Posted on 04/01/2010 4:40:31 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/apr40/f01apr40.htm
Hitler approves invasion of Norway
Monday, April 1, 1940 www.onwar.com
In Berlin... Hitler approves the plans for the invasion of Norway.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/01.htm
April 1st, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM: The government says that it will intervene to keep food prices down.
Douglas Bader, the brilliant pilot and rugby footballer who lost both legs when he crashed his Bristol Bulldog fighter in December 1931, is back in the cockpit, flying fighters again with the RAF. He left the RAF because he was no longer allowed to fly despite his mastery of his “tin legs”. But immediately the war was declared he started to pull strings until he was given a test on a trainer. All his old skill came flooding back - flying was still “a piece of cake”. No he can be seen stumping towards his Hurricane, as aggressive as ever, to fly patrols over Channel convoys, and when he takes of he flies like all the other pilots - only better than most.
This is one take on Bader, a somewhat controversial figure. Cris Wetton views from another angle.
REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA: Parliament passes General Smuts’ War Measures Bill.
GERMANY: Hitler fixes the date of Operation Weserubung [Exercise Weser], the invasion of Norway and Denmark, at 9 April and orders preparations to start.
U.S.A.: Broadcasting magazine reports that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has suspended its order for “limited commercial” operation of TV, censures the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) for their sales efforts which are seen as an attempt to freeze TV standards at the present level and calls a new hearing. Critics call the move “usurpation of power.” (Jack McKillop)
CANADA: Trans-Canada Airlines (TCA) begins transcontinental airline service today with a flight from Montreal, Quebec, to Vancouver, British Columbia. TCA operates 10-passenger Lockheed Model 14-H2 Super Electras and 14-passenger Lockheed Model 18-10 Lodestars. (Jack McKillop)
JAPAN: The prototype Mitsubishi A6M1, Navy Type 0 Carrier Fighter (assigned the Allied Code Name “Zeke” in 1942) makes its first flight at Kagamigahara. A total of 10,449 aircraft will be build during the war. (Jack McKillop)
Wow! An Anglo-French Union, the kernel of today’s European Union.
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 214 April 1, 1940
The invasion of Denmark and Norway is set for April 9. Hitler allocates 6 divisions (including specialist mountain infantry and paratroops) 20 light tanks and 3 experimental Neubaufahrzeug heavy tanks for Norway, plus 2 divisions for Denmark. Almost every available naval vessel will be used to transport or protect these troops. Luftwaffe will provide air support and chase off Royal Navy ships trying to intercede. This is in contrast to the small, mainly reserve, force the British intend to send to Norway without air cover.
Almost alone among the senior British military, Vice-Admiral Max Horton (commanding Royal Navy home-based submarines) anticipates a German invasion of Norway. He orders 12 submarines (including 2 French and 1 Polish vessels) to patrol the southern North Sea and the seas around Denmark, to intercept warships from naval bases German coast. HMS Sealion is the first to leave, departing Harwich naval base for the Kattegat, East of Denmark.
A novelization of the attack of the destroyer, "HMS Glowworm" on the German heavy cruiser "Hipper" during the Norway invasion.
"Cannot Send Men or Money Into Poland for Work of Charity""The German Government has refused to permit representatives of the holy see to see the Polish clergy and Catholics in Western Poland, it was authoritatively stated in Vatican quarters today..."
Least we forget -- of the approx. six million Poles who died in WWII, half were Jews, the other half Catholics.
Already in early 1940, the Vatican is deeply concerned, and Nazi death machines were not even fully cranked up yet.
But their refusal to allow Vatican representatives into Poland speaks as sinisterly as anything about the Nazis' future intentions.
There is a hard-hitting piece on the Sumner Welles European trip on page 30. In contains crucial data on the relative tallness of welles, Halifax and Ribbentrop.
There is a short biographical piece on General von Brauchitsch on page 58. Includes a good photo.
Nevile Henderson wrote the longest article in this week's issue. He relates his version of his time as ambassador to Berlin from 1937 until last September.
Doesn't this magazine have a table of contents?
LOL. It does have a table of contents, but it is like alot of magazines I see today where there are about 30 pages of ads and letters before the table of contents shows up. In this case its on page 21. I also liked the review of the weapons used in the Winter War. Some nice pictures of what is basically the first cluster bomb.
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