29-Nov-39: Soviets Break Off Relations With Finland, Ramp Up Invasion Preparations; Spain Ratifies Pact With Germany; German Freighter Sunk Off American Coast While US Ship Watches; US Says Ready to Mediate in Finland/USSR Dispute
Today is 29-Nov-1939, the 60th day of World War II; there are 2,103 days left in the conflict.
The Soviet government breaks off diplomatic relations with Finland; the Finns respond by offering to hold renewed discussions over their territorial dispute and suggest conciliation or arbitration by a neutral third party in accordance with their 1932 non-aggression pact. The Soviets announced they were backing out of the pact the day before, and that no such negotiations were possible. Soviet People’s Commisar for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov warns the Red Army it must be prepared for “any eventuality.”
The Spanish government ratifies a friendship pact with Germany; it includes secret protocols allowing German use of Spanish ports and the coordination of police and propaganda efforts.
The British Chancellor of the Exchequer reports that jewels, gold and gifts have been received from foreigners in an effort to help finance the Allied war effort.
The British Royal Navy ship Diomede sinks the German freighter Idarwild off the coast of the United States. The American naval ship USS Broome had been following the German ship, but the German government makes no comment on the American non-intervention in the sinking.
In other American news, US Secretary of State Cordell Hull announces that the Roosevelt administration is prepared to mediate the escalating dispute between Finland and the Soviet Union.
Fritz Kühn, considered the Fuehrer of the American National Socialists and officially titled the leader of the German-American Bund, is found guilty on charges of grand larceny and forgery.
27-Nov-39: Finns Deny Responsibility for Mainila Incident; Germans Give Ultimatum to Citizens Married to Jews; No Nobel Peace Prize Will Be Awarded; Sweden Protests Mining; Japanese Complete Occupation of Nanking
Today is 27-Nov-1939, the 58th day of World War II; there are 2,105 days left in the conflict.
The Finns deny they were behind artillery fire which killed four Soviet soldiers in the USSR village of Mainila, claiming the shells came from the Soviet side of the border and suggest a mutual withdrawal of both countries’ troops.
The German government announces that German citizens married to Jews have one year to obtain a divorce from their spouses.
The Nobel Committee in the Norwegian Parliament announces that it will not award a Nobel peace prize for 1939 due to ongoing and escalating hostilities around the world.
In Stockholm, the Swedish government protests the mining of its territorial waters by the German Kriegsmarine. In ongoing reprisals for the German mine-laying campaign, the British government orders the seizure of German exports carried on the high seas.
Imperial Japanese Army troops complete the occupation of the city of Nanking.
26-Nov-39: Artillery Shells Kill Red Army Soldiers in Mainila; Chamberlain Makes First Radio Broadcast of War; Polish Liner Sunk in North Sea
Today is 26-Nov-1939, the 57th day of World War II; there are 2,106 days left in the conflict.
In the Soviet Union, seven artillery shells explode in the village of Mainila, near the Finnish border; four Red Army soldiers die. The Soviet government accuses Finland in the incident and demands an immediate withdrawal of all Finnish troops from the Karelian Isthmus near Leningrad, since their presence is a “hostile act.” The Mainila Incident represents an escalation of the ongoing crisis between the two countries.
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain makes his first radio broadcast of the war, denouncing the indiscriminate laying of mines by the German Kriegsmarine; he also announces the existence of the previously secret magnetic mines.
The Polish passenger liner Pilsudski is torpedoed and sunk in the North Sea killing 10.
25-Nov-39: Countries Protest British Reprisals; Germans Lay More Mines; British Ponies Protected During Blackout; Romanian Government Formed
Today is 25-Nov-1939, the 56th day of World War II; there are 2,107 days left in the conflict.
A day after the Belgian government sent a note to the British regarding reprisals against Germany for its mine-laying policies, the governments of Italy, Japan, Denmark and Sweden meet with the British Foreign Office over the reprisal effort. At the same time, German Kriegsmarine ships lay mines within the four-mile boundary of Sweden’s territorial waters off its southwest coast.
The British move ponies in the New Forest to safer pastures to protect from injury and death during the blackout. an earlier effort to paint them with white stripes to look like zebras was considered a failure.
Two days after the mass resignation of the previous cabinet, Gheorghe Tătărescu forms a new Romanian cabinet in Bucharest; there are fewer pro-German members in the new government.
24-Nov-39: Japanese Take Nanking; Germans Seize Property of Industrialist Ex-National Socialist; Belgians Register Concern; Royal Navy Rescues Sinking Survivors
Today is 24-Nov-1939, the 55th day of World War II; there are 2,108 days left in the conflict.
Over 100,000 Chinese troops attempt to repel the Imperial Japanese Army’s attack on Nanking but fail; the Japanese enter the city, breaking the Chinese winter offensive. The taking of Nanking represents the first Japanese victory in their drive westward into Kwangshi province, which is designed to break China’s links with Indochina to the south.
The German government in Berlin seizes the property and financial interests of iron and steel industrialist Fritz Thyssen, a former supporter of the National Socialists who fled to neutral Switzerland two months previously.
While the government of Belgium sends a note to the British government concerning announced reprisals against the Germans for laying magnetic mines, over 200 mines adrift in the North Sea wash up on the beaches of Yorkshire.
In the North Atlantic, the Royal Navy rescues five survivors of the Dutch tanker Sliedrecht, which had been sunk by a German Kriegsmarine Unterseeboot a week earlier. The survivors had endured the seven days before their rescue in an open life raft.
23-Nov-39: Scharnhorst, Gneisenau Interrupted During Raid, Sink British Ship; Magnetic Mine Defused; British, Germans Expand Rationing; Hitler Excoriates Generals; Polish Jews Ordered to Wear Star of David
Today is 23-Nov-1939, the 54th day of World War II; there are 2,109 days left in the conflict.
The German Kriegsmarine battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau are interrupted during a raid mission by an encounter between Scharnhorst and the Rawalpindi, an armed British merchant cruiser. The merchant ship is armed with just four six-inch guns and is no match for Scharnhorst, which destroys Rawalpindi and kills all 265 crew members. The Royal Navy launches a search for the German ships, interrupting their raiding and forcing them to return to their home base, an escape which is aided by the Kriegsmarine’s ability to read British naval codes.
A day after more German magnetic mines (responsible for the loss of 50,000 tones of shipping in just over a month) are reported dropped by Luftwaffe planes in the Shoeburyness mud flats in the Thames Estuary, two British Royal Engineers officers/mine experts defuse a mine and recover it for study in an effort to develop countermeasures.
The British announce rationing for butter and bacon; the Germans announce food rationing for housepets.
In Berlin, German Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler, frustrated with repeated delays in the invasion of France, orders the most senior generals of the Heer to a meeting in the Reichskanzlei, where he attacks them for their “lack of faith.” He tells them he has led the German Volk to “great heights … I am irreplaceable. … I shall attack France and England at the earliest moment. My decision is unchangeable.”
Meanwhile, in the General Gouvernement in occupied Poland, Dr. Hans Frank, governor of the territory, orders all Jews over the age of ten to wear armbands featuring a yellow Star of David for identification purposes.
What is left of the Polish leadership establishes a government in exile in Angers, France.
22-Nov-39: German Mines Found Near Thames Estuary; British Introduce Savings Scheme; Romanian Cabinet Resigns
Today is 22-Nov-1939, the 53rd day of World War II; there are 2,110 days left in the conflict.
British police are notified that German magnetic mines have been found in the Shoeburyness mud flats near the Thames Estuary. They are from a batch parachuted down by a Luftwaffe Heinkel He-111 aircraft. Due to the use of the mines, the British previously announced reprisals; today, the French government announces its own reprisal rules.
The British introduce a national savings scheme and reintroduce a World War I-era effort to help neutral shipping. The savings scheme is urged to help the nation finance the war; it carries the slogan “Lend to Defend the Right to be Free.” Navicerts are issued again; first used in 1915 in the first year of the First World War, they are used to certify neutral ships carrying cargo considered not harmful to the Allied war effort.
The Romanian cabinet resigns en masse in Bucharest.
21-Nov-39: German Magnetic Mines Continue to Wreak Havoc on British Shipping, Chamberlain Announces Retaliatory Measures; With German Help, Slovaks Reclaim Territory Seized by Poles
Today is 21-Nov-1939, the 52nd day of World War II; there are 2,111 days left in the conflict.
German magnetic mines dropped by the Luftwaffe in British territorial waters continue to make up the bulk of the war news. A brand-new British cruiser, HMS Belfast is badly damaged by one of the mines in the Scottish Firth of Forth; the destroyer Gypsy is sunk in the North Sea; and the Japanese passenger ship Terukuni Maru is sunk in the Thames Estuary. Meanwhile, German Kriegsmarine battle cruisers Gneisenau and Scharnhorst begin a new naval cruise aimed at sinking enemy ships.
In response to the wave of German naval successes, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain makes a public pronouncement that German merchant ships will be seized by the Royal Navy as compensation; at the same time, all goods being shipped to Germany through British ports are now confiscated, rather than just being temporarily halted.
In Bratislava, Slovakia, the Germans and Slovaks ink a treaty formally giving Slovakia 225 square miles of territory seized from the former Poland. The two allies claim that Poland had illegally seized that land from the former Czechoslovakia in the course of three annexations in 1920, 1924 and 1938.
13-Nov-39: First British Destroyer Sunk in War; Shetlands Attacked by Luftwaffe; Romanian King Offers Peace Mediation; Finns Break Off Negotiations So Stalin Orders Preparations for War with Finland
Today is 13-Nov-1939, the 44th day of World War II; there are 2,119 days left in the conflict.
The British destroyer HMS Blanche strikes a mine and sinks near the Thames estuary, the first Royal Navy destroyer lost in World War II. The Shetland Islands off the Scottish coast becomes the target for the first German bombs dropped on British territory; the Luftwaffe bombers target naval vessels and flying boats, but cause little damage, except to a small rabbit.
Meanwhile in London, Canadian General Henry Crerar arrives to organize the first military headquarters for his nation in World War II.
King Carol of Romania sends a confidential message from Bucharest to the belligerent governments, offering to provide secret mediation between the warring powers, France, Britain and Germany. No immediate reply is received.
Once again in Moscow, negotiations between the Soviets and Finns over border and territory revisions break off. The Finns depart Moscow for Helsinki; they are completely unwilling to accept the Soviet demands that the port of Hanko be ceded to the USSR, since it would give the Soviet complete domination over the Gulf of Finland, as well as one of the most important regions in Finland. In response to this final breakdown after weeks of back-and-forth talks, Soviet General Secretary Josef Stalin orders the military to begin preparations for a war with Finland.
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.
4-Nov-39: Remarkable German Report Reveals Top Secrets to British in Oslo; MI6 Chief Dies; US “Cash and Carry” Arms Sales Goes Into Effect
Today is 4-Nov-1939, the 35th day of World War II; there are 2,128 days left in the conflict.
In one of the most remarkable incidents of the war, British Naval Attaché to Norway Captain Hector Boyes receives an anonymous letter purporting to offer a secret report on current and future German weapon systems and technological developments from a “German scientist who wishes [Boyes] well.” In order for Boyes to receive the report, he was asked to change the introduction to the German language broadcast of the British Broadcasting Corporation’s World Service from its usual opening to the words, “Hullo, hier ist London.”
The changed broadcast is aired and Captain Boyes receives a package one week later containing the report and a vacuum tube which is actually a sensor for a proximity fuze for artillery ordnance. The report will remain top secret during the war and will become famous after its declassification in 1947. It will become known as the “Oslo Report,” one of the most spectacular leaks in the history of military intelligence.
German anti-National Socialist physics professor and Siemens corporation communications researcher Herr Dr. Hans Ferdinand Mayer is the author of the report; it is written on 1 and 2-Nov while visiting Oslo for business. Several current and future German weapons systems are described in the report, which Dr. Mayer mail anonymously in two separate letters to Captain Boyes at the British Embassy in Oslo. Boyes passes the letters to British Intelligence (MI6) in London for further analysis and authentication. The report will prove itself to be an invaluable resource for British counter-measure development, particularly in the areas of navigational and targeting radar, which will in turn contribute to British victory in the Battle of Britain.
At the same time, MI6 suffers a loss as its chief, Rear-Admiral Hugh Sinclair, passes away as a result of cancer. Sinclair is succeeded by the MI6 deputy, Colonel Stewart Menzies.
In the United States, the alterations to the Neutrality Act, also known as “Cash and Carry” go into effect. The revision allows arms to be sold to warring nations on a “cash and carry” (i.e., no credit) basis, hence the nickname. It also confirms a ban on American ships and civilians being in clearly defined war zones. Cash and Carry stipulates that arms must be ordered from private companies, paid for up front and transported to the war zone in the in ships provided by the purchaser.
Practically speaking, the naval superiority of the British Royal Navy ensures that the Allies will be the only belligerents to benefit from Cash and Carry, which is what is intended by President Franklin Roosevelt and the US Senate. Within days the British and the French governments create purchasing missions in Washington, DC, and start buying arms.
21-Sep-39: Romanian Prime Minister Assassinated; Deportation of Jews in Occupied Poland Begins; Roosevelt Urges Repeal of Neutrality Act Prohibition of Arms Sales
Today is 21-Sept-1939, the 21st day of World War II; there are 2,172 days left in the conflict.
In Bucharest, the Iron Guard, a Romanian Fascist paramilitary group, murders Armand Calinescu, the prime minister by blocking Calinescu’s car with a wooden cart and then shooting him and his guards.
After the assassination, the Iron Guard assassins then take over a radio station and announce over the air that “the death sentence on Calinescu has been executed.” According to the Iron Guard, the act is punishment for the government’s acceptance of Polish military and civilian refugees who are streaming over the border from the fighting in their country.
A large crowd gathers at the spot of the assassination as the Iron Guards involved are overpowered and shot to death by the police. Their bodies lie on the spot for 24 hours and are viewed by the crowd.
Meanwhile in Poland, the German Wehrmacht begins to step up its artillery and aerial bombing of strategic places in the capital Warsaw, which continues to hold out with remnants of the army and armed civilians.
In the parts of the country already captured, German occupation officials begin to take over and implement plans for the reshaping of the former Poland.
SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Reinhard Heydrich, who is head of the German Sicherheitspolizei (SIPO – Security Police), which includes the Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo – Secret State Police) and the Kriminalpolizei (KRIPO – Criminal Police), begins to implement the provisions of what became known as the “Heydrich Plan.” Among the provisions of the plan implemented at first was the forced deportation of 600,000 Jews from Danzig and western Poland to specially set aside ghetto districts in several central Polish cities.
In the west, there is little action to speak of; Radio Luxemburg ceases operation and the British government, looking to justify its actions leading up to the war, publishes the “Blue Book,” which contains declassified prewar diplomatic documents. Officially, the book is entitled, “The British War Blue Book: Documents Concerning German-Polish Relations and the Outbreak of Hostilities Between Great Britain and Germany on September 3, 1939. Presented by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to Parliament by Command of His Majesty (King George VI).” (Contents of the Blue Book can be read «here».)
Across the Atlantic in Washington DC, President Franklin D. Roosevelt addresses a specially called joint session of the Congress in order to urge the repeal of Neutrality Act provisions which forbid arms sales to countries which are at war. The Neutrality Act had been passed in 1935 as a result of populist anger against “merchants of death, bankers and munitions makers. Some Americans blamed those entities for entangling the United States in World War I.
States the President:
“Our acts must be guided by one single hard-headed thought — keeping America out of this war.” [Allowing arms to be sold on a cash-and-carry basis would be] “better calculated than any other means to keep us out of war. … [However,] destiny first made us, with our sister nations in this hemisphere, joint heirs of European culture. Fate seems now to compel us to assume the task of helping to maintain in the Western World a citadel wherein that civilization may be kept alive.”
The revisions to the 1935 Neutrality Act are designed to allow the sale of U.S. arms to warring nations on a “cash and carry” basis; the provision will be signed into law in November after a protracted Congressional debate. The revision will actually lead to Great Britain buying war materials for cash, as long as they are transported across the Atlantic on non-American ships.
American newspapers make note of the speech and also unveil allegations that German National Socialst leaders, including Minister of Propaganda and Enlightenment Dr. Joseph Goebbels and party secretary Rudolf Hess, have accumulated foreign investments in excess of $12 million (US). This is hotly denied in Germany.