Posted on 01/05/2010 5:19:46 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
Expenditures Cut – 2-3
Harrison Proposes Joint Study By Congress to Adjust Finances – 4-5
Facts of 1941 Budget Offered by President – 5
Vandenberg Asks Bid to Jackson Day Dinner Like First, Marking End of National Debt – 5
Finnish Pamphlets Rain on Leningrad; Reds Bomb Tornea – 6-7
The International Situation – 7
$100,000 More Sent For Finnish Relief – 7-8
200 Hungarians Off to Fight For Finland – 8
Parachute Troops Fail Soviet So Far – 8
Collective Farming in Finland Is Expected As War Measure to Overcome Shortages – 8
Floodlights Used by Finns To Spot Foe Crossing Ice – 8
Allies Discuss Scandinavian War; Ready to Fight to Protect Flank – 9
Spies Said to Help Russians in Finland – 10
Incidents in European Conflict – 10
All British Ships Are Requisitioned – 11
Red Menace called Greater Than Nazism – 11
Sails to Organize Ambulance Corps – 11
Canada, U.S. Revive St. Lawrence Plan – 12
Reich Names Staff For War Economy – 13
Unity Mitford Said Not to Know of War – 13
Roosevelt Speech Scored By Dewey - 13
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/jan40/f05jan40.htm
Chamberlain shuffles Cabinet
Friday, January 5, 1940 www.onwar.com
In Britain... There is a ministerial reshuffle. Oliver Stanley replaces Leslie Hore-Belisha at the War Office (i.e., the Army Ministry), Lord Reith becomes Minister of Information and Sir Andrew Duncan comes to the Board of Trade. Hore-Belisha was given the option of having another senior post in the government by Chamberlain, however, he replied that he preferred to leave the government. He had been involved in quarrels with the army generals over strategy and his own insistence on better welfare services for the troops.
The Winter War... The Soviet 18th Division is encircled north of Lake Ladoga. The first contingent of Swedish volunteer troops reach Finland.
In Moscow... The USSR accuses Norway and Sweden of pursuing “unneutral” policy.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/05.htm
January 5th, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM: London: The actress Vivien Leigh is sued for divorce.
Leslie Hore-Belisha, the Secretary of State for War, has resigned from the cabinet. Mr. Chamberlain told him that he could have another senior post, but must be moved from the War Office. Mr. Hore-Belisha had quarrelled with the army generals over strategy and his own insistence on better welfare services for the troops, retorted that he preferred to leave the government.
PM Chamberlain changes his cabinet. Oliver Stanley becomes Minister of War; Lord Reith becomes Minister for Information and Sir Andrew Duncan arrives at the Board of Trade.
RAF Bomber Command: Leaflets and reconnaissance - Hamburg - Bremen. 51 Sq. Two aircraft. Opposition moderate.
Security Patrols - Hornum - Borkum. 51 Sq. Two aircraft. Opposition moderate.
GERMANY:
U-439, U-440, U-441, U-442 ordered
U-752 laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
SPAIN: The German tanker SS Nordmeer, which sailed from Curacao, Netherlands West Indies, on 9 December 1939, reaches Vigo, Spain. (Jack McKillop)
FINLAND: The Soviet 18th Division is encircled north of Lake Ladoga.
The first contingent of Swedish volunteer troops reach Finland.
The Finnish 9th Division starts an attack in the Raate road, which leads to nearly complete destruction of Soviet’s 44th Division in two days. The first Soviet air attack on the general headquarters town of Mikkeli causes 29 dead. (Jack McKillop)
Both Norway and Sweden reject an Allied request to allow unofficial aid shipments to pass through them onto Finland. (Mikko Härmeinen)
U.S.S.R.: The government accuses Norway and Sweden of pursuing an “unneutral” policy. (Jack McKillop)
Swedish transport Fenris sunk by gunfire from Soviet submarine SC-311. (Dave Shirlaw)
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: ASW trawler HMS Kingston Cornelian sunk in collision with French SS Chella East of Gibraltar. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: The first demonstration of Frequency Modulated (FM) radio transmission, developed by E H Armstrong, is given to the Federal Communications Commission. The first U.S. commercial FM radio station will begin broadcasting in Nashville, Tennessee, in March 1941. (Jack McKillop)
Destroyer USS Roe commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
As I read the article about FDR’s deficit budget, two thoughts came to mind:
1. Just how far to the left the Times has gone in 70 years. Today’s article on a far worse budget would not contain any criticism you saw 70 years ago.
2. Reading this article and thinking of 0bama’s budget, I was reminded of the definition of insanity: Trying the same thing over and over, expecting a different result.
This is now the election year of 1940, and if I remember right, the NY Times supported NY Republican businessman Wendell Wilkie. If you wanted a modern day equivalent to Wilkie, might I suggest: Mitt Romney?
Roosevelt's national debt in 1940 was about 42% of GDP, roughly where it had been in 1934, and the Times was clearly upset about it.
Obama's national debt in 2010 is 98% of GDP, up from 65% when the Republicans were in last charge, in 2006.
So, what are the chances that the NY Times would support a moderate Republican against even the most radical of Democrats? Well, we could ask John McCain...
This is most interesting. When Communists and Nazis were on the same side, Americans considered Communists the greater threat. But this is still January 1940.
In 18 months, after the Nazis have overrun western Europe, and then turned on their Communist allies, Americans will again consider the Nazis a greater menace, by overwhelming margins.
Enemy infantry assaults are successfully repulsed at Summa, Suokanta, Työppölänjoki and Hatjalahti.
Photo: SA-KUVA
Heavy bombing in Mikkeli
Wilkie was a Hoosier, and today we’d lambast him as a RINO. On some issues he was about as far left as FDR. Kind of a replay of today; no real conservatives around. Your comparison of Wilkie to Romney is fairly accurate. No way the slimes endorses Romney in ‘12.
In 1940, despite FDR’s Depression-prolonging deficits, the United States still had enough wealth and manufacturing capacity to finance and produce material to win a global war. Today, with the massive debt we’ve already piling up with no end in sight, and with little or no manufacturing base, I doubt we could do the same.
Food for thought.
Agreed.
We could not have done the same in 1933 or 1936. Roosevelt's pre-war buildup didn't really begin until things worsened in Europe in 1938. So the US had three years to prepare before Pearl Harbor, and it was more than a year after that before Americans were ready for major military operations.
Today in a sense, we are more like America of 1933 than of 1941. But there are some important differences.
On the good side, the US military today is vastly better equipped, trained and lead than it could even imagine at any other time historically.
On the down side, it's hard to imagine the US economy sustaining the kind of effort over a period of years required by the Second World War.
Fortunately, we may never again need to, for any number of profound reasons, including nuclear deterrence, improved communications, transportation, cultural factors, and possibly most important, critical American and allied forces forward deployed in or near the most likely trouble spots.
If we take on the little Hitlers while they are still small, they don't get the chance to grow up into really big bad boys.
World War II provided fairly solid proof that mass attacks by paratroops and gliders was not a particularly good idea. The Russians seemed to have learned the quickest, the Germans after Crete, and the Americans and British continued throughout the war, in the apparent hope that the result would somehow be different.
Anyone know what strategy he favored? It couldn't have turned out much worse than that of the professionals.
This of course brings to mind Monty’s colossal Charlie Foxtrot of Market-Garden.
Monty did fine as long as he outnumbered the enemy greatly.
http://www.hemingwaycookbook.com/martini.html
The Montgomery, Hemingway’s Martini
Like James Bond with his Vesper, Hemingway, too, had his special martini: The Montgomery. Named after the World War II British General, Sir Bernard Law Montgomery, General of the British Eighth Army, who would not attack unless he outnumbered the enemy fifteen to one, Hemingway’s martini contains that same proportion of gin to vermouth. The Montgomery is a house special of Harry’s Bar in Venice, where they make their Montgomerys 10-to-1. For this recipe, we’ll use Hemingway’s favorite ingredients: Gordon’s gin and Noilly Prat vermouth.
Hore-Belisha ran afoul fo the Army, not because he differed with them on strategy, because he had NO military background or interest, but because he wouldn’t read the briefing documents they gave him for cabinet meetings, and didn’t represent the Army well in cabinet discusssions.
Hore-Belisha also, if I recall, backed sending British troops to finland [to fight the russians], as well as supported plans to get Britain militarily involved in Norway [a Churchill/Navy pet project] which the British Army was at best luke warm to.
He was also not overly involved, nor overtly supportive of, the rearmament program which was abysmal.
Viel danke.
Monty: The best World War I general World War II produced!
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