28-Dec-39: Soviet Division Destroyed; Red Army High Command Regroups; Fritz Thyssen Protests German Actions to Hitler; Polish Deportations More Frequent; HMS Barham Hit by Torpedoes; British Start Meat Rationing; Japanese Bomb Lanchow
Today is 28-Dec-1939, the 89th day of World War II; there are 2,074 days left in the conflict.
The Soviet Red Army’s 163rd Division of the Ninth Army is destroyed by the Finns near Suomussalmi after attempts to relieve it by the 44th Division were turned back (and the 44th itself was destroyed). Training, tactics, and even cross-country skiing abilities all play a role in the Finnish successes. After successive failures to crack the Mannerheim Line throughout the Winter War, the Soviet high command orders preparations for a better-coordinated assault on the Finns.
German industrialist Fritz Thyssen, who played a key role in fundraising efforts and bankrolling the early National Socialist German Worker’s Party, as well as urging President Paul on Hindenburg to appoint appoint Adolf Hitler to the Reichskanzler post, writes a remarkable protest letter to Hitler from exile in Switzerland. Thyssen had been Prussian State Councillor for life, a member of the Reichstag for Dusseldorf East, and head of the institute for research into the corporate state, Standische Wirtschaftsordnung.
A devout Catholic, he resigned his posts and fled the country after protesting Hitler’s ongoing persecutions of religious communities, as well as the Non-Aggression Pact of 23-Aug-39 between Germany and the Soviet Union.
Thyssen was particularly upset by Reichkristallnacht, 9-10-Nov-38. The pogrom was triggered by the assassination of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by a German-born Polish Jew named Herschel Grynszpan. The assassination touched off a oordinated attack on Jews and their property; 91 were murdered, 25,000 to 30,000 were arrested, 267 synagogues were destroyed and thousands of homes and businesses were ransacked by Hitler Jugend, the Gestapo and the SS. His property was confiscated and his citizenship revoked by Hitler after Thyssen left the country.
Thyssen’s letter to Hitler states:
“My conscience is clear. I know that I have committed no crime. My sole mistake is to have believed in you, our leader, Adolf Hitler, and in the movement initiated by you — to have believed with the enthusiasm of a passionate lover of my native Germany.
“Since 1923 I have made the greatest sacrifices for the National Socialist cause, have fought with word and deed, without asking any reward for myself, merely inspired by the hope that our unfortunate German people would finally recover. The initial events after the National Socialists come to power seemed to justify this hope, at least as long as Herr von Papen was vice-chancellor.
“A sinister development followed these events. The persecution of the Christian religion, taking the form of cruel measures against the priests and insults to the Churches, led me to protest in the early days, for instance when the police president of Dusseldorf issued a protest to Marshal Goering, It was in vain.
“When, on November 9th, 1938, the Jews were despoiled and martyrized in the most cowardly and brutal manner, and their temples razed to the ground throughout Germany, I also protested. To reinforce this protest, I resigned my office as state councillor. This, too, as in vain.”
Thyssen will eventually be arrested by Vichy French authorities and sent to a concentration camp. He will be freed by the Allies in 1945, but will convicted by a German court for being a former National Socialist leader. The court will order Thyssen to hand over 15% of his property to victims of the regime; he will die in 1951.
The Germans policy of ousting Poles from critical areas and bringing in ethnic Germans to colonize the former Polish areas begins to hit its stride. The whole population of Kalisz, 70,000 people, are deported and replaced by ethnic Germans from the Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia.
On the high seas, the German Kriegsmarine’s unterseeboot U-30 torpedoes the British Battleship HMS Barham off the coast of northwest Scotland. The ship does not sink, but is laid up for repairs for three months.
The British government in London announces that the rationing of meat will go into effect immediately.
The Japanese Imperial Army conducts repeated bombing raids on the northwest Chinese military supply base at Lanchow.
16-Dec-39: First Battle of Summa Begins, Soviets Repulsed; Italians Lend Finns Full Support; Latvian Germans “Repatriated”
Today is 16-Dec-1939, the 77th day of World War II; there are 2,086 days left in the conflict.
The Red Army’s Seventh Army launches major attacks on the Mannerheim line in the First Battle of Summa in the Winter War. Two days of attacks fail to dislodge the stubborn Finnish defenders. Meanwhile, Italy escalates the propaganda and material support of Finland; in addition to sending volunteer soldiers and arms to the Finns, Italian Foreign Minister Count Count Gian Galeazzo Ciano denounces, in a speech to Fascist Party representatives, the Soviet attack. in a speech to the Fascist assembly. The Italian press echoes the government in the effort.
Some 51,000 ethnic Germans are “repatriated” by the Germany government into the occupied territory of the former Poland from Latvia.
15-Oct-39: German Troops Mass Along French Border; Finns Institute Compulsory Military Service; Germans, Estonians Sign Ethnic German Repatriation Treaty
Today is 15-Oct-1939, the 45th day of World War II; there are 2,148 days left in the conflict.
Reports arrive in Paris that German troops are beginning to mass behind the border and that reconnaissance units have become active along the entire front.
After a week of military preparations and the failure of negotiations in Moscow with Soviet representatives over border disputes, the Finnish government institutes compulsory military service for its citizens.
The Polish Minister-in-Exile in Kaunas lodges an official protest with the Lithuanian government over the transfer of Vilna from Poland to Lithuania by the Soviets, stating that neither party had the right to transfer Polish territory. Meanwhile, in the former Polish capital of Warsaw, there are reports concerning breakouts of typhoid and cholera.
Germany and Estonia sign a treaty in the Estonian capital, Riga, which provides for the transfer of ethnic Germans from Estonia back to the Third Reich. The first shipload has already left Estonia.
3-Oct-39: Chamberlain Rejects Various Peace Overtures; Germans Begin Troop Movements Westward; Soviets Wily Over Lithuania
Today is 3-Oct-1939, the 33rd day of World War II; there are 2,160 days left in the conflict.
The New York Times reports that British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain tells a “wildly cheering House of Commons” that Russian and German collaboration on peace initiatives will not change Great Britain’s determination to “put an end to successive acts of German aggression … no threat will ever induce this country or France to abandon the purpose for which they entered this struggle.” He adds that his government is ready to consider any proposal that holds the prospect of stable peace, but also warns that “no mere assurances from the present German government could be accepted by us.”
But a counterpoint to his speech is made by former Prime Minister David Lloyd George, who led the country to victory in the First World War, startled the House by “counseling the Allies to move slowly while there yet remained a chance of avoiding another slaughter.”
“The words of the patriarchal elder statesman, envisaging the possibility of a world conference that would include Italy, Russia and possibly the United States to discuss the restoration of Czecho-Slovakia as well as Poland in some form, the redistribution of colonies and disarmament, fell like a bombshell in the House, whose members heard him through in silence.”
Prime Minister Chamberlain is urged to make an immediate response:
“Mr. Chamberlain, who had listened carefully to one of the bitterest critics of his appeasement policy, rejected flatly the proposed closed session, and said that a discussion of peace terms that had not been submitted was ‘premature,’ pointing out that when a peace offer came it might be ‘one which no self-respecting government could consider.’”
Meanwhile in Poland, the final cohesive Polish army units surrender en masse near the city of Luck. Over 700,000 Poles are prisoners of the Germans and another 200,000 are in the hands of the Soviets, although many will escape and make their way west. Polish casualties are extremely high, but the losses to the German Wehrmacht total 10,000 dead and 30,000 injured.
Fresh from their victory, German forces begin to withdraw from Poland for rest and redeployment to the western front. The Tenth Army is the first unit to do so. The Germans also begin the assessment of the successes and failures of the campaign; official staff thinking is that tanks are useful auxiliaries, but the infantry continues to be responsible for carrying the most important load in a campaign.
On the western front itself, in order to straighten the front line, the British Expeditionary Force orders the First Corps to hold down a section of the French/Belgian border at the same time that French troops withdraw from German territory, specifically the Warndt Forest and the Saarbrucken Salient.
German Ambassador to the Soviet Union Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenberg sends another in a series of diplomatic cables from Moscow to German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop in Berlin noting that dealing with the Soviets will be full of ups and downs over the longterm; Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov is now being difficult over Lithuania:
“Molotov summoned me to his office at 2 p. m. today, in order to communicate to me the following:
“The Soviet Government would tell the Lithuanian Foreign Minister, who arrives today, that, within the framework of an amicable settlement of mutual relations (probably similar to the one with Estonia), the Soviet Government was willing to cede the city of Vilna and its environs to Lithuania, while at the same time the Soviet Government would indicate to Lithuania that it must cede the well-known portion of its territory to Germany. Molotov inquired what formal procedure we had in mind for carrying this out. His idea was the simultaneous signing of a Soviet-Lithuanian protocol on Vilna and a German-Lithuanian protocol on the Lithuanian area to be ceded to us.
“I replied that this suggestion did not appeal to me. It seemed to me more logical that the Soviet Government should exchange Vilna for the strip to be ceded to us and then hand this strip over to us. Molotov did not seem quite in accord with my proposal but was willing to let me ask for the viewpoint of my Government and give him a reply by tomorrow noon.
“Molotov’s suggestion seems to me harmful, as in the eyes of the world it would make us appear as “robbers” of Lithuanian territory, while the Soviet Government figures as the donor. As I see it, only my suggestion enters into consideration at all. However, I would ask you to consider whether it might not be advisable for us, by a separate secret German-Soviet protocol, to forego the cession of the Lithuanian strip of territory until the Soviet Union actually incorporates Lithuania, an idea on which, I believe, the arrangement concerning Lithuania was originally based.”
Both governments continue their jockeying over eastern Europe.
19-Sep-39: Hitler Triumphantly Enters Danzig, Declares It Will Be German Forever; Wilno Falls to Soviets; 100,000 Poles Surrender at Bzura
Today is 19-Sept-1939, the 19th day of World War II; there are 2,174 days left in the conflict.
German Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler arrives in Danzig for a triumphant parade and speech commemorating its return to the Reich. In his speech, he celebrates the return of the city, claims that it will be forever German, and ends on a note of defiance towards Britain and France, invoking God’s blessing on the German cause:
“But there should be no doubt about one thing: England’s goal is not ‘a fight against the regime’ but a fight against the German people, women and children. Our reaction will be compatible, and one thing will be certain: This Germany does not capitulate. We are determined to carry on and stand this war one way or another.
“We have only this one wish, that the Almighty, who now has blessed our arms, will now perhaps make other peoples understand and give them comprehension of how useless this war, this debacle of peoples, will be intrinsically, and that He may perhaps cause reflection on the blessings of peace which they are sacrificing because a handful of fanatic warmongers, persons who stand to gain by war, want to involve peoples in war.”
As Hitler speaks in Danzig, the Red Army ends its advance through Poland at the Hungarian border. After three days of battle, Wilno (Vilna) finally falls to the Soviets. And at Brest-Litovsk, the Soviet army links up with the German Wehrmacht. Since the secret protocols of the 1939 Nonaggression Pack of 23-Aug calls for Brest-Litovsk to be in the “Soviet sphere of influence,” the Germans vacate the city and the Red Army marches in.
After fighting their way out of the city of Kutno, some 30,000 Polish troops join the fighting around Warsaw, while the German Luftwaffe continues to pound the capital, especially public utilities and facilities.
Units of two Polish brigades and pieces of other forces escape from the Battle of Bzura and also make their way to Warsaw. But the battle ends today with 150,000 Polish troops from the Pomorze and Poznan armies prisoners of the Wehrmacht, which has also now surrounded the city of Lvov.
In Berlin, the new era of cooperation and alliance between Germany and the Soviet Union is underscored by a telegram sent from German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop’s special train to Ambassador to Moscow Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenberg. Ribbentrop instructs the ambassador to convey to Soviet General Secretary Josef Stalin that Germany will be standing by her obligations under the Nonaggression Pact:
“I request that you tell Herr Stalin that you reported to Berlin about your conference with him, and that you are now expressly directed by me to inform him that the agreements which I made on the authorization of the Fuehrer at Moscow will, of course, be kept, and that they are regarded by us as the foundation stone of the new friendly relations between Germany and the Soviet Union.”
Von der Schulenberg scrambles to comply with Ribbentrop’s instructions.
18-Sep-39: U-Boat Sinks SS Kensington; Scandinavian Countries Say Trade Will Go On Unimpeded; Battle of Wilno (Vilnius) Begins Between Poles and Red Army
Today is 18-Sept-1939, the 18th day of World War II; there are 2,175 days left in the conflict.
Seventy miles from the Sicily Islands in the North Atlantic, a German U-Boat shells the British merchant ship SS Kensington Court. The 4,863-ton ship was laden with wheat form Argentina and was bound for Birkenhead. The ship is hit with five shells, but sinks slowly, allowing the crew to send out an S.O.S. and take to the lifeboats.
The S.O.S. is picked up two Royal Air Force Sunderland flying boats (from numbers 228 and 204 Squadrons) on patrol in the area; they arrive on the scene, land and subsequently rescue all 34 of the sailors on board. The Sunderland will later, after several losses on rough seas, be supplanted by the PBY Catalina, which has a thicker hull more suitable for exposed water landings.
Meanwhile, the Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Iceland decide that, in order to “protect their economic existence,” they will continue to trade with both sides in the quickly broadening European conflict. The coordinated announcement is made simultaneously in the national capitals, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Oslo, Stockholm and Reykjavik. Three of the five will soon discover that their neutrality is illusory.
In Poland, Warsaw’s defiant resistance continues, so the German Third and Tenth armies begin attacking the capital city. Polish President Ignacy Mościcki and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces General Edward Rydz-Śmigły, escape Poland and flee to Romania, where they are disarmed and interned as the Romanians had previously announced would happen to fleeing Polish nationals fleeing the fighting onto Romanian soil. The two Polish leaders leave behind messages urging the remaining Polish forces to continue to fight both the Wehrmacht and the Red Army.
In a crucial development for the future of the war, members of Poland’s Cipher Bureau, charged with intercepting enemy communications and breaking their codes, escape Poland to the south and begin a long and arduous journey to France, and then on to Britain. They carry crucial information about the German Wehrmacht’s “Enigma” code, which will be vital to the later successful breaking of the code, a famous episode of the war.
On the second day of the Soviet invasion in the east of Poland, the Red Army continues to meet very little resistance and successfully advances 100km into Poland.
However, at Wilno (present day Vilnius, Lithuania), later in the day (at 17:00 hours), Polish Colonel Jarosław Okulicz-Kozaryn, in command of the garrison there, receives reports of Red Army armored scouts approaching from Oszmiana (present day Ashmyany). These scouts are engaging Polish infantry units as they advance. Col. Okulicz-Kozaryn orders all units to fall back on the Lithuanian border, with the most experienced units of the Polish Korpus Ochrony Pogranicza screening the retreat.
Col. Okulicz-Kozaryn sends a Lt. Col. Podwysocki under a flag of truce to tell the Red Army that the Poles will not defend Wilno; however, he is shot at and forced to retreat behind Polish lines. Col. Okulicz-Kozaryn evacuates the city with most of the Polish forces, but Lt. Col. Podwysocki decides to defend the city anyway, even with few troops.
The Poles actual succeed in repulsing the first Soviet attack on the city in the evening hours, but the Red Army continues its push and rapidly encircles the city. By nightfall, they have captured the airfield and the Rasos Cemetery, and entered the city at several points. The battle will continue the next day.
On the propaganda front, a momentous occasion in Berlin happens which will propel an obscure American to infamy. The American, named William Joyce, had moved to Ireland and then Britain after his birth in Brooklyn in 1906. He subsequently became a member of the British Union of Fascists (led by Oswald Moseley and referred to as the Blackshirts), then fled to Germany in August, 1939, with his wife as war became imminent.
Having served in propaganda capacities for the British Union of Fascists, the Germans decided Joyce might be of some use in the same guise in Berlin. A week previously, the Germans had allowed Joyce to make a radio broadcast to the British; it so impressed the Germans that they give him a long-term radio contract. He will go on to broadcast throughout most of the war under an assumed (and now famous) pseudonym, Lord Haw-Haw (which had previously been used by three other German radio personalities for similar purposes). He would be known for his now famous opening salutation of his broadcasts: “Germany calling! Germany calling!”