August 21st, 1940 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:
Battle of Britain:
RAF Fighter Command: Enemy operations mainly limited to fighter 'tip and run' raids.
Airfields in East Anglia, south and south-west attacked.
A Do17 of KG 3 penetrating Norfolk, is destroyed at Burnham Market by 611 Squadron using the new Spitfire IIs, before another three of the Squadrons Spitfire Is destroy two more Do 17s off Mablethorpe, Lincs.
242 Sqn, down a Do17 near Harlesdon soon after midday and 56 Sqn. claim another near Ipswich.
At RAF Watton in Lincolnshire a Do17Z completes half a circuit before dropping 20 bombs causing neither casualties nor damage. The line of craters is soon filled and the raider was shot down by fighters.
In Southwold three houses are wrecked and in Leicester five die and 13 are injured during the city's first air raid.
Bombing at St. Eval damaged six 236 Squadron Blenheims.
Convoy CE9 ran the Dover Straits under shell-fire and high-level bombing. Low-level
raiders were driven off by intense AA fire and the difficulty of flying through the
convoys' kite-barrage
Losses: Luftwaffe, 14; RAF 1.
GERMANY:
U-133 laid down.
U-141 commissioned.
ROMANIA: Bucharest: Bulgarian troops are tonight poised to enter Romanian territory after talks
here ended with an agreement to revert to pre-1912 borders. Southern Dobruja, containing
the two provinces of Durastor and Caliacra bordering the Black Sea, will be ceded to
Bulgaria, and up to 100,000 Romanians moved to their diminishing homeland. Romania has
already lost control of Bessarabia to Russia. And Romania's troubles are not over yet:
Hungary is eyeing eagerly the province of Transylvania, in western Romania, and Germany
would like access to Romanian oil.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Three Fleet Air Arm Swordfish deliver, arguably, the most interesting torpedo attack of the war. Having been informed of an Italian "depot ship" at An-el-Gazala, three Swordfish of HMS Eagle's 824 Squadron, FAA, temporarily based at Ma'aten Bagush, are transferred to Sidi Barrani, equipped with auxiliary fuel tanks and torpedoes. In the late-afternoon, the three crews [Capt. O. Patch, RM (p)/Mid. G. J. Woodley, RNVR(o), Lt. N. A. F. Cheeseman, RN(p)/Sub-Lt. F. Stovin-Bradford, RN(o), and Lt. J. W. G. Welham, RN(p)/PO(A) A. H. Marsh(TAG)] headed out on the 180 mile flight to the Gulf of Bomba, routing 30 miles out to sea so as to approach the target from seaward.
Approaching the target, they sighted the Italian Submarine Iride [the mother ship for Italian human torpedoes arriving to attack Alexandria] approaching on the surface. Heading straight for her, Captain Patch released his torpedo, which smacked Iride amidships, sinking her.
Having had no opportunity to attack themselves, the other two continued on the mission assigned. As they approached, they discovered the depot ship [Monte Gargano (1,976 GRT)] with a submarine and a destroyer tied up along side. Both torpedoes ran true into the pack, the resulting explosions "sinking whole bloody lot". Initially treated with distain when they reported sinking four ships with three torpedoes, the crews were quite exuberant when recon photos the next morning verified that all three in harbour had, in fact, sank, though apparently the destroyer and the submarine were only beached. (Mark Horan)
Submarine HMS Rorqual sank unknown 5000 ton Italian supply ship by torpedo.
MEXICO: Leon Trotsky dies
from injuries sustained in an ice-pick attack yesterday.