Axis Diplomacy

Hitler meets General Franco at Hendaye in southern France. Hitler tries to persuade Franco to join the war and offers as bait the allocation of Gibraltar and territory in North Africa. Franco is uncertain about how to proceed and successfully muddles the issue, leaving Hitler no better informed as to what is Spanish policy but without causing offense.

German Chancellor Adolf Hitler, talks with Spain's Generalissimo Francisco Franco, in Hendaye, France, October 23, 1940, in Hitler's railway carriage. Spain was in ruins from its own Civil War in the late 1930s, and Franco didn't have much to offer. He stayed neutral.

Hitler and Franco

Baltic Sea

The German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer under the command of Kapitän zur See Theodor Krancke sails from Gotenhafen for the Atlantic.

Battle of Britain

Day 106

Weather - Conditions over the country poor with low cloud and rain.

Combat - No large raids are made on this Wednesday with only reconnaissance and occasional Me-109 sweeps crossing the coast throughout the day.

Hurricanes of No: 145 Squadron, scrambled from Tangmere during the afternoon, intercept one raid of Me-109's over Sussex and lose two Hurricanes during the combat.

During the night the bombing of London continues with other raids dropping mines off the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire coasts.

This smiling girl, dirtied but apparently not injured, is assisted across a London street on 23 October 1940, after she was rescued from the debris of a building damaged by a bomb attack in a German daylight raid.

Bombing Victim Rescued

R.A.F. Losses: 3 aircraft damaged or destroyed with 1 pilot wounded.

Luftwaffe Losses: 7 aircraft damaged or destroyed, 5 pilots and aircrew killed or missing and 5 wounded.

NOTE: Losses include non-combat patrols and accidents.

Battle of the Atlantic

The Norwegian steamer Prinsesse Ragnhild (1590t) sinks on a mine north of Bodo, Norway.

Churchill inspects Polish troops at St Andrews in Scotland, accompanied by his wife Clementine and General Wladyslaw Sikorski, Premier of the Polish-Government-in-Exile and commander of the Polish forces, 23 October 1940.

Inspection of Polish Troops