14-Nov-39: Allies Meet Secretly with Belgians; Dyle Plan Accepted; Dutch, Belgian Royal Peace Offers Rejected by Germany; Prague Demonstration Violently Suppressed; Sikorski Arrives in London
Today is 14-Nov-1939, the 45th day of World War II; there are 2,118 days left in the conflict.
Allied military commanders on the Western Front meet secretly with Belgian military commanders in mostly inconclusive meetings, but there is agreement that British and French troops should immediately advance to a position known as the “Meuse-Antwerp Line,” southeast of Brussels, if the Germans invade. The secret agreement is referred to as the “Dyle Plan” or “Plan D” after the Dyle River.
After negative responses are recorded in Paris and London to a previous joint offer of peace negotiations given by Netherlands Queen Wilhelmina and Belgian King Leopold II, it is noted in Berlin that the Germans are also responding in the negative. The war will continue.
In Prague, police violently disperse a Czech Fascist Party demonstration injuring 12 marchers.
Polish President-in-Exile General Wojtech Sikorski, having been based in France since the German invasion of his country, arrives in London for an official visit.
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.
12-Sep-39: Allied Supreme War Council Has First Meeting; Poles Evacuate Gdynia; French End Border Incursion
The first meeting of the Anglo-French Supreme War Council takes place in Abbeville, France. Representing the British are Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, and Minister for Coordination of Defence Lord Ernie Chatfield; the French delegation is headed by Prime Minister Édouard Daladier, and General Maurice Gamelin. At the same time, the Czechs are forming an army-in-exile to join the allied effort.
French troops are now five miles deep into the Saarland of Germany along a 15-mile front. The French assert that the invasion forced the Germans to withdraw six divisions from the Polish invasion; British observers are doubtful of the claim, however. The French are now within a half-mile of the Siegfried Line, but a frontal assault on the German defenses is considered impossible. General Gamelin therefore calls an end to the offensive, a decision which is approved by the Supreme War Council in their Abbeville meeting.
The city of Gdynia, near Danzig, is evacuated by the Poles. Fighting continues near Lvov and German troops are moving north from their bridgeheads over the San River. The Polish army around Poznan cancels a planned advance on Berlin and instead turns around and attempts a flanking action on the German Eighth Army, thus kicking off the Battle of the Bzura River. Polish troops push Wehrmacht troops back 12 miles south of Kutno and recapture the city of Lowicz.
The eastern Polish city of Krzemieniec (Kremenets) had been declared an open village from the beginning of the invasion and the Warsaw international diplomatic community had sought refuge there. But today, the German Luftwaffe bombs the refuge, killing an unknown number of people.
In southeastern Europe, German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop informs officials in Bucharest that Polish officials crossing the border into Romania are not to be given asylum. The Germans promise military retaliation if asylum in such cases is granted.
Across the Atlantic, the United States Navy starts regular neutrality patrols up and down the east coast and in the Caribbean.