profits tax bill.
Debate on the Burke-Wadsworth Universal Military Service Bill was opened in the Senate with pro-Administration Senators Sheppard and Barkley explaining and Senators Vandenberg, Wheeler and Danaher criticizing. Preliminary surveys indicated passage of the bill is likely, perhaps slightly amended. The U.S. Senate’s debate on peacetime conscription began today with Senator Sheppard, Texas Democrat, declaring democracy is imperilled everywhere and Senator Wheeler, Montana Democrat, scornfully asserting those who fear a Nazi invasion should summon courage to seek an immediate declaration of war on Germany. A momentary stir was created when Senator Holman, Oregon Republican, seeking to show Japan, not Germany, is “the No. 1 threat to our peace, said he had learned from “authoritative military sources” of the “imminent peril of the invasion of Alaska from the Pacific and the endangering of the entire Pacific slope.” Later he added, however, that, so far as he knew, no one is mobilizing their forces now.”
National defense leaders today urged immediate action by Congress to remove the tax and profits “uncertainties” they said were hampering military preparedness. All appeared at a congressional tax hearing and Secretary of War Stimson, giving an example, said although congress appropriated $400,000,000 for 4,000 army planes in June, the army had been able to sign contracts for only 33 of them. This situation Stimson and other witnesses attributed primarily to lack of special tax consideration for concerns expanding plants for defense and to a general uncertainty over what kind of a profits levy would be enacted. Stimson, 72-year-old Republican war chief, echoed the sentiments of Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau who preceded him and of Lewis Compton, assistant navy secretary, and William S. Knudsen, defense commissioner, who came after.
House and Senate Committees, considering revision of tax schedules to promote plant expansion for defense, were told by Secretaries Morgenthau and Stimson, and others, that the present 8 percent limit on profits had slowed down the defense program. Senator Harrison predicted a bill embodying their recommendations would be on the President’s desk by August 17.
President Roosevelt, who left by special train tonight for Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to begin a week-end inspection tour of vital New England coastal defense units, said today chances were 100 to 1 against the national guard serving outside the limits of the United States or its possessions in peacetime. Mr. Roosevelt made the observation after a reporter remarked Senator McNary, Oregon Republican, Republican vice-presidential candidate, had voted for an amendment to the training bill which would have confined guard activities to continental United States. The president said a restriction such as that proposed in the amendment which was defeated might tie things up in an emergency. He said he understood the amendment would have permitted service in the nation’s possessions and the Philippines which is a very different thing.
Recent comments by Ambassador to Belgium/Luxembourg John Cudahy have irked both the U.S. and British governments. Cudahy has been complaining about the food shortages developing amongst the civilian populations of the Low Countries due to the British blockade. German soldiers have been going to private residences and requisitioning food stocks, exacerbating the problems for the local population. Cudahy has strongly hinted that humanitarian assistance should be allowed through the blockade. The British take special umbrage to this.
Sumner Welles read a formal statement at a press conference calling John Cudahy’s recent remarks “in violation of standing instructions of the Department of State” and said that they were “not to be construed as representing the views of this government.” The statement went on to say that the incident “illustrates once again the importance which must be attributed by American representatives abroad to the Department’s instructions to refrain at this critical time from making public statements other than those made in accordance with instructions of the Department of State.”
Interestingly, the statement does not say that Cudahy is wrong or mistaken, just that he has spoken out of turn. What Cudahy has said in fact is true, but it not “politically correct.”
Wendell L. Willkie stated today that he would reject any efforts by the national Administration to involve him in advance agreements or commitments on foreign policy.
William Donovan, accompanied by Secretary of the Navy Knox, briefs Roosevelt on his findings in the U.K.
Nearly four voters in every five interviewed by the American Institute of Public Opinion think that strikes in national defense industries should be forbidden by the government, a nation-wide survey by the institute has revealed, according to Dr. George Gallup, its director.
Rear Admiral Robert L. Ghormley, assistant chief of naval operations, has been sent to London, reportedly on orders of President Roosevelt, to act as a special naval observer, it was revealed tonight. He was accompanied by two aides, Lieutenant Commander B. Lam Austin and Lieutenant Donald J. McDonald, who also will act as observers. The trio will report to Joseph B. Kennedy, U.S. ambassador to the court of St. James and will be attached to the embassy staff. Captain Allen G. Kirk, the present naval attache in London, will remain there.
The Navy moved today to strengthen the garrison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, an important base for warships guarding the eastern approaches to the Panama Canal.
The adventure film “Captain Caution” starring Victor Mature, Bruce Cabot, and Alan Ladd was released.
Major League Baseball:
The Brooklyn Dodgers blanked the Boston Bees behind John Whitlow Wyatt’s four-hitter. Watt fanned seven and also scored the game’s only run in the eighth inning. The Dodgers have won five in a row.
The Cincinnati Reds threw their baseball machine back into high gear tonight to blast out a 7–2 triumph over the St. Louis Cardinals and give Junior Thompson his eleventh victory of the season. Fiddler Bill McGee, holding two decisions over the Reds this season, gave up eight hits before he was removed in the sixth inning. The Rhinelanders counted two more safeties on Ira Hutchinson, his successor.
The Pirates ran their string of victories to eight straight tonight, beating Chicago, 6–2, and climbing over the Cubs into fourth place behind the four-hit hurling of Truett (Rip) Sewell. It was Rip’s tenth triumph against two defeats. Vince DiMaggio started the Pirates off to victory and the 29,978 fans to cheering in the second frame, hitting his eleventh homer of the season off Ken Raffensberger behind Elbie Fletcher’s double.
The White Sox defeated the high-flying Tigers tonight, 3–2, when Mike Kreevich doubled the winning run across in the ninth inning before 36,713 spectators. Despite the setback, Detroit held first place in the American League. In the ninth, with the score 2-all, Ed Smith opened with a single. Skeeter Webb sacrificed, then Kreevich doubled down the third-base line to end it.
Charley Ruffing has to leave with an injury in the third inning against the Athletics. No Problem: Steve Sundra came on to hurl a relief gem, allowing just one hit in his 6 ⅔ innings of work, as the Yankees shut out the A’s, 2–0. Joe Gordon had three hits for New York, and drove in the first run.
Pitching troubles again beset the Boston Red Sox in the ninth inning today as the Senators scored two runs and won the opener of a three-game series, 6–5.
A ninth-inning single by Bob Swift, scoring Harlond Clift from third, gave the St. Louis Browns a 4–3 victory over the Cleveland Indians tonight. Limited to two hits by Mel Harder for six and a half innings, the Browns pecked away for one run in the seventh, then tied the count at 3–3 in the next frame on Walt Judnich’s twenty-first homer, with Roy Cullenbine on board.
Brooklyn Dodgers 1, Boston Bees 0
Detroit Tigers 2, Chicago White Sox 3
St. Louis Cardinals 2, Cincinnati Reds 7
Philadelphia Athletics 0, New York Yankees 2
Chicago Cubs 2, Pittsburgh Pirates 6
Cleveland Indians 3, St. Louis Browns 4
Boston Red Sox 5, Washington Senators 6
The U.S. Navy heavy cruisers USS Wichita (CA-45), under command of Rear Admiral Andrew C. Pickens, and USS Quincy (CA-39) reached Pernambuco, Brazil. These ships were visiting South America “to furnish a reminder of the strength and the range of action of the armed forces of the United States.”
The U.S. Navy gunboat USS Erie (PG-50), with Rear Admiral H. Kent Hewitt, Commander Special Service Squadron, embarked, departed the Panama Canal Zone for a goodwill visit to Ecuador.
The U.S. Navy destroyers USS Walke and USS Wainwright departed Santos, Brazil for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The British government announced that it would be abandoning the British presence in Shanghai and Tientsin province, in northern China. The forces concerned would move out later in the month and the action was made in an effort to enhance their defensive positions in other parts of the British empire. The British War Office announced today that it was withdrawing the last military forces from Shanghai and North China where Britain has maintained garrisons under international protocol since the close of the Boxer Rebellion in 1901. The explanation was that the 1,500 effectives, consisting of battalions of the Seaforth Highlanders and East Surreys, were more urgently needed elsewhere than at their present stations in Shanghai and Tientsin and in Pelping where a single platoon serves as the embassy guard.
Actually, it was felt since the European war broke out that the force maintained in North China was inadequate to resist a serious attack and that as long as it remained there was danger of a clash with Japanese troops and that after such a clash there would be no choice save war with Japan or inglorious retreat. Thus, it was decided to carry out a plan made even before the war began, to withdraw the scattered garrisons from North China, where they are relatively powerless, and concentrate them in a more important strategic center such as Singapore which, with Hong Kong, will remain the last strong point of the British Empire in the Far East.
The United States, at least for the present, will not follow British action and withdraw its armed forces from China, the State Department said. Acting Secretary Welles also said that this country did not intend to recede from the position taken on numerous questions in the Far East, including the embargo on export of aviation gasoline to Japan. The formal reply to Japan’s protest was handed to Ambassador Horinouchi.
Flying over Chungking in a long, rigid, straight-line formation, more than ninety Japanese bombers indiscriminately showered incendiary and heavy demolition bombs on the much-raided western suburb, downtown business center and south bank of this city today. It was the first raid since a week ago. The Canadian Mission’s Chiu Ching Middle School compound, which was entirely devoted to educational and emergency hospital purposes, again was hit by many bombs that destroyed one school building, but without casualties. The downtown Y.M.C.A. Building was completely burned. A big fire on the south bank broke out close to the safety zone, where the United States Embassy and emergency quarters of all the other diplomatic missions are located. The fires were quickly brought under control, bomb holes in the main streets filled and debris removed in record time.
The Dutch light cruiser HrMs (HNMS) Sumatra departed Trinidad for Freetown. The light cruiser arrived on the 20th, en route to the Dutch East Indies.
German raider Orion was ordered to make rendezvous with supply ship Regensburg in the Marshall Islands.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 126.4 (+1.27)
Born:
Tom McEwan, British actor (“Final Hour”), in Corby, Northamptonshire, England, United Kingdom.
Naval Construction:
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type VIIC U-boat U-703 is laid down by H C Stülcken Sohn, Hamburg (werk 762).
The Royal Canadian Navy Flower-class corvette HMCS Saskatoon (K 158) is laid down by Canadian Vickers Ltd. (Montreal, Quebec, Canada).
The Royal Navy Flower-class corvette HMS Erica (K 50) is commissioned. Her first commanding officer is Lieutenant Commander William Cecil Riley, RNR.
History Diaries 