September 6th, 1940 (FRIDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:Main rail lines at Oxten and Caterham had been damaged slightly, also Hawker's at Brooklands and Pobjoy's Rochester works.
The second operation came when it was just dark at 20:43 (Double Summer Time being in operation), when bombs fell on West Ham damaging houses, railway lines and the Victoria Docks causing 55 casualties. More bombing involved Woolwich, Southwark and London's south-east suburbs, where over 70 casualties were reported.
The weather is fine, but cooler with haze in the Straits and Thames Estuary. During the day, three main attacks are launched, all in the South Coast of England, and the Thames Estuary area. During the morning, a raid approached Portland, but no attack developed. A few small raids in the Bristol/North Wales/Liverpool areas and one raid appeared near Leicester and flew out to sea near Tangmere. In the East, two small raids from the Dutch Cost inland from Harwich, one penetrating to Northampton, and in the afternoon one raid 10 miles out to sea along the Norfolk coast towards the Wash. In the Southeast, the first attack is between 0840-0950 hours with raids totaling some 300 enemy aircraft crossed the Coast between Dover and Dungeness and spread out fanwise, some raids penetrating to Biggin Hill and one as far as North Weald. The raids are intercepted by Royal Air Force (RAF) fighters and most of the day's enemy loses are inflicted during this attack. The second attack, between 1255 and 1400 hours, totaling some 200 enemy aircraft crossed the coast again between Dover and Dungeness, followed by further raids. The majority of raids did not penetrate beyond Kent and Sussex, but some appeared to go as far as Debden and Hornchurch. No 11 Group is reinforced by 4.5 Squadrons during this attack. The third attack, between 1745 and 1845 hours, consisted of two raids each of some 50 German aircraft, crossed the coast between Maidstone towards the Thames Estuary. The main target towards Hornchurch but turned back via Maidstone. Seventeen RAF Squadrons are detailed to meet this attack by 11 Group, and one Squadron over North Weald and Hornchurch from 12 Group. It is reported that after this attack two Me 110's landed almost undamaged, at Manston and Hawkinge. In the South, there is one early reconnaissance from Cherbourg to Portland, Swanage and Selsey Bill. One raid of 20+ aircraft from Cherbourg at 1147 hours approached Portland on a 10 mile (16 kilometer) front, and a further raid of 6+ aircraft are plotted at the same time, but an attack did not develop, and only two aircraft are seen near Portland. Between 1400-1500 hours, small hostile patrol in Lyme Bay. In the West, at 1700 hours, a small raid flew over North Wales to Liverpool. In the North, at 1600 hours, two high reconnaissance raids off the coast at Aberdeen.
During the night, Luftwaffe activity is on a very reduced scale. From 2015 hours, a few raids flew towards London via the Thames Estuary and Kent. There are no raids in this area after 0030 hours. Scattered raids are plotted through the Midlands and in South Wales, but no raids are plotted into this country after 0100 hours, and up to 0400 hours activity is very slight. There is suspected mine-laying raids on East Coast as far North as the Humber. At 2115 hours two raids are plotted off Aberdeenshire Coast in vicinity of two convoys.
Today, RAF Fighter Command claimed 44-20-14 Luftwaffe Aircraft; the RAF lost 22 aircraft with seven pilots killed or missing.At 3.00 am, Gosta Catroli, a Swedish national trained by the German Secret Service "Abwerh", parachuted from a Dornier Bomber and landed near Yardley, Hastings.
Catroli's mission was to report by means of his radio, on conditions in Britain. He was arrested during the evening on the day he arrived, and on interrogation he was 'turned' and agreed to assist the British authorities.
As a direct result, another agent will be arrested in the same district in a months time. (William L. Howard)
Corvette HMS Campanula commissioned.
HMCS Margaree ex-HMS Diana, a Decoy or D-class fleet destroyer, was commissioned into the RCN at Londonderry, Northern Ireland. She was purchased for $886,847, approximately the average cost of the five C-class destroyers purchased previously by the RCN. All other old A- to I-class fleet destroyers transferred to the RCN subsequently during the war were presented as gifts to the Government of Canada in return for the stationing of Canadian Tribal-class destroyers with the British Home Fleet.
FRANCE: Generalissimo Maurice Gustav Gamelin, former commander of Allied forces in France, is arrested by the Vichy government and charged with responsibility for France´s entry into the war and the resulting disaster.
He is later interned by the Germans in Northern Italy and is released and repatriated in 1945. He died in 1958.
GERMANY:
U-134 and
U-406 laid down.
ROMANIA:
Bucharest: King Carol of Romania today surrendered to the dictator General Ion Antonescu
and abdicated in favour of his son, Prince Michael.
The king, who will seek asylum in Switzerland, declared: "I have decided to abdicate
in face of the misfortunes which have come to this country. I hope by this sacrifice to
save my country." This is the second time that Carol has given up his throne. He
renounced his right of succession in 1925 for love of his mistress, Elena "Magda" Lupescu, before
returning to turn his son off the throne in 1930.
"Magda" was a derogatory nickname in favour with the Romanian populace, signifying a woman of the street with few (if any) morals. The name of Carol's paramour for whom he renounced a kingdom (albeit far from permanentl), was indeed Elena Lupescu. (Greg Kelley)
EGYPT: Italian aircraft make three raids on Marsa Matruh and inflict some damage. It is believed that two attacking machines were damaged by British ground defences.
CANADA: HMS Duchess arrives in Halifax harbour, bringing the members of the Tizard Mission and a black metal box containing, amongst other things, six examples of the cavity magnetron. This would later be described as "the most important cargo to reach our (i.e. American) shores". (Cris Wetton)
The USN destroyers USS Aaron Ward (DD-132), USS Buchanan (DD-131), USS Crowninshield (DD-134), USS Hale (DD-133), USS Abel P. Upshur (DD-193), USS Welborn C. Wood (DD-195), USS Herndon (DD-198) and USS Welles (DD-257) arrive at Halifax, Nova Scotia, along with destroyer USS Russell (DD-414), with Commander Destroyers, Atlantic Fleet (Captain Ferdinand L. (Reichmuth) embarked, and destroyer tender USS Denebola (AD-12). These are the first of the "flushdeck" destroyers to be transferred under the "Destroyers-For-Bases" deal. Contrary to popular opinion, none of the eight ships to be transferred were taken directly from reserve status and handed over to the RN. All eight ships had been recommissioned at least during 1939 and all had been engaged in operations on the neutrality patrols. Two ships were recommissioned considerably earlier and had served for extended periods with both the US Atlantic and Pacific Fleets; Crowninshield (1930) and Buchanan (1934). Denebola was present to provide last-minute ‘running repairs’ before the transfer was completed. All eight destroyers were decommissioned from the USN on 09 Sep and commissioned into the RN on the same day. USS Crowninshield was commissioned as HMS Chelsea (I35). She reached Devonport, England, on 28 Sep 1940 and was assigned to the Sixth Escort Group, Western Approaches Command, for local escort duty. In Nov 42, Chelsea became one of eight ‘flushdeckers’ lent to the RCN. She served with Canadian forces until the Dec 43, operated with both the Mid-Ocean Escort Force and Western Escort Forces. Chelsea returned to Londonderry, Northern Ireland, on 26 Dec 43 and, in early 44, was reduced to reserve status in the Tyne estuary. On 16 Jul 44, she was transferred to Russia and renamed Derskni. "By the long arm of coincidence" (as British Prime Minister Churchill puts it) the Royal Navy crews assigned to man the ships arrive simultaneously.
U.S.A.: The first development contracts (W535 ac-15429) for the prototype Consolidated XB-32 and Boeing XB-29 are signed. This will produce two XB-29s and a static test. The price is $3.6 million.
URUGUAY: The warm generosity with which the U.S. meets the British request for ships contrasts markedly with the cold response to the Uruguayan government's request to purchase three destroyers. U.S. Minister to Uruguay Edwin C. Wilson recounts an interview with "a leading Uruguayan" who complains: "Having been exhorted to cooperate in continental defence, we want to build up our pitifully non-existent Navy, and we ask you to let us have two or three old destroyers that have been lying useless in your ports since the last war. You handed over fifty of these destroyers to Great Britain, and we see pictures reproduced in the papers of quantities of these ships tied up in your ports, looking like so many toy vessels in a shop window. Yet, you tell us that you find it impossible to let us have even a single one of these." Secretary of State Hull confidentially informs Minister Wilson that the USN believes "that the strategic situation in the North Atlantic does not permit the disposal of any destroyers to Uruguay at the present time, the more so as this would inevitably lead to similar requests from other American republics for [the] purchase of destroyers."
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Escorting convoy OA205 (U.K. to North America), corvette HMS Godetia (K 72) is rammed and sunk by the merchantman SS Marsa north of Ireland 3 miles off Alatacarry Head, Rathlin Island at 55 18N, 05 57W. She is the first 'Flower' class to be lost.