Wednesday 26 December 1940

The Blitz Christmas, 25 December 1940.

Italian/Greek Campaign: The Greek soldiers pressing against the Italians spend a fairly miserable Christmas on 25 December 1940 in the mountains. About 100 taxis are requisitioned in Salonika (Thessalonica) to bring the troops bottles of liquor and other holiday treats. One of the taxi drivers happens to speak Italian, and the Greeks have him cross the lines with a flag of truce to offer a Christmas break. The Italians accept, and there is no fighting in this location today. However, elsewhere the Greeks do press their attacks in places like the valley of River Devoll, with little success.

The Italians raid Corfu for the 23rd time, killing 15 people. They originally intended to invade the island, but times have changed. It is incidents like this, an unnecessary air attack on Christmas day, that make the Greeks absolutely furious at the Italians, even above and beyond the invasion itself.

European Air Operations: Operations by both sides are extremely quiet. There are scattered Luftwaffe reconnaissance missions, but no organized attacks. The RAF only makes reconnaissance and patrol flights.

An RAF Martlet I (formerly French) with No. 84 Squadron shoots down a Junkers Ju 88A on a reconnaissance flight over Scapa Flow. It force-lands at Sandwick. Martlets are slightly modified Grumman Model G-36As aka F4F Wildcats, so this is the first confirmed downing of a German aircraft by an American plane during World War II.

The German Junkers JU88 shot down by a Martlet in Sandwick on 25 December 1940 while on a reconnaissance mission. (Orkney Library and Archive).

Battle of the Atlantic: Admiral Hipper. having spotted a huge and heavily escorted "Winston Special" convoy (WS 5A) late on the 24th about 1300 km west of Cape Finisterre, attacks at 08:08. Going into action with guns blazing against what it thinks is an ordinary convoy, it damages 13,994-ton British transport Empire Trooper (which makes it to Porta Delgada) and 5874-ton British freighter Arabistan (only lightly damaged), causing the convoy to scatter.  However, Admiral Hipper's crew get a rude surprise when heavy cruiser HMS Berwick appears - whose own crew must have been stunned to see a heavy cruiser appear out of nowhere, main guns afire, attacking a convoy escorted by three cruisers, two aircraft carriers and numerous destroyers and corvettes. Admiral Hipper beats a hasty retreat, but as it goes it scores several hits on the Berwick (four killed, one injured), disabling several of its main guns. This is the kind of audacious attack out of the blue in the most unexpected of circumstances that give sailors nightmares.

Amazingly, Admiral Hipper then manages to slip away virtually unscathed toward Brest, its original destination. It is one of the greatest escapes by a surface ship of the war. Fortunately for the Hipper, visibility is poor and the Skuas launched by HMS Furious can't locate it. One of the Royal Navy ships of Force H sent from Gibraltar to intercept Hipper, HMS Renown, sustains hull damage in the rough winter seas and thus also can't find it. Hipper gets a bonus when 150 miles to the east it stumbles upon independent 6804-ton British sailing freighter Jumna on the way to Brest and sinks it (taking Rear Admiral HB Maltby Rtd) in passing. Hipper, knowing it is being chased, does not stop to pick up the 111 men in the water. They all drown.

In this way, the Royal Navy, which has been searching frantically throughout the North and South Atlantic for Admiral Hipper for weeks, finally gets its wish and locates the German cruiser. Admiral Hipper becomes the first big Kriegsmarine ship to reach the French Biscay ports. It is a very embarrassing day for the Royal Navy despite the paucity of losses and not one that the histories of the war spend a lot of time on.

Much further to the south, heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer rendezvouses somewhere in the South Atlantic with raider Thor, supply ship Nordmark, and "floating delicatessen" refrigerated ship Duquesa. It is fair to surmise that the sailors on the three German ships enjoy a hearty Christmas meal from the Duquesa's large stock of fresh meat and eggs.

Convoys FS 370 and FS 371 depart from Methil, Convoy BS 11A departs from Suez.

New York City, looking downtown from the Empire State Building, 1940 (Andre Kertesz).

Battle of the Mediterranean: General Wavell issues a limp Order of the Day wishing everyone a Merry Christmas (as does Governor Dobbie on Malta and other commanders), but the forward troops are poorly provisioned and communications into Libya are stretched. There aren't enough trucks to bring the men turkeys, but every man at least is given a tin of bully beef and a double rum ration. British morale is at a high due to recent victories, making such inconveniences seem trivial.

The perimeter at Bardia is quiet, as the Italians and British celebrate Christmas separately. As on other fronts, there is a tacit cease-fire for the day that is not ended until after dark. There aren't any meetings as during World War I, but nobody wants to get in a firefight and die on Christmas.

In Malta, Governor Dobbie visits the troops throughout the island. Officers serve Christmas Dinner to other ranks, a first for the British Army. Thus begins a tradition that survives today.

Spy Stuff: There are many rumors arguments about exactly when, and whether, Stalin received a copy of Fuhrer Directive No. 21 of 18 December 1940 regarding Operation Barbarossa. This is the Directive that spells out Hitler's intention to invade the Soviet Union at some point on or after 15 May 1941. By some accounts, today the Soviet Attaché in Berlin sends a copy to Stalin.

German Government: Hitler continues his meandering tour of troops and fortifications along the French coast. His train takes him to Beauvais, where he meets with French Admiral Jean-Francois Darlan. Hitler then visits KG 26 ("Löwengeschwader"), which at this time is one of the only formations using the SC 2500 bomb, a special 2400 kg bomb filled with a 40/60 Amatol mixture of RDZ, TNT, and aluminum. Having visited JG 26 on the 24th, Hitler apparently does not want to be seen as slighting the bomber pilots, who at this point are the ones taking the war to the British. Hitler then visits Cretz and then Metz. After that, once again he spends the night on his train, this time parked in a tunnel near Metz.

Hitler's meeting with Darlan reveals his underlying frustration with Petain and the other European rulers who refuse to ally themselves with him. Coming close to one of his angry rants that only his insiders are privy to, Hitler warns Darlan that if France doesn't cooperate militarily, it would be "one of the most regrettable decisions in her history." For his part, Darlan is able to offer everything but military cooperation. Darlan is one of those equivocal figures throughout the conflict who both sides want to use. However, he only manages to anger just about everybody, a strange case of playing the middle against both sides (to reverse the common expression).

The 6th Avenue El in 1940. Not only is the El long gone, but 6th Avenue later had its name officially changed to Avenue of the Americas (but everybody still calls it 6th Avenue anyway).

Ireland: Irish Premier Eamon de Valera requests US aid from President Roosevelt. Ireland may not be at war, but it suffers from the German blockade and certainly gets no sympathy from the British.

Antarctic: Ernest Earl Lockhart and his comrades enjoy a quick toast on their travels across the continent as part of the overall expeditions of Admiral Byrd. They (and their dogs) make the Little America III base after a long journey, the final sprint having covered 34 miles in less than 16 hours across the ice, including stops. Incidentally, this is the expedition using the notorious giant red Snow Cruiser, which on this date is sitting in an ice cave specially carved out for it near the base.

Antarctic explorer Ernest Earl Lockhart.

British Homefront: King George VI makes a Christmas broadcast after he and the Queen visit children in shelters, declaring that "The future will be hard, but our feet are planted on the path of victory...." There is no absolutely question that this is the worst Christmas of the war for the British.

American Homefront: "Pal Joey," the new Rodgers and Hart musical, opens at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway.

President Roosevelt and wife Eleanor attend Christmas mass at First Congregational Church. Subsequently, they host a Christmas party.

Agnes Ayres, a silent film star who appeared with Rudolph Valentino in "The Sheik," dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 42. She had become despondent after her retirement (and losing her life savings the same year in the 1929 stock market crash) and had been committed to a sanatorium. However, she is at home when she passes. Agnes Ayres is interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6504 Hollywood Boulevard.


December 1940

December 1, 1940: Wiking Division Forms
December 2, 1940: Convoy HX 90 Destruction
December 3, 1940: Greeks Advancing
December 4, 1940: Italian Command Shakeup
December 5, 1940: Thor Strikes Hard
December 6, 1940: Hitler's Cousin Gassed
December 7, 1940: Storms At Sea
December 8, 1940: Freighter Idarwald Seized
December 9, 1940: Operation Compass Begins
December 10, 1940: Operation Attila Planned
December 11, 1940: Rhein Wrecked
December 12, 1940: Operation Fritz
December 13, 1940: Operation Marita Planned
December 14, 1940: Plutonium Discovered
December 15, 1940: Napoleon II Returns
December 16, 1940: Operation Abigail Rachel
December 17, 1940: Garden Hoses and War
December 18, 1940: Barbarossa Directive
December 19, 1940: Risto Ryti Takes Over
December 20, 1940: Liverpool Blitz, Captain America
December 21, 1940: Moral Aggression
December 22, 1940: Manchester Blitz
December 23, 1940: Hitler at Cap Gris Nez
December 24, 1940: Hitler at Abbeville
December 25, 1940: Hipper's Great Escape
December 26, 1940: Scheer's Happy Rendezvous
December 27, 1940: Komet Shells Nauru
December 28, 1940: Sorge Spills
December 29, 1940: Arsenal of Democracy
December 30, 1940: London Devastated
December 31 1940: Roosevelt's Decent Proposal

2020

Wednesday 18 December 1940

The Curtiss XSB2C Helldiver prototype in flight, December 1940.

German Military: Adolf Hitler issues on 18 December 1940 Fuhrer Directive No. 21, "Case Barbarossa." Among all of Hitler's orders to the Wehrmacht, this one stands out as the most fateful. The Directive outlines the structure of a proposed invasion of "Soviet Russia in a rapid campaign ("Case Barbarossa")." Hitler personally chose the word Barbarossa for its historical connotations of a crusading Emperor fighting for the preservation of a Christian Europe.

Preparations are to be "concluded by 15th May 1941." The intent is to destroy the "bulk of the Russian Army stationed in Western Russia... by daring operations led by deeply penetrating armored spearheads." A barrier will be erected "against Asiatic Russia on the general line Volga-Archangel." This line evidently would run roughly from Astrakhan north along the Volga via Stalingrad.
Hitler orders that the main theater of operations is to be north of the Pripet Marshes, with two army groups in that portion of the front. One, the Northern Army Group, is to head in the "general direction" of Leningrad. "Only after the fulfillment of this first essential task," namely the destruction of Soviet forces operating in the Baltic area, "will the attack be continued with the intention of occupying Moscow, an important center of communications and of the armaments industry." The southernmost army group, that below the Pripet Marshes, is given short very shrift in the order - it is to operate from Lublin toward Kyiv and "destroy all forces west of the Dnieper (river) in Ukraine." Only general tasks are to be handled by the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine. This is to be primarily an army operation, with other services providing support and/or occupied elsewhere.

One of the dozen copies of Hitler's Directive No. 21, showing numerous security clearances and acknowledgments.

Battle of the Mediterranean: The tempo of British operations begins to fall quickly today. Having gained extensive territory and huge numbers of prisoners, the British forces begin some consolidation in southeast Libya in the Sollum/Fort region. Advanced mechanized units are firing on Bardia, but it will take some time to assemble troops for a proper assault.
Australian troops are being brought forward, including the 16th and 19th Australian brigades, to lead assaults on Bardia and the strategically important port and fortress of Tobruk. These troop movements will take roughly two weeks to complete. The British troops are aided by the fact that the Italian strong points, such as Fort Capuzzo, are in excellent shape due to the minimal amount of fighting there.

In Malta, it is the coldest winter in 17 years. Snow even falls on the higher elevations, an unusual occurrence. Two workers at the Malta Dockyard, B J Lewis, Chargeman of Fitters, and Frank Mallia, Chargeman of Labourers, are awarded the George cross for protecting an anti-aircraft gun hit by bomb splinters during an air raid on 24 September. There also is an air raid today by one bomber which causes some damage in the dockyard. The RAF shoots down the bomber.

Convoy MW 5B, the fast part of the MW 5 convoy, departs from Alexandria for Malta. Many of the British air and naval operations over the coming week will be intended as distractions from this convoy.

Italian/Greek Campaign: The Greek 3rd Infantry Division continues struggling forward from Porto Palermo toward Himara on the Adriatic coast. The weather is terrible, but the Greeks are making progress toward capturing the tactically important Giami high ground. The Greeks are readying a coordinated assault on the port on the morrow. The RAF bombs the port of Valona, while the Italians use their fleet to bombard the Greeks along the coast. The Royal Navy also is active along the Albanian coast, with battleships HMS Valiant and Warspite joining in with the RAF's attack on Valona.

European Air Operations: The RAF returns to Mannheim during the night with 17 aircraft in a classic follow-up raid to the recent terror raid. The RAF also attacks the submarine pens at Lorient. The Luftwaffe is very quiet today.

Battle of the Atlantic: The British Admiralty knows there are strong German forces operating in the Atlantic, and, despite allocating significant forces to track them down, so far has been unable to find them either in the South Atlantic or near the Azores/Canary Islands. Today, it tries again, sending aircraft carrier HMS Formidable and heavy cruiser HMS Norfolk as Force K to search the South Atlantic once again. They join aircraft carrier HMS Hermes and light cruiser HMS Dragon and armed merchant cruiser HMS Pretoria Castle on the search in the South Atlantic, and also cruisers HMS Cumberland, Newcastle, Enterprise, Dorsetshire and Neptune searching a little further north. Admiral Scheer is actually about 800 miles south of the Cape Verde Islands, and it's a big ocean.

Separately, battleship HMS Nelson and battlecruiser HMS Repulse depart from Scapa Flow for tactical exercises west of the Orkneys. Admiral Scheer's crew, meanwhile, is feasting off the massive bounty of fresh eggs and meat taken with the 8651-ton British refrigerated ship Duquesna, just captured off the Brazilian coast.

U-96 (Kplt. Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock) torpedoes and damages 10,746-ton Dutch tanker Pendrecht in Convoy OB 259 along the Western Approaches. The Pendrecht, like other tankers, is difficult to sink. The crew abandons ship, but then re-boards it and makes it to Rothesay under escort. U-96 later spots battleship HMS Repulse but is unable to attack.

U-100 (Kptlt. Joachim Schepke) torpedoes and sinks 10,116-ton British passenger ship Napier Star. There are 71 deaths (including 12 passengers), with the 15 survivors (including three women) rescued by Swedish freighter Vaalaren (some sources say there were 84 deaths). This is the last victory for Schepke and U-100, a very successful submarine, and its penultimate patrol.

Royal Navy submarine HMS Tuna, operating off the Gironde in the Bay of Biscay, sinks 172-ton French tug Chassiron. Earlier, it attacked but missed Italian submarine Brin, which was returning to its base at Bordeaux.

The Luftwaffe (Focke Wulf Fw 200 of I,/ KG 40) attacks and sinks 1010-ton British tanker RFA Osage off County Wicklow, Ireland. The Luftwaffe also damaged 2697 ton British freighter Tweed. Everybody survives these attacks.

Royal Navy 258-ton minesweeping trawler HMT Refundo hits a mine and sinks (after being taken under tow) off Harwich. There are two deaths.

German 6322-ton freighter Birkenfels hits a mine and sinks off the Scheide.

German vorpostenboot (flak ship) V-403 hits a mine and sinks in the Westerscheide (Western Scheldt).

British coaster Ability hits a mine and sinks in the Thames Estuary near Clacton-on-Sea, Essex.

Italian submarine Veniero torpedoes and sinks 2883 ton Greek freighter Anastassia. The Anastassia had been in Convoy SC 15, which dispersed. There are 18 deaths, and ten crew are made prisoners of war. The Anastassia actually drifts for some time is and sighted by another ship two days later, but it is a total loss and only a hazard to navigation after this.
Convoy WS51 ("Winston Special") departs from the Clyde and Liverpool. Faster units of the convoy will wait and depart later. The Winston Special convoys are destined for the Middle East and carry troops, tanks, and other supplies and equipment.

Royal Navy submarine HMS Triton is declared lost after failing to return to Malta on the 17th. There are 54 deaths and no survivors.

Convoy HX 97 departs from Halifax, Convoy BN 11 departs from Aden.

Canadian corvette HMCS Chambly (K 116, Lt. Commander Frank C. Smith) is commissioned.

The SS Napier Star, Joachim Schepke's final victory.

Anglo/US Relations: Having just arrived in London, Colonel "Wild Bill" Donovan meets with Winston Churchill. Churchill briefs Donovan on the situation in Spain, Turkey, and the Balkans, Donovan's destinations.

German/Vichy French Relations: Fernand de Brinon becomes the Vichy French ambassador to the Germans occupying Paris. De Brinon is seen as quite sympathetic to the Germans and has had five private talks with Hitler during the 1930s. He also is friendly with German Foreign Minister Joachim Ribbentrop.

German Military: German 2nd SS Division "Das Reich" is in the process of transferring from the Netherlands to northern France. ith it goes Otto Skorzeny, who has gained some prestige within the Wehrmacht for designing a clever ramp for loading tanks on barges.

Soviet Military: General Andrey Eremenko (Yeryomenko) becomes Commander in Chief of the North Caucasus Military District. Eremenko is a tank expert, as shown during the conquest of eastern Poland in 1939, and has acquired the nickname "the Russian Guderian" - which is both a compliment to him and to General Heinz Guderian.

British Military: In a decision made long before, Air Vice Marshal Keith Park of No. 11 Group, the most prestigious Air Group and the one that defends London, is replaced by his long-time nemesis Leigh-Mallory of No. 12 Group. He and Air Marshal Dowding have been essentially cashiered due to political infighting within the RAF, though both have done sterling work. Once Dowding was removed from his position atop Fighter Command and replaced by Sholto Douglas, Park's removal was a given, as Park and Dowding continually supported each other during the Battle of Britain. Coincidentally, Dowding departs for the United States today aboard liner Leopoldville as part of his duties for his sinecure position within the aircraft production area. For his part, Park is going to some training duties.

US Military: The Curtiss SB2C Helldiver makes its maiden flight. The plane is reputed to have issues with its small vertical tail, but the flight is without incident.

Heavy cruiser USS Louisville makes port at Bahia, Brazil as part of its "Show the Flag" mission in Latin America.

Boston College Eagles players on their way to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl. About 5000 fans, including Boston's Mayor, see them off at the station on 18 December 1940 for the game to be held on 1 January 1941. (Don't tell them - they win).

British Homefront: Winston Churchill visits Harrow School, his alma mater, for the first rendition Harrow songs (he makes these visits annually). After commenting that Hitler had described the war as being between those who had been through the German schools and those who had been at Eton, Churchill comments, "Hitler has forgotten Harrow." Meanwhile, the Queen makes a tour of ambulance services and ARP depots. Her daughter, the future queen, will work in a motor pool herself, and the Queen may be thinking ahead.
German Homefront: Strangely enough, Hitler also gives a speech to students today, at the annual rally of young officer cadets at the Berlin Sportpalast. In it, he compares the populations of nearby nations to that of Germany and finds injustice in the amount of land that Germany occupies relative to its population - quite an interesting rationale for war:

There are approximately 85 million Germans in Germany. I do not even include in this figure our Low German Volksgenossen. England, the British Empire, has barely 46 million Englishmen at home. The French Empire has barely 37 million Frenchmen at home. Even the American Union, minus Negroes and Jews and Latinos and Germans, has barely 60 million true Anglo- Saxons. Russia has barely 60 million Great Russians. 

And even today the unified racial core in Germany remains the largest by far; not only in value, in itself highly significant, but also in numbers, it is the greatest. By contrast, if we compare the percentage of Lebensraum occupied by the German Volk to that of the earth as such, then we must remark that our Volk is one of the most disadvantaged peoples of the world. Barely 600,000 square kilometers, in fact about 140 persons per square kilometer. 46 million Englishmen rule, control, and organize about 40 million square kilometers. Barely 60 million Great Russians rule an area of about 19 million square kilometers. About 60 million Anglo-Saxons within the American Union determine life within an area which encompasses about nine and a half million square kilometers. 37 million Frenchmen rule over life in an area of nearly ten million square kilometers. 

In other words: the German Volk, in terms of the space it occupies, is by far the most modest there is on this earth.

Hitler also justifies his actions - which, of course, are top secret, but the day's Directive obviously is what he is commenting upon here - from a candidly Darwinian perspective:

Truly, this earth is a trophy cup for the industrious man. And this rightly so, in the service of natural selection. He who does not possess the force to secure his 'Lebensraum' in this world, and, if necessary, to enlarge it, does not deserve to possess the necessities of life. He must step aside and allow stronger peoples to pass him by.

This jibes nicely with Fuhrer Directive No. 21 issued to the Wehrmacht today. It is quite possible that he intended this address to serve as a companion piece to the Directive for historians.

Cine illustrato, 18 December 1940.

December 1940

December 1, 1940: Wiking Division Forms
December 2, 1940: Convoy HX 90 Destruction
December 3, 1940: Greeks Advancing
December 4, 1940: Italian Command Shakeup
December 5, 1940: Thor Strikes Hard
December 6, 1940: Hitler's Cousin Gassed
December 7, 1940: Storms At Sea
December 8, 1940: Freighter Idarwald Seized
December 9, 1940: Operation Compass Begins
December 10, 1940: Operation Attila Planned
December 11, 1940: Rhein Wrecked
December 12, 1940: Operation Fritz
December 13, 1940: Operation Marita Planned
December 14, 1940: Plutonium Discovered
December 15, 1940: Napoleon II Returns
December 16, 1940: Operation Abigail Rachel
December 17, 1940: Garden Hoses and War
December 18, 1940: Barbarossa Directive
December 19, 1940: Risto Ryti Takes Over
December 20, 1940: Liverpool Blitz, Captain America
December 21, 1940: Moral Aggression
December 22, 1940: Manchester Blitz
December 23, 1940: Hitler at Cap Gris Nez
December 24, 1940: Hitler at Abbeville
December 25, 1940: Hipper's Great Escape
December 26, 1940: Scheer's Happy Rendezvous
December 27, 1940: Komet Shells Nauru
December 28, 1940: Sorge Spills
December 29, 1940: Arsenal of Democracy
December 30, 1940: London Devastated
December 31 1940: Roosevelt's Decent Proposal

2020