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.
25-Dec-39: First Christmas Passes Quietly on Western Front; Hitler Visits Troops; Soviets Launch Attacks on Finn Defenses, Cities
Today is 25-Dec-1939, the 86th day of World War II; there are 2,077 days left in the conflict.
The first Christmas of the war is celebrated quietly along the western front; German Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler meets with German Army troops during a three-day visit to the front. King George VI broadcasts a Christmas message to the British Empire and states, “A New Year is at hand. We cannot tell what it will bring. If it brings peace, how thankful we shall all be. If it brings us continued struggle, we shall remain undaunted.”
Christmas and a cold day with temperatures of -30 degrees Celsius fails to deter the Soviets from launching attacks on the northern end of the Mannerheim Line in Finland, as well as bombing Helsinki, Viipuri and 30 towns and cities, as well as railway lines. The Finns claim to have downed 20 Soviet bombers during the Winter War attack.
4-Dec-39: Finns Fortify Aaland Island; Soviets Continue to Bomb Helsinki, Forcing Evacuation of Much of City’s Population; King George VI Inspects Troops; HMS Nelson Damaged by Mine
Today is 4-Dec-1939, the 65th day of World War II; there are 2,098 days left in the conflict.
The Winter War between the Soviet Union and Finland continues. The Soviets reject a mediation offer from Sweden and the Finns fortify the island of Aaland in the Gulf of Bothnia. Soviet air bombing forces the evacuation of the capital Helsinki and its populations shrinks to just over 50,000.
Britain’s King George VI inspects troops of the British Expeditionary Force and the Royal Air Force which have deployed to France. Meanwhile, the Royal Navy Home Fleet’s flagship, HMS Nelson, suffers damage but does not sink after encountering a German magnetic mine near Loch Ewe, Scotland.
3-Dec-39: Soviets Press Forward in Finland; Swedes Call Up Reserves; British Accidentally Drop First Bomb on German Territory
Today is 3-Dec-1939, the 64th day of World War II; there are 2,099 days left in the conflict.
The Soviet Eighth Army pushes the Finnish Army backwards near Suojarvi; the Finns send reinforcements near Kuhmo, where the Soviet Ninth Army’s 54th Division is pressing forward. The Winter War is in its fourth day. To the west, the Swedes create a minefield off their east coast and call up army reserves.
The British Royal Navy’s HMS Renown, fresh from sinking the German’s Watussi off the coast of South Africa, puts in to Cape Town alongside the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal.
The first British bomb to fall on German land is the result of an accidental release by one of the Royal Air Force 115th Squadron’s Wellington bombers after a bomb fails to drop over targeted shipping in the Heligoland Bight and subsequently drops off over the island of Heligoland.
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.
28-Nov-39: Finns Say Mainila Shells Were Soviet; Soviets Cancel Pact With Finns, Issue Orders for Invasion; Germans Set Up Judenrats; British Attack German Mine-Layers
Today is 28-Nov-1939, the 59th day of World War II; there are 2,104 days left in the conflict.
The Finns announce that their investigation into the Mainila Incident has revealed that seven shells fired on the Soviet village of Mainila on 26-Nov which killed four Red Army soldiers, were actually fired by Soviet artillery. The investigation report is forwarded to the Soviet government in Moscow, which responds by officially announcing that its 1932 non-aggression pact with the Finns is cancelled. The Soviets claim that Finnish troops have fired on Red Army forces near Leningrad. Secretly, the Soviets issue orders to the military to invade Finland on 30-Nov.
In the German General Gouvernement in occupied Poland, governor Dr. Hans Frank sets up Jewish councils known as Judenrat in each ghetto in the territory; they are tasked with carrying out official German orders in their areas of responsibility. The step is part of a general intensifying of the Holocaust in Poland.
British Royal Air Force fighters attack German Luftwaffe seaplanes near Borkum in the Friesian Islands; the Germans had been laying mines.
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.
8-Nov-39: German Worker Arrested, Executed for Bürgerbräukeller Bomb Assassination Attempt that Narrowly Misses Hitler; Hans Frank Plans Mass Jewish/Polish Deportations; Dutch Flood More of Border Zone; Finns Reject More Soviet Proposals
Today is 8-Nov-1939, the 39th day of World War II; there are 2,124 days left in the conflict.
Georg Elser, a German workman opposed to the National Socialist government, conceals a time bomb in a support pillar in Munich’s Bürgerbräukeller. The target is Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler, who traditionally delivers an anniversary speech in the beer hall commemorating the National Socialists’ failed 1923 Beer Hall Putsch. While Hitler usually speaks for an extended time, on this night he inexplicably cuts the speech short and leaves the hall. The bomb goes off at its appointed time; it kills seven and injures 63.
While rumors are circulated that, like the Reichstag fire of 27-Feb-1933, the incident is deliberately planted by the government so that it can be used as anti-British propaganda and to usher in a final crackdown on what remains of the German opposition, a Gestapo search for the perpetrator quickly zeroes in on Elser, who is arrested and immediately executed. The damage to the Bürgerbräukeller is severe and the building will never be reconstructed. Hitler will return to the site three years later; on 8-Nov-1942, he will deliver an address on the ongoing Battle of Stalingrad. The building will finally be demolished after the German surrender in 1945.
In the German-occupied areas of Poland, consolidation is underway of plans to transport 600,000 Jews and 400,000 Poles from territory incorporated into the Greater German Reich as the General Government, to un-annexed areas. Governor of the General Government Hans Frank, a National Socialist former Justice Ministry attorney, is in charge of the planning and sets the start date for the deportations as 1-Dec-1939. Frank will be convicted of war crimes in 1946, find religion and express great remorse for his crimes, and then be hanged at Nuremberg.
German troop movements along the Dutch border, as well as recent reports received from secret sources, cause the Dutch government to flood a larger portion of the defensive zone along the border.
After weeks of back-and-forth negotiations on border and territory revisions, Finnish negotiators once again reject Soviet proposals. The Finns express a willingness to grant a few concessions, but report that the government sees Soviet attempts to bargain as a sign of weakness. Finnish military chief, Marshal Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, reportedly opposes this viewpoint by the Finnish government.