Tuesday 20 February 1940

A Soviet armored sled is full of infantry.

Winter War Army Operations: The flashpoint now is in the Taipale sector. The Soviet 13th Army remains on the attack. While they repelled an assault by the 123rd and 19th Rifle Regiments across the ice at Lake Suvanto on the 19th, things remain tenuous. The Taipale River is frozen and remains an easy way to exploit any transient Finnish weakness. The Soviet 49th Rifle Regiment penetrates the Finnish lines today using tanks towing armored sleds and advances 1 km into the Finnish rear. A determined Finnish counterattack expels the Soviets and the line is restored by the end of the day.

Winter War Peace Talks: Following their military's cracking of the Mannerheim Line, the Soviet government expresses a fresh interest in negotiations.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-54 (Korvettenkapitän Günter Kutschmann) is listed as lost from unknown causes. One theory is that it hit a mine laid by the British destroyers HMS Ivanhoe and HMS Intrepid in early Jan 1940. All 41 crew are never seen again and presumed to have perished.

Operation Nordmark, the naval exercise by the Gneisenau, Scharnhorst and Admiral Hipper, ends without the fleet sighting any convoys or being discovered by the British.

Convoy OA 095G departs from Southend.

European Air Operations: The RAF sends 20 aircraft to attack German shipping in the North Sea during the night, but does not find any. The Luftwaffe also is searching for targets and sinks the British freighter Fifeshire.

German Military: Hitler, wishing to get the Norway headache off of his desk, appoints General der Infanterie (Lieutenant General) Nikolaus von Falkenhorst ground commander for the invasion of Norway and Denmark (Operation Weserübung). Admiral Raeder is working up the naval aspects. The Fuhrer is in a hurry and tells Falkenhorst to come up with a plan by 5 p.m. Falkenhorst walks out to a nearby stationery store, picks up a Baedeker tourist guidebook of Norway, and plans his operation from that. Hitler immediately approves the plan.

The way that Hitler makes the choice shows increasing interference in army operations. This is an OKW (overall military) operation, so the OKH (army) is basically excluded from the process.

Iraq: A coup d'etat against the regime of the "four colonels" led by General Amin al-Umari fails. One of the chief sources of the complaint by General al-Umari and his confederates is the regime's decision to send Iraqi forces to join the Allied forces in the Balkans. Thus, this could be interpreted as positive for the Allies.

General von Falkenhorst.

February 1940

February 3, 1940: Soviets Capture a Bunker
February 4, 1940: Peace Talks in Stockholm
February 5, 1940: Allies to Invade Norway
February 6, 1940: Careless Talk Costs Lives
February 7, 1940: IRA Terrorists Executed
February 8, 1940: Spies!
February 9, 1940: The Welles Mission
February 10, 1940: Confiscation of Jewish Goods
February 11, 1940: Soviets Attack Mannerheim Line
February 12, 1940: Breaches In Mannerheim Line
February 13, 1940: Soviets Inching Forward in Finland
February 14, 1940: Soviets Batter Mannerheim Line
February 15, 1940: Finns Retreat
February 16, 1940: Altmark Incident
February 17, 1940: Manstein and Hitler Discuss Fall Gelb
February 18, 1940: Operation Nordmark
February 19, 1940: King Gustav Says No
February 20, 1940: Falkenhorst Commands Weserubung
February 21, 1940: Radar Advances
February 22, 1940: Friendly Fire
February 23, 1940: Soviets Present Their Demands
February 24, 1940: Fall Gelb Revised
February 25, 1940: Mr. Welles Comes to Visit
February 26, 1940: Battle of Honkaniemi
February 27, 1940: Finns Retreat Again
February 28, 1940: Overseas Volunteers Help Finland
February 29, 1940: Finns Accept Soviet Terms In Principle

2019

Monday 19 February 1940

Winter War: King Gustav of Sweden has the final say on whether his country will help Finland:

From the first hour I informed Finland that she unfortunately could not count on military intervention from Sweden.

While the Swedish government cannot help the Finns, Swedish volunteers continue to pour across the border. Some 8,000 Swedish and 725 Norwegian volunteers take up stations in the far north of the front to relieve Finns for duties on the Karelian Isthmus.

Winter War Army Operations: The Soviets are gaining footholds within the V-line switch position. Soviet units work on building an ice road over the frozen Gulf of Viipuri. They attack across Lake Suvanto in the Taipale sector near Lake Ladoga. The Finns use artillery fire to break the ice and destroy the Soviet formation. The ice is littered afterward with 700-1,000 dead Soviet troops.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-23 (Kapitänleutnant Otto Kretschmer), having sunk the HMS Daring on the 18th, continues its successful patrol in support of Operation Nordwind by torpedoing and sinking 5,225-ton British freighter Tiberton with one torpedo east of the Orkneys. All 33 crew perish as the ship sinks within 30 seconds.

Operation Nordmark continues without spotting any convoys.

Convoy OG 19F forms at Gibraltar.

Western Front: The Germans ambush a French patrol east of the River Nied and kill 20 French soldiers.

Special Ops: The Norwegian legislature (the Storting) endorses the way the Norwegian coastal forces handled the Altmark Incident.

Related to these events involving the Altmark, Hitler prods Admiral Raeder to speed up planning for Operation Weserubung.

American Homefront: Sugar Ray Robinson (Walker Smith Jr.) wins New Yorks' Golden Glove Tournament at Madison Square Garden.

Sugar Ray Robinson, 19 February 1940.

February 1940

February 1, 1940: Second Battle of Summa
February 2, 1940: Soviet Assaults at Summa February 3, 1940: Soviets Capture a Bunker
February 4, 1940: Peace Talks in Stockholm
February 5, 1940: Allies to Invade Norway
February 6, 1940: Careless Talk Costs Lives
February 7, 1940: IRA Terrorists Executed
February 8, 1940: Spies!
February 9, 1940: The Welles Mission
February 10, 1940: Confiscation of Jewish Goods
February 11, 1940: Soviets Attack Mannerheim Line
February 12, 1940: Breaches In Mannerheim Line
February 13, 1940: Soviets Inching Forward in Finland
February 14, 1940: Soviets Batter Mannerheim Line
February 15, 1940: Finns Retreat
February 16, 1940: Altmark Incident
February 17, 1940: Manstein and Hitler Discuss Fall Gelb
February 18, 1940: Operation Nordmark
February 19, 1940: King Gustav Says No
February 20, 1940: Falkenhorst Commands Weserubung
February 21, 1940: Radar Advances
February 22, 1940: Friendly Fire
February 23, 1940: Soviets Present Their Demands
February 24, 1940: Fall Gelb Revised
February 25, 1940: Mr. Welles Comes to Visit
February 26, 1940: Battle of Honkaniemi
February 27, 1940: Finns Retreat Again
February 28, 1940: Overseas Volunteers Help Finland
February 29, 1940: Finns Accept Soviet Terms In Principle

2019

Sunday 18 February 1940

The Scharnhorst photographed from the Gneisenau. The photo appears to have been taken just after launching one of the Gneisenau's Arado Ar 196 aircraft.

Winter War Army Operations: The Soviet 13th Army assaults the Taipale sector on 18 February 1940. Bludgeoning their way forward with their armor, the Soviets create breaches in the V-Line in two places.

The Finns north of Lake Ladoga complete the destruction of the "regimental motti" of part of the Soviet 18 Rifle Division. They capture 32 field guns, 30 antitank guns, 1 mortar, 20 tanks, 15 machineguns, 25 trucks & 32 field kitchens. The Soviets lose some 1,000 dead, 250 prisoners and uncounted wounded. The Finns complete their efficient operation with only 166 dead. While things are not going well for them further south, the operations in the north continue to favor the Finns.

Winter War Air Operations: The Soviets bomb Tampere, Pori, the Karelian Isthmus, and several smaller towns. The Finns claim to have shot down another 24 Soviet planes.

Battle of the Atlantic: German pocket battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst and heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper, along with destroyers Wilhelm Heidkamp, Karl Galster, and Wolfgang Zenker, make a sortie towards the Shetland Islands. This is "Operation Nordmark" and is intended to intercept British convoys (the "HN" route) between Bergen, Norway and Great Britain. In the evening, Wolfgang Zenker has to return to port when it takes on water. There are several U-boats providing escort duties to the surface ships.

U-23 (Kapitänleutnant Otto Kretschmer) sinks Royal Navy destroyer Daring with two torpedoes off the Pentland Firth while escorting convoy HN-12 from Norway. The sinking is 40 miles east of the Orkney Islands, Scotland; 156 perish, and there are 4-15 survivors (sources vary). This sinking is an ancillary benefit of Operation Nordmark. Attacking destroyers is considered quite risky, so this adds to Kretschmer's already huge reputation.

The British tanker Imperial Transport torpedoed on 11 February 1940 by U-53 (Korvettenkapitän Harald Grosse) has remained afloat - at least the stern half has. The crew returned to it as it drifted. They are spotted by a passing ship and landed in Scotland.

HMS Hasty brings the German freighter Morea, which it intercepted trying to run the blockade, into a West Country port.

Dutch cargo vessel Ameland hits a mine and sinks in the North Sea.

Spanish freighter Banderas sinks after an explosion of undetermined cause.

The British protest to the Norwegian government that it should intern the Altmark for violating the neutrality laws.

Convoy OA 94 departs from Southend, Convoy OB 94 departs from Liverpool, Convoy SL 21 departs from Freetown, Convoy HX 21 departs from Halifax.

Western Front: A small German infantry detachment, supported by heavy mortars, makes an unproductive raid on a French post near the Moselle.

Following his meeting with General von Manstein, Hitler instructs General Halder to re-cast the Fall Gelb plan to include a major thrust through the Ardennes Forest. This is the decisive moment in the transition of the Fall Gelb plan for the invasion of France and the Low Countries from a conventional regurgitation of the von Schlieffen Plan of August 1914 into its final 1940 form.

Franco/Polish Relations: The French government agrees to allow the Polish Air Force to re-establish its units on French soil.

British Government: The government approves the formation of a Cyrus Regiment.

US Government: US Secretary of State Cordell Hull states that the "moral embargo" indicated by President Roosevelt extends to the Soviet Union.

Iraq: Prime Minister Nuri al-Sa'id resigns.

China: In the Battle of South Kwangsi, the Japanese 22nd Army evacuates Kaofengyi and the Chinese recover it. There are reports that Nanning is lost as well.

In the Shangtung Operation, Japanese naval troops land at the tip of Shangtung Peninsula.

Photo of the Gneisenau (far left) from underneath the Arado Ar 196 floatplane showing two destroyers as seen from the Scharnhorst off the Friesian island of Wangerooge, 18 February 1940.

February 1940

February 1, 1940: Second Battle of Summa
February 2, 1940: Soviet Assaults at Summa February 3, 1940: Soviets Capture a Bunker
February 4, 1940: Peace Talks in Stockholm
February 5, 1940: Allies to Invade Norway
February 6, 1940: Careless Talk Costs Lives
February 7, 1940: IRA Terrorists Executed
February 8, 1940: Spies!
February 9, 1940: The Welles Mission
February 10, 1940: Confiscation of Jewish Goods
February 11, 1940: Soviets Attack Mannerheim Line
February 12, 1940: Breaches In Mannerheim Line
February 13, 1940: Soviets Inching Forward in Finland
February 14, 1940: Soviets Batter Mannerheim Line
February 15, 1940: Finns Retreat
February 16, 1940: Altmark Incident
February 17, 1940: Manstein and Hitler Discuss Fall Gelb
February 18, 1940: Operation Nordmark
February 19, 1940: King Gustav Says No
February 20, 1940: Falkenhorst Commands Weserubung
February 21, 1940: Radar Advances
February 22, 1940: Friendly Fire
February 23, 1940: Soviets Present Their Demands
February 24, 1940: Fall Gelb Revised
February 25, 1940: Mr. Welles Comes to Visit
February 26, 1940: Battle of Honkaniemi
February 27, 1940: Finns Retreat Again
February 28, 1940: Overseas Volunteers Help Finland
February 29, 1940: Finns Accept Soviet Terms In Principle

2019