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December 18th, 1940 (WEDNESDAY)

Canadian Munitions Minister Clarence Decatur 'CD' Howe 1886-1960 joins 152 other survivors of torpedoed liner 'Western Prince' in arriving safely in England.

GERMANY:
Hitler issues Directive No. 21. Headed 'Operation Barbarossa' it began:
The German Armed Forces must be prepared to crush Soviet Russia in a quick campaign before the end of the war against England. For this purpose the Army will have to employ all available units to be safeguarded against surprise attacks...
Preparations ... are to be completed by May 15, 1941. Great caution has to be exercised that the intention of an attack will not be recognised.
The mass of the Russian Army in western Russia is to be destroyed in daring operations by driving forward deep armoured wedges, and the retreat of intact, battle-ready troops into the wide spaces of Russia is to be prevented. The ultimate objective of the operation is to establish a defence line against Asiatic Russia from a line running from the Volga River to Archangel.
Romania and Finland are to be provide jumping off areas for attacks on the northern and southern flanks as well as troops to aid the German forces. Various Finnish-German armies are to advance on Leningrad and the Lake Ladoga area, cut the Murmansk railway line, secure the Petsamo nickel mines and occupy the Russian ice-free ports on the Arctic Ocean. Much depended on whether Sweden would permit the transit of German troops from Norway.

In a speech to officer cadets today, Hitler says: "Truly, this earth is a trophy cup for the industrious man. And this rightly so, in the service of natural selection. He who does not possess the force to secure his 'Lebensraum' in this world, and, if necessary, to enlarge it, does not deserve to possess the necessities of life. He must step aside and allow stronger peoples to pass him by." (258, p.2162)
 

ALBANIA: The Greek and Italian units fighting in the mountains are suddenly confronting a common enemy, avalanches. Reports from the front indicate that the violent fire of the heavy artillery has caused the snow on the mountains to shift and that soldiers, mules and guns have been swept away by the tumbling masses of snow. (Andy Etherington)

     During the night of 18/19 December, the British battleships HMS Warspite (03) and Valiant (02) bombard Valona. (Andy Etherington)

MEDITERRANEAN SEA:
On the night of 18th/19th the two battleships Warspite and Valiant bombard Valona, Albania.
At the same time battleship HMS Malaya passes through to the west.

The British submarine HMS/M Triton (N 15) left Malta on 28 November for a patrol in the southern Adriatic Sea. Most likely she was sunk in the Otranto Strait (between the Italian "boot heel" and Albania) on or around 18 December.

ADRIATIC SEA: Submarine HMS Triton reported missing after possibly being mined in the Strait of Otranto. Italians claim she was sunk by torpedo boat Confienza on the 18th, but possibly by Italian MTB Clio. Lost with all hands .


BALKANS, MACEDONIA:
The American United Press Agency reports:-
The mud that had frozen solid over the last few weeks is now covered with a layer of snow from three to six feet deep, which is severely impairing military operations.
The military doctors have reported numerous cases of frostbite among the troops.
The Greek and Italian units fighting in the mountains are suddenly confronting a common enemy: avalanches. Reports from the front indicate that the violent fire of the heavy artillery has caused the snow on the mountains to shift and that soldiers, mules and guns have been swept away by the tumbling masses of snow.

NORTH AFRICA:
Three Fiat CR42 Falco biplanes are shot down by Hurricane Mk. Is of 274 Sqn. RAF based at Sidi Haneish South, Egypt.
Reinforcements arriving from Italy include a whole 'Gruppo', the 20th, with 13 Fiat G50bis fighters, capable of 385 mph and armed with 2 m/c guns.
Mike Yaklich adds: The Fiat G50bis fighter ("Freccia") did not carry a cannon-- its
armament, as with virtually every Italian fighter until mid-1942, was a pair
of 12.7mm mgs synchronized to fire through the propeller arc. This left it
woefully under-gunned by modern standards. The main improvement on the G50bis
(which appeared in mid-1940) over the original G50 was the provision of
self-sealing fuel tanks and a sheet of armour plate behind the pilot (the first
Italian fighter plane to be so furnished). The G50 variants had good
manoeuvrability, but were hampered by their substandard armament and poor
engine performance. Nonetheless, the top Italian ace of the Greek campaign,
Lt. Livio Bassi, was credited with seven aerial victories in the G50bis before
he himself was mortally wounded crash-landing his badly shot-up aircraft after
a dogfight with the British in February 1941. Admittedly, most of Bassi's
"kills" were unescorted Blenheim bombers shot down while his unit, 154th
Gruppo, was deployed in defence of the Albanian port of Valona (he also bagged
one Greek Potez 63 reconnaissance plane).

CANADA: The Government approves the construction of staging airfield in western Canada.

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