October 8th, 1940 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:Battle of Britain: Attack on Rootes' works at Speke, Liverpool.
The Luftwaffe makes a series of raids during the day, and confines their activity almost entirely to London and the south East of England. Shortly before 0900 hours bombs are dropped in the Whitehall area and Government Offices suffer in consequence. The Paymaster General's Office receives a direct hit, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Great Scotland Yard are also damaged. Charing Cross Station District Railway and Tube Station are also targets for the Germans and are closed. During the night raids are continuous and a number of fires are started, the worst of which are at Bermondsey and the LEP Transport premises at Chiswick. At about 0500 hours the Luftwaffe makes a concentrated attack on East Anglia and proceeds northwards. RAF Fighter Command claims 4-2-3 Luftwaffe aircraft while antiaircraft batteries claim 2-0-0. Four Fighter Command aircraft are lost with four pilots missing.
Losses: Luftwaffe, 14; RAF, 4.
The Royal Air Force announces the formation of a new squadron consisting of U.S. pilot volunteers.
Westminster: Churchill reports that civilian deaths from air raids, at one time reaching 6,000 a week, have halved.
"On that particular Thursday night 180 persons were killed in London as a result of 251 tons of bombs. That is to say, it took one ton of bombs to kill three-quarters of a person.
Statisticians may amuse themselves by calculating that after making allowance for the law of diminishing returns, through the same house being struck twice or three times over, it would take ten years at the present rate for half the houses of London to be demolished. After that, of course, progress would be much slower."
USS Aulick (DD-258), commissioned as HMS Burnham (H-82), and USS Branch (DD-197), commissioned as HMS Beverley (H-64), USS Hunt (DD-194), commissioned as HMS Broadway (H-90), USS Laub (DD-263), USS McLanahan (DD-264), commissioned as HMS Bradford (H-72), commissioned as HMS Burwell (H-94), USS Satterlee (DD-190), commissioned as HMS Belmont (H-46), and USS Edwards (DD-265), commissioned as HMS Buxton (H-96), as part of the destroyers-for-bases deal. (Ron Babuka)
HMS Ark Royal arrives in Liverpool for refit, escorted by HMS Fortune, HMS Forester and HMS Greyhound.
GERMANY: U-107 commissioned.
FRENCH EQUATORIAL AFRICA: The Free French leader, Brigadier General Charles DeGaulle, arrives in Douala, Cameroon to popular acclaim. DeGaulle meets with General LeClerc, the Military-Governor of Chad and Cameroon, to discuss strategy for the consolidation of Free French position in Equatorial Africa and using the territory as a base for attacks on Italian and German positions in Libya and to break the Vichy stranglehold on French West and North Africa.
FRENCH INDOCHINA: In Saigon, the Inspector General of Colonies, Cazaux, sends a message to Free French leader Brigadier General Charles DeGaulle conveying the sympathies of the population for Free France but noting the impossibility of Indochina acting on them.
U.S.A.: Baseball
* The motion picture "The Long Voyage Home" is released today. Directed by John Ford, this war drama, based on four short Eugene O'Neill plays, stars John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell, Ward Bond, Barry Fitzgerald, Mildred Natwick and Arthur Shields. The plot involves the crew of the freighter SS Glencairn as the ship sails across the Atlantic in the early days of World War II. The film is nominated for 6 Academy Awards including Best Picture (it loses to "Rebecca") and five technical awards.
* The motion picture "Too Many Girls" is released today. Directed by George Abbott, this musical comedy featuring music by Rogers and Hart stars Lucille Ball, Richard Carlson, Ann Miller, Frances Langford in addition to Eddie Bracken and Desi Arnez in their film debuts; appearing in uncredited roles are Iron Eyes Cody, Jay Silverheels and Van Johnson (also making his film debut). The plot has four men being hired to protect a footloose woman (Ball) at Pottawatomie College in Stopgap, New Mexico. Lucy and Desi met while making the film and were married on 30 November 1940.
The government advises US citizens in the Far East to leave.
Richardson
again travels to Washington to protest basing of his fleet at Pearl Harbor.
Meets with Roosevelt and argues volubly with him over this.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-31 was attacked by the British submarine Trident. First the submarine fired 4 torpedoes, all of which missed U-31. When the British sub began to fire its gun, U-31 crash-dived. The Trident followed up with some explosive charges, but without result. This was the third time that U-31 was attacked by an enemy submarine during this patrol. The commander wrote sardonically in the war diary - "Main task of this patrol was to play the target ship for British submarines".
U-58 sank SS Confield in Convoy HX-76.