military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) (08/16/90)
From: military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) Friday, 16 August, 1940 Luftwaffe air raids on Britain concentrate on eight airfields and the London dockyards; some 1700 sorties in all. Forty-five German aircraft are lost, against 21 British planes downed. Germany claims to have achieved air superiority over the Isle and threatens even worse bombing. The RAF responds, bombing the Fiat factory at Turin and the Caproni works in Milan, Italy; damage is reportedly light. Italian aircraft bomb two Greek destroyers (no damage is inflicted), claiming that the ships were mistaken for British vessels. Wreckage recovered from the Greek cruiser Helle includes fragments of Italian-made torpedoes, but Italy denies having attacked the ship. Greece begins a partial mobilization of its armed forces. British forces continue to evacuate Somaliland. Their defense has been well-executed, inflicting over 2000 Italian casualties while losing only 260 killed and wounded, but Churchill criticizes the operation, while General Wavell, commander of Middle East forces, publically disagrees. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Bill Thacker military@att.att.com Send submissions for "50 Years Ago" to military-request@att.att.com "Please convey my warmest congratulations to the fighter squadrons who in recent days have been so heavily engaged in the defences of our country. I, with all their compatriots, have read with ever-increasing admiration the story of their daily victories. I wish them continued success and the best of luck." - King George VI, in a telegram to the Secretary for Air, Sir Archibald Sinclair.