August 1940

[August 1], 1940 (Thursday)

• Vyacheslav Molotov made a speech to the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union proudly recounting the recent annexation of the Baltic states and clearly signalling the USSR's wish to recover all the territories that had been "stolen" from it during the country's military weakness at the end of World War I.
• Japanese Foreign Minister Matsuoka Yosuke formally announced the concept of a Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.
• Hitler issued Directive No. 17, declaring his intention to intensify air and sea warfare against the English in order to "establish the necessary conditions for the final conquest of England."
• Charles de Gaulle made a special appeal to French Canadians for their help.
• Born: Ram Loevy, television director and screenwriter, in Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine
• Died: Temulji Bhicaji Nariman, 91, Indian physician and obstetrician

  [August 2], 1940 (Friday)

• A French military court tried Charles de Gaulle in absentia for treason and sentenced him to death.
• The Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic was established.
• Czech pilot Josef František joined the Royal Air Force.

  [August 3], 1940 (Saturday)

• The Italian Army invaded British Somaliland.
• Born: Martin Sheen, actor, in Dayton, Ohio
• Died: Willard Hershberger, 30, American baseball player ; Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV, 56

  [August 4], 1940 (Sunday)

• Operation Hurry ended in British success.
• American General John J. Pershing gave a nationwide radio broadcast urging that aid be sent to Britain. "It is not hysterical to insist that democracy and liberty are threatened," Pershing said. "Democracy and liberty have been overthrown on the continent of Europe. Only the British are left to defend democracy and liberty in Europe. By sending help to the British we can still hope with confidence to keep the war on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, where the enemies of liberty, if possible, should be defeated." That same day, Charles Lindbergh appeared at a pro-isolationism rally in Chicago and said that "if our own military forces are strong, no foreign nation can invade us and if we do not interfere with their affairs none will desire to."

  [August 5], 1940 (Monday)

• The Italians captured Zeila in British Somaliland.
• Died: Frederick Cook, 75, American explorer

  [August 6], 1940 (Tuesday)

• The Italians captured Odweina in British Somaliland.
• The American ambassador to Belgium John Cudahy said that the food situation in Belgium and northern France was desperate and suggested that the Nazis seemed to be expecting outside aid to solve the food shortage for them. This comment would be controversial for touching on the issue of the British blockade.

  [August 7], 1940 (Wednesday)

• Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle signed an agreement on the military organization of the Free French. Churchill agreed to allow the French units to have as much autonomy as possible.
• The Louisiana hurricane made landfall at Sabine Pass, Texas. The hurricane would cause record flooding across the Southern United States before dissipating on August 10.
• Exeter Blitz: Exeter, Devon was bombed for the first time, by a lone raider that did little damage.
• German submarine U-140 was commissioned.
• Born: Jean-Luc Dehaene, Prime Minister of Belgium, in Montpellier, France

  [August 8], 1940 (Thursday)

• The Luftwaffe began targeting British ports and harbours.
• Romania promulgated racial laws modeled after those of Nazi Germany.
• The Japanese battleship Yamato is launched, she would become the largest and heaviest battleship to ever set sail.
• The adventure film Boom Town starring Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Claudette Colbert and Hedy Lamarr premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
• Born: Dilip Sardesai, Test cricketer, in Margao, Goa, British India
• Died: Johnny Dodds, 48, American jazz clarinetist and alto saxophonist

  [August 9], 1940 (Friday)

• German military commander Alfred Jodl issued a directive titled Aufbau Ost, ordering that transport and supply facilities be improved in the east so the logistics would be in place for an attack on the Soviet Union in 1941.
• The first air raid of the Birmingham Blitz took place when a single aircraft bombed Erdington.
• Sumner Welles read a formal statement at a press conference calling John Cudahy's recent remarks "in violation of standing instructions of the Department of State" and said that they were "not to be construed as representing the views of this government." The statement went on to say that the incident "illustrates once again the importance which must be attributed by American representatives abroad to the Department's instructions to refrain at this critical time from making public statements other than those made in accordance with instructions of the Department of State."
• The adventure film Captain Caution starring Victor Mature, Bruce Cabot and Alan Ladd was released.

  [August 10], 1940 (Saturday)

• The Japanese blockade of China was extended to southern China.
• The British armed merchant cruiser Transylvania was sunk west of Islay by German submarine U-56.
• John Cudahy was recalled from his post for "consultation". The Daily Mail quoted him as saying, "I do not retract one word from what I said."
• Born: Bobby Hatfield, singer and one-half of the Righteous Brothers, in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin

  [August 11], 1940 (Sunday)

• The Kanalkampf ended in limited German victory.
• The South Carolina hurricane struck the coast of Georgia and South Carolina, resulting in 50 fatalities between this day and the next.
• Died: Guy Branch, EGM, 26, Royal Air Force fighter pilot

  [August 12], 1940 (Monday)

• The second phase of the Battle of Britain began as the Luftwaffe expanded its targets to include British airfields. Bf 110s and Stuka dive bombers attacked radar installations along the coastlines of Kent, Sussex and the Isle of Wight, damaging five radar stations and putting one out of action for eleven days.
• It became a crime in the United Kingdom to waste food.

  [August 13], 1940 (Tuesday)

• The German military operation known as Adlertag was put into action with the goal of destroying the Royal Air Force, but the attempt failed.
• The Canberra air disaster killed ten people, including three ministers of the Australian Cabinet.
• Vichy France passed a law aimed at Freemasonry by banning secret societies.
• Born: Dirk Sager, journalist, in Hamburg, Germany
• Died: Peter Eckersley, 36, English cricketer, politician and Fleet Air Arm aviator ; James Fairbairn, 43, Australian pastoralist, aviator and politician; Henry Gullett, 62, Australian cabinet minister; Geoffrey Street, 46, Australian cabinet minister; Brudenell White, 63, Australian Army officer

  [August 14], 1940 (Wednesday)

• U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved Rainbow No. 4, an emergency plan to defend the entire Western Hemisphere from attack. The plan required a massive number of soldiers and would have mobilized the National Guard and Reserves as well as introduced conscription.
• Nazi administrator Gustav Simon abrogated the Constitution of Luxembourg, banned all opposition parties and made German the only official language there.
• Born: Galen Hall, American football player and coach, in Altoona, Pennsylvania; Max Schautzer, Austrian-born German radio and television presenter, in Klagenfurt

  [August 15], 1940 (Thursday)

• In the biggest air engagement of the Battle of Britain up to this point, the Luftwaffe attempted to overwhelm the RAF with a series of major air attacks. The Germans lost 76 aircraft to the British 34, and to the Germans the day became known as Black Thursday.
• The U.S. Army contracted with Chrysler to build the Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant in Warren, Michigan.
• Died: James P. Goodrich, 76, American politician and 29th Governor of Indiana

  [August 16], 1940 (Friday)

• The RAF attacked the Fiat manufacturing plant in Turin.
• 48 volunteers of the U.S. 29th Infantry Regiment made the first U.S. Army parachute jump from an aircraft in order to explore its applications in battle.
• The Spanish Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí and wife Gala arrived in New York to escape the war in Europe. They would not return to Europe for eight years.
• The Alfred Hitchcock-directed spy thriller film Foreign Correspondent was released.
• Gardaí detectives Richard Hyland and Patrick McKeown are shot dead by the Anti-Treaty IRA during a Garda Special Branch raid.
• Born: Bruce Beresford, film director, in Paddington, New South Wales, Australia

  [August 17], 1940 (Saturday)

• Adolf Hitler ordered a total blockade of Britain as a means of weakening the island prior to Operation Sea Lion.
• Canada and the United States signed the Ogdensburg Agreement, establishing the Permanent Joint Board on Defense.
• Wendell Willkie made a speech in his hometown of Elwood, Indiana formally accepting the Republican nomination for president. Willkie promised to return "to those same American principles that overcame German autocracy once before, both in business and in war, to out-distance Hitler in any contest he chooses in 1940 or after." Willkie said that the reason for France's defeat was because that country had become "absorbed in unfruitful political adventures and flimsy economy theories," drawing a parallel to the Roosevelt Administration.

  [August 18], 1940 (Sunday)

• In the Battle of Britain the air battle known as The Hardest Day was fought, with an inconclusive result. The Germans lost 69 aircraft and the British 29.
• Died: Walter Chrysler, 65, American automotive industry executive and founder of Chrysler Corporation