5-Nov-39: Plot to Arrest Hitler Collapses from Lack of Nerve; German Intelligence Chief Warns Dutch of Imminent Invasion; City of Flint Saga Draws to Close; Finns, Soviets Continue Negotiations; Churchill Visits French Marine Headquarters
Today is 5-Nov-1939, the 36th day of World War II; there are 2,127 days left in the conflict.
Commander in Chief of the German Army, Gen. Heinrich Alfred Hermann Walther von Brauchitsch, meets with Reichskanzler Adolf HItler to discuss the plans drawn up by Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH – the High Command of the Army) for the invasion of France, Fall Gelb (Case Yellow). Gen. Brauchitsch presses a strong argument that Fall Gelb should not be put in motion on 12-Nov as scheduled because of widespread weaknesses within the Heer after the invasion of Poland. The Reichskanzler loses his temper during the stormy meeting and states that he is unconvinced by the argument.
Unknown to Hitler, Gen. von Brauchitsch had agreed with Army Chief of Staff Gen. Franz Halder and Chief of the General Staff of High Command of the Army Gen. Ludwig August Theodor Beck that Hitler should be arrested and the military take over the country if he pressed forward with the prosecution of Fall Gelb. Although Hitler does not relent during their meeting, Gen. von Brauchitsch suffers a loss of courage and meekly returns to OKH headquarters in Zossen without executing the planned arrest; the conspiracy subsequently collapses.
One of the conspirators, Colonel Hans Oster, chief of the Abwehr, German Military Intelligence, does at least send a warning to the Dutch military attaché in Berlin, Colonel Gijsbertus Jacobus (Bert) Sas, that the Germans are preparing to invade both Holland and Belgium, as well as France, and that the invasion is imminent. Colonel Sas shares the information with his Belgian counterpart in Berlin; these activities will lead to a Dutch crisis in January of 1940.
In Oslo, the German government officially lodges a protest with the Norwegians regarding the ongoing saga of the United States freighter SS City of Flint, which had been seized by the German pocket battleship Deutschland on 9-Oct, and sailed by a prize crew to Murmansk, from which it was ejected by the Soviet government. The saga reaches its climax in Norway. The prize crew sails the ship to the port of Haugesund, Norway, after being ousted from Murmansk, but the Norwegian government (for the second time) refuses entry, claiming that the German crewmen are kidnappers. The prize crew runs out of options as British Royal Navy ships approach and they sail the ship into the harbor on 3-Nov. The Norwegian Admiralty dispatches the minelayer HNoMS Olav Tryggvason and boards the City of Flint. The Norwegian minelayer’s second in command, Captain B. Dingsør, and thirty of its armed sailors will return the City of Flint to its captain’s command. The ship unloads its cargo in Bergen and sets sail for the United States. The German prize crew is interned at Kongsvinger Fortress in Norway. The City of Flint will continue in cargo service on the Atlantic until she is sunk 23-Jan-1943.
The Finns and Soviets continue their border and territory negotiations; the Finnish delegation wires to Helsinki for more instructions.
And in France, marine headquarters is visited by Britain’s First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill.