Posted on 06/13/2010 5:22:05 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Winston S. Churchill, Their Finest Hour
Good stuff. Question is, how are they going to blame this on Bush?
“London thinks reserves can launch attack to force Nazis back”
That didn’t work out so well, did it. At that time, the majority of the real Allied reserves were still on the farm in America. Less than four years later, they hit the beaches at Normandy.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/jun40/f13jun40.htm
Britain abandons France
Thursday, June 13, 1940 www.onwar.com
On the Western Front... The French forces west of Paris are now retreating to the Loire. The British decide to abandon attempts to rebuild a BEF in France and begin to evacuate the British and Canadian troops which still remain in the country.
In Washington... Roosevelt signs a new $1,300,000,000 Navy bill providing for much extra construction. Meanwhile, in response to Churchill’s pleas in his telegrams to President Roosevelt, surplus stocks of artillery weapons and rifles have been assembled from US government stores. The first shipment now leaves the USA on the SS Eastern Prince for the voyage to Britain. The US Neutrality Laws have been subverted by first “selling” the arms to a steel company and then reselling them to the British government.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/14.htm
June 14th, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM:
RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group (Whitley). Bombing - road and rail communications in France - marshalling yards in Germany - mining River Rhine with the new ‘W’ bomb.
10 Sqn. Seven aircraft, ‘W’ bombs in Rhine. Five got off, two bombed. Five aircraft road/rail communications. Three recalled. Three recalled, two bombed.
51 Sqn. Five aircraft, ‘W’ bombs in Rhine. None bombed. One aircraft road/rail communications. Successful.
58 Sqn. Ten aircraft to Laon, Vernon and Soissons. Seven recalled, two bombed.
77 Sqn. Eight aircraft to Euskirchen, Fagiers and Hirson. All bombed. One damaged by Flak.
102 Sqn. Eight aircraft to Oberhausen and Cologne. All bombed, one damaged.
Minesweeping trawler HMS Myrtle mined and sunk in the Thames Estuary. (Dave Shirlaw)
FRANCE:
Paris:10 a.m. The Germans enter the city. The Minister of the Interior orders the police to hand over their arms to their superiors. The air of gloom and silence that has descended over the city is only broken by the occasional distant explosion as the French blow up munitions factories. The only resistance has come from some workers near the Porte d’Aubervilliers, who punched passing soldiers, who ignored them. The Germans posted machine-gunners in key positions as they marched through near-empty streets, and a senior officer drove to M Laingeron, the chief of the Paris police to tell him to remain in office until further notice and to be responsible for keeping public order. The swastika now flies from the Eiffel Tower and from German HQ, established in one of the city’s most luxurious hotels, Hôtel Majestic, 29, rue Dumont d’Urville. The French Army is still fighting south of the city.
Guderian swings east to cut off a retreat from the Maginot Line.
This morning, Weygand tells Brooke that the Inter-Allied Council had ordered that a line be held at the base of the Brittany peninsula. (Brooke would learn that the British government had not agreed to this.) He estimates that this would require at least 15 divisions and there were not five divisions available.
On returning to Le Mans Brooke called Dill and told him that the situation was hopeless and that troops coming to France be held in Britain. Later in the evening Dill called from 10 Downing Street. He put Churchill on the line. The PM told Brooke that it was important for the British to make the French feel that they were supporting him. Brooke’s reply was that it was impossible to make a corpse feel and that the French Army was dead. Brooke told Churchill that the British should be evacuated and after 30 minutes of talk Churchill agreed and told him to bring all the British troops back to the U.K. This, less than 48 hours after Brooke had arrived in France. (Jay Stone)
GERMANY: OKW issues Führer Directive #15. The enemy’s front has collapsed. The Paris area and the fortified triangle behind the Maginot Line are being evacuated, the French Army may retreat as far as the Loire. Our relative strength and the condition of the French Army now make it possible to pursue two objectives at the same time.
(i) To prevent enemy forces near Paris and the Lower Seine withdrawing to form a new line, and pursue vigorously towards Orleans and the Loire estuary. Important naval bases along the coast will be occupied.
(ii) To destroy enemy forces facing Army Groups A and C, bringing about the collapse of the Maginot Line. The directions of the main lines of advance should pass through Troyes and Langres, preparations should be made for further moves into the central Loire area.
(iii) The Luftwaffe will continue to support operations as previously defined, emphasis should be placed on preventing enemy forces withdrawing to the south-west by rail, and the destruction of ports and shipping on the northern and southern coasts will make any attempted retreat by sea impossible. Anti-aircraft artillery will support advancing troops, in particular the penetration of French fortifications. (Marc Roberts)
POLAND: Auschwitz: The concentration camp open officially with the arrival of 728 Poles from Tarnow.
FINLAND: Two Soviet bombers shoot down the Finnish commercial Ju-52 passenger airliner “Kaleva” which is on its normal route from Tallinn, Estonia to Helsinki. After the aircraft crashes into sea, killing all on board (a Finnish crew of two, two French diplomatic couriers, an American diplomatic courier, two German businessmen, one Finn and a Swede), Soviet submarine Shstsha-301 picks up the diplomatic mail Kaleva is carrying. (Note: the incident takes place when Finland and the Soviet Union are at peace).
This incident is connected to the Soviet takeover of the Baltic states that takes place few days later. The Soviet Union has placed the Baltic States under a secret blockade, and all in- and outgoing traffic has to be stopped at all costs. Captain Pyotr Hohlov, the pilot of the bomber to shoot “Kaleva” down, later becomes a Hero of the Soviet Union.
ITALY: Genoa and Vado, Italy are shelled by French Naval Units.
The 3rd Cruiser Squadron, under the command of Admiral Emile Duplat, shelled Italian petroleum storage tanks and military installations of the seaport of Genoa in northwestern Italy.
The operation, codenamed “Vado” saw four cruisers —ALGERIE, FOCH, DUPLEIX, and COLBERT — together with eleven destroyers as escorts, resulted in brief bombardments of Italian coastal installations at both Genoa and Savona that produced questionable damage. In defence, Italian coastal artillery batteries scored one 152mm hit on the French destroyer ALBATROS, killing ten crewmen. The Italian escort vessel CALATAFIMI (actually a “Curtatone” class torpedo boat) engaged the French warships, as did four or five motor torpedo boats of the 13th MAS Squadrilla; one of these boats was reported sunk by the French, but Italian sources do not mention this loss. The Regia Aeronautica failed to make an appearance during this action, but then French aerial units were also absent. (Greg Kelley)(249 & 250)
O class submarine HMS Odin whilst patrolling off the Italian Naval base at Taranto is sighted and attacked with a torpedo by A/S escort Strale. The torpedo is seen to hit. Italian destroyer Baleno also takes part. (Alex Gordon)(108)
FRENCH MOROCCO: Tangiers: Spanish troops occupy the international zone.
EGYPT: Cairo: The British Middle East Air Force in Egypt announced:
‘A single aircraft flew several times over Malta releasing bombs. A number of buildings were damaged, two British soldiers were killed and one wounded. In addition the Italians have made aerial raids on two small towns in the Sudan, inflicting little damage.’
BRITISH SOMALILAND:
Berbera: Reuters News Agency reports:
‘On Friday afternoon the seaport town of Berbera in the Gulf of Aden was bombed by Italian aircraft. Little damage occurred.
U.S.A.: President Roosevelt signs the “Eleven Percent Naval Expansion Act” which authorizes the increase of USN warship tonnage by 167,000 tons, auxiliary ship tonnage by 75,000 tons and the total number of USN aircraft to 4,500 planes. (Jack McKillop)
The motion picture “The Mortal Storm” is released in the U.S. This drama, directed by Frank Borzage and starring Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Robert Young, Frank Morgan, Robert Stack, Bonita Granville, Dan Dailey and Ward Bond, is about a university professor and his family who live in the south German Alps in 1933 when the Nazis come to power and the subsequent upheaval in the family and friends. (Jack McKillop)
Destroyer USS Gleaves commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 0820, the Antonis Georgandis was shelled and sunk by U-101 NW off Cape Finisterre.
At 1911, the Mount Myrto was missed by two stern torpedoes from U-38, which had followed her for five hours. The U-boat then surfaced and shelled the ship with 53 rounds. After the shelling, the U-boat accidentally dived, leaving six men of the gun crew in the water, which were picked up after 10 minutes. At 1958 the ship was hit by a coup de grâce near the bridge, but the ship did not sink due her load of timber and Liebe decided to leave the wrecked vessel because Convoy HX-47 came in sight some minutes later.
At 1944, the Balmoralwood, a straggler from Convoy HX-47, was torpedoed and damaged by U-47 about 70 miles SSW of Cape Clear. The vessel sank two hours later. The master, 40 crewmembers and one gunner were picked up by the British merchantman Germanic and landed at Liverpool. (Dave Shirlaw)
"Meanwhile, in response to Churchill’s pleas in his telegrams to President Roosevelt, surplus stocks of artillery weapons and rifles have been assembled from US government stores. The first shipment now leaves the USA on the SS Eastern Prince for the voyage to Britain."The US Neutrality Laws have been subverted by first “selling” the arms to a steel company and then reselling them to the British government."
In short, by no later than June 1940, American "neutrality" is a total fiction. In both word and deed, President Roosevelt is doing everything he legally can to help the allies.
Hitler still plays along with the fiction of American neutrality, no doubt in hopes that whatever legal restraints can still bind FDR, will not be removed until Hitler is fully ready.
Imho, this is an extraordinarily important article, must reading.
Until "now," the Pope's response to the war has been above reproach.
He has spoken out against Nazi ideology, against Nazi and Soviet atrocities in Poland and elsewhere, and has done what he could to help the victims.
He even mediated negotiations between German military representatives and British diplomats about a possible overthrow of Hitler to end the war.
In this the Pope exposed himself to the risk of kidnapping or murder by forces at Hitler's command.
But "today's" report may mark the shift to both silence and "even handedness" that has brought much criticism from some historians.
I have long wondered when and how this occurred.
"Today's" article suggests it was related to Italy's declaration of war in alliance with Nazi Germany.
It will be interesting to learn if the Vatican's reported silence "today" is strictly temporary, or does it mark a more-or-less permanent change for the war's duration?
Lookin bad for the froggies. Good thing we aren’t embroiled in the endless wars of those damned europeans.
Hard to believe, with all this going on, that we are still almost a year and a half away from getting involved in this little fracas.
At that time, the majority of the real Allied reserves were still on the farm in America. Less than four years later, they hit the beaches at Normandy.Amazing to think of, isn't it? From farms (and factories and schoolhouses) to Global Victory in half a decade.
The post at #8 is for tomorrow. Here is today’s.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/13.htm
June 13th, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM:
RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group (Whitley). Bombing - road/rail communications in France.
10 Sqn. Five aircraft. One returned early, four bombed.
51 Sqn. Five aircraft, all bombed.
58 Sqn. Six aircraft to Laon. All bombed.
77 Sqn. Eight aircraft, all bombed.
102 Sqn. Ten aircraft to Charleville/Dormans. Nine bombed.
Corvette HMS Burdock laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
FRANCE: Paris: 7 pm. “The German Army are inside the gates of Paris!” These were the dramatic words with which the US ambassador to France, William Bullitt, announced to another US diplomat in Tours that the French capital was on the verge of falling to Hitler’s armies.
All day the Germans have been closing in on the great city. To the west spearheads of motorised and Panzer columns have crossed the Seine at various points between Paris and Rouen. North of the capital, at least 12 divisions have begun a fierce attack along the river Oise. To the east, Panzer divisions have crossed the Marne and are in Meaux.
By the evening von Kleist’s Panzers have reached Romilly on the Seine and Guderian has reached Saint-Dizier on the Marne.
French forces retreat to the River Loire. The British decide to evacuate their remaining troops from France.
On June 2nd Brooke had been ordered to return to France and form another B.E.F. He began reforming his corps headquarters On June 11th he was summoned to Buckingham Palace by the King and awarded the K.C.B. for his services in France. Today Brooke lands at Cherbourg. Chaos reigned and things went from bad to worse - much worse. He leaves for Le Mans, met with the senior British officers there, and learned that there were 100,000 men from the original B.E.F. Lines of Communications troops along with much equipment and supplies in western France. He instructed their commander to keep evacuating these soldiers to Britain. He also learned the situation with respect to 51st and 52nd Divisions. He then left for Weygand’s headquarters, another 170 miles over refugee crowded roads. He arrived at 8 :00 PM and was told that it was too late to see Weygand, that he would have to wait until the morning. In his diary that evening he wrote that he could see no hope of the French holding out any longer than a few days. (Jay Stone)
NORWEGIAN CAMPAIGN: (Mark Horan):
“Black” Thursday - The attack on Trondheim:
At precisely 0002, but still in bright daylight at position 64.58N, 04.38E, the first Skua of 803 rolled down the flight deck and lumbered into the air. Rapidly forming into their sections, they orbited the carrier briefly looking for the promised Blenheim escort (six aircraft), then took their departure towards Trondheim, climbing slowly but steadily towards 11,000 feet.
The Force was still in sight when the expected fighters, somewhat amazingly, arrived over Ark Royal. The Blenheim crews sighted the departing aircraft but, unfamiliar with carrier operations, were unsure if, in fact, those were the aircraft they were supposed to escort.
Unable to converse by radio with the Fleet Air Arm aircraft Ark she carried (different radios and frequencies you know), they finally set out for Trondheim on their own, well behind the strike planes, for all intents out of the battle.
Meanwhile, the seven Beauforts of 22 Squadron’s diversionary bombing force intending to hit Vaernes airfield at the same time the Skuas attacked, at 0200, ran into the same rough weather Ark had been fighting hours earlier, which broke up the formation and caused three to abort. The remaining four hit the airfield at 0150, strung up a hornet’s nest of angry enemy fighters that were unable to catch the fleet Beauforts, but were no circling over the field wondering what might be up. This was, of course, exactly the opposite of the intended goal of the Coastal Command effort, and would have tragic consequences for the lumbering Skuas, now only minutes away.
At 0123 the striking force made landfall at the North of Halten light at 11,000 feet. Continuing inland for 10 minutes, the force then turned South, circling around to attack from the Southeast. As they approached they descended to 10,000 feet, then the two formations strung out into line ahead formation and began the high-speed run into the target area. Flak was intense throughout, but the real problems were the Luftwaffe fighters which hastened over from the Vaenes area and hit them several miles from the push over point. Several of the Skuas never reached the push over point. Those that did did so in a rush, pursued by Bf-109s, Bf-110s, Ju88 C-2s and angry flak bursts. On pull out, the scattered Skuas had a hard choice to make. Stay low and hope to remain hidden in the backdrop of the Norwegian landscape, but without any altitude to fight or, if worst came to worst, to jump, or to climb for altitude, giving themselves some fighting altitude, and hope to join up with the others.
With only a single exception, those that chose the later option did not return. Highlighted against the light sky, the Luftwaffe fighters picked them off one at a time. In the end, only seven of the Skuas, five from 803 and two from 800 made it back to the ship. While the strike group was out, the ship flew two further fighter patrols. With the eight missing Skuas were sixteen experienced aviators:
803 Squadron losses: [1 KiA, 1 DoW, 6 PoW]
7A:L???? Lieutenant-Commander John Casson, RN, Lieutenant Peter Evelyn Fanshawe, RN [PoWs]
7F:L2963 Lieutenant Cecil Howard Filmer MiD, RN, Midshipman(A) Thomas Anthony McKee DSC, RN [PoWs]
7L:L2992 Sub-Lieutenant(A) John Anthony Harris, RNVR [KiA], Naval Airman first class Stuart Rex Douglas Stevenson, RN [DoW as PoW]
7Q:L2955 Acting Sub-Lieutenant Richard Edward Bartlett, RN, Naval Airman L. G. Richards, RN [PoWs]
800 Squadron losses: [4 KiA, 4 PoW]
6A:L2995 Acting Major Richard Thomas Partridge DSO, MiD, RM [PoW], Lieutenant(A) Robert Southey Bostock MiD, RN [KiA]
6F:L3000 Lieutenant George Edward Desmond Finch-Noyes, RN, Petty Officer Airman Howard Gresley Cunningham DSM, MiD, RN [PoWs]
6G:L3028 Midshipman(A) Leonard Henry Gallagher, RN, Petty Officer Airman Wallace Crawford, RN [KiAs]
6H:L3047 Midshipman(A) Derek Thomas Revington Martin, RN [PoW], Leading Airman William James Tremeer, RN [KiA]
The effect on the ship, particularly the Air Staff that had planned the misson, was staggering, the more so as all recalled Casson’s prediction to the Admiral. While ten of those lost on the mission ultimately survived as prisoners of war, the total losses amounted to an entire squadron, effectively reducing the Fleet Air Arm’s two premiere squadrons to cadre status pending future reorganization.
Throughout the morning the ship maintained an active fighter patrol with the stay at homes until the ship re-entered the weather front, at which point she elected to just keep Swordfish up ahead of the force to prevent another Glorious disaster. On exiting the front, an extensive search flown at 1930 clearing the forward 140 degree arc to 110 miles.
Thereafter, until the ship entered Scapa at 1600 on the 14th, air operations were limited to Air defence Area patrols.
Operation “Alphabet”, and the subsequent attack on Trondheim, had seen Ark Royal’s five squadrons (including the visiting 701 Squadron Walrus amphibians) fly 375 sorties, including 193 by the two Skua Squadrons. While actual combats had been limited, the group had executed its prime mission, covering the withdrawing troop transports, flawlessly. The ship would have little time to to dwell on the losses of the 13th however. Three days prior, the Italians had declared war on the Allies (soon to be just Britain). Within three days HMS Ark Royal, her squadrons refreshed, would leave Scapa Flow for the far away Mediterranean and a very different war.
While the last Royal Navy carrier had now called it quits as far as Norway was concerned, those tantalizing Germans battleships had not played their last card in the duel with the Fleet Air Arm.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: RN: HMS Odin (submarine) in the Gulf of Taranto is lost to the guns and torpedoes of Italian destroyer ‘Strale’
Submarine HMS Grampus laid a minefield off Augusta, Sicily. She had left Malta on the 10th and sunk on the 16th. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: Washington: Congress votes to give $1,800 million to the army and signs a 1.3 Billion Naval construction bill.
The first shipment of arms, requested in the Churchill-Roosevelt telegrams, leaves the US on SS Eastern Princess. These have been sold to a steel company and then to the British.
Rear Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr. becomes Commander Aircraft Battle Force and is given the temporary rank of Vice Admiral. (Jack McKillop)
The motion picture “Our Town” is released in the U.S. Based on Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, this drama, directed by Sam Wood, stars William Holden, Martha Scott (her film debut), Fay Bainter, Beulah Bondi, Thomas Mitchell, Guy Kibbee and Stu Erwin. The plot involves various family in a New Hampshire town in the early 20th Century. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actress (Scott). (Jack McKillop)
Battleship USS North Carolina launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: The armed merchant cruiser HMS Scotstoun is en route from the Clyde to her Northern Patrol area between Ireland and Iceland when she is torpedoed and sunk at 57 00N, 09 57W by U-25. (Alex Gordon)(108)
Destroyers HMS Electra and Antelope damaged in collision. (Dave Shirlaw)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 287 June 13, 1940
Final act of the Norwegian campaign. At dawn (2.43 AM), 15 Fleet Air Arm Skuas from HMS Ark Royal dive bomb German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau at Trondheim. However, RAF bombing of nearby Vaernes airfield alerts the defenses. A 500 lb bomb hits Scharnhorst, but does not explode. 8 Skuas are shot down by anti-aircraft fire & Messerschmitt fighters (6 dead, 10 taken prisoner). 7 Skuas return to Ark Royal at 3.45 AM. Escort destroyers HMS Antelope & Electra collide in fog (both will be out of service until August).
A German seaplane picks up one of the Skua pilots. The same seaplane also picks up 2 survivors from HMS Ardent (sunk June 8). One later dies from exposure. Able seaman Roger Hooke is Ardent’s only survivor. He will be repatriated in 1943 due to ill health.
First naval skirmish in the Mediterranean. British submarine HMS Odin attacks Italian cruisers Fiume and Gorizia. Odin is sunk by escort destroyers Strale and Baleno (all 56 hands lost). http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?16253
Churchill flies to Tours, where the French government temporarily resides, for a meeting of the Supreme War Council (this will prove to be the last meeting). Defeat in France is generally accepted and Churchill encourages the French to withdraw to their colonies in North Africa to fight on. However, French PM Paul Reynaud asks to be released from the March 28 agreement and allowed to negotiate armistice terms with Germany. Churchill refuses, appraising this solely from the British point of view.
British armed merchant cruiser HMS Scotstoun (originally Anchor Line passenger ship Caledonia) is attacked all day by U-25 and finally sinks 80 miles West of Outer Hebrides, Scotland (7 lives lost). 345 survivors are picked up by British destroyer HMS Highlander and landed at the Clyde on June 14. http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/348.html
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