November 24th, 1940 (SUNDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:RAF Bomber Command: 2 Group: 101 Sqn.
attacks the oil refinery at Wanne Eickel. one aircraft makes a crash landing injuring the crew.
RAF Fighter Command: The Luftwaffe bombs Bath.
The first Canadian graduates of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP) arrive.
Northern Ireland:
Viscount Craigavon, the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, since 1921, died tonight. He was 69. Formerly James Craig, a typical Ulsterman of Scottish descent, he was a rugged man with no claim to intellectual attainment. He had fiercely resisted Home Rule - the establishment of the Irish Free State and two separate parliaments in Ireland. After Sinn Fein outrages in 1922, he was responsible for a law instituting the punishment of the lash for carrying guns or bombs.
Aircraft carrier HMS Formidable commissioned.
VICHY FRANCE: During the Canadian Ambassador to Vichy France Pierre Dupuy's first visit to Vichy, he meets Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain, President of the Council; Admiral François Darlan, Minister of Marine; Charles Huntziger, Minister of National Defense; and Jacques Chevalier over the next 11 days. Pétain assures Dupuy that "I am obliged officially to maintain the balance between both sides, but you know where my sympathies lie." Pétain seems willing to contemplate surrendering colonial bases to the Germans, regarding this as only "passive" collaboration.(
EUROPE: The German puppet government of Slovakia signs the Tripartite Pact.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: The 7,448 ton British freighter SS Port Hobart sailed from Liverpool, England, on 4 November as part of a convoy bound for New Zealand. On 20 November, she left the convoy to head for the Panama Canal on her own. At 1115 hours today, smoke is spotted to the northwest and closing very fast and at 1157 hours the unidentified raider opens fire with 28 centimeter (11 inch) guns from a range of 2 miles (3,2 kilometers) and, as instructed, the Port Hobart stops. The raider, which turns out to be the German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer, puts an armed party aboard. The crew takes to the lifeboats and a launch is sent to disembark the only lady passenger before the Admiral Scheer sinks the Port Hobart with gunfire.