Saturday 29 June 1940

Tommies in action in North Africa, June 1940.

Western Front: Wehrmacht forces on 29 June 1940 are relinquishing some areas allocated to the French government pursuant to the Armistice Agreement of 22 June 1940.

In the demilitarized Channel Islands, the remaining islanders are instructed to paint white crosses on the aerodromes and fly white flags. Five thousand children and their schools have been evacuated to England, in places such as Marple in Cheshire. Many of the children have been individually sponsored by wealthy Americans, such as Eleanor Roosevelt, who sponsors a girl named Paulette. They also have received clothing and school supplies. England itself, of course, may not be safer for much longer.

The Germans ready two battalions for an assault on the Channel Islands. The BBC has broadcast that the islands are "open towns," but the Wehrmacht is taking no chances.

European Air Operations: After a Heinkel He 111 of Aufklarungsgruppe Oberbefehlshaber der Luftwaffe (AufklGr. Ob.d.L.) (German air force high command) performs reconnaissance over the Bristol dockyards, several others from I/KG27 attack the port facilities at 01:00.

The RAF attacks various points in Holland and western Germany, including the harbor at Willemsoord, a chemical factory at Hochst near Frankfurt, and the Dortmund-Ems Canal. A dozen planes of Bomber Command attack the airfield at Abbeville during the day.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-51 (Kapitänleutnant Dietrich Knorr) sends 3 torpedoes into 4,724 ton Royal Navy decoy ship (special service vessel) HMS Edgehill (X 39) southwest of Ireland and sinks it. There are 24 survivors, 15 perish. The ship takes some time to sink and requires three torpedoes because these ships are packed with buoyant material ("ping pong balls," as the US Navy would say half-jokingly about similar Japanese ships) to prevent sinking.

U-47 ((Kapitänleutnant Günther Prien) torpedoes and sinks British freighter Empire Toucan southwest of Ireland. There are 31 survivors, 3 crew perish.

U-26 (Kptl. Heinz Scheringer) sinks 6,701 ton Greek freighter Frangoula B. Goulandris southwest of Ireland. There are 32 survivors, 6 crew perish.

Unlucky U-boat U-99 (Otto Kretschmer), which had been attacked by Luftwaffe planes off Norway and then while heading to Wilhelmshaven for repairs, once again is attacked while leaving the port. It avoids the three bombs dropped at it, but damages itself on the ocean floor.

British submarine HMS Talisman (N 78,  Lt. Commander Philip S. Francis) is commissioned.

Troop Convoy WS 1 departs for Suez, Convoy OA 176 departs from Southend, Convoy OB 176 departs from Liverpool, Convoy HX 54 departs from Halifax.

A Short Sunderland.

Battle of the Mediterranean: Royal Navy destroyers Dainty, Defender, Voyager, and Ilex sink Italian submarine Uebi Scebeli southwest of Crete. Before it sinks, they recover valuable Italian naval codes. The destroyers also sink Italian submarine Argonauta and damage Italian submarine Salpa.

A Short Sunderland of RAF Group No. 201 sinks Italian submarine Rubino in the Ionian Sea. The flying boats land and take off some survivors.

Short Sunderlands of RAF 230 Squadron damage Italian submarine Sirena off Tobruk.

Admiral Somerville of Force H prepares to neutralize the French fleet anchored at Mers-el-Kébir, Algeria under Operation Catapult. He has several different methods to do so, but the French ships must not remain afloat under French control. He has battleships HMS Valiant and HMS Resolution, the battlecruiser HMS Hood, aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, cruisers HMS Arethusa and HMS Enterprise, and 11 destroyers. This is a "by any means necessary" operation.

Malta, under daily air attack, has only four flyable Hurricanes with two Gloster Gladiators. Governor and Commander in Chief Lt. General William Dobbie requests more planes and ground support. He also requires planes if the island is to serve as a point of interdiction of Axis convoys from Sicily to North Africa.

North Africa: An Italian attack across the Eritrean border is repelled by two British light tanks.

The RAF attacks Tobruk.

Gandhi in 1940 (by Kulwant Roy).

India: Victor Hope, 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow, Governor-General and Viceroy of India, meets with Mohandas Mahama Gandhi and Muhammad Ali Jinnah of the Indian National Congress in an effort to build support for the British war effort. While Gandhi is no fan of Hitler and Germany, and in fact sent a letter to Hitler in 1939 pleading with him not to start a war, Gandhi is uninterested in cooperating with the Allies until India is granted full independence. Great Britain has no intention of doing that, so negotiations are at a standstill.

China: At the Battle of South Kwangsi, the Japanese 22nd Army advances toward Lungchin.

Japanese troops are on the outskirts of Hong Kong, effectively blockading it from the landward side.

German Military: In the first of a parade of promotions and awards for the recent campaign, General Maximilian von Weichs is awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (Ritterkreuz). He has commanded Army Corps Weichs during the Polish campaign and the 2nd Army during the Battle of France. He also receives a promotion to Colonel-General.

German Government: The Germans release a "white paper" outlining Allied plans to occupy the Low Countries. This is another in a long line of such white books accusing the "other side" of nefarious plans.

French Government: The government transfers from Bordeaux to Clermont-Ferrand, evacuated by the Wehrmacht on 28 June.

Japanese Government: Japan continues its gradual campaign to assert dominion over the entire western Pacific. Japan's Foreign Minister Hachiro Arita broadcasts that there is a "new order in Asia: unity into a single sphere revolving harmoniously around Japan." This language echoes the future Japanese colonial organization, the "Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere."

Pianist Paul Klee passes away on 29 June 1940.

Romanian Government: The government is mobilizing the armed forces because of new threats posed by Hungary and Yugoslavia, which smell weakness due to Romania's quick capitulation to the Red Army.

Romanian Homefront: Another wave of refugees hits Europe, as inhabitants of Eastern Romania flee westward to avoid living under the occupying Soviets. The number of refugees is estimated at 100,000.

German Homefront: Berlin travel agents begin offering tours of the newly conquered Maginot Line.

Painter Paul Klee, who has lived in Switzerland for the past 7 years, passes away.

British Homefront: The authorities arrest Diana Mitford, the wife of jailed fascist leader Oswald Mosley, under Defence Regulation 18B. She had escaped jail to date due to giving birth to son Max. Unity Mitford, Hitler's former girlfriend, has recovered somewhat from her attempted suicide on 3 September 1939, but the bullet remains lodged in her brain. While mobile, she acts somewhat erratically.

War hysteria is in full swing throughout southern England. Aside from constructing military installations and erecting beach obstacles, the authorities are filling open fields such as cricket pitches with old cars which can prevent glider landings.

As noted previously in this blog, there were rumors floating around during Fall Rot that the Germans were killing black French African soldiers on sight. The natural tendency is to believe anything negative, particularly racist, about the Germans and nothing positive (and, yes, there are good reasons for that). Simply to show that there are two sides to such situations (one of my aims in writing about World War II), and without trying to disprove anything, here is a photograph that was taken in June 1940 of a German motorcyclist transporting a wounded Colonial French Senegalese Tirailleur POW. (It may be purely a propaganda shot).

June 1940

June 1, 1940: Devastation at Dunkirk
June 2, 1940: Hitler Visits France
June 3, 1940: Operation Paula
June 4, 1940: We Shall Fight
June 5, 1940: Fall Rot
June 6, 1940: Weygand Line Crumbling
June 7, 1940: British Evacuating Narvik
June 8, 1940: Operation Juno
June 9, 1940: Norway Capitulates
June 10, 1940: Mussolini Throws Down
June 11, 1940: Paris an Open City
June 12, 1940: Rommel at St. Valery
June 13, 1940: France Goes Alone
June 14, 1940: Paris Falls
June 15, 1940: Soviets Scoop Up Lithuania
June 16, 1940: Enter Pétain
June 17, 1940: The Lancastria Sinks
June 18, 1940: A Day of Leaders
June 19, 1940: U-boats Run Wild
June 20, 1940: Pétain Wilts
June 21, 1940: Hitler's Happiest Day
June 22, 1940: France Is Done
June 23, 1940: Hitler in Paris
June 24, 1940: Six Million Jews
June 25, 1940: German Celebrations
June 26, 1940: USSR Being Belligerent
June 27, 1940: Malta in Peril
June 28, 1940: Channel Islands Bombed
June 29, 1940: Gandhi Insists on Independence
June 30, 1940: Channel Islands Occupied

2020

Tuesday 16 April 1940

Oberleutnant Herbert Schmidt of the Dombås Fallschirmjäger.

Norway: The Norwegian government continues the "white paper wars" on 16 April 1940 by releasing the demands made by the German Minister in Oslo.

Numerous Norwegian formations are either surrendering outright or marching into internment in Sweden. They have no orders to do either. Norwegian morale is at rock bottom.

The standard line from Wehrmacht troops to the Norwegians: "We're here to protect you from the English."

Winston Churchill goes into rhetorical overdrive and says that British troops are there to "cleanse the German plague from the ancestral shores of the Vikings."
Norway Air Operations: The RAF bombs Stavanger airfield again during the night. The bombs start two big fires. All the British aircraft return. Other RAF planes attack Oslo and Trondheim.

Once again, Norwegian biplanes attack Junkers Ju 52 unloading supplies for Narvik on frozen Lake Hartvigvann. The landing area is deemed unsafe, and the remaining transports there are abandoned.

The Luftwaffe attacks the British troops unloading at Namsos.

Norway Army Operations: German troops of the 138th Mountain Regiment in an improved armored train continue east toward Sweden from Trondheim, reaching Skurdalsvold a few miles from the Swedish frontier. This effectively cuts the country in half at the waist. However, there are still Finnish forces all around the surrounding countryside. The British also are making landings near Trondheim.

At Dombås, the day begins with the Fallschirmjäger under Oblt. Schmidt occupying a strategic position overlooking the main road. Two Norwegian companies arrive, and one I/IR 5 attacks the Germans from the south, while the other II/IR 11 attacks from the south. The Norwegians bring two 81 mm (3.19 in) mortars and Colt M/29s. There is a brief firefight, and then the Germans wave the white flag. The Germans send over a Norwegian POW who states that the Germans are demanding that the two Norwegian companies surrender or the Germans will shoot their prisoners. There may have been something lost in the translation. The Norwegians respond by sending over a German POW who says that the Norwegians are demanding that they surrender. Neither side surrenders.

The Fallschirmjäger soldiers know they cannot last long in their present positions due to the Norwegian mortars, and ammunition is running low. Schmidt continues talking, waiting for darkness so he and his men can make a run for it. Instead, the Norwegians attack again, but then suddenly a blizzard descends on the area. The Germans launch an unexpected attack, and it sends the Norwegians reeling back to Dombås. After dark, the Fallschirmjäger slip away to the south.

Norwegian troops nearby capture numerous Fallschirmjäger who had wound up far from the drop zone. Some 22 are captured at Kolstad and another 23 at Bottheim train station. They were not participating in the battle anyway.

At Hegra Fortress, the Luftwaffe commences attacks on the castle. The German troops surround the fortress but have no way to break in. They bring up a mountain howitzer, and it destroys buildings around the fortress but does little damage to the structure itself. One shell hits a parapet and kills a Norwegian soldier. Hans Reidar Holtermann, commanding officer, keeps his men safe but vigilant.

At Narvik, some 200 Norwegian troops retreat along the rail line into Sweden, where they are interned. The German 139th Mountain Regiment clears the line all the way to the border.

Major Holtermann on Constitution Day in 1945.

Norway Naval Operations: More British troops of the 148th Territorial Infantry (reserve) Brigade depart for Norway from Rosyth. They are under the command of Brigadier Harold Morgan and already have spent two days cramped up in cruisers HMS Galatea and Arethusa and another transport ship.

Instead of going to Namsos with their brother troops, however, the Brigade troops are to be shipped to Andalsnes, to the south of Trondheim. To do this, they must disembark the cruisers they are on and board two other cruisers, HMS Carlisle and Curacoa. Doing this causes them to lose valuable equipment on the former two cruisers, which cannot be brought over due to lack of space and time. The whole affair makes absolutely no sense and is a complete staff cock-up. The strategic picture is that they will attack Trondheim from the south while the troops already ashore attack from the north, but the hurried nature of the change creates huge problems.

General Mackesy lands his 24th Brigade at Harstad, 37 miles to the north of his objective, Narvik. This area is quiet and suitable for the landing operation since it is not equipped for an opposed beach landing. While everyone gets ashore safely, the troops are of little use so far north. An overland march to Narvik would be extremely difficult due to the weather situation.

The British 15th Brigade is en route from France, where they were serving with the BEF, to Norway.

British submarine HMS Porpoise sinks U-boat 1 off Stavanger.

HMS Porpoise and U-3 exchange torpedo firings at each other 10 miles southwest of Egersund, Norway. Both miss.

British Military: The government issues a mobilization order for men turning 27 years old in April and May 1940.

Anglo/US Relations: J. Edgar Hoover and William Stephenson of MI6 meet to discuss cooperation regarding British intelligence needs in the United States.

US Military: First planes fly out of MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa Bay, Florida.

Soviet Union: The Red Army convenes a conference in Moscow to analyze whatever lessons can be learned from the Winter War.

Italy: Foreign Minister Count Ciano announces over Rome radio that "the bugles will soon sound," which some take to mean that Italy is about to enter the war on the side of the Axis. The world is awash with jokes on both sides about Italian fighting prowess:

Germans: Hitler is told Italy joining war. "Send 2 divisions, that'll finish them!" "Mein Führer, they're on our side!" "Oh! Send 10." 

At a dinner with Winston Churchill, German Minister Ribbentrop had said that, in a future war with Britain, Germany would have the Italians on its side. Churchill responded: “That’s only fair – we had them last time." 

Churchill: "Italians lose wars as if they were football matches and football matches as if they were wars." 

Churchill: "My Generals tell me that if Italy joins our side we shall defeat Germany in a year, and if they join the German side, six months."

Iceland: The island officially declares its independence and asks for US recognition.

HMAS Perth sails into Sydney Harbor, 16 April 1940.

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

2019

Monday 30 October 1939

The German-American Bund marches in New York City, 30 October 1939.

Western Front: There is some local activity all along the front, including artillery fire, but no major operations on 30 October 1939.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-56 torpedoes British battleship HMS Nelson, but the two torpedoes are defective and fail to explode. Nelson is the flagship of the Home Fleet, and its loss would have been of immense propaganda value.

Defective torpedoes have been a problem for the Germans since the beginning of the war. Several German U-boat attacks have failed, and U-boats lost, because of them. U-boat Captains are returning from missions furious with anger at lost opportunities and the resultant peril of detection. German technicians at the Torpedo Directorate are working furiously to isolate the problem and find a solution, which seems to have something to do with the detonators. No solution is yet in sight, but reports from the field are flowing in about the continuing problem.

U-59 (Oberleutnant zur See Harald Jürst) sinks the British anti-submarine trawler HMS Northern Rover west of the Shetland Islands. There are no survivors, 27 perish.

U-13 (Kapitänleutnant Karl Daublebsky von Eichhain) torpedoes and sinks 4,666-ton British merchant Cairnmona. Three die, 42 survive. It is part of convoy HX-5.

U-37 (Kapitänleutnant Werner Hartmann) stops 3,693-ton freighter Thrasyvoulos, finds contraband, disembarks the crew, and sinks it.

The City of Flint makes it back to Tromsø. The Norwegians finally put an end to the saga, which is causing an international incident. They provide the ship with an armed escort to make sure that the freighter leaves Norwegian waters and does not continue provoking the British.

The British Admiralty reports that two of its destroyers were attacked by German bombers south of the Dogger Bank, with no damage.

The British detain the US freighter Scanpenn in the Orkneys, and they detain the US freighter Hybert at the Downs.

European Air Operations: Various reports of Luftwaffe reconnaissance over the northeast and southeast England, but no shoot-downs. There also are Luftwaffe reconnaissance flights over France.

The RAF, in turn, makes reconnaissance flights over north German airfields.

German/Soviet Relations: A Soviet purchasing mission places orders for German warships, ship engines, and turrets.

British Government: There is a government White Paper on the conditions in German concentration camps and the mistreatement of Poles, Jewish people, and others.

Poland: The USSR formally annexes its share of occupied Poland.

Latvia: Germany and Latvia sign a treaty for the evacuation of ethnic Germans from Latvia.

British Homefront: "The Lion Has Wings" is released. It is the first film about the current conflict and has actual war footage.

American Homefront: The German American Bund, which is very active on Long Island, has a parade on East 86th Street in Manhattan. The organization also goes by the name German American Federation (German: Amerikadeutscher Bund, also Amerikadeutscher Volksbund).

Future History: Grace Slick is born in Highland Park, Illinois. She becomes famous as a singer with the Jefferson Airplane (later Starship) in the 1960s and various other incarnations of the group thereafter.

Grace Slick in twenty years after her birth on 30 October 1939.

October 1939

October 1, 1939: Occupation of Warsaw
October 2, 1939: Hel Peninsula Falls
October 3, 1939: The Diamantis Incident
October 4, 1939: Otto Kretschmer Gets Rolling
October 5, 1939: Polish Resistance Ends
October 6, 1939: Hitler Peace Effort
October 7, 1939: The British Have Arrived
October 8, 1939: First RAF Kill from UK
October 9, 1939: "City of Flint" Incident
October 10, 1939: Lithuania Under Pressure
October 11, 1939: The Atomic Age Begins
October 12, 1939: England Rejects Hitler's Peace Offer
October 13, 1939: Charles Lindbergh Speaks Out
October 14 1939: Royal Oak Sunk
October 15, 1939: Cuban Rockets
October 16, 1939: First Aircraft Shot Down Over UK
October 17, 1939: Marshall Mannerheim Returns
October 18, 1939: Prien Receives His Award
October 19, 1939: Preliminary Plan for Fall Gelb
October 20, 1939: Hitler Grapples with the Jews
October 21, 1939: Hurricanes to the Rescue!
October 22, 1939: Goebbels Lies Through His Teeth
October 23, 1939: Norway the Center of Attention
October 24, 1939: German "Justice" Gets Rolling
October 25, 1939: Handley Page Halifax Bomber First Flies
October 26, 1939: Jozef Tiso Takes Slovakia
October 27, 1939: King Leopold Stands Firm
October 28, 1939 - First Luftwaffe Raid on Great Britain
October 29, 1939: Tinkering with Fall Gelb
October 30, 1939: Defective Torpedoes
October 31, 1939: Molotov Issues an Ultimatum

2019