Saturday 2 March 1940

A Finnish patrol in Viipuri during the Winter War.

Winter War: France and Great Britain once again on 2 March 1940 ask Norway and Sweden for the right of passage to Finland, and again are refused. Finland still has not made a formal request for military assistance.

A Hungarian Volunteer Detached Battalion arrives at a Finnish training camp at Lapua. They have traveled through Europe posing as tourists going skiing. The trip took three weeks by train.

Canada authorizes volunteer participation in the Winter War. A unit of volunteer soldiers boards a ship bound for Finland.

Winter War Army Operations: The fluid battle that has developed on the Karelian Isthmus is not working out to the Finns' favor. Soviet troops enter the southern suburbs of Viipuri at Sainio, 5 miles south of the city along the coast, and Heinjoki River, 17 miles east of the town. They continue swarming west. Fires break out in Viipuri, which is being abandoned and destroyed.

The front at Taipale settles down, as the Soviets have had no success there and the prospects are better further south at Viipuri.

The Soviets capture the islands of Tuppuransaari and Teikarsaari after the former runs out of ammunition and a counterattack fails. The Soviets are now digging in on the mainland on the western shore of Viipurinlahti Bay. Finnish Major General Wallenius cannot dislodge them and is said to be drinking heavily.

At Kollaa, Soviet artillery begins at 06:30, followed by a large-scale, multiple-division assault. The Finnish trenches hold.

At Kuhmo, the Finnish defensive line at Kuusijoki is hit with 3,000 artillery shells, then a massive assault. The Soviets capture the Finns' forward positions.

Winter War Air Operations: Soviet bombers again try to bomb Helsinki, but Finnish fighters drive them off.

Winter War Peace Talks: Finland’s Foreign Minister Väinö Tanner informs the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee that the acceptance of the Soviet peace terms has not yet been communicated to them, and explains why. He has asked the Swedish Foreign Minister Christian Günther to hold off on transmitting the acceptance.

Battle of the Atlantic: The German crew of 6,201-ton freighter Wolfsburg scuttles the ship rather than have it captured by British heavy cruiser HMS Berwick (Captain Irving M. Palmer,) north of Iceland. There are 54 survivors picked up by the Berwick. The Wolfsburg was disguised as Norwegian ship Aust. The Berwick hurries the job of scuttling by sinking the ship with gunfire.

The German crew of the  6,530-ton German freighter Heidelberg scuttles the ship in the Windward Passage in the Caribbean Sea rather than be captured by the light cruiser HMS Dunedin. The Dunedin picks up 25 survivors and takes them to Jamaica. Heidelberg was one of the two ships that had left Aruba to run the blockade.

U-32 torpedoes and sinks 2,818-ton Swedish freighter Lagaholm.

U-17 torpedoes and sinks 695-ton Dutch freighter Rijnstroom.

British freighter Albano hits a mine and sinks.

Liner Queen Elizabeth, accompanied by destroyers HMS Mohawk, HMS Punjabi, HMS Fortune, and HMS Foxhound, heads out of the Clyde. While the cover story is that she is heading for Southampton, in reality, she is going to New York.

U-29 (Kapitänleutnant Otto Schuhart) lays mines in the Bristol Channel.

The British at Gibraltar detain the US passenger liner Manhattan. It is released later in the day after the British remove some 80 items of cargo.

European Air Operations: A RAF reconnaissance Supermarine Spitfire gets good photographs of the industrial Ruhr River valley industrial region. In addition, RAF bombers drop leaflets and parachute flares over Berlin.

The Luftwaffe continues searching for shipping targets. The British India passenger liner Domala is bombed by a Heinkel He 111H off the Isle of Wight, with 108 killed or missing of the 291 onboard after fires rage out of control. There are reports of machine-gunning of passengers in lifeboats. There are 183 survivors. A rescue ship, Dutch freighter Jong Willem, also is attacked while picking up 48 survivors.

The Luftwaffe also sinks the Dutch vessel Elzienna.

Convoy OA 102 departs from Southend, Convoy 102 departs from Liverpool, and Convoy HX 24 departs from Halifax.

US Government: Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles meets with Hitler in Berlin. Hitler tells him that, for Germany, "there is no other solution than a life-and-death struggle." Welles forms a favorable impression of Hitler's health and mind, of whom he says, "while his eyes were tired, they were clear."

Australian Military: Chief of the General Staff General Squires passes away.

British Homefront: Cambridge beats Oxford in the annual university boat race at Henley-on-Thames.

American Homefront: Cartoon character Elmer Fudd debuts in the Warner Bros. animated short "Elmer's Candid Camera."

Ruins of Viipuri, Finnish soldiers on the right.

March 1940

March 1, 1940: Soviet Breakthroughs Past Viipuri
March 2, 1940: Soviets Swarm West in Finland
March 3, 1940: Soviets Across Gulf of Viipuri
March 4, 1940: USSR Apologizes to Sweden
March 5, 1940: Katyn Forest Massacre Approved
March 6, 1940: Finns Head to Moscow
March 7, 1940: The Coal Ships Affair
March 8, 1940: Peace Talks Begin in Moscow
March 9, 1940: Soviets Harden Peace Terms
March 10, 1940: Germany Draws Closer to Italy
March 11, 1940: Winter War Peace Terms Finalized
March 12, 1940: War is Over (If You Want It)
March 13, 1940: Winter War Ends
March 14, 1940: Evacuating Karelia
March 15, 1940: The Bletchley Bombe
March 16, 1940: First British Civilian Killed
March 17, 1940: Enter Dr. Todt
March 18, 1940: Mussolini To Join the War
March 19, 1940: Daladier Resigns
March 20, 1940: Soviets Occupy Hango Naval Base
March 21, 1940: Paul Reynaud Leads France
March 22, 1940: Night Fighters Arise!
March 24, 1940: French Consider Alternatives
March 25, 1940: Reynaud Proposes Action
March 26, 1940: C-46 First Flight
March 27, 1940: Himmler Authorizes Auschwitz Construction
March 28, 1940: Allies Ponder Invading Norway
March 29, 1940: Soviets Prefer Neutrality
March 30, 1940: Allied Uncertainty
March 31, 1940: The Tiger Cage

2019

Monday 18 December 1939

German soldiers executing 56 Polish civilians in the city of Bochnia. December 18, 1939.

European Air Operations: The British have been raiding Kriegsmarine bases in the Heligoland bight recently (source of magnetic mine layers), but they try that trick one time too often. This time, on 18 December 1939, the British send 22 Wellington bombers from 9, 37,  and149 Squadrons on armed reconnaissance, but the Luftwaffe is waiting. In the Battle of the Heligoland Bight, a swarm of 50 Bf 109s and 110s converge on the Wellingtons as they return home and eliminate a dozen of them at the cost of two fighters (figures vary by source). Ten Wellingtons are shot down outright, two ditch in the sea, and three limp home to crash-land at base.

It is a huge Luftwaffe victory. The British suspend daylight bombing for the foreseeable future.

Battle of the Atlantic: The Captain and crew of Admiral Graf Spee land in Buenos Aires. The Uruguayan authorities arrest four of them for scuttling their ship. The press is full of scorn at Captain Langsdorff for not going down with his ship, which is full of black humor because, if he had stayed on the bridge, he still would have been above water.

The British Admiralty reports that 10 out of 1,100 ships transiting to or from British ports in the first ten days of December were sunk.

The British release the US freighter Meanticut at Gibraltar.

Concoy OA 55G departs from Southend, Convoy SL 13 departs from Freetown.

Winter War: The Soviets, stymied almost everywhere, bomb Helsinki and shell some Finnish coastal batteries. Soviet battleship Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya and escorting warships bombard the Finnish shore battery at Saarenpaa.

In the far north, the Soviets advance from Petsamo to take Pitkaejaervi but can proceed no further. Three scratch Finnish companies are able to stop the Soviet 52nd Division at Höyhenjärvi. It is the heart of winter up there, with no sunlight and bitter conditions, terrible weather for army advances.

The Battle of Salla (By Jniemenmaa - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0).

At Salla, the Soviets on the northern road to Pelkosenniemi are retreating from the Kemijoki River in wild flight back toward Salla. The Soviet 112th Division loses most of its tanks and other heavy equipment. The Finns are holding the Soviets on the south road toward Kemijärvi against fierce attacks. Once again, the Finns are showing their excellence at concentrating their minimal forces and defeating Soviet units in detail.

At Summa and Kollaa, the stalemate continues, but the Finns have the upper hand. At Kollaa, the Finnish IV Corps forces the Soviet 75th and 139th divisions to retreat to Ägläjärvi.

Paavo Talvela is promoted from colonel to major general for his command at the Battle of Tolvajärvi on 12 December. The campaign at Tolvajärvi is quite not over yet, but its opening rounds have been a smashing Finnish victory. Battles are drawn-out affairs because the Finns are relying on the cold and hunger as their allies against the Soviets, and while those factors take time to work their magic, they are relentless.

German Government: Hitler and Quisling meet a second time. Hitler repeats his promise that any British invasion will be met by a German counter-invasion. Quisling becomes uncertain about Hitler's motives - Quisling sees himself as ruler of an equal nation supported by Hitler, while Hitler sees Quisling as someone to govern a German possession - and somewhat belatedly denies being a supporter of the Third Reich. Hitler proceeds with his own plans for an invasion but now is not depending upon Quisling, though he continues supporting him.

Soviet Union: Today is Stalin's 60th birthday, but it officially is celebrated on the 21st.

Afghanistan: Hitler has made diplomatic gestures towards several middle east and far east nations such as Iraq and Tibet. He has been toying with the idea of intervening in Afghanistan and restoring King Amanullah to the throne there, but gives it up as impractical. The British are dominant throughout the region.

Holocaust: German soldiers execute Polish civilians in the city of Bochnia. 56 people are executed.

China: The Battle of Kunlun Pass begins. The Japanese have captured this key route which provides access to the Chinese rear of Chungking. Chinese General Bai Chongxi has Chiang Kai-shek send the best unit in the Chinese Army, the 5th Corps from Hunan province, to stop them. Unlike other Chinese formations, it is equipped with tanks and other armor, and it sends two divisions to attack the Japanese. The Chinese plan is to sweep in behind the Japanese and cut them off. Progress on the first day is promising.

Elsewhere, the Chinese Winter Offensive is recovering ground. The 2nd War Area recaptures Lunghua Chen, the 3rd War Area recaptures Chasan, Wangchiatan, Tsenghsingshan, Paifangshan, Maotan, Puling, Hsiangshan, Tuanshan, Hanshan, Shihtzeshan, Huiluling, Kangyaoling, and part of Chiangchiatashan, 5th War Area recaptures Tzepakang and Changkang, and Chinese North Route Force recaptures Kunlunkuan and Chiu-Tang. There are Chinese attacks all across the front, and Japanese counterattacks are stymied.

Kapitän zur See Hans Langsdorff reading about his ship, the Admiral Graf Spee, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. December 18, 1939.

December 14, 1939: Quisling Meets Hitler
December 15, 1939: Chinese Winter Offensive in High Gear
December 16, 1939: Battle of Summa
December 17, 1939: End of Admiral Graf Spee
December 18, 1939: Battle of Heligoland Bight
December 19, 1939: British Disarm Magnetic Mines
December 20, 1939: Finnish Counterattacks Continue
December 21, 1939: Finns Plan More Counterattacks
December 22, 1939: Enter Chuikov
December 23, 1939: Failed Finnish Counterattack
December 24, 1939: Soviets on the Run
December 25, 1939: Fresh Soviet Attacks
December 26, 1939: Vicious Battles at Kelja
December 27, 1939: Grinding Finnish Victories
December 28, 1939: Liberators
December 29, 1939: Finns Tighten the Noose
December 30, 1939: Finnish Booty
December 31, 1939: Planning More Soviet Destruction

2019

Sunday 17 December 1939

A Finnish soldier on the Kollaa front, 17 December 1939.

Battle of the Atlantic: On 17 December 1939, Captain Langsdorff must make a decision, and he does. The Admiral Graf Spee only has left a third of its ammunition, about as much as expended during the previous battle. It also has insufficient fuel left to return to Germany, with the prospect of being able to refuel while being chased by the British very unlikely. So, after consulting with his officers, at 6:15 p.m., Langsdorff sails slowly west out of Montevideo and scuttles the ship in neutral waters. It sits mostly submerged in 7 meters of water, blazing away.

Most of Langsdorff's crew transfers to the German freighter Tacoma. He and his 1,039-man crew wind up in detention in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The outcome is a huge propaganda victory for the British and First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, but the sailors from Admiral Graf Spee survived. Churchill spins into rhetorical overdrive:

the outcome was "like a flash of light and colour on the scene, carrying with it an encouragement to all who are fighting, to ourselves, and to our Allies."

The Admiral Graf Spee had sunk 50,089 tons of shipping, nine ships. It also badly damaged a heavy cruiser and kept a large portion of the Allied fleets searching the South Atlantic for weeks. This deprived convoys further north of protection. The Altmark, its supply ship, remains free and heads back north to Germany, loaded with Allied prisoners.

U-59 (Oberleutnant zur See Harald Jürst) sinks the 1.245-ton Danish freighter Jaegerborg east of the Firth of Forth in Scotland. All eighteen crew perish.

U-59 also torpedoes and sinks the 1,214-ton Danish freighter Bogø. Of the 20-man crew, three survive.

British destroyers lay mine off the German coast.

The British at Gibraltar detain the US freighter Meanticut.

Admiral Graf Spee burning in the Platte River, 17 December 1939.

Winter War Army Operations: Soviet attacks continue at Summa. Soviet tanks continue attempting to penetrate the gap in the defenses in the nearby swamp. The Finnish infantry holds its ground and separates the Soviet tanks from their infantry support, then pick the tanks off with anti-tank guns and Molotov Cocktails primarily after dark.

The Soviet 163d Rifle Division remains surrounded at Suomussalmi. The relief force is reeling from Finnish counterattacks and is not trying to break through again. The Finnish strategy is to cut the elongated Soviet caravan on the Ratte road into separate pieces and then finish them off individually.

The Finns at Kollaa are counterattacking two Soviet divisions trapped on the coastal road. The Finns operating on skis can pick and choose their points of attack, while the Soviets are defending their immobile vehicles. The process is debilitating for both sides, but the Finns have turned the tables and are attacking the helpless Soviets.

Snipers are of huge importance in the woods. Finnish sniper Simo Häyhä, nicknamed "The White Death," is accumulating kills.

At Salla, the Soviets have split into two parts at a fork in the road. The Finns block the Soviet move on the southern road toward  Kemijärvi and put the weight of their effort on the north road. The Finns use these men to ambush the northern pincer moving toward Pelkosenniemi. The Soviet force on the north road, an infantry regiment a battalion, and a company of tanks, is outflanked and begins to retreat. A wild fight ensues.

League of Nations: The Soviets issue a long and entirely negative reply to the League of Nations resolution expelling it.

BEF: The first convoy of Canadian troops arrives in Liverpool, some 7,500 men of the 1st Canadian Division (Canadian Major-General McNaughton). It consists of five ocean liners.

China: The Chinese Winter Offensive continues. While the Chinese 3rd War Area attacks the 116th Infantry Regiment and captures Hsientao and Szekang, elsewhere the Japanese begin counter-attacking. The Japanese 5th Infantry Division attacks toward Lungchow, the 104th Infantry Division reaches Yuantan in Kwantung Province, and the Japanese counterattack the Chinese 2nd War Area.


December 14, 1939: Quisling Meets Hitler
December 15, 1939: Chinese Winter Offensive in High Gear
December 16, 1939: Battle of Summa
December 17, 1939: End of Admiral Graf Spee
December 18, 1939: Battle of Heligoland Bight
December 19, 1939: British Disarm Magnetic Mines
December 20, 1939: Finnish Counterattacks Continue
December 21, 1939: Finns Plan More Counterattacks
December 22, 1939: Enter Chuikov
December 23, 1939: Failed Finnish Counterattack
December 24, 1939: Soviets on the Run
December 25, 1939: Fresh Soviet Attacks
December 26, 1939: Vicious Battles at Kelja
December 27, 1939: Grinding Finnish Victories
December 28, 1939: Liberators
December 29, 1939: Finns Tighten the Noose
December 30, 1939: Finnish Booty
December 31, 1939: Planning More Soviet Destruction

2019

Tuesday 12 December 1939

Finnish skiers beside a pile of Russian corpses.

Winter War Army Operations: The Finns are counterattacking. Finnish ski troops are able to move through the forests, whereas the Soviets are confined to the roads. Even Soviet Division that have ample ski equipment do not have men trained to use it. The Soviet tanks are a liability in the forests, hard to maintain in the brutally cold weather and restricted to the roads. They also are often left unprotected by sufficient infantry, as the Soviets do not believe in a combined-arms approach.

Colonel Hjalmar Siilasvuo has the Soviet 163rd Rifle Division surrounded at Suomussalmi. His troops have the only way in, the Ratte road, barricaded, but there still is no sign of any Soviet relief effort. He and his men wait.

At Taipale, the Soviets continue trying to smash through the Finnish defenses using only one division. By the end of the day, the Soviet commanders decide to bring in another division, the 10th Rifle Division, and more tanks and artillery. It will take a day or two for these to arrive.

The Finnish defenses at Kollaa also are holding. This is the linchpin of the entire Mannerheim Line and it is well-defended.

At Tolvajärvi, north of Lake Ladoga, the Finnish commander, Colonel Paavo Talvela, sees an opportunity to trap some Soviet troops by sending his troops across the frozen lakes Hirvasjärvi and Tolvajärvi. He sends one group in the north, consisting of two battalions, to attack the Soviet 718th Rifle Regiment. While the attack fails, it draws off Soviet reserves needed in the south. There, a Finnish battalion of the Finish 16th Regiment fends off a Soviet attack in the morning and goes on the offensive as planned. The Soviet troops are pushed back, and Talvela traps the entire Soviet Regiment, capturing its documents and killing its commander. The Soviets army loses over 1,000 dead and equipment (including 26 tanks) that the Finns can badly use. The Soviet 139th Rifle Division is largely destroyed.

The Soviet troops in the far north at Petsamo are being screened only lightly by the Finns, but there is really nowhere for them to go in the round-the-clock darkness of the Arctic winter.

The only Soviet bright spot is at Salla, in the waist of the country. The Soviets are consolidating their advance there, ridding the town of the remaining Finnish troops, and planning their next move west.

Winter War Naval Operations: Soviet submarine SC-311 sinks Finnish freighter Wilpas.

The Bremen (Ang, Federal Archive).

Battle of the Atlantic: The 52,000-ton German liner Bremen (no passengers) wins its gamble and makes it to Bremerhaven from Murmansk. Unbeknownst to its crew, British submarine HMS Salmon (Lt. Commander Edward O. Bickford) had sighted the Bremen but forbore from torpedoing it because that would have violated international law - liners require warning before being attacked. In fact, the Salmon surfaced and tried to give warning, but the liner blew right by it without apparently noticing the sub. Salmon then dove to avoid approaching Dornier Do 18 aircraft, and after he resurfaced, Bickford decided that it would be illegal to sink the ship. The Bremen is of use to the Germans as a barracks ship.

HMS Barham and HMS Duchess collide in the Mull of Kintyre nine miles off the Scottish coast in dense fog. Barham being a battleship and Duchess a destroyer, the later is cut in half and goes to the bottom. There are only 25 survivors and 124 perish.

The 496-ton British freighter Marwick Head hits a mine and sinks south of North Caister Buoy in the English Channel. Five survive and five perish.

The Admiral Graf Spee arrives off the River Platte estuary late in the day and spots the British Force G waiting for him. Captain Langsdorff is under orders to avoid combat. Since he is at the end of a long cruise after four months at sea, he takes those orders lightly, as some damage can be repaired in port while the engines are serviced. He dumps the Arado seaplane, removes extraneous equipment and prepares for battle. It is a fateful decision.

Kriegsmarine destroyers conduct more mine-laying operations in the English Channel.

German U-boat U-50 commissioned.

European Air Operations: The RAF begins occasional patrols over the Frisian Islands being used by Luftwaffe seaplanes to lay mines. They bomb Luftwaffe bases at Borkum and Sylt.

League of Nations: The Soviets say "Nyet!" to the League's offer to mediate and for a ceasefire.

British Government: Winston Churchill goes to Parliament and argues that Great Britain should invade Norway, stating, "it is humanity, and not legality, that we must look to as our judge."

General Wavell returns to the Middle East.

Convoy HX 52 departs from Liverpool and HX 12 from Halifax.

German Government: Hitler orders a doubling in the production of magnetic sea mines and munitions in general.

Admiral Raeder, who supports an invasion of Norway, tells Hitler about a meeting with pro-German Norwegian politician Vidkun Quisling. Hitler is intrigued and agrees to meet Quisling.

China: The Chinese Winter Offensive gets rolling:

• Chinese 5th War Area (western Anhwei, northern Hupei, and southern Honan with 22nd, 29th, 31st, and 33rd Army Groups) opens offensive around Chienchiang, Pailochi, Hsientao, Loyangtien, and Hsuchiatien;
• Chinese 9th War Area (northwest Kiangsi, Hupei south of Yangtze River, and Hunan with 1st, 15th, 19th, 27th, and 30th Army Groups) opens attacks around Wanshoukung, Tacheng, Kulopu, Shihtoukang, Kaoyushih, Hsiangfukuan.

In an early success, the Chinese 9th War Area captures Chungyang, Wanling, Puling, Hsiaoling, Mankanling, Chienchow, and Paitzechiao. This severs communications for local Japanese forces.

American Homefront: Actor Douglas Fairbanks passes away at 56 of a heart attack.


December 14, 1939: Quisling Meets Hitler
December 15, 1939: Chinese Winter Offensive in High Gear
December 16, 1939: Battle of Summa
December 17, 1939: End of Admiral Graf Spee
December 18, 1939: Battle of Heligoland Bight
December 19, 1939: British Disarm Magnetic Mines
December 20, 1939: Finnish Counterattacks Continue
December 21, 1939: Finns Plan More Counterattacks
December 22, 1939: Enter Chuikov
December 23, 1939: Failed Finnish Counterattack
December 24, 1939: Soviets on the Run
December 25, 1939: Fresh Soviet Attacks
December 26, 1939: Vicious Battles at Kelja
December 27, 1939: Grinding Finnish Victories
December 28, 1939: Liberators
December 29, 1939: Finns Tighten the Noose
December 30, 1939: Finnish Booty
December 31, 1939: Planning More Soviet Destruction

2019

Saturday 9 December 1939

Colonel Hjalmar Siilasvuo (left) during the battle of Suomussalmi (colorized).

Winter War Army Operations: Colonel Hjalmar Siilasvuo is in command of the Finnish 9th Infantry Division in the Suomussalmi area on 9 December 1939. While successful so far, he is facing two Soviet rifle divisions (the 44th and 163rd) approaching from two different sides (north and east), each backed by tanks and artillery. Siilasvuo only has a scattering of infantry between the Soviet troops: 4th Reserve Battalion, 15th Detached Battalion, 16th Detached Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, Battle Group Kontula, and the 5th and 6th Ranger Groups. All together, Siilasvuo has maybe nine infantry companies - less than a division. The only saving grace is that some of the men are elite Border Guard Rangers, and every single man is fully committed to the cause. The risk is that the Red Army divisions will hook up and create an overpowering force.

Siilasvuo makes the classic textbook mistake of dividing his forces in the face of a superior enemy. His plan is to defeat them in detail. Siilasvuo decides that his first step is to cut the Raatte Road which is supplying the main Soviet forces in Suomussalmi from the east. He begins rearranging his troops and getting them into position. It will take a couple of days, but the Soviets are having a rough time in the forests and snow so there may be sufficient time to arrange things just right.

Elsewhere, the Finns are holding tough at the Kollaa River - there is a vicious night battle there - and Soviet gains in the far north are minimal.

Western Front: Corporal Thomas Priday of King’s Shropshire Light Infantry is killed while leading a patrol on the Western Front. He becomes the first British soldier (as opposed to sailor or airman) killed in World War II. Reportedly, he is a victim of "friendly fire," a term not yet invented.

King George V completes a five-day review of the front.

HMS Exeter.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-20 (Kapitänleutnant Karl-Heinz Moehle) torpedoes and sinks the 1,339-ton Danish freighter, Magnus, off Peterhead in Scotland. One man survives, eighteen perish.

U-48 (Kapitänleutnant Herbert Schultze) torpedoes and sinks 7,397-ton British tanker San Alberto off Cape Clear, Ireland. Everyone survives but one crewman.

German freighter Adolf Leonhardt is scuttled near the Cape of Good Hope to avoid capture by Royal Navy cruiser HMS Shropshire.

German tanker Nordmeer decides to make a run from Curacao to Spain despite Allied patrols.

The British detain U.S. freighter Explorer at Gibraltar.

Royal Navy Force G (light cruisers HMS Ajax and HMS Achilles, Commodore Henry Harwood) continues toward Montevideo on Harwood's hunch that the Admiral Graf Spee will head there next. He also orders HMS Exeter, just to the south at Port Stanley, Falkland Islands, to rendezvous there as well. Another heavy cruiser, HMS Cumberland, is also at Port Stanley but is unavailable.

The Germans commission auxiliary cruiser Orion.

Soviet Military: Dissatisfied with operations in the Winter War, the Kremlin (The chief of staff of the Red Army (Stavka), Boris Shaposhnikov) assumes more direct operational control of tactics from local commanders and strips Commander of the Leningrad Military District Kiril Meretskov of his overall command of the campaign. Meretskov is effectively demoted to the command of the Soviet 7th Army. It is the first official recognition by senior Soviet military leaders that something is going seriously wrong in Finland.

Peace Talks: The League of Nations meets as scheduled in Geneva to discuss the Soviet invasion of Finland. The US attends, the USSR does not.

Soviet Propaganda: Soviet news agency TASS releases a report claiming that the Germans are supplying Finland. This is very disquieting for the Germans, who are doing nothing of the kind and in fact, have allocated Finland to the Soviets per the terms of the Ribbentrop/Molotov Pact of 23 August 1939. Ironically, virtually everyone else in the world is aiding the Finns, including German ally Italy - but not the Reich.

Holocaust: Some 200 Jews out of 1800 survive a forced march through the winter snows from their homes in Hrubieszow and Chelm across the Bug River to their new home in Hans Frank's occupied Poland.


December 14, 1939: Quisling Meets Hitler
December 15, 1939: Chinese Winter Offensive in High Gear
December 16, 1939: Battle of Summa
December 17, 1939: End of Admiral Graf Spee
December 18, 1939: Battle of Heligoland Bight
December 19, 1939: British Disarm Magnetic Mines
December 20, 1939: Finnish Counterattacks Continue
December 21, 1939: Finns Plan More Counterattacks
December 22, 1939: Enter Chuikov
December 23, 1939: Failed Finnish Counterattack
December 24, 1939: Soviets on the Run
December 25, 1939: Fresh Soviet Attacks
December 26, 1939: Vicious Battles at Kelja
December 27, 1939: Grinding Finnish Victories
December 28, 1939: Liberators
December 29, 1939: Finns Tighten the Noose
December 30, 1939: Finnish Booty
December 31, 1939: Planning More Soviet Destruction

2019

Friday 8 December 1939

Polish pilots cleared to serve in the RAF on 8 December 1939.

Winter War Army Operations: Soviet troops of the 163rd Division of the 9th Army (Duhanov) take Suomussalmi without a fight after dark at 9 p.m. on 8 December 1939. They quickly attack across the frozen lakes to the west with two companies. The objective is Hyrysalmi and then, ultimately, Oulu on the Gulf of Bothnia, which would split Finland in two and effectively end the war. However, there is a very rough country in between which might not be so obvious from maps.

The Finns who had abandoned Suomussalmi, the 15th and 16th Detached Battalions of the Finnish Army, also know the stakes and are waiting. With a clear field of fire across the frozen surface, they beat back the Soviets and inflict massive casualties. The Soviets regroup and try to outflank the Finns to the northwest, at Puolnaka. The Polish 16th detached battalion is there waiting for them and stops the Soviets cold.

Elsewhere on the front, the Soviet forces also are mostly stopped. The Finns are holding against the 8th Army at the River Kollaa. Only the Soviet 14th Army in the far north takes some tundra near Petsamo against three Finnish companies led by Captain Antti Pennanen.

It is the first day of the Winter War when the Finns largely hold their ground.

European Air Operations: The Royal Air Force and the British government agree to allow exiled Polish pilots to be attached to the RAF.

Otto Kretschmer.

Battle of the Atlantic: US Secretary of State Cordell Hull asks his Chargé d'Affaires in the United Kingdom to demand that the British release the Nishmaha, which has been held in detention for 25 days. The British wish it to unload cargo that the British consider contraband at Marseilles.

The US Consul General in Hamburg reports that the Germans have detained 125 vessels from neutral nations - 40 Swedish, 12 Danish, 5 Norwegian, 40 Finnish, 14 Estonian and 14 Latvian. The Germans, like the British, have adopted a sweeping interpretation of what constitutes "contraband."

U-34 (Kapitänleutnant Otto Kretschmer) torpedoes and sinks the 2,400-ton Danish freighter Scotia northeast of Scotland. Two survive and 19 perish.

U-48 (Kapitänleutnant Herbert Schultze) torpedoes and sinks 6,668-ton British freighter Brandon south of Ireland. Nine perish.

British freighter Merel hits a mine and sinks off Ramsgate.

British freighter Corea hits a mine and sinks.

Convoy OA 49 departs from Southend, OB 49 departs from Liverpool, HG 10 departs from Gibraltar.

British Military: In Egypt, General Wavell dismisses Major General Percy Hobart from his position forming Mobile Force (Egypt). Hobart has unconventional ideas about the use of tanks and other mobile forces, seeing in them the ability to project long-range power across the desert. The War Office is not a fan of these ideas, but, strangely enough, one Heinz Guderian in the Reich thinks that Hobart is brilliant and actually pays a translator so that he can read everything that Hobart writes. Hobart's dismissal is a reflection of the tensions going on in every major army about the role of mobile forces and tanks in particular. Hobart goes home to Chipping Campden and joins his Local Defence Volunteers unit as a lance corporal, serving as its Deputy Area Organiser.

Italy: Air Marshal Italo Balbo, long-time Governor-General of Libya, visits Rome and publicly states, "You will all wind up shining the shoes of the Germans!" He is the only fascist to publicly criticize Mussolini's obvious sympathies with Hitler and wishes that Italy would join the Allies. Balbo is such a towering figure in the military that Mussolini does nothing but inwardly seethe.

Peru: Manuel Prado y Ugarteche inaugurated as president.

China: The Japanese 104th Infantry Division attacks Chinese Kwantung Army forces in Kwantung as a spoiling attack against the Chinese 4th War Area. The Japanese spoiling attacks in Wenhsi and Hsia Hsien continue.

Future History: Gordon Arthur "Red" Berenson is born in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. He becomes a National Hockey League player in the 1960s and eventually becomes a coach. As of this writing, Red Berenson is the coach of the Michigan Wolverines men's hockey team and has been for 32 years.

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, December 8, 1939. Somebody important is coming or going on the Santa Fe, note the drum band. [Oklahoma Publishing Company Photography Collection].

December 14, 1939: Quisling Meets Hitler
December 15, 1939: Chinese Winter Offensive in High Gear
December 16, 1939: Battle of Summa
December 17, 1939: End of Admiral Graf Spee
December 18, 1939: Battle of Heligoland Bight
December 19, 1939: British Disarm Magnetic Mines
December 20, 1939: Finnish Counterattacks Continue
December 21, 1939: Finns Plan More Counterattacks
December 22, 1939: Enter Chuikov
December 23, 1939: Failed Finnish Counterattack
December 24, 1939: Soviets on the Run
December 25, 1939: Fresh Soviet Attacks
December 26, 1939: Vicious Battles at Kelja
December 27, 1939: Grinding Finnish Victories
December 28, 1939: Liberators
December 29, 1939: Finns Tighten the Noose
December 30, 1939: Finnish Booty
December 31, 1939: Planning More Soviet Destruction

2019

Thursday 7 December 1939

The Finns are perfectly prepared for fighting in severe weather.

Winter War Naval Operations: The Soviet Union announces a naval blockade of Finland on 7 December 1939.

Winter War Army Operations: The events of today mark a climax of recent operations. The highly disciplined and well equipped (for winter warfare) Finns have retreated to prepared positions. They can retreat no further without beginning to jeopardize their rear. The battles that began on 7 December 1939 are destined to be major turning points in the Winter War, for better or worse, but at this point, nobody knows which way they will go.


The Soviets attack Kollaa north of Lake Ladoga. It is the center of the Finnish line and provides absolutely vital flank protection for positions protecting the heartland of Finland. Their own deep flank also is vulnerable but is more easily defended because of the nature of the terrain (lakes and forests). The Finnish 12th Division, along with some odds and ends from other units, has to make its stand here at Kollaa. Their determination becomes a rallying cry for the Finns elsewhere: "Kollaa holds!" The Soviets, though, have more troops, more artillery, and more of pretty much everything except experience in the extreme conditions.


The Finns evacuate Suomussalmi, which is threatened from two different directions. They destroy it to deny the Soviets any shelter. The Soviet 163rd division of the 9th Army (KomKor M.P. Duhanov), seeing this as a welcome gift, is coming up the road to occupy it. The Finns have only scratch forces in the area, two incomplete companies, and are badly outnumbered. The Finns withdraw to the opposite shores of lakes Niskanselkä and Haukiperä. The Finns are using lakes and forests as defensive weapons, and are adept at moving through the woods that the Soviets avoid. The Finns have a plan for Suomussalmi and have not given up on it.

On the Karelian Isthmus, the Soviet 7th Army begins pounding against the Mannerheim Line with no success.

Western Front: The Germans step up their patrolling activity.

Battle of the Atlantic: Admiral Graf Spee claims another victim. It sinks the 3,895 ton SS Streonshalh south of Trinidad. It is the pocket battleship's ninth victim. Captain Langsdorff, as usual, takes the 32-man crew off, then sinks the vessel with scuttling charges and 6-inch shells.

Captain Langsdorff has made a habit of ransacking his victims for anything useful before sinking them, and this time it pays off handsomely. In the Streonshalh's captain's cabin, Langsdorff's men find papers indicating that a 4-ship convoy will be departing Montevideo on 10 December 1939. It seems likes a wonderful gift, as if his next victims are going to meet him practically by appointment rather than his having to scour the empty sea for them. Langsdorff decides to head there to intercept them. Langsdorff is now holding 61 prisoners after previously having transferred 305 to the Altmark.

U-38 (Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Liebe) sinks 4,460-ton British freighter Thomas Walton in Norwegian territorial waters south of Svolvaer and 80 miles from Narvik. Liebe also mistakenly fires a torpedo at a German rescue ship, the SS Sebu, but it misses. The Sebu takes the 31 survivors to Bodo, Norway. Thirteen perish.

U-47 (Kapitänleutnant Günther Prien) torpedoes and sinks 8,159-ton Dutch freighter Tajandoen. Six perish, 62 survive. Prien mistook the freighter for a tanker and wastes a torpedo on her.

U-23 sinks the Danish vessel Scotia.

US freighters Effingham and Winston Salem are released from Ramsgate. The British seized the latter's cargo of cotton.

Royal Navy destroyer HMS Jersey intervenes at night against Kriegsmarine minelaying destroyer Erich Giese and is damaged by a torpedo.

Belgian steamer Louis Sheid is wrecked at Leas Foot, Thurlestone. It had been making for Antwerp and floods the surrounding coast with the cargo of grain it is carrying.

Sweden: Declares neutrality in the Winter War.

Denmark: Declares neutrality in the Winter War.

Norway: Declares neutrality in the Winter War.

Italy: Declares non-belligerence in the Winter War.

Romania: King Carol asks London if it will guarantee Romanian security against an expected Soviet attack. This, of course, would be quite difficult for the United Kingdom to do regardless of any good intentions it may have.

India: Sir Stafford Cripps, an early foe of fascism and a socialist, arrives in India for consultation with leaders Gandhi and Jinnah. It is felt that Cripps, with his communist leanings, may be best suited to keep the wayward Indians in line during the war, by offering various inducements for what may transpire after it.

Holocaust: Pursuant to a decree from Adolf Hitler, the SS begins overseeing the euthanization of mental patients at the Dziekanka Psychiatric Hospital in Gniezno. SS Untersturmführer Herbert Lange is in charge. The tool used to kill the patients is a simple van with its exhaust fed back into the compartment.

China: The Japanese attack against the Chinese 2nd War Area around Wenhsi and Hsia Hsien continues.

Improvised Finnish camouflage and shelter for their horses during the battle of Kollaa.

December 14, 1939: Quisling Meets Hitler
December 15, 1939: Chinese Winter Offensive in High Gear
December 16, 1939: Battle of Summa
December 17, 1939: End of Admiral Graf Spee
December 18, 1939: Battle of Heligoland Bight
December 19, 1939: British Disarm Magnetic Mines
December 20, 1939: Finnish Counterattacks Continue
December 21, 1939: Finns Plan More Counterattacks
December 22, 1939: Enter Chuikov
December 23, 1939: Failed Finnish Counterattack
December 24, 1939: Soviets on the Run
December 25, 1939: Fresh Soviet Attacks
December 26, 1939: Vicious Battles at Kelja
December 27, 1939: Grinding Finnish Victories
December 28, 1939: Liberators
December 29, 1939: Finns Tighten the Noose
December 30, 1939: Finnish Booty
December 31, 1939: Planning More Soviet Destruction

2019