Posted on 03/20/2010 4:38:08 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
This is from back in the day when the NEW YORK TIMES used to actually report the news, instead of trying to direct it.
This was obviously WAY before smart GPS and laser guided bombs...
intersting. you have the sense that the leaders of al the countries really dont want the war to burn out of control, but they cant find a way to stop it. the brits seem always to be willing to ratchet up a notch.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/mar40/f20mar40.htm
French PM resigns
Wednesday, March 20, 1940 www.onwar.com
In Paris... Daladier, the French prime minister, is forced to resign. He has been criticized for failing to bring effective help to Finland. In France this has been seen as a way for the Allies to seize the initiative in the war and take the fighting away from French soil and, by association, avoid all the horrors of World War I.
From Moscow... The USSR forbids alliance between Finland, Norway and Sweden.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/20.htm
March 20th, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM: RAF Coastal Command: German bombers attacking convoys driven off in consort with aircraft of Fleet Air Arm and warships.
The prototype Armstrong Whitworth Albermarle reconnaissance bomber (P1360) makes its maiden flight.(22)
FRANCE: Prime Minister Edouard Daladier is forced to resign; he has been criticized for failing to effectively help the Finns. In France this has been seen as a way for the Allies to seize the initiative in the war and take the fighting away from French soil and, by association, avoid all the horrors of World War I. (Jack McKillop)
GERMANY: Berlin: An amiable civil engineer who built Germany’s autobahns has been given the job of mobilising all available manpower, including the conquered Poles and Czechs, to work in the munitions factories of the Reich. Dr Fritz Todt, said by foreigners who have met him to be the most likeable of the leading Nazis, becomes Minister for Armaments and Munitions; he will be the biggest employer of labour in Germany, and will control the allocation of scarce raw materials.
Todt’s labour battalions built the massive Siegfried Line opposite the Maginot Line and have recently been working on the construction of an Ostwall opposite the Stalin Line in the east.
U.S.S.R.: Moscow: Russia warns of its opposition to an alliance of Scandinavian countries in the belief that it would be hostile.
ITALY: President Roosevelt’s envoy, Sumner Welles, sails from Genoa, ending his efforts on behalf of the US to end the war.
SYRIA: Aleppo: Allied air force staffs meet to agree on their plans for a bombing raid on the Soviet oil fields.
CANADA: Corvette HMCS Napanee laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: The U.S. Ambassador to Brazil, Jefferson Caffery, reports to Secretary of State Cordell Hull that the Brazilian government’s protesting HMS Dorsetshire’s stopping SS Wakama on 12 February had not pleased the British. The British maintained that they were protecting Brazilian commerce. “Indeed you are not,” the Brazilian Minister for Foreign Affairs Oswaldo Aranha retorts, “you are definitely not protecting our commerce by maintaining your warships off our coast. It is apparent to me that your blockade of Germany is plainly ineffective. If it were effective, you could stop the German boats [sic] on the other side before they entered German ports.” (Jack McKillop)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Home Fleet battlecruisers to the north of the Shetlands cover a cruiser sweep into the Skagerrak. As they do, screening destroyer HMS Fortune sinks U-44. (Dave Shirlaw)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 202 March 20, 1940
Battle of the Atlantic. Developing a taste for small fry, U-19 sinks two more unescorted Danish steamers in the Moray Firth, Scotland. SS Viking is sunk at 5 AM (15 dead, 2 survivors) and SS Bothal is sunk at 5.15 (15 lives lost, 5 survivors).
U-22 departs Wilhelmshaven and is lost shortly thereafter (all 27 hands lost), failing to respond to orders on March 22, 26, 27.
Off the coast of Holland, British bombers sink the converted steamer Altenfels now known as German Sperrbrecher 12 (path-clearing ship, designed to detonate minefields).
http://www.german-navy.de/kriegsmarine/ships/minehunter/sperrbrecher/index.html
I find it a bit ironic that Daladier is reported as having maintained confidence despite the abstentions but in fact he is today forced to resign (which I’m sure is reported tomorrow). Both Chamberlain and Daladier really took a beating for their inaction on the Finland issue. Had they both taken steps to get troops and material to Finland not only would they had possibly retained power, but the Allies would also have been at war with the Soviets. That may have given the postwar world an entirely different look.
There wouldn’t have been a Cold War.
Perhaps. Or maybe there would still have been a Cold War, but with different adversaries. Remember that at this time we still have War Plan Red on the books, just barely superseded by the first of the Rainbow plans.
That's a what-if that leads off in strange directions. Would Hitler have proceeded with Barbarossa planning if the Allies suddenly became declared enemies of the Soviets? And how would they have gotten at each other to fight, other than through Finland. Heck, Hitler might have provided transport across Norway and Sweden for them at no cost. "Have at it, guys. Knock yourselves (and each other) out."
” Hitler might have provided transport across Norway and Sweden for them at no cost.”
Would we have seen FDR selling Uncle Adolf instead of Uncle Joe?
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