“Mayer-Ast” Mayer was credited with 30 victories. He recorded eight victories during the Spanish Civil War. He will be killed a year from now test flying a new version of the Me-109.
Posted on 11/05/2009 5:05:27 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
Thanks for posting this.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1939/nov39/05nov39.htm
Zossen conspiracy collapses
Sunday, November 5, 1939 www.onwar.com
In Berlin... After plotting with Halder and Beck to arrest Hitler, unless he relents on the plan for a western offensive, the Commander in Chief of the German Army, von Brauchitsch, meets Hitler to discuss the plans for an attack in the west. He argues very strongly that it should not take place as scheduled on November 12th because of weaknesses in the army. Hitler loses his temper during the meeting but is unconvinced by the arguments. Brauchitsch loses his nerve and returns to OKH (Army High Command) headquarters at Zossen, where the conspiracy collapses. Meanwhile, Colonel Hans Oster of the Abwehr (German Military Intelligence) — one of the Zossen conspirators — warns Colonel Sas, the Dutch military attache in Berlin, of the impending invasion of the Low Countries. Sas informs the Belgian military attache.
In Oslo... The German government lodges a protest against the release of the interned City of Flint and the German prize crew. The protest is rejected.
In Paris... Churchill, British First Lord of the Admiralty, visits the French Marine Headquarters.
In Moscow... Finnish-Soviet negotiations continue. The Finnish delegation reports to Helsinki and asks for further instructions.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1939/nov39/f09nov39.htm
“”In Holland... Two British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) officers, Major Richard Stevens and Captain S. Payne Best, are kidnapped by the Gestapo while attempting to contact members of the German resistance to the Nazis. The two British agents have been meeting with a “Major Schaemmle” who claims to represent German Army officers plotting to overthrow Hitler. (He is actually Walther Schellenberg, a Gestapo officer.) Their meetings have been at Venlo, 5 miles (8 km) from the German border. Today, they are to meet at a cafe a few yards from the border. Upon arriving, their car is hit by machinegun fire, they are overpowered by German security forces and forcibly taken across the border. Himmler ordered the kidnapping immediately after the Munich bombing incident. One of the officers is carrying a list of British agents with him and from this and other indiscretions as well as from their interrogation, the German authorities are able to arrest many British agents in former Czechoslovakia and other occupied territory. The Venlo Incident is a serious setback for British Intelligence. Both officers remain imprisoned until April 1945.””
The Zossen Conspiracy was something I just now learned. It never occurred to me that there were anti-Hitler plots that early in the war.
I guess when you’re a dictator, there’s always someone out to get even.
There were Wehrmacht anti-Nazi plotters active 1936-1940. Unfortunately, Hitler was always winning huge victories making him more ever popular with the public and lower ranking military. It wasn’t until the tide of war turned in 1943 that the plotters got active again.
Schellenberg was also the officer in charge of trying to snatch the Duke and Duchess of Windsor from Portugal.
He may have been involved in Himmler’s late war attempts top negotiate with the West. He was certainly aware of them.
Venlo ‘made’ Schellenberg.
Hmm. The Munich bombing will be a headline in a few days. Is this a premature posting?
Off topic:
It sure is nice to read English where I don’t have to read it, and re-read it, to understand it.
Today’s Journalism is making many of us question our own knowledge. And that covers a lot of subjects.
Comparing journalism from the different eras is always a live topic. I find it interesting to discover some of the idiosyncracies of the day, neither right or wrong - just different. Like "bars" for "rejects" (over and over).
NAVAL EVENTS-5 October 1939
On Northern Patrol, two cruisers were between the Orkneys and the Faroes, two cruisers and an AMC between the Faroes and Iceland, and one cruiser and two AMCs in the Denmark Strait. Armed merchant cruisers TRANSYLVANIA departed the Clyde for Northern Patrol duties and AURANIA departed her patrol station for the Clyde to overhaul her guns.
Armed boarding vessels NORTHERN ISLE, NORTHERN PRINCESS and NORTHERN FOAM relieved armed boarding vessels NORTHERN CHIEF and KINGSTON BERYL on patrol in the vicinity of Muckle Flugga.
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Convoy FN.32 departed Southend, escorted by destroyers WHITLEY, WALLACE and sloop STORK. Destroyers WOOLSTON, VALOROUS and sloop HASTINGS departed Harwich and relieved the original escort which proceeded to Rosyth. The convoy arrived on the 7th.
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Convoy FS.32 departed Methil, escorted by destroyer VIVIEN and sloops BITTERN and FLEETWOOD. Six merchant ships left at 1200, despite fog, and the rest departed later. Destroyers JUNO and JUPITER were at sea to act as a fighting force from daylight on the 6th. Destroyer JAGUAR remained at Methil Roads until ordered to proceed at 1540 and overtook the convoy. JUNO and JUPITER were detached at dark on the 6th to proceed to Rosyth. There they joined minelaying cruiser ADVENTURE and escorted her to the Humber. The convoy arrived at Southend on the 7th. There was no convoy FS.33.
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Danish steamer TEKLA (1469grt) reported sighting a U-boat four miles SE of Flamborough Head. Destroyer JUNO was sent to search.
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After a D/F bearing on a suspected submarine 150 miles SW of Ushant, destroyers ACASTA, ESCAPADE, VERSATILE and GRENVILLE conducted searches in the area.
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Destroyer ANTHONY, which had departed the Clyde on the 4th, was escorting base ship MANCHESTER CITY to Rosyth, where they arrived early on the 6th. Later that day, ANTHONY left for Plymouth.
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Destroyer VANSITTART was sent to the Tongue Light Vessel to investigate a report of a fast motor boat, but the order was later cancelled and she returned to normal patrol.
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Submarine L.26, on Dogger Bank patrol, reported sighting a suspicious merchant ship. The submarine was ordered by Rear Admiral Submarines to follow the ship.
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U.33 laid mines off North Foreland, on which two ships were sunk and one damaged.
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Force K, consisting of aircraft carrier ARK ROYAL, battlecruiser RENOWN, light cruiser NEPTUNE, and destroyers HARDY, HASTY, HEREWARD, HERO and HOSTILE departed Freetown on 28 October. HERO was detached on escort duties shortly after the first of the month.
300 miles WSW of Freetown on the 5th, ARK ROYAL aircraft sighted German steamer UHENFELS (7603grt) which had departed Lourenco Marques, Portuguese Mozambique, on her third attempt to escape back to Germany and after evading sloop EGRET patrolling off the port.
HEREWARD was detached from the screen to investigate and UHENFELS attempted to scuttle herself. However, she was captured, Force K and prize arrived at Freetown on the 6th, and UHENFELS was taken for British service and renamed EMPIRE ABILITY. She arrived in the Thames for duty on 5 April 1940.
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Australian light cruiser PERTH departed Bermuda and arrived at Kingston on the 9th.
Sunday, 5th November 1939
Enemy aircraft reported off the Humber.
War Day 64. All times BST.
Blackout ends: 07.45, begins: 17.53
Hitler was a tyrant from the day he was appointed chancellor in 1933, and he had been a murderous agitator for 12 years before that.
War Diary and War Standing Orders of Commander in Chief, Submarines, Admiral Donitz
5.11.1939
U 53 was ordered to continue her passage south, as U 26 must be by now far enough ahead to carry out her minelaying operation.
The “City of Flint”, once taken in prize by the “Deutschland”, has been detained in Bergen. The prize crew is said to have been interned there and the prize ship herself released. As the Naval War Staff attaches great importance to her recapture, U 34, U 37 and U 46 on their return passage, have been ordered to take such action as their fuel stocks permit.
For further details see F.O. U/B West’s War Log.
Yeah, I saw a thing about Leslie Howard, a “casualty of the blackout”, was “injured severely about the head and chest.”
Also, because of the blackout on Guy Fawkes night, all fireworks were ordered kept indoors, which was one of those things that makes you go hmmm...
“Mayer-Ast” Mayer was credited with 30 victories. He recorded eight victories during the Spanish Civil War. He will be killed a year from now test flying a new version of the Me-109.
Skyrockets in the living room? Mom's not going to like this . . .
Elvis Costello has a song I like about "Indoor Fireworks." He was thinking metaphorically, though.
5.11.1939
U.S. freighter Black Condor is detained by British authorities at Weymouth, England;
freighter Scanmail is detained by the British at Kirkwall, Orkneys. Part of her cargo is seized;
Steamship President Polk is detained by the British at Port Said, Egypt, and certain items of her cargo confiscated for inquiry;
Freighter Black Eagle, detained by the British since 26 October, is released.
http://s0.ilike.com/play#Glenn+Miller:Johnson+Rag:942755:s28440469.10441410.17973504.0.2.61%2Cstd_5b726c3595b744e880fc8f1f7224f331
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