http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/feb40/f26feb40.htm
Finns withdraw to final line
Monday, February 26, 1940 www.onwar.com
The Winter War... After the failure of counterattacks against the Soviet penetrations, the Finnish command orders their forces to retreat to their third, final line of defense.
In Britain... The war office announces that northern Scotland is to become out of bounds for unauthorized people from March 11th. Meanwhile, the liner Queen Elizabeth (83,700 t.) leaves Clydebank with a skeleton crew on a secret maiden voyage to Halifx, Nova Scotia and New York. She is equipped with giant electric “de-gaussing” cable, to neutralize magnetic mines.
In Paris... Anti-aircraft guns drive Luftwaffe reconnaissance planes away from the city.
In Rome... Sumner Welles meets Mussolini and his son-in-law Count Galeazzo Ciano, the foreign minister.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/26.htm
February 26th, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM: The War Office announces that northern Scotland is to become out of bounds for unauthorised people from 11 March.
RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group. Leaflets and Reconnaissance - Berlin. 10 Sqn. Two aircraft. Moderate opposition.
River Clyde: The new ocean liner RMS QUEEN ELIZABETH leaves Clydebank on a secret maiden voyage to Halifax, Nova Scotia and New York City on one of only two tides high enough to carry the 83,673 ton ship down the river and out to sea. She is manned by a skeleton crew and equipped with a giant electric “de-gaussing” cable, to neutralise magnetic mines. (Jack McKillop)
Minesweeping trawler HMS Olive launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
FRANCE: Paris: Anti-aircraft guns drive Luftwaffe reconnaissance planes away from the city.
FINLAND: The army evacuate Koivisto fort, and prepare for a prolonged siege at Viipuri.
Today takes place the first and only Finnish armored operation of the Winter War. While the Red Army continues to advance towards Viipuri on the southern part of the Karelian Isthmus, the Jäger Battalion 3 and 4th Panzer Company (13 Vickers 6 tonners) are subordinated to the 23rd Division (Col. Woldemar Oinonen) to make a counterattack against the Soviet forces at the village of Honkaniemi, 10 km south-east of Viipuri.
After desperately hasty preparations, the Jäger Battalion 3 and 4th Panzer Company are to attack at 6.15 am, supported by a field artillery battalion. But the Panzer Company is able to get only 6 of its 13 tanks going, and Finnish artillery preparation partly hits the Jäger Battalion’s positions. Finally the Panzer Company’s six tanks are the only Finnish force to attack, but one of them is stuck in a ditch. The remaining five meet in the Honkaniemi village the Soviet 112th Tank Battalion of the 35th Tank Brigade, and are all destroyed without hurting the enemy. Finnish losses are 1 KIA, 3 WIA and 5 MIA. (Mikko Härmeinen)
U.S.S.R.: Soviet submarine M-32 launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
GIBRALTAR: U.S. passenger liner SS Washington is detained at Gibraltar by British authorities. (Jack McKillop)
ITALY: Rome: Sumner Welles meets Mussolini and his son-in-law Count Galeazzo Ciano, the foreign minister.
U.S.A.: The US Army, increasingly aware of the possibility of becoming involved in the European war, creates the Air defence Command headed by Brigadier General James E. Chaney and based at Mitchell Field, Hempstead, Long Island, New York. The new command is primarily a planning agency, charged with development of a system of unified air defence for cities, vital industrial areas, continental bases, and armies in the field, Although limited in size to a staff of only ten officers, the command undertakes to study the special capabilities of pursuit aviation, antiaircraft artillery, radio equipment, barrage balloons, and passive defence measures and to formulate the most effective combination of the several means of defence. (Michael Ballard and Jack McKillop)