The Greek defenders who are carrying the war to Italian-conquered Albania were said to have thrust forward 10 kilometers (more than 6 miles) in bitter bayonet charges to seize the heights of Mt. Morava in Albania, commanding the road to the Italian base of Koritza. News from the front said that the Greeks had seized supplies thrown from the air by Italian planes in an attempt to relieve Fascist soldiers sent into Greece to disrupt communications. The number of prisoners taken there was not disclosed but it was said the surrender of the remaining force is pending. Munitions and guns also were captured. The Italian Julia Division continued to be trapped in the Vovousa valley in northern Greece, incurring heavy casualties as Greek troops mounted repeated attacks in an attempt to eliminate this pocket. Further west, Italian troops established a bridgehead across the Kalamas River, but failed at their first attempt to break out.
In the strategically vital central sector in the Pindus Mountains, the Italian Julia Division on 4 November 1940 descends into chaos as Greek troops of the 2nd Army surround it in the Vovousa Valley (about 25 km northwest of Metsovo). The Greeks complete their reconquest of the villages of Samarina and Vovousa that had been held by the Italians, who now are surrounded and fighting for their lives, with little hope of rescue. Mass surrenders are in progress. The Italian Bari Division tries to break through but is stopped. Greek reinforcements are arriving from other sectors.
There are reports that the Greeks are led by guerrilla leader Varda, who is described as an 80-year-old veteran of the Balkan War decades earlier. This appears to be a bit fanciful but is an example of the type of myth-making going on among the Greeks.
Greek 9th Infantry Division and 15th Infantry Division continue attacking across the Albanian border in the Koritsa sector, making small gains.
Along the coast, the Battle of Elaia–Kalamas continues. The Italian Littoral Group attempts to cross the Kalamas River, which the Greeks are using as a defensive shield. The Italians sustain heavy casualties and make little progress due to the winter weather, minefields, inadequate equipment, and hesitant leadership. The last of the Greek forces retreat across the river in good order. During the night, the Italian Siena Division manages to cross the river around Tsifliki in Thesprotia. It breaks through the Greek battalion defending there. Greek Major-General Nikolaos Lioumbas orders a withdrawal to the south of the Acheron River. The Italians are continuing their advance here, but nowhere else.
Telegram from the Chiefs of Staff to the C-in-C Med., Middle East and AOC-in-C Middle East — It has been decided that it is necessary to give Greece the greatest possible material and moral support at the earliest possible moment.
The British War Cabinet, led by Winston Churchill, decides to beef up its bomber fleet on Malta and elsewhere in the Mediterranean. Churchill’s view is that only air power can help Greece quickly enough to save it. Some 24 Wellington bombers will be operating out of Malta, with 34 Hurricanes sent to Greece itself and 32 Wellingtons sent to Egypt via Malta.
The Royal Navy began Operation MB8 to protect supply convoys in the Mediterranean.
Adolf Hitler met with his top military leaders in Berlin, Germany to explore the possibility of attacking Gibraltar, Azores Islands, Madeira, and Portugal as means to block the British Royal Navy from entering the Mediterranean Sea. At 14:30, Hitler holds a meeting with a small group of senior officers: Keitel, Jodl, Brauchitsch, Halder, Major Willy Deyhle of the OKW General Staff (Jodl’s adjutant), and Major Rudolf Schmundt (Hitler’s adjutant). Halder begins the meeting by summarizing the results of the various studies undertaken recently by the OKW, for example, Operation FELIX (the planned invasion of Gibraltar). The main result of the meeting is that Hitler decides — or announces — that German troops will not be sent to North Africa until the Italians take Mersa Matruh and are ready to advance on Alexandria. He also provides:
“Commander-in-chief army will be prepared, if necessary, to occupy from Bulgaria the Greek mainland north of the Aegean Sea. This will enable the German air force to attack targets in the eastern Mediterranean, and in particular those English air bases threatening the Rumanian oil fields.”
This will eventually turn into Operation Marita.
The meeting establishes that the entire “peripheral strategy” is oriented around occupying air bases with which to attack British assets. Thus, while it is not all directed at British possessions, it is intended to provide the means to strangle England. As for Operation FELIX, that remains on the front burner but lacks the one thing necessary for it to happen: Spanish leader Franco’s active participation, of which Hitler remains hopeful.
There also is a discussion about fortifying French colonies in Africa and other operations to take Portugal, the Azores, the Canaries, Madeira and part of Morocco. Once again, these are directed against Britain, in the hopes of shutting off the Mediterranean and providing bases to attack British convoys. These would all require a working military agreement (Zusammenarbeit) between France and Germany, which the OKW is trying to negotiate via the armistice commission. The meeting involves a lot of wishful strategic thinking and few concrete decisions, basically because the predicates — cooperation by Spain and Vichy France — remain elusive.
Spain incorporates the Tangier International Zone, which formerly had been an international condominium, into Spanish Morocco. Antonio Yuste becomes the Military Governor. Britain immediately views this move with deep suspicion and worries that Spain will fortify the region while rejuvenating Hitler’s hopes of taking Gibraltar via Operation Felix. In fact, while Britain is right to be worried, this solidification of Spanish control (it first occupied the territory on 14 June 1940) is of long-term benefit to the Allies. Spain has no intention of fortifying this strategic area and reassures Britain on that point, also guaranteeing its international rights there. Tangier potentially controls access to the Mediterranean and could threaten Britain’s base at Gibraltar, but this move ultimately helps to keep the area out of Axis hands. That is, assuming that Spain does not join the Axis, another thing that Franco (secretly) does not intend to do but is busy making it appear that he does. This is another in a sequence of Franco moves that appear to be of aid and comfort to the Axis, but in fact, will benefit the Allies. His actual position will become clearer much later in the war.
The Luftwaffe resumes attacks on London, with strafing runs during the day, some scattered bombing of East Anglia and the Midlands, and a 150-bomber raid during the night.
RAF Bomber Command dispatches 7 Blenheims during the day; all turned back.
RAF Bomber Command dispatches 10 Wellingtons overnight to docks at Le Havre and Boulogne. The weather was bad and only 3 reported bombing these targets. No losses.
Other bombers, based on Crete now, attack the Italian naval bases at Bari and Brindisi, and also the port of Santo Quaranti in Albania, the principal port for the Epirus and Macedonian fronts.
RAF Blenheim IF fighters fly their first patrol from airfields in Greece.
The Luftwaffe begins moving some units from Denmark and Norway to France. The first to go is Hptm. Franz-Heinz Lange’s II./JG 77, which transfers from Aalborg to Brest-Guipavas.
Hans Philipp, Staffelkapitän of 4./JG 54, is awarded the Ritterkreuz for having achieved a dozen victories.
U-99, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Otto Kretschmer, badly damaged the 11,314 ton armed merchant cruiser HMS Patroclus (Captain G. C. Wynter Rtd), which had departed Liverpool on 19 October for convoy duties and had picked up some of the survivors of steamer Casanareand Laurentic, in 53‑43N, 14‑41W. U-99 torpedoed Patroclus again five hours later sinking her. Captain Wynter, Lt R- S. Murchie RNR, T/Lt Cdr (E) G. J. Arney RNR, T/Surgeon Lt Cdr J. B. Barr RNVR, T/Lt F. S. Piddocke RNR, T/Lt E. Richardson RNR, T/Paymaster Lt J. Bryant, and forty nine ratings were lost on the armed merchant cruiser Patroclus. Of the ship’s complement, 56 died and 263 survivors were picked up by the destroyer HMS Beagle (H 30).
Battleships HMS Nelson and HMS Rodney, anti-aircraft cruisers HMS Naiad (CS.15) and HMS Bonaventure, destroyers HMS Cossack (D.4), HMS Maori, HMS Matabele, HMS Electra, and HMS Brilliant departed the Firth of Forth at 1615. Destroyer HMS Punjabi departed Scapa Flow at 0630 to join Captain D.4 escorting the Commander in Chief Home Fleet on battleship HMS Nelson in the Firth of Forth. The British force arrived at Scapa Flow at 1400/5th.
Destroyer HMS Bulldog departed the Clyde for Liverpool arriving at 2100/4th.
Polish destroyer ORP Piorun (formerly British HMS Nerissa) was completed. Following working up, she operated in the 7th Destroyer Flotilla in the Home Fleet.
Anti-aircraft ship HMS Alynbank departed Scapa Flow at 0900 to cover convoy WN.30 to the vicinity of Bell Rock.
Anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Curacoa arrived at Rosyth.
Aircraft carrier HMS Eagle developed defects to her machinery as a result of near misses of Italian air bombing on 12 October. This caused her withdrawal from operation JUDGMENT.
Light cruiser HMS Ajax and Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney departed Alexandria to embark troops at Port Said. The cruisers departed on the 5th carrying troops and one heavy anti-aircraft battery.
Destroyer HMS Dainty later joined the Main Fleet for the MB 8 operation.
Submarine HMS Tetrarch damaged Italian steamer Snia Amba (2534grt) from a convoy off Benghazi. This convoy had departed Tripoli 2 November with Snia Amba and Pallade, escorted by torpedo boat La Farina. The submarine claimed damaging steamer Pallade, as well, but the steamer was not damaged.
Italian submarine Bianchi was damaged by destroyer HMS Greyhound and a London flying boat near Gibraltar and put into Tangiers for refuge.
French destroyers Mameluck, Fleuret, Epee, and Lansquenet passed Gibraltar from west to east.
Light cruiser HMS Diomede departed Tortula.
Convoy OB.239 departed Liverpool, but due to the presence of German surface heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer in the North Atlantic, she proceededto Oban and did not sail until 10 November.
Convoy FN.327 departed Southend, escorted by destroyers HMS Vega and HMS Vimiera. The convoy arrived at Methil on the 6th.
Convoy AN.6, escorted by anti-submarine trawlers HMS Kingston Crystal (433grt) and HMS Kingston Cyanite (433grt), departed Port Said with British tankers Adinda (3359grt) and British Sergeant (5868grt) and five steamers for Greece. Tanker Pass of Balmaha (758grt) departed Alexandria and joined this convoy at sea. Both trawlers broke down and destroyer HMS Dainty departed Alexandria late on the 4th with anti-submarine trawlers HMS Kingston Coral (433grt) and HMS Sindonis (440grt) to join the convoy. The convoy arrived on the 8th.
Convoy SL.54 departed Freetown escorted by armed merchant cruiser HMS Esperance Bay to 25 November. Armed merchant cruiser HMS Salopian joined the convoy on the 22nd to 25 November. On 24 November, destroyers HMS Caldwell, HMS Walker, and HMS Westcott, corvettes HMS Candytuft, HMS Crocus, HMS Heartsease, and HMS Honeysuckle, and French sloop Chevreuil joined the convoy. Destroyer Caldwell was detached with the merchant cruisers on the 25th. The convoy arrived at Liverpool on the 26th.
Convoy BS.8 departed Suez, escorted by sloop HMS Clive. The convoy was joined on the 5th by sloop HMS Grimsby. These sloops were detached when the convoy was joined by light cruiser HMS Leander, destroyer HMS Kingston, and sloops HMS Flamingo and HMIS Indus. The convoy was dispersed off Aden on the 12th.
Presidential Candidates Franklin D. Roosevelt and Wendell L. Willkie closed the turbulent 1940 national political campaign tonight on sober promises to keep the United States out of war and pleas for national unity in a flaming world. Tomorrow some 50,000,000 persons will fashion a verdict in what is expected to be the closest White House race since 1916. Both candidates seemed confident of victory after participating in three solid hours of radio oratory. Both also appealed to more than 60,000,000 registered voters to exercise the use of the ballot to aid in preservation of the principle of democracy. In Hyde Park, New York, where he will get the answer of the people to his unprecedented bid for a third continuous term, Mr. Roosevelt said: “I await the verdict of the electorate tomorrow in full confidence of vindication of the principles and policies on which we have fought the campaign.”
A Roosevelt rally and a Willkie parade came together in the middle of a Poughkeepsie, New York, street just before President Roosevelt made a speech tonight and for a few minutes it was a tossup whether there would be a free-for-all. The old-fashioned torchlight parade came down the street and a crowd of thousands assembled there let it pass, but snatched at banners and decorations on cars and in hands of Willkie backers. The throng closed in and jammed the thoroughfare shoulder to shoulder and back to back. Willkie and Roosevelt banners were about evenly distributed, and there were a dozen near-fights. One by one, the Willkie banners came down as if mowed by a scythe, and then some of the Roosevelt banners fell in retaliation.
The campaign of 1940 came to an end last night with both major political party headquarters issuing charges and counter-charges of more than usual vehemence.
Political tenseness caused an extraordinary spectacle. In lower Times Square last night, Roosevelt adherents and Willkie supporters, engaged in hoarse invective and patriotic singing in an attempt to drown out each other, attracted more than 5,000 theatre-goers, and extra details of mounted and foot policemen, flanked by radio units, were rushed to the scene to prevent a possible riot. The demonstration started about 7:45 PM in the shadow of the east wall of The Times Building in the square. About that time a group. of Roosevelt speakers operating from an automobile bearing banners of the American Labor party pulled away. Their audience seemed to be made up, for the greater part, of Roosevelt sympathizers — chiefly the knots of voluble men who stand all day and night debating politics and war. At the moment of the first group’s departure, a second band of speakers pulled up to the same spot in a Rhode Island car. They were. members of the Independent Speakers Bureau for Willkie, mostly young people. They included William Mathers, attorney; Miss Alice Schwab, her brother, Gustav Schwab, Chris Sargent, Yorke Allen, Miss Helen James, Earl Smit,h and David Louizell.
The Roosevelt partisans booed them. The Willkie group valiantly tried to get a hearing. The booing grew louder. The assemblage swelled and began to mill around. The men and women flowed into the street and interfered with traffic. Tension increased. The few. police in the square called for reinforcements. All this while the Willkie group stood up in the car and pleaded to be heard. They were shouted down. Red-faced with exertion, they shouted and screamed into the loudspeaker rigged on their car. One man-it was hard to say which one-hoarsely shouted, “Free speech! Give us the right of free speech. After all, we’re all Americans.” The rest of his fervent plea was drowned in boos and catcalls. The crowd on the sidewalks chanted “We want Roosevelt! We want Roosevelt!”
To a nation living in “the sunlight and starlight of peace” President Roosevelt asserted tonight that the right of the people to choose their own officers of government provides for them “the most powerful safeguard of our democracy.” He spoke in an election eve broadcast from his country home, after declaring in a statement that he awaited the verdict of the electorate tomorrow “in full confidence of vindication of the principles and policies on which we have fought the campaign.” “After the ballots are counted,” Mr. Roosevelt told the country in his broadcast, “the United States of American will still be united.”
John L. Lewis, C.I.O. chairman, once again urged the election of Wendell Willkie tonight. He contended, in a brief midnight broadcast, that the re-election of President Roosevelt would result in war.
A United Air Lines plane, lost in a blinding snowstorm, crashed into the side of Bountiful Peak, in the Wasatch Mountains, today, killing its ten occupants. The aircraft, a Douglas DC-3-197, operated United Air Lines Flight 16 from Oakland Municipal Airport, California to Salt Lake City Municipal Airport, Utah with stops at San Francisco and Sacramento, California, and Reno and Elko, Nevada. It crashed into the west side of Bountiful Peak at the 6,700 ft level during a snowstorm due to failure of navigational equipment.
American “A Farewell to Arms” novelist Ernest Hemingway (41) divorces 2nd wife American journalist Pauline Pfeiffer (44) divorce after 13 years of marriage.
A Junkers Ju 52 commercial flight going from Roboré to Puerto Suárez, Bolivia crashed during a storm, killing all 14 passengers.
U.S. Navy heavy cruiser Louisville (CA-28) arrives at Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Indications that the Japanese Army was shortening its lines drastically by withdrawing from several occupied zones, especially in South and Central China, increased tonight. The abandonment of its zone of occupation in Kwangsi Province, South China, apparently was just about completed and Chinese columns following the retreating Japanese were said to be approaching Yamchow, Kwangtung Province port through which the Japanese in Kwangsi were supplied. Just off the coast the Japanese abandoned Walchow, an island they had used as a naval base. Chinese dispatches reported, without independent confirmation, that similar withdrawals were in preparation in the Chungshan district, across the Pearl River Estuary from Hong Kong, from the port of Swatow, northeast of Hong Kong, and from Yochow, strategic river. port in Northern Hunan Province, southwest of Hankow. Last week the Japanese were reported quitting Ichang, on the Yangtze River west of Hankow, high water mark of their Yangtze Valley drive.
Chinese reports had it that the majority of Japan’s garrison in Canton, chief city of South China, might be leaving and that several Japanese firms there were preparing to close. Last week the Japanese South China command announced it was withdrawing from Nanning. Kwangsi capital. The explanation was that the acquisition of air and army bases in French Indo-China, from which the Burma Road and other Chinese supply routes could be bombed, made it unnecessary to retain the Kwangsi zone. Chinese reports said all Japanese troops from Kwangsi would be withdrawn either into French Indo-China or to the Kwangtung coast within forty-eight hours. There has been no indication whether the others were going home or to other theatres of war.
Chinese spokesmen have denied the Japanese claim that the Kwangsi withdrawal, for instance, was voluntary, and pointed out that Nanning was abandoned a few days after strong Chinese forces launched an offensive. Departure of Japanese residents from Hong Kong has been accelerated. More than fifty Japanese, Including families of the Japanese consular staff, boarded a liner today. S. Kumamoto, chief of the Hong Kong bureau of the Tokyo newspaper Asahi, and families of employees of the Japanese Consulate were among them. Japanese authorities insisted that the Japanese. were leaving entirely on their own initiative. and without official prompting.
Chinese reports received here state that Japanese troops are preparing to evacuate the Chungshan district, adjoining Portuguese-held Macao and near to Hong Kong. In some quarters it is said that they will be replaced by troops of the Japanesesponsored Wang Ching-wei, head of the Nanking regime.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 135.21 (+0.36)
Born:
Delbert McClinton, American blues-rock singer, guitarist, and harmonica player (Bruce Channel — “Hey! Baby”; “Giving It Up for Your Love”), in Lubbock, Texas.
Died:
Manuel Azaña, 60, Prime Minister of Spain (1931–1933) and 2nd President of the Spanish Republic (1936–1939), of a heart attack while in exile in France.
Naval Construction:
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type IXC/40 U-boats U-189, U-190, U-191, U-192, U-193, and U-194 are ordered from AG Weser, Bremen (werk 1035–1040).
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type IXD1 U-boat U-195 is ordered from AG Weser, Bremen (werk 1041).
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type IXD1 U-boats U-196, U-197, U-198, U-199, and U-200 are ordered from AG Weser, Bremen (werk 1042–1046)
The U.S. Navy Gato-class submarine USS Silversides (SS-236) is laid down by the Mare Island Navy Yard (Vallejo, California, U.S.A.).
The Forces Navales Françaises Libres (Free French Naval Forces) Flower-class corvette Roselys (K 57), ordered as the Royal Navy HMS Sundew but built for the Free French, is laid down by J. Lewis and Sons Ltd. (Aberdeen, Scotland).
The Royal Navy PT-5 class motor torpedo boat HMS MTB 269 is launched by Higgins Industries (New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A.).
The Royal Navy “L”-class destroyer HMS Lookout (G 32) is launched by Scotts Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. (Greenock, Scotland).
The U.S. Navy 70-foot Elco patrol motor torpedo boat USS PT 10 is commissioned.
The Marynarka Wojenna (Polish Navy) “N”-class destroyer ORP Piorun (G 65, “Thunderbolt”), launched as the Royal Navy HMS Nerissa, is commissioned. Her first commanding officer is Kmdr por. Eugeniusz Jozef Stanislaw Plawski, ORP.
History Diaries 