http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/mar40/f11mar40.htm
French gold sent to Canada
Monday, March 11, 1940 www.onwar.com
In the Mediterranean... The French battleship Bretagne and cruiser Algerie set sail from Toulon for Canada carrying a shipment of gold (2,379 bars).
In Moscow... The final terms of the armistice between the USSR and Finland are concluded. Finland is to give up the whole of the Karelian Isthmus, including Viipuri, territory in the “waist” of the country near Salla, and Rybachiy Peninsula near Murmansk and is to grant a lease on the port of Hango to the Soviets. Petsamo is returned to the Finns. When the recent Soviet military successes are taken into account these terms can be described as fairly moderate.
In the North Sea... An RAF Blenheim sinks the U-boat U-31 off Borkum.
In Paris... In a final bid to prevent the Finns agreeing to an armistice Chamberlain and Daladier announce that Britain and France will send help to Finland. The plan to do so is shelved when the Finns conclude their agreement with the Soviets and with it is abandoned the scheme to block the supply of Swedish iron ore to Germany.
In Germany... RAF Blenheim bombers attack and sink U-31 in port at Schillig Roads, in northwest Germany. The submarine is subsequently raised and re-commissioned and later sunk again (see November 2, 1940).
In London... US envoy, Sumner Welles, meets the king and discusses possible peace and mediation condition terms with Chamberlain and Halifax.
In Britain... Meat rationing begins with a restriction of 1s 10d (9 pence) worth of meat per person per week.
In the United States... The government lifts its arms embargo to allow Britain and France to buy some P40 fighter planes.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/11.htm
March 11th, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM: London: US Under-Secretary of State Sumner Welles meets HM King George VI, and discusses possible peace and mediation condition terms with Chamberlain and Foreign Secretary the Earl of Halifax.
Meat rationing began today with no sign of queues at butchers’ counters. Most people had stocked up in advance. Meat is rationed by price, the ration being 1 shilling and 10 pence worth per week. Children under six get half as much.
At current prices a family with two children over six could buy a six-pound joint of lamb at 1/4 a pound. Poultry, game, offal, sausages and meat pies remain off the ration. Restaurants are allowed to serve meat without asking customers for their coupons.
Manston, Kent: F/O Anthony Henry Hamilton Tollemache (1913-77), 600 Squadron Auxiliary Air Force, crash-landed. He tried in vain to save his passenger, sustaining serious injury - for this he will receive the Empire Gallantry Medal later changed to a George Cross.
“The KING has been graciously pleased to approve the following Awards: —
The Medal of the Military Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, for Gallantry: -
Flying Officer Anthony Henry Hamilton TOLLEMACHE, Auxiliary Air Force.
On the night of 11th March, 1940, this officer was pilot of an aircraft which carried a passenger and an air gunner and was engaged in a searchlight co-operation exercise. When approaching the flare-path to land, at 2320 hours, after completing the exercise, the aircraft struck a tree and crashed into a field, where it immediately burst into flames.
Flying Officer Tollemache was thrown clear of the wreckage, and his air gunner was able to escape. Realising, however, that his passenger was still in the aircraft Flying Officer Tollemache, with complete disregard of the intense conflagration or the explosion of small arms ammunition, endeavoured to break through the forward hatch and effect a rescue. He persisted in this gallant attempt until driven off with his clothes blazing. His efforts, though in vain, resulted in injuries which nearly cost him his life. Had he not attempted the rescue it is considered he would have escaped almost unscathed.”
(London Gazette - 6 August 1940)
NORTH SEA: U-31(Lt. Habekost) is bombed and sunk by a solo RAF Blenheim dropping four x 250 pound bombs, of Bomber Command at Jadebusen in the Heligoland Bight (Schilling Roads). 58 dead (all hands). U-31 was undergoing sea trials and sank in only 50 feet of water. She is salvaged and re-commissioned to be lost once and for all eight months later. (Robert Guercio)
FRANCE: Toulon: The French battleship Bretagne and cruiser Algerie sail for Canada with 2,379 gold bullion bars part of the national reserve.
GERMANY:
U-333, U-352 laid down.
U-101 commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
FINLAND: The Finnish government informs the Finnish peace-delegation at Moscow that the Soviet terms are acceptable in an ‘extreme situation’.
The Red Army starts its offensive directed at Viipuri when the Soviet 7th Army (Army Commander 2nd Class Kirill Meretskov) attacks aiming to outflank the city from north and encircle its defenders. On 7th Army’s right flank attacked 50th Rifle Corps (Division Commander Filipp Gorelenko) with three rifle divisions (one of them motorized) and one tank brigade, and in middle 34th Rifle Corps with four rifle divisions (one of them motorized). The Red Army leadership wants to capture the city before the peace comes, apparently because of prestige. Thus thousands of lives will be wasted for no reason: the Soviet leadership already knows they will get the city in the peace that is about to be concluded.
The Foreign Ministry announcement published today in Finnish newspapers informs the nation for the first time that peace negotiations are being held at Moscow. The home front has been kept unaware of the desperate situation at the front by strict censorship, and the mood is still hopeful. (Mikko Härmeinen)
Soviet infantry on the bay’s western shores broke across the Vyborg-Helsinki highway, opening the way to Helsinki. The breach of the highway cut Vyborg’s supply route from Helsinki.
Jager Regiment 7 was Vyborg’s defending regiment. To the north, there was the Finnish Jager Regiment 67. To the city’s northeast stood the 100th Soviet Ski Division. To the south was the 138th Soviet Infantry Division. In this way, Viipuri was surrounded by the northeast, east, southwest, and south. The 7th Soviet Infantry Division was engaged in a frontal assault of the town.
http://www.hrono.ru/sobyt/finn1939_40.html
Sami Korhonen’s “Winter War,” http://www.winterwar.com/Maps/Frontline3.htm
contains a Finnish map of the last day of the war. It is worth pointing out that in war, a battle line cannot be marked down to the 1/4 mile. Rather, it should actually be drawn as a thick blurry line because it is volatile and contested.
(Hal Smith)
GIBRALTAR: U.S. freighter SS Exmoor, detained at Gibraltar by British authorities since 9 March, is released. (Jack McKillop)
CANADA:
Corvette HMCS Levis laid down Lauzon, Province of Quebec.
Passenger liner SS Prince Henry purchased for conversion to AMC HMCS Prince Henry. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: The government lifts its arms embargo to allow Britain and France to buy some P40 fighter planes
France was the first customer to purchase the Curtiss Model 81 (P-40). The first aircraft in French markings were completed in April 1940 but France was overrun before they could be delivered and the Royal Air Force (RAF) took delivery designating them Tomahawk Mk Is. The Curtiss Model Number was H81-A. The RAF realized that these aircraft were unsuitable for combat and relegated them to training; three were transferred to the Royal Canadian Air Force with RAF serial numbers. (Jack McKillop)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 0317, motor tanker Eulota was hit by a torpedo from U-28 about 120 miles west of Ouessant. The torpedo, fired from about 1000 meters, struck amidships, broke her in two and set her on fire. The crew abandoned ship, but returned later that morning. An Allied aircraft sighted the burning tanker in the afternoon and directed HMS Broke and Wild Swan to the ship. They picked up the survivors and scuttled the still floating bow section. (Dave Shirlaw)
In large part, much of the Soviet success in their offensive was the assault across the ice to make a bridgehead west of Vyborg. The Finns thought it impossible, but when the Soviets pulled it off it ended any hope the Finns had to contain the offensive.
One of the “heroes” of this Soviet attack was a political commissar (one of which was part of every unit’s command structure) named Nikolai Vashugin. Vashugin was known to go into combat “dressed to the nines” in his immaculate white clothing. He did show considerable personal courage and led from the front (unlike a lot of other commissars). Survivors of this operation credit Vashugin’s relentless leadership and disregard of casualties and personal danger as being instrumental in the success of the operation.
However, the success in Finland seems to have gone to his head. After the Winter War he was promoted over several senior party officers, and made political officer for the Kiev Special Military District, which became Southwest Front on June 22, 1941. He was the sort of strutting Stalin crony “who made officers around him uneasy.” In the opening days of Operation Barbarossa, he rode around to the various Mechanized Corps issuing orders for “immediate attack” even though the forces were not assembled. His orders also happened to have been made up on the spot and were not consistent with the orders flowing through the chain of command. When he realized his orders had probably wrecked several units, Vashugin “confessed” his “error” to Nikita Khruschev, who advised Vashugin that if he thought he’d made an error, he ought to just go shoot himself. Being the dutiful appparatchik, right then and there in front of Khruschev, Vashugin did as suggested.
Just thought I’d share that sidelight on things sometimes worked at the top levels of Soviet leadership. What a messed up operation.