The Battle of Elaia–Kalamas ended in victory for the Greek defenders. After failing to expand from the Kalamas River bridgehead in western Greece, Italian troops in that region began to pull back. In the Pindus Mountains in northern Greece, the enveloped Italian Julia Division also began to attempt to break out for a retreat.
Greek troops occupied more hills surrounding the besieged Italian base at Koritza today, captured hundreds of additional prisoners, including the commanding general of Mussolini’s Centaur division, and hurled the Fascists back generally along the mountainous battlefront, authoritative sources declared tonight. The capture of the additional hills was said to have forged a strong new link in the iron ring being drawn around Koritza, which for almost a week has been pounded day and night by Greek artillery. The capture of the prisoners, on the central front, was declared to have raised the total to more than 2,500 since the 12-day old Fascist invasion started.
Things are not going well at all for the Italian offensive on 8 November 1940. Mussolini relieves Visconti Prasca of overall command of the Italian forces in Albania and restricted to the command of the Epirus front, where some limited progress still appears possible. Any hopes for a continued Italian offensive, however, are wishful thinking.
The Italians are making no progress at all on the Elaia–Kalamas front in Epirus, so they suspend operations there. The Italians make no further progress past Igoumenitsa and Margariti and are pushed off the Grabala Heights again.
In the Pindus Mountains, the remaining troops of the Julia Division hear a broadcast from London which suggests that a Greek offensive is coming. The Italians begin trying to break out as best they can. The Italian 3rd Alpini (mountain) Division is stuck fast in the Vovousa Valley and is losing men daily. While some of the Julia Division men can get out of the trap, very few of the 3rd Alpini can escape.
General Ubaldo Soddu, State Undersecretary of War, replaces General Prasca. He immediately tells Mussolini that the Italian forces must go over to the defensive “while awaiting the reinforcements that would permit us to resume action as soon as possible.” This is a wise suggestion to which Mussolini gives his consent, but illustrates the catastrophic posture of an offensive that only began less than two weeks ago. While the Italians will indeed receive reinforcements, so will the Greeks, and the Greek reinforcements only have to march to the front, not requiring risky ship transport.
The Greeks, meanwhile, are calling in reinforcements from their other fronts, such as the Metaxas Line facing Bulgaria. They are comfortable for the time being that no attack will be launched by the Bulgarians or the Turks. This, and the growing British presence in southern Greece which relieves the Greeks of defensive responsibilities there, enables Metaxas and his Generals to begin building up forces opposite the Italians for a counterattack.
Italian problems are only getting worse. There is a clear strain on Italian resources between the North African and Albanian campaigns. The British, meanwhile, are reinforcing their own forces in both Greece and Egypt.
Adolf Hitler, in a stormy speech in the Munich Loewenbrau beer cellar, tonight declared that Germany is “strong enough to meet any combination in the world.” Hitler condemned what he called the nightly attacks by the British royal air force on the German civilian population and stressed the reprisals of the German air force and military power. Munitions expended thus far by Germany in the war are “only one part of one month’s production,” the fuehrer declared. “Our reserves are so great that I must stop production in many fields because there is no possibility of storing these masses now,” he said. Adolf Hitler made his annual speech to the Nazi Party on the 8th November 1940 in Munich. In November 1939 he had narrowly escaped being assassinated at the same event.
"A year ago, as I mentioned earlier, Poland was eliminated. And thus we thwarted their plans a first time. I was able to refer to this great success on November 8, 1939. Today, one year later, I have further successes to report!
” This, first and foremost, only he who himself served as a soldier in the Great War, can appreciate fully as he knows what it means not only to crush the entire West within a few weeks, but also to take possession of Norway up to the North Cape, from where a front is drawn today from Kirkenes down to the Spanish border.
"All the hopes of the British warmongers were then torn asunder. For they had intended to wage war on the periphery, to cut off the German vital lines, and slowly strangle us. The reverse has come true! This continent is slowly mobilizing, in reflecting upon itself, against the enemy of the continent. Within a few months, Germany has given actual freedom to this continent. The British attempt to “Balkanize” Europe-and of this the British statesmen should take note-has been thwarted and has ended! England wanted to disorganize Europe. Germany and Italy will organize Europe.
Now in England they may declare that the war is going on, but I am completely indifferent to this. It will go on until we end it! And we will end it, of this they can be sure! And it will end in our victory! That you can believe!
"I realize one thing. If I had stepped up as a prophet on January 1 of this year to explain to the English: by the spring of this year, we will have ruined your plan in Norway, and it will not be you in Norway, but Germany; in the summer of this same year you will no longer be in the Netherlands or come to the Netherlands, but we will have occupied it; in the same summer you will not have advanced through Belgium to the German borders, but we will be at yours; and if I had said: by this summer, there will be no more France; then, all would have said: “The man is insane.” And so I shall cease from making any further prophecies today."
German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop, overdoing it a bit in advance of Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov’s planned arrival in Berlin on 12 November, sends Molotov a fulsome message. He asks that Molotov bring with him a portrait of Stalin. Molotov immediately replies in the affirmative.
Deutsche Lufthansa Ju 90 crash: A Deutsche Lufthansa Junkers Ju 90 crashed in Schönteichen en route from Berlin to Budapest, killing all 29 aboard.
Neville Chamberlain, the apostle of peace and patience who led Britain through the Munich crisis of September, 1938, and finally surrendered the post of prime minister only when the German blitzkrieg began in the Low Countries last May 10, lay gravely ill tonight. Mrs. Chamberlain announced his illness in a message to the press. Chamberlain himself is at his country home, Highfield, in Hampshire.
The Yugoslav Government announced tonight that representations had been made to the British, Italian and Greek Governments on the subject of Tuesday’s bombing by “unknown planes” of Bitolj, in Southern Macedonia, with a toll of nineteen killed and thirty-three wounded and damages amounting to 4,000,000 dinars.
The Swiss army staff issued a communique early today charging that British planes violated Swiss territory several times during the night by flying across the Jura Mountains toward the southeast. Anti-aircraft guns, the communique said, fired on the planes from several points. Three alarms sounded at Zurich and planes were audible, overhead each time. The first alarm was sounded here at 8:50 p.m., and then Geneva and Zurich reported the presence of planes.
Some native Maltese have been accused of distributing anti-British leaflets “and other seditious material.” Today, two are acquitted, three are sentenced to three years of imprisonment. and two are sentenced to four years.
The Battle of Gabon began. French Legionnaires and colonial troops from Senegal and Cameroun landed north and south of Vichy-French-held Libreville, French Equitorial Africa. Heavy fighting began immediately. General Koenig’s troops have landed at Pointe La Mondah, near Libreville, which is still held by Vichy forces. The Vichy forces resist vigorously, but they have few sources of reinforcement or supply. Success in this operation is vital to General de Gaulle’s reputation, as the failed invasion of Dakar has cast a cloud over his military reputation.
The air war over England picks up somewhat. Attacks in England proper are mostly at night now. London receives attention after dark, as always. British anti-aircraft fire over the capital is particularly effective.
While most Stuka dive-bombers have been withdrawn, the Luftwaffe still has some Stuka formations along the coast for special purposes. Today, they go back into action and bomb shipping in the Straits of Dover. Stukas may be slow and vulnerable relative to top RAF fighters, but they also are extremely accurate ground attack planes that are irreplaceable in the Luftwaffe (and the Luftwaffe tries to replace them several times, but fails to find anything better). The Stukas once again prove their value by sinking a ship.
Lt. Heinz Bär, 1./JG 51, shoots down two Hurricanes.
RAF Bomber Command dispatches 106 aircraft overnight to many targets in Germany, Italy and occupied Europe. 4 Whitleys were prevented from taking off from Honington because of a German air raid there. 1 Wellington lost. There were 2 O.T.U. sorties.
The RAF bombed Munich, Germany, “narrowly” missing Hitler (according to the RAF). It is the anniversary of the 1923 Putsch, and Hitler always gives a highly touted speech in Munich to commemorate it. Not much damage is done, but Churchill and the RAF bigwigs make their little statement, one of several similar stunts they will engage in around this time. While some accounts state that “Hitler narrowly escaped” and so forth, in fact, it is extremely difficult and unlikely — especially at this stage of the war, with extremely imprecise bombing accuracy — to target and kill a specific individual. One might as well say that every time the RAF bombs Berlin with Hitler in residence there that it “almost killed Hitler.”
This Munich attack damages railway installations and also the beer cellar where Hitler gives his speeches (but was largely destroyed exactly a year ago in a domestic terrorism incident). The RAF also bombs other targets in Germany, including numerous airfields in northwest Europe. Coastal Command chips in with an attack on Lorient to disrupt U-boat operations.
Operation CRACK: Aircraft of British carrier HMS Ark Royal attacked the seaplane base at Elmas near Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy. The Royal Navy is engaged in a complex series of operations in the Mediterranean under the overall rubric Operation MB8. This involves all sorts of moving parts, including convoys to Malta, attacks on Italian bases, and diversionary activities. As part of these operations, Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal launches an air attack against the Italian seaplane base at Elmas, near Cagliari. This is Operation CRACK. After this, the Ark Royal and its accompanying cruiser and destroyers return to Gibraltar. However, other Royal Navy forces are heading for Taranto and Operation JUDGEMENT.
RAF Station Takali was officially operational on Malta.
The Italians bomb Monastir.
The Portuguese steam merchant Gonçalo Velho was stopped by gunfire and damaged by the U-47, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Günther Prien, west of Ireland in the northern Atlantic Ocean. At 1347 hours, U-47 tried to stop the neutral Gonçalo Velho (Master Joel Gomes) by a shot over the vessel with the deck gun. The ship slowed down and prepared to launch a boat, but steered towards the U-boat so they fired two more warning shots to force the ship to stop immediately. One of them hit the stem and damaged her slightly. The master boarded the U-boat with the papers of the ship. After one hour she was allowed to proceed because no contraband could be found.
Dutch submarine HNLMS O-22, which departed Dundee on patrol on the 5th, was sunk by German auxiliary submarine chasers UJ.117 (trawler Uhlenhorst — 520grt) and UJ.1102 (trawler Westfalen — 445grt) off Lindesnes. The last contact the submarine had with her base was at her departure from Dundee. British observer Sub Lt M. R- Jackson and two communications ratings were lost with the Dutch crew.
Dutch steamer Agamemnon (1930grt) was sunk seven cables 222° from Swin Light Vessel. Two crewmen were lost on the Dutch steamer.
It is a big day for the Luftwaffe. Air attacks are one of the four legs of the stool that enforces the blockade of Great Britain, the others being U-boats, mines and surface raiders.
British steamer Fireglow (1261grt) was damaged by German bombing southwest of Swin Buoy in the Thames Estuary.
British steamer Ewell (1350grt) was damaged by German bombing in 51‑43N, 01‑23E.
British steamer Catford (1568grt) was damaged by German bombing southwest of Swin Buoy in the Thames Estuary. The convoy arrived at Methil on the 10th.
Italian submarine Marconi was damaged by destroyer HMS Havelock off northwest Ireland in 56‑01N, 17‑50W.
Minelayers HMS Southern Prince, HMS Port Napier, HMS Port Quebec, and HMS Menestheus of 1st Minelaying Squadron, joined by Minelaying cruiser HMS Adventure, escorted by destroyers HMS Bath, HMS St Albans, and HMS St Marys of the 57th Destroyer Division, departed Loch Alsh to lay defensive minefield SN.44 northwest of Ireland.
Anti-aircraft ship HMS Alynbank arrived at Scapa Flow at 1240 after escorting convoy EN.20. The anti-aircraft ship departed Scapa Flow at 1530 to cover convoy WN.33 eastbound from Pentland Firth.
Destroyer HMS Beagle departed Liverpool at 0800 for Skaalefjord. The destroyer arrived at 1500/9th. After refueling, the destroyer stood by to await orders.
Royal Norwegian Navy offshore patrol boat HNoMS Fridtjof Nansen runs aground and is lost on an unmarked shallow off the south coast of the Norwegian Arctic island Jan Mayen. Before the Nansen founders, the crew manages to get off some emergency messages. The crew reaches land on the Eggøya peninsula and finds an abandoned Norwegian radio station and is rescued some days later by naval trawler HNoMS Honningsvåg. This was the first Norwegian naval ship built purposefully for the coast guard and fishery protection. The ship was one of thirteen Royal Norwegian Navy ships that had escaped from Norway when the government capitulated.
Hunt-class destroyer HMS Southdown was completed. She arrived at Scapa Flow for working up on the 17th. Following working up, destroyer Southdown was assigned to the 21st Destroyer Flotilla operating in the Nore.
Minesweeper HMS Elgin was damaged by the explosion of an acoustic mine off Sunk Light Vessel. The minesweeper was repaired at Lowestoft completing on 18 December.
British steamer Empire Dorado (5595grt) was damaged by German bombing in 55‑07N, 16‑50W. Anti-submarine trawler HMS Man O’War (517grt) assisted the steamer.
Swedish steamer Vingaland (2734grt) of convoy HX.84 was damaged by German bombing 55‑41N, 18‑24W. The steamer was sunk on the 9th by Italian submarine Marconi. Nineteen survivors were picked up by British steamer Danae II (2660grt).
British whaler A. N. 2 (221grt) was sunk on a mine off Falmouth, 2950 yards 119° from Pendennis.
British tug Muria (192grt) was sunk on a mine off North Foreland, in 51-26-30N, 1-27E. There were no survivors from the tug.
Late on the 8th, aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, escorted by heavy cruiser HMS Berwick and light cruiser HMS Glasgow, launched an air raid on the Italian seaplane base at Elmas near Cagliari. This airstrike was given the operation name of CRACK.
Aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, light cruiser HMS Sheffield, and destroyers HMS Duncan, HMS Isis, HMS Firedrake, HMS Foxhound, and HMS Forester returned to Gibraltar on the 11th.
French battleship Provence, temporarily repaired of her Mer el Kebir damage, arrived at Toulon escorted by French destroyers Epee, Fleuret, Hardi, Lansquenet, and Mameluck.
Destroyer Hardi had arrived at Oran from Casablanca on 25 October. Destroyers Epee, Fleuret, Mameluck, and Lansquenet arrived at Oran on the 5th from Casablanca, passing Gibraltar on the 4th. They were met in the local approaches by battleship Strasbourg, heavy cruisers Algerie, Dupleix, Foch, light cruisers Galissoniere and Marseillaise, destroyers Volta, L’Indomptable, Cassard, Vautour, and Albatros.
Convoy OB.240 departed Liverpool escorted by destroyers HMS Amazon, HMS Arrow, and ORP Burza, sloops HMS Aberdeen and HMS Rochester, and corvettes HMS Crocus and HMS Heartease. Sloop Rochester was detached later day and destroyers Amazon and Burza ON 11 November, sloop Aberdeen on 12 November, the remainder on the 13th.
Convoy FN.329 departed Southend, escorted by destroyers HMS Winchester and HMS Eglinton and patrol sloop HMS Sheldrake. Destroyer HMS Winchester and sloop HMS Sheldrake were detached on the 9th. Destroyers HMS Cattistock and HMS Wallace joined on the 9th. German bombers attacked convoy FN.329 on the 8th. Escort ship/destroyer Winchester (Lt Cdr S. E. Crewe Read) shot down two JU-87 bombers in air raids on the Thames Estuary. Escort ship/destroyer Winchester struck a mine one mile northeast of Swin Light Vessel and had to anchor to make emergency repairs. While anchored, she was damaged by near misses, but had no casualties. Escort ship/destroyer Winchester was under repair at London until 6 June.
Convoy FS.331 departed Methil, escorted by destroyers HMS Cattistock and HMS Vivien and sloop HMS Londonderry. Destroyer HMS Quorn and patrol sloop HMS Sheldrake joined on the 9th. The convoy arrived at Southend on the 10th.
President Roosevelt today withheld his plans, if any, for a third term cabinet shakeup. Holding his first press conference since his reelection, he neither denied nor affirmed that some members of his official family may be replaced, nor would he be drawn out on the prospects of Wendell L. Willkie joining the cabinet. There have been persistent reports that Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson and Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins will resign, and that Secretary of State Cordell Hull is considering such a step. Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes tendered his resignation yesterday so as to give the president “a free hand.”
President Roosevelt told reporters today that he had underestimated his electoral vote by 109 when he made a pre-election guess. He figured he would get 310, and he actually received 449 as against 82 for Wendell Willkie. He made the same forecast 340 in his final guess on the 1936 election and missed by 183, receiving 523 while Alfred M. Landon got 8. The president had made the 340 prediction around Aug. 1, sealing it in an envelope, and he said he saw no reason to revise it before Election Day.
A ruling that half the war supply output of American factories will go to Great Britain and Canada was announced by President Roosevelt today, while the priorities board gave the British permission to place a new order for 12,000 military planes in this country.
The first volunteers and trainees to be inducted into the Army will proceed directly to the units with which they will spend their full year of training, the War Department announced today in a detailed explanation.
The U.S. War Department announces that it will set up a new training center in Spartanburg County, South Carolina. It will be known as Camp Croft Infantry Replacement Training Center, after Major General Edward Croft who came from the state and retired as Chief of Infantry. The camp will be officially activated on 10 January 1941 as part of the Fourth Service Command.
Representative Joseph W. Martin Jr. will resign as chairman of the Republican National Committee after the party leaders meet and decide on what constructive steps to take in legislative matters and in the direction of the party organization.
The first formal demand that John L. Lewis carry out his pledge to quit the C.I.O. presidency if President Roosevelt were re-elected was made yesterday by the executive board of the C.I.O. State Industrial Union Council, meeting at the headquarters of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America.
By a vote of 2,552 to 52, employees of the Vultee Aircraft Company plant at Downey, California today gave their union officers the right to call a strike.
Jacqueline Cochran, American aviator, won the distinction yesterday of gaining the Clifford Burke Harmon Trophy for the third consecutive time. The trophy, given annually to the outstanding woman flier of the world by the International League of Aviators, was presented to the flier by Mrs. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who had also made the presentation on the two previous occasions.
The adventure film “The Mark of Zorro” starring Tyrone Power was released.
Alfonso Hernandez Cata, Cuban Minister to Brazil, and eighteen other persons were killed today when a three-motored Heinkel passenger plane of the V.A.S.P. airline to Sao Paulo collided with an Argentine plane over Botafogo Bay, in the heart of Rio de Janeiro.
The Chinese reported today that their forces had occupied several heights overlooking Yamchow, near the Kwangtung seacoast in South China, and said recapture of the city was imminent.
Wang Ching-wei’s pro-Japanese regime yesterday acquired jurisdiction over the Second Special District Court and the Third Kiangsu High Court, which formerly had acted under orders from Chungking.
Admiral Nomura Kichasaburo is appointed Japanese Ambassador to the United States.
The American steamship City of Rayville hit a German naval mine and sank in the Bass Strait off Cape Otway, Australia, the first U.S. vessel lost during World War II. U.S. freighter City of Rayville is sunk by mine (laid by German auxiliary minelayer Passat on 31 October-1 November) east of Cape Otway, Bass Strait, Australia; City of Rayville is first U.S. merchant ship sunk in World War II. Third Engineer Mack B. Bryan, who drowns during the abandonment, is the first merchant marine casualty of World War II. The other 37 crewmen (one of whom is injured) reach safety at Apollo Bay.
The Australian authorities are now fully aware that German minelayers are operating in the vicinity of Southern Australia, so they close the port of Melbourne for the time being. German raider Pinguin and the Passat, who have been laying the mines, have completed their work and are heading west for the middle of the Indian Ocean to plan their next operation.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 136.64 (-1.11)
Born:
Joe Nossek, MLB outfielder and pinch hitter (Minnesota Twins, Kansas City-Oakland A’s, St. Louis Cardinals), in Cleveland, Ohio.
Herb Paterra, AFL linebacker (Buffalo Bills), in Glassport, Pennsylvania.
Charlie Killett, NFL halfback (New York Giants), in Helena, Arkansas.
Died:
Evandro Chagas, 35, Brazilian physician and biomedical scientist (plane crash).
Naval Construction:
The Royal Navy Moorburn-class mooring vessel HMS Moorfire is laid down by the Devonport Dockyard (Plymouth,U.K.).
The U.S. Navy minesweeper (converted fishing trawler) USS Albatross (AM-71), sole unit of her class, is commissioned. Her first commanding officer is Lieutenant Lysle Elbert Ellis, USN.
The U.S. Navy 70-foot Elco patrol motor torpedo boat USS PT-11 is commissioned.
The Royal Navy Hunt-class (Type I) escort destroyer HMS Southdown (L 25) is commissioned. Her first commanding officer is Commander Edward Reignier Conder, DSO, DSC, RN.
History Diaries 