Clyde-built linerSSAthenia becomes the first civilian casualty of the war when she is torpedoed and sunk by German submarineU-30 in the vicinity of Rockall. Of the 1,418 aboard, 98 passengers and 19 crew are killed;[2] the first survivors are brought in to Greenock.[1] On 7 September, survivors are visited by John F. Kennedy, son of the US Ambassador and future 35th President of the United States.[3]
World War II: First enemy aircraft forced down on British soil by RAF Fighter Command, a Heinkel He 111 brought down near Humbie by a Spitfire flown by Archie McKellar following reconnaissance of the Firth of Clyde.[8]
30 October – World War II: British battleship HMSNelson is unsuccessfully attacked by U-56 under the command of captain Wilhelm Zahn off Orkney and is hit by three torpedoes, none of which explode; Winston Churchill (First Lord of the Admiralty), Admiral of the Fleet Dudley Pound (First Sea Lord) and Admiral Charles Forbes (Commander-in-Chief Home Fleet) are on board.[8]
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