18-Dec-39: Soviet Attacks Continue on Various Finnish Defenses; Germans Down Half of British Air Raid Bombers Over Heligoland; Hitler Meets Quisling Again, Offers Aid; Graf Spee Fallout Continues
Today is 18-Dec-1939, the 79th day of World War II; there are 2,084 days left in the conflict.
Attacks by the Soviet Red Army continue on the Mannerheim Line around Summa, along with bombing of Helsinki from the air and shelling of battery positions along the Finnish Baltic coast. The United States Navy in Washington D.C. announces that 40 aircraft will be sent to aid the Finns in their Winter War against the Soviet Union.
The last daylight raid of the British Royal Air Force for 1939 occurs and results in the Battle of the Heligoland Bight. 22 armed Wellingtons are sent by Bomber Command to reconnoiter Wilhelmshaven. They are intercepted by 50 German Luftwaffe Messerschmitt Me-109 and Me-110 fighters, which shoot down 12 of the Wellingtons. The 50% casualty rate induces Bomber Command to abandon daylight raids for over four months.
German Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler holds another meeting with Norway’s Vidkun Quisling in Berlin; the Norwegian fascist is promised financial support in return for any assistance he extends to the Germans during their upcoming invasion of Norway.
The aftermath of the Admiral Graf Spee continues to unfold; 1,039 German Kriegsmarine officers and sailors of the pocket battleship are interned by the Argentinians in Buenos Aires, while the British promote Commodore Henry Harwood of the HMS Ajax, considered the victor of the battle, to rear admiral.
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.