Tuesday 9 July 1940

The Italian Cruiser Zara at the Battle of Calabria, 9 July 1940.

Battle of the Mediterranean: Today, 9 July 1940, marks the first large naval engagement of the war in the Mediterranean, and really the first large conflict of any kind in that sector. There are 50 warships involved.

In the Battle of Calabria aka the Battle of Punta Stilo, the Royal Navy and Italian Fleet square off in the vicinity of the Italian naval base at Taranto. The engagement arises from each side shepherding convoys to North Africa at the same time, the British with Convoy MF 1 from Malta. The British have the advantage of firepower, while the Italians have speed.

At about 15:15, the two sides see each other and their cruisers open fire at extreme long range. The Italians damage cruiser HMS Neptune, causing the British to withdraw. However, battleship HMS Warspite then comes up, and a duel between her and Italian battleships Giulio Cesare and Conte di Cavour begins at 15:52. The artillery duel as noted as one of the longest in naval history, at about 24 km (the Kriegsmarine's Operation Juno on 8 June also was about as far, but that was a heavy cruiser against an aircraft carrier). Giulio Cesare takes a hit which reduces its speed, and the battle turns into a duel between each side's cruisers. The Italian Admiral Campioni withdrew with his battleships to Messina at about 17:00. A final Italian air attack damages several of the Royal Navy capital ships. The cargo ships for both sides ultimately reach their destinations, so it is a strategic draw. Most consider the engagement a slight (and rare) Italian naval victory.

Force H, operating out of Gibraltar, is attacked by bombers but suffers no damage.

At Malta, there is a raid at 08:00 by an SM79 bomber and seven CR42s. They bomb Luga, with the RAF prominent in the defense. The Italians lose two planes. Governor Dobbie requests and receives permission to stop using his limited air resources in offensive operations against Sicily, instead of using them to defend the island only at his discretion.

Italian battleship Conte di Cavour. Italian battleships were heavily armed but lightly armored, making them fast but vulnerable.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-34 (Kapitänleutnant Wilhelm Rollmann) torpedoes and sinks 1,865-ton Estonian freighter Tiiu about 100 miles southwest of Mizen Head, Ireland in the southwest approaches at 12:32. All 20 aboard take to lifeboats and survive.

U-43 torpedoes and sinks 3,944-ton British freighter Aylesbury about 230 miles southwest of Cape Clear, Ireland in the southwest approaches at 21:35. All 35 onboard survive.

U-99 (Otto Kretschmer) completes its 14-hours of depth-charge attack and survives. Kretschmer pretends calmly to read a book throughout the ordeal as if he hasn't a care in the world. The book is upside down. There are 129 depth charges dropped.

British submarine HMS Salmon hits a mine (that is the assumption) and sinks off Egersund, Norway. All 35 aboard perish.

German raider Thor sinks Belgian freighter Bruges in the South Atlantic. The crew becomes prisoners of war.

The Luftwaffe bombs and badly damages sloop Foxglove off the Niab en route to Portsmouth.

The Germans send about 60 Bf 109s and 110s on a sweep across the English channel and find targets in a convoy forming up at the mouth of the Thames River. The Luftwaffe catches British freighters Kenneth Hawksfield and Polgrange in the Dover sector and damages them. The Luftwaffe sinks Latvian freighter Talvaldis off Devon. Dutch steamer Iola also was damaged, along with Greek freighter Aegeon.

German armed merchant raider Komet (Kapitän zur See Robert Eyssen) leaves Bergen to break out into the Pacific via the Northern Passage. Soviet icebreakers assist her. The Komet itself is reinforced to travel through ice.

Convoy SL 39 departs from Freetown.

The Italian battleship Giulio Cesare firing salvos from her big guns near Punta Stilo during the Battle of Calabria. Ministero Della Difesa-Marina photo.

European Air Operations: The British consider this the beginning of their strategic night bombing campaign against Germany, though they have been raiding it all along.

RAF Bomber Command raids the key airbase at Stavanger with a dozen planes, Norway, losing seven of the twelve bombers with the rest damaged.

The RAF also sends 11 Hampden bombers to attack the battleship Tirpitz (still under construction) without causing any damage.

King George VI presents Guy Gibson with the DFC on a visit to RAF Digby. Gibson earned this by completing 34 missions in five months with No. 3 Squadron.

The new Luftwaffe night fighter force gets its first victory off Heligoland. Ofw Paul Förster of 8/NJG1 shoots down a Whitney bomber at 02:50. The British crew becomes POWs (this is not the initial night fighter victory of the war, just of this unit).

JG26 adds another Gruppe, 8./JG26, by taking over 2./JG1.

Spitfires of RAF No. 54 Squadron shoot down such an unarmed He-59 marked as a search-and-rescue aircraft on the Goodwin Sands and capture the crew. Nothing incriminating is found and the official report states that "The men were unarmed and whatever else they may or may not have been doing they seem to be genuine sea-rescue Red Cross workers." However, the apparent innocence of the craft does not sway the British, who are deeply suspicious that such planes are performing reconnaissance missions.

The He-59 forced down at Goodwin Sands on 9 July 1940.

North Africa: Italian artillery is in action against the 1st King's African Rifles at Moyale, Kenya.

US Military: US Marine Corps Captain Kenneth W. Benner takes over the military presence on Midway Atoll, relieving Captain Samuel G. Taxis.

British Government:  The House of Commons approves a £1,000 Million line of credit for war expenditure.

The crown appoints the Duke of Windsor the Governor of the Bahamas. He is widely viewed as having German sympathies, and this position is more to keep an eye on him than to reward him with new responsibilities. Hog's Island (Nassau) in the Bahamas has several residents who are considered suspicious, such as industrialist Axel Wenner-Grenn of Sweden.

The Admiralty claims credit for sinking the French battleship Richelieu during recent Operation Catapult. The claim technically is correctly, but the Richelieu has settled in very shallow water and is quickly repaired and refloated.

French Government: The French legislature at Vichy votes Marshal Pétain's full powers to establish a new constitution by decree, with only three in the Chamber and one in the Senate voting against him. In this manner, the Third Republic ends.

Pierre Laval, the French vice-PM, announces that the Republic will become "a Fascist form of government, which I have long admired." This is the first time any member of the Vichy government has openly admitted to Fascist leanings. The new national slogan, "Work, Family, and Fatherland," is adopted.

The Armistice Commission announces that all German POWs in French custody have now been released.

German Government: Berlin announces that Romania is under German protection.

Czechoslovakian Government: Edvard Benes forms a government-in-exile in London.

Romania: King Carol II orders the arrest of Marshal Ion Antonescu after Antonescu sends him a note protesting the decision to give the Soviet Union the lands it had demanded in the east. Antonescu is interned at Bistrița Monastery. At this time, Antonescu is viewed with suspicion by just about everyone.

Greenland: U.S. Consul to Greenland James K. Penfield, Governor of North Greenland E. Brun, and a group of Danish officials arrive at Boston on U.S. Coast Guard cutter USCG Campbell for discussions about trade with Greenland.

Iceland: Canadian Z Force arrives to supplement the existing British occupation force (treated as "guests" by the locals).

China: A Japanese embassy spokesman in Shanghai demands an apology for the recent arrest of 16 Japanese Gendarmes by US Marines, threatening that this could affect "the whole course of Japanese - United States relations."

Sweden: The government denies that it is joining the Axis despite allowing the Wehrmacht transit rights.

Norway: It is reported that Vidkun Quisling is now a local radio commentator in Norway. "Quisling" already has become a synonym for "traitor."

Holocaust: Polish Silesian politician Józef Biniszkiewicz perishes at Buchenwald.

British Homefront: War jitters are at a fever pitch. There are so many rumors of parachutists, German ray guns and the like that the government warns that spreading false rumors will be prosecuting.

Edward R. Murrow is broadcasting in dramatic fashion to the States about The Blitz.

American Homefront: President Roosevelt dodges questions at a press conference about whether he will seek an unprecedented third term. He already has decided to do so but wants to maintain the suspense.

The Major League All-Star Game is held in Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, with the National League winning, 4-0.

July 1940

July 1, 1940: Vichy France
July 2, 1940: Arandora Star
July 3, 1940: Operation Catapult at Mers El Kébir
July 4, 1940: Romania In Crisis
July 5, 1940: The Five Freedoms
July 6, 1940: Hitler's High Point
July 7 1940: Dakar And Ringo
July 8, 1940: Tea Rationing in England
July 9, 1940: Battle of Calabria
July 10, 1940: Battle of Britain Begins
July 11, 1940: "Nous, Philippe Petain"
July 12, 1940: Enter Laval
July 13, 1940: German Surface Raiders Attack!
July 14, 1940: Bastille/Mourning Day
July 15, 1940: Tallest Man Dies
July 16, 1940: Plans for Sea Lion
July 17, 1940: Burma Road Closed
July 18, 1940: FDR Runs Again
July 19, 1940: Last Appeal To Reason
July 20, 1940: First Night Fighter Victory
July 21, 1940: Soviets Absorb Baltic States
July 22, 1940: First RAF Night Fighter Victory
July 23, 1940: Invasion False Alarm
July 24, 1940: The Meknés Incident
July 25, 1940: Black Thursday for RAF
July 26, 1940: Capture The Duke?
July 27, 1940: What's Up, Doc?
July 28, 1940: Destroyers Pulled From Dover
July 29, 1940: Barbarossa On The Burner
July 30, 1940: Hitler Delays Sealion
July 31, 1940: Bloody Wednesday of Olkusz

2020

Monday 7 August 1939

Hermann Goering arrives at the Bredstedt train station on 7 August 1939 for the drive out to the Dahlerus farmhouse. Crowds of local people had been alerted to expect a special visitor due to elaborate police precautions, and some can be seen in the foreground. Strangely, the meeting is still considered "Top Secret" by the German government.

German/English Diplomacy: After weeks of preparation, on 7 August 1939 Hermann Goering participates in a secret meeting with a random group of English industrialists. The meeting is arranged by unofficial Swedish diplomat Birger Dahlerus and held at his wife's farmhouse in northern Germany.

The highly unusual meeting is held at Sönke-Nissen-Koog, Germany, a remote location on the western shore near the Danish border. At the meeting are:

• Brian Moutain
• Sir Robert Renwick
• Charles MacLaren
• T. Mensforth
• A. Holden
• Stanley Rawson
• Charles Spencer

Some of the British civilians just happen to be summering in Germany, whilst Mountain, Renwick, MacLaren, and Mensforth come across especially for the lunch meeting.

The meeting, despite its elaborate preparation and clandestine nature, has no discernible purpose. It is set up casually by Dahlerus, to whom the idea comes spontaneously after visiting England himself and then running into some of his new English industrialist friends back in Germany. Dahlerus himself knows Goering through his boss, Swedish Electrolux tycoon Axel Wenner-Gren, who had met Goering years previously through the family of Goering's first wife Carin von Rosen. While Wenner-Gren himself likes to dabble in diplomacy, he leaves the heavy lifting to his flunky Dahlerus to keep his hands clean.

The whole affair is just another of Goering's "back channel" freelance attempts at unofficial negotiation to see if he can prevent a large war from developing despite whatever action Hitler may take in Poland. He might be cold-blooded and callous, but Goering knows full well that the Wehrmacht, and in particular his Luftwaffe, are not ready yet for a general European War. Goering also feels that Foreign Minister Ribbentrop is incompetent and a war-monger who is creating in Hitler a false impression that the British will not fight. In addition, he would like to score points with Hitler and undercut Ribbentrop by neutralizing England. Goering apparently does not inform Hitler of the meeting out of fear that Hitler will forbid him from making any peace gestures and perhaps feel that Goering is becoming timid.

Goering lectures the British men on, among other things, Germany's growing ability to synthesize gasoline from coal. The discussion is pleasant but also vaguely threatening. After several hours, Goering ends the meeting by proposing a toast to peace. Not a trained diplomat, Goering does not appear to have a set agenda for the affair. He is "winging it" and apparently feels it is enough to be friendly and that this alone will create an atmosphere conducive to further negotiations. It doesn't.

Spencer gives a full report on the meeting to the Foreign Office which accurately predicts the meeting which Hitler will have at Berchtesgaden on 14 August to plan Case Yellow, the invasion of Poland. Goering appears to be expecting some British response to his gesture, but nobody in England really knows what the question posed had been. The British thus make no response and nothing comes of the meeting. Goering henceforth relies on Dahlerus for his unofficial diplomatic meddling, which inevitably goes nowhere.

Hermann Goering photographed on the way to the 7 August 1939 meeting.

Pre-War

8-9 November 1923: Beer Hall Putsch

December 20, 1924: Hitler Leaves Prison

September 18, 1931: Geli Raubal Commits Suicide

November 8, 1932: Roosevelt is Elected

30 January 1933: Hitler Takes Office
February 27, 1933: Reichstag Fire
March 23, 1933: The Enabling Act

June 20, 1934: Hitler Plans the Night of the Long Knives
June 30, 1934: Night of the Long Knives

August 1, 1936: Opening of the Berlin Olympics

September 30, 1938: The Munich Agreement
November 9, 1938: Kristallnacht

August 1, 1939: Flight Tests of B-17 Flying Fortress
August 2, 1939: Einstein and the Atom Bomb
August 7, 1939: Goering Tries to Broker Peace
August 14, 1939: Hitler Decides To Attack Poland
August 15, 1939: U-Boats Put To Sea
August 16, 1939: Incident at Danzig
August 20, 1939: Battle of Khalkhin Gol
August 22, 1939: Hitler Tips His Hand
August 23, 1939: Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact
August 25, 1939: Hitler Postpones Invasion of Poland
August 27, 1939: First Jet Flight
August 31, 1939: The Gleiwitz Operation

2019

Sunday 3 September 1939

Winston Churchill and other top leaders on 3 September 1939.

World Affairs: At roughly 11:15 a.m. on the Sunday morning of 3 September 1939, British Prime Minister Chamberlain broadcasts a brief speech to the country. After setting forth the particulars, he concludes, "consequently, this country is at war with Germany." King George VI also delivers a speech later in the day, an event later recalled in the film "The King's Speech." He states, "all my long struggle to win peace has failed."

Behind the scenes, the Germans are still trying to prevent the declaration right up to the last second. Their unofficial diplomat, Birger Dahlerus, remains on the phone to Whitehall from Berlin as the speech is made, attempting to broker a deal. Both Alexander Cadogan and Lord Halifax, however, remain adamant: no deal without a prior German withdrawal from Poland.

Australia Prime Minister Robert Gordon Menzies immediately confirms with his own radio address that his country also is at war with Germany. France declares war at 5 p.m. India and New Zealand follow suit. Belgium reaffirms its neutrality, with King Leopold assuming command of the Belgian Army.


British Government: Winston Churchill, a long-time war hawk now proven correct, resumes his World War I post as First Lord of the Admiralty. A Ministry of Economic Warfare (blockade) is established. The House of Commons meets on a Sunday for the first time since 1820.

Battle of Poland: While Polish radio reports nothing but victories, spiked by the welcome news that England has declared war in Poland's support, mass evacuations continue of government officials and their families from Katowice, Krakow and other threatened cities.

The Polish troops are already retreating eastward. The 1st and 4th Panzer Divisions cross the Warta River and are bombed by Polish bombers in the Radom-Plotrkow sector without much effect. The German capture Czestochowa. General Guderian's XIX Corps crosses the Polish Corridor in the north.

Stukas sink the Polish destroyer Wicher at Hela.

Battle of Britain: at 11:28 a.m., barely ten minutes after the conclusion of Chamberlain's speech, there is a false alarm of an air raid in London, with people taking to the shelters for the first time.

European Air Operations: Shortly after the declaration of war, the RAF sends a Bristol Blenheim of No. 139 Squadron out of Wyton on a mission to obtain photographic reconnaissance of the German naval base at Wilhelmshaven. It returns unscathed.

That night, 10 Whitley bombers of Nos. 51 and 58 Squadrons drop 6 million anti-German leaflets over Hamburg, Bremen and the Ruhr industrial area without incident.

Battle of the Atlantic: The German Kriegsmarine has 17 U-boats on station guarding the western approaches to Great Britain in preparation for war. Germany announces an immediate blockade. The U-boats are under orders to follow the German Prize Ordinance taken almost literally from the Naval Protocol of 1936. The Kriegsmarine interprets this to mean that U-boats are to attack all merchant ships in convoy, and all that refused to stop or used their radio upon sighting a submarine. [This is pursuant to evidence and testimony of Admiral Karl Doenitz at the Nuremberg trials following World War II.]

Having sailed the previous day from Liverpool for Montreal despite strong indications that war was about to break out, liner SS Athenia is proceeding westward as the day begins. At roughly 200 nautical miles (370 km) northwest of Ireland and 60 nautical miles (110 km) south of Rockall, U-30 under the command of Oberleutnant Fritz-Julius Lemp spots her. Mistaking her for a troopship or other armed vessel, Lemp fires two torpedoes, and one strikes on her port side toward the stern. Several ships rush to the Athenia's assistance, including, somewhat ironically, the large yacht the Southern Cross, owned by Dahlerus' boss at Electrolux, Axel Wenner-Gren. They get there well before the Athenia sinks, which takes a full 14 hours.

Sinking of the SS Athena on 3 September 1939.

There is much controversy about the sinking, which brings home the reality of the war to the startled public. The Germans disclaim responsibility in order to avoid an incident with the United States: among the 98 passengers and 19 crew members who perished were 28 Americans. While the attack is after the declaration of war, the manner of the sinking is illegal under international law due to it being a passenger liner. The Kriegsmarine under Admiral Raeder, along with the Propaganda Ministry, willfully misrepresent the incident as not being their fault in the press. The truth only comes out at the Nuremberg trials following the war, when it is still a very touchy subject.

German Government: Reinhard Heydrich, in his capacity as head of the State Security Police and the Security Service, issues a decree to the heads of all police officers. The decree states in part that "Any attempt to undermine the unity of the German people and its determination to fight must be ruthlessly suppressed." It calls for the arrest of anyone that speaks out against the war, though anyone who can be straightened out through "educational means" should be treated lightly.

Nobody is pleased with Foreign Minister Ribbentrop, who had repeatedly assured Hitler that Great Britain, in particular, would never declare war over Poland. Ribbentrop falls into disfavor from which he never really recovers. Goering somewhat vicariously yells at him: "Now you've got your... war! You alone are to blame!"

September 1939

September 1, 1939: Invasion of Poland
September 2, 1939: Danzig Annexed
September 3, 1939: France, Great Britain Declare War
September 4, 1939: First RAF Raid
September 5, 1939: The US Stays Out
September 6, 1939: Battle of Barking Creek
September 7, 1939: Polish HQ Bugs Out
September 8, 1939: War Crimes in Poland
September 9, 1939: The Empire Strikes Back
September 10, 1939: The Germans Break Out
September 11, 1939: Battle of Kałuszyn
September 12, 1939: The French Chicken Out
September 13, 1939: The Battle of Modlin
September 14, 1939: Germany Captures Gdynia
September 15, 1939: Warsaw Surrounded
September 16, 1939: Battle of Jaworów
September 17, 1939: Soviets Invade Poland
September 18, 1939: Lublin Falls
September 19, 1939: Germans, Soviets Hook Up
September 20, 1939: the Kraków Army Surrenders
September 21, 1939: Romania Convulses
September 22, 1939: Joint Soviet-German Military Parade
September 23, 1939: The Panama Conference
September 24, 1939: The Luftwaffe Bombs Warsaw
September 25, 1939: Black Monday for Warsaw
September 26, 1939: Warsaw on the Ropes
September 27, 1939: Hitler Decides to Invade France
September 28, 1939: Warsaw Capitulates
September 29, 1939: Modlin Fortress Falls
September 30, 1939: Graf Spee on the Loose