The Battle of Korçë (Korytsa) ended in Greek victory. Italian 9th Army was defeated in Greece. The Greek offensive continues at a steady pace on 22 November 1940. On the Korçë Plateau front, the Greek K Group (primarily a reinforced III Corps) under Lieutenant General Georgios Kosmas (the spearhead is 9th Division) captures the Albanian city of Korçë, which is the greatest success of the offensive to date. The Greeks continue moving forward to capture the remainder of the plateau.
Korçë is about 15 km inside Albania, which gives an indication of the status of the Italian invasion of Greece. Along with the city, the Greeks take 2000 prisoners and capture 135 artillery pieces and 600 automatic weapons. The Italian IX Army withdraws in good order because the Greeks are on foot and the Italians, by and large, have transport. However, just because the Italians can run does not mean that they can hide.
A unit of the Greek Army in Albania issues the following dispatch:
To: IX division 17.50 hours, The Infantry Office. “I report that at 17:45 hours today the detachment under my command entered Korytsa and liberated the city. Colonel Begetis”.
A Reuters dispatch from Athens tonight said that Italian troops in flight from fallen Korçë were being pursued by their own tanks, now manned by Greeks. The Greeks were said to have captured the tanks from reinforcements rushed to Korçë from Pogradetz, Albania, before the Italians fell back.
Greek II Corps also is across the Albanian border and captures Leskovik.
Greek 8th Infantry Division continues attacking in the Kalamas sector, where the line is very close to the border.
Churchill to Sec. of State for War and CIGS:
“…Wavell’s telegram to CIGS does not answer the question I put. The last sentence but one leaves everything unsettled. … It is not clear that he has made up his mind. …Every day’s delay endangers secrecy in Egypt… …We must now call upon Turkey to come in, or face the consequences in the future. A British victory in Libya would probably turn the scale, and then we could shift our forces to the new theatre. How long before the Germans strike at Greece through Bulgaria?”
Churchill to Sec. of State for the Colonies [Re:- Proposal to ship Mauritius Jewish refugees who had illegally emigrated to Palestine]:
“As the action has been announced, it must proceed, but the conditions in Mauritius must not involve these people being caged up for the duration of the war. The Cabinet will require to be satisfied about this. Pray make me your proposals.”
Churchill also discusses U.S. Navy Admiral Stark’s Plan D (Plan Dog). This provides for all possible naval and military aid to go to the European theatre and only defensive measures to be adopted in the Far East against any Japanese aggression until the defeat of Germany.
Growing opposition among the population of Belgium to the German military occupation is reported in messages just received in prominent circles here, it was learned yesterday. They said that this opposition had a striking demonstration recently in Antwerp, where the Germans ordered all Jews to wear the six-pointed star of the shield of David on their arms. The Jews obeyed, but in a few days the rest of Antwerp’s people joined them in a silent mass protest, which they made effective by crowding into the streets wearing the same armband, that the Germans were unable to tell who was Jewish and who was not. Gestapo agents proved powerless to meet this kind of situation, and the Germans have tacitly dropped the matter.
500 students in Delft demonstrate against the Nazis.
Opening the Congress of the Academy for German Law in Munich today, the Justice Commissioner, Dr. Hans Frank, the head of this institution, dropped some significant hints as to the future legal structure of the “New Europe” that is being drafted under German leadership by the Axis powers. The “legal structure” will be the decree of Adolf Hitler.
The first execution by shooting took place at Auschwitz Concentration Camp; 40 men from Katowice, Poland were shot between 0000 and 0020 hours by SS men in retaliation of assault on a police official. At Auschwitz, SS men wreak vengeance on defenseless prisoners for an assault on a police officer. They take 40 men, natives of Katowice, Poland, and shoot them between 00:00 and 00:20. This is the first execution by firing squad at the camp.
Yugoslavia will reject without qualification any invitation or suggestion that this government join the signers of the Tripartite Pact, it was authoritatively stated tonight by a semi-official source close to the government.
The Turkish government proclaimed martial law tonight in virtually all sections of European Turkey, including Istanbul, “in view of the general political situation.” This step was taken shortly after Germany’s ambassador, Franz von Papen, returned from Germany, presumably carrying a virtual ultimatum that Turkey join in the axis-planned “new European order.” Sections of Asiatic Turkey, bordering on the vital Dardanelles, also were included in the martial law proclamation.
Protests against the British Government’s refusal to admit 1,771 Jewish immigrants to Palestine, based upon a report from Jerusalem on Thursday, were made yesterday by organizations engaged in the support of Palestine as the national homeland of the Jewish people.
The Luftwaffe sends 204 bombers against Birmingham during the night, another devastating blow to the city. Birmingham is being absolutely creamed, but the British government and media do not give this series of bombings prominence as with the earlier Coventry bombing. The Luftwaffe also raids towns on the southern coast and in the Home Counties. The West Midland region takes a lot of damage, along with the usual overnight raids of London.
The big German coastal guns at Cap Gris Nez shell the Dover area.
RAF Bomber Command dispatches 24 Blenheims on widespread cloud-cover raids during the day. 1 aircraft bombed a factory at Solingen in the Ruhr and 6 aircraft bombed targets in Holland and France. No losses.
RAF Bomber Command dispatches 95 aircraft overnight to Dortmund, Duisburg and Wanne-Eickel and to an aircraft factory at Bordeaux. 2 O.T.U. aircraft and 1 Blenheim carried out leaflet raids over France and Holland and 3 Hampdens were minelaying off Lorient. 1 minelaying Hampden lost.
RAF Coastal Command chips in with an attack on the Luftwaffe seaplane base at Stavanger, Norway.
Three RAF Blenheim bombers based on Malta, escorted by nine Gladiator fighters, bomb the Italian lines of communication at Pogradets. This raid causes extensive damage. The British keep the actual source of these raids very low-profile in the media because they do not want the Italians to view Malta as more of a threat.
There is an Italian fighter sweep over Malta around 09:15. They cause little damage, and British anti-aircraft fire shoots down one of the CR 42 fighters.
At Malta, the government announces that, to date, 96 civilians have been killed and 188 injured in air raids. In addition, 290 houses have been wholly or partially destroyed.
The RAF raids Bari.
The Italians bomb Cephalonia, Corfu, and Tigani (later Pythagoreio), Samos. The attack on Samos is coordinated with an attack by four Italian destroyers based on Leros (Lèro), where the Italians have had a base since 1912.
Italian aircraft bombed Alexandria, Egypt, damaging British tanker Zahra; RAF bombers attack Bari.
An RAF Wellington Mk. IC of No. 214 Squadron based at RAF Stradishall, Suffolk, England, runs out of fuel because of a navigational error and lands in Sicily instead of Malta. Aboard is Air Marshal Owen Tudor Boyd, Deputy Air Officer Commanding, HQ RAF Middle East (designate) and three lower ranking officers. All are taken prisoner and Boyd is held in the Castle of Vincigliata near Florence. After several escape attempts, Boyd and two generals make another attempt and reach Switzerland in February 1944.
The air echelon of RAF No. 211 Squadron arrives at Menidi and Tatoi Airfields from Egypt with Blenheim Mk. I light bombers. This is the fourth and last RAF Squadron to arrive in Greece.
U-123, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Karl-Heinz Moehle, sank British steamer Cree (4791grt) in 54‑39N, 18‑50W. At 0021 hours on 22 Nov 1940 the Cree (Master Robert Herbert Twentyman), a straggler from convoy SL-53, was torpedoed and sunk by U-123 about 365 miles west of Bloody Foreland. The master, 42 crew members and two gunners were lost. The 4,791-ton Cree was carrying iron ore and was bound for Workington, England.
Anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Curacoa transferred to convoy EN.30.
Anti-aircraft ship HMS Alynbank departed Scapa Flow at 0900 for gunnery practice then joined convoy WN.42 in Pentland Firth.
Motor launch ML.127 (T/Lt E. Kneen RNVR) was sunk on a mine in the Thames Estuary. Kneen and ten ratings were lost in the motor launch.
British trawler Ethel Taylor (276grt, T/Skipper R- Cowling RNVR) was lost on a mine 7.5 cables 090° from the Tyne Pier Light. Two ratings were lost on the trawler.
British steamer Pikepool (3683grt) was sunk on a mine twenty three miles east, southeast of Smalls Light. Sixteen crewmen and the naval gunner were lost on the steamer.
British tug Hercules (82grt), towing 116 Hopper Barge, was sunk on a mine in 55‑01N, 01‑23W. Four crewmen were missing and one was killed on the tug. The Barge was towed into the Tyne.
Swedish steamer Bifrost (1781grt) was damaged by German bombing at Alfred Dock, Birkenhead.
French steamer (former armed merchant cruiser) Charles Plumier (4504grt) was captured by destroyers HMS Faulknor and HMS Forester one hundred and ten miles off Gibraltar in 35‑32N, 3‑05W. This was a RATION operation and light cruiser HMS Despatch was at sea to cover the destroyers. French destroyer Boulonnais escorting the steamer retired unmolested. Steamer Charles Plumier arrived at Gibraltar on the 22nd and was renamed Largs for British use.
British tanker Zahra (821grt) was damaged by Italian bombing at Alexandria.
The Yugoslavian freighter Durmitor arrived off the port of Warsheik, 45 miles north of Mogadishu, Italian Somaliland and in the absence of a pilot to take her in the Durmitor initially was run aground and then “taken prisoner” by the Italians. The Durmitor had been captured by the German raider Atlantis on October 22 in the eastern Indian Ocean near the Sunda Strait and became a prisoner ship for 216 seamen of ships captured or sunk by the Atlantis. The lack of supplies caused the Durmitor to become a “hell ship” during the journey across the Indian Ocean.
Convoy FN.340 departed Southend, escorted by destroyers HMS Vanity and HMS Wolfhound and patrol sloop HMS Shearwater. The convoy arrived at Methil on the 24th.
Convoy FS.342 departed Methil, escorted by sloop HMS Londonderry. The convoy arrived at Southend on the 24th.
Convoy SC.13 departed St Johns at 1145 escorted by Canadian armed yacht HMCS Husky. At 0830/23rd, Husky left the convoy. No ocean escort was provided. In heavy weather, three steamers foundered in this convoy. Greek Kolchis ( 2219grt) on the 23rd, British Lisieux (2594grt) on the 27th, Greek Eugenia Cambanis (3470grt) on the 28th. Twenty three crewmen were lost in Kolchis; none in the other two steamers. On 5 December, destroyers HMS Sabre, HMS Scimitar, and HMS Shikari, sloop HMS Wellington, and corvettes HMS Clarkia and HMS Heliotrope joined. The convoy arrived at Liverpool on 7 December.
President Roosevelt indicated today that United States aid to Great Britain had reached its peak for the moment, although he would welcome any suggestions as to what further assistance could be given under present circumstances. The President said that everything possible in the direction of assisting the British was being done and implied that limited armaments production at the present time was the stumbling block. He said that the possibility of supplying American convoys for British Atlantic shipping and of finding means of extending credit to Britain had not been discussed in the government.
At one point Mr. Roosevelt remarked that if he could be shown a way of turning out airplanes faster than they were now being produced the situation regarding British aid would be different. It was impossible to pass a bill or issue an order and get the plane the next day, he stated. The subject came up when a reporter remarked that, because of the intensified bombings in England during the last week, many persons were asking whether the “rule of thumb” set by the President allowing 50 percent of American armaments production for Great Britain and 50 percent for the United States forces would be altered to give the British more help.
Rear Admiral William D. Leahy, retired, Governor of Puerto Rico and former Chief of Naval Operations, has been selected as Ambassador to France, according to authoritative information today. Word of his acceptability to the Vichy government is expected momentarily. He will succeed William C. Bullitt, who has submitted his resignation to President Roosevelt. Whether Mr. Bullitt will accept some other high governmental post or retire to private life has not been indicated. His resignation has yet to be accepted formally by President Roosevelt. The selection of Admiral Leahy is considered logical, after General John J. Pershing had refused the offer of the post, because of the importance of French naval questions. Moreover, he is close in the confidence of the President and may well become his key ambassador abroad, since so many other European posts are vacant.
Joseph P. Kennedy is in this country and is not expected to return to London; William Phillips also is in the United States and has submitted his resignation as Ambassador to Italy; and there is no Ambassador to Germany. Of the major European posts only Moscow is now occupied by an Ambassador who is actively on duty. He is Laurence A. Steinhardt. Apart from the naval questions at issue, the appointment of an Ambassador to France is calculated to strengthen Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain’s hands in his negotiations with Germany by assuring him of the understanding and friendship of the United States. It may be followed by arrangements for sending limited amounts of foodstuffs to unoccupied France for the use of the civilian destitute during the Winter. Beyond all these immediate considerations, it is believed that the appointment of an Ambassador will signify an appreciation of France’s difficulties at this juncture that will be remembered by the French people long in the future.
The Senate and House will move into temporary quarters on Monday until the roofs of the chambers, held to be unsafe, are repaired. The House will meet in the Caucus Room of the new House Office Building. Only the press will be admitted. The Senate will meet until January 3 in the old Supreme Court room, with the rear row of seats reserved for the press. For lack of space the public will be excluded from both the House and Senate. Workmen began erecting scaffolding in both chambers as soon as the brief sessions were concluded. The Capitol architect, David Lynn, advised Congress to let the repair work proceed. He said that a heavy fall of snow might tax the roof supports and cause them to give way.
The revelations of the Dies Committee on German propaganda and an economic program for the Western Hemisphere were studied carefully in high circles here today, but evoked no official comment. Officials of the Department of Justice and State Department were silent. Loath to discuss the matter, even privately, officials of government investigating agencies intimated that they possessed information which they were precluded from disclosing. In this connection they pointed out that while the Dies Committee is an open forum, the work of the regular investigating agencies is secret, and principally directed toward prosecution of individuals, through submission of evidence to grand juries. Private opinion on Capitol Hill seemed to be that the committee had accomplished many worthwhile results. Although both houses of Congress met briefly, nothing was said on either floor concerning the Dies material. However, Senator Holt urged the committee to investigate the activities of the Committee to Defend America by Aiding the Allies, which has given extensive help to Great Britain.
Philip Murray accepted the gavel of the presidency of the Congress of Industrial Organizations from the hands of John L. Lewis today and immediately cautioned the Roosevelt Administration not “to force shotgun agreements between the C.I.O. and the American Federation of Labor.”
A mass meeting of C.I.O. members voted unanimously tonight to continue a strike which today closed down the huge New Kensington, Pennsylvania, works of the Aluminum Company of America until the discharge of a worker involved in a dispute over payment of $12 in back dues. Union leaders said the strike was called because the company refused to dismiss a sheet mill worker who, they said, threatened a union official and members of the official’s family after he had been asked to pay delinquent union dues amounting to about $12. The vote was taken in the jammed, smoke-filled auditorium of the high school after two hours of discussion behind locked doors. The strike, which threw 7,500 workers idle, also interrupted work on vast national defense orders, including those for airplanes and army field kitchens. A spokesman for the aluminum workers union issued a statement which said in part: “More than 2,000 members voted to refuse to go back until the demand is met.”
“All Star Comics #3” was published, marking the debut of the first team of superheroes, the Justice Society of America.
The motion picture “The Letter” opens at the Strand Theater in New York City. Directed by William Wyler, this murder drama, based on W. Somerset Maugham’s book, stars Bette Davis and Herbert Marshall.
Around this time, Lord Willingdon holds meetings on a goodwill/trade mission to South America on behalf of the Ibero-American Institute. Accompanying him are other distinguished British economic figures, including Sir Henry Getty Chilton. Their first stop is Rio de Janeiro, where they on this date are having discussions with the government and “influential private citizens.” The next stop will be Santos. The mission will last into 1941. This incident is not very well publicized in the history books but receives extensive attention in the Brazilian press (and throughout the British Commonwealth).
Considerable numbers of Japanese troops were reported today to be withdrawing from Shantung Province in Northern China, amid evidence of growing Japanese concentrations in the south. Reports from foreign sources said Japanese troops had been leaving Shantung by railroad for the past week. These sources said they were embarking on transports at Tientsin and Tsingtao for undisclosed destinations, but were believed to be headed toward the Japanese island of Formosa and the Japanese-occupied island of Hainan off the South China coast. Some casualties among the withdrawing forces indicated the Chinese were keeping up their pressure on Shantung, where there have been frequent guerrilla raids recently on railroads. Travelers from Hong Kong, at the same time, reported sighting five Japanese transports off the mouth of the Yangtze River, apparently carrying soldiers withdrawn from Yangtze garrison cities.
Reliable informants said today that Japan virtually had abandoned all hope of making peace with Chinese Nationalist Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and probably would recognize the Nanking regime headed by former Chinese Premier Wang Ching-wei during the first week in December. Manchukuo, Germany and Italy would announce recognition of Nanking at the same time, it was said, and the Nanking Government would announce its adherence to the Axis treaty among Germany, Italy and Japan.
U.S. Vice-Consul Robert W. Rinden and Melville Jacoby, United Press correspondent in French Indo-China, were detained yesterday by the Japanese military on charges of taking photographs in a Japanese military zone at Haiphong, according to Japanese press dispatches today. The U. S. consulate in Hanoi protested against the detention, according to the dispatches, alleging that the disputed photographs were taken at its orders.
Local insurgents seize the Vichy French military base at Chau-Toc in French Indo-China.
United States Vice Consul Robert W. Rinden and Melville Jacoby, United Press staff correspondent in French Indo-China, were detained yesterday by the Japanese military on charges of taking photographs in a Japanese military zone at Haiphong, according to Japanese press dispatches today.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 131.74 (-0.48)
Born:
Terry Gilliam, filmmaker, animator and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Andrzej Żuławski, Polish film director (“Possession”, “On the Silver Globe”), in Lwow, Poland (d. 2016).
Roy William Thomas, Jr. American comic book write and editor, in Jackson, Missouri.
John Burrell, NFL wide receiver (Pittsburgh Steelers, Washington Redskins), in Fort Worth, Texas.
Naval Construction:
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type XIV U-boat U-459 is laid down by Deutsche Werke AG, Kiel (werk 290).
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type VIIC U-boat U-706 is laid down by H C Stülcken Sohn, Hamburg (werk 766).
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type VIIC U-boat U-72 is launched by F. Krupp Germaniawerft AG, Kiel (werk 619).
The U.S. Navy 70-foot Elco patrol motor torpedo boat USS PT-14 is commissioned.
The U.S. Navy Albatross-class minesweeper (fishing trawler conversion) USS Bluebird (AM-72) is commissioned. Her first commanding officer is Lieutenant Commander James Thomas Baldwin, USNR.
The Royal Navy Flower-class corvette HMS Arrowhead (K 145) is commissioned. Her first commanding officer is T/Lieutenant Victor H. Torraville, RCNR. She will be loaned to Canada in May 1941, becoming the HMCS Arrowhead.
History Diaries 