MALTA:

From Governor and C-in-C, Malta to the War Office:

The more I think of it the more troubled I am at the withdrawal of one of our three fighter squadrons from the western desert. This is a very drastic cut and unless we can improve upon present plans, cannot be replaced for some weeks.

AOC-in-C has warned me that we are too weak to give effective support to the army in battle should a major engagement develop. Nor we can we ignore the possibility that an object of Italy's attack on Greece is to induce us to weaken ourselves in the vital theatre of Egypt. In these conditions it would help us in Egypt if some four-gun Glenn Martin long-range fighters could be flown out at once via Malta.

Further, while we are glad to have Wellingtons in Egypt, these cannot be used for day bombing and are not the equivalent of Blenheims in value for battle.

These Glenn fighters are the Martin Model 167 Maryland which was designated XA-22 by the USAAC. The aircraft had four 30 calibre (7.62 mm) machine guns in the wings and two in dorsal and ventral positions.

In November 1940, the RAF had two units equipped with Maryland Mk Is, No. 8 Squadron at Khormaksar, Aden, and No. 431 General Reconnaissance Flight at Malta. Eventually, five additional RAF squadrons and four South African Air Force squadrons flew the Marylands in North Africa.
 

FRENCH EQUATORIAL AFRICA: In Gabon, the Vichy garrison at Lambarene surrenders. As a result, Free French troops under General Phillipe LeClerc and Marie Joseph Koenig depart Douala, Cameroons, bound for Libreville, Gabon.

U.S.A.: Franklin D. Roosevelt re-elected President for a third term, his new vice-president is Henry A Wallace, the publisher of a farm newspaper.

He wins a resounding victory over Wendell Wilkie receiving 27,200,000 votes to Wilkie's 22,300,000, gaining a majority in 39 of the 48 states of the Union, Churchill carefully refrained from any public comment about the election campaign. Although Wilkie spoke out in support of aid to Britain, Churchill undoubtedly preferred Roosevelt's re-election.

ATLANTIC OCEAN:

Halifax/UK convoy HX84 of 37 ships and its solitary escort the AMC Jervis Bay (Capt. Edward Stephen Fogarty Fegen (b. 1891)) is attacked by the Panzerschiffe Admiral Scheer in mid-Atlantic. Jervis Bay whose armament consists of seven 6 inch guns is considerably outgunned by Scheer with her six 11 inch and eight 5,9 inch guns. As the convoy scatters Jervis Bay heads for the Scheer, guns firing. The end is in no doubt and she goes down, but her sacrifice saves all but six of the merchant ships. Capt. Edward Fegen RN is posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. It is in this action that the tanker 'San Demetrio' is damaged by gunfire and abandoned. Later re-boarded, a few of her crew get her into port. Scheer now heads for the central and later South Atlantic.

Destroyer HMCS St Francis tasked to search for German armoured Admiral Scheer, KptzS Hans-Heinrich Wurmback, CO, following her attack on convoy HX-84. Convoy HX 84 departed Halifax on 28 Oct 40 with 38 ships bound for Liverpool. On 5 Nov, Admiral Scheer attacked the convoy, escorted by the armed merchant cruiser HMS Jervis Bay, Capt E.S. Fogarty Fegen, CO, Although unarmoured and massively outgunned - seven elderly 6" guns against Scheer's 11" main battery - Fegen attacked the German ship head on, ordering the convoy to scatter. Jervis Bay never once brought Admiral Scheer within the range of her own guns, but fought on with her decks ablaze. 190 of her crew of 255 were lost, including Fegen. The delay allowed most of the convoy to get clear, the German raider that was dispersed as a defensive measure. In total, Admiral Scheer sank 6 ships, including 5 merchantmen. An engagement between an old, worn-out WWI DD and a modern pocket battleship would have been no contest. But, the allied commanders were desperate for information about the raider's location so that she could be tracked down, cornered, and destroyed. The loss of a destroyer to protect valuable merchant cargoes and, indeed, the entire convoy system would have been an acceptable exchange. Fortunately for St Francis, much like HMCS Rainbow off the West Coast in 1914, the Canadians never found the German surface raider. It is also interesting to note that one of the merchant ships Admiral Scheer sunk (by gun fire) in HX-84 was the Canadian Pacific steamer Beaverford (10,042 GRT), Captain Hugh Pettigrewain, Master. She was among the company's pre-war pride-and-joys, which had been taken up for wartime service. Beaverford put up a dogged fight for over four hours before being lost. The five merchant ships sunk by Scheer from HX-84 totalled 33,331 tons. The cargoes carried in the lost ships included 28,000 tons of general cargo and military transport, 8,425 tons of general food, 8129 tons of corn, 7,800 tons of steel, and 12 a/c. 208 merchant seamen lost their lives in this engagement. The sixth ship sunk was the Armed Merchant Cruiser, HMS Jervis Bay, Captain E.S. Fogarty Fegen, CO. Admiral Scheer’s cruise lasted from 27 Oct 40 to 01 Apr 41. Using here extremely good endurance and German re-supply ships to full advantage, she ranged from the North to South Atlantic, and into the Indian Ocean during which time she sank 14 ships, one RN auxiliary cruiser (Jervis Bay), and captured two other ships. Scheer was subsequently employed in the Baltic and the Arctic. She was bombed and sunk at her base in Kiel on 09 Apr 45. The object of surface raiding by large warships was to break up the convoy system, the historical method of protecting merchant ships from raids by frigates. The widespread tonnage warfare campaign by submarines forced the implementation of convoys on virtually a global scale. This imposed significant cargo-carrying inefficiencies and stretched the escort forces thinly. The concentration of large numbers of merchant ships made a 'large haul' of their valuable cargoes by powerful warships possible. The escort force they were likely to confront were one cruiser and long-range sloops or, as was the case with HX-84, an auxiliary cruiser. Captain Stephen Roskill reported that the raid by Scheer threw the Admiralty into a panic and disrupted convoy schedules for two weeks. Although the number of ships sunk was relatively small, the ripple effect was enormous. Captain Fegen was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross. The tanker San Demetrio was hit, and abandoned on fire. Two days later her Second Officer's boat saw her, and San Demetrio, still on fire, was re-boarded. The fires were put out, and the engine started, she was then brought in on her own power to the Clyde. All charts and navigating equipment had been destroyed in the fire, so this was quite a feat, and is commemorated in the film "San Demetrio, London"

In separate North Atlantic operations, submarines U-104 and the Italian 'Faa di Bruno' are lost. In both cases the circumstances are uncertain, but U-104 is claimed by corvette HMS Rhododendron and the Italian by destroyer HMS Havelock. U-104 is the last German U-boat lost until March although the Italians have casualties. By the end of the month they have 26 submarines operating out of Bordeaux, but they are never as successful as their ally.