Posted on 05/21/2010 4:49:59 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
Winston S. Churchill, Their Finest Hour
Interesting letter to FDR by the Princrton scientists spearheaded by Albert Einstein.
Love Goering kissing Hitler’s arse. His comment about ‘total war’ is a joke because Germany industry was not converted to ‘total war’. That would only occur when Albert Speer takes over.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/may40/f21may40.htm
British tanks strike back
Tuesday, May 21, 1940 www.onwar.com
On the Western Front...Rommel’s division is sharply attacked around Arras by British tank forces. The attack does very well at first largely because of the comparative invulnerability of the Matilda tanks to the standard German antitank weapons. After some panic on the German side the attack is halted, principally because of the fire of a few 88mm guns. The British force is too small to repeat the advance or to shake free from this setback. Weygand visits the commanders of the northern armies to try to coordinate attacks from north and south of the German corridor to the coast. By a series of accidents he misses seeing Gort, and Bilotte, to whom he has given the fullest explanation of his plans, is killed in a car accident before he can pass them on. The attack will never take place. The small British effort has already been made. The Belgians will try to free some more British units for a later effort but this will not be possible. The French themselves, both north and south, are already too weak.
In Norway... The French, Polish and Norwegian forces moving in on Narvik advance another stage and gain positions on the northern side of Rombaksfiord.
In Berlin... In a conference Admiral Raeder mentions to Hitler for the first time that it may be necessary to invade Britain. The German navy has made some preliminary studies before this but they have not been based on the availability of French bases. Little though is given to the possibility at this stage even after this conference.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/21.htm
May 21st, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM: RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group (Whitley). Bombing - road/rail communications at Euskirchen, Julich and Rheydt. 10 Sqn. Ten aircraft. All bombed (2 - 6,000 feet). 51 Sqn. 12 aircraft, all bombed. One FTR. 58 Sqn. 12 aircraft, all bombed. Moderate to severe opposition. 77 Sqn. Seven aircraft. One returned early U/S, six bombed. 102 Sqn. Nine aircraft. Two returned early U/S, one FTR.
ASW trawler HMS Hornpipe launched.
Corvette HMS Hibiscus commissioned.
Minesweeping trawler HMS Chestnut commissioned.
(Dave Shirlaw)
NORTH SEA: U-8 encountered an enemy submarine, but neither boat attacked. (Dave Shirlaw)
BELGIUM: CSM George Gristock (b. 1905), Royal Norfolk Regiment, led an attack to cover his company’s right flank, and put a machine-gun post out of action. He died of severe leg wounds. (Later awarded the VC).
L/Cpl Harry Nicholls (1918-75), Grenadier Guards, despite shrapnel wounds, led an assault over two ridges, knocking out three machine-guns and attacking infantry before his capture (VC).
FRANCE: Weygand flies to the north to come to an agreement with the Belgian, British and French leaders for carrying out an offensive to cut off the Panzer spearhead. He orders the Belgians to cover the French and British on the east, while the rest attack southwards on the Arras-Cambrai front, with as strong a force as possible “in order to take advantage of the fact that the Panzers had not been joined by their major infantry units.... It would be best to include the maximum number of British divisions as they are in good condition. They must be relieved by French and Belgian troops which are not in good enough condition to attack. The Somme army, meanwhile, would attack from south to north.
In the evening, General Weygand is involved in an auto accident trying to coordinate attacks for both north and south of the German advance. The attacks will never take place.
The 7th Panzer Division suffers early in a British attack. The Matilda tanks are finally halted with a few of the German 88s.
MAP
NORWEGIAN CAMPAIGN:RAF 263 Sqn., equipped with Gladiator, flies off HMS Furious into Bardufoss. This is the first stage of the Allied plan to recapture Narvik.
The French, Polish and British forces reach Rombaksfiord near Narvik in Norway.
HMS Ark Royal, HMS Furious and HMS Glorious are in company off Narvik, intent on successfully ferrying the 18 Gladiator IIs of 263 Squadron, RAF from HMS Furious to Bardufoss landing ground.
At 0300, Ark Royal sends off a fighter patrol of six Skuas to cover the actual landings. The first section of three from 800 Squadron (Lt. K. V. V. Spurway, RN) and the second section from 803 Squadron (Lt. J. M. Christian, RN). All ran into fog, rain, and low cloud, but no German aircraft. While the Spurway’s section managed to return intact, Christian’s section became separated; two returned independently to the ship, but S-Lt. Easton, RN was forced to land in Norway.
Meanwhile, HMS Furious began dispatching the RAF fighters in sections, each led by a Swordfish of 818 Squadron. The process ended up being both dangerous and extended, but eventually 16 of the precious fighters reached the field successfully. Tragically, one Swordfish and the two Gladiator’s following it crashed into a fog covered mountain, killing one Gladiator pilot, PO Walter Phillip Richards, RAFVR, and badly injuring the other, FL R. S. Mills DFC, RAF as well as the entire Swordfish crew, S-Lt. J. A. Welply, RN (p), S-Lt. G. P. Simpson, RN (O), and LA H. H. Simpson, RN (TAG). Considering the atrocious weather, the limited losses were somewhat miraculous. It certainly eliminated the expected aerial opposition.
At 0730, Ark Royal was able to welcome home a lost chick when Swordfish 2K, missing since 13 May, returned from a week of solitude at Skaanland landing ground. The aircraft had successfully force-landed there after being fogged in while executing a reconnaissance mission. Thereafter, the crew had waited for the field to dry out enough for a successful takeoff while Ark was in range.
At 1120, one more fighter patrol was sent off to Narvik, but it was forced to return do to the low cloud base. By that point, Wells had received word that all the remaining Gladiators had successfully landed at Bardufoss, so flying was suspended for the day. The fleet then separated to return to Scapa Flow, Ark Royal, in dire need of replenishment of her ordnance stores sailing in one force, Furious and Glorious, the later still carrying the Hurricanes of 46 Squadron, RAF as Skaanland landing ground was not yet serviceable, proceeding in a second force.
Thus ended the second foray into Norwegian waters by the Fleet Air Arm.
During her two-week excursion off Norway, HMS Ark Royal’s air group had flown some 250 sorties, some 60 percent of them by the three Skua Squadron’s. 13 Aircraft had been lost, 8 Skuas and 5 Swordfish, though crew fatalities had been limited to two, the CO and Squadron Observer of 803 Squadron, Lt. W. P. Lucy and Lt. M. C. E. Hanson. For the next few days, the aerial defence of the troops ashore in northern Norway would rest solely in the hands of the Gladiator fighters of 263 Squadron.
GERMANY: The Wehrmacht High Command announced:-
‘The greatest offensive operation ever to take place in the west, is achieving its first strategic success following upon a series of major individual tactical successes. The French Ninth Army on the Meuse between Namur and Sedan, whose duty it was to establish and maintain communication between the powerful enemy strategic group in Belgium, and the Maginot Line south of Sedan, has been smashed and is breaking up. The Luftwaffe has played an outstanding role in this victory march of the German Army. By its complete command of the air, its destruction of river crossings and transport installations, and its assaults on march and transport columns, it has hastened the dissolution of the French Ninth Army and nipped in the bud all attempts made so far to threaten the flanks of our breakthrough.’
Berlin: Hitler grows impatient, complaining that the infantry is not following the armour closely enough.
Admiral Raeder mentions to Hitler the possibility of it becoming necessary to actually invade the British Isles.
U-569, U-570 laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: Submarine USS Trout launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 264 May 21, 1940
While Guderian consolidates his position on the English Channel, Rommel bypasses Arras to the West and aims for the coast 50 miles away. However, French and British commanders (notably Churchill) have been urging a counterattack on the Panzer spearhead. 74 British tanks, supported by 2 infantry divisions, attack Rommel’s infantry near Arras. The German 37mm PaK anti-tank guns have no effect on the British “Matilda” tanks. In desperation, Rommel uses his 88mm Flak 18, 36 & 37 anti-aircraft guns in flat fire. The famous “88” anti-tank gun is born. An advanced Panzer regiment turns around and attacks the British from the rear, helping to push the British tanks back to Arras. Rommel has 89 killed, 110 wounded and 173 “missing” (AWOLs, who mostly return). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1940FranceBlitz.jpg
Narvik. RAF 263 Squadron returns to Norway with 18 Gladiators & 46 Squadron provides 18 Hurricanes. They are unable to provide much protection to Allied warships in Ototfjord.
bump
For those who are interested, I posted this weeks issue of LIFE Magazine on yesterday’s thread. Sorry I forgot to do that.
My 4 Random Thoughts of the Day:
1. The French find the situation around Peronne “confusing?” I’m sure it is.
2. That map in the Times is at least 48 hours out of date. More like 72. And it’s based on what the French are letting out. But, as noted, they do find the pace of the fighting “confusing.”
2. Three American journalists have been allowed to be “embedded” as we now say with the German army. One of them is William Shirer. He is with Reichenau’s 6th Army as it pursues the BEF and French 1st Army westward through Belgium. I’ll post Shirer’s observations when I get home this evening.
3. The Times points out that the high level German commanders are a younger lot than their French counterparts. There is a significant difference in average age/rank comparisons throughout the mid-level officer corps of both armies. While there are a few “elder statesmen” in the Wehrmacht such as Leeb, Rundstedt and Bock, if discount them you find that the average German division or corps commander is the same age as the average French Major or Colonel. The average German regimental commander is 10-15 years younger than his French counterpart. It makes a huge difference in tempo of combat operations at these crucial operational levels of command. Not that the relative youth makes the Germans immune to stress. Reichenau, who is a fitness buff at 53 and who was the first German across the Vistula in Poland by swimming it in front of his troops, will have his health broken in Russia. Same for many of these other “young bucks.” But in the short campaign in France, the youth of the Germans is clearly running rings around the “experience” of the French. It kind of reminds me of Super Bowl XXVII; the young fast Dallas Cowboys against the “veteran” Buffalo Bills. Anyone recall how that turned out?
4. The article is playing out one of the brilliant strategic features of Sichelschnitt. By driving their wedge where they did, the Germans are exploiting the strategic differences of their allies. The BEF is interested in falling back to the Channel ports, and the Brits are already looking at evacuating the Continent for the Home Islands. The French are looking to cover Paris and the heart of their country. The German wedge is splitting the Allies apart along their strategic fault line.
Göring should be careful about piling on such praise to Hitler. Hitler may actually start to believe that he is a military genius and stop listening to his generals. ;-)
How ironic, the French are getting tooled by one of Napoleon's favorite moves.
Here's a link to Fuller's work that is online at the Command and General Staff College.
That article is a great read on principles of leadership. Everyone should read it, or better, live by it. Thanks for the link.
Apparently Senator LaFollette also made no distinction between illegal and legal immigrants.
The reactions to Einstein and Lindbergh were quite different huh?
Obvious butt kissing. But Hitler enjoyed that until he gets paranoid and then your dead.
Thanks. I think it is well worth the read for certain. I would change his range to 30-55 in my opinion, but then again, one must think about the mortality of the times when he wrote it. 45 was the later years, while for some now it’s when they have their mid-life crisis (its when I’m planning mine)
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