9-Nov-39: Germans Claim British Behind Hitler Assassination Attempt; South Africans Uncover German Espionage; Finns Refuse Soviet Military Base Demand; British MI6 Agents Kidnapped by Germans at Venlo
Today is 9-Nov-1939, the 40th day of World War II; there are 2,123 days left in the conflict.
German press and radio reports claim that the British were behind the planting of a bomb in Munich’s Bürgerbräukeller which was aimed at assassinating Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler.
The South Africans claim that a German plot to sabotage vital war industries in the cities of Pretoria and Johannesberg has been uncovered and prevented.
With border/territory revisions still under negotiation, as well as a Soviet demand that the Finns allow a Red Army base on Finnish soil, the government of Finland in Helsinki issues a statement reaffirming its position: Finland “cannot grant to a foreign military power military bases on her territory and within the confines of her frontiers.”
After a series of intelligence successes, the British suffer their first serious setback of the war. In what will come to be known as the “Venlo Incident,” two British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) officers, Major Richard Stevens and Captain S. Payne Best, are kidnapped by the German Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo). The kidnapping is ostensibly ordered by Reichsfuehrer-SS Heinrich Himmler in retaliation for the Bürgerbräukeller assassination attempt.
The two MI6 officers attempt to contact members of the German resistance; they have been meeting at Venlo, Holland, five miles from the German border, with man using the pseudonym “Major Schaemmle.” The man claims to represent a group of German Army officers who are plotting a coup d’etat against the National Socialist government. In reality, “Major Schaemmle is a Gestapo officer named Walther Schellenberg. Their meeting today is scheduled to be at a cafe situated just a few yards from the border at Venlo. But on their arrival via car, Stevens and Best are hit by machine gun bullets and overpowered by Gestapo agents and taken into Germany.
The damage from the incident is immediate and severe; one of the two officers is carrying a list of British agents. From the list, the subsequent interrogations and their own loose talk, the two MI6 officers enable the Germans to arrest a number of British undercover agents throughout German-occupied territory. Stevens and Best will remain prisoners of the Germans until the final collapse in April 1945.
8-Nov-39: German Worker Arrested, Executed for Bürgerbräukeller Bomb Assassination Attempt that Narrowly Misses Hitler; Hans Frank Plans Mass Jewish/Polish Deportations; Dutch Flood More of Border Zone; Finns Reject More Soviet Proposals
Today is 8-Nov-1939, the 39th day of World War II; there are 2,124 days left in the conflict.
Georg Elser, a German workman opposed to the National Socialist government, conceals a time bomb in a support pillar in Munich’s Bürgerbräukeller. The target is Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler, who traditionally delivers an anniversary speech in the beer hall commemorating the National Socialists’ failed 1923 Beer Hall Putsch. While Hitler usually speaks for an extended time, on this night he inexplicably cuts the speech short and leaves the hall. The bomb goes off at its appointed time; it kills seven and injures 63.
While rumors are circulated that, like the Reichstag fire of 27-Feb-1933, the incident is deliberately planted by the government so that it can be used as anti-British propaganda and to usher in a final crackdown on what remains of the German opposition, a Gestapo search for the perpetrator quickly zeroes in on Elser, who is arrested and immediately executed. The damage to the Bürgerbräukeller is severe and the building will never be reconstructed. Hitler will return to the site three years later; on 8-Nov-1942, he will deliver an address on the ongoing Battle of Stalingrad. The building will finally be demolished after the German surrender in 1945.
In the German-occupied areas of Poland, consolidation is underway of plans to transport 600,000 Jews and 400,000 Poles from territory incorporated into the Greater German Reich as the General Government, to un-annexed areas. Governor of the General Government Hans Frank, a National Socialist former Justice Ministry attorney, is in charge of the planning and sets the start date for the deportations as 1-Dec-1939. Frank will be convicted of war crimes in 1946, find religion and express great remorse for his crimes, and then be hanged at Nuremberg.
German troop movements along the Dutch border, as well as recent reports received from secret sources, cause the Dutch government to flood a larger portion of the defensive zone along the border.
After weeks of back-and-forth negotiations on border and territory revisions, Finnish negotiators once again reject Soviet proposals. The Finns express a willingness to grant a few concessions, but report that the government sees Soviet attempts to bargain as a sign of weakness. Finnish military chief, Marshal Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, reportedly opposes this viewpoint by the Finnish government.