November 9th, 1940 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Neville Chamberlain died tonight at the age of 71. It is now stated that he was already suffering from cancer of the stomach when he was forced out of the premiership six months ago during the political crisis over how to fight the war.Mr. Chamberlain's distinguished early career as an austere and clear-minded administrator is inevitably forgotten now in the controversy over his policy of appeasement of the European dictators - and in particular for the 1938 "peace for our time" Munich agreement with Hitler. His friends insist that he bought precious time for rearmament and has been the most misunderstood statesman of the century. Mr Churchill said: "He acted in perfect sincerity according to his lights."
Despite gallant propaganda about plucky Land Girls and "Miss England" being "busier than ever", more British women are now out of work than before the war. Some women are finding work with the services, but even here their contribution to the war effort is less dramatic than the recruiting posters imply.
Women help to plot enemy aircraft movements in RDF stations and can also be found in anti-aircraft batteries and naval command centres. They are always in non-combatant roles; women may track the targets, but men fire the guns. Lack of direct involvement is by no means the only complaint amongst women who answered the patriotic call to duty - and who overcame parental fears about presumed moral dangers. Many of those who signed up have been dismayed by the menial tasks which they are asked to perform. Though women can be trained to do anything which does not make them into combatants, in practice cooking and cleaning are the commonest assignments.
Outside the services there are still vast numbers of women who were made redundant last autumn be non-essential industries who are still without jobs. Earlier this year a protest was made to parliament by the Federation of Business and Professional Women. More than half of the nearly 7,000 women registered with them were unemployed. The government has so far resisted any coordinated redirection of redundant women into war work. But pressure is growing for some form of intervention, possibly even compulsory female mobilisation.
Westminster:
Questions are asked in parliament about the penalties that have been imposed upon member of the Congress Party in India who have been carrying out a civil disobedience campaign. Reginald Sorensen (Labour), described the sentence of four years imprisonment on Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru as "harsh in the extreme."
Minesweeper HMS Rhyl commissioned.
FRANCE: The Germans start to expel 180,000 Frenchmen from Alsace-Lorraine, which they have annexed.
GREECE:
Northern GREECE: Less that two weeks after crossing the Greek border in great strength, the Italian army is retreating in total disarray. The Italian commander, General Visconti Prasca, has been sacked and Mussolini's crack 'Julia' alpine division routed with huge losses in men and equipment. The Italians have been taken completely by surprise by the speed and ferocity of the Greeks.
Six days after the Italian invasion, Greece's General Papagos ordered the first counter-attack. A small Greek force crossed the Albanian frontier and took Pissoderi, a mountain near the captured town of Koritsa. The main road out of Koritsa was cut by another Greek force. With their superior knowledge of the terrain, the tough and well-trained Greeks have abandoned the valleys and taken to the mountains from whence they can infiltrate enemy positions.
Fighting at an altitude of over 5,000 feet - in the most severe winter for years - Papagos's single division has proved more than a match for the numerically superior Italians whose armour is confined to the lower ground. Italian tanks are being knocked out by anti-tank weapons dropped by the RAF.
The Italians have paid the penalty for having allowed the Greeks to hold the mountainous centre of the front. The Julia division found itself trapped. 5,000 men have surrendered, and the Greeks are claiming a further 25,000 dead and seriously wounded.
FRENCH EQUATORIAL AFRICA: Battle of Libreville, Gabon, begins. Free French General Marie Joseph Koenig encounters heavy resistance from Vichyites during the march on the city. Free French Lysanders from Douala bomb the airfield and Free French naval force under command of Captain Thierry D'Argenlieu opens fire on the Vichy colonial sloop Bougainville setting her ablaze. Koenig's legionaries break the Vichy resistance at the airfield. Free French naval Captain Georges Thierry D'Argenlieu, commander of the Free French Navy in Equatorial Africa, accepts General Tetu's surrender.
INDIAN OCEAN: The German auxiliary cruiser (Hilfskreuzer) HK Atlantis, German ship 16 (known to the British as Raider "C") sinks its 11th victim, the 6,750 ton Norwegian tanker SS Teddy. After replenishment of Atlantis' fuel tanks, the tanker is sunk with explosive charges.
CANADA:
U.S.A.: Washington: Roosevelt announces that deliveries of aeroplanes and war materials needed by Great Britain and the United States should be divided, generally, on 50-50 basis.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Sloop FS Bouganville sunk off Libreville, Gabon by her Free French sistership Savorgnan de Brazza.
The Canadian Pacific Steamships Line passenger liner Empress of Japan (26,032 GRT) was heavily damaged in the North Atlantic in position 53.54N, 014.28W, when she was bombed by Luftwaffe aircraft.