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December 30th, 1940 (MONDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM:
London: Troops are drafted in to clear the bombed streets of rubble and to demolish unsafe buildings.
RAF Bomber Command: 2 Group: Operation Instruction No. 41 - the radio-countermeasures station at Cheadle (Cheshire) would obtain information on enemy operations, usually from the German W/T messages passing after bombing. The Blenheims would be despatched when the estimated time of return of the enemy bombers was known.
Churchill telegrams the Foreign Secretary to express his wish that Haile Selassie be allowed to re-enter Abyssinia and unite the various tribes in a general revolt against the Italians, with the aid of the 64,000 troops in Kenya.

 

Submarines HMS Unbroken and Unison laid down.

Corvette HMS Kingcup commissioned.

Destroyer HMS Meynell commissioned.

Minesweeper HMS Boston launched.

Submarine HMS Umpire launched.

Corvette HMS Violet launched.

U.S.S.R.: Soviet submarines V-2 and V-3 laid down.

ITALY:
General Soddu steps down as the Italian C-in-C due to illness and is succeeded by General Cavallero.

GREECE:
The Greek High Command decides to continue the advance with only the central Greek force, 2nd Corps, and orders it to take Kelcyre. Bitter fighting ensues, the Italians throwing in 5 divisions, the Greeks three and a half divisions, heavy losses are reported on both sides. But the advancing Greeks, by clever tactics, capture Kelcyre and clear away the Italian salient.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: ASW trawler HMS Bandolero (FY 778) is sunk in a collision with the Australian destroyer HMAS Waterhen (D 22) off Solum, Egypt. It takes a month to repair the damage to the destroyer. The Australian destroyer HMAS Voyager (D 31) captures a 190-ton Italian supply schooner off Solum, Egypt. An Australian boarding party finds that British POWs on board had taken control of the vessel and imprisoned more than 100 Italian crewmen and passengers. The schooner is taken to Solum. (Jack McKillop & Dave Shirlaw)

AUSTRALIA: Convoy US-8 (Australia-Middle East) consisting of the troop transports Aquitania. Awatea, Dominion Monarch, Mauretania and Queen Mary escorted by the Australian heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra (D 33), sails from Melbourne, Victoria. The troopships are carrying the Australian 2/15th Battalion and the 2/28th and 2/43rd Battalions of the 24th Brigade and New Zealand troops.

CANADA: Minesweepers HMCS Bayfield and Canso laid down North Vancouver, British Columbia.

U.S.A.:
Polls suggest that President Roosevelt's "Arsenal of Democracy" speech was the most successful he has ever given. 75% of the population were aware of it and more than 60% agreed with what he said.
A poll for Fortune magazine shows that where a year ago American businessmen looked unsympathetically on the predicament of Britain and France, now the majority are determined to do whatever need to be done to help Britain defeat Hitler.

In California, the Arroyo Seco Parkway, the forerunner of the Pasadena Freeway (between Los Angeles and Pasadena), is dedicated by Los Angeles Mayor Fletcher Bowron. It is the first freeway in the western U.S. and is designated as a historic engineering landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1999.

The motion picture "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" opens at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Directed by William Dieterle, this drama stars Charles Laughton, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Thomas Mitchell, Maureen O'Hara and Edmond O'Brien.

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