German Chancellor Adolf Hitler met with Spanish leader Generalissimo Francisco Franco at Hendaye in southern France near the Spanish border. Adolf Hitler in person carried the power politics of the axis to the border of Spain this afternoon, meeting Generalissimo Francisco Franco for many hours in a railway car and, it was reported reliably,” fashioning Spain’s part in the “new order” he has designed for Europe. In a meeting reminiscent of the Hitler-Mussolini conferences in the Brenner pass, the German Führer kept a rendezvous with Spain’s El Caudillo (chief) that began at 4:15 this afternoon, was resumed at 6:15 p.m., and was continuing, according to reliable Spanish reports, later tonight. Hitler tried to persuade Franco to join the war and offered Gibraltar and territory in North Africa as inducements. Franco was uncertain about how to proceed and successfully evaded the issue.
Hitler travels by train to Hendaye. Ramón Serrano Súñer, Francisco Franco, Joachim von Ribbentrop, and Hitler meet in the Hendaye railway station. This is one of the most fateful meetings of the war. They speak for three and a half hours. Franco is completely noncommittal about entering the war and repeats the demands for enormous supplies he would require that previously have been communicated by Serrano Suner. Hitler offers Gibraltar and North African territory, but Franco wants territory on the far side of the Pyrenees, Morocco and much of Algeria. All of these demands would spoil relations with France and Italy, and Franco probably knows that. It is becoming clear that Franco is not interested in entering into another war so soon after gaining power. However, for what it is worth, he reaffirms that he is strongly pro-Axis and does promise to enter the war at some point if his numerous and onerous conditions are met.
Hitler leaves with nothing, and later comments that the discussion was worse than “having three or four teeth pulled.” He likely expected more cooperation given the aid he had given Franco during the Spanish Civil War — without which Franco likely would no longer even be alive. Unlike the talks with Laval on the 22nd, this meeting at Hendaye absolutely can be deemed a failure. There now is no possibility of performing Operation Felix, the conquest of Gibraltar. After the war, Reichsmarschall Goering will claim that the single biggest mistake that the Axis made was not simply invading Spain after this failed meeting and seizing Gibraltar anyway. That would have closed off the Strait of Gibraltar to the British fleet and vastly improved communications to North Africa.
The next stop on Hitler’s itinerary is a meeting with Marshal Petain. The trip is becoming an exercise in why you should have agreements ready to sign due to prior negotiations before you actually travel to meet with your counterpart. The idea of a “continental bloc” against Great Britain is evaporating before Hitler’s eyes. However, he still might be able to work something out with Petain, who today meets with Laval at Vichy regarding Laval’s meeting with Hitler on the 22nd and appoints him Foreign Minister.
Hitler’s journey to France already is having an effect — a bad one — on Italy. Mussolini is described as being in “a black mood” over the fact that “the Germans prefer the French to us.” Mussolini instructs Count Ciano to demand control of the French Mediterranean coast and Marseilles, which is far more than they could ever hope to achieve through military action. The sole reason for this apparently is Mussolini’s feeling abused like a spurned lover.
German radio endorses German-Arab relations. There is a lot of support within the Middle East for Germany, though Great Britain and France maintain a somewhat precarious hold on the region. Italian radio does the same thing at the same time in obviously coordinated outreach.
At the same time that Hitler is about to woo Marshal Petain, Petain has his man in London, Louis Rougier, to meet with British Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax. They work to see if there can be some kind of reconciliation between the countries.
What remains of the Luxembourg government, the Chamber of Deputies and the Council of State, is formally dissolved.
The Gauleiter of the Saar, Robert Wagner, boasts that he has made the area “Judenfreie” (free of Jews) due to the Aktion Wagner-Burckel began on the 22nd. The Aktion will continue for another year.
Prime Minister Churchill and wife Clementine inspect Polish troops at St. Andrews in Scotland. General Wladyslaw Sikorski, Premier of the Polish Government-in-Exile and commander of Polish forces, accompanies them.
Another tranche of U.S. destroyers are transferred to the Royal Navy pursuant to the destroyers-for-bases deal.
Germans only mounted small raids against southern England, United Kingdom due to poor weather; no aircraft were shot down on either side during the day. Overnight, light bombing hit London, England and Glasgow, Scotland.
The day remains cloudy and dreary. As on previous days, the poor weather on 23 October 1940 greatly slows the tempo of all operations. It also causes various flying accidents which are becoming almost as deadly as actual combat.
The morning is taken up with scattered reconnaissance flights. One of these just past noontime penetrates the London Inner Artillery Zone successfully and causes damage there. There are a couple of abortive raids in the early afternoon in which planes cross the Channel but don’t actually make any attacks. RAF No. 145 Squadron intercepts this raid and loses two Hurricanes for its pains.
After dark, London bears the brunt of the damage. The Luftwaffe also hits Glasgow and mines off the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire areas and off the west coast. A land mine at Tynemouth Park creates a huge crater and damages numerous nearby buildings, including well over 200 homes. St. Pancras is bombed, cutting the rail line and damaging rail cars.
The weather appears to be implicated in some crashes. An RAF No. 600 Squadron Blenheim on a training mission crashes into a hillside at Kirkby Malzeard, Yorkshire, killing the pilot.
In France, a Heinkel He 111H of 1,/KG 27 misses the runway at Tours and hits a nearby barracks, killing not only the four crewmen but 13 occupants of the building. There are 11 other casualties from the ground crew.
In another bad weather accident, a Swordfish of RAF No. 767 Squadron collides with a Shark aircraft of No. 758 Squadron, killing the pilot of the Swordfish.
Overall, there are fewer than a handful of losses on both sides, probably the lowest number of overall planes lost since the battle began.
RAF Bomber Command dispatches 14 Blenheims on daylight sea sweeps and to French airfields. 2 aircraft bombed ships and 1 a factory near Antwerp. No losses.
RAF Bomber Command dispatches 79 aircraft (including O.T.U. aircraft)overnight, which attacked many targets, the largest effort being by 12 Wellingtons which bombed Emden and 11 Wellingtons which reached and bombed Berlin. 2 Wellingtons lost. After a respite due to poor weather, RAF Bomber Command returns to the attack today. The primary targets are railway installations and power plants around Berlin. Other bombing raids are sent against the port of Emden, oil installations at Hanover and Magdeburg, the port of Hoek van Holland, and various communications points in northwestern Europe, including airfields.
The RAF raids Gura, Asmara Airfield, Gondar, Tessenie, Kassala and Sidi Barrani.
At Malta, the island loses a scarce Swordfish when it ditches in the sea close to shore. A trawler recovers the crew. In addition, after a lot of hard work all the ammunition recently received is stocked away, and a one-week bomb disposal course — the island’s first — is instituted. Previously, untrained men have been disarming bombs.
It is a quiet day at sea because the U-boat fleet is back in port after a stunningly successful week. Convoys SC 7 and HX 79 are still struggling into port after being mauled. The Royal Navy Admiralty reassesses how its escorts are performing.
Battlecruisers HMS Hood and HMS Repulse, light cruisers HMS Dido and HMS Phoebe, and destroyers HMS Isis, HMS Mashona, HMS Bulldog, HMS Keppel, and HMS Douglas departed Scapa Flow at 1530 for Anti-aircraft exercises in Pentland Firth and to cover Operation DNU. They proceeded towards Obrestad to cover Anti-aircraft cruisers HMS Naiad and HMS Bonaventure, which departed Rosyth on the 23rd. Light cruiser HMS Arethusa (2nd Cruiser Squadron), heavy cruiser HMS Norfolk, and light cruiser HMS Southampton proceeded towards Stadlandet. Destroyers HMS Somali, HMS Matabele, and HMS Punjabi departed Sullom Voe on the 22nd and were on patrol north of the Shetlands. At 1900 they were ordered to proceed towards 62-23N, 4-50E off Egersund to intercept a group of twenty German fishing vessels escorted by one escort ship. The destroyers were ordered to withdraw to the westward at 0330 if no contact was made.
In Operation DNU, German weather ship WBS 5 (trawler Adolf Vinnen, 391grt) was sunk west of Stadlandet in 62-29N, 4-23E by destroyers HMS Somali, HMS Matabele, and HMS Punjabi on the 24th. The force and the DNU destroyers arrived back at Scapa Flow at 1700/24th. Anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Bonaventure sustained some weather damage to her forecastle. Battlecruiser HMS Repulse and destroyers HMS Bulldog and HMS Douglas arrived later on the 24th.
Anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Curacoa departed Scapa Flow at 0730 to cover convoy HX.79 A from Pentland Firth to Bell Rock.
Anti-aircraft ship HMS Alynbank arrived at Scapa Flow at 0830 after escorting convoy OA.233.
Aircraft carrier HMS Argus with destroyers HMS Beagle, HMS Achates, and HMS Hurricane departed Reykjavík at 0400 to return to the Clyde. The British ships arrived in the Clyde at 1100/25th.
Probationary Temporary S/Lt (A) J. H- Meyer RNVR, S/Lt G. A. Bragg were killed when their Swordfish of 767 Squadron collided with a Shark aircraft of 758 Squadron near St Vigeans. The pilot of the Shark was unhurt.
U.S. destroyers of Destroyer Divisions 64, 78, and the second section of Division 73 were transferred to the Royal Navy under Lend Lease at Halifax.
U.S. Name — British Name — Commanding Officer
USS Evans (DD-78) — HMS Mansfield — Lt Cdr W A R Cartwright
USS Philip (DD-76) — HMS Lancaster — Cdr P K Wallace
USS Wickes (DD-75)) — HMS Montgomery — Cdr H F Nash Rtd
USS Stockton (DD-73) — HMS Ludlow — Cdr G B Sayer
USS Conway (ex-Craven, DD-70) — HMS Lewes — Lt Cdr J N K Knight
USS Conner (DD-72) — HMS Leeds — Lt Cdr W M L Astwood
USS Twiggs (DD-127) — HMS Leamington — Cdr W E Banks DSC
USS Yarnall (DD-143) — HMS Lincoln — Cdr A M Sheffield
USS Mccalla (DD-252) — HMS Stanley — Lt Cdr R B Stannard VC RNR
USS Rodgers (DD-254) — HMS Sherwood — Lt Cdr S.W F Bennetts
Destroyer HMS Leeds departed St Johns first and arrived at Belfast on 10 November and went on to Plymouth arriving on 17 November.
Destroyers HMS Lincoln, HMS Lewes, and HMS Ludlow departed Halifax on the 31st and arrived at Plymouth on 15 November for duty in the Western Approaches as 1st Escort Group following refitting and repairs in England.
Destroyers HMS Montgomery and HMS Leamington departed Halifax on 1 November and arrived at Belfast on 11 November, going on to Plymouth arriving on 15 November for service with the 2nd Escort Group following refitting and repairs.
Destroyers HMS Lancaster, HMS Mansfield, and HMS Sherwood departed St Johns on 12 November and after refueling departed Belfast on 21 November for Plymouth.
Destroyer HMS Stanley, after being under repair at St John from 6 November to 13 December, arrived at Devonport on 2 January 1941.
Canadian destroyer HMCS Saguenay arrived in the Clyde from Halifax for duty in the Western Approaches.
Hunt-class destroyer HMS Pytchley was completed. Following working up she was assigned to the 21st Destroyer Flotilla operating in the Nore.
British steamer Empire Ability (7603grt) was damaged by German bombing at Gareloch.
Swedish trawler Essie (55grt) was sunk on a mine ten miles southeast of Skagen. Six crew were lost on the trawler.
German heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer departed Gotenhaven and proceeded to Brunsbuttel prior sailing to raid in the North and South Atlantic Oceans and in the Indian Ocean. Heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer departed Brunsbuttel on the 27th escorted by torpedo boats T 6, T 7, T 8, T 10. Heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer reached Stavanger on the 28th. Escorted by torpedo boats T 1, T 4, T 9, T 10 as far as Stadlandet, the cruiser departed Stavanger and passed the Denmark Straits on the 31st/1 November.
Norwegian steamer Prinsesse Ragnhild (1590grt) was sunk north of Bodo on a mine.
Convoy OB.233 departed Liverpool escorted by destroyers HMS Caldwell and HMS Vansittart and corvettes HMS Calendula and HMS Gloxinia. On 24 October, destroyer HMS Walker joined the escort. The entire escort was detached on the 27th.
Convoy FN.316 departed Southend, escorted by destroyers HMS Vega and HMS Vimiera. The convoy arrived at Methil on the 25th.
Convoy FN.317 departed Southend, escorted by destroyer HMS Wolsey and sloop HMS Lowestoft. The convoy arrived at Methil on the 25th.
Convoy FS.318 departed Methil and arrived at Southend on the 25th.
President Roosevelt, accusing his opposition of importing propaganda methods of the “dictator countries” to convince the public that he wished to lead the country into war, said tonight that “it is for peace I shall labor all the days of my life.” In a political speech broadcast from Philadelphia’s Convention Hall, where he was nominated in 1936 and where Wendell L. Willkie was named the Republican standard bearer this summer, Mr. Roosevelt said: “I consider it a public duty to answer falsifications with facts. I will not pretend that I find this an unpleasant duty. I am an old campaigner, and I love a good fight.” He answered many charges from his opponents, including one in particular that he called “outrageously false .. a charge that offends every political and religious conviction that I hold dear. It is the charge that this Administration wishes to lead this country into war.” Roosevelt’s speech concluded: “We are arming ourselves not for any foreign war. We are arming ourselves not for any purpose of conquest or intervention in foreign disputes. I repeat again that I stand on the platform of our party. ‘We will not participate in foreign wars and will not send our Army, naval or air forces to fight in foreign lands outside of the Americas except in case of attack.’ It is for peace that I have labored; and it is for peace that I shall labor all the days of my life.”
Wendell L. Willkie, speaking in New York, charged that the new deal was leading the nation toward “state domination over our lives” and asserted that “the concentration of power in America has hurt every democrat and helped every rising dictator… Democracy cannot survive under conditions of prolonged depression.”
Alfred E. Smith, former Democratic governor of New York, said tonight that recent egg assaults on Wendell Willkie and his wife constituted an “appeal to bigotry” and he charged that President Roosevelt was “the greatest offender.” “Tell me,” Smith demanded of a large Brooklyn audience of Democrats-for-Willkie, “tell me what’s happened to the country that a. lovely American lady like Mrs. Willkie, and her husband, on a crusade to save this country, is spattered with eggs?” “I’ll tell you what it is. It is the appeal to prejudice, the appeal to bigotry to setting up class against class and the chief apostle, occupant of the White House is himself the greatest offender.”
Senator Charles L. McNary told a farm audience today that the new deal is using “Tammany machine methods” in an attempt to win the farm vote in November. A crowd of more than 4,000, massed in the street in the central Illinois city of Bloomington, heard the Republican vice-presidential nominee accuse the Roosevelt administration of having “stabilized poverty in city and country alike.” “In my opinion, we stand at the crossroads of free government.” he said in a speech radioed throughout the country.
Michael John Caffie, 29, charged with failing to register under the selective service act on October 16, was sentenced today in New Orleans by Federal Judge Adrian J. Caillouet to serve three years in prison. Caffie was believed to be the first man sentenced under the act.
Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox revealed today that the Navy Department is taking steps to increase the output of armor plate for the Navy’s two-ocean program.
Secretary Knox makes a public statement that it was now U.S. policy to fully defend the Philippine Islands against any and all attack.
The MVP in the National League goes to the Reds Frank McCormick, with Reds teammates Bucky Walters and Paul Derringer finishing 3rd and 4th and Reds Ernie Lombardi and Billy Werber finishing at 9th and 10th. Cards slugger John Mize is 2nd.
A large Chinese Army has launched a powerful offensive against the Japanese in Chekiang Province and pushed northward after crossing the Chientang River, the Central News Agency, Chinese, reported today.
Japan gave a one-year notice of abrogation of North Pacific Sealing Convention of 1911. This was just one of the many international conventions that Japan would withdraw from in the coming year as war in the Pacific approached.
The United States military establishment in the Philippines will be reinforced within the next few weeks by two squadrons of pursuit planes, according to a War Department announcement today. With them will go about 320 officers and men.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 132.4 (+0.42)
Born:
Pelé, footballer (soccer), in Três Corações, Brazil (d. 2022).
Ellie Greenwich, American singer-songwriter (“Da Doo Ron Ron”; “Leader of the Pack”), in Brooklyn, New York, New York (d. 2009).
Freddie Marsden, British rock drummer (Gerry & Pacemakers — “How Do You Do It?”; “Ferry Cross The Mersey”), in Liverpool, England, United Kingdom (d. 2006).
Jordan Christopher, American stage and screen actor (“Angel, Angel”, “Down We Go; Secrets of Midland Heights”), in Youngstown, Ohio (d. 1996).
Naval Construction:
The Royal Navy Hunt-class (Type II) escort destroyer HMS Avon Vale (L 06) is launched by the John Brown Shipbuilding & Engineering Company Ltd. (Clydebank, Scotland).
The U.S. Navy Cimarron-class oiler USS Sangamon (AO-28) is commissioned. Her first commander is Cmdr. J. R. Duncan. In 1942 she will be converted to an escort aircraft carrier (AVG-26, then ACV-26, finally CVE-26).
The Royal Navy Town-class destroyers (ex-U.S. Navy) HMS Lancaster (G 05), HMS Leamington (G 19), HMS Leeds (G 27), HMS Lewes (G 68), HMS Lincoln (G 42), HMS Ludlow (G 57), HMS Stanley (I 73), HMS Mansfield (G 76), HMS Sherwood (I 80), and HMS Montgomery (G 95) are commissioned.
The Royal Navy Hunt-class (Type I) escort destroyer HMS Pytchley (L 92) is commissioned. Her first commanding officer is Lieutenant Commander Harold Unwin, DSC, RN.
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