Posted on 04/06/2010 4:48:36 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/apr40/f06apr40.htm
British leaflet raids end
Saturday, April 6, 1940 www.onwar.com
In London... RAF Bomber Command ends its leaflet (”Nickel”) raids over German occupied Europe. Since September 3, 1939 about 65 million leaflets and “newspapers” have been dropped.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/06
April 6th, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM: RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group. Reconnaissance - north-west Germany and the Ruhr. 10 Sqn. Two aircraft to the Ruhr. Slight opposition. One aircraft force landed near Grimsby on return.
After dropping 65 million leaflets, Bomber Command suspends ‘nickelling’ operations over Germany.
The aerial photographs of MacPhail’s mission over the Soviet oilfields and the accompanying intelligence evaluations arrive on the desks of the British and French general staffs. The Allied generals decide to concentrate on the refineries and oil tanks. The French Armee de la Air will raid Batum and the RAF will destroy the installations in Baku and Grozny. The staffs calculate that it will be possible to destroy a third of the targets in the first six days. The plans call for 9 bomber squadrons to level 122 refineries within a 10 to 45 days period. Two French squadrons of Farman 221s, 4 French squadrons of Glenn Martins and 3 British squadrons of Wellingtons were to be used the French flying from Cizre in Turkey and the RAF from Mosul in Iraq. With extra fuel the Allied fleet was expected to carry 70 tonnes of bombs per mission. The RAF anticipated a 20% loss rate, the French expected no losses. The general staffs believed that this would lead “to a total collapse of the USSR’s war capacity”, and even “decide the entire course of the war.”
NORTH SEA: U-1 goes missing. Probably lost by a mine in the mine barrage Field No. 7. in the North Sea. 24 dead (all hands lost). (Gary Kao)
NORWAY: Operation Wilfred, the British mining of Norwegian waters, begins. (Jack McKillop)
GERMANY: Kiel: RAF photo-reconnaissance reveals heavy naval activity at German ports in the area, believed to be in preparation for invasions of Norway and Denmark.
Operation Wesserübung: At midnight the Scharnhorst, accompanied by the Gneisenau, leaves Wilhelmshaven as the cover force of “Group I” for the invasion of Norway. (Navy News)
U.S.A.: A USAAC B-17 Flying Fortress is flown from Mitchel Field, Hempstead, Long Island, New York to Langley Field, Hampton, Virginia, by a pilot in a hooded cockpit using instruments. A co-pilot, navigator and four other crewmen were also aboard but they are not under a hood. (Jack McKillop)
The maiden flight of the first production Curtiss (Model 81-A) P-40, USAAC s/n 39-156, takes place at Buffalo, New York. Deliveries of the 524 P-40s to the USAAC begin in June. (Jack McKillop)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 219 April 6, 1940
At 3.16 AM, U-59 sinks Norwegian steamer SS Navarra with 1 torpedo 20 miles off the Scottish coast. Six die in the explosion and another 6 when their lifeboat capsizes. 14 survivors in one lifeboat are picked up by Finnish steamer Atlas and landed at Kirkwall, Orkney Islands.
British submarines HMS Truant & Seal depart Rosyth naval dockyard, Scotland, for the Norwegian coast. HMS Tarpon is ordered to patrol the German coast near Heligoland Bight.
After dark, Marine Gruppe 1 departs Cuxhaven for Narvik (10 destroyers carrying 2000 troops, plus battleships Scharnhorst & Gneisenau). Marine Gruppe 2 departs Wesermünde for Trondheim (cruiser Admiral Hipper & 4 destroyers carrying 1700 troops). In the North Sea between Narvik & Trondheim, British destroyer HMS Glowworm stops to rescue a crewman lost overboard in heavy seas & loses sight of HMS Renown and the minelaying squadron. http://www.uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/4394.html
U-1 disappears in the North Sea, probably lost to a British mine (all 24 hands lost).
Those inexperienced German officers will be shown a thing or two by the seasoned French commanders if they are foolish enough to go head to head with them.
Well, yes, and especially with all those 65 MILLION leaflets dropped on Germany, sounds to me like this whole debate is virtually over, and the Germans will soon be slinking home.
After all, if the pen is mightier than the sword, isn't a leaflet mightier than a bomb? ;-)
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