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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.

Day 68 of the Winter War, February 5, 1940

Karelian Isthmus: following a preliminary artillery bombardment, the enemy launches heavy assaults in the morning in the areas of Summa, Marjapellonmäki and Lake Hatjalahti with the support of over one hundred assault tanks. Despite overwhelming numerical superiority the attack becomes bogged down and ends in the destruction of 22 assault tanks.
Photo: SA-KUVA

Finnish bombers hit enemy at night

Stockholm: Finnish Foreign Minister Väinö Tanner confers with his Swedish counterpart, Christian Günther, before proceeding to Hella Wuolijoki's room in the Grand Hotel to hold a meeting at 11 a.m. with the Soviet Ambassador in Stockholm, Madame Alexandra Kollontai.
Tanner is told the Soviet Union cannot accept Finland's terms for opening talks, and Tanner then suggests one of the islands in the Gulf of Finland as an alternative site for a Soviet base instead of Hanko. Ambassador Kollontai promises to pass the proposal on to her government for consideration.
Karelian Isthmus: following a preliminary artillery bombardment, the enemy launches heavy assaults in the morning in the areas of Summa, Marjapellonmäki and Lake Hatjalahti with the support of over one hundred assault tanks. Despite overwhelming numerical superiority the attack becomes bogged down and ends in the destruction of 22 assault tanks.
Ladoga Karelia: the Finnish counterattack in the Pitkäranta area is unsuccessful.
Northern Finland: the enemy drops a number of parachutists, but the Finnish defences are able to locate where they land.
In the early hours of the morning Finnish aircraft bomb the enemy troops bivouaced around their campfire.
Ladoga Karelia: the Russians begin to take Karelians from the border villages in the municipality of Suojärvi over the border into Soviet Karelia.
Over 1,500 are transferred to two transit camps. Those moved are mainly from Suojärvi but a few are from border villages in the municipality of Salmi. Old people, women and children are transported in lorries to forest labour centres almost 200 kilometres away in Interposolka and Kaimaoja. A number of children die on the cold journey. Over 50 children and old people die in the camps due to a lack of proper food.
Northern Finland: a battalion of the enemy's Dolin ski brigade tries to get behind the Finnish troops at Haukkajärvi, but is pushed back across the border by Detachment Kekkonen.
Abroad: Supreme Allied Command in Paris decides to help Finland. An allied unit of at least two brigades in strength is to be sent to Finland in the middle of March.
The Finnish Red Cross receives a donation from the Belgian Red Cross.
The great Finnish runners Paavo Nurmi and Taisto Mäki travel to Washington, where they are received by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

While as we can see by the headline the Republicans shun the American Youth Congress and are not sending a representative to their gathering this month. FDR will be attending this conference and will be booed by the pro-communist group when he says in his speech that the Soviet Union is “run by a dictatorship as absolute as any other dictatorship in the world” (Weinberg, 572).

I don’t have an exact date for the speech, all I have is that it is this month (Feb, 40). Maybe someone can dig up an reference to the actual conference. Clearly the swing in American perspective towards the Soviet Union has been such that FDR is even honing his speeches to reflect this new animosity. (remember the pole from the beginning of January)

Source: A World at Arms by Gerhard L. Wenberg.