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• German submarine U-56 struck HMS Transylvania 20 miles north of Ireland at 0100 hours with U-56's last torpedo, killing 36. Destroyer HMS Ashanti and several trawlers rescued 300 survivors, and then attempted to tow Transylvania back to port, but Transylvania would sink during the process. ww2dbase [First Happy Time | TH]
• German occupation government in Luxembourg deemed the French language illegal; the German occupation government in Belgium declared that listening to BBC broadcasts was illegal. ww2dbase [TH]
• Romania passed anti-Semitic laws. ww2dbase [CPC]
• German armed merchant cruiser Widder stopped Finnish sailing ship Killoran 300 miles southwest of the Azores. Most of the German crew were against sinking this old ship built in 1900, Widder's on-board surgeon wanted a dramatic finale for a film he was making, and persuaded Captain Ruckteschell to sink the sailing ship by gunfire after detaining the crew of 18. ww2dbase [Widder | CPC]
• Allied convoy OA-196's Dutch ship Albula and American ship Crescent City collided just north of Scotland; Albula sank with the entire crew taken aboard by destroyer HMS Jaguar. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Orion detected ship Triona off Brisbane, Australia but determined that she was not fast enough to attack this ship. ww2dbase [Orion | CPC]
• Destroyers USS Walke and USS Wainwright arrived at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. ww2dbase [CPC]
• The Japanese naval blockade of China was expanded to cover southern China. ww2dbase [CPC]

• U-56 seriously damaged British auxiliary warship HMS Transylvania with one G7e torpedo hit 40 miles northwest of Malin Head, County Donegal, Ireland at about 0100 hours. An attempt was made to tow Transylvania, but she would founder and sink. 36 were killed during the attack, 300 survived. ww2dbase [First Happy Time | U-56 | CPC]

• Hans-Joachim Marseille was assigned to I. (Jagd) Lehrgeschwader 2 based in Marck on the northern coast of France. ww2dbase [Hans-Joachim Marseille | Marck, Nord-Pas-de-Calais | CPC]

• The keel of U-132 was laid down at the Bremer Vulkan shipyard in Bremen, Germany. ww2dbase [Bremer Vulkan AG | U-132 | Bremen, Weser-Ems | CPC]

• British troop ship SS Neuralia departed Gibraltar, escorted by destroyer HMS Gallant, with 2,000 civilian evacuees bound for the Portuguese island of Madeira 600 miles to the west in the Atlantic Ocean. ww2dbase [CPC]

• The Italian Naval Staff issued its first operational order of WW2 for a Sep 1940 mission against Alexandria, Egypt and an Oct 1940 mission against Gibraltar. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Morosini departed Naples, Italy at 0907 hours for exercises, returning at 1640 hours. ww2dbase [Morosini | Naples, Campania | CPC]

• Hermann Göring's Adler Tag offensive against RAF airfields was canceled due to the weather; only reconnaissance patrols and small attacks on isolated trawlers and merchant ships were launched. Overnight, German aircraft mined the coast of Britain. No aircraft were lost by either side on this day. ww2dbase [Battle of Britain | TH]
• The British government announced the withdrawal of all its forces from Shanghai and other concessions in northern China. ww2dbase [CPC]

• In the United States, President Roosevelt inspected Portsmouth Navy Yard in New Hampshire and Boston Navy Yard in Massachusetts, making the travel aboard presidential yacht Potomac. ww2dbase [Franklin Roosevelt | CPC]

10 Aug 1940 Interactive Map