August 5th, 1940 (MONDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:
RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group (Whitley). Bombing - oil plant at Sterkrade and Dornier aircraft factory at Wismar.
RAF Fighter Command: Weather, fine. Luftwaffe attacks shipping in the Straits of Dover.
Losses: Luftwaffe, 6; RAF 2.
Six Spitfires of 64 Sqn. fought with Bf109s of JG 54, two Spitfires are shot down and one
Bf109 crashes in France. Later Ju88s seeking Channel shipping are attacked off Dover by
151 Sqn. who claim another 109.
London: Britain today responded to the recent arrests of seven British subjects in Tokyo
by detaining leading Japanese businessmen in London, Rangoon, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Japan has protested at the arrests and the British ambassador, Sir Robert Craigie, has
been summoned by Mr. Matsuoka, the Japanese Foreign Minister, who described the arrests as
"unwarrantable". Among the detainees is the manager of the London branch of
Mitsubishi Trading. Seven officials of the Salvation Army in Japan have been arrested on
espionage charges.
Sloop HMS Erne launched.
Minesweeping trawler HMS River Clyde mined and sunk off Aldeburgh, Suffolk.
At 2138, U-56 fired a spread of
two torpedoes at Convoy OB-193 NW of Malin Head and observed that one missed and
the other detonated at the end of the run after 7 minutes 25 seconds. However,
the Boma was hit in this attack and sank the next day. Three crewmembers were
lost.
The master, 47 crewmembers and two gunners were picked up by the Norwegian
tanker Vilja, transferred to destroyer HMS Viscount and landed at Liverpool.
General Halder receives the first operations plans for the German invasion of the Soviet Union, by General Marcks.
BRITISH SOMALILAND: The Somali town of Hargeisa fell to the Italian army this afternoon, assaulted by infantry
and tanks after a three-hour bombardment. It was defended by two battalions of Indian and
East African troops plus some of the Somali Camel Corps - most of whom got away.
Any serious defence of Somaliland lost all chance of success when the pro-Allied governor
of neighbouring French Somaliland, General Legentilhomme resigned today and was replaced
by General Germain, who is under heavy Vichy pressure to obey the terms of the
Franco-Italian armistice.
Elsewhere, on the borders of Ethiopia, Italy's 300,000 man army seems reluctant to act
aggressively, content with the symbolic occupation of a few border towns, such as Moyale
in Kenya and Kassala in the Sudan, and in harassing the British in northern Kenya with
some remarkably effective guerrilla columns. It is so short of petrol that it can do
nothing else.
CANADA: Camillien Houde, the isolationist mayor of Montreal, is detained under the Defence of Canada Regulations, for making an anti-conscription speech on the 2nd August. He is 'invited' to correct his remarks, refuses, and will be detained until mid-1944. (Dave Hornford)
Armed yacht
HMCS Wolf commissioned.
Corvettes HMCS Lethbridge and Sherbrooke
laid down Montreal.
U.S.A.: In Washington, D.C., Lord Lothian, the
British Ambassador to the U.S., provides President Franklin D. Roosevelt with a
note concerning the facilities which the British were prepared to "extend
to the United States Government..." This will be part of the
"destroyers-for-bases" agreement between the U.K. and U.S. that will
be announced in September.
In the U.S., Rear Admiral John W. Greenslade, USN, and French Vice Admiral
Georges A.M.J. Robert conclude an agreement concerning the status of Vichy
French warships and aircraft in the French West Indies. Ships in question are
the aircraft carrier Bearn, light cruiser Emile Bertin, training
cruiser Jeanne d'Arc and auxiliary cruisers Esterelle, Quercy, and Barfleur;
aircraft are 44 Curtiss SBC-4 Helldivers, 15 Curtiss H75-A4 Hawks (export
version of USAAC P-36) and 6 Brewster Model B-339 fighters (export version of
USN F2A Buffalo) delivered to Belgium. The basic agreement is that the French
ships and aircraft will remain in Martinique throughout the war.