William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
Posted on 03/01/2010 4:55:56 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
Winston S. Churchill, The Gathering Storm
* See reply #3 from yesterday’s thread for the back story.
Go Finns Go!!
Wait, alcohol rationing in France? Will there be mass suicides?
Lord HawHaw is ID’d! Tagged! Pwned!
French Senate Ousts Commies! Senator McCarthy was French?? lol
Could you imagine getting off light after sending an arrow through the window and nearly killing a cabinet member?? wow.
Sure, we’ll send someone to “talk peace” but we know there is no chance of peace.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/mar40/f01mar40.htm
France to buy Norwegian heavy water
Friday, March 1, 1940 www.onwar.com
In France... The French government offers to purchase “heavy water” from Norway. There is stricter food rationing in France.
In Berlin... The final directive for the invasion of Norway and Denmark is issued. Sumner Welles (US Under-Secretary of State) arrives for talks and meets with Hitler who says “there is no other solution than a life-and-death struggle.”
In Britain... Women are urged to wear light clothes in order to save darker dyes for forces uniforms. According to BBC audience research, about two-thirds of the adult population tunes in to Lord Haw-Haw’s broadcasts from Hamburg. One person in six is a regular listener to his propaganda. Some 16 million listeners hear the BBC nine o’clock news every night and about 6 million of them them switch straight over to Lord Haw-Haw afterwards.
The Winter War... Soviet forces are within 6 km of the center of Viipuri. Fierce aerial dog fights take place over the city. The Soviet ultimatum putting peace proposals to Finland expires.
On the Western Front... The phoney war continues with a few artillery exchanges and a little patrol action.
In Sweden, a collection of gold rings has raised 1,500 rings.
Photo: SA-KUVA
Soviet troops attack delaying positions on the Isthmus
Here at the six month anniversary of the start of the war against Germany it is striking to me just how profoundly phony the Phony War was. Since the end of November the primary fixation in the papers have been on the Russian war against the Finns. And rightfully so being that it is the only front where anything is happening.
At the start of the war we got to see reports on France’s great march into German territory only to see the story trail off within a few weeks. At the end of the first month Poland was almost an afterthought having fallen so fast. Now all we see is an occasional report of artillery exchanges across the border and the naval action which ebbs and flows as naval warfare does.
With the scarceness of daily action and the overshadowing of the Winter War it is real easy to forget that Britain and France are at war with Germany. It always struck me as odd that there was this 6 month lull between the fall of Poland and the action in Denmark and Norway. Actually following it on a daily basis has only made it more so. A strange event indeed.
William Joyce, a/k/a Lord Haw Haw; Irish by blood, American by birth (he never renounced his American citizenship) and only British by means of a fraudulently procured passport. The last man hanged by the UK for treason, the government didn’t seem to care that he was not a British citizen. As one source said, “the British government really hated the guy.”
Virulently anti-semitic, he was a die-hard unrepentant Nazi all the way to the gallows.
“In Sweden, a collection of gold rings has raised 1,500 rings.”
Or as seen on Swedish TV: “I got money fwum my wedding wing fwum my foost mawwage.”
Cougar
You ought to read Ernest May’s “Strange Victory,” which recounts the Phoney War, the casting of Allied “war strategy” as well as the casting and re-casting of “Case Yellow” by the Germans.
The Allies were absolutely convinced that they only had to maintain a blockade of Germany and Germany would collapse internally without a shot being fired. Since France was carrying the weight of the “land campaign” it’s pretty evident from May’s book that the French political and military leadership just didn’t have any stomach for real fighting. They came up with all sorts of grandiose plans, including, as bizarre as it sounds, a military expedition against the USSR oil resources in the Caspian area to deprive Germany of economic resources! Yes, it was being seriously discussed that the way to beat Germany was not to fight her, but to take on the USSR instead! Fortunately for the Allies, they weren’t really serious about fighting the USSR either.
One plan that did emerge from the Winter War was the decision to occupy Norway and restrict German iron ore imports from Sweden (in warm weather, the ore ships could ply the Gulf of Bothnia, but in winter they had to be shipped down the Norwegian coast from Narvik). Those plans were well advanced. One of Homer’s posts shows the Royal Navy is re-deploying the battle fleet due to requirements of the situation in Norway. And, the British and French had allocated troops for their Norwegian Expeditionary Force, which explains why they were able to land it so quickly at Narvik in April.
It was either a case of the Germans beating the Allies to the punch, or, as with all the other Allied plans, there is some reason to believe they would not have actually carried it out. When it came right down to it, the Allies were reluctant to do anything but sit, so there is good reason to believe the French would have invented reasons to not invade Norway. And without the French, the British would not have landed troops. The British, though, were going to use the Royal Navy to mine Norwegian waters.
Sounds interesting. I’ll add that to my reading list. Thanks.
Interestingly, Raeder wanted to use British plans for Norway as part of his defense at Nurenburg, where his role in the Weser Exercise was a major part of the case against him. The British prevented it.
But on the other hand, the British Lord Chief Justice allowed Weiszacker to introduce the evidence of the “Secret Protocol” to the Non-Aggression Pact in his defense, despite the Soviet Prosecutor going ape over it’s disclosure.
Nuremberg was a very odd sort of jurisprudence.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/01.htm
March 1st, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM:
RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group. Leaflets and Reconnaissance - Berlin and Baltic ports. 10 Sqn. Two aircraft. Moderate opposition. One Whitley crashed on landing at Dishforth (K9026). Crew safe.
RAF Fighter Command: Luftwaffe attack on North Sea convoy. No damage.
Women are urged to wear light clothes in order to save dye for forces uniforms.
Two-thirds of the adult population tunes in to Lord Haw-Haw’s broadcasts from Hamburg, according to BBC audience research just completed. One person in six is a regular listener to his propaganda. Some 16 million listeners hear the BBC nine o’clock news every night, and about six million of them switch straight over to Lord Haw-Haw afterwards.
Speculation continues about the identity behind his superior drawl, which has been compared with Bertie Wooster’s. Norman Baillie-Stewart, the officer imprisoned in the Tower for passing information to Germany before the war, and William Joyce, a former member of Sir Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists, have been suggested.
After much debate the BBC decided not to answer his broadcasts with direct refutation, but it has begun weekly broadcasts at the same hour by a commentator with the pseudonym “Onlooker”, believed to be Norman Birkett, the eminent KC.
An order for the first 50 Mosquito light bombers is placed by the Air Ministry with de Havilland. (Jack McKillop)
Destroyer HMS Chiddingfold laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
FRANCE: Paris: Gastronomes took another knock today with the publication of new restrictions on what can be eaten and drunk. Meals in hotels and restaurants will be restricted to two, only one of which can be meat, and the sale of spirits will be limited to four days a week. Eating at home offers no escape: ration cards are to be distributed, with bread, pastries and chocolates among foods either restricted or even banned.
The French Premier Édouard Daladier announces that the Allies will send 50 000 men to aid Finland. They will arrive in late March. The Finnish government received the word already yesterday, and it has delayed drafting the Finnish reply to the Soviet demands. The cabinet is divided on the matter; some want to make peace when the Army is still intact, others dread the Soviet demands and want to accept the Allied help and continue fighting. (Mikko Härmeinen)
GERMANY: Berlin: Hitler issues a war directive ordering the invasion of Denmark and Norway. He also meets Sumner Welles, to whom he says that, “there is no other solution than a life-and-death struggle.”
OKW issues Führer Directive #10a for “Fall Weserübung
(i) The developing situation in Scandinavia makes it necessary to prepare for the occupation of Denmark and Norway. This would anticipate English action action in the area, secure iron ore supplies from Sweden, and provide naval and air bases for expanded operations against England.
(ii) The basic aim is to lend the operation the character of a peaceful occupation designed to protect the neutrality of the northern countries. Any resistance will be broken by all means available using the smallest possible military force.
Skilful action and surprise will make up for weakness in numbers.
(iii) General of Infantry von Falkenhorst will prepare and command the operation as Commander Group XXI. Timetables and plans should be provided to OKW as soon as possible.
(iv) The crossing of the Danish frontier and landings in Norway will take place simultaneously. Preparations will proceed with the utmost speed, and every effort should be made to ensure surprise.
(v) In Denmark, Grp XXI supported by the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine, shall conduct the surprise occupation of Jutland and Fönen, and the subsequent occupation of Zeeland.
(vi) In Norway, Grp XXI shall conduct the surprise occupation of important places on the coast by landings from the sea and air. The Kriegsmarine is responsible for transport of invasion troops and follow up forces and supplies transported to Oslo and elsewhere.
(vii) After the operation the Kriegsmarine will be responsible for rapidly preparing coastal defences, the Luftwaffe should quickly prepare bases for the prosecution of the air war against England. (Marc Roberts)
U-118 is laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
FINLAND: Coastal Group (Maj. Gen. Kurt Wallenius) is formed on the western coast of Bay of Viipuri. Its mission is to repel the expected Soviet assault across the frozen bay, where the Red Army has already captured several islands. Gen. Wallenius’s troops are either recently arrived from northern Finland (like Wallenius himself) and are unfamiliar with the environment, or ill-trained coastal defence battalions compiled from older reservists. Wallenius himself is very unhappy with his new mission. He had performed very well in his previous assignment in northern Finland, where his troops had lots of room to manoeuvre. Here there is no room, the men has to stand and fight, to defend every inch. Wallenius considers the situation hopeless. There are allegations he is seen drunk in his HQ. (Mikko Härmeinen)
GIBRALTAR: U.S. freighter SS Exeter is detained at Gibraltar by British authorities. (Jack McKillop)
REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA: A voluntary oath is taken by the great majority of the Union Defence Force to serve “anywhere in Africa”.
AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Lismore laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: The motion picture “Strange Cargo” is released. Directed by Frank Borzage and starring Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Peter Lorre and Paul Lukas, the plot involves prisoners escaping from Devil’s Island who encounter a Christ-like figure (Ian Hunter). (Jack McKillop & Jeff Chrisman)
Native Son by Richard Wright was published. The novel tells the story of 20-year old Bigger Thomas, an African-American living in utter poverty.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 0315, SS Mirella was hit in the bow by one torpedo from U-20, but did not sink. The U-boat waited submerged during the daytime, returned to the abandoned ship in the evening and sank her at 2114 hours by a coup de grâce. The wreck in position 52°26´09N/02°05´02E was later dispersed. (Dave Shirlaw)
It certainly wasn't justice until the Americans began to lose their appetites for revenge.
“he French Premier Édouard Daladier announces that the Allies will send 50 000 men to aid Finland.”
Those 50,000 men were exactly what was sent to Narvik. Very handy to have around...to occupy Norway.
One of my favorites was the British “Old School Tie/Gentlemen’s Club”approach to war criminals. As someone noted in the margins of Sauckel’s file, “So we’re going to hang Sauckel for rounding up slave labor, bur not Speer, who ordered it?” And someone else wrote “Right!” [Sauckel was a blue collar laborer turned Reichsleiter. Speer was an architect].
Same attitude that covered for Blount, McLean, Burgess, Philby,and Cairncross for so long.
This is the point which strikes me the most about the 1939-40 "Phony-War." It's the same thing we saw in Poland in August 1939 -- everyone apparently knew the strike was coming, and yet no one took effective action against it.
Same thing with Denmark, Norway, the Low Countries & France in 1940. And in 1941: the Balkans, Greece, Soviet Union and United States -- all just sat and waited for invasions which either were, or certainly should have been, obviously coming. Why?
Why were NONE of them better prepared? Why did none even consider taking preemptive actions. Why was it always necessary to accept the first blows, even when the enemy was a known rabid beast?
Or, to put it another way: here we focus on just France, but was any other country better prepared than France in 1940? I don't think so, and that suggests a mind-set that we don't fully understand today...
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