November 10th, 1940 (SUNDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The House of Commons meets in another building, "as an experiment and as a precaution against increased bombing."London: Telegram from Churchill to Roosevelt:
We have been much disturbed by reports of the intention of the French Government to bring [the battleships] Jean Bart and Richelieu to Mediterranean for completion. The danger is that these ships will fall under German control. We should feel bound to do our best to prevent it.
I would be most helpful if you felt able to give a further warning at Vichy on this matter.
[Roosevelt responded quickly offering to purchase the two ships for US Navy and guaranteeing that they would not be used in the present war.]
RAF Bomber Command: 111 aircraft are dispatched to the largest number of targets yet attacked in Germany in one night. The largest raid - with 25 Wellingtons involved - being on Gelsenkirchen. Bad weather over Europe makes the raids hazardous, with ice, thunder and cloud from ground to 18,000 feet.
Submarine HMS Unbeaten commissioned.
The End of the Battle of Britain. The onset of winter weather significantly reduces the threat of a German invasion of Britain. The Germans conducted a massive raid on Coventry, which destroyed the industrial city. But the British survived the worst of the Blitzkrieg as German air raids became increasingly sporadic. In the Battle of Britain, from 8 August-31 October1940, the Luftwaffe lost 2,375 planes while the RAF lost 800 planes. Many British cities, however, were seriously damaged and burned. German air attacks would resume in the spring of 1941, but the Luftwaffe had to shift air resources to the east in preparation for the German invasion of Russia.
FRANCE: The German-French definitive peace postponed until end of war with the U.K. "because of uncertainty and flux of points to enter the treaty."
GERMANY: The Wehrmacht High Command announced:
Our aerial combat formations continued their retaliatory raids on London all day and through the night. Once again they hit a large number of war-related industrial plants.
Margaret White, a 26-year-old woman born in England and married to William Joyce (Lord Haw Haw), makes her first radio broadcast on Berlin Radio as Lady Haw Haw. In 1942 she broadcasts under her real name with weekly talks about women's economic problems. Both are arrested on 28 May 1945 and taken to London for trial on charges of treason. William Joyce is found guilty and hanged in 1946. Margaret Joyce is spared a trial on the basis that she was a German citizen (her husband having become a naturalized German citizen in 1940). She is deported to Germany and interned as a security suspect for a short while. After her release she returned to London where she died in 1972.
ALBANIA: General Soddu replaces General Prasca as the head of the Italian attack on Greece.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Martin Maryland's of No. 431 Flight RAF are used to reconnoitre the Italian Fleet at Taranto.
INDIAN OCEAN: The German auxiliary cruiser (Hilfskreuzer) HK Atlantis, German ship 16 (known to the British as Raider "C") captures its 12th victim, the 8,305 ton Norwegian tanker SS Ole Jakob.
NEWFOUNDLAND: Canada and Britain start Trans-Atlantic Ferry Service to move planes, men and supplies to the U.K. from Goose Bay, Labrador, and Gander, Newfoundland.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: On U-28, Maschinengefreiter Sachse was severely injured by boiling water.
Shortly after leaving Lorient, the crew of U-43 realized the boat was leaking fuel. U-43 returned to base and set out on patrol again the next day.