November 3rd, 1940 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: London: Today brings a halt to the series of 57 night raids that began on the 5th/6th of September, and that had averaged 200 bombers each.RAF Bomber Command: 2 Group: RAF Wattisham again raided by a Do17 and 2 Ju88s flying low at dusk. A hangar is set alight.
ALBANIA: Greek forces surround the Italian base at
Koritsa.
Near the village of Vouvousa, Greek evzone regiments trap the III Alpini
Division and take 5,000 prisoners. (Steven Statharos)
GREECE: A RAF bomber squadron arrives to help to fight the Italians.
RAF No. 30 Squadron, equipped with Blenheim Mk. I light bombers and Mk. IF night fighters, arrives at Eleusis Airfield, Athens, from Egypt to support the Greek forces fighting the Italians. Three other squadrons will join British Air Forces Greece by 22 November. (Andy Etherington)
Greek forces surround the Italian base at Koritsa. (Andy Etherington)
Near the village of Vouvousa, Evzone regiments trap the III Alpini Division and take 5,000 prisoners. (Steven Statharos)MALTA: Sgt Raymond Mayhew Lewin (1915-41), RAF, despite injuries, rescued his co-pilot from the blazing wreck of their plane, dragging him to safety before the bombs exploded. (George Cross)
AUSTRALIA: The German auxiliary cruiser HK Pinguin, Ship 33 or Raider "F" to the British, lays her third minefield in Spencer Gulf west of Adelaide, South Australia.
MARIANA ISLANDS: A typhoon devastates Guam rendering the U.S. Navy Yard at Piti a shambles, damaging the Marine Barracks, blowing away dwellings and poultry, destroying crops and completely disrupting the lives of the native farmers; it also reduces the Pan American Airways hotel to "kindling wood." In addition, one of the recently arrived district patrol craft (YP-16 or YP-17) is sunk; dredge YM-13, being used to dredge a channel near Sumay, is blown ashore. Greek freighter SS Axios, in the harbor for repairs, parts her moorings at the height of the typhoon, and despite the fact that she possesses neither harbor chart nor pilot miraculously escapes foundering on nearby reefs. The Governor of Guam (Captain George J. McMillin, USN) later praises the people of the island for their "cheerful willingness and unremitting effort...to repair or replace their homes that reflected character of which any group...might be proud."
FIJI ISLANDS: Headquarters New Zealand 8 Infantry Brigade is established at Suva on Viti Levu Island.
CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Miramichi laid down.
CARIBBEAN SEA: German freighter SS Helgoland, which had departed Colombian waters on 24 October, skirts the Antilles Islands near St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, in her bid for freedom.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: 23:37: Armed merchant Cruisers Laurentic is lost to the west of Ireland as she returns from patrol, to Kapitanleutnant Otto Kretschmer's U-99.
At 2140 U-99 torpedoed the unescorted Casanare west of Bloody Foreland. Her distress messages brought the armed merchant cruisers HMS Laurentic (Capt EP Vivian) and HMS Patroclus to the scene and the U-boat began a dramatic battle at 22.50 hours when the first torpedo struck the HMS Laurentic from a distance of 1500 meters. After 30 minutes, a second torpedo struck the vessel, but she remained afloat. A third torpedo was fired at 23.30 hours from a distance of 250 meters into the hole opened by the first torpedo, at this time the lookouts spotted the U-boat on the surface and Kretschmer had a hard time in evading the gunfire. In the meantime, HMS Patroclus began picking up survivors instead of participating in the fight against the U-boat and her lookouts did not see U-99 only 300 meters away. A first torpedo struck the ship at 0022, a second at 00.44 hours and a third at 0118, but then the lookouts spotted the U-boat and Kretschmer had again to evade the gunfire. After that, U-99 searched for the Casanare, but only found two lifeboats at her position, the vessel had foundered in the meantime. Suddenly, a Sunderland flying boat appeared over the U-boat, which had to dive, but no bombs were dropped. Kretschmer used the time and reloaded the torpedo tubes under water. At 0330, the U-boat surfaced, went back to the auxiliary cruisers and fired a at 0435 a coup de grāce from a distance of 250 meters at the HMS Laurentic. The torpedo struck the stern and ignited the depth charges stored there; this caused the ship to sink by the stern at 0453. Around this time a destroyer was spotted and Kretschmer had to sink the HMS Patroclus in a short time. A fifth torpedo at 0516 had no significant effect, but the sixth torpedo at 0525 caused the vessel to sink immediately. After that, U-99 was heavy attacked by the British destroyer HMS Hesperus with depth charges, but the destroyer soon left the U-boat to pick up the survivors. NOAVI's illustrious Maritime Affairs expert, the late Bill Kinsman, was serving in Hesperus at the time of the incident as an 'HO' Ordinary Seaman manning 'A' 4.7 inch mounting. He explained to me that the reason why Patroclus was so slow to sink was that she had been loaded with a cargo of empty oil drums to provide flotation in case she was torpedoed. In 1963, Bill attended the NATO Defense College then at Paris, and found himself in the same syndicate as Kretschmer, then a Captain in the West German Navy. Inevitably, they reminisced about this event and Kretschmer told Kinsman that before Hesperus had obtained a sonar contact on U-99, he had been tracking the slowly moving destroyer by periscope -- but had no torpedoes left!