Field Marshal Pietro Badoglio was scapegoated for the Italian military reverses in Greece and made to resign as Chief of Staff of the Italian Army. He was replaced by Ugo Cavallero. Premier Mussolini accepted today, the resignation of “Italy’s Hindenburg,” 69-year-old Marshal Pietro Badoglio, chief of the general staff before and after Fascism, and replaced him with a tested lieutenant upon whom he counts to “break the back” of Greece. The new chief of the general staff is General Ugo Cavallero, nine years Badoglio’s junior.
Benito Mussolini called Dino Alfieri, the Italian ambassador to Berlin, and told him to request any immediate help the Germans could provide. Alfieri met with Joachim von Ribbentrop, who gave him a stern lecture about the Italian government ignoring Hitler’s warning not to attack Greece and then schedules a meeting between Alfieri and Hitler on the 7th.
The Greeks occupied Sarandë. Triumphant Greek troops, overwhelming Italian forces at the southern Albania seaport of Porto Edda (Sarandë) and nearby Argirocastro, immediately pushed on northward on the heels of the retreating Italians, Greek government spokesman said today. Some units remained in Porto Edda to list captured Italian armament. Others drove units of the Italian rearguard from hill positions north of Porto Edda on the coastal road. These Fascist units sought to protect their legions escaping north toward Chimara, the spokesman said. “Heavy losses” were suffered by the Italians vacating Argirocastro, the spokesman said, and the Fascist retreat all along the 100-mile Albanian front was continuing he said. Santi Quaranta, Albania was also taken by Greek forces.
The Greek advance continues on 6 December 1940. They consolidate their hold on Sarandë, a port with special significance to Mussolini because it has acquired the nickname Porto Edda after his daughter. In the Pindos Mountains, the Greeks advance toward Klisura, and in Macedonia, the Greeks move toward Elbasan.
Vichy France held a War Guilt trial, indicting Blum, Daladier, La Chambre, and Gamelin.
Subsequent to the big conference held with Hitler regarding Operation Barbarossa, OKW operations chief Lieutenant General Alfred Jodl has Major General Walther Warlimont begin detailed planning.
One of the thousands of victims of the Nazi program of killing the mentally ill, Aloisia Veit (aged 49), was gassed today in Austria. She was a relative of Adolf Hitler. In one of the ironies of history, Adolf Hitler’s cousin Aloisia Veit is gassed (carbon monoxide) to death on or about this date in Austria. This is pursuant to the euthanasia program that Adolf Hitler himself had authorized in late 1939. Aloisia was diagnosed with “schizophrenic mental instability, helplessness, depression, distraction, hallucinations, and delusions.” Assuming that the doctors’ notes can be believed, the woman actually was mentally ill, and she spent much of her time chained to her bed. She is related to Hitler via his father’s Schicklgruber family — that branch of the family apparently had a deep history of mental illness.
The Gestapo arrests German Communist resistance fighter/poster artist Helen Ernst. They send her to Ravensbrück, the concentration camp for women. From 1941 to 1944, she was imprisoned in the Ravensbrück concentration camp , and in 1944–45 in the Barth subcamp , before being liberated by Red Army troops on May 1, 1945. She documented her years in the camp for posterity in numerous pencil drawings, created at great personal risk.
The Rumanian Government, determined to “protect our frontiers and State unity” and crush any uprisings, today issued a decree providing the death penalty for military rebellion.
The British War Cabinet refuses to allow relief measures in Metropolitan France. The Vichy French and English are engaged in drawn-out deliberations behind the scenes, but in public, they remain adversaries. The British War Cabinet today declines to grant any humanitarian aid to France.
British submarine HMS Regulus was lost near Taranto, probably to a naval mine.
British 7th Armoured Division, British 16th Infantry Brigade, and Indian 4th Infantry Division began preparing for Operation COMPASS in Egypt. 25,000 British and Commonwealth troops advance more than 40 miles into the Italian occupied desert, before hiding themselves and their equipment from the Italian Air Force. The British put in place final preparations for Operation COMPASS, the offensive against the advanced Italian lines in Egypt. The British march 25,000 troops 35 miles forward from their encampments near Mersa Matruh toward the front lines, hidden as best they can near their jump-off points. They still have about 35 miles to go. The plan is for a 5-day raid through a 15-mile gap between Italian encampments.
The British Tommies are not told that they are on the verge of an offensive; this is “Training Exercise No. 2.” The units are British 7th Armoured Division, British 16th Infantry Brigade, and Indian 4th Infantry Division. Together, they comprise the Western Desert Force under the command of General Richard O’Connor).
German bombers attacked Bristol, England, United Kingdom overnight. The weather restricts flying operations. The Luftwaffe bombs Bristol, which is its latest target for successive raids, and London.
RAF Bomber Command dispatches 55 Blenheims, Hampdens and Whitleys overnight to Luftwaffe bomber airfields in the Occupied Countries. 2 Hampdens lost. A further 20 Hampdens carried out `interruption patrols’, attempting to engage German bombers raiding Bristol, but with no success. 1 O.T.U. sortie to Paris.
U-43 sank Norwegian steamer Skrim (1902grt) west of Ireland. The Skrim (Master Max Emil Gran) straggled from convoy OB.252 due to bad weather on 4 December and was never seen again. At 2248 hours, U-43 hit a ship going west in the stern with a torpedo and observed it sinking in 63 seconds. The ship had been spotted at 1847 hours and missed with a first torpedo at 2226 hours. This vessel was probably the Skrim. The 1,902-ton Skrim was bound for Sydney, Nova Scotia.
The weather remains rough in the North Atlantic and the English Channel. This mangles convoy schedules and damages/sinks numerous smaller ships.
British 347-ton freighter Accomac has its boiler explode — perhaps due to stress fighting the weather — and drifts ashore at Pickie, Bangor, Northern Ireland. The ship is a total loss, but apparently, everybody survives.
Free French 2147-ton collier Mousse le Moyec runs aground and is wrecked at Harland Point, Devon.
Norwegian 1374-ton freighter Nyland is sailing with Convoy EN 35 off Iona, the Inner Hebrides when it runs aground at West Rock and is wrecked. All 20 onboard (including three Canadians) perish. The Nyland was en route to join Convoy OB 255 out of Liverpool. The ship simply disappears — a tug sent to tow it off the shore found nothing. Two weeks later, some wreckage bearing her name is found at Torran Rocks.
British coaster South Coaster encounters severe weather in Bristol Channel and is abandoned by its crew. The ten men are picked up by the Royal National Lifeboat Institute and the ship sinks. A ship with the same name sinks on 13 December 1943 at Pole Sands, but that is a different wreck.
Anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Curacoa arrived at Scapa Flow at 0900 after escorting convoy EN.36. The cruiser departed Scapa Flow at 1400 to join convoy WN.49.
Destroyer HMS Beverley departed Scapa Flow at 1530 and destroyer HMS Burnham departed Scapa Flow at 1800. Both destroyers had completed their working up at Scapa Flow and were en route to Belfast to join the Western Approaches Command.
Destroyer HMS Beagle with a damaged steering gear, escorted by destroyer HMS Sikh, arrived at Scapa Flow at 2359 after being detached from battleship HMS Rodney’s screen.
Destroyer HMS Matabele departed Rosyth at 2200 for Scapa Flow after docking and repairs. The destroyer arrived at Scapa Flow at 1100/7th.
Submarine HMS Unbeaten was damaged by gales while alongside submarine depot ship HMS Titania in the Clyde. The submarine arrived at Barrow to repair on the 17th. Repairs were completed on the 30th.
Minesweeper HMS Salamander was damaged in a gale. The minesweeper underwent repairs and refit at Grimsby from 20 January to 10 March.
British steamer Supremity (554grt) was sunk on a mine west, southwest, three cables from EastOaze Light Vessel, Thames Estuary. One crewman was lost on the British steamer.
German trawler Jupiter (218grt) was sunk by enemy action.
Light cruisers HMS Orion and HMS Ajax and Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney departed Alexandria to cover convoy movements. The cruisers called at Suda Bay on the 7th before proceeding to Piraeus, where they arrived on the 8th. Light cruiser Orion then returned to Alexandria, arriving On the 10th. Cruisers Ajax and Sydney remained in the Aegean until departing Piraeus on the 10th for Suda Bay.
Italian steamers Olimpia (6040grt) and Carnia (5451grt) departed Durazzo escorted by torpedo boat Riboty on the 5th. Submarine HMS Triton on the 6th attacked and badly damaged Italian steamer Olimpia (6040grt) in 41‑06N, 18‑39E. Italian torpedo boats Altair and Andromeda attacked submarine Triton, but the submarine escaped.
Convoy FN.352 departed Southend, escorted by destroyers HMS Vanity and HMS Westminster. The convoy arrived at Methil on the 8th.
Convoy FS.354 departed Methil, escorted by destroyers HMS Wallace and HMS Wolfhound. The convoy arrived at Southend on the 8th.
Convoy FS.355 departed Methil, escorted by destroyers HMS Valorous and HMS Versatile. The convoy arrived at Southend on the 9th.
Convoy HX.94 departed Halifax at 1435 escorted by Canadian destroyer HMCS Assiniboine, corvettes HMCS Trillium and HMCS Windflower, auxiliary patrol vessels HMCS Elk and HMCS Husky. At 1745, the ocean escort, armed merchant cruiser HMS Rajputana joined the convoy and at 1725/7th, Canadian destroyer Assiniboine returned to Halifax. The armed merchant cruiser was detached on the 18th. Destroyer HMS Scimitar and corvettes HMS Arabis and HMS Mallow joined on the 18th. Corvette Arabis was detached on the 19th, destroyer Scimitar was detached on the 20th as were the Canadian corvettes were detached that day. Corvette Mallow was detached on the 22nd. Anti-submarine trawlers HMS Northern Dawn and HMS Wellard were with the convoy in Home Waters. The convoy arrived at Liverpool on the 22nd.
The Newark Evening News said in a special dispatch from Washington today that Colonel William J. Donovan of New York is scheduled to go to Europe soon “as a private emissary of the administration.” The article said that the “main purpose” of Donovan’s mission “is to overcome ‘impressions,’ both here and in England, that have been created by Ambassador Kennedy’s (Joseph R., former ambassador to the court of St. James) so-called defeatist and appeasement statements.
Behind that closely guarded secrecy about President’ Roosevelt’s Caribbean cruise itinerary Is a seriously considered plan to visit the famous French island of Martinique. When the president embarked on the USS Tuscaloosa at Miami, no decision had been made regarding this. But it was one of the things he discussed In his two-hour conference with Admiral Leahy, new ambassador to France. Whether Roosevelt will debark if he goes to Martinique, or merely receive the French governor aboard the Tuscaloosa, also is undecided. Like the plan of the trip itself, it depends on developments.
Attorney General Jackson said tonight that the Justice Department had not arrived at any formula for cooperation with the Dies investigating committee, and that statements of the committee chairman, Representative Dies, to this effect were “premature.” Mr. Dies had stated earlier today in Nashville that his committee had reached “complete agreement” with the department, and had worked out “a formula to avoid possible friction and disagreement.” He said that the agreement “means we will get cooperation from the Federal Bureau of Investigation I have been seeking for three years.” That statement, Attorney General Jackson declared tonight, was illustrative “of the difficulties which he (Dies) injects into our efforts to cooperate with his committee.” Messrs. Jackson and Dies engaged in a verbal duel recently when the latter charged the Justice. Department with inefficiency and. laxity in administering the law. Mr. Jackson replied with an attack on Mr. Dies and the committee.
The strategic Caribbean island of Martinique was promised tonight as a site for a U. S. naval base if and when General Charles de Gaulle’s “free Frenchmen” gain control there. The promise was made by Jacques de Sieves, personal representative in the United States of General de Gaulle. He told reporters at a press conference that information from the island indicated that at least 80 percent of the population is in sympathy with De Gaulle, leader of the French forces fighting with the British.
William “Wild Bill” Donovan departs for Europe. He is to conduct another fact-finding mission at the request of President Roosevelt.
Strong diplomatic protests to Germany were indicated tonight as the United States sought to clear up the mystery surrounding the detention of Mrs. Elizabeth Deegan, a clerk in the American embassy in Paris, who has been held by German authorities there since December 1. Embassy officials in Paris, seeking to learn the cause and circumstances of her detention, appeared to have failed to penetrate the secrecy of the German Gestapo (secret police). The embassy was said to have protested to German diplomatic officials in Paris as soon as it learned Mrs. Deegan was in custody. According to reports received here, she was detained after German police had invited her to go to a Paris prison to visit British prisoners.
The Federal Power Commission reported to President Roosevelt today that the power supply for national defense needs promised to be adequate “in most cases” for 1941, but that by 1942, when the peak defense production was reached, there might be a deficiency of as much as 1,500,000 kilowatts. The report was the first of a monthly series.
The death of a 22-year-old airline stewardess today brought to nine the lives lost in a crash late Wednesday of a United Airlines plane. Miss Florence Little, Chicago, stewardess aboard the 21-passenger plane, failed to respond to a blood transfusion and died at a hospital from a basal skull fracture. Of the other seven passengers injured, Paul Kyan, 40, Cleveland, and O. M. Frederick, 52, Olmstead, Ohio, were reported in critical condition.
The spreading Puget Sound lumber mill and logging camp strike hit Seattle today, closed the last operating mill in Tacoma and threatened a delay in finishing the cantonment building program at Fort Lewis, scene of a mild influenza epidemic.
The U.S. Navy is receiving new fighting ships from the shipyards at the rate of one every twelve days, the National Defense Advisory Commission announced today.
The comedy film “Go West” starring the Marx Brothers was released.
Secretary Knox completed his inspection of the naval establishments of the Panama Canal today and closed an unusually full program with a dinner at the Presidential Palace, given in his honor by President Arias. His plane will leave the naval air station at Coco Solo tomorrow bound for Puerto Rico. It is believed that he may witness special maneuvers off Culebra Island with President Roosevelt.
U.S. Navy heavy cruiser USS Louisville (CA-28) returns to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as she continues to “show the flag” in Latin American waters.
Admiral Kichisaburo Nomura, newly appointed Japanese Ambassador to the United States, will visit China before proceeding to Washington, it was learned today.
Five hundred additional Japanese troops and considerable quantities of artillery landed at the French Indo-China port of Haiphong today, augmenting the large Japanese force already garrisoned in the colony under terms of an agreement with the Vichy government. New border skirmishes between Thai and French troops were disclosed by the government, meanwhile, as reports of new Communist outbreaks reached Hanoi. Eight Communists were said to have been killed and thirty arrested after an uprising in the south.
The Japanese step in and attempt to resolve the simmering Thai/Vichy French border war. They sign a “non-aggression pact” with the Thais (supposedly at the Thai government’s request) and basically impose a settlement. The Thais get several disputed territories, including Lao Sayaboury, the Cambodian provinces of Battambang and Siem Riep (Phibunsongkhram province), and the part of Champassak on the west bank. The U.S., meanwhile, looks askance at the Thai invasion and halts exports of 16 aircraft to Thailand, re-routing them to their own forces in the Philippines. The U.S. also considers further sanctions based in part on the growing perception that Thailand and Japan basically are now de facto allies, which is not the case.
The Norwegian tanker Ole Jacob, captured by the German commerce raider Atlantis on November 10, arrived in Kobe Japan. The Ole Jacob carried a cargo of high-octane aircraft fuel and also top-secret documents about the defenses of the port of Singapore and other information about British military situation on the Far East that were captured from the British freighter Automedon. Because of this action the Japanese Government granted the Germans the use of Muag Island, a small island in the Mariana Islands, as a rest-refitting-replenishment area for raiders and blockade runners.
German raiders Komet and Orion, operating in tandem, come upon 4413 ton British/Australian phosphate freighter Triona northeast of the Solomon Islands near the island of Nauru (west of the Gilberts group). The Germans are very interested in Nauru due to its phosphate production and are planning to attack it, and coming across the Triona is purely coincidental to that objective. Accounts vary about what happened next: either the freighter is sunk after a long chase, killing three or four (native) crewmen with gunfire, or the ship is captured and then sunk. It is possible that the ship is captured after a chase and either quickly scuttled or sinks from its battle damaged. In any event, the Triona does not last very long. There are 68 survivors, including 6 female passengers and a child.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 130.33 (+0.37)
Born:
Jay Leonhart, American session and touring jazz and pop double bassist and songwriter (The Bass Lesson), in Baltimore, Maryland.
Naval Construction:
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type IXC U-boat U-166 is laid down by Deutsche Schiff und Maschinenbau AG, Deschimag, Wesermünde (werk 705).
The U.S. Navy Gato-class submarine USS Flying Fish (SS-229) is laid down by the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (Kittery, Maine).
The Royal Navy Higgins 70 foot-class motor gun boat HMS MGB 72 is commissioned.
The Royal Navy Thornycroft 55 foot-class motor torpedo boat HMS MTB 215 is commissioned.
The Royal Australian Navy Bathurst-class minesweeper-corvette HMAS Bathurst (J 158) is commissioned. Her first commanding officer is Lieutenant Commander Andrew V. Bunyan, DSC, RD; RANR(S).
The Royal Navy Flower-class corvette HMS Spikenard (K 198) is commissioned. Her first commanding officer is Lieutenant Commander Hubert George Shadforth, RCNR. She will be transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy in May 1941, becoming the HMCS Spikenard (K 198).
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