Thursday 9 May 1940

Hitler with Goering at Felsennest.

British Government: Prime Minister Chamberlain's fate is a done deal, though early in the morning he is determined to fight on. The opposition Labour Party rejects an offer to join the government and keep Chamberlain in power, though the official communication of this is dragged out until the afternoon of the 10th.

The question is who shall replace Chamberlain. Foreign Minister Lord Halifax is a leading candidate, and he would garner a majority of support if put to a vote. As a member of the House of Lords, however, it is seen as poor public relations to elevate him at a time of crisis. Halifax also feels that Churchill would continue to control defense policy anyway, the only thing that really matters in wartime, and thus he would be relegated to a sort of supernumerary status. In the event, Halifax could have accepted the position, but he bows out and helps a meeting of conservative leaders choose Winston Churchill as the new Prime Minister.

Norway: The Germans north of Narvik drive the Norwegian defenders out of Fellingfors. The Germans advance in the direction of Mosjøen, which is 25 miles (40 km) to the north. There are strong British forces at Mosjøen, with other Allied forces at intermediate positions.

British No. 3 Independent Force occupies Bodo.

The Polish Armed Forces in the West (Podhale Brigade) arrive near Narvik, four battalions strong. They assemble five miles to the west of the port, reinforcing the South Wales Borderers. They are supported by 24 guns (French 75's & British 25-pounders) and 10 small French tanks - which is overwhelming firepower against the German regiment holding the town.

The RAF sinks Kriegsmarine minesweeper M-13 at Bergen.

Western Front: No more postponements. The invasion date for Fall Gelb, the invasion of France and the Low Countries, remains 10 May 1940 as the day drifts into night. Hitler departs on his command train Amerika for his forward headquarters at Felsennest (Rock Nest). It is located near the small village of Rodert, 30 km south of Bonn and consists of four bunkers and three barracks. While his presence there is not necessary for the conduct of the war, it symbolically places Hitler at the head of the army during Fall Gelb.

German troops silently move into their jumping-off positions. In the late evening, Wehrmacht troops cross the border into Luxembourg and occupy the country without a shot being fired.

Colonel Oster of the Abwehr once again warns the Dutch military attache of the invasion. The Dutch take this seriously and order the highest alert.

Battle of the Atlantic:  U-9 (Oberleutnant zur See Wolfgang Lüth) torpedoes and sinks French submarine FFR Doris (Q 135) in the North Sea at 00:14. All 45 crew on board perish.

The British are sending ships full of troops to Iceland to occupy it.

A Royal Navy task force sorties out to intercept Kriegsmarine troop transports in the Skagerrak. The Kriegsmarine sends 5 Schnellboot (fast boat, or torpedo boats) to greet them. HMS Kelly, commanded by Lord Mountbatten, is torpedoed by Kriegsmarine S-boat S-31. There are 27 deaths. It is towed back to England badly damaged, enduring additional attacks along the way.

Convoy SL 31 departs from Freetown, Convoy OG 29F forms at Gibraltar.

European Air Operations: The Luftwaffe conducts minelaying operations off the Dutch coast. The RAF sends fighters up to meet them.

The RAF sends 31 aircraft on minelaying operations.

French Government: Prime Minister Paul Reynaud is having difficulty due to former Prime Minister Daladier, the War Minister. He also finds the leadership of General Gamelin to be lacking. He threatens to resign. However, there remains no sense of urgency about the frontier.

British Military: The government raises the top age of conscription to 36.

Belgium: The government declares a state of emergency and places its military on alert.

Luxembourg: The Royal Family hears of the massing of German troops at the border and flees, along with four of the Grand Duchy's five cabinet ministers. They go to Paris.
China: At the Battle of Tsaoyang-Ichang, the 31st Army Group of Chinese 5th War Area counterattacks and recaptures Hsinyeh.

Future History: James L. Brooks is born in Brooklyn, New York. He becomes famous in the 1970s for helping to create such television sitcoms as The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda, and Taxi.

A British staff officer with the BEF in France, standing aside his Ford V-8 car on 9 May 1940.

May 1940

May 1, 1940: British Leave Åndalsnes
May 2, 1940: British Depart Namsos
May 3, 1940: Many Norwegians Surrendering
May 4, 1940: Bader Returns
May 5, 1940: HMS Seal Survives
May 6, 1940: Allies Focus on Narvik
May 7, 1940: In The Name of God, Go!
May 8, 1940: Exit Chamberlain
May 9, 1940: Enter Churchill
May 10, 1940: Fall Gelb
May 11, 1940: Eben Emael Surrenders
May 12, 1940: Germans at Sedan
May 13, 1940: Rommel at Work
May 14, 1940: German Breakout in France
May 15, 1940: Holland Surrenders
May 16, 1940: Dash to the Channel
May 17, 1940: Germans Take Brussels
May 18, 1940: Germans Take Antwerp
May 19, 1940: Failed French Counterattack
May 20, 1940: Panzers on the Coast
May 21, 1940: Battle of Arras
May 22, 1940: Attacking Channel Ports
May 23, 1940: British Evacuate Boulogne
May 24, 1940: Hitler's Stop Order
May 25, 1940: Belgian Defenses Creaking
May 26, 1940: Operation Dynamo
May 27, 1940: King Leopold Surrenders 
May 28, 1940: The Allies Take Narvik
May 29, 1940: Lille Falls
May 30, 1940: Operation Fish
May 31, 1940: Peak Day for Dynamo

2019

Wednesday 3 April 1940

Homing pigeons being used by the RAF.

Operation Weserubung: Some of the Norwegian ports are several days' sail, so the first Kriegsmarine ships participating in the operation sail today, 3 April 1940. Almost nobody is told the destination, they could be invading England for all the grunts know.

There are 11 task forces for the invasion, each directed at a different major city such as Oslo, Copenhagen and Trondheim. Two pocket battleships, 3 heavy and 4 light cruisers, 14 destroyers and 31 U-boats provide cover at sea, with constant Luftwaffe protection.

Colonel Hans Oster of the Abwehr, a key figure in the resistance, informs contacts in the Vatican and Holland about Operation Weserubung.

On the Allied side, there remains much sentiment for an Allied invasion of Norway. However, the inefficiencies of war by committee surface, as the French and British cannot agree on details or, in fact, a plan at all. Leaks to the British press also have given the public the impression that it is only the British who are interested in invading Norway, whereas there is no hint that the Germans have the same idea and are actually acting on it.

The Times, in one of those later-awkward editorials, proclaims "All Scandinavia breathes easier today" because the threat of Allied or German military intervention "is largely over."

European Air Operations: Six Junkers Ju 88s attack a convoy in the North Sea without doing damage. Sunderland flying boats intercept them and shoot one Junkers down, and forces a second to make a crash-landing in Norway, where the crew is interned.

The first Supermarine Spitfire is lost on home defense duties when it goes down while attacking a Heinkel He 111 off the Yorkshire coast. The Heinkel also crashes.

There are battles along the border in France.

Battle of the Atlantic: With U-boats pulled off normal patrols to support Operation Weserubung, there is little activity in the Battle of the Atlantic.

Polish submarine Orzeł, now part of Royal Navy's 2nd Submarine Flotilla, under the command of Vice-Admiral Max Horton, leaves Rosyth to take up station off Kristiansand.

Convoy  OG 24 forms at Gibraltar.

RAF: The RAF turns to an age-old solution to inform base of information from reconnaissance planes without breaking radio silence: homing pigeons. The RAF has a fleet of 500,000 homing pigeons to carry messages back to the UK. The homing pigeons are amazingly reliable and can fly through all sorts of whether and deliver the mail, though at times it takes a few days.

British Government: Admiral of the Fleet Lord Chatfield, who is Minister for Co-ordination of Defense, resigns. A new committee headed by First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill will be composed of Service Ministers. This Military Coordinating Committee will replace Chatfield's role. General Sir Hugh Elles is appointed National ARP (civil defense) Controller, while Lord Woolton officially becomes the first Minister of Food. In all, there are 11 ministerial changes.

The principal result of this re-shuffling is that Churchill's power expands to include control over some Army and Royal Air Force operations as well as just the Royal Navy - of which he retains complete control.

War Crimes: Pursuant to the Politburo order of 5 March 1940, the Soviet NKVD begins executing captured Polish officers in the Katyn Forest and other places such as the Kalinin and Kharkiv prisons.

Canada: Alexander Cambridge, Earl of Athlone, replaces the deceased Lord Tweedsmuir (John Buchan) to become the 16th Governor-General of Canada.

Luxembourg: The government provides all 300,000 residents with an evacuation plan in case of "emergency."

China: The Chinese capture Xishanzui (Hsishantzu) as they pursue the Japanese retreating from Wuyuan, thus ending the Second Battle of Wuyuan.

German Homefront: The Nazis discontinue old-age pensions first established by Bismarck, rationalizing that after final victory, the "plutocrats in Paris and London" will take care of that.

Future History: Some 22,000 victims of the Katyn Forest Massacre will be liquidated by the Soviets. Stalin retaliates against all who question that denial. This remains the status quo until 1990, when the USSR, in its last days, acknowledges the incident and the subsequent cover-up. In 2010, the Russian State Duma approved a declaration stating that Staling and the other members of the Politburo personally ordered the massacre. During the war and for decades afterward, however, it will remain a murky, confused issue full of denials and the assumption by many that only the Nazis committed mass murders during World War II.

A pit where the executed Polish officers were buried, as shown in 1943 after being discovered by the Germans.

April 1940

April 1, 1940: Weserubung is a Go
April 2, 1940: British Subs On Alert
April 3, 1940: Churchill Consolidates Power
April 4, 1940: Missed the Bus
April 5, 1940: Mig-1 First Flight
April 6, 1940: Troops Sailing to Norway
April 7, 1940: Fleets At Sea
April 8, 1940: HMS Glowworm and Admiral Hipper
April 9, 1940: Invasion of Norway
April 10, 1940: First Battle of Narvik
April 11, 1940: Britain Takes the Faroes
April 12, 1940: Germans Consolidate in Norway
April 13, 1940: 2d Battle of Narvik
April 14, 1940: Battle of Dombås
April 15, 1940: British in Norway
April 16, 1940: Germans Cut Norway in Half
April 17, 1940: Trondheim the Target
April 18, 1940: Norway Declares War
April 19, 1940: Dombås Battle Ends
April 20, 1940: Germans Advancing in Norway
April 21, 1940: First US Military Casualty
April 22, 1940: First British Military Contact with Germans
April 23, 1940: British Retreating in Norway
April 24, 1940: British Bombard Narvik
April 25, 1940: Norwegian Air Battles
April 26, 1940: Norwegian Gold
April 27, 1940: Allies to Evacuate Norway
April 28, 1940: Prepared Piano
April 29, 1940: British at Bodo
April 30, 1940: Clacton-on-Sea Heinkel



2016

Friday 10 November 1939

Hans Oster.

Western Front: Two German infantry attacks on 10 November 1939. Not in force, more probing in nature. Reinforcements are moving in behind the Siegfried Line.

European Air Operations: There are German flights over eastern and northern France. The RAF downs a flying boat off the east coast, while another plane escapes.

Battle of the Atlantic: The French release US freighter Exeter.

German liner New York, which had been holed up in Murmansk, finishes a dash down the Norwegian coast and makes it to Kiel.

Convoy OA 33 departs from Southend, Convoy OB 33 departs from Liverpool, and Convoy HX 8 departs from Halifax.

Holland: Spooked on 10 November 1939 by the Venlo Incident, which violated Dutch sovereignty, the Dutch increase their precautions against invasion. This includes some precautionary flooding, canceling army leave and similar measures. The US consulate in Amsterdam warns US citizens to leave Holland.

Since Hans Oster's leaks contained out-of-date information pinning the date of the German invasion to 12 November, the Dutch are scrambling as the day approaches. The Venlo Incident - entirely unrelated to Fall Gelb - fed into the paranoia. This is a typical example of solid military intelligence leading to wasted effort and perhaps ultimately a "boy who cried wolf" situation later due to a change in planning by the other side.

France: There is a meeting between top officials of France and the British commonwealth, including among others British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden and French Prime Minister Daladier. Delegates from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and India

British Government: Prime Minister Chamberlain reports that he has gout, thus explaining his absence from the Paris commonwealth meeting.

USS Ranger (CV-4) with her stacks down and Devastator torpedo bombers. She was engaged in Neutrality Patrols, operating out of Bermuda. November 10, 1939.

November 1939

November 1, 1939: The Jet Flies Again
November 2, 1939: The Soviets Devour Poland
November 3, 1939: Amending the Neutrality Act
November 4, 1939: Roosevelt Signs Neutrality Laws
November 5, 1939: The Spirit of Zossen
November 6, 1939: First Dogfight
November 7, 1939: More Lies About SS Athenia
November 8, 1939: Hitler Almost Killed
November 9, 1939: The Venlo Incident
November 10, 1939: Dutch Panic
November 11, 1939: Poignant Armistice Day
November 12, 1939: Peace Efforts Made and Rejected
November 13, 1939: First Bombing of Great Britain
November 14, 1939: The Dyle Plan
November 15, 1939: Elser Confesses to the Bürgerbräukeller Bombing
November 16, 1939: Martial Law in Prague
November 17, 1939: International Students Day
November 18, 1939: Magnetic Mines
November 19, 1939: Walls Around the Warsaw Ghetto
November 20, 1939: First RN Submarine Victory
November 21, 1939: Salmon & Gluckstein on the Prowl
November 22, 1939: British Recover A Magnetic Mine
November 23, 1939: HMS Rawalpindi Sunk
November 24, 1939: Japanese Enter Nanning
November 25, 1939: The Olympics are a War Casualty
November 26, 1939: Soviets Stage an "Incident" at Mainila
November 27, 1939: German Marriage Becomes Perilous
November 28, 1939: Judenrats in Poland
November 29, 1939: The Soviets Prepare to Invade Finland
November 30, 1939: Winter War Begins

2019

Sunday 5 November 1939

Von Brauchitsch and Hitler roughly around their 5 November 1939 meeting.

German Government: Army (Heer) Commander-in-chief Walter von Brauchitsch meets with Adolf Hitler at noon on 5 November 1939. It is a decisive moment in the history of the Third Reich.

Every senior commander in the Wehrmacht is certain that now is not the right moment to attack France (Operation "Fall Gelb") due to several reasons, including the weather and the state of the military. Von Brauchitsch's mission is to dissuade the Fuhrer from any offensive plans for the time being, and also, in a larger sense, re-establish the Army's traditional role in decision-making. Fall Gelb is still planned for 12 November, so there is no more time to waste. Von Brauchitsch drafts a memorandum for Hitler outlining his points, and also gives an oral presentation to emphasize the seriousness of the situation.

As the core of his argument, von Brauchitsch states that the infantry had lacked fighting spirit in Poland. The troops were undisciplined and there had been mutinies against officers. The army, he said, could not be relied upon without further training, which would require time.

Hitler is furious and explodes into a rage. As a former front-line soldier, he believes that he knows about soldier morale. As he later states, he believes the German soldier is the best in the world and of better character than the Generals. He does, however, keep the memorandum and read it later, calling it a "pack of lies." Hitler angrily dictates an order dismissing von Brauchitsch, but his aide General Keitel dissuades him from issuing it on the grounds that there is no suitable successor.

Von Brauchitsch does achieve his main goal. Fall Gelb is postponed again. The meeting, however, irreparably damages Hitler's relations with his Generals. He inherently sympathizes with the "grunts" and not the "swivel chair cowards," and this incident reawakens those dormant prejudices. He refers to the sorts of arguments made by von Brauchitsch, which he considers defeatist, as "the spirit of Zossen" (Heer headquarters south of Berlin). Von Brauchitsch later offers his resignation, but Hitler cools down and refuses it because he has established his authority and von Brauchitsch has been cowed - which makes him compliant. This is perhaps the first real illustration of Hitler's ability to completely destroy the self-confidence of an Army General.

Some accounts call von Brauchitsch the leader of the "Zossen conspiracy" and so forth. There indeed was wild talk behind the scenes - but there was throughout the war. These accounts state that von Brauchitsch went to the meeting with the objective of either getting the Fuhrer to agree with him or shooting/arresting him. However, since neither happened (at least at the meeting), those claims appear to be false or wishful thinking. There is no indication that a putsch was ever on von Brauchitsch's mind that day.

German Conspirators: In the only actual action taken by the "Zossen conspiracy," Colonel Hans Oster of the German Military Intelligence (the Abwehr) warns a Dutch military attaché in London, Colonel Sas, of Hitler's plans. Sas, in turn, informs the Belgian attaché. Hans Oster is considered a leader of the "opposition" by those in the know.

Battle of the Atlantic: Germany lodges a protest against the treatment of the detained prize crew and release of the City of Flint. The protest is rejected. The ship itself reaches Bergen to unload its cargo.

The British at Weymouth detain the US freighter Black Condor, while in the Orkneys they detain the Scanmail. They release the freighter Black Eagle.

The Kriegsmarine recalls the Deutschland from its raid in the North Atlantic.

Royal Navy aircraft carrier Ark Royal captures the German vessel Uhenfels.

British Government: Winston Churchill, in Paris, meets with Lord Gort, in charge of the BEF force.

Sweden: the Swedish government protests the German mining of waters only three miles from the Swedish coast.

Finland: Negotiations adjourn as the Finns consider their options.

Winston Churchill meets with Lord Gort in Paris, 5 November 1939.

November 1939

November 1, 1939: The Jet Flies Again
November 2, 1939: The Soviets Devour Poland
November 3, 1939: Amending the Neutrality Act
November 4, 1939: Roosevelt Signs Neutrality Laws
November 5, 1939: The Spirit of Zossen
November 6, 1939: First Dogfight
November 7, 1939: More Lies About SS Athenia
November 8, 1939: Hitler Almost Killed
November 9, 1939: The Venlo Incident
November 10, 1939: Dutch Panic
November 11, 1939: Poignant Armistice Day
November 12, 1939: Peace Efforts Made and Rejected
November 13, 1939: First Bombing of Great Britain
November 14, 1939: The Dyle Plan
November 15, 1939: Elser Confesses to the Bürgerbräukeller Bombing
November 16, 1939: Martial Law in Prague
November 17, 1939: International Students Day
November 18, 1939: Magnetic Mines
November 19, 1939: Walls Around the Warsaw Ghetto
November 20, 1939: First RN Submarine Victory
November 21, 1939: Salmon & Gluckstein on the Prowl
November 22, 1939: British Recover A Magnetic Mine
November 23, 1939: HMS Rawalpindi Sunk
November 24, 1939: Japanese Enter Nanning
November 25, 1939: The Olympics are a War Casualty
November 26, 1939: Soviets Stage an "Incident" at Mainila
November 27, 1939: German Marriage Becomes Perilous
November 28, 1939: Judenrats in Poland
November 29, 1939: The Soviets Prepare to Invade Finland
November 30, 1939: Winter War Begins

2019