Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Day 437 November 10, 1940

French West Africa. Fighting for control of Gabon continues between Free French forces and defenders loyal to the Vichy regime.

Greek troops push Italian forces in Epirus back toward Albania. Further East, Greek 2nd Army Corps harries the retreating Italian Julia Division through the Pindus Mountains. Julia Division loses 5000 men killed or taken prisoner before escaping back to Albania.

Monitor HMS Terror leaves Malta for Suda Bay, Crete, to serve as a guard ship.

Anti-submarine trawler HMS Kingston Alalite sinks on a mine off Plymouth (6 lives lost).

After dark in the Bay of Bengal, German armed merchant cruiser Atlantis boards Norwegian tanker Ole Jacob by posing again as British auxilliary cruiser HMS Antenor. After a standoff between the boarding party and the crew (both well armed), Ole Jacob’s captain surrenders without any shooting for fear of igniting the 11,000 barrels of high-octane aviation fuel on board. Ole Jacob is sent to Japan with her crew and Teddy’s crew, arriving on December 6. She will then be sent to Bordeaux, France, arriving July 19 1941. Signals from Ole Jacob attract Australian cruisers Canberra, Capetown and Durban which are hunting for the German raider but Atlantis escapes. http://www.bismarck-class.dk/hilfskreuzer/atlantis.html

Overnight, British gunboat HMS Aphis shells Italian positions at Sidi Barrani, Egypt.

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