World War II Database

• Home
• » Events
• » WW2 Timeline
• » 9 Nov 1940

• Neville Chamberlain passed away of cancer. ww2dbase [Neville Chamberlain | CPC]
• Free French forces entered Libreville, Gabon, French Equatorial Africa, engaging in street fighting with Vichy French forces. Off Libreville, Free French sloop Savorgnan de Brazza sunk Vichy sloop Bougainville by gunfire (they two were sister ships of the same class), while Free French sloop Commandant Domine prevented Vichy armed merchant cruiser Cap Des Palmes' crew from scuttling the ship and captured her. ww2dbase [Battle of Gabon | CPC]
• Sebastiano Visconti Prasca was relieved as commander of Italian operations in Greece for the failures to breakthrough Greek defense lines in northern Greece. He was replaced by General Ubaldo Soddu. ww2dbase [Balkans Campaign | CPC]
• German armed merchant cruiser Atlantis, disguised as British auxiliary cruiser HMS Antenor in the darkness before dawn, closed in on Norwegian tanker Teddy in the Bay of Bengal and captured the ship with a boarding party without firing a shot. Atlantis refueled from Teddy's cargo of 10,000 tons of fuel oil and captured the crew of 32. ww2dbase [Atlantis | CPC]
• American ship City Of Rayville hit a naval mine (laid by German ship Passat) and sank 20 miles off Cape Otway, South Australia, Australia; 1 was killed and 39 survived. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Swedish ship Vingaland, damaged on the previous day by German bombers west of Ireland, was sunk by Italian submarine Guglielmo Marconi; the 19 survivors were picked up by British ship Danae II. ww2dbase [Guglielmo Marconi | CPC]
• Maggiore Baracca sighted a tanker in the northern Atlantic Ocean at 0945 hours. She attempted an attack while submerged, failed to get in a good attack position. She lost contact with the target and gave up the pursuit at 1645 hours. ww2dbase [Maggiore Baracca | CPC]

• Alpo Marttinen was promoted to the rank of major. ww2dbase [Alpo Marttinen | CPC]

• Alessandro Malaspina arrived at Bordeaux, France at 1715 hours, ending her second war patrol. ww2dbase [Alessandro Malaspina | Bordeaux, Aquitaine | CPC]

• Winston Churchill moved his weekend retreat to discrete Ditchley Hall, near Charlbury in Oxfordshire, England, United Kingdom as a precaution against a possible German assassination attack on the Prime Ministers' official retreat at Chequers, Buckinghamshire, or on his home at Chartwell House in Westerham, Kent. ww2dbase [Winston Churchill | Charlbury, England | AC]

• USS St. Louis departed Norfolk, Virginia bound for the Pacific via Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and the Panama Canal. ww2dbase [Newport News Shipbuilding | St. Louis | Norfolk, Virginia | DS]

9 Nov 1940 Interactive Map