Posted on 06/11/2010 4:44:05 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Winston S. Churchill, Their Finest Hour
I consider this one of the most overlooked “What if?” scenarios of World War II....how does the war unfold if Italy follows the lead of Spain and remains neutral?
Page 9: French Still Confident.
Just wow.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/jun40/f11jun40.htm
Paris declared an open city
Tuesday, June 11, 1940 www.onwar.com
Refugees flee Paris: a French mother waits for a train to take her family south away from the fighting.
On the Western Front... Paris is declared an open city. Most of what remains of the French forces are retreating in confusion south of the Seine and Marne. The German tank forces take Reims.
In the Mediterranean... The first actions of the war in this theater are some air skirmishes in North Africa and over Malta.
In France... British Prime Minister Churchill meets Reynaud and Weygand at Briare (until June 13). Churchill is unable to instill much of his own fighting spirit into the French leaders. Reynaud would prefer to fight on but has little support. The British are determined to prevent the Germans from obtaining control of the French navy.
the trains continue to run on time in Italy to this day...
.....Berettas are not the US Army handgun of choice, the Walther is....
Joe McCarthy elected president in ‘52.....Goldwater becomes president in 60...Senator John Kennedy marries Marilyn Monroe in 63...is murdered by Joe DiMaggio in November of the same year....under the leadership of Werner VonBraun the first man lands on the Moon in 1969 under the flag of Germany's 3rd Reich....Schwarznegger becomes US president in 2000...
""On this 10th day of June, 1940, the hand that held the dagger has struck it into the back of its neighbor.""
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT ADDRESS AT CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA June 10, 1940
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/11.htm
June 11th, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM:
RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group (Whitley). Bombing - aero-engine works at Turin and Genoa, Italy - road and rail communications in France.
10 Sqn. Eight aircraft to Turin. Five aborted, three bombed. Five aircraft to Somme/Abbeville. Four bombed, one FTR.
51 Sqn. Seven aircraft to Turin. One aborted, six bombed. Four aircraft to Somme/Abbeville. One returned early, three bombed.
58 Sqn. Six aircraft to Turin. Five aborted, one bombed.
77 Sqn. Eight aircraft to Turin. Six aborted, one bombed, one FTR.
102 Sqn. Seven aircraft to Turin. Five took off, three aborted, one bombed Turin, one bombed Genoa. One aircraft to Somme/Abbeville, successful.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill again sends a telegram to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt asking for destroyers especially since the Royal Navy now must deal with Italian submarines. Churchill states, “To this, the only counter is destroyers. Nothing is so important as for us to have 30 or 40 old destroyers you have already had reconditioned.” (Jack McKillop)
Prior to the Italian declaration of war, the British and French governments had jointly agreed that in the eventuality of Italy joining forces with Germany, the Allies would commence air operations against her. Thus a force of bombers code-named ‘Haddock Force’ was created, comprising Wellingtons from Nos. 99 and 149 Squadrons of 3 Group. ‘Haddock Force’ was to be based on the French airfields at Salon and Le Vallon, to which an advance party had been despatched on June 7th. On the morning of June 11th, the Wellingtons of No. 99 Squadron arrived at Salon where they were immediately refuelled and bombed-up for a raid on Italian industrial targets that night. However the local French Air Force commander, backed up by a deputation from local authorities were aware that the Italians had already bombed Cannes and Nice that morning. They were fearful of possible Italian attacks in retaliation and objected to such a raid. Despite protests from the RAF commander that they had the approval of the French government and the personal intervention of Churchill to the French Premier Reynaud, the local authorities refused to budge. As the Wellingtons began to taxi out the airfield was blocked by French Army trucks and other vehicles. In order to prevent a clash the raid was called off and the Wellingtons ordered back to England to prevent sabotage by the French.
The RAF had taken out insurance by moving 4 Group Whitleys to the Channel Islands. The aircraft took off from the small airfields at Jersey and Guernsey bound for the Fiat aero-engine works at Turin and the Ansaldo factories at Genoa as the alternative. Electrical storms of great severity hampered the force and caused twenty crews to abort.
The prototype Hawker Hurricane Mk II makes it maiden flight. It is 20 mph faster than the Mk I.
FRANCE:
Paris: The military governor, General Hering, declares Paris an open city. Meanwhile, a great exodus of citizens has been underway, organised by George Mandel, the Minister of the Interior.
Soissons: The French Army pulls back across the Aisne river.
The Germans have established three bridgeheads across the Seine and have crossed the Marne, thus separating the French 4th and 6th Armies. They have also captured Reims.
Briare, near Orleans: Churchill arrived here this afternoon with senior figures including Mr. Anthony Eden and Sir John Dill, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, to find out what the French are planning to do. Weygand, established in a railway carriage, greeted the British with the news the “the last line of defence has been pierced ... We are going to have to ask how France can continue the war.”
This evening, after dinner, Reynaud told Churchill that Marshal Petain had already written down an appeal to the Germans for an armistice, but, Reynaud said: “He is ashamed to show it to me.” Churchill told the gloomy French leaders that no matter what they did “we shall fight on forever.”
Destroyers HMCS St Laurent and Restigouche exchanged fire with German artillery battery at St. Valery-en-Caux during the evacuation of the British 51st Highland Division and French troops. These were the first shots fired in anger by the RCN during World War II. (Dave Shirlaw)
NORWEGIAN CAMPAIGN: (Mark Horan) 0800 saw the departure of another search, this time by nine Swordfish out to 120 miles between 181 northward to 359 degrees. Nothing was sighted, but thick weather ahead was reported.
At 0830, Lt. G. E. D. Finch-Noyes section of 800 Squadron (three Skuas) went up after another snooper but it was a friendly Coastal Command flying boat. At 1200, Ark Royal entered the weather front and flying was suspended.
Meanwhile, word had come in via Coastal Command photo recon efforts that the elusive German warships whish had sunk Glorious (by now the Germans had announced their success to the world) were in Trondheim harbour. In an effort to rid themselves of the enemy’s remaining capital ships, Ark Royal was going to strike the enemy where they lay. Unfortunately, for the FAA crews would would be involved, Trondheim is not Bergen ...
MALTA:
The first Italian air raid of the war destroys one of the four Gloster Gladiator fighters defending the island. The remaining three ‘Faith’, ‘Hope’ and ‘Charity’ are flown by flying-boat pilots as the RAF has no presence on the island.
Italian bombers (SM 79s) with fighter escort (Mc 200s), attack Grand Harbour, Halfar and Kalafrana.
Station Fighter Flight of Sea Gladiators (Faith, Hope and Charity) in action. In seven attacks 11 civilians and six soldiers are killed and 130 civilians and some soldiers are injured.
LIBYA: at 12:01 a.m. on June 11, men of the 11th Hussars armored regiment begin cutting gaps in the barbed-wire fences marking the frontier, and are soon attacking Italian truck traffic along the coast road. (Mike Yaklich)
AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND and REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA declare war on Italy.
U.S.A.: Washington: Congress passes the Naval Supply Act, giving $1,500 million to the US Navy.
The German submarine U-101 stops the U.S. passenger liner SS Washington which is enroute from Lisbon, Portugal, to Galway, Eire, with 1,020 American citizens, to pickup more U.S. citizens leaving Europe. The sub captain believes the ship is a Greek vessel and orders all passengers and crew to abandon ship prior to it being sunk. Blinker signals between the two vessels eventually confirm Washington’s identity and she is allowed to proceed. (Jack McKillop)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 285 June 11, 1940
France. Rommel’s 7th Panzer Division captures Le Havre and then turns back to drive 30 miles Northeast up the coast to St-Valery-en-Caux, encircling 46,000 French and British troops. Fog and German shelling have prevented a full-scale evacuation of St-Valery-en-Caux but destroyer HMS Broke and corvette HMS Gardenia embark the wounded. Empty British troopship Bruges is sunk by German bombing near Le Havre (all 72 crew survive). Guderian’s Panzers capture Reims.
Following Italy’s declaration of war, Italian troops begin traversing the Alps towards the French border. 10 Italian Royal Air Force Cant Z.1007 Alcione bombers attack Grand Harbour, Hal Far and Kalafrana in Malta (1 civilians and 6 soldiers killed, 130 wounded). Italian forces stationed in Libya and the British and Commonwealth forces stationed in Egypt begin a series of raids on each other. British 11th Hussars armored cars cross into Libya and capture Italian prisoners who are unaware they are at war.
Winston Churchill and British Foreign Minister Anthony Eden fly to France for a Supreme War Council meeting at Chateau du Muguet near Briare. There is a palpable air of French defeatism. Churchill refuses a request for RAF support. Horrified at the prospect of a French surrender, Churchill reiterates the March 28 agreement that neither country will conclude a separate peace with Germany. Admiral François Darlan assures Churchill that the French fleet will not fall into German hands.
37 survivors from HMS Glorious and 2 from HMS Acasta are picked up by Norwegian trawler Borgund and landed on the Faroe Islands June 13. Destroyers HMS Veteran and Forester go to the Faroes on June 16th and take them to Scapa Flow.
U-boats harass shipping off Cape Finisterre, Spain. U-48 and U-101 sink Greek steamers SS Violando N. Goulandris and SS Mount Hymettus. U-46 torpedoes British tanker Athelprince which does not sink. Athelprince will be salvaged and return to service in January 1941. http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/342.html
A big thank you for the work you are doing. These articles are of great interest to me, I am learning a lot about that period.
And what if Italy didn't get bogged down in the Balkans where the Germans had to bail them out, and lost precious months in launching Operation Barbarossa.
How could anyone think after FDR’s remarks that the US was not going to get involved.
You are welcome. You and I, both, are learning a lot about the period. I just wish I had more time to read my own darn threads. Since I left the rolls of the unemployed in April I barely have time to get the threads ready. Which reminds me . . .
Oh,oh. Running late again. I'm outa here.
Needless to say, this is a pro-Poland publication and just as a side effect of that I’ve tried to think of the bias that may present itself just due to that fact. So I will qualify these first numbers I give as not readily confirmable and perhaps even bias against Germany. But that said there are still two major points that need to be focused on here. First, is that these numbers, from an historical perspective, do not appear to be outlandishly skewed, and second the point is that this was the information that Americans received at the time on the matter. Right or wrong, this was some of the information that they had to work with to form their opinions.
The toll of the German Campaign on Poland in these first 9 months has been costly in lives and materials in the Polish frontier with the following statistics on the carnage:
Some of these numbers are really hard to determine as solid statistics. I would imagine for example that separating 1,100,000 men and women as killed from those who are just unaccounted for because they are displaced as refugees would be hard to solidify. But none the less, there are some very important aspects that we can see in these figures that I will expand on shortly. After all, we see in these numbers 4 million civilians being deported. But deported to where, and who are they? This and subsequent articles in this magazine cast some light as to who is being relocated, why, and where. This is something that really has not been prevalent in the press with the exception of the reports of the Jews being sent to a reservation late last year that at the time we did not know if it really existed (and at the time it did not with many of these Jews just being force across the Bug river to the Soviet occupation zone).
A Letter from a Mother to her Son
As it can be imagined, any letters getting out of Poland at this point is a rare find. This letter was addressed from a mother still in Poland to her son who had gotten out and was not in France with the free Polish forces. This letter has a lot of varying detailed information. So much in fact that if almost makes me a bit suspicious that this is really just a compilation of tidbits that have leaked out of Poland being presented as a singular source. In this letter she describes seeing “transports filled with deportees from Pozan and the entire Pomorze”. These individuals were being displaced in the cold of December to barracks with no bedding, and then eventually to the “so-called General-Governorship”. She describes the numbers of these people saying “at least a million people have been shifted under such conditions” and I think that is not a unrealistic assessment, but this is one of those cases where I wonder how “Mom” came about that number. She describes those who are being displaced as those of affluence whom the Nazis ousted in order to give their more lavish dwellings to German citizens. She also goes on to tell of 12 college professors who died in a concentration camp after being tortured. The gist of this letter describes the efforts by the Nazis to destroy the Polish intelligencia and thus insure the Poland cannot rise again.
An American’s Escape from Poland
Unlike the last letter, that I really get the impression was an attempt to take the bits and pieces of information that has been leaked from Poland and present it in a singular format, this account by an American in Poland was pretty interesting since it not only accounts the problems with the German invasion of Poland, but also the Soviet occupation zone in which he was in after the collapse of the Polish government. In his account, some of the real horrors of war and the general cruelty of the Nazis and the Soviets can be seen by the incidents he witnessed. He tells of seeing thousands of refugees from western Poland roaming through the town he was in headed towards the Lithuanian border, and of men, women, and children dying because of saboteurs having poisoned wells, and starving children dying from poisoned candy that had been “dropped from the sky”. After the end of the German conquest, they relinquished the area he was in to the Soviets and he found that things were not any better. The Soviets were focused on ensuring the Poles could not organize a resistance. To accomplish this they would search for Polish army officers “who were being hunted down and shot like dogs on sight”. Others still were being gathered and shipped to concentration camps inside the Soviet Union. The Soviets were just a brutal to the Poles as the Germans and this American recalls an account where a Soviet officer on a typical search of his premises pointed his weapon at the American’s head and after a period of time lowered it and laughed at the joke which only he felt was funny.
But What of the Jews?
The scope of this magazine account is focused on the Polish people, but there is a small tidbit on the Jews in the occupied territory. Accompanying this short article is a picture of some Polish Jews who are being “compelled by the German Army to forced labor and the digging of their own graves before execution”. The picture shows three men digging and a man in the foreground with a rifle who can only be assumed to be a German soldier. Whatever the intent of the picture in real context, the certain fact is that these men are being forced to dig at the end of a rifle. The article does point out a very important aspect of German policy though in that Jews in the territories are considered to be outcasts and the “Volksdeutsche” may do with them as they see fit.
We Accuse
In this magazine is the oath taken by the Polish force in France which I felt was pretty interesting.
Quite the mouthful for an oath isn’t it?
Tribulations in Poland
The last letting in these articles struck me for some reason. There really is something about this letter that really captured the general plight of the average Pole in the occupation and I can’t really do it any justice by analyzing it. Instead I will just recount it as it is presented:
My dear Sister:I hope you will receive this letter. During the siege of Warsaw, the building which housed my office and my home was burned down. As a result, I lost all of my belongings and since Oct. 1st, 1939, have been held captive by Germans. Our brother, Kazik, is also here. Maryle and the children, fortunately, avoided death and continue to live in Warsay, Marszalkowska 10, of course, in bad circumstances. I am informed that our dear father is at the point of death. My brother-in-law from Lambor has been sentenced to a Bolshevist Camp at hard labor and has been taken away. You can imagine the tragic situation which now confronts our poor Ladzia. It is impossible to help her.
I am sorry that I cannot give you more favorable news but you know the fate of our Country. Despite all the troubles, we are looking forward to a new Poland in the near future. Some of your American food boxes would be desirable. Please forward according to the rules for a prisoner of war. More important even than food, is to receive an answer from you.
Hearty greeting for you, dear Sister, and for brother-in-law, from your loving brothers.
If you want a copy of the entire document, please freemail me and I can arrange to send it to you.
No ping today?
Looks like I only pinged that Homer guy. Thanks for the catch.
I was just about to FReepmail to see if you were OK.
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