Posted on 05/23/2010 6:16:14 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/may40/f23may40.htm
British Fascists arrested
Thursday, May 23, 1940 www.onwar.com
In Britain... The former leader of the British Union of Fascists, Sir Oswald Mosley, is arrested. Also detained is a Member of Parliament, Captain Ramsay because he has been connected with the Right Club.
On the Western Front... General Rundstedt, commanding Army Group A, orders his tank forces to halt their advance. Despite this order 2nd Panzer Division forces are attacking Boulogne and inland the British evacuate Arras. Owing to this retreat the planned Allied counteroffensive is postponed. It is becoming clear to the British generals in France that an evacuation by sea is probably going to be necessary.
In the United States... President Roosevelt wins the Democratic primary in Vermont and is now certain to receive his party’s nomination for the November elections.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/23.htm
May 23rd, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM: RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group (Whitley). Bombing - road/rail communications at Avesnes, Maubeuge, Aulnoye and La Capelle. 58 Sqn. Five aircraft. 4 bombed, one FTR. 77 Sqn. Ten aircraft. All bombed. 102 Sqn. Nine aircraft. One returned early U/S, eight bombed. One damaged by Flak.
R V Jones, a scientist with Air Intelligence, tells the government that intersecting radio beams could guide Luftwaffe bombers to their targets.
London: Sir Oswald Mosley and 33 other Fascists, including a Member of Parliament, were arrested today on the orders of the Home Secretary. Under Defence Regulation 18B he has powers to detain members of organisations which may be used for purposes prejudicial to national security.
Mosley was arrested on returning to his flat in Dolphin Square in London. After a lightning raid on the office of the British Union of Fascists in Great Smith Street, eight other leading members were arrested. The MP arrested is Captain A M Ramsay, member for Peebles and president of the anti-Semitic Right Club.
The male detainees were taken to Brixton Prison. Six women detainees were in Holloway Prison last night. An official of the Ministry of Health, a secret Fascist, was also arrested.
The first prototype of the Covenanter tank is delivered. (Erik Lund)
Tug HMS Flamer launched.
Rescue tug HMS Assurance launched.
Minesweeper HMS Bangor launched.
Corvette HMS Campanula launched.
Destroyer HMS Harvester commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
FRANCE: The Allies start to evacuate Boulogne as the Germans press on to the Channel ports.
Along the slopes of the Vimy Ridge Matilda tanks of the British 1st Army Tank Brigade check 7 Panzer Division.
On the night of 22/23, when Guderian had received news of Kleists permission to use his 10th Panzers, he decided that it should relieve the 1st at Calais, the capture of which was not urgent, in order to hurl this division against Dunkirk, as it was in a good position to attack that port. The most important consideration, in fact, was to cut the last vital artery of the Allied armies as soon as possible.
Therefore at 10 am, the 1st Panzers pivoted eastwards and advanced towards Dunkirk, using both the Bourbourgville and the Gravelines roads. During the day it was delayed by some centres of resistance, but mostly by the Allied air force, the superiority of which was for the first time reported by von Kleist to the OKH.
By the evening 1 Panzer has reached the Aa canal, between Holque and the coast, i.e. at the extreme right of the “canal line” which had been improvised only three days before by Lord Gort, and was very weakly held by mainly French troops from Gravelines to Saint-Momelin and the British south of Saint-Momelin.
Reinhardts corps arrives on the Aa canal between Saint-Omer and Aire, ready for a thrust to Cassel and Hazebrouck.
Boulogne: The British 20th Guards Brigade re-embarks on the destroyers which had brought it into Boulogne the day before. The French still hold out.
Calais: Attacked by 10 Panzer, it is defended by units of 21 Infantry Division (French) and British 30 Infantry Brigade, which had disembarked on the 22nd with a battalion of tanks.
Destroyer FS Jaguar sunk off Dunkirk by German MTBs S-21 and S-23.
Destroyer FS Orage bombed and sunk off Boulogne. (Dave Shirlaw)
NORWEGIAN CAMPAIGN: All three fleet carriers are proceeding to Scapa Flow in thick fog. HMS Ark Royal in company with the destroyers HMS Brazen, HMS Encounter, and HMS Volunteer in one force, while HMS Glorious and HMS Furious form the core of a second force. The later force arrived at 2134, 23 May, and commenced refuelling. (Mark Horan)
The carriers HMS Furious and HMS Glorious have flown ashore the first modern RAF fighters.
CANADA:
Patrol vessel HMCS Husky (ex-US Yacht Wild Duck) commissioned.
Corvette HMCS Amherst laid down Saint John, New Brunswick. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: US President Roosevelt wins the Democratic Party primary in Vermont and is assured the nomination for President by his party.
Submarine USS Marlin laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 1254, the Sigurd Faulbaums was hit by two torpedoes from U-9 and sank by the stern in a few minutes. The ship was in tow of two tugs when torpedoed. The crew abandoned ship in seven lifeboats and was picked up by the tugs shortly thereafter.
For the second day in a row, U-101 in the North Atlantic encountered an enemy submarine. The latter fired torpedoes but the U-boat was able to dodge them.
U-122 encountered an enemy submarine in the North Atlantic, but neither boat attacked. (Dave Shirlaw)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 266 May 23, 1940
At 12.54 AM, U-9 torpedoes German steamer Sigurd Faulbaum (captured by Belgium on May 10) while under tow by 2 tugboats, 15 miles northeast of Zeebrugge. The stern sinks but the crew is rescued from the floating forepart by one of the tugs. http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/322.html
2nd Panzer Division attacks Boulogne, triggering the evacuation of British 20th Guards Brigade which has just arrived. Several British and French destroyers are bombed until RAF fighters arrive at 7.20 PM. However, Germans are so close that tank shells and small arms fire claim several lives on the ships, including the captains of HMS Keith and HMS Vimy. 4,360 troops are rescued (naval losses; 61 dead, 62 wounded). http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_boulogne_1940.html
Further North, British 3rd Royal Tank Regiment (equipped with cruiser tanks) and the 30th Motor Brigade land at Calais and hold off probing attacks by the 1st Panzer Division.
General Lord Gort withdraws British Expeditionary Force from Arras, where they had previously stopped Rommels Panzers.
Mods please move this to Breaking News
Good history there.
Okay, who could resist the “new airplane baked in oven” story? I would have sworn this was a Howard Hughes production, but it’s from “Timm Aircraft Corporation”. Interestingly, the material is spruce (like Hughes “Spruce Goose”) but the wood is saturated in plastics and oils and literally baked.
I always find it interesting that at this point (1940) the New York Times published foreign “War Communiques” (p16) from the French, Germans, and British without any favoritism or comment. The propaganda positively reeks from these communiques, but especially the Germans’.
Ping
It’s amusing to read the delusional optimistic Allied reporting while in reality they were getting their asses handed to them by the marauding Nazis.
Much like the current crop of “journalists”.
Every business in the UK should have shut down in protest of the 100% tax.
No wonder Europe is socialist
That was my first thought too when I read that headline.
Over the last two days of reporting the one thing that really stands out to me is that even with the positive spin that some of the reports have tried to put on things, there is a mass exodus underway. Yesterday especially, but you can see that they are fleeing from Paris, leaving Egypt, streaming away from the front, and anywhere else where the Allies currently have a foothold. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was uneasiness in British Somaliland.
This begins Dunkirk. Bless them all.
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