World War II Database

• Home
• » Events
• » Events
• » 30 Oct 1939

• Leutnant Wilhem Zahn in German submarine U-56 fired three torpedoes at the battleship HMS Nelson off the Orkney Islands in Scotland, United Kingdom. Two of the torpedoes hit home but fortunately both proved to be duds. ww2dbase [AC]
• British anti-submarine Trawler HMS Northern Rover out from Grimbsy, north-east Lincolnshire, England, United Kingdom, was sunk with a torpedo fired from German submarine U-59 (Oberleutnant zur See Harald Jürst) at 2335 hours. The trawler had been requisitioned by the Admiralty to be used against German submarines, as an armed boarding vessel and to be used as contraband hunters. U-59 attacked as the Northern Rover was patrolling the Kirkwall area, 100 miles west of Sumburgh Head in the Shetland Islands. The Commander, Lieutenant H. M. Macpherson RN and the 25-man crew were lost. ww2dbase [Start of the Battle of the Atlantic | HM]

• An act was signed in Moscow, Russia which formally annexed occupied Polish territories. ww2dbase [Invasion of Poland | Moscow | CPC]

• The 4,666-ton steam merchant Cairnmona was making her way to Newcastle, England, United Kingdom with a cargo of copper and grain and 3 miles off Rattray Head, Aberdeenshire, northeast Scotland, United Kingdom when she was torpedoed by German submarine U-13 (Kapitänleutnant Karl Daublebsky von Eichhain) at 2250 hours. The Cairnmona had been dispersed from convoy HX-5 and would be the only ship sunk from it. Three crew were killed in the explosion, the master, Fred Wilkinson Fairley and 41 crew members took to lifeboats and were later picked up by the British drifter HMS River Lossie. ww2dbase [Start of the Battle of the Atlantic | Scotland | HM]
• The first WAAF Recruit Depot opened in West Drayton, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom. ww2dbase [WAAF: Women in the WW2 Royal Air Force | West Drayton, England | AC]
• U-56 fired three G7e (TII) torpedoes on HMS Rodney near the Orkney Islands, Scotland, United Kingdom; all three missed the target, but two of them hit HMS Nelson situated directly behind HMS Rodney. ww2dbase [Start of the Battle of the Atlantic | Rodney | U-56 | Nelson | Scotland | CPC]

30 Oct 1939 Interactive Map