The Luftwaffe campaign against London and other major population centers now, as of 12 September 1940, is in full swing. The devastation is enormous. Already, though, two favorite 1930s theories of terror bombing are being disproven:
That properly targeted terror bombing will inflame class divisions between rich (“plutocrats”) and poor; and
That terror bombing will destroy civilian morale and force negotiations.
The attacks on Warsaw, Rotterdam and other major European cities during the lightning campaign of May/June 1940 had left these as open questions, with some people pointing to the quick defeats of those countries as evidence that terror bombing works. However, after about a week of the attacks on London, not only is British morale still high, but the bombing has created a sense of shared sacrifice. Wealthy residences such as Buckingham Palace take damage along with poorer areas, for which the royals are eternally grateful.
From a military perspective, the German change in strategy from bombing RAF infrastructure to cities already is known to be ineffective. Air Vice-Marshal Keith Park of No. 11 Group writes in a memo that:
“confidence is felt in our ability to hold the enemy by day and to prevent his attaining superiority in the air over our territory, unless he greatly increases the scale or intensity of his attacks.”
Fighter Command statistics as of 0900 hours 12 September 1940 show the following operational status:
Blenheim — 50
Spitfire — 208
Hurricane — 392
Defiant — 21
Gladiator — 8
Total – 679
This is very near the normal strength of around 700 fighters. This shows that, while the RAF has not quite recovered from its devastation suffered through 6 September, it is getting there. It also shows a healthy proportion of the more modern Spitfires to the other planes than at earlier times in the battle. The Defiants and the Gladiators, though, are largely out of the battle, and the Blenheims are used only in special situations, so the 679 total number is a bit deceptive in terms of actual front-line strength.
This is not to downplay the deaths, the suffering, and the damage to buildings old and new alike. Historic buildings made of wood tend to be dry and easy to burn. However, the RAF is recovering, rebuilding its shattered airfields, repairing its radar installations, replacing aircraft, and restoring aircraft production.
Bad weather restricted German activity to small reconnaissance flights over Britain during the day. Overnight, 50 bombers attacked London, England, United Kingdom. St. Paul’s Cathedral was hit by a bomb which failed to detonate; Royal Engineers Lieutenant R. Davies and Sapper J. Wylie were later awarded the George Cross for defusing this bomb. On this night when two of the German bombers were shot down, London searchlight and anti-aircraft gun crews attempted to improve their coordination.
Lieutenant Robert Davies’ company of the British Royal Engineers successfully removed an unexploded one-ton bomb from the southwestern corner of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, England, United Kingdom and then brought it to the countryside to detonate it. Davies and fellow sapper George Wylie were awarded the George Cross medals.
The last main attack imposed on Britain, and especially the City of London itself was on September 7th, and since then attacks had now turned out to be rather spasmodic although the night bombing raids now seemed a regular occurrence. The air war of the last week or so had developed into a rather dull sort of plan. It did not matter what the weather conditions were, the days were relatively quiet and to many of the once exhausted fighter pilots, they found time to relax and enjoy time amongst themselves as longer gaps between sorties developed. Each afternoon, as if trying to keep to a weekly timetable, formations of German aircraft would show up on the CRT screen at the coastal radar stations generally around 1400 or 1500 hours and it was time to repeat the performance of the previous day. These three days were to prove no different. The weather was not the best for combat, conditions being as unpredictable as ever, but at this time of the year it was only to be expected that unsettled conditions would prevail as the summer had just about passed and the often wet and dull days of autumn would be coming in.
The threat of invasion was still a high priority with the War Office but as on many other occasions, the Luftwaffe had failed to follow up after the main attack. Why, they thought, throw everything at us as they did on September 7th and fail to continue. The leaders in all the various departments knew that Britain was still managing to hold out; and the Luftwaffe turning its attention to London itself gave Fighter Command the breathing space it so badly needed. By September 12th most of the airfields were back to at least 85% fully operational with the exception of maybe Biggin Hill that had taken a severe hammering. Lord Beaverbrook who was the minister in charge of aircraft supply had managed to replace many of the aircraft that had been lost, and personnel, although still young and possibly undertrained had replaced many of the pilots that had been killed or injured. If the German air force had continued to apply the pressure on Fighter Command airfields, The Battle of Britain may have had a far different outcome. Because of this change in tactics, and we can only surmise that it was a decision by Hitler himself, that it was a case of “an eye for an eye” that Germany in the end would have to pay the supreme sacrifice.
Weather over Great Britain: Cloud cover could be expected in all areas and showers turning to rain for most of the country. Low cloud would persist over the Channel areas and most of the south coast could expect showers that could be heavy at times.
The morning period is virtually a non-event as far as combat action is concerned. Radar reports that a number of lone aircraft are detected well offshore both over the Channel and the North Sea. Fighter Command decide to leave these aircraft well alone as they are probably reconnaissance patrols and not doing any harm and that valuable fighters should not be placed at risk even to lone aircraft.
By midday, a few small formations are detected; some of these break up into individual raids sometimes consisting only of one or two aircraft. In 10 Group, Warmwell dispatches just one section of 152 Squadron (Spitfires) to intercept a sighting out from Swanage, the bandit is recognized a lone Ju 88 but it makes full use of the low cloud and disappears.
Shortly after, another enemy sighting is made and 238 Squadron at St Eval (Hurricanes) are scrambled. The squadron records show that one Ju 88 is destroyed and another had been damaged.
605 Squadron (Hurricanes) stationed in the north at Drem also claim one enemy aircraft destroyed, possibly a reconnaissance aircraft that had ventured too close to the coast. 213 Squadron Exeter (Hurricanes) and 602 Squadron Westhampnett (Spitfires) both claim to have damaged at least one enemy aircraft in spasmodic and isolated actions. Looking at these figures, it can be seen that the Luftwaffe at this time was keeping well clear of London and all these isolated incidents took place either in the West Country or up north in Scotland.
One unfortunate incident that happened was with Wing Commander J.S.Dewar who was commander of the airfield at Exeter. Taking advantage of the lull in combat activity, he was to fly over to Tangmere to visit friends there. He never arrived and it seems obvious that his Hurricane had been shot down after he had encountered some enemy aircraft and he decided to bail out. On the way down he was strafed by German plane or planes and shot to pieces as he dangled helplessly underneath his descending parachute.
The bombers of III/KG51 and I/KG54 did not attack London until late in the evening, and even then was on a far reduced scale than on previous occasions. The night bombers on previous attacks often numbered between two and three hundred, but this time barely fifty made the dismal trek across the Channel in rather murky conditions. No serious damage was done, although bombs fell in the commercial area of Aldgate, Mansion House and Holborn, but the most serious threat was a H.E. delayed action bomb which fell just to the north of St Pauls Cathedral. It buried itself some thirty feet into the ground and the two officer who defused the bomb, Lieutenant R.Davies and Sapper J. Wylie of the Royal Engineers became the first military personnel to receive the George Cross for their actions.
Other spasmodic and isolated raids occurred at Hull in Yorkshire, an area north of Wolverhampton, Liverpool and a number of small ports along the east coast of Suffolk and Essex.
RAF Casualties:
Time not known: Over Channel. Hurricane V7306. 213 Squadron Exeter
W/C/J.S. Dewar killed. (Circumstances not known. Body washed ashore at Kingston Gorse Sussex 30.9.40)
Overall, losses are minimal, at least compared to previous days, with losses by the RAF in the single digits and those by the Luftwaffe not much higher. The fighter pilots on both sides basically get the day off.
RAF Bomber Command dispatches 14 Blenheims on daylight sweeps and reconnaissance; most abandoned flight because of lack of cloud cover.
RAF Bomber Command dispatches 40 Wellingtons overnight to attack docks and railway yards at 7 targets in Germany and at Brussels. No losses. Bomber Command attacks the ports of Emden and Flushing, where invasion barges have been gathering, and the seaplane base at Norderney in the East Frisian Islands. The RAF claims to have sunk 80 barges. Other targets are the industrial centers/marshaling yards of Osnabruck, Hamm, Schwerte, Ehrang, and Brussels. Hamm is hit for the 6th time. Individually, the raids do not cause much damage and bombing accuracy is poor, but in some locations, the damage is starting to accumulate.
The Kriegsmarine admits in a report that the British attacks are hurting its efforts to assemble an invasion fleet. To date, the Germans have assembled about 1000 barges in the ports, and they provide tempting targets. However, despite the losses, the number of barges for Operation SEA LION continues to grow.
German Governor-General Hans Frank ordered the creation of the Warsaw Ghetto for the estimated 500,000 Jewish inhabitants of the city. The Warsaw Ghetto for Jews, the wall already constructed, is formally approved by Gauleiter Hans Frank in occupied Kraków. This is conceived as a somewhat temporary solution, with the more permanent solution (at this point) foreseen as forced resettlement of Jews to the French-administered island of Madagascar in the southern Indian Ocean (originally, and perhaps ironically, an idea of the Polish government itself in the late 1930s). The Poles, however, determined that the island could not support more than a few thousand such refugees, and there are about half a million Jews in occupied Poland.
Hungary completed the occupation of Northern Transylvania, Maramures, and part of Crisana; these were territory Germany and Italy forced Rumania to cede.
The Germans established a military mission in Bucharest, ostensibly to train the Rumanian Army, but the intended goal was to safeguard the Rumanian oil fields. New leader Ion Antonescu, meanwhile, is busy reaching an agreement with Iron Guard leader Horia Sima.
The Italian 10th Army advanced slowly toward the Libyan-Egyptian border. It is a slow advance, held up more by the pace of Italian foot soldiers more than anything the British are doing.
On Malta, the military prepares for heightened military activity due to the overall war situation. The War Office instructs Governor Dobbie to raise more men from the local population to man the anti-aircraft guns.
Germany and Finland sign their agreement granting the Germans transit rights within the country.
The Russian Government has informed Germany that the Soviet Union, as a State bordering on the Danube, Cannot remain indifferent toward shipping regulations on that waterway and must participate in Danubian decisions, Tass, the official news agency, reported today.
Force Y of the Vichy French Navy, which passed through the Straits of Gibraltar on the 11th without British interference and stopped for the night in Casablanca, leaves port at 04:00. Eluding a shadowing British force led by battleship HMS Renown, the three fast cruisers and accompanying destroyers speed down to Dakar in French West Africa. The British continue their bumbling pursuit, not even realizing that the cruisers have left until the Renown’s floatplane can’t find them in the Casablanca harbor and instead spots them far to the to south. The Admiralty dispatches the aircraft carrier Ark Royal from Freetown, accompanied by three cruisers, to intercept the French from the south — the British not knowing for certain that Dakar is Force Y’s ultimate destination. Of course, the British are planning Operation MENACE for Dakar, so that is the last place they want the cruisers to go.
Prehistoric cave paintings were discovered in the Lascaux Cave near Montignac, France. Near Montignac, France, a collection of prehistoric cave paintings are discovered by four teenagers who stumbled upon the ancient artwork after following their dog down a narrow entrance into a cavern. The 15,000- to 17,000-year-old paintings, consisting mostly of animal representations, are among the finest examples of art from the Upper Paleolithic period. The paintings are mostly of animals and are some of the finest examples of art from the Upper Paleolithic age. In an amazing archaeological find that gets lost in the war news, 18-year-old Marcel Ravidat from near Dordogne finds the entrance to the Lascaux Cave. As the story goes, he follows his dog down a hole. He returns with three friends, and they enter via a long shaft. They discover remarkable detailed 17,000-year-old Paleolithic cave paintings of animals. They announce their discovery, and eventually the caves open to tourists. This innocent find, of worldwide cultural importance, begins a long process of deterioration of the ancient artwork from mold.
Destroyers HMS Malcolm, HMS Venomous and HMS Wild Swan departed Harwich to patrol off Boulogne, then sweep towards Cape Griz Nez.
Tug Salvage King (1164grt) was lost by grounding one and a half miles west of Duncansby Head. Destroyer HMS Eglinton departed Scapa Flow at 0600 to stand by her, but salvage was abandoned by the Fleet tugs and the destroyer arrived back at Scapa Flow at 2200.
Tanker Gothic (2444grt) was sunk on a aerial mine laid by German IX Air Division aircraft, 7500 yards 130° from Spurn Point. Two crew, including a naval rating, were killed and ten missing.
Naval store carrier Glenroy (9809grt) and troopship Highland Princess (14,133grt) were damaged by German bombing at Liverpool.
Steamer Tintern Abbey (2471grt) was damaged by German bombing six miles 270° from Chicken Rock, Isle of Man.
German steamer Borkum had been captured by British forces and sunk in a German attack in November 1939. She salved and brought to Kirkwall, leaving there on the 12th.
At 1620, battlecruiser HMS Renown aircraft reported that there were no French cruisers in Casablanca and later sighted French Force Y steaming south towards Dakar at high speed. Aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal and heavy cruisers HMS Devonshire, HMAS Australia, and HMS Cumberland approaching Freetown, were ordered to intercept the French force. Reaching their positions on the afternoon of 14 September, the French had already arrived at Dakar. The British ships returned to Freetown on the 17th.
Anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Calcutta departed Alexandria to escort convoy AN.3 north through the Kaso Strait, and on the 13th, the convoy was attacked by Italian bombers. Heavy cruiser HMS Kent, light cruisers HMS Gloucester, HMS Liverpool, plus destroyers HMS Hero, HMS Hasty, HMS Jervis and HMS Hereward left Alexandria on the 13th to provide anti-aircraft support. HMS Hero and HMS Hasty were detached and arrived back at Alexandria on the 14th, and after delivering the convoy, HMS Calcutta and destroyers HMS Juno and HMS Janus proceeded to Alexandria, arriving there on the 16th. The Kent support group was detached to support the air attack on Benghazi.
Heavy cruiser HMS Cumberland arrived at Freetown from patrol.
Convoy LG.1 departed Liverpool with steamers Duchess of Atholl (20,119grt), Roslin Castle 7016grt), Orbita (15,495grt), and Martin Bakke (5484grt), escorted by destroyers HMCS Ottawa, HMCS Skeena, and HMS Arrow. The convoy arrived at Gibraltar on the 20th.
Convoy OA.213 departed Methil escorted by destroyer HMCS St Laurent, sloop HMS Fleetwood, and corvette HMS Bluebell from the 12th to 16th. Anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Cairo was with the convoy on the 12th and anti-submarine trawler HMS Coventry City on the 13th.
Convoy MT.167 departed Methil, and arrived in the Tyne the next day.
Convoy FS.279 departed the Tyne, escorted by destroyers HMS Valorous and HMS Westminster. Patrol sloop HMS Shearwater joined on the 13th, and the convoy arrived at Southend on the 14th.
Convoy BS.4B departed Suez, was joined on the 14th by light cruiser HMAS Hobart and destroyer HMS Kandahar, and arrived at Aden on the 16th.
President Roosevelt met in Washington today with the National Defense Advisory Council, received political reports from Senator Lucas of Illinois and John B. Kelly of Philadelphia and made plans to receive a degree from the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia next Friday.
The Senate received the conference report on the Selective Service Bill, sent the Wool Products Labeling Bill back to conference with the House, passed and sent to the White House the bill authorizing a grazing dock for New York, received the Mead amendment to the Neutrality Act intended to permit American vessels to carry supplies to the projected bases in Newfoundland and the Caribbean and recessed at 5:04 PM until 11 AM tomorrow.
The Committee on Campaign Expenditures announced its intention to investigate certain Willkie advertising. The Naval Affairs Committee reported three bills to strengthen naval forces. A judiciary subcommittee heard further testimony in support of the proposed Constitutional amendment to forbid Presidential third terms.
The House considered minor bills and adjourned at 5:13 PM until noon tomorrow.
Senate-House conferees broadened a clause empowering the government to commandeer industrial units for defense purposes today and then gave the peacetime conscription bill their final approval. The administration leadership was hopeful, meanwhile, the measure could be on its way to the White House in a day or so. The compromise draft of the selective service bill, as agreed upon by conferees from Senate, and House, which would make men from 21 to 35 years old liable to military service, was reported to both branches today under plans to complete action on the measure tomorrow.
The Excess Profits Tax Bill is slated to be called up for debate in the Senate tomorrow, under a plan of the Administration leaders to rush it through in the shortest possible time as a step toward adjournment of Congress by the weekend of September 21.
An explosion at the Hercules Powder Company plant in Kenvil, New Jersey killed 52 people. Eight tons of powder exploded at the Hercules Powder Co.’s plant in Kenvil, New Jersey today, killing 52 men, injuring 125 others, many seriously, and making a shambles of plant buildings and surrounding woodland. The powder blew up in two mighty blasts, followed by a succession of smaller explosions, rocking the countryside for miles around. The concussions were felt as far away as Danbury, Connecticut, 123 miles to the east Fire swept through the ruins and trees, hampering rescue efforts by scores of state police, firemen and residents of Kenvil and nearby Dover. The flames for a time threatened magazines containing explosives. Several hours after the last frightful detonation, the smoldering ruins were too hot to permit digging in some sections of the plant for the mangled bodies of the dead.
The injured lie on bloodstained cots in Dover general hospital tonight and the doctors and nurses pass swiftly among them, trying to pick out those with a chance for life. The halls of the hospital are filled with cots. Other wounded are housed in the nurses’ home nearby and in a barnlike structure known as St. Mary’s Athletic club. Mattresses which have become too blood-soaked for use are dumped outside, out of the view of relatives and friends about 500 of them who stand in dumb silence before the building, waiting for word about the injured. A girl comes in from Asbury Park, seeking her young husband. The doctors show him to her but he is burned so badly that she can hardly recognize him. “He may be better by morning,” a nurse says gently, and ushers her out. When she is gone, a doctor shakes his head. “He will be better off by morning,” he says, “better off than he is now.”
The cause of the explosion remains unclear. Possible explanations include an industrial accident or sabotage carried out by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) or by a group of German Americans living in nearby Sussex County. Congressman Martin Dies, chair of the House Un-American Activities Committee at the time, believed that Nazi agents were responsible for the blast. After German immigrant Oscar C. Pfaus helped connect Nazi agents with the IRA in America, Abwehr agent Karl Franz Rekowski was sent to the U.S. where he arranged for the IRA to carry out sabotage attacks. Rekowski alleges the IRA carried out the attack on the plant.
The Army has been forced to revise upward by about 60 percent its estimates of the costs of the first full years of military training under the selective service legislation on which Congress is expected to take final action this week.
Commending President Roosevelt as a national leader who had made America the hope of the world, Mayor La Guardia expressed his warm endorsement of a third term for the President last evening in a radio speech over WEAF of the National Broadcasting Company in which he also attacked the utility record of Wendell L. Willkie.
The U.S. Navy light cruiser USS St. Louis departed Norfolk, Virginia bound for her ultimate destination on this leg of the voyage, St. John’s, Newfoundland. Embarked was the Greenslade Board. The Greenslade Board was a committee formed “to make a comprehensive study of the shore establishment (naval and commercial) necessary to support the Fleet in peace and war.” With the strategic requirements of the fleet in mind, the board was instructed to make recommendations for additional facilities in new locations and as to the expansion, limitation, contraction, abandonment, or conversion of existing shore facilities. The board was known by its senior member, Rear Admiral John W. Greenslade. The board, headed by Rear Admiral John F. Greenslade, which would evaluate base sites acquired from the British on September 5 in the destroyers-for-bases agreement.
The Tizard Mission team members have all crossed the Atlantic with their equipment, and today it holds a meeting in Washington D.C. with its American counterparts.
In a typical Hollywood quickie marriage, Lana Turner and Artie Shaw, married on February 13, 1940, are divorced today after only seven months of marriage.
Major League Baseball:
The Brooklyn Dodgers swept a doubleheader from the Pittsburgh Pirates, 7–0 and 7–4. The Dodgers feasted on Pirate pitching for twelve hits in each game. Hugh Casey won the opener with a three-hitter.
The Boston Bees sting the Cardinals twice, winning 17–7 and 6–1. Pitcher Jim Tobin wins the opener and helps out by scoring 4 runs, the last National League hurler this century to do so. Bill Posedel wins the nightcap. The Bees collect 36 hits in the two games.
The Giants were knocked out of the National League flag race yesterday, their final mathematical possibility of finishing on top vanishing in the wake of a 9–4 rout by the pennant-bound Reds at the Polo Grounds, despite a last-inning threat that produced all their runs, Mel Ott’s fifteenth homer and left the bases filled at the most inopportune time.
Southpaw Larry French set down the Phils with five hits today as the National League tail-enders dropped a 5–1 decision to the Cubs. It was French’s thirteenth victory of the season and the Phils’ fourth consecutive loss.
Hank Greenberg hits his 32nd homer, and the Tigers score four runs in the eighth inning, to lead Detroit to a victory, 6–3, over the visiting New York Yankees. Schoolboy Rowe (14–3) got the win for the Tigers.
Veteran Mel Harder pitched a three-hit masterpiece against the failing Red Sox today for an 8–1 triumph that kept the Indians a half-game behind league-leading Detroit.
The White Sox climbed into a fourthplace tie with Boston today by sweeping a doubleheader with the Athletics, 1–0 and 4–3, while the Red Sox lost to Cleveland. Bill Dietricht won the opener with a four-hit shutout. Ken Silvestri’s two-run ninth-inning walk-off pinch homer won the nightcap.
The Senators are sure to leave St. Louis still in sixth place in the American League. The Browns, needing a clean sweep of the three-game series to overtake the Senators, missed their opportunity by dropping the opener, 7–2, before Arnold Anderson’s six-hit pitching.
Pittsburgh Pirates 0, Brooklyn Dodgers 7
Pittsburgh Pirates 4, Brooklyn Dodgers 7
St. Louis Cardinals 7, Boston Bees 17
St. Louis Cardinals 1, Boston Bees 6
Philadelphia Athletics 0, Chicago White Sox 1
Philadelphia Athletics 3, Chicago White Sox 4
Boston Red Sox 1, Cleveland Indians 8
New York Yankees 3, Detroit Tigers 6
Cincinnati Reds 9, New York Giants 4
Chicago Cubs 5, Philadelphia Phillies 1
Washington Senators 7, St. Louis Browns 2
Order in Council 4751 makes foreign sailors on foreign ships in Canadian ports subject to imprisonment.
The Mexican Congress this morning officially declared General Manuel Avila Camacho President-elect of Mexico, crediting him with a 16-to-1 majority over his nearest competitor in the July 7 election, General Juan Andreu Almazan.
Great Britain is negotiating with Argentina for a credit that may reach 40,000,000 to facilitate purchases of meats, cereals and other products during the second year of the war.
German armed merchant cruiser Pinguin sank steamer Benavon (5872grt) at 25-20S, 52-17E in the Indian Ocean. Twenty three crewmen and the naval gunner were lost, and 25 crew made prisoners of war.
Military reports received by the Chinese Government from 105 guerrilla regiments in North China said today that the greatest guerrilla offensive of the war, involving more than 300,000 Chinese irregulars, has been launched against Japanese in occupied areas. The reports said that numerous important highways and railways already have been destroyed.
Resuming attacks on Chungking after a lapse of three weeks caused by bad weather, Japanese planes raided the capital twice today, keeping the populace in shelters for four hours in the morning and two hours at night. Dive-bombers, presumably taking off from the airdrome near Chang, took part in the Chungking attack.
The Japanese newspaper Kokumin, close to the army, declared today that relations between Japan and the United States were “fraught with the danger of war” and that the Japanese government therefore was making special efforts to reach a rapprochement with Soviet Russia to guard its rear. “This dangerous and gloomy situation is all of America’s making,” said Kokumin, asserting that the United States was offering Japan severe strategic, economic and political opposition. “So far as Japan is concerned, there is nothing the United States has done or is contemplating doing that is friendly or reasonable,” the paper declared. “Everything is provocative and overbearing.” Terming the recent policy of the United States “an undisguised challenge to Japan,” the newspaper Kohumin asks why a new Ambassador to Washington has not yet been chosen.
U.S. Ambassador to Tokyo Joseph Grew warned U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull that Japan might interpret an American embargo on oil exports as sanctions and retaliate against the U.S. A Japanese trade delegation arrives to negotiate increased deliveries of raw materials to Japan from the Netherlands East Indies. Ambassador Grew and Secretary of State Hull confer about the implications of U.S. oil sanctions on Japanese aggressiveness. Grew sees the likelihood of Japanese adventurism if the sanctions are too severe. There is no agreement reached during the meetings.
Australian Federal regulations were published at Canberra today ordering holders of United States and Canadian dollars to sell them to the Commonwealth bank at the current rate of exchange for national purposes. Trading in dollars becomes illegal and will be regarded as a serious offense.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 127.87 (-1.49)
Born:
Linda Gray, actress (“Dallas”), model, director and producer, in Santa Monica, California.
Patrick Mower, British actor (“Emmerdale”, “Carry On England”), in Oxford, England, United Kingdom.
Skip Hinnant, actor (“The Electric Company”) and comedian, on Chincoteague Island, Virginia.
Mickey Lolich, MLB pitcher (World Series Champions-Tigers, 1968; All-Star, 1969, 1971, 1972; Detroit Tigers, New York Mets, San Diego Padres), in Portland, Oregon.
Rich Barry, MLB pinch hitter and outfielder (Philadelphia Phillies), in Berkeley, California (d. 2021).
Chuck Bryant, NFL tight end (St. Louis Cardinals), in Zanesville, Ohio (d. 2020).
John Sklopan, AFL defensive back (Denver Broncos), in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (d. 2019).
Stephen Solarz, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York, 1975-1993), in New York, New York (d. 2010).
Roger K. Crouch, American astronaut (MIT Payload Specialist; STS-83, Columbia, 1997; STS-94, Columbia, 1997), in Jamestown, Tennessee.
Wayne McLaren, American stuntman, rodeo performer, model and actor best known for playing the Marlboro Man and for dying of lung cancer, in Lake Charles, Louisiana (d. 1992)
Naval Construction:
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type IXC U-boat U-153 is laid down by AG Weser, Bremen (werk 995).
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type VIIC U-boat U-407 is laid down by Danziger Werft AG, Danzig (werk 108).
The Royal Navy Flower-class corvette HMS Bittersweet (K 182) is launched by Marine Industries Ltd. (Sorel, Quebec, Canada). Transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy before completion, commissioning as HMCS Bittersweet (K 182).
The Royal Navy Fairmile B class motor launch HMS ML 119 is commissioned.
The Royal Navy Fairmile B class motor launch HMS ML 121 is commissioned.
The Royal Navy Flower-class corvette HMS Heliotrope (K 03) is commissioned. Her first commanding officer is Lieutenant Commander John Jackson, RNR.
History Diaries 