28-Dec-39: Soviet Division Destroyed; Red Army High Command Regroups; Fritz Thyssen Protests German Actions to Hitler; Polish Deportations More Frequent; HMS Barham Hit by Torpedoes; British Start Meat Rationing; Japanese Bomb Lanchow
Today is 28-Dec-1939, the 89th day of World War II; there are 2,074 days left in the conflict.
The Soviet Red Army’s 163rd Division of the Ninth Army is destroyed by the Finns near Suomussalmi after attempts to relieve it by the 44th Division were turned back (and the 44th itself was destroyed). Training, tactics, and even cross-country skiing abilities all play a role in the Finnish successes. After successive failures to crack the Mannerheim Line throughout the Winter War, the Soviet high command orders preparations for a better-coordinated assault on the Finns.
German industrialist Fritz Thyssen, who played a key role in fundraising efforts and bankrolling the early National Socialist German Worker’s Party, as well as urging President Paul on Hindenburg to appoint appoint Adolf Hitler to the Reichskanzler post, writes a remarkable protest letter to Hitler from exile in Switzerland. Thyssen had been Prussian State Councillor for life, a member of the Reichstag for Dusseldorf East, and head of the institute for research into the corporate state, Standische Wirtschaftsordnung.
A devout Catholic, he resigned his posts and fled the country after protesting Hitler’s ongoing persecutions of religious communities, as well as the Non-Aggression Pact of 23-Aug-39 between Germany and the Soviet Union.
Thyssen was particularly upset by Reichkristallnacht, 9-10-Nov-38. The pogrom was triggered by the assassination of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by a German-born Polish Jew named Herschel Grynszpan. The assassination touched off a oordinated attack on Jews and their property; 91 were murdered, 25,000 to 30,000 were arrested, 267 synagogues were destroyed and thousands of homes and businesses were ransacked by Hitler Jugend, the Gestapo and the SS. His property was confiscated and his citizenship revoked by Hitler after Thyssen left the country.
Thyssen’s letter to Hitler states:
“My conscience is clear. I know that I have committed no crime. My sole mistake is to have believed in you, our leader, Adolf Hitler, and in the movement initiated by you — to have believed with the enthusiasm of a passionate lover of my native Germany.
“Since 1923 I have made the greatest sacrifices for the National Socialist cause, have fought with word and deed, without asking any reward for myself, merely inspired by the hope that our unfortunate German people would finally recover. The initial events after the National Socialists come to power seemed to justify this hope, at least as long as Herr von Papen was vice-chancellor.
“A sinister development followed these events. The persecution of the Christian religion, taking the form of cruel measures against the priests and insults to the Churches, led me to protest in the early days, for instance when the police president of Dusseldorf issued a protest to Marshal Goering, It was in vain.
“When, on November 9th, 1938, the Jews were despoiled and martyrized in the most cowardly and brutal manner, and their temples razed to the ground throughout Germany, I also protested. To reinforce this protest, I resigned my office as state councillor. This, too, as in vain.”
Thyssen will eventually be arrested by Vichy French authorities and sent to a concentration camp. He will be freed by the Allies in 1945, but will convicted by a German court for being a former National Socialist leader. The court will order Thyssen to hand over 15% of his property to victims of the regime; he will die in 1951.
The Germans policy of ousting Poles from critical areas and bringing in ethnic Germans to colonize the former Polish areas begins to hit its stride. The whole population of Kalisz, 70,000 people, are deported and replaced by ethnic Germans from the Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia.
On the high seas, the German Kriegsmarine’s unterseeboot U-30 torpedoes the British Battleship HMS Barham off the coast of northwest Scotland. The ship does not sink, but is laid up for repairs for three months.
The British government in London announces that the rationing of meat will go into effect immediately.
The Japanese Imperial Army conducts repeated bombing raids on the northwest Chinese military supply base at Lanchow.
2-Dec-39: Red Army Lands Near Petsamo as Advance Proceeds Slowly; League of Nations Asked to Mediate; 1940 Olympics Cancelled; Western Front Quiet; Germans, British Score High Seas Sinkings
Today is 2-Dec-1939, the 63rd day of World War II; there are 2,100 days left in the conflict.
The Red Army lands near Petsamo, Finland, in order to join up with the Fourteenth Army nearby. The Red Army advance into Finland proceeds slowly and has yet to reach Finnish defensive lines. The Finns ask the League of Nations in Geneva to mediate the dispute with the Soviet Union, while the International Olympic Committee, meeting in Lausanne, announces that the Helsinki Olympic Games planned for 1940, have been cancelled.
Pro-Finnish demonstrations are held across Italy, while Pope Pius XII in the Vatican condemns the Soviet invasion.
The French report that the Western Front is quiet and that both French and German air forces are completely inactive. The British extend conscription to all men between the ages of 19 and 41; occupational deferments will be limited.
Action continues on the high seas. The Blue Star Line steamer Doric Star, sailing towards Britain from New Zealand and Australia, is sunk by the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee in the South Atlantic; the British cruiser HMS Renown sinks a German ship, the Watussi off the coast of South Africa.
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.
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.
18-Nov-39: IRA Terrorists Explode Bombs in London’s Piccadilly Circus; German Magnetic Mines Claim Five Ships, Including Dutch Ocean Liner
Today is 18-Nov-1939, the 49th day of World War II; there are 2,114 days left in the conflict.
Irish Republican Army terrorists explode four small bombs outside businesses in London’s Piccadilly Circus. No deaths or injuries are reported.
German Luftwaffe aircraft drop magnetic mines via parachute into British waters for the first time since the war began. Off the eastern coast, four merchant ships are sunk almost immediately. In the North Sea, the mines manage to sink the Dutch ocean liner Simon Bolivar; out of 400 passengers and crew members on board, 86 are killed. Outrage is recorded in the Netherlands; the Dutch claim that the liner was being operated in a major traffic lane and that international law requires notification of any mine-laying activity in the area.
12-Nov-39: King George VI Issues Negative Reply to Peace Appeal; First ENSA Entertainment Debuts; Germans Round Up Suspected Assassination Conspirators
Today is 12-Nov-1939, the 43rd day of World War II; there are 2,120 days left in the conflict.
King George VI issues a gracious reply to a joint peace appeal issued by Dutch Queen Wilhelmina and Belgian King Leopold the previous week; he states that the onus of the war, and therefore the means to end it, lie with the Germans. The reply is thus characterized as being negative. At the same time, French President Alfred Lebrun also issues a negative reply to the Low Countries monarchs. The Dutch and Belgian foreign ministers are holding their own meetings at Breda, in the Netherlands.
British First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill announces via a BBC radio broadcast that the first campaign of the war will be won if the nation makes it through the war’s first winter without serious setbacks. British and French troops stationed in France are entertained by Maurice Chevalier and Gracie Fields in the very first concert of the war given by the Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA), which is chartered to provide such services in order to boost fighting troop morale.
German security forces arrest hundreds of dissidents and Jews as the search for the perpetrators of the 8-Nov attempted assassination of Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler in Munich heats up. Regular German citizens receive for the first time ration cards for clothing allowances.
30-Sep-39: Pope Pius Hopes Polish Occupation Will Be Temporary; German Kriegsmarine Piles Up More Successes; Neutrality Act Debate Heats Up in U.S. Senate
Today is 30-Sept-1939, the 30th day of World War II; there are 2,163 days left in the conflict.
The German Heer’s withdrawal from Polish areas assigned to the Soviet Union in their partition agreements continues; occupation of Warsaw is deferred until 2-Oct to give the capital’s former defenders time to evacuate.
In Rome, Pope Pius XII addresses a group of noted Poles and expresses hope that the military occupation of Polish-inhabited areas will prove only temporary. At the same time, in Paris, the Poles form a government-in-exile. Władysław Raczkiewicz is named the First President in Exile and General Wladyslaw Sikorski is named Prime Minister and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces.
In London, the cabinet authorizes the army to send poison gas shells to France in order to be prepared if the Germans begin using chemical weapons.
In naval action, the Germans claim that armed British merchant vessels have been attacking German U-Boots, so they notify the British Admiralty that any merchant ships on the high seas which are found to be armed will be sunk without warning. The London Daily Herald reports that German radio was broadcasting claims that the British aircraft carrier Glorious has been sunk by aerial bombs; the paper notes, however, that the Glorious is “afloat and unscathed.” The report adds that it believes the object of the German broadcast was actually to learn the location of the ship if the Admiralty, in denying the broadcast, could be tricked into mentioning the ship’s location.
Meanwhile, the Kriegsmarine and its U-Boats continue to take a toll on both the Royal Navy and neutral merchant shipping; two Norwegian ships are torpedoed in the North Sea and a third is sunk by a German mine. And in the South Atlantic, off Pernambuco, Brazil, the pocket battleship Graf Spee scores its first kill: the British steamship Clement. The Graf Spee herself will meet a similar fate in just two months; it will in the meantime sink eight more vessels, totaling 50,000 tons of shipping.
On the home front, German Minister of the Interior Wilhelm Frick partly rescinded a decree prohibiting all public dancing, which had been published at the beginning of the Polish invasion. Dancing is now permitted between 19:00 and 01:00 each evening. The Germans further announced that food ration cards will be required in restaurants after 2-Oct.
British King George VI and Queen Elizabeth and members of the royal household fill in registration forms; eventually food ration cards will be issued to them. During World War I, King George V and Queen Mary also filled out the cards and conformed to ration regulations.
In Washington, the debate over the Neutrality Act continues to generate heat in the U.S. Senate. Senator Key Pittman, D-Nevada, claims that the proposed “cash and carry” substitute for the arms embargo will, to a certain extent, modify the Johnson Act, which bans loans to nations in default on their World War I debts.
The Pan-American Neutrality Conference completes plans for an economic cushion to protect the Americas from wartime dislocations.