SWEDES AID FINNS IN AERIAL ATTACKS ON RETREATING FOE (1/20/40)

Free Republic University, Department of History presents World War II Plus 70 Years: Seminar and Discussion Forum
First session: September 1, 2009. Last date to add: September 2, 2015.
Reading assignment: New York Times articles delivered daily to students on the 70th anniversary of original publication date. (Previously posted articles can be found by searching on keyword “realtime” Or view Homer’s posting history .)
To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by freepmail. Those on the Realtime +/- 70 Years ping list are automatically enrolled. Course description, prerequisites and tuition information is available at the bottom of Homer’s profile.

Red Bases Bombed – 2-3
The International Situation – 3
Norway, Denmark to Defend Borders – 3-4
Roosevelt Gets Pope’s Reply to Peace Plea; Message Delivered by Apostolic Delegate – 5
2,000 Jews Told to Re-Enter Reich – 5
Nazi Plane Routed in Aberdeen Duel – 6
Arrive from London and Paris – 6
Soviet Believed Massing Troops For Heavier Assault on Finland – 7
Swiss Press Sharp in Retort to Reich – 7
Food Profiteering Fought in Warsaw – 8
2 of Columbus Crew Permitted to Stay – 8
Goebbels Pledges ‘Watch to the East’ – 10
Hertzog For Peace For South Africa – 10
Sabotage Discounted in British Explosion – 11
Nazi Warship, Built in Secret, Described as Spee’s Auxiliary – 11
Incidents in European Conflict – 12

http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/jan40/f20jan40.htm

Churchill appeals to Low Countries
Saturday, January 20, 1940 www.onwar.com

Churchill makes a radio addressIn London... Churchill broadcasts an appeal to the neutrals [specifically Belgium and The Netherlands] to join the allies in resisting Nazi aggression. He compares the conduct of the neutrals with the crocodile’s victims — each hoping to be eaten last. In the speech, he also condemns the Soviet invasion of Finland. Meanwhile, the coldest day on record since 1881 is experienced in London with temperatures of -11° C (-20° F).

The Winter War... Soviet bombers cause large fires in Turku and Hango. There is a lull in the ground fighting as the Soviets prepare for a renewed offensive.

In Berlin... Hitler reduces the “alert period” before the implementation of Operation Yellow (Fall Gelb) from 4 days to 24 hours for security reasons.

In Washington... The USA protests to Britain over the detention of its ships in Gibraltar.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/20.htm

January 20th, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM:

RAF Coastal Command: Four German Flak vessels were sighted which opened fire and were bombed.

RAF Bomber Command: 4 Grp. ‘Security Patrol’ - Hornum - Borkum. 51 Sqn. One aircraft. Opposition light.

London: Churchill asks the uncommitted nations of Europe to join the Allies, and condemns Russia’s invasion of Finland.

Tanker Caroni River struck a mine laid the day before by U-34 and sank in Falmouth Bay, while carrying out paravane trials and defensive armament tests. The master, 42 crewmembers, Cdr J.G. Bradshaw RN and eleven naval personnel were picked up by the Falmouth lifeboat and a naval cutter and landed at Falmouth.

Submarine HMS Thorn laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)

NETHERLANDS: Submarine HNLMS O-22 launched. (Dave Shirlaw)

GERMANY: Adolf Hitler reduces the “alert period” before the implementation of Operation Yellow (Fall Gelb) from 4 days to 24 hours for security reasons. (Jack McKillop)

U-86, U-201, U-434 laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)

FINLAND: There is a lull in the ground fighting as the Russians prepare for the expected “big push”, but the war goes on as fiercely as ever in the air with the Russian bombers trying to make up for the superior skill of the Finns on the ground.

They attack the Finnish positions every day, not only in the front line but ranging over most of the country. The news has been released that the historic castle at Aabo on the Baltic coast has been destroyed by incendiary bombs.

The port of Viipuri, only 70 miles from Leningrad, is under constant attack. A hospital has been hit and many patients have been killed

The Finns, though, have fought back. Flying Bristol Blenheim bombers they have carry out raids on the Soviet island bases of Oesel and Dagoe.

EUROPE: All Europe is held in the icy grip of one of its severest frosts on record. Switzerland has recorded 34 degrees of frost, the lowest since 1920. Heavy snow has fallen in Oporto, Portugal for the first time for 40 years and in Corunna, Spain, for the first time since 1800.

On the borders of Norway and Sweden the mercury froze in the thermometers. The Danube is frozen in Hungary and 1,200 ships are held by ice. In the Baltic islands ships can only move preceded by ice-breakers, and German mines off Heligoland are being exploded by ice-floes. A German ship was sunk by an iceberg off Iceland.

On the Finnish front, a temperature of 100 degrees of frost was recorded. Nearly 1,000 Russian soldiers are believed to have died of exposure. In China 20,000 have died and the war has been halted.

The expected German attack on the Western Front has not materialised, presumably at least partly because of the weather. Both Holland and Belgium are expecting an onslaught at any moment. The Germans have evacuated civilians from the area adjoining the Dutch border and trains passing through have to draw their blinds.

GIBRALTAR: The United States protests British treatment of American shipping in the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, the U.S. freighter SS Examelia is detained at Gibraltar by British authorities and the passenger liner SS Washington, bound for Genoa, Italy, is detained only a few hours before being allowed to proceed. (Jack McKillop)

U.S.A.: Washington: The USA protests to Britain over the detention of its ships in Gibraltar.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: SS Ekatontarchos Dracoulis sunk by U-44 at 40.20N, 10.07W - Grid CG 1963.

At 2026, SS Miranda was hit by one torpedo from U-57 and sank within five minutes about 30 miles northwest of Peterhead. The three survivors were picked up by a unknown vessel and taken to Kirkwall. (Dave Shirlaw)

Day 52 of the Winter War, January 20, 1940

Enemy troops attack the Finnish strongholds at Terenttilä and Kirvesmäki.
Photo: SA-KUVA

Fierce fighting in Taipale

Eastern Isthmus: fierce battles are being fought in Taipale.
Enemy troops attack the Finnish strongholds at Terenttilä and Kirvesmäki.
Central Isthmus: heavy enemy shelling pounds the Finnish defences in Summa village.
Southwest Finland: the armoured coastal vessels Väinämöinen and Ilmarinen are redeployed to Turku to reinforce the city's air defences.
The war in the air: Flight Luukkanen shoots down four enemy aircraft to the north of Lake Ladoga.
37 enemy aircraft bomb Lahti and put the radio transmitter off the air. Five die and 19 are injured in the raid. The enemy is now broadcasting its own propaganda on the Lahti transmitter's frequency.
Turku, Tampere and Kouvola are also bombed.
A Finnish Centre for Nordic Aid aircraft begins transport flights from Vaasa to Sundsvall.
Turku: a group of foreign correspondents visit the city to inspect the damage caused by the bombing.
Oulu: 58 American Finnish volunteers arrive in the city.
Abroad: Winston Churchill, Great Britain's First Lord of the Admiralty, addresses the British nation in a broadcast speech: "All Scandinavia dwells brooding under Nazi and Bolshevik threats. Only Finland superb, nay, sublime in the jaws of peril shows what free men can do. ... They have exposed, for all the world to see, the military incapacity of the Red Army and of the Red Air Force."
The Red Army paper Krasnaya Zvezda acknowledges the slow progress of the Soviet troops and demands that the Red Army be taught how to ski.

"Roosevelt Gets Pope’s Reply to Peace Plea; Message Delivered by Apostolic Delegate – 5"

Remember what's going on behind the scenes:

From Britain and the Vatican During the Second World War

"...on January 12 [1940]... the Pope summoned [British Ambassador] Osborne to a private audience. Pius XII said that he had received the visit of a German representing certain German army chiefs [i.e., General Ludwig Beck]. The Pope said that he knew the names of the generals but preferred not to tell Osborne. They sent a message as follows:

"a violent offensive was planned in the west, in the month of February, and using Holland as a route. This offensive need never happen. If the German generals could be assured of an honorable peace which would not be "Wilsonian in nature" (i.e., not like the Versailles Treaty, hostile to Germany), they would overthrow Hitler and negotiate a reasonable settlement in eastern Europe -- which would restore Poland and Czechoslovakia but keep the union with Austria.

"The Pope was infinitely cautious. He

[quoting Osborne] 'said that this communication had been made to him, but that he had not been asked to put it forward... At any rate he had felt that his conscience would not be quite easy unless he sent for me. He wished to pass the communication on to me purely for information. He did not wish in the slightest degree to endorse it or to recommend it.'

"Osborne made some critical comments -- the hopeless vagueness of it -- and the Pope then said, 'perhaps, after all, it was not worth proceeding with the matter and he would therefore ask me to regard his communication to me as not having been made.' Osborne refused this 'promptly'. He said, 'I refuse to have the responsibilities of His Holiness's conscience loaded on to my own.'
"Osborne asked whether he could guarantee the good faith of the [German] generals, and the Pope said that he could not. Osborne asked whether he could guarantee that the generals could carry out what they undertook and he said that he could not.
"He begged Osborne to regard the matter as absolutely secret. 'If anything should become known,' he said, 'the lives of the unnamed German generals would be forfeit.' He said that if Osborne ever had a message about it, he could ask to see him at any time.
"Never in all history had a Pope engaged so delicately in a conspiracy to overthrow a tyrant by force...
"...On 25 January Osborne received an answer from Halifax..."

These discussions went on for months, until the German invasion of the Low Countries and France.
Nothing came of them.
In the mean time, Hitler ordered his aide Martin Bormann to prepare a plan for "Operation Pontiff," to kidnap the Pope and hold him for "safe keeping," possibly in Luxembourg.