September 3rd, 1940 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:
Bombing - oil plants at Berlin.
10 Sqn. Seven aircraft. All bombed. One damaged by Flak and one crashed on return, crew safe.
Since yesterday a total of 84 RAF bombers have attacked a U-boat base at Lorient in France
and tried to set forests alight in South Germany.
Battle of Britain:
RAF Fighter Command: Airfields attacked again include Manston, West Malling and North
Weald (severely damaged) and heavy fighting occurs.
At night Merseyside, South Wales and south-east England are bombed.
The weather is fine and warm with some cloud and drizzle in the north, haze in the Channel and Straits. During the day, the Luftwaffe executes further heavy airfield attacks. The German's effort was directed to one main attack in East Kent and the Estuary in the morning, and to one minor attack in the early afternoon. In the North and East, at 1610 hours two reconnaissances took place off East Anglia reporting on convoys, and at 1700 hours two other single aircraft reported on convoys East of Skegness and East of Yarmouth. In the Southeast, at about 0830 hours one aircraft at 22,000 feet (6 706 meters) made a reconnaissance to North Foreland, along the Kentish Coast to Eastchurch, and out by Dungeness. At 0915 hour, 40 minutes after assembly south and East of Calais, 20+ aircraft at 20,000 feet (6 096 meters) approached Deal but appeared to be intercepted by one squadron off North Foreland. A further formation of about 80 aircraft flew up the North sid
e of the Estuary at 25,000 feet (7 620 meters). These are followed by other raids composed by thirty Do�s and fifty Me110's and the objective was North Weald where damage was caused. One of the RAF�s squadrons has just landed there from a previous patrol and was refueling. Pilots are unable to gain altitude in sufficient time to attack the enemy. Splits from this raid flew towards Debden, Hornchurch and Thames Haven. One small raid made towards Maidstone and one of 15 aircraft towards Biggin Hill but no definite objective was singled out. At 1115 hours when the attacking forces are dispersing two other raids consisting of 30 aircraft in all went inland at Deal and North Foreland. They penetrated only a short distance before returning. Manston however was bombed at this time but no damage was caused. At 1300 hours two raids of 12+ aircraft flew from Calais, France, towards Foreness but are driven off by one fighter squadron. At 1400 hours six enemy raids are active off the Ke
nt Coast and one of these entered the Estuary. In the South and West, at 0830 hours one aircraft made a reconnaissance flight to within 15 miles (24 kilometers) south of the Needles. At 1130 hours three high level reconnaissances by single aircraft are tracked in the Bristol, Liverpool, and Birmingham areas. At 2055 hours aircraft approached Start Point and Portland. No interceptions are made. (Andy Etherington)
During the night, Liverpool was bombed once again and there are harassing raids on South Wales and the southwest coast. German activity was on a similar scale to that of recent nights but confined almost entirely to the Liverpool, South Wales and Kentish areas. Very little attention was paid to the Industrial Midlands. From 2100 hours a steady stream of raids from the Brest and Cherbourg areas of France was plotted to South Wales and Bristol. Many aircraft flew on to Liverpool and a few as far as Barrow-in-Furness. Successive waves followed to Liverpool and whilst the rest of the country was almost clear by 0100 hours raids are still passing towards Liverpool at 0230 hours. Extensive mine-laying is suspected along the whole of the East Coast from Aberdeen to the Thames Estuary and along the South Coast as far as Poole. Some of these raids penetrated a short distance inland in the Tyne, Tees, Yorkshire, and Kent areas. Others are suspected of mine-laying in the Bristol Channel and in Liverpool Bay. (Andy Etherington)
Today, the RAF claims 25-11-10 Luftwaffe aircraft; the British lost 20 aircraft with ten pilots killed or missing.
Losses: Luftwaffe, 16; RAF, 16.
The cabinet approves compensation of up to GBP 2000 for each house destroyed by Luftwaffe
air raids.
Lydd, Kent: Mabel Cole, the wife of the publican of the Rising Sun, had every reason to be
suspicious when a well-dressed young man knocked on the door at nine o'clock in the
morning and asked for a glass of cider. He spoke with a foreign accent in a prohibited
area - and he was plainly ignorant of English licensing laws. Mrs Cole sent him across the
road to Tilbey's stores to buy some cigarettes while she summoned help.
The young man, a Dutchman, was one of four well-dressed spies - two of them German - who
landed on the beach here today before being arrested.
Corvettes HMS Daniella and Snapdragon launched.
Submarine HMS Upright commissioned.
GERMANY:
Berlin: Hitler postpones the invasion of Britain, scheduled for 15 September, to 21
September, but issues Operational orders.
Hitler also asks for an increase in the output of 2,200lb bombs, designed for use against
built up areas.
U-57 (Type IIC) is sunk at 0015hrs at Brunsbüttel (the western entrance to the Kiel canal) in position 53.53N, 09. 09E, after a collision with the Norwegian steamship Rona; 6 dead. Raised in Sept 1940. Repaired and returned to service as a training boat on 11 Jan, 1941. Scuttled on 3 May, 1945 at Kiel. (Alex Gordon)
ROMANIA:
Bucharest: King Carol of Romaniasurvives an assassination attempt.
The Legionary Revolution breaks out at 0900 hours local. Fighting in Bucharest, Brasov and Constanta results in the death of nine Legionaries. Most public buildings are quickly occupied and the Palace was surrounded. General Coroama, Commander of the Bucharest Army Corps, refuses to order his troops to fire on the Legionaries.
JAPAN: The Japanese army and navy agree on a southern advance strategy.
The land service needed much time to prepare itself for the Southward Advance
even after mobilization was approved formally. When the admirals procrastinated,
Tanaka Shin'ichi, head of the Army General Staff's Operations Division,
scathingly asked if the navy was up to its old game of using the name of war
preparations to secure additional allocations of funds and materials. But he
also agreed to a simultaneous attack on Malaya and the Philippines using ten,
not six, divisions. This concession got the navy off the hook and, by September
3, it agreed to join the army in pressing for a definitive peace-or-war decision
by early October at the latest, as the generals had desired.
(201)(Will
O'Neil)
CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Wasaga laid down.
U.S.A.: President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces the "destroyers-for-bases" agreement. The President tells Congress that he acted on his own authority in trading the 50 overage destroyers for bases in British colonial territory in the Western Hemisphere.
The US government warns the Japanese government against making aggressive moves in Indochina.
In New York City, the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) television station W2XAB transmits the first high definition color TV broadcast from the Chrysler Building, using 343 lines of resolution. This was the first telecast of any kind from CBS since the closing of their scanner station in 1933.
Clarinetist Artie Shaw and the Gramercy Five records the song "Summit Ridge Drive" for Victor Records.
Destroyer USS Macomb laid down.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: While escorting a convoy, destroyer ORP Blyscawica observed a periscope and attacked a U-boat with depth charges. Two hours later, in fog, she encountered a U-boat on the surface at a distance of 700 meter and attacked it with guns and depth charges.
U-60 sinks SS Ulva.