[Homer_J_Simpson]

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.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Selections from West Point Atlas for the Second World War
Finland – The Decisive Offensive, 1-21 February 1940
Evolution of Plan Yellow, October 1939-January 1940
The Far East and the Pacific, 1941 – The Imperial Powers, 1 September 1939

[CougarGA7]

The Altmark Incident

This is an excerpt from Dan Van der Vat's book The Atlantic Campaign. One thing I want to point out is that Van der Vat leaves the impression that the Admiralty didn't know that there were around 300 British prisoners on board the ship which based on the news articles we have read leading up to this show, that is not the case at all. In the media is was speculated that the Altmark held British prisoners, and it also is mentioned in some of the War Cabinet minutes as well. It just goes to show that even a good history book, and I consider this one quite good is still prone to error. Anything in brackets is my own commentary.

There was to be a postscript to the Graf Spee drama which was no less dashing and also bore momentous strategic implications. It came nine weeks later but belongs here [the end of the writing on the sinking of the Graf Spee]. The episode concerns the Graf Spee's support-ship, the Altmark. Her master, Captain Dahl of the Merchand Marine, parted company with the Graf Spee east of the Brazilian 'bulge' on December 6. On board were 299 British seamen from the Graf Spee's victims confined in grossly uncomfortable conditions in the holds. The Altmark, having heard of the River Plate events, lurked in the empty wastes of the south Atlantic, well away from the shipping lanes, until Dahl could be sure that the enemy naval forces had dispersed. On 24 January 1940 he began the long and daunting run home, right the way up the Atlantic, between Greenland and Iceland and over to the north Norwegian coast without being spotted (a remarkable exploit in itself, given that he crossed the convoy routes). By the time he got there, his ship, a large one in its day of 12,000 tons with capacity for 14,000 tonnes of oil, had a grey hull and white upperworks and was pretending to be Norwegian. She carried two concealed 4.1-inch guns and a pair of light repeating cannon under cover on her bridge. Her master, a a member of the naval reserve and a prisoner of war in their earlier conflict, loathed the British and took out his feelings on his captives, who were living in conditions approximating to a floating concentration camp. A naval detachment from the Graf Spee under a lieutenant was aboard to keep order.

None of this was known to the British, [not entirely accurate] who simply regarded the Altmark as an item of unfinished business to be disposed of if and when possible. Dahl managed to creep all the way down the long Norwegian coast, usually inside territorial waters between the mainland and the string of offshore islands, almost invisible in the short hours of daylight and the bleak northern winter. Neutral Norwegian patrol boats stopped but did not search her on two occasions, contenting themselves with the master's assurance that all was in order and mindful of the acute sensitivity of German-Norwegian relations. Late on February 16 Admiral Forbes of the Home Fleet received intelligence from Norway that the wanted tanker had passed Bergen southbound at noon. Happily the light cruiser Arethusa and five destroyers of the Fourth Flotilla, led by Captain Philip Vian in HMS Cossack, had left Rosyth on the 14th to hunt German ore-carriers. These ships brought the strategically vital Swedish iron ore from the Norwegian port of Narvik during the winter, when the direct route from Sweden across the Baltic was icebound.

Forbes alerted Vian, who was working his way round the southern Norwegian coast from Kristiansand westward. At lunchtime on the 16th, a Coastal Command patrol sighted the Altmark. An hour or so later the Arethusa spotted her (by the red line of protective paint just showing above her waterline), some thirty miles south of Stavanger. She was inside territorial waters and was accompanied by two Norwegian patrol vessels. Two British destroyers tried to put men aboard but were frustrated by the Norwegians, who let the Altmark enter the Jøssingfjord, an inlet in the coastal cliffs. Vian took the Cossack in after her. The Norwegian torpedo-boat Kjell interposed herself and Vian was told that the tanker had been boarded off Bergen, found to be unarmed and allowed to continue her voyage in territorial waters. Nothing was known of British prisoners aboard [by the Norwegians].

Vian withdrew into international waters and asked the Admiralty direct for instructions. Churchill himself, as First Lord, consulted the Foreign Office and ordered Vian to offer to accompany the Norwegians with the Altmark back to Bergen - and if refused, to board the German regardless. The Admiralty was gambling that the Altmark must have something to hide: [they had good information to make this determination including reports from some of the men released in Montevideo] the impending violation of Norwegian neutrality was otherwise completely indefensible, as well as illegal under any conditions. Vian re-entered the Jøssingfjord, and when the Kjell refused to co-operate, put a strong boarding-party on the Altmark amid exchanges of small-arms fire between the British and German sailors, under the searchlight of the Cossack. It was all over by midnight. The British crammed their overjoyed seamen aboard and stripped the Altmark of her remaining array of machine-guns (the mountings of the heavier guns were found empty). Forbes, angry that the Admiralty had gone over his head in sending orders direct to Vian, sailed out his battleships to cover the Cossack's jubilant return to Rosyth on the 17th. The affair was a minor incident in itself, but it gave an excuse for another general celebration, stoked up by the newspaper headlines of the 'Hell-Ship Horror' variety. - Van der Vat, The Atlantic Campaign pp 147-149.

[CougarGA7]

Day 80 of the Winter War, February 17, 1940

The outnumbered Finnish troops are fighting enemy tanks on the open snow without anti-tank guns.
Photo: SA-KUVA

Heavy fighting continues on the Isthmus

• Heavy fighting continues on the Karelian Isthmus.

• The enemy manages to break the defensive line in Postilampi near Kämärä station.

• The outnumbered Finnish troops are fighting enemy tanks on the open snow without anti-tank guns.

• The Finns are forced to retreat.

• The Soviet attack grinds to a halt at the intermediary defensive positions.

• The Russians make strenuous efforts to take Suursaari island in Lake Muolaanjärvi.

• The attempt fails.

• Ladoga Karelia: in recognition of his prowess in the fighting on the River Kollaanjoki, Corporal Simo Häyhä is awarded a Sako target rifle donated by a Swedish sympathiser, Eugen Johansson.

• Häyhä has shot dead 219 enemy soldiers with his open-sight 'pystykorva' rifle, and approximately the same number again with a submachine gun and a rapid-fire rifle. His most successful tally for a single day has been 25 dead.

• Häyhä has previously been awarded the Medal of Liberty, a pocket watch and woollen gloves.

• Commander-in-Chief Mannerheim addresses an appeal to his officers: "The whole future of our people hangs in the balance. Only our loyalty and endurance can save the day. I am sure every officer will do his duty."

• Northern Finland: Soviet troops in Kuhmo launch a new assault on the Kuusijoki line in an effort to free the trapped 54th Division.

• Gulf of Bothnia: a road is opened across the frozen sea between Vaasa and Umeå in Sweden.

• Iisalmi suffers heavy enemy bombing. 41 people are killed in a direct hit on a bomb shelter.

• 130 enemy aircraft bomb Viipuri.

• 158 American Finnish volunteers arrive in Oulu.

• An exhibition of captured war materiel opens in Helsinki Exhibition Hall. Proceeds from the exhibition are to be used to help the needy relatives of soldiers fallen in the war.

• Visitors to the exhibition can keep abreast of the latest figures from the front. There are, for example, two boards presenting the numbers of enemy aircraft shot down and tanks destroyed since the start of the war.

• Today's figures are 387 aircraft and 1,050 tanks.

• Abroad: the Swedish press strongly criticizes Prime Minister Hansson and the Swedish Government's decision not to help Finland.

• The Swedish Prime Minister's negative reply to Finland is received with satisfaction in Moscow. The Soviet leadership believes Finland's fate has now been finally sealed.

• The British and French press believe Sweden will come to regret the decision.

• In Geneva, Miss Sophie Mannerheim delivers a hugely popular lecture on her father and the war.