G’mornin’!
October 12, 1939 - William Green re-elected unanimously for 15th consecutive term as president of A.F. of L.
(source: The Britannica Archive)
CONFIDENTIAL
BERLIN, October 12, 1939.
St. S. Nr. 800
The Bulgarian Minister, supplementing his recent conversation with the Reich Foreign Minister, informed me today of the following:
The suggestions recently made by Molotov to the Bulgarian Government concerning a Russian-Bulgarian agreement were not clear at first. Later it became evident that Molotov was thinking of a Russian-Bulgarian mutual assistance pact in the event of attack by a third power. This suggestion was rejected in Sofia.
To my question why Bulgaria did not accept it, Draganoff offered as his own conjecture the following: Up to now Bulgaria had never concluded any treaty of alliance of this kind, not even with Germany, to whom she has for long had close ties. Probably his Government did not, for this reason, wish to swerve from this principle nor, above all, conclude a mutual assistance pact with Russia first.
Draganoff then went on to say that the Bulgarian Government made the following counter proposal: Bulgaria was ready to conclude a treaty of non-aggression or friendship with Russia if Moscow would present concrete proposals of this kind. A reply to this has not as yet reached Sofia.
I thanked the Ambassador for the information and promised to transmit it to the Reich Foreign Minister.
WEIZSACKER
From the Avalon Project:
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/ns111.asp
U 35 entered port. She sank:
1) English trawler “Arlita”
325 tons
2)” “ “Lord Minto”
285 tons
3) freighter from a convoy
9,000 tons
4) the Belgian S.S. “Suzen”
2,239 tons
5)the Greek S.S. “Diamantis”
4,990 tons
16,839 tons
She also scored a hit on a tanker of 17,000 tons, the sinking of which was not observed as the boat had to dive.
She also encountered the “Aquitania”, darkened in the Channel. She did not attack, as permission to attack darkened ships did not arrive until 48 hours later.
This has been a particularly successful patrol. The crew gave a very good impression on return.
War Diary and War Standing Orders of Commander in Chief, Submarines (F.d.U./B.d.U.)
NAVAL EVENTS Thursday, 12 October, 1939
Battlecruiser REPULSE, after degaussing at Kirkwall, departed Scapa Flow with destroyers FAME and FORESIGHT at 1734 for boiler cleaning at Rosyth.
Light cruisers GLASGOW and NEWCASTLE were detached from the Home Fleet to cover convoys in the Western Approaches. They left Scapa Flow on the 12th at 1737 and 1915 respectively.
Light cruiser DUNEDIN departed Scapa Flow for Northern Patrol at 1810.
Light cruiser EDINBURGH departed Rosyth.
Four light cruisers were on Northern Patrol, with light cruiser SHEFFIELD still on patrol in the Denmark Strait.
Destroyers AMAZON and WAKEFUL were submarine hunting off Dover.
Destroyers ARROW, ACHATES, ACHERON, WREN and sloop FLEETWOOD were submarine hunting off Newhaven.
Destroyers FURY, BEDOUIN, PUNJABI were submarine hunting off the Hebrides.
Destroyer WOLVERINE attacked a submarine contact.
Destroyer ECHO ran aground as she entered Plymouth in a heavy fog, damaged her stern and repaired at Plymouth, completing on 17 November.
Minesweeper/escort ship JASON ran aground on Row Point and sustained minor damage which was soon repaired.
Convoy BC.9S of six steamers, including CERVANTES and GUELMA (Commodore) departed the Loire, escorted by destroyers EXMOUTH and ECLIPSE, and arrived safely in the Bristol Channel on the 14th.
Convoy FN.20 departed Southend and arrived at Methil on the 14th. There was no convoy FN.21.
Convoy FS.20 departed Methil and arrived at Southend on the 14th.
U.37 sank Greek steamer ARIS (4810grt), two crew were lost and 27 survivors rescued by Danish steamer SICILIEN (1654grt).
U.48 sank French tanker EMILE MIGUET (14,115grt), a straggler from convoy KJ.2, 190 miles SW of Fastnet. She caught fire and was abandoned with one crewman killed and one missing. Survivors were rescued by American steamer BLACK HAWK (4988grt) and she was scuttled by gunfire from destroyer IMOGEN.
U.48 sank steamer HERONSPOOL (5202grt), a straggler from convoy OB.17, 260 miles SW of Fastnet. American steamer PRESIDENT HARDING (13,869grt) picked up the SOS of EMILE MIGUET (above) and sailing to rescue her survivors, came upon HERONSPOOL’s entire crew and rescued them. PRESIDENT HARDING continued her rescue mission, but by that time BLACK HAWK had picked up EMILE MIGUET’s crew.
Convoy SLF.4 departed Freetown unescorted and arrived at Liverpool on the 20th.
you got to luv the finns. everybody else rolls over, not them.
i hadnt realized that finland was part of russia until 1917.
UNITED KINGDOM: British seizure of U.S. mail continues. Authorities at the contraband control station at Weymouth remove 94 sacks addressed to Rotterdam, 81 to Antwerp and 184 to Germany, from U.S. freighter SS Black Tern, which was detained yesterday; authorities at the Downs remove 77 sacks of parcel post, 33 sacks of registered mail, and 156 sacks of regular mail addressed to the Netherlands, in addition to 65 sacks of mail addressed to Belgium, 4 to Luxembourg, 3 to Danzig, and 259 to Germany, from Dutch motorship MS Zaandam. (Jack McKillop)
GERMANY: SS-Hauptsturmführer Adolf Eichmann (Captain), head of Section IV B4 of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA), which is charged with assembling Europe’s Jews under German control, begins deporting Jews from Austria and Czechoslovakia into Poland. (Perry Stewart)
POLAND: Krakow: Hitler appoints the Nazi Lawyer Hans Frank to head the new administration for German-occupied Poland, now renamed the “General Government”.
U.S.S.R.: Moscow: Russia presents its official demands for an exchange of territory.
They are proposing that Finland should give over territory in the Karelian Isthmus, the islands at the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland and lease a base at Hanko peninsula in Finland’s southern coast. The Soviets are ready to give in exchange a swathe of territory in northern Karelia.
Finns resisted because the territory in the Isthmus would include the southern part of the main defensive line (that would later be known as the ‘Mannerheim Line’), because the Hanko base would be uncomfortably near Helsinki, and because the territory in Karelia the Soviets are offering is strategically and economically worthless undeveloped land.
But the most important reason is that the Finns are afraid that the Soviet proposals are just the first step in an attempt to annex Finland. The Finnish negotiators have the powers to discuss giving over the islands in the Gulf of Finland and considerably smaller concessions in the Isthmus, but absolutely no base at Hanko. The popular opinion in Finland firmly opposes any concessions. All this happens while Estonia and other Baltic states have already submitted under Soviet pressure and Soviet units are arriving at the agreed bases in Estonia. (Mikko Härmeinen)
CANADA: Tug HMCS Murray Stewart commissioned as examination vessel Saint John, New Brunswick. Built by Port Arthur Shipbuilding, Port Arthur, Ontario, 109x26x16ft, single screw, steam triple-expansion 156 NHP, 10kts, Purchased 1922 by Dept, of Transport, to RCN 1939-46, Post WW.II, sold 1946, renamed David Richard in 1951, at Port Arthur, renamed 1979 Georgian Queen. Pendant (Z19). (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: RN warships operating on the Northern Patrol continue to stop neutral merchantman; between this date and 26 October, 112 vessels are stopped, of which 23 are detained at Kirkwall for the inspection of their cargoes.
Demarche of Scandinavian Governments by The Soviet Union:
The envoys of Sweden, Norway and Denmark at Moscow delivered, each one separately, the following note to the government of the Soviet Union on 12 Oct. 1939:
All the Nordic governments monitor attentatively the negations, now started between Soviet Union and Finland. They express their expectations that nothing such will be called in question that prevents Finland in full freedom to keep to the neutral position she has taken, in close cooperation with other Nordic countries. They warmly wish that the negotiations will strengthen the amicable relationship between the Soviet Union and Finland.
The Swedish News Agency (Tidningarnas Telegrambyra)
Source: (Swedish Foreign Policy under the Second World War, Stockholm, 1946). Translation: Pauli Kruhse