Posted on 02/01/2010 4:54:14 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
ib4tp? ;)
Forgot the ping list. See contents at previous reply.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/feb40/f01feb40.htm
Soviets attack Mannerheim Line
Thursday, February 1, 1940 www.onwar.com
Anti-tank traps of the Manneheim LineThe Winter War... The Soviets initiate attacks against the Mannerheim Line, especially in the Summa area. There is an extensive preliminary bombardment to add to the artillery efforts of the past two weeks. The Soviet 7th and 13th Armies have 14 divisions and six tank brigades in the advance, with strong reserves. The Finnish 3rd Division, holding the line in the Summa area, takes much of the weight. During this round of attacks (which continues until February 8th) there is no attempt at a breakthrough by the Soviets but almost continuous heavy pressure is maintained.
In Tokyo... A record budget is presented to the Japanese Diet. Almost half is to be devoted to military expenditure. Meanwhile, Japan makes a diplomatic protest to Britain concerning the removal of 21 German nationals from the liner Asama Maru by British forces of the HMS Gloucester and demands they be returned. (The Asama Maru incident of January 21st.)
From Yenan... The Chinese Communist Mao Tse-tung calls for the US to stand firm against Japan.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/01.htm
February 1st, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM: A veteran of the Great War commits suicide because he is too old to participate in this one.
10 Squadron RAAF is declared operational using Sunderland Mk1 aircraft, the first Commonwealth Squadron to be declared operational in the current war. (Daniel Ross)
Escort carrier HMS Activity laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
NORTH SEA: Swedish SS Fram sunk by U-13 at 57.43N, 02.06W.
At 2044, the unescorted MS Ellen M was torpedoed andsunk by U-59 NE of Lowestoft. The master and six crewmembers were lost.
U-10 had to abort patrol due to some technical problems and reached the German base at Heligoland. (Dave Shirlaw)
FRANCE: The French 13e Demi-Brigade is consolidated at Pau in the Pyrenees to begin seven weeks of snow and mountain warfare. The Legion called for volunteers from the officers and men of the Algerian and Moroccan garrisons in early November 1939, specifically volunteering for hazardous duties in extreme climate. These volunteers were all carefully screened for their political beliefs and origins, and all to have had at least two years service. (Gordon Angus Mackinlay)
GERMANY: ObLtzS Helmut Rosenbaum is promoted to KptLt.
U-110, U-559, U-560 laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
Manstein appointed to command the German XXXVIII Armee Corps from a position of Chief of Staff at Army Group A, under Runstedt.
GIBRALTAR: The U.S. freighter SS Exminster is detained by British authorities at Gibraltar; the freighters SS Exochorda, detained since 30 January, and SS Jomar, detained since 31 January, are released. (Jack McKillop)
FINLAND: The USSR is reported to have lost 200,000 men in the campaign.
The Soviet armies begin their attack on the Mannerheim Line on the Karelian Isthmus. The failure of General Timoshenko’s attempt to encircle Lake Ladoga from the north-east, does not prevent him from opening his grand offensive on both sides of the railway line from Leningrad to Viipuri.
The day starts with a massive artillery bombardment, and all the day the Red Army troops probe Finnish positions with small units. This is no more the Red Army that assaulted Finnish positions with suicidal charges. The war goes on like this for more than a week, but the Finnish Army is just able to hold the Mannerheim line. For now. (Mikko Härmeinen)
Paratroops are employed for this first time in the air war, during the Soviet army’s attack on Summa, the weakest point along the Mannerheim Line. Soviet paratroops, formed into combat groups, drop behind the lines of the Finnish Army. However, this operation, though it involves units of up to battalion strength, turns out to be a fiasco. The Finns are on guard both at the front and behind the lines. They shoot some of the parachutists while they are still in descent, and capture others immediately after landing.
JAPAN: Expenditure on defence is to account for half of the national budget.
Japan makes a diplomatic protest to the British government concerning the removal of 21 German nationals from the Japanese liner SS Asama Maru by British forces of the cruiser HMS Gloucester and demands they be returned. (Jack McKillop)
CHINA: Yenan: Mao-Tse-tung calls for the US to stand firm against Japan.
CANADA: Corvettes HMCS Collingwood, Orillia, Barrie, Galt, Moose Jaw, Battleford, Drumheller, The Pas, Cobalt, Kenogami, Algoma, Rosthern, Morden, Kamsack Oakville and Weyburn ordered. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: The US Army Air Corps activates the 31st Pursuit Group (Interceptor) and two of its three component squadrons, the 39th and 40th Pursuit Squadrons (Interceptor), at Selfridge Field, Mt. Clemens, Michigan; the third component squadron, the 41st, is activated at Bolling Field, Washington, DC. The three squadrons are initially equipped with Seversky P-35s and will be redesignated Fighter Group/Squadron on 15 May 1942. (Bob Castle)
The keel of the battleship Alabama (BB-60) is laid down at the Norfolk, Virginia, Navy Yard. (Jack McKillop)
President Franklin D. Roosevelt writes to the British First Lord of the Admiralty Winston S. Churchill, concerning the detention of U.S. merchantmen, and frankly informs him of adverse American reaction to the British policy. “The general feeling is,” Roosevelt informs Churchill, “that the net benefit to your people and the French is hardly worth the definite annoyance caused to us.” (Jack McKillop)
The first National Broadcasting Company (NBC) network television program is transmitted from experimental TV station W2XBS in New York City to W2XCW in Schenectady, New York. (Jack McKillop)
Frank Sinatra sings “Too Romantic” and “The Sky Fell Down” in his first recording session with Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra; the session is held in Chicago, Illinois. Sinatra had replaced Jack Leonard as lead singer with the band. (Jack McKillop)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 154 February 1, 1940
After weeks of artillery bombardment, Red Army begins the first phase of its renewed attack on the Summa sector of the Karelian Isthmus, where Timoshenko has concentrated most of his forces. This 12 mile stretch of open land, unencumbered by lakes and rivers, leads directly to Viipuri, Finland’s second city. A massive artillery barrage drops 300,000 shells in 24 hours on the Mannerheim Line around Summa. However, only regiment-sized probing forces are sent forward to test the effectiveness of new Soviet tank/infantry close-support tactics. This is only a dress-rehearsal of the expected main assault by the Soviets. http://www.winterwar.com/Maps/Frontline2.htm
At 1.43 AM, U-13 sinks Swedish steamer SS Fram, at anchor in Aberdour Bay, Scotland, with 1 torpedo (9 lives lost). 14 survivors are picked up by destroyer HMS Khartoum and armed trawler HMS Viking Deeps.
At 8.44 PM, U-59 sinks British coaler MV Ellen M. (1 torpedo) 20 miles East of Southwold, Suffolk, England (all 9 lives lost).
Mao sure had a funny way of thanking us for the favor we did.
I wanted to throw this random though out there. What effect do you think the Winter War had on Soviet industry that may have helped them once they became the target of the Wehrmacht? Clearly with the amount of equipment they are losing in these battles must be replaced and they must have been thinking about that. I’m just curious if the Soviet economy may have already been partially mobilized when they were attacked which made the ramping up of production somewhat quicker in late 1941 and 1942.
The Taipale sector is bombed by at first 50, and then 80 aircraft. At the same time another 30 aircraft bomb Haparainen village.
Photo: SA-KUVA
Preparations for the pending enemy offensive involve an unprecedented number of bombers
Makes sense. It seems like there would also be an effect on their military performance. The Finns took the Red Army to school on defensive warfare. Surely the Soviets learned some hard lessons that they were able to use when they were invaded.
The lesson learned from a military perspective were a certainty. I don’t have it in front of me at the moment, but I do know that some of the purged officers that were only sent to gulags instead of killed were actually reinstated as a result of the Winter War.
I wonder where the heart of the Soviet War industry is at this time. I know they took as much of the equipment they could and transported it across the Urals to set up factories there as the Nazis advanced, and also that British aid included machine tools to help them retool, but I wonder how big a project this really ended up being, or more importantly, how much was already there.
Looks like the article on Schacht going to India was wrong. (To add to the item below - he was acquitted by the allies at Nuremburg over the objections of the Soviets.)
“Dr. Horace Greeley Hjalmar Schacht (22 January 1877 – 3 June 1970) was a German economist, banker, liberal politician and co-founder of the German Democratic Party. He served as the Currency Commissioner and President of the Reichsbank under the Weimar Republic, as President of the Reichsbank again between 1933 and 1939 and as Federal Minister of Economics between 1934 and 1937. Schacht was one of the primary drivers of Germany’s policy of redevelopment, reindustrialization and rearmament, and was a fierce critic of his country’s post-World War I reparation obligations. He was eventually dismissed from the cabinet due to his differences with Hitler and other prominent Nazis and eventually dismissed as President of the Reichsbank in 1939. Subsequently involved in a number of anti-Nazi plots, Schacht was arrested in 1944 by the Nazis, accused of taking part in the 20 July plot against the Nazis, and ended World War II in a concentration camp. In 1953, he founded his own bank, Deutsche Außenhandelsbank Schacht, which he led until 1963, and was an advisor on economic development to developing countries.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hjalmar_Schacht
As to von Starhemberg, it appears he was an early Nazi, but broke with them before they came to power in Germany; he broke with the allies when they joined up with the Soviets.
"There is a persistent rumor in New York - and I emphasize that I describe it as a rumor because I have neither the means nor cause to investigate it," he said, "that Mr. Schacht, former head of the German Reichsbank, is now in India in the employ of the Bank of England."
Kind of strange they would even give this its own headline. It reminds me of some of today's "journalism."
Well in all fairness there’s no real proof here that he didn’t advice the Bank on England, or was in India at this point. The Nazi’s have him listed as a “Minister without Portfolio” but for all purposes he has fallen out of favor. He doesn’t get arrested until 1944 so what he does over the next 4 years, aside from his involvement in the July 20th plot is really unclear. I did some cursory searching but can’t find anything definitive online anyway. Odds are its a bad article, but it does make it intriguing.
The rumor seemed to be sourced in NY rather than in India, or even London. And travel between the warring parties could not have been easy, particularly with someone of his profile (although we know that Unity Mitford was able to make a one way trip).
One of the sources I saw indicated that he was still on the payroll (although without a job) at that point.
As a Minister without Portfolio he would still be on the payroll that’s for certain. What’s most interesting about someone of his stature is that there is this void of where he was and what he was doing. The India thing is far fetched for certain even if it is not impossible. Wonder what he really was doing at this point. Probably just keeping a low profile in Germany would be my bet.
Manstein’s demotion to Corps Command by OKH led to his meeting with Hitler on his way to his Corps [third wave Infantry Corps in 1940].Hitler’s aide, Schmundt had already briefed Hitler on Manstein’s “Sichellschnitt”, and arranged a meeting between the two after a Chancellory dinner for newly promoted commanders.
Hitler, who had already, and independently, focused on the Ardennes for an attack, began to press OKH on theManstein plan. OKH, which had already begun warming to the plan, began extensive wargames on the subject.
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