Posted on 12/13/2010 4:50:31 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
Winston S. Churchill, Their Finest Hour
Winston S. Churchill, The Grand Alliance
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/dec40/f13dec40.htm
British forces enter Libya
Friday, December 13, 1940 www.onwar.com
In North Africa... A small British force has entered Libya and now cuts the road leading west from the important Italian position at Bardia.
In Germany... Hitler issues Directive 20 giving orders for the further preparation of the invasion of Greece, Operation Marita. The German forces in Romania are accordingly increased.
In Vichy France... Petain dismisses and arrests Laval and appoints Flandin as foreign minister in his place.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/13.htm
December 13th, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM:
Birmingham: Station Officer William Mosedale (1894-1971) led the 12-hour task of saving eight people trapped under his bombed fire station and a house. (George Cross)
London: Capt. Michael Floud Blaney (b. 1910), Royal Engineers, after acts of especial bravery in September and November was killed by a bomb he went to defuse in Manor Park. (George Cross)
London: Charlie Chaplin’s one-man offensive against Hitler, his film, ‘The Great Dictator’, won admiring reviews from the London critics today, except for its ending. Chaplin impersonates a humble barber who looks exactly like the moustached dictator “Adenoid Hynkel”. His dictator is a devastating parody, screaming gibberish through the microphone to his ecstatic followers. The train bearing his fellow dictator “Benzino Napoloni” fails to stop at the red carpet. The resulting shunting scene is a comic set-piece.
Finally, Chaplin as the little barber addresses the audience with a long, passionate appeal against hatred and war. Like his satire, his message is too late.
London: Telegram from Churchill to Wavell:
1. ...Congratulations on your victory....
2. ... pursuit will hold first place in your thoughts. ...No doubt you have considered taking some harbour in Italian territory to which the Fleet van bring all your stuff and give you a new jumping off point.
3. I am much inclined to Egypt declaring war on Italy at the moment when we have made her safe. Now is the appointed time.
4. As soon as you have come to a full stop along the African coast we can take a new view of our prospects and several attractive choices will be open.
VICHY FRANCE:
Laval is dismissed from office and arrested; Pierre Etienne Flandin becomes Minister of Foreign Affairs and the post of vice-premier is abolished. The National Assembly is to be abolished and replaced by a new puppet consultative assembly.
GERMANY:
Berlin: Hitler has today ordered a build-up of forces in southern Romania in order to take on Operation Marita, the occupation of Thessalonika and, if necessary, the entire mainland of Greece.
24 divisions - including the 16th Panzer Division - will be earmarked for this enterprise. They will move through Bulgaria on the arrival of favourable weather. Hitler has told his generals: “We can rely on Bulgarian support.” It seems that he is alarmed by Mussolini’s failure to complete his conquest of Albania and fears that Britain will establish an air base in the Balkans to attack Italy and the Romanian oilfields.
The build-up is being carefully planned to take place under Hitler’s usual cloak of deception. The arrival of the invasion force in Romania will be explained away as “reinforcements for the military mission.”
Nothing is said about Russia in these orders, but when Marita takes place the Soviet generals cannot fail to notice that its effect will be to safeguard Germany’s southern flank in the event of a war with Russia.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA:
Units of the Mediterranean Fleet including the small ship Inshore Squadron and the Australian Destroyer Flotilla play an important part in supporting and supplying the land campaign. Cruiser HMS Coventry is torpedoed by Italian submarine ‘Neghelli’, but she carries on.
LIBYA:
During dog-fighting over western Egypt, No. 3 RAAF lose 5 aircraft for 1 Italian while 274 Sqn. (RAF) lose 2 aircraft for 1 CR42 and 33 Sqn. (RAF) shoot down 3 CR42s and 2 S79s on one interception.
RAF bombers also attack Italian bases at Derna and Bardia.
EGYPT:
Cairo: Middle East Command announces:
Operations in the direction of Sollum are proceeding as planned and we are winning rapid victories. British motorised troops have encircled and disarmed sizeable Italian units in the Buqbuq area.
CANADA: Naval college HMCS Royal Roads commissioned Esquimalt, British Columbia.
Corvette HMS Snowberry arrived Halifax for completion. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-43 damaged SS Orari. (Dave Shirlaw)
Day 470 December 13, 1940
Operation Compass. Repeating yesterday’s successful manoeuver by 7th Armored Brigade, it is 4th Armored Brigade’s turn to cross the desert (between Halfaya and Sidi Omar) to outflank the important Italian position at Bardia and cut the road to Tobruk. Italians deploy submarines Naiade, Narvalo and Neghelli against the British warships shelling the coastal road and forts. At 8.42 PM, Neghelli torpedoes British anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Coventry 40 miles Northeast of Sidi Barrani. Coventry loses most of her bow below the waterline and steams stern first to Alexandria, escorted by destroyers HMS Jervis and Janus (under repair until January 20 1941).
In response to the possibility of British air bases in Greece which would threaten Germany’s oil supply from the Ploieşti oilfields in Romania, Hitler issues Directive 20 for the invasion of Greece by German troops (Operation Marita).
British submarine HMS Truant sinks Italian steamer Sebastino Bianchi 20 miles off the Southern tip of Italy. At 8.46 PM 450 miles West of Lands End, England, U-43 damages British MV Orari (carrying 10,908 tons of food and general cargo) with the last 2 torpedoes. Orari is patched up and sails to the Clyde for repairs lasting until March 1941.
A very useful victory in the Desert war. The OOB was:
British
* General Richard O’Connor
* General Archibald Wavell
* 31,000 men
* 275 tanks, 60 armored cars, 120 artillery pieces
Italians
* General Rodolfo Graziani
* General Annibale Bergonzoli
* 150,000 men
* 600 tanks, 1,200 artillery pieces
That’s something like five to one odds. The British victory during Operation Compass was an extraordinary display of the power of armor deployed with surprise and daring - and also of course of the incredible unreadiness of Italian forces.
Mussolini’s butt being vigorously kicked on both Libyan and Greek fronts....
Unfortunately, it will point to the time when Hitler decides to intervene aggressively on both fronts.
Yet, the upcoming Nazi interventions in the Balkans and North Africa will divert resources from the impending invasion of the USSR, delay the Nazi advance on Moscow, and ultimately help to cost Hitler the war.
Patton’s comments on the armored division’s equipment are interesting, although I suspect even he realized that US tanks weren’t up to snuff.
You can kill more soldiers by scaring them to death from behind with a lot of noise than you can by attacking them from the front.
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