October 18th, 1940 (FRIDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:Battle of Britain: Göring praises his fighter pilots for inflicting such terrible losses on Fighter Command, and his bomber pilots for having "reduced the British plutocracy to fear and terror."
Losses: Luftwaffe, 15; RAF, 4.
The weather and visibility is poor. It was quiet in the morning but the Luftwaffe flew 35 missions in the afternoon losing 15 aircraft to the RAF's 4. During the night, raids were light and all 160 bombers participating had returned to their airfields by 0145 hours local. A small number of Luftwaffe aircraft drop a few bombs in Kent, Surrey and London where damage is of a minor character and casualties low. Night activity directed against London is on a far smaller scale than recently. Liverpool and particularly Birmingham are subjected to raids, the latter receiving considerable damage. Information is to hand of a new type of bomb which is of considerable interest. It appears that eight high explosives are strung together by wire and dropped by parachute, the material of which is non-inflammable. A wire trailing behind explodes the first bomb when contact is made with an object. The explosive force from this drives the parachute up again and the procedure is repeated as each bomb explodes.
Coventry: Sgt Michael Gibson (b. 1906), Royal Engineers, and 2nd Lt Campbell (see yesterday's entry), after a night of very dangerous work, were both killed by a bomb they were trying to defuse. (George Cross).
London: A second evacuation of the half a million children in the London area is under way. They are leaving at the rate of 2,000 a day in small parties under a "trickle" evacuation scheme. Over 20,000 left in September. A further 89,000 mothers and young children are being assisted to leave this month.
When the heavy bombing began on 7 September, thousands of East Enders fled from the devastation. Some 5,000 trekked to Epping Forest and camped there. Others took lorries to the Kent hopfields where they bedded down on straw in the hop-pickers' huts. About 10,000 Londoners and local people are now living in the Chislehurst caves in Kent. They are equipped with electric light and a canteen and sick bay. Families have taken over individual caves and installed bed and furniture.
Some 25,000 went to Paddington and took trains to places such as Reading, Basingstoke and Oxford, which alone billeted 15,000 refugees. Most of these "trekkers" have now returned. East Enders clearly hate leaving their familiar neighbourhoods or being placed in West End billets - even when they are bombed out.
Belfast: The first production Stirling bomber to be built in Northern Ireland, leaves Shorts' factory.
Destroyer HMS Exmoor commissioned.
NORTH SEA: World War One vintage submarine HMS/M Submarine H.49 surfaces west of the island of Texel off the Dutch coast but within sight of three German trawlers of the 11th UJ Flotilla. After marking the site of the (now) submerged craft, 25 depth charges cause a considerable amount of damage, and the submarine is lost, although a single survivor (Stoker George Oliver) finds himself (unconscious and without DSEA) expelled up to the surface, where he is rescued by the Germans and becomes POW. (Alex Gordon and Dennis Feary)(108)
VICHY FRANCE: Jews are formally banned from public service, industry, the media and other positions of authority.
GERMANY: Germany and Italy make demands on Greece for land concessions to Italy and Bulgaria, Greek air bases, and reorganization of the government.
U-251 laid down.
U-75 launched.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Italian submarine R.Smg. Durbo is scuttled after being depth charged and forced to surface east of Gibraltar by destroyers HMS Firedrake and HMS Wrestler and RAF London Mk. II flying boats of No. 202 Squadron.
CHINA: Kunming: The first lorries to bring war supplies along the re-opened Burma Road - closed three months ago by agreement between Japan and Britain - arrived here this evening from Lashio. Drivers reported an uneventful journey free from the air attacks threatened by Japan against the Chinese section of the road.
Sixty lorries arrived in the first convoy and another 2,000 - given a banquet send off in Burma - are expected tomorrow. Waiting at Rangoon are another 500,000 tons of war supplies, including planes and munitions. On the return leg the lorries will carry tungsten, wood, tin, oil and pig bristles for export to the US.
CANADA: In the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the 265 ton auxiliary minesweeper HMCS Bras d’Or is escorting a Romanian freighter from Quebec to Sydney, Nova Scotia. The two ships traveled down the St. Lawrence River together but in the Gulf of St. Lawrence they ran into a storm and heavy seas on the night of 18/19 October and are eventually separated and the Bra d’Or disappeared with her 30 crewmen. Investigation determines that: the Bras d’Or was not rammed as there is no damage to the freighter; a report from the mate on the Romanian freighter stated that the lights on the Bras d'Or were extinguished at 0350 hours local, 19 October, A search is later made but nothing is ever found of the ship nor where any bodies ever recovered.
Minesweeper HMCS Minas laid down North Vancouver, British Columbia.
Patrol vessel HMCS Raccoon departed Halifax for conversion and arming at Pictou.
ATLANTIC OCEAN:
Convoys SC-7 and HX-79 suffered grievously at the hands of U-boat Wolfpacks, losing seventeen and fourteen ships respectively.
U-100 damaged SS Boekelo and Shekatika in Convoy SC-7.
U-101 sank SS Creekirk and damaged SS Blairspey in Convoy SC-7.
U-38 damaged SS Carsbreck in Convoy SC-7.
U-46 sank SS Beatus, SS Convallaria and SS Gunborg in Convoy SC-7.
U-99 sank SS Fiscus, SS Niritos and SS Empire Miniver in Convoy SC-7.
U-48 sank SS Sandsend in Convoy OB-227.