Battle of the Atlantic

The British steamer St Catherine (1216t), en route to join Convoy WN-35, is sunk by German bombing just south of Outer Buoy, Aberdeen, with the loss of 15 of her crew.

The Blitz

Between the middle of August and the end of October there had been 17 attacks on Coventry. A total of 198 tons of bombs had been dropped killing 176 people and injuring 680. This night there is an especially heavy and effective German attack on Coventry (Operation Mondlicht Sonate: 'Moonlight Sonata'), the center of the British automobile industry. A total of 449 German planes, led by the He-111 pathfinders of KG100, are involved in the attack. 304 aircraft of Luftflotte III and 133 of Luftflotte II participate. The bombing begins at 7:20pm and continues until 6:00am. Arrival and departure of each formation is carefully arranged in a timetable onslaught, both steady and sustained with no respite for the victims below. 30,000 incendiaries and 503 tons of high-explosive bombs are dropped. Factories and historic buildings are badly damaged. 550 people are killed and 865 are wounded.

Coventry Cathedral lays in ruins after the German air raid

Coventry Raid

Although 21 factories are destroyed, but this does not seriously affect the productive capacity of the city. Some historians have since suggested that, by a combination of scientific and cryptographic intelligence, the British authorities were able to take precautions against this raid but that they did not do so in order to protect their sources. This is not the case. Warning has been received during the afternoon of the 14th and the few precautions possible at this short notice have been taken by the relevant authorities. One was an RAF attempt to pre-empt the raid by bombing enemy bases, but with little success.

Churchill observing the devastation in Coventry

Coventry Damage

A Spitfire squadron routs about 30 Stukas over Dover.

People in Coventry walk to work past smouldering piles of rubble

Coventry Damage

Britain, Command

The new British Commander-in-Chief for the Far East, Air Marshal Henry Brooke-Popham, arrives in Singapore.

German Raiders

The German armed merchant cruiser Atlantis scuttles the Norwegian tanker Teddy (6750t) which she had captured on the 9th.

Greek-Albanian Front

All the Greek forces are in full attack against the Italian invaders. Reinforcements have been brought from the troops facing Bulgaria. Action in Epirus and Macedonia leads to the first Axis land defeat.

British aid to Greece begins to arrive. Four cruisers ferry 3,400 troops and airfield staff from Alexandria to Piraeus.

Vichy France

The French government protests the expulsion of French-speaking residents from Lorraine, saying to the Germans 'no measure of this kind was ever under discussion at the Franco-German meetings.'