20-Nov-39: Luftwaffe Drops Magnetic Mines into Thames Estuary, British Minesweeper Subsequently Sunk; Dutch Air Force Shoots Down German Plane; SS Re-Establishes German Control Over Prague
Today is 20-Nov-1939, the 51st day of World War II; there are 2,112 days left in the conflict.
After experiencing successes by mining British territorial waters and North Sea shipping lanes, the German Luftwaffe begins dropping the magnetic mines into the Thames estuary itself. The British minesweeper HMS Mastiff explodes and sinks after attempting to recover a German magnetic mine using a fishing net.
Over the Netherlands, the Dutch Air Force successfully shoots down a German Luftwaffe aircraft which had strayed over neutral territory. Meanwhile in Berlin, Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler issues a revised directive for the attack on France through the Netherlands and Belgium, along with a revised date. Many other such revisions will be issued in the next six months.
In the Reichsprotektorate die Böhmen und Mähren (the former Czechoslovakia), German SS troops have re-established complete control over the city of Prague after days of student demonstrations, violence, executions and deportations.
17-Nov-39: SS Troops Occupy Czech Universities, Execute, Imprison Students; Czech National Committee Formed in Paris; Allies Officially Adopt “Plan D;” German Battleship Arrives in Gdynia
Today is 17-Nov-1939, the 48th day of World War II; there are 2,115 days left in the conflict.
With violence continuing in Prague after a medical student’s funeral on 15-Nov, German SS troops occupy all universities after Reichsprotektor Konstantin von Neurath ordered them shut down. The SS executes nine student “leaders” and sends 1,200 other student participants to concentration camps. These events will become the basis for observing every 17-Nov as International Students Day.
In response to the events in Prague, a Czechoslovakian National Committee is established in Paris. Former President of Czechoslovakia Eduard Benes is appointed its leader. Britain and France officially recognize the committee a month later.
The third meeting of the Allied Supreme War Council in London endorses the Dyle (River) Plan, commonly referred to as “Plan D.” Proposed by French General Maurice Gamelin, the plan calls for defending against a German attack through Belgium by conducting defensive operations along a line from the Meuse River to Antwerp.
In the former Poland, the pocket battleship Deutschland arrives in the port of Gdynia after an Atlantic raiding cruise that resulted in her successfully sinking two merchant ships.
16-Nov-39: Finns Mobilize as Soviet Talks Break Down; Allies, Germany Reject Romanian Peace Offer; Prague Riots Violently Put Down by Germans; Inflation Increases in Britain
Today is 16-Nov-1939, the 47th day of World War II; there are 2,116 days left in the conflict.
The Finns mobilize their armed forces as talks with the Soviet Union over territory and border revisions end in mutually angry exchanges. The Soviets goal has been to protect its naval bases at Murmansk and Leningrad with strategic Finnish territory and long-term leases on Finnish ports; in exchange, the Soviets offer swamp and forest land in Karelia. The Finns have made counteroffers, but neither side has changed their respective general positions. The situation is considered critical.
Both the western allies and Germany officially reject an offer of peace mediation from Romania’s King Carol in Bucharest.
Another series of demonstrations and riots in Prague is put down by the German authorities in the Reichsprotektorate die Böhmen und Mähren; the Germans also declare martial law in the city and conduct mass arrests, deportations and summary executions.
The British government reports an inflation increase; the cost of living rose 2.5 percent in the previous month of October.
15-Nov-39: Czech Student’s Funeral Turns Into Bloodbath, Neurath Closes Czech Higher Education; Ribbentrop Rejects Peace Appeal; French Add Work Hours; Last Chinese Port Falls to Japanese
Today is 15-Nov-1939, the 46th day of World War II; there are 2,117 days left in the conflict.
In the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, several thousand students attend the funeral for medical student Jan Opletal, shot in the stomach by German troops during anti-occupation demonstrations in Prague on 28-Oct, who died 11-Nov.
Opletal (1-Jan-1915 – 11-Nov-1939) was a student of the Medical Faculty of the Charles University in Prague. The thousands of students attending his funeral turned it into another anti-German rally and 12 are reportedly injured.
In response, Reichsprotektor Konstantin von Neurath, governor of the former Czech lands, closes all Czech universities and colleges, and sends over 1,200 students to concentration camps; nine students will be executed on 17-Nov, which will later be commemorated as International Students Day by the International Union of Students and other groups.
Opletal’s remains are transferred to his native village of Náklo in the Olomouc Region; a post-war monument will be erected in his honor, and many Czech cities will name streets after him.
German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop issues a formal rejection of the offer of neutral mediation made by Belgian King Leopold and Dutch Queen Wilhelmina. Ribbentrop gives the news to official representatives of Belgium and the Netherlands during a meeting in Berlin. He claims the rejection is prompted by what he terms the “blunt rejection” of the German peace appeal by Britain and France. The “German government considers the matter closed,” Ribbentrop concludes.
As munitions and other war-related industries rachet up in France, the government officially adds three hours to the work week; workers will now be required to work 43 hours per week.
The south China port city of Pakhoi is captured by Imperial Japanese troops. It is the final Chinese port occupied by the Japanese since their campaign began in July 1937.
In action on the high seas, British tanker SS Africa Shell is sunk in the Mozambique Channel two miles off Portuguese East Africa in the Indian Ocean by two bombs placed in her hold by an boarding party wearing British lifebelts from a 10,000-ton German raider. Africa Shell’s crew identifies the German raider as the pocket battleship Admiral Scheer.
22-Sep-39: Germans, Soviets Link Up at Brest-Litovsk for Joint Victory Parade; Gen. von Fritsch Killed at Warsaw; Allies Hold Second Meeting; Rationing, Blackouts Cause British Problems
Today is 22-Sept-1939, the 22st day of World War II; there are 2,171 days left in the conflict.
In eastern Poland, Soviet Red Army forces capture the cities of Lvov and Bialystok; they also meet up with German Heer forces and conduct a joint victory parade in the city of Brest-Litovsk. The mood is extremely jovial, even though the Poles are still fighting both armies.
Near Warsaw, a dramatic end came to a famous incident in Germany of 1938; an incident which would have serious, long-term effects on the German Wehrmacht.
In 1938, two related scandals, the Blomberg-Fritsch Affair (also known as Blomberg-Fritsch-Krise or Blomberg-Fritsch crisis) deeply disturbed both the political and army hierarchies of the Third Reich, and resulted in the subjugation of the Wehrmacht completely to Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler. The two highest ranking military officers in the Reich, Minister of War and Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht, General Field Marshal Werner von Blomberg, and Commander-in-Chief of the Heer (Army) Werner von Fritsch, were felled by unrelated crises in early 1938.
On 12 January 1938, the 59-year-old widower von Blomberg married his second wife, a 26-year-old secretary; Hitler and other Reich leaders attended the event. Hitler served as a witness and Luftwaffe commander in chief Hermann Göring had been the best man. But when a policeman reported that the young bride had previously posed for pornographic photos, was possibly a prostitute and had a criminal record sent shock waves through the German establishment. Hitler ordered Blomberg to annul the marriage in order to avoid a scandal and to preserve the integrity of the army. Blomberg refused, but Göring threatened to make his wife’s past public knowledge; Blomberg therefore resigned all his posts and retired effective 27-Jan-1938.
Hitler thought the crisis had passed, but Göring and Reichsfuerhrer-SS Heinrich Himmler had decided to get rid of Fritsch as well, since Fritsch would succeed Blomberg and become Göring’s superior, while HImmler wanted to weaken the Wehrmacht itself in order to strengthen his Schutzstaffel (SS) organization and build up the Waffen-SS as a competitor to the Heer. Göring and Himmler devised a plot.
A few days after the Blomberg affair passed, Himmler and the SS accused Fritsch of being a homosexual; a police file was produced which the Geheime Staatspolizei had Göring and Himmler presented new evidence in the form of a witness. It was said that Fritsch was encouraged by General Ludwig Beck to carry out a military putsch against Hitler, but that he declined. Fritsch was given now choice but to resign and did so on 4-Feb-38. The witness against Fritsch later withdrew his accusation, but was then murdered. Fritsch demanded an Army trial and was acquitted on 18-Mar-38; however, the damage was done and his career was over.
Having taken a personal oath to Hitler (the 1934 Reichswehreid — ironically ordered by Blomberg himself), many officers of the Wehrmacht declined to take action regarding this double-pronged assault on their brother officers and the independence and aristocratic leadership of the Heer. From that point, the Heer was, for the most part, a reliably compliant, pro-Hitler organization. This would lead to the destruction of both Hitler and the Wehrmacht itself.
Prior to the Polish invasion, General von Fritsch was recalled, and chose, once the invasion was underway to personally inspect the front lines as an Honorary Colonel of the 12th Artillery Regiment. It was a very unusual activity for someone of his high rank.
And now, on 22-Sept-39, comes the denouement: In the Warsaw suburb of Praga while the capital is under siege, a Polish bullet from either a machine gun or a sharpshooter hit General von Fritsch and tore an artery in his leg. The general’s adjutant, a Leutnant Rosenhagen, is an eyewitness to von Fritsch’s death and writes of the death in his original, official protocol:
“[…] In this moment the Herr Generaloberst received a gunshot in his left thigh, a bullet tore an artery. Immediately he fell down. Before I took off his braces, the Herr Generaloberst said: ‘Please leave it,’ lost consciousness and died. Only one minute passed between receiving gunshot and death.”
Generaloberst Werner von Fritsch thus becomes the second German general to be killed in combat in the war (the first being Generalmajor der Ordnungspolizei and SS Brigadeführer Wilhelm Fritz von Roettig at 14:15 on 10-Sep-39 near Opoczno, Poland. Von Fritsch’s death was thus carefully investigated. The investigation concluded that the Generaloberst deliberately sought death on the front lines. He was given a ceremonial state funeral four days later in Berlin.
Ironically, nearby in Praga, Hitler himself arrives and observes the shelling of Warsaw by his troops, not far from the scene of von Fritsch’s death.
In the west, the Allied Supreme War Council meets for the second time of the war, this time in Sussex, England. Even though it is supposed to be secret, the meeting attracts a large crowd outside, while inside, British Prime Minister Chamberlain, British Foreign Minister Lord Halifax, and Minister for Coordination of Defense Lord Chatfield, meet with French Premier Eduard Daladier, French Commander in Chief on the Western Front General Maurice Gamelin, and Chief of the French Naval Staff Admiral François Darlan. The group releases a communique after the meeting stating that the leaders discussed supplies of munitions and other related issues.
The British begin the rationing of gasoline. A report by the London Metropolitan Police Commission states that there has been a tripling of road accidents in the three weeks since the blackout was imposed; the municipal courts are overloaded with blackout violation cases.