[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

[Jacquerie]

The U-Boats at this time did not have French bases. The Battle of The Atlantic was a close run thing.

Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain still sought to appease Hitler up to the moment of the German invasion of the low countries and France.

Hussein appeases Iran at our peril.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Reading about the treatment of Poles and Jews in Lodz makes one infuriated when thinking about a carelessly people through the word Nazi around. Likewise the tendency of people to whine about minor inconveniences in comparison with the actual horrors of Nazism. I know, the Russians were worse.

[married21]

Interesting to read about the Finnish ski soldiers after just seeing the biathlon in the Olympics.

Also, the articles are so long and detailed. You never get that many facts in a newspaper article now.

[CougarGA7]

Day 83 of the Winter War, February 20, 1940

An ambulance sent by the Swedish Red Cross is working close to the front lines in northern Finland.
Photo: SA-KUVA

Finnish counterattack retakes part of front line

• The day begins on the Isthmus with heavy enemy bombing.

• Representatives of the Western Allies are negotiating with Mannerheim over possible military aid for Finland.

• The Russians maintain the heavy pressure in the Taipale sector.

• In Terenttilä they break through the Finnish defences to a depth of 1.5 kilometres.

• Intense enemy bombing hampers Finnish countermeasures.

• By evening, part of the front line has been retaken in a counterattack.

• The situation of the Finnish troops in the intermediary positions on the Isthmus has decisively deteriorated.

• In the Mustalampi area, Soviet tanks dragging sled personnel carriers break through the intermediary defences during the night.

• By the afternoon the breakthrough extends to a depth of one kilometre.

• The defending Finns manage to deal with the enemy infantry, but are unable to destroy the tanks.

• About twenty tanks push through the Finnish positions.

• One of the reasons for the Finnish failure is a lack of artillery shells. Finnish losses are 74 dead and wounded.

• Defence of Viipurinlahti bay is transferred from the navy to the Army of the Isthmus.

• Finnish gunners shoot down nine enemy aircraft today.

• A detachment of Swedish volunteers, Svenska Frivilligkåren, is attached to the Finnish field army. The volunteers prepare to assume responsibility for the front in the far north, taking over from the Lapland Group.

• An ambulance sent by the Swedish Red Cross is working close to the front lines in northern Finland.

• In Sweden, the national collection and the women's fighter aircraft fund are both growing rapidly.

• Back in Finland, the Martha Organization is opening a service centre for veterans of the front in Helsinki.

[CougarGA7]

I was doing some prep work for a post I will be making on the 28th of February and ran across this. I figure it was important enough to add onto the end of this day's thread.

Many know that in Germany's work towards the first atomic bomb they were more inclined towards the use of heavy water, also known as deuterium at a moderator over the use of graphite which is what the American program used. Part of the reason was that graphite was needed elsewhere for the German war effort. Norway was the only country that had a facility capable of making deuterium and sometimes I wonder if that also influenced the move to invade Norway along with the goal of protecting Swedish ore shipments through Narvik. What I didn't know at least was that the French atomic program also wanted to use deuterium. Here is a excerpt from Richard Rhodes' The Making of the Atomic Bomb on just that.

Heavy water also impressed the French team, a fact Joliot passed on to the French Minister of Armament, Raoul Dautry. When Dautry heard about the German bid for Norsk Hydro's supply he decided to win the water for France. A French bank, the Banque de Paris et des Pays Bas, controlled a majority interest in the Norwegian company and a former bank officer, Jacques Allier, was now a lieutenant in Dautry's ministry. Dautry briefed the balding, bespectacled Allier with Joliot on hand on February 20: the minister wanted the lieutenant to lead a team of French secret-service agents to Norway to acquire the heavy water.

Allier slipped into Oslo under an assumed name and met with the general manager of Norsk Hydro at the beginning of March. the French officer was prepared to pay up to 1.5 million kroner for the water and even to leave half for the Germans, but once the Norwegian heard what military purpose the substance might serve he volunteered his entire stock and refused payment. The water, divided among twenty-six cans, left Vemork by car soon afterward on a dark midnight. From Oslo Allier's team flew it to Edinburgh in two loads - German fighters forced down for inspection a decoy plane Allier had pretented to board at the time of the first loading - and the transported it by rail and Channel ferry to Paris, where Joliot prepared through the winter and spring of the phony war to use it in both homogeneous and heterogeneous uranium-oxide experiments. (p.327)

I wonder how much of this heavy water ended up in Nazi hands after the fall of France or if Joliot had the good sense to destroy it. At any rate, the Norsk facility gave up its entire stock right before the Nazis took over the country which I'm sure set back any plans they had for the supply there.