Posted on 03/15/2010 5:50:48 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Winston S. Churchill, The Gathering Storm
Now this piece on degaussing is very informative. Recall all the hubbub in the fall of last year when the magnetic mine caused considerable damage to RN vessels.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/mar40/f15mar40.htm
British bomber lands in Germany
Friday, March 15, 1940 www.onwar.com
In Occupied Poland... During the night (March 15-16), RAF bombers drop leaflets over Warsaw. During the return flight, a British Whitley bomber, low on fuel, lands by mistake in a field in western Germany. The crew encounter and speak to some local inhabitants before taking off again before German authorities arrive. Some small arms fire is reported.
In Finland... The Finnish Diet, meeting in secret session during the evening, ratifies the Moscow peace agreement by 145 votes to three. Speaking before the vote, the prime minister, Mr. Ryti, says: “Finland, as well as the whole of Western civilization, is still in the greatest danger, and no one can say what tomorrow may bring. We believe that by choosing peace we have acted in the best way for the moment.”
In Romania... An amnesty is granted to members of the fascist Iron Guard (see September 21, 1939). Eight hundred are released from prison camps after they swear an oath of loyalty to King Carol.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/15.htm
March 15th, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM:
RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group. Leaflets and Reconnaissance - Vienna and Warsaw. 77 Sqn. Two aircraft from Villeneuve sent to Warsaw. 6 million leaflets dropped. One landed in Germany but escaped. [N1387 flown by Flt. Lt. B.S. Tomlin, after successfully dropping the leaflets, set off on the return flight to Villeneuve. As dawn approached their fuel stocks were getting low and they were lost - or in navigation parlance uncertain of their position. Thinking they were over France, Tomlin landed the aircraft in a large field. After stopping the engines and getting out of the Whitley the crew discovered to their horror when attempting to converse with some civilians who had appeared on the scene, that they were in Germany. This fact was confirmed by the approach of a number of German troops on bicycles.
Dashing back to the aircraft they piled aboard, fortunately managed to get both engines started, and hauled the Whitley back into the air as the enemy troops fired their rifles. Once airborne they established their position and crossed the German/French border. When they arrived back at Villeneuve to tell their story, the newspapers had a field day.
In Nazi Germany however, the repercussions were more serious. The day after the incident a Hauptmann and three German soldiers from the local Wehrmacht unit arrived at Niedersalbach, the village near to which the Whitley had landed. They apprehended Albert Kartes, a 17 year old who had, unfortunately for him, conversed with Sergeant Ron Charlton, the Whitley’s air observer. He was carted off to the headquarters of a military unit where he was interrogated and then incarcerated in the remand prison at Volklingen, some six miles away. A week later he and another eye-witness of the incident were brought to trial, accused of ‘giving support to the enemy’. They were found guilty and sentenced to two years imprisonment, the judges commenting that the ‘leniency’ was due to Kartes youth. However, thanks to the village pastor and some influential members of the local community there was a re-trial, during the course of which the defending counsel was able to convince the judges that those responsible for the escape of the Whitley and its crew were the fully armed German soldiers who had appeared on the scene and done nothing. The outcome was that the sentence was quashed and Albert Kartes and his co-defendant were released six weeks later. During a renewed hunt for scapegoats, they even tried to nail the village policeman for not being on the scene quick enough.”]
Leaflets and Reconnaissance - Ruhr and Rhine. 51 Sqn. Six aircraft from Villeneuve. Some opposition. Weather bad.
78 Sqn N1350 damaged landing at Linton-on-Ouse. Flg Off F.Aikens and crew safe.
Submarines HMS Trusty and Turbulent laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
ENGLISH CHANNEL: ASW trawler HMS Peridot mined and sunk off Dover. (Dave Shirlaw)
FINLAND: Helsinki: The Finnish Diet, meeting in secret session, tonight ratified the Moscow peace agreement by 145 votes to 3. (Note: 45MPs were absent and nine cast a blank ballot (Mikko Härmeinen) Speaking before the vote was taken, Prime Minister Ryti said: “Finland, as well as the whole of western civilization, is still in the greatest danger, and no one can say what tomorrow may bring. We believe that by choosing peace we have acted in the best way for the moment.” There is some bitterness here towards Sweden, thought by the Finns to have let them down by not allowing Allied troops passage across its territory. The immediate problem for Finland though is how to evacuate and care for the 470,000 displaced persons from the territories now occupied by Russia, one-eighth of the population.
ROMANIA:800 imprisoned members of the pro-Nazi Iron Guard are granted an amnesty after swearing an oath of allegiance to King Carol.
U.S.A.: Two films are released in the U.S. today; the first is “The Grapes of Wrath.” This drama, based on the John Steinbeck novel, is directed by John Ford and stars Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine, Eddie Quillan, and Ward Bond. The story concerns a group of people leaving the Oklahoma dust bowl for California during the Great Depression. This film, ranked Number 21 on the American Film Institute’s 100 Greatest Movies, is nominated for seven Academy Awards; the film wins two, Best Director (Ford) and Best Supporting Actress (Darwell). It also wins the Best Picture Award from both the National Board of Revue and the New York Film Critics Circle and John Ford is also awarded the Best Director Award by the latter organization.
The second film is “Young Tom Edison” which premiered last month in Michigan. This drama, directed by Norman Taurog, stars Mickey Rooney, Fay Bainter and George Bancroft and depicts the early life of the famous inventor.
“Broadcasting” magazine reports that the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) has cut the price of television sets and is starting a sales drive intended to put a minimum of 25,000 TV sets in homes in the service area of the National Broadcasting Company’s (NBC’s) New York City experimental TV station, W2XBS. RCA owns NBC.
(Jack McKillop)
The US Navy comes up with a preliminary design for the ‘Montana’ 72,000 ton Battleship class. (Picture)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 197 March 15, 1940
Alan Turing’s development of the Polish “cryptologic bomb” yields the British Bombe at Government Code and Cypher School, Bletchley Park, England. The first working Bombe (named “Victory”), manufactured by the British Tabulating Machine Company at Letchworth, Hertfordshire, goes operational decrypting daily settings on the German Enigma machines.
The Finnish Parliament ratifies the Moscow Peace Treaty by 145 votes to 3 (52 abstentions, including Prime Minister Voionmaa who is traveling from Moscow and can not vote).
Emphasizing the global nature of the growing conflict, Royal Navy armed merchant cruiser HMS Kanimbla (a converted Australian passenger ship) impounds Soviet steamer Vladimir Mayakovsky carrying American copper to Germany in the Sea of Japan. She will be taken to Hong Kong, handed over to the French and sailed to Saigon, Vietnam arriving on 1 April. http://www.navy.gov.au/w/index.php/HMAS_Kanimbla_%28I%29
At 7.30 AM in the Bay of Bengal near the Nicobar Islands, British aircraft carrier HMS Eagle is damaged when a 250 pound bomb explodes in the bomb room in an operational mishap (14 lives lost). HMS Eagle will be repaired and refitted in Singapore, leaving 9 May for the Mediterranean.
I guess the Nazis will get pissed when Stalin annexes Bessarabia in Romania.
As reported at the end of February, John Dunning called Alfred Nier confirming his suspicion that U-235 was responsible for the slow neutron fusion of Uranium.
This was the first inklings that the separation of the U238 would be necessary in order to maintain a chain reaction.
Dunning along with Eugene T. Booth and Aristide von Grosse said as much in an article they authored for the Physical Review on March 15:
"These experiments emphasize the importance of uranium isotope separation on a larger scale for the investigation of chain reaction possibilities in uranium."
The Making of the Atomic Bomb - Richard Rhodes pp 332-333.
I guess the Nazis will get pissed when Stalin annexes Bessarabia in Romania.
Yep.
Come July 1st the Nazi’s attitude towards the Soviets as a whole will change anyway.
OK, so what happens on 7/1? My time line is silent on German-Soviet relations that week.
As we all know Hitler always had every intention to invade the Soviet Union. On July 1st the planning for what would eventually evolve into BARBAROSSA began when Brauchitsch ordered Halder to begin thinking of what it would take to invade the Soviet Union. Halder's planning proceeded rather chaotically since there was no clear direction given to him on what the goals should be. On July 22nd he was still struggling with this when he noted "What operational objective could be obtained? What strength have we available? Timing and area of assembly?"
So even though it's a bit vague, July 1st was technically the kickoff for the planning for invading Russia.
Sourced from A War to be Won: Fighting the Second World War - Williamson Murray and Allan R. Millett
Hitler ordered studies on invading the USSR before the Germans had finished the French [and BARBAROSSA would start on the first anniversary of the French capitulation].
Hitler did yes. This was apparently the official order within the Wehrmacht as recorded in Halder’s War Diary.
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