26-Dec-39: Red Army Suffers More Losses; Finns Dig In Near Salla; Swedes Call Up Reserves; Royal Navy Mines Eastern British Coast; Australians Reach Wales
Today is 26-Dec-1939, the 87th day of World War II; there are 2,076 days left in the conflict.
The Soviet Red Army continues its attacks on the northern end of the Mannerheim Line in Finland, but have little success and suffer heavy losses. The Finns continue to hold advance positions near Salla.
Neutral Sweden calls up its military reservists due to continued signs of trouble between the Germans and Norwegians and the ongoing Winter War in Finland.
The British Royal Navy lays a barrier of mines from Moray Firth in the north of Scotland all the way south to the Thames Estuary in England. Pembroke, Wales, receives the first unit of the Royal Australian Air Force to reach the war zone.
18-Oct-39: Nordic Leaders Have Conference in Stockholm; Germans Attempt Another Scapa Flow Attack; British, French Meet in Ankara, Turkey
Today is 18-Oct-1939, the 48th day of World War II; there are 2,145 days left in the conflict.
British General Archibald Wavell, the commander of British troops in the Middle East, and French General Maxime Weygand, the former chief of staff, fly into Ankara, Turkey, for consultations with the Turkish General Staff. The Germans respond by recalling their ambassador, former Chancellor Franz von Papen, for consultation in Berlin.
In Scotland, German Luftwaffe bombers again attempt an attack on the British Royal Navy base at Scapa Flow, but this time are engaged by anti-aircraft defenses and no bombs are reported dropped.
At the same time in London, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announces that a total of eight German aircraft have been downed; this announcement is followed by a claim by First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill that a third of the German Kriegsmarine’s Unterseeboot fleet has been sunk. Neither offers proof to back up their claims, which are dismissed by the German Ministry of Propaganda and Enlightenment and in broadcasts on Deutscher Rundfunk, German radio.
In a meeting in Stockholm proposed earlier in the month, Finnish President Kyösti Kallio meets with the King Christian X of Denmark, King Haakon VII of Norway and King Gustaf V of Sweden confer about the Soviet demands revisions of the Finnish-Soviet border. King Gustaf reports that German Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler sent assurances to Sweden that Germany would remain strictly neutral if a war were to break out between the Soviet Union and Finland; at the same time, Hitler “strongly” advised the Swedes follow the same policy.
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent a telegram to the assembled Nordic heads of state, expressing solidarity in the cause of neutrality and peace:
“October 18, 1939
“His Majesty Gustav, King of Sweden, Stockholm.
“The Conference of the Nordic States convened by Your Majesty in Stockholm will be followed with deep interest by the Government and the people of the United States.
“Under the circumstances which exist this Government joins with the Governments of the other American Republics in expressing its support of the principles of neutrality and order under law for which the nations represented at the Stockholm Conference have, throughout their history, taken a consistent stand.
“Franklin D. Roosevelt”
King Gustav himself replied almost immediately to the president with a telegram of his own:
“Stockholm,October 18, 1939
“The President:
“On behalf of the heads of the Nordic States assembled in Stockholm I wish to convey you the expression of our warm and sincere appreciation of the message of sympathy which you have addressed to us. In our endeavors to manifest our firm resolve to pursue a neutral policy based on international law and order we have felt it as a precious support and encouragement to receive this message which has been warmly greeted by our peoples.
“Gustav R..”
At the conclusion of the conference, a communique was broadcast by the Swedish News Agency (Tidningarnas Telegrambyrå). The text of the communique stated:
“The kings of Denmark and Iceland, of Norway and of Sweden along with the president of the Republic of Finland got together in a meeting in Stockholm on the 18th to 19th of October 1939.
“At the meeting the general situation was first scrutinized from the viewpoint of each country. Special focus was given to difficulties that in the present serious international situation might be met as to retaining the right of self-determination in matters of neutrality, the principle the countries so often have pointed out and also confirmed in their neutrality declarations when the war broke out. It was stated in one voice that the governments are resolute and determined, working in close cooperation, to maintain their full neutrality. They intend to let their approach to the future questions be steered by what is needed to enforce this neutral status of complete self-determination. They demand that their right to this opinion, laying on the basis of friendly relations with other countries, will be respected by all parties.
“By reminding of the declaration, given by the Nordic kings during the Great War at the meeting of the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish governments in 1917 in Oslo, which stated that despite of what length or whatever form the war might take, friendly and confidential relations between governments should be maintained, the present meeting unanimously accepted that Denmark and Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden should conduct in the present crisis the same, successfully and in close cooperation carried out policy, as in the war of 1914-1918.
“The meeting also discussed the difficulties met by neutral states in commerce and shipping as consequences of the actions of the warring states. It was unanimously stated that on this matter the principles remain to be hold in line with the Copenhagen communique of 19th of September 1939, by maintaining usual commercial relations to all directions and mutually supporting the secure procurement of necessities.
“Likewise, unanimity prevailed over carrying out cooperation within the Oslo group and other neutral states for taking care of common interests.
In connection of the meeting the king of Sweden received cabled expressions of sympathy from the heads of states of neutral countries in America. These already publicized messages will be highly appreciated in the Nordic countries. The governments represented in the meeting have found in them valuable support in their efforts for the benefit of peace and international law.
“The Nordic governments remind of willingness to work for purposes of reconciliation. Already before breaking out of war this was expresses when their heads of state joined [Belgian] King Leopold’s appeal for peace. This willingness remains unchanged. They will with the greatest pleasure greet every sign showing that understanding between the warring parties is possible and that prospects can be seen to any contribution of neutral states in finding peace and security to all nations.”
17-Oct-39: Ju-88s Strike Scapa Flow; HMS Iron Duke Damaged, Beached; Mostly Quiet on the Western Front; Turks Break Off Soviet Talks
Today is 17-Oct-1939, the 47th day of World War II; there are 2,146 days left in the conflict.
Representatives of the Turkish government, in Moscow to negotiate a defense treaty with the Soviet Union, break off their talks without agreement. Both the Turks and the Soviets claim mutual friendliness and respect for each other, but Soviet proposals were seen as being counter to Turkish commitments to Britain and France, and were thus rejected by the Turks.
While the Germans claim that the Western Front is “absolutely quiet,” the French claim there are numerous infantry skirmishes near Saarbrucken.
The real action continues on the naval front. The British Royal Navy suffers another surprise attack as German Luftwaffe Junkers Ju-88 bombers once again attack. This time, the target is the British naval base at Scapa Flow, which has already been hit by Unterseeboot action, resulting in the sinking of HMS Royal Oak.
The damage this time is more symbolic; the bombers succeed in damaging the training battleship HMS Iron Duke. The ship has to be beached as a result. The Iron Duke is famous as the World War I flagship battleship of British Admiral John Jellicoe, who was in command of the Grand Fleet during the Battle of Jutland.
Later that night, German Kriegsmarine destroyers use the cover of darkness to mine the waters off the Humber estuary in northern England on the border of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.
14-Oct-39: HMS Royal Oak Sunk in Scapa Flow By Surprise U-Boat Attack; 800 British Sailors Dead; Protests Over Lindbergh Radio Broadcast Arise
Today is 14-Oct-1939, the 44th day of World War II; there are 2,149 days left in the conflict.
Based on German Luftwaffe aerial reconnaissance photos which reveal a 50-foot-wide gap in the Royal Navy’s antisubmarine defenses at the Kirk Sound entrance to the Home Fleet’s base at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands, Unterseeboot Kapitänleutnant Günther Prien scores a major success for the German Kriegsmarine.
Commanding the U-47, Kapitänleutnant Prien pilots his submarine through the gap and, at 01:30 in the morning, launches seven torpedoes at the British battleship HMS Royal Oak, which has 1,200 sailors on board. Three of the torpedoes hit the battleship and she capsizes and sinks within 13 minutes. Estimates of the dead range from 786 to 833, and are usually rounded off to 800. 414 survive. The sinking is major blow to British naval prestige, a worrying indicator of serious deficiencies in the Empire’s defenses, and a significant triumph for the Kriegsmarine and Kapitänleutnant Prien and his crew.
The Royal Oak was a Revenge-class battleship which had been launched at the outset of World War I in 1914; it was completed in 1916 and first saw action at the Battle of Jutland. In the intervening years, attempts to modernise her could not address weaknesses of her age, including a fundamental lack of speed, so she was no longer considered as suitable for front-line duty in the new war. In spite of this fact and that its loss means little in terms of the numerical superiority enjoyed by the British navy and its allies and thus the naval balance of power, the sinking has a tremendous impact on British wartime morale. The raid demonstrates that the Germans are capable of bringing the naval war to their home waters, and security in harbors and dock areas is greatly tightened.
In Germany, the raid makes an immediate celebrity and war hero of Kapitänleutnant Prien, who becomes the first Kriegsmarine submarine officer to be awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross.
In other news, French Commander-in-Chief General Maurice Gamelin issues an Order of the Day predicting a massive German offensive “at any moment.” He is premature by eight months. At the same time, in Paris, escaped Polish intelligence team members resume their efforts to break German military codes with their replica of the legendary Enigma machine which they had smuggled out of Poland after the invasion and successfully brought to France.
In Moscow, representatives of the Soviet and Finnish governments wrap up their discussions of border revisions with very little change in either country’s terms. Soviet negotiators have refused Finnish counterproposals for a land exchange on their mutual border and are sticking to their original sweeping demands.
In North America, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Senator Key Pittman, D-Nevada, joins with the New York Herald Tribune and many Canadian voices in protest of the previous night’s nationwide radio broadcast by Col. Charles Lindbergh which championed strict neutrality, criticized the Canadian declaration of war and urged rejection of proposed revisions to the Neutrality Act pending in the Senate. Americans are still split on the war, a political divide that will last for almost two more years.