Posted on 06/05/2010 5:35:45 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
* The ad on this page is dedicated to abb because he is such a big fan of My Day.
to the great British Bulldog's utter dismay, the events that occurred because of and following the war ended the empire....
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/jun40/f05jun40.htm
Germans attack Somme defenses
Wednesday, June 5, 1940 www.onwar.com
On the Western Front... The German attack on the line of the Somme begins. The French have used the period of the Dunkirk battle to make some defensive preparations but not enough to compensate for the weakness of their forces. These are now organized as Army Groups Three and Four. Army Group Three holds the Somme near the coast and Army Group Four the line of the Aisne. The German attack is code named Operation Rot. Their tank forces, now organized in two Panzer Groups and one Panzer Corps, are given the leading role. The heaviest fighting at first in the area between Amiens and the sea where Hoth’s Panzer Corps is heading the drive.
In Paris... In a Cabinet reshuffle Daladier is dropped and the newly promoted General de Gaulle is made Under-Secretary for Defense.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/05.htm
June 5th, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM: RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group (Whitley). Bombing - troops and transport, France. 10 Sqn. Five aircraft to Doullens, all bombed.
51 Sqn. Six aircraft to Doullens, all bombed.
77 Sqn. Five aircraft to Bapaume. Four bombed, one force landed at Finningley.
102 Sqn. Six aircraft to Somme/Aisne. All bombed.
Strikes and lock-outs are now banned in Britain. Arbitration in industrial disputes is compulsory. Machinery in arms factories will run seven days a week, but workers can have one days rest in seven. It will be a criminal offence for an employer in certain vital industries - especially engineering - to engage a worker without government permission. Miners and farm workers will have to stay in their jobs. Plans are being prepared for possible large-scale transfers of population and communal feeding.
These decrees and emergency measures were announced today by Ernest Bevin, the Minister of Labour and National Service. He is rapidly becoming the most powerful member of the cabinet after Mr. Churchill himself.
In summing up the drastic changes in industrial relations and work practices Mr Bevin said: “I cannot have a peacetime economy in wartime. I do not want one soldier to come back and say You sent me there ill-equipped.”
He advised people not to have holidays. When asked what workers were to spend any higher pay on when there was a shortage of goods in the shops, the Labour Minister said: “They should save part of their wages which might be useful when they have a week or two off after the war.”
Mr Bevin gave an assurance that all the new controls and restrictions are for wartime only.
London: Many middle-class parents are planning to send their children abroad because of the danger of invasion. They are making private arrangements with relatives in Canada, other Dominions and the United States. The government is also planning an evacuation scheme of five to 16 year olds through the Childrens Overseas Reception Board. Offers to take British children are pouring in.
Broadcasting House: A new voice was heard giving the postscript to the BBC news tonight - the novelist J B Priestley, who talked of the Dunkirk evacuation in tones as downright and northern as Yorkshire pudding. “What was characteristically English about it was the part played by the little pleasure steamers. These Brighton Belles left that innocent world of theirs to sail into the inferno to rescue our soldiers. Some of them will never return.” He singled out the ferryboat Gracie Fields: “Now this little steamer, like all her brave and battered sisters, is immortal.”
NETHERLANDS: Flight Lieutenant Jimmy James, the co-pilot of a Wellington, was on the way to a mission over Germany when his plane is shot down by anti-aircraft fire. He bails out about 25 miles south of Rotterdam but is captured and taken prisoner. (Richard Goldstein, New York Times and Birmingham Evening Post)
FRANCE: Three German Panzer Corps launch Fall Rot [Plan Red], the attack on the Somme.
At 4 a.m. a heavy artillery and air bombardment fell on the sector between the sea and the confluence of the Ailette and Aisne. German infantry attacked on the Ailette, while tanks, followed by infantry, were pushing out from the Peronne and Amiens bridgeheads across the undamaged bridges, west of Amiens (between Picquigny and Longpre).
Weygand sent out an order of the day to the French Army: “May the thought of our wounded and invaded country inspire you with an unshakeable determination to hold firm. The fate of our country, our freedom and the future of our children depend on your resolution....”
This time the French Army responded to its Commanders appeal.
The Germans soon realised that things were different. It was no longer a rout as on the Meuse. French troops, now seasoned and organised in “hedgehogs” [small squares of mutually supporting strongpoints, armed with 75mm anti-tank guns], held out stubbornly and took a heavy toll of Panzers.
15 Panzer Corps crossed the Somme west of Hangest without much difficulty, by means of a railway bridge which had not been demolished. They were then held up by French colonial troops until 4 p.m. Rommel was then held up at Le Quesnoy. By nightfall the Germans had only established a relatively small bridgehead west of Amiens, and had been stopped in front of the French Tenth Armys second position.
At the Amiens bridgehead, 14 Panzer Corps ran into a spirited resistance by French 16 Infantry Division and only gained 6 miles.
16 Panzer Corps at the Peronne bridgehead only succeeded in gaining a small strip of land about 6 miles from its start-line.
Edouard Daladier, the Foreign Minister, leaves the government. Charles de Gaulle is appointed under-secretary to the Ministry of National Defence.
Captain Werner Molders, the leading German air ace, is shot down and taken prisoner by the French.
GERMANY: The two short legged torpedo boats, Falke and Jaguar, returned to Wilhelshaven while the rest continued Nort, Hipper and the destroyers refueling off the Loftens on the 6th. The initial plan had been to attack targets off opportunity in and around Narvik. However, the situation remained unclear, and finally, aware of several Allied convoys at sea travelling between Norway and England, Marschall opted to go for them. (Mark Horan)
NORWEGIAN CAMPAIGN: (Mark Horan): HMS Ark Royal is still tasked with covering the troop convoys partaking in the withdrawal of all Allied forces from Norway. Her air group is planning for four missions. Air defence Area missions ahead of (and sometimes behind) the carrier task force, A/S patrols over the convoys, weather patrols to Narvik, and fighter patrols over the embarkation points.
Ark sends off single plane A/S patrols (820 Squadron) at 0320 and 0540. However, at 0715 the carrier becomes immersed in a fog bank, forcing her to suspend further air operations until evening.
At 1935, in position 70.15 N, 16.20 E, operations commence anew with an A.D.A. patrol for the task force and a weather patrol to Narvik, the later reporting horrible weather inshore. Further A.D.A. patrols followed at 2047 and 2305 (all from 810 Squadron), another weather patrol going off at the later time as well, reporting the weather was at the minimal levels for operations.
Based on the report, at 2330, the first fighter patrol of the day takes off, three Skuas for 800 Squadron led by Lt. G. R. Callingham. The fighters were forced to stay under the cloud layer, saw no enemy aircraft, and further reported that the expected transports had yet to arrive!
HMS Glorious continues to wait for the weather to clear in order to embark 263 (RAF) and 701 (FAA) Squadrons from Norway. However, at the request of the Army, she is ordered to prepare a bombing mission for the early hours of next morning.
CANADA: Armed merchant cruiser HMCS Prince Henry commenced conversion refit at Canadian Vickers Montreal. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: First automobile drives across Lake Washington Floating Bridge. (Dave Shirlaw)
Buddy and Vilma Ebsen in Broadway Melody of 1936.
For all us Rommel fans, he’s the little arrow on the far left of the map [Bock’s far right] pointing at St. Valery. He’s also the German who broke the French front wide open for Phase II of the Battle of France.
Phase II is certainly brushed over in most accounts of the battle. The narrative normally goes right from Dunkirk to the Wehrmacht marching into Paris as if little fighting took place in the interim.
You’re right. And it’s a shame. The Germans displayed some of their more innovative panzer tactics, and operational techniques in Phase II, against a more coherent and cohesive [initially] French defense.
And Rommel not only bagged the 51st Highlander Division by himself, but set a speed record on the route march to Cherbourg thyat broke one established by the Mongols some 700 years before.
That’s very true. Much like the fact that the battles in Norway get lost in the fog with the western offensive. Even in these newspaper accounts it has almost completely disappeared. World War II history is full of interesting gaps with Phase II of the attack on France being one of them. We are also going to get to witness another forgotten battle here pretty soon and I’ll give you a hint what it is...name the first Axis capital taken by British troops.
Remember - this was before the invention of teleprompters. Give it a listen, folks. It is ten minutes well spent.
Great post. Thanks for all of your “history” posts, Homer. I glanced at all 22 pages including the baseball box scores a couple of hours ago.
(I went out to get pizza and meant to thank you after dinner.)
Thanks very much for the link to the audio of Churchill’s speech. Listening now.
Probably the most famous Churchill speech!
Now I can’t decide whether to eat at Shrafft’s with their great A/C or at Child’s with their 35 cent luncheons!
I’d go for Shrafft’s at this point, It broke 100 degrees here today.
I am sure Child’s has A/C but they don’t throw it out there enough. :)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 279 June 5, 1940
At 5 AM, Germany begins the second phase of the conquest of France (Fall Rot), attacking South across the Somme and Aisne rivers with 130 divisions plus 10 Panzer divisions reequipped with fresh tanks. In contrast, France has lost 30 of its best divisions (and the BEF) along with most of its vehicles and armour. French CiC General Weygand has only 66 divisions, including 17 in the fortified Maginot Line defenses, to hold a front longer than before the invasion. He organizes a series of strongpoints bristling with artillery & anti-tank guns (the Weygand Line) in woods and villages along the Somme and Aisne rivers joining the Maginot Line at Montmédy. These hedgehogs confuse the Germans & hold their initial advance to 10km.
At 11.18 PM, U-48 shells British armed merchant Stancor (300 tons of fish) 80 miles Northwest of Scotland. All 19 crew (10 in a lifeboat and 9 picked up by British trawler Kinaldie) make land on Isle of Lewis. http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/337.html
French soldiers evacuated from Dunkirk are returned via channel ports still under French control. To reinforce Weygand, Churchill also sends Canadian 1st Infantry Division to France, joining parts of British 1st Armoured Division & 51st Highland Division which avoided encirclement at Dunkirk.
French Prime Minister Reynaud ousts his nemesis ex-PM Daladier and reshuffles his Cabinet. Charles de Gaulle, promoted to General on May 25, is made Under-Secretary for Defense.
Evacuation of Narvik. Another 4900 Allied troops board transport ships.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.