Thursday 19 December 1940

A British Matilda tank on the move in North Africa, 19 December 1940.

Italian/Greek Campaign: Snow is piled 3 meters high at the higher elevations in Albania on 19 December 1940, even near the coast. However, while this might normally be thought to aid the defense, in some ways it helps the attacking Greek forces. Italian fixed defenses such as barbed wire are covered by the heavy snow, and the Greeks can just run right over the Italian fortifications. That does not mean that attacking in such circumstances is at all easy, just that the horrendous conditions do bestow a few odd benefits.

Greek I Corps (2nd, 3rd, and 4th Divisions) continue advancing on Himarë (Himara) along the southern coast of Albania. They capture the Giam height.

The Greek 3/40 Evzone Regiment, under the command of Colonel Thrasyvoulos Tsakalotos, helps the assault on Himarë. It launches a surprise dawn attack on Italian troops at Mount Mount Mali i Xhorët (Mount Pilur) a little to the east. Their objective is Italian artillery posted the high ground, which guards the entrance to the valley of Shushicë which provides access to the Italian port.

European Air Operations: RAF Bomber Command sends 85 bombers against Cologne and targets in the industrial Ruhr River Valley. RAF Coastal Command raids the airfield at Le Touquet and a railway between Oslo and Bergen. The Luftwaffe makes a few small sorties against the Home Counties after dark, losing a bomber but causing some damage in Swindon.

The British War Cabinet is reviewing the efficiency of the air war against Germany and Italy. In a report for their eyes only by the Secretary of State for Air, the conclusion is drawn that, relative to the size of their respective forces, the RAF is causing more damage to Germany than the Luftwaffe is to Great Britain.

Bomb damage at Beatrice and Ipswich Streets in Swindon on 19 December 1940. Five houses destroyed, others damaged.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-37 (Kptlt. Asmus Nicolai Clausen), on its ninth patrol off Spain and North Africa, torpedoes two French ships, 2785-ton oiler Rhône and the 1379-ton submarine Sfax (Q 182). However, this part of the ocean seven miles north of Cape Juby, Morocco is one of the very few which Axis ships frequent, and they turn out to be Vichy French ships that should not have been attacked. There are 11 deaths on the Rhône and four (out of 69 crew) on the Sfax. Clausen does not enter this "success" on his ship's log (or the U-boat command Befehlshaber der Unterseeboote (BdU) later removes it for political reasons), and the only notation for the day is "DJ 9285 - Nothing to see."

Italian submarine Alpino Bagnolini torpedoes and sinks 3360-ton British freighter Amicus about 200 miles west of Ireland. The Amicus was traveling with Convoy SC 15, which recently had dispersed. Everyone on board the Amicus perishes. The Bagnolini is part of a patrol line west of the North Channel, formed along with U-95, U-38 and U-124 and Italian submarine Tazzoli. Some sources place this sinking a week earlier.

Royal Navy destroyers HMS Veteran and Verity collide in Lough Foyle near Londonderry. The Veteran has light damage to her stern which will keep her in port for a few days, but the Verity's damage to her flooded engine room is more serious and will take a few months in drydock at Belfast to repair.

The Luftwaffe (Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condors of I,/KG 40) bombs and sinks British 734-ton lightship tender Isolda off Barrels Rock Light Vessel, South Wexford, in St. George's Channel. There are six deaths.

British 57-ton naval trawler HMT Proficient runs aground and is broken up by the waves at Whitby, Yorkshire.

Dutch 400-ton freighter Twee Gebroeders hits a mine and is damaged in the Thames Estuary.

British tanker Arinia hits a mine and sinks in the Thames Estuary off the Nore Lightship. All 60 people on board perish.

Norwegian freighter Erling Skjalgson sinks in heavy seas off Jæren, Rogaland. All six crew survive.

Danish phosphate freighter Jacob Maersk hits a mine off Drogen and sinks off Copenhagen. However, it sinks in shallow water and can be salvaged and repaired. The Maersk shipping companies take a beating during this period of the war.

Norwegian 5043-ton freighter Arosa hits a mine in the Humber but makes it back to port.

Convoy OB 261 departs from Liverpool, Convoys FS 364 and FS 365 depart from Methil, Convoy BS 11 departs from Suez.

Destroyer HMS Legion (G 74, Commander Richard F. Jessel.) is commissioned, and destroyer HMS Blankney is launched.

U-75 and U-111 are commissioned.

"A mobile bakery lorry and trailer at Aldershot, 19 December 1940." © IWM (H 6271).

Battle of the Mediterranean: The British pursuit of the Italians during Operation Compass basically is at a halt by this point. Australian troops are advancing to take the lead in assaulting the fortress of Tobruk, but they will take a couple of weeks to be ready to attack. The Italians have mustered some tanks outside of Bardia which slow the British down, but they have two divisions trapped there.

The RAF bombs Bardia and Derna. General O'Connor reports that his forces have suffered only 141 killed or missing and 387 wounded during Operation Compass. The British now have literally tens of thousands of prisoners to process and new forward supply bases to set up.

Meanwhile, the incredulity about recent events in North Africa breaks out in an odd exchange between Prime Minister Churchill and General Wavell, the Middle East Commander, who throw scriptural references at each other. Churchill has sent Wavell a telegram with the cryptic reference "St. Matthew, Chapter VII, verse 7" (Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you); Wavell replies today with the following:

St. James, Chapter I, first part of verse 17, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above..."! More aircraft are our immediate need and these you are providing.

While it is not much of an exchange, it underscores how the two men - and everyone else in the know - ascribe the wildly unexpected success of Operation Compass to some sort of divine intervention.

The Royal Navy fleet movements in support of the convoy to Malta continues. Operations Hide and Seek (Hide is a sortie by Force H to meet battleship HMS Malaya and accompanying vessels coming west from Alexandria, Seek is the related anti-submarine sweep) come off without Italian interference.

River gunboat HMS Aphis continues to bombard Italian positions around Bardia without much interference from the Italian air force. Royal Navy battleships HMS Valiant and Warspite bombard Vlorë, Albania.

German 7563 ton freighter Freienfels and 7605-ton freighter Geierfels hits mines and sink near Livorno.

Battle of the Pacific: Troop convoy US 8 departs from Wellington. It includes two liners, the Dominion Monarch and Empress of Russia. Its first stop is Sydney, where it will accrue the Queen Mary and lose the Empress of Russia, which will return to Auckland.

The US Secretary of the Navy takes over control of uninhabited Palmyra Atoll, which legally has been under the Navy's jurisdiction since 1934. This is to become the site of the "Palmyra Island Naval Defensive Sea Area," restricted to passage only by ships authorized by the US Secretary of the Navy. The date when the Navy actually arrives is in spring 1941. Palmyra Atoll, incidentally, remains to this day the only incorporated territory in the United States, but it most definitely is American land although almost nobody outside the Navy knows it even exists. It truly is one of the most remote spots on earth and apparently never has been permanently inhabited, whether in ancient or modern times.

Italian/German Relations: The Italian attitude toward German intervention in North Africa has shifted 180 degrees from its position just two months ago. While then the Italians had not wanted any German interference in what they saw as their own national sphere of influence, the Mediterranean basin, today they ask that the Wehrmacht send an armored division and support troops to Libya at the earliest opportunity.

Anglo/US Relations: The British Purchasing Commission places $750 million in war orders. This includes orders for 12,000 aircraft and 60 merchant ships, all to be completed within one year's time. Congress will be consulted about this transaction.

Risto Ryti leaving Finnish parliament after being inaugurated as President, 19 December 1940.

Finland: Kyösti Kallio had submitted his resignation as President on 27 November, effective today, with the intention of retiring to his farm in Nivala. However, he attends the farewell ceremonies, leaves for the train station and, as the marching band is playing a patriotic song while he boards his train, collapses in the arms of his adjutant, Colonel Aladar Paasonen. Kallio is a tragic figure, the man who had to give the order to sign the harsh treaty with the Soviet Union that ended the Winter War and who suffered a devastating stroke over the summer. Kyösti Kallio, dead at 67.

The new President is Risto Ryti.

Cine Magazzino, Anno VII, Num. 51, 19 December 1940.

British Homefront:  Prime Minister Winston Churchill gives a speech that receives extensive media coverage around the world. He notes, with classic British understatement:

One cannot say that the Italians have shown high fighting spirit or quality in this battle.... The A.R.P. services, the Home Office, and the Ministry of Health are as much in the front lines as are the armoured columns chasing the Italians about the Libyan desert....

In a long-winded address, Churchill posits that "The Germans reached the culminating point at the end of last year," and he points to the recent bombing of Mannheim - which by now he knows did not hit the strategic targets intended - as inflicting "very heavy blows."

Holocaust: With the Christmas holiday approaching, Archbishop Sapieha of Krakow, Poland requests in a letter to Auschwitz Commandant Rudolf Höss that Christmas services be permitted there. Höss permits his inmates to receive 6000 one-kilogram food parcels but flatly turns down the religious request because no religious observances whatsoever are permitted in the camp. A former Catholic, Höss left the religion due to the horrors of World War I.

International Red Cross shipments such as these, incidentally, are greatly treasured throughout the war both in the concentration camps and in POW stockades and often a large proportion of them fall into the hands of the guards. The IRC does do its best to verify matters.

The Waifs & Strays Society has plenty of work to do this Christmas season, 19 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

Wednesday 20 November 1940

Signed wartime photograph of Winston Churchill by Cecil Beaton. The photograph was taken by Beaton in Churchill's cabinet at 10 Downing Street on November 20, 1940.

Italian/Greek Campaign: The battle for the summit of Morava continues on 20 November 1940. The Italians are holding on fiercely because the mountains control the key valleys below that lead toward the coast. The Greek Group under Lieutenant-General Georgios Kosmas, however, is tenacious and has the benefit of local knowledge of the mountains.

Elsewhere, the Greek Liuba Detachment attacks across the Kalamas River in the Thesprotia sector, the Greek 8th Infantry Division takes Vissani in the Kalamas sector, and the Greek 2nd Infantry Division advances in the direction of Aidonochori and Drymades in Negrades sector.

This is a Radio Orphan Annie ID bracelet. Below is the reverse.

These bracelets were a promotional item distributed by Ovaltine for the radio Orphan Annie show's November 20, 1940 broadcast. The initial on front corresponded to the first letter of the listener’s name, and the serial number on the reverse was filed with the Orphan Annie Identification Bureau. It is unclear where all that ID information ever went, somebody probably still keeps it somewhere.

European Air Operations: The Luftwaffe (I,/KG 55) bombs Birmingham for the second night in a row. The 116 bombers add another 132 tons of high explosives and 296 incendiary bombs. The Germans lose one bomber. The Luftwaffe does little during the day, and the short daylight hours make such missions unnecessary anyway.

The Corpo Aereo Italiano chips in by sending a dozen bombers against Harwich again during the night. It is unclear why the Italians always attack Harwich, perhaps because it is easy to find from the air and they do not have the sophisticated guidance beams used by the Luftwaffe bombers.

RAF Bomber Command raids Duisburg with 43 aircraft, and U-boat base Lorient with 8 bombers, overnight.

Oberleutnant Josef "Pips" Priller" joins 6,/JG 26 as Staffelkapitän of 1st Staffel.

Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering lifts a ban which he had placed on Stab,/JG 53 (headquarters unit) regarding its unit emblem. The pilots and ground crew were never happy with this slight. JG 53 is the "Pik As" (Ace of Spades) squadron, and Goering had ordered the emblems removed because the wife of Geschwaderkommodore Major Hans-Jürgen von Cramon-Taubadel was Jewish. The Geschwader picks up its 500th victory of the war shortly after the ban is lifted.

JG 53 is one of the Luftwaffe's elite fighter units, home to top aces Werner Mölders and Hans Karl Meyer. Such formations have a certain leeway within the Wehrmacht available to almost nobody else because they are highly skilled and irreplaceable personnel. The men of the unit have been removing the Swastikas from the tails of their planes as a form of silent protest about the Goering decision about Cramon-Taubadel's wife. Very few open acts of defiance against the German leadership occur during the war, especially successful ones, so this is worthy of note. The initiative for the change appears to have been a new Kommodore, Major Günther Freiherr von Maltzahn, whose wife was not Jewish (in fact, it is unclear if he ever married).

Noel Coward arrives in Brisbane as part of a 7-week tour to raise money for the International Red Cross. His day will be full: a radio broadcast, a sherry party and then a military concert. This photo was in The Telegraph, 20 November 1940.

Battle of the Atlantic: German coaster Snorre I hits a mine and sinks off Kjøkkelvik, Hordaland, Norway.

The Supermarine Walrus amphibious biplane from Royal Navy light cruiser HMS Manchester capsizes and sinks at Sullom Voe, Shetland, Scotland.

The Luftwaffe bombs and damages 8955-ton British tanker Chesapeake off the Lizard.

Convoy OB 246 departs from Liverpool, Convoy OB 247 is held in the port, Convoy FN 338 departs from Southend, Convoy FS 340 departs from Methil, Convoy HG 47 departs from Gibraltar (30 ships).

The Kriegsmarine begins converting cruiser liner Wilhelm Gustloff, which has been acting as a hospital ship, into a floating barracks at Gotenhafen (Gdynia). The ship will retain its engines and be capable of troop transport as the need arises.

The Kriegsmarine commissions captured Norwegian submarines B-5 and B-6 as training U-boats UC-1 and UC-2.

"Gloster Sea Gladiator Mark I, N5520, on the ground at an airfield in Malta, probably while being flown by No. 261 Squadron RAF at Ta Kali. The aircraft has been refitted with a Bristol Mercury engine and three-bladed Hamilton propeller salvaged from a Bristol Blenheim. N5520 is the only surviving Gladiator of the Malta-based Fighter Flight, and was presented to the people of Malta as "Faith" in 1943." © IWM (ZZZ 3915E).

Battle of the Mediterranean: As part of the RAF shakeup that has removed Air Marshal Dowding from his position, Air Marshal Owen Tudor Boyd (formerly Air Officer Commanding, Balloon Command, and only recently promoted to Air Marshal) has been appointed Deputy to the Air Officer Commanding in Chief, Middle East Command. To take up that post in Cairo, Boyd flies in a Blenheim bomber across the Mediterranean en route to refueling point Malta. This is a more-or-less normal route, but Boyd's bomber goes far off course. It winds up far to the north over Sicily. Italian fighters scramble and force it to land in a field, where Boyd and six others are taken as prisoners.

Boyd's loss, while most unfortunate, is not what really worries the uppermost echelons of the British government; it is what he knows that causes concern. Boyd is carrying confidential papers, which he destroys by setting alight the downed bomber; and he also knows about the Top Secret Ultra project. Boyd, to his credit, does not reveal what he knows about that potentially war-winning decoding operation, and the Italians and Germans, of course, have no idea that he is hiding such information. Boyd spends his captivity in the Castle Vincigliata (Castello di Vincigliata) camp near Florence, Italy.

This is a puzzling incident that may tie in with the loss of the 8 Hawker Hurricane fighters flying to Malta on the 18th. While it is unproven why the plane wound up over Sicily, some accounts state that the bomber was short of fuel. That is the same reason the fighters failed to make land at Malta. Boyd, incidentally, escapes from Axis control in December 1943 and finally takes up his command - three years late.

Elsewhere, RAF aircraft bomb and sink 57-ton Italian coastal freighter Ardita III off Assab, Italian Somaliland.

Italian torpedo boat Confienza collides with 2321 ton AMC Capitano A. Cecci off Brindisi, Italy, and sinks.

Royal Navy cruiser HMS York continues its delivery service in the eastern Mediterranean, dropping off its shipment of anti-aircraft artillery at Piraeus before heading back to Alexandria for another cargo.

In Malta, the issue of troop morale is a major concern. Mail deliveries have not improved. Accordingly, the island command grants all ranks the opportunity to send one private telegram per month to the United Kingdom. There are strict limitations placed on the content of such messages, which are only to relate to matters of importance (which do not include terms of endearment).

RAF No. 261 Squadron departs from Luqa and takes up operations at RAF Station Takali, or Ta'Qali (Maltese), on Malta. Wing Commander J R O'Sullivan is in command of the squadron of fighters.

"High oblique aerial view of Ta Kali airfield, Malta, taken at 5,000 feet from the south-east." © IWM ((MOW) H 18-5).

Battle of the Indian Ocean: German auxiliary cruiser Pinguin, operating in the Indian Ocean a thousand kilometers west of Australia, is heading southward when it spots smoke is on the horizon from a large westbound freighter. The crew of the Pinguin launches its seaplane, which buzzes the ship and drops a message instructing it to stop and maintain radio silence. The freighter gets off a distress call anyway before the seaplane can disable the wireless. The freighter then shoots down the seaplane, which the crew of the freighter chooses to ignore while trying to escape from the fast-approaching Pinguin.

The Pinguin has a hard time catching up with the freighter. Finally, after a long chase, and after two long-range (22 km) salvos from the German ship, the freighter heaves to and waits for the Pinguin. It turns out upon inspection to be British refrigeration ship Maimoa, en route from Fremantle to Durban. After taking what it needs from the ship (which is full of meat and dairy products), the Pinguin sinks the freighter and takes its 87 crew prisoner. The downed seaplane crew, meanwhile, has to wait until the next morning to be picked up with their damaged plane.

The distress call from the Maimoa reaches Royal Navy officers in Fremantle. They immediately dispatch heavy cruiser HMAS Canberra to the ship's reported position. While the ships have moved on from there during the chase, the downed seaplane is still at that position.

Separately, 223 ton Royal Australian Navy auxiliary minesweeper/trawler HMAS Goorangai (D. McGregor, RANVR) collides with 10,346-ton British passenger MV Duntroon as it is exiting Port Phillip Bay, Melbourne. The warship, which is blacked-out, sinks. It is the Royal Australian Navy's first loss of the war. All 24 aboard the Goorangai perish. The Duntroon tries to pick up any survivors, but only finds six bodies. The Duntroon returns to Melbourne for bow repairs which last until 18 December. A court of inquiry finds no fault on the part of the skipper of the Duntroon.

An ad in the Vancouver Sun for "The Great Dictator," which opens this week in Vancouver. People still know Chaplin for his "tramp" character of decades earlier, so the advertisement emphasizes that despite the topical theme of the film itself.

Hungarian/German/Italian/Japanese Relations: Hungary adds its name to the Tripartite Pact of 27 September 1940 (which makes it a quadripartite pact, but as other nations start adding their names, people just call it the Axis for convenience). This makes Hungary a nominal ally of Germany, Japan, and Italy (though with some key reservations on its obligations thereto). The country that Hitler really wants to sign the pact is the Soviet Union, but that appears unlikely after the disastrous Molotov mission to Berlin earlier in the month. Hungarian Prime Minister Teleki and Foreign Minister Csaky sign the pact.

Hungary has benefited from the First and Second Vienna Awards (which gave it Romanian territory) and historically sides with Germany. Despite its recent acquisitions from Romania, Hungary still feels slighted by the Treaty of Trianon which ended World War I in the region. This is not the first entanglement that Hungary has entered into with Hitler: on 24 February 1939, it joined the Anti-Comintern pact after sharing in the spoils from the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia. Admiral Miklós Horthy rules the country with an iron fist and is united with Hitler in a fierce hatred of Communism. However, his alliance is based more on a shared fear of the Soviet Union than it is on a love of Germany.

Future History: Helma Sanders-Brahms is born in Lower Saxony, Germany. Sander-Brahms begins making (German) films in the late 1960s after interning with Italian "New Wave" directors. One of her most renowned films is "Germany, Pale Mother" (1980) about women in the Third Reich. While not very well known in the English-speaking world, she is considered a leader in the New German Cinema and receives many awards in Germany and France. Sanders-Brahms passes away in 2014.

With all the acting talent in "You'll Find Out," including Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, and Dennis O'Keefe, bandleader Kay Kyser is the one who takes top billing. Also involved are Ish Kabibble - yes, Ish Kabibble - and Jeff Corey in one of his first (uncredited) film roles (and that creates a Star Trek connection for ya!). Incidentally, even Helen Parrish has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, this cast is loaded - and yet the movie is completely forgotten except by film buffs. Go figure. Great to watch on Halloween! The Times-Picayune, November 20, 1940.

November 1940

November 1, 1940: Hitler Irate
November 2, 1940: U-31 Sunk - Again
November 3, 1940: Kretschmer's Master Class
November 4, 1940: Spain Absorbs Tangier
November 5, 1940: Jervis Bay Meets Admiral Scheer
November 6, 1940: San Demetrio Incident
November 7, 1940: Galloping Gertie
November 8, 1940: Italian Shakeup in Greece
November 9, 1940: Dutch Fascists March
November 10, 1940: Fala and Doc Strange
November 11, 1940: Taranto Raid
November 12, 1940: Molotov Takes Berlin
November 13, 1940: Molotov Foils Hitler
November 14, 1940: Moonlight Sonata
November 15, 1940: Warsaw Ghetto Sealed
November 16, 1940: France Keeps Battleships
November 17, 1940: Malta Hurricane Disaster
November 18, 1940: Hitler Berates Ciano
November 19, 1940: Birmingham Devastated
November 20, 1940: Hungary Joins Axis
November 21, 1940: Dies White Paper
November 22, 1940: Italians Take Korçë
November 23, 1940: U-Boat Bonanza!
November 24, 1940: Slovakia Joins In
November 25, 1940: Molotov's Demands
November 26, 1940: Bananas Be Gone
November 27, 1940: Cape Spartivento Battle
November 28, 1940: Wick Perishes
November 29, 1940: Trouble in Indochina
November 30, 1940: Lucy and Desi Marry

2020

Wednesday 6 March 1940

Finnish pilot Eino Luukkanen in front of his Fokker DXXI.

Winter War: The Finns waste no time on 6 March 1940 and compose a peace delegation to send to Moscow. It is led by Prime Minister Risto Ryti, and the delegation (including also J.K.J.K. Paasikivi, Rudolf Walden & Väinö Voionmaa) leaves for Moscow via Stockholm in the evening.

There is still no cease-fire. Molotov somewhat characteristically says, "Why stop the juggernaut now it is rolling?" Foreign Minister Väinö Tanner hedges his bets by asking Great Britain and France for an extension of the deadline for requesting military assistance. They give Finland until March 12, 1940, to make a formal request.

Winter War Army Operations: The Soviets slightly expand their bridgehead on the western shore of the Gulf of Viipuri. Finnish pilot Eino Luukkanen observes as he strafes 800 shells into them:

A column of men & horse is crossing the ice - a long black snake.

Battle of the Atlantic: The British seize the cargo of Italian ships carrying German coal.

The German crew of the 3,425-ton freighter Uruguay scuttles the ship rather than be captured by British heavy cruiser HMS Berwick (Captain Irving M. Palmer) off Iceland.

The Cunard White Star Liner Queen Elizabeth successfully completes the first leg of its transatlantic crossing, reaching Nova Scotia, and will continue on to New York.

The French launch battleship Jean Bart.

European Air Operations: The Luftwaffe attacks a lightship off the Norfolk coast and also a tanker, the Shelbrit II, off the northeast coast of Scotland.

Franco/Italian Relations: The French and Italians conclude an expanded trade agreement.

German/Romanian Relations: The two nations conclude a trade agreement in which Germany provides the Romanians with captured Polish weapons in exchange for (more) oil.

Dutch Military: A Dutch armored tug, BV3, enters Den Helder Naval Base just when Dutch submarine O11 is leaving the area. The two collide, and the submarine sinks. Three men perish. A film cameraman is aboard the submarine, and his footage appears in newsreel footage around the world.

Palestine: British members of Parliament protest the Land Transfers Regulations which have sparked protests, but the House defeats a motion of censure that they bring.

International Red Cross: The IRC is one of the very few reasonably impartial observers of the conflict. They report that fewer than 300 Germans, 300 French & 150 British prisoners of war have been taken in the 6 months of the war.

British Homefront: Farmers are encouraged to kill house sparrows because they eat seeling crops.

American Homefront: Robin, Batman's boy wonder, makes his first appearance in Detective Comics #38 (the cover date is April).

Willis Stargell is born in Earlsboro, Oklahoma. As Willie Stargell, he becomes famous in the 1970s as the cleanup hitter for the World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates.

HMS Berwick, August 1942.

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