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• US military issued contracts for the construction of B-29 and B-32 prototype bombers. ww2dbase [B-29 Superfortress | CPC]
• All French colonies supporting General de Gaulle had the British naval blockade lifted. ww2dbase [TH]
• British troop ship Dunera arrived in Australia with 200 Italian prisoners of war, 251 German prisoners of war, 55 British Nazi sympathizers, and 2,036 civilians from Germany (mostly Jewish refugees). They were robbed and abused by British guards in the past 57 days, and those who committed the abuse were later court-martialed. These "enemy aliens", as they were categorized, were to be trained to the town of Hay, New South Wales, Australia. ww2dbase [CPC]
• British submarine HMS Tribune attacked German submarine U-56 40 miles west of Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland; all torpedoes fired missed. ww2dbase [Tribune | CPC]
• German aircraft damaged British merchant ship Melbourne Star 180 miles west of Ireland and Greek ship Aegeon 30 miles southeast of Dublin. ww2dbase [CPC]
• HMS Argus launched 30 Hurricane fighters for Takoradi in the British Colony of the Gold Coast. They would later be flown to RAF Abu Sueir in Egypt to participate in the Desert War against the Italians. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Erich Raeder met with Adolf Hitler in regards to the invasion of Britain. ww2dbase [Erich Raeder | CPC]
• Rudolf von Schmettow was made the military governor of the Channel Islands, succeeding Albrecht Lanz. ww2dbase [CPC]
• German aircraft bombed the town of Grantham. This town, which contained the mansion St Vincents Hall that housed the headquarters of No. 5 Group RAF Bomber Command, would be bombed on twelve occasions up to the end of the year making it, for a while, the most bombed town in England, United Kingdom. ww2dbase [Battle of Britain | Grantham, England | AC]

• Jaguar, Kondor, Falke, T2, T7, and T8 began escorting minelayers in the southwestern North Sea. ww2dbase [Jaguar | Falke | Kondor | First Happy Time | T2 | T7 | T8 | North Sea | CPC]

• A Nationalist Chinese brigade was wiped out by Communist Chinese forces near Yingxi, Jiangsu Province, China. ww2dbase [Battle of Huangqiao | Yingxi, Jiangsu | CPC]

• British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, battleship HMS Barham, battleship HMS Resolution, and 10 destroyers departed Gibraltar for Dakar. ww2dbase [British Attacks on the French Fleet | CPC]

• King Carol II abdicated the throne of Romania. ww2dbase [Carol II | CPC]

• A German paratrooper dressed in civilian clothes with a Swedish passport was dropped in Northamptonshire, England, United Kingdom at 0300 hours to report damage to airfields; he was injured upon landing and would be captured at 1720 hours. At 0900, 1300, and 1800 hours, German bombers flew up the Thames Estuary and bombed RAF airfields at Heston, Kenley, and Biggin Hill, as well as the Hawker factories at Brooklands (only minor damage) and the oil storage tanks at Thameshaven (caused large fires). The Germans lost 37 fighters and 7 bombers on this day, while the British lost 22 fighters. Overnight, German bombers attacked London. ww2dbase [Battle of Britain | Northampton | England | TH]
• Successful tests of the "Plastic Armour" devised by lawyer Edward Terrell were conducted at the Royal Navy gunnery school, HMS Excellent. The trials of this material which consisted of a mastic asphalt and hard granite mix on a steel plate would result in a directive being issued that the bridge and gun positions on merchant ships (and subsequently, in December, for naval ships) should be protected with the new material to deflect bullets. Terrell would later receive an award of £9,500 from the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors for this protective material. ww2dbase [Portsmouth, England | AC]
• British submarine HMS Tribune discovered German submarine U-56 about 28 kilometers northeast of St Kilda, Outer Hebrides, Scotland, United Kingdom and fired several torpedoes at the German boat. All torpedoes missed. The Germans were unaware that they were under attack. ww2dbase [First Happy Time | U-56 | St Kilda, Scotland | CPC]

• A Vultee Model 48C Vanguard aircraft, the first of the batch ordered by Sweden, took flight. ww2dbase [P-66 Vanguard | Downey, California | CPC]

6 Sep 1940 Interactive Map