Eighty years on. 2nd August 1940

Historical

Overnight the SS Highlander in convoy FN.239 was attacked by two He115 torpedo bombers twenty miles south of Aberdeen.  One He115 was shot down by the escort sloop HMS Weston.  The other clips Highlander’s mast while strafing her, crash landing onto Highlander’s deck.  Clouds again restricted flying during the day.  The Germans bombed convoys in the English Channel and along the east coast, sinking the anti-submarine trawler HMT Cape Finesterre off Harwich.  Two Spitfires crashed on take-off at Hornchurch and one Hurricane crashed on landing.  The Czech pilot Josef František joined the Royal Air Force.

The British submarine HMS Thames hit a mine and sank Southwest of Stavanger.  U-60 had another lucky escape, suffering no damage when bombed in error off Hagesund by Stukas flying from Stavanger. U-99 torpedoed three empty tankers in convoy OB-191, the British MV Alexia and MV Lucerna and the Norwegian MV Strinda.  All three were damaged but none sank and no lives were lost.

A French military court sentenced General Charles de Gaulle to death in absentia for leading the Free French movement in London.

Twelve Hurricanes launched from the aircraft carrier HMS Argus south-west of Sardinia to fly about three hundred miles to Malta.  Admiral Somerville’s Force H returned towards Gibraltar.  Meanwhile, to prevent Italian air attacks on the carrier group, eight Swordfish torpedo bombers from the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal (escorted by battlecruiser HMS Hood, cruiser HMS Enterprise and four destroyers) attacked an Italian airfield at Cagliari on the South coast of Sardinia, destroying several Italian aircraft and laying mines in the harbour.

The Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic was established.

Game day 337.  Italy

Italy collected six resource points.  In Italy a destroyer and three submarines were commissioned.

In Libya the forces manoeuvred to outflank the southern end of the British line while allowing the armoured units to strike at the centre.  The result was fairly inconclusive, with just one British infantry unit lost.

To the south six infantry units in Kenya marched north to support their colleagues threatening Sudan, and their place was taken by infantry units which moved west from East Africa into Kenya.