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.
3-Nov-39: US Senate Approves End to Arms Embargo; British Blackout Regulations Altered by One Hour; Soviets, Finns Harden Negotiating Positions; South Africans Pledge Protection for British African Colonies
Today is 3-Nov-1939, the 34th day of World War II; there are 2,129 days left in the conflict.
After weeks of debate, the United States Senate finally votes to approve the end of the embargo in the Neutrality Act against the export of arms to warring nations. It is a victory for President Franklin Roosevelt’s foreign policy.
Blackout regulations continue to cause problems in Britain; business owners, workers, and trades unions pressure the government, which responds by reducing the blackout period by one hour. The new regulation calls for blackout conditions to run from a half hour after sunset to a half hour before sunrise.
After breaking off and restarting numerous negotiation sessions, the Soviet Union and Finland restart talks once again on territory exchanges and border alterations. The Finns state that they recognize Soviet security requirements, but that their latest counterproposals represent a final position, concessions beyond which the “independence, security and neutrality” of Finland will not permit. Furthermore, the Finns refuse a Soviet request to allow Red Army troops to be stationed at a military base within Finnish territory. Both nations’ positions are now hardening.
After ousting a neutrality minded government, taking control and then declaring war on Germany on 6-Sep, South African Prime Minister General Jan Smuts in Pretoria announces that his nation will defend colonies of the British crown throughout the continent of Africa, should the need arise.
19-Oct-39: German OKH Presents Plan for Fall Gelb, the Invasion of France; Turks Ink Treaty With Allies; Brits Note Increase in Road Fatalities Due to Blackout
Today is 19-Oct-1939, the 49th day of World War II; there are 2,144 days left in the conflict.
German Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler’s Führer-Anweisung N°6, Directive No. 6, was issued on 9-Oct, directing the Army to prepare for an invasion of France through the Low Countries as soon as possible. Today, General Franz Halder, Chief of Staff of Oberkommado des Heeres, the High Command of the Army, hands Hitler OKH’s plan for the execution of the Führer’s order. Called Aufmarschanweisung N°1, Fall Gelb, or “Deployment Instruction No. 1, Case Yellow,” the main features of the plan call for the German left wing to fight a holding action on the French border facing the Maginot Line, while the main attack will be thrust through the middle of Belgium towards the French border. The plan also calls for a simultaneous invasion of Holland.
The plan seems, at first glance, to mirror the World War I Schlieffen Plan, which called for a sweeping envelopment action through Belgium and down the coast of the English Channel, wrapping around Paris and destroying the French Army. The German Army’s failure to execute the plan fully in 1914 (its right wing swung to the north of Paris instead of south) ended ultimately in stalemate and defeat on the Western Front in 1918.
Fall Gelb actually differs from the Schlieffen Plan, however. Gelb is based on an unimpressive, conventional frontal attack which would sacrifice an estimated 500,000 German soldiers in order to push the Allies back only as far as the Somme River. Gelb estimates that the Heer’s strength would thus be exhausted and would only be recovered in 1942, at which time the main attack against France could begin. Hitler is reportedly “disappointed and unimpressed” by the initial plan, to say the least. He will act immediately and decisively to change Gelb.
In Ankara, Turkey, after a day of talks between the British General Archibald Wavell, commander of British troops in the Middle East, and French General Maxime Weygand, former chief of staff, the “Ango-French-Turkish Treaty of Mutual Assistance” is inked by all parties. During the term of the 15-year treaty, the Turks undertake to aid the Allies if war begins in the Mediterranean as long as said aid does not bring Turkey into conflict with the Soviet Union. In exchange, the French give Ankara control of the disputed Sanjak of Alexandretta (the province of Hatay) in French Syria. The Syrians protest that the cession is illegal and the dispute over the province will continue even into the 21st Century.
Back in England, near the town of Whitby, North Yorkshire, two German Luftwaffe airmen are discovered after they drift ashore in a collapsible dinghy. They had been shot down over the North Sea two days previously.
The British Ministry of Transport notes that the wartime blackout, not enemy action, accounts for the most casualties so far; fatalities in road accidents increased from 617 in August, the last month of peace, to 1130 in September, the first full wartime month when the blackout was imposed, a 55% increase.
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.