http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1941/sep41/f09sep41.htm
Spaniards fighting Bolshevism
Tuesday, September 9, 1941 www.onwar.com
On the Eastern Front... The Spanish Volunteer Division, “Blue Division” arrives to serve with the German Army on the Leningrad Front.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/09.htm
September 9th, 1941
GERMANY: The Wehrmacht is getting help from a group of allies in its assault on Russia. Mussolini has sent an expeditionary corps, the Romanian army is engaged in the drive on Odessa, the Hungarians are supporting the thrust through the Ukraine and Franco has sent a contingent of Spanish “volunteers”. The Slovaks too, have soldiers fighting for the Germans, and volunteers from Holland, Denmark, Belgium and Norway have been formed into legions of the Wehrmacht. The Finns are a disappointment to the Germans, doing no more than holding the northern line round besieged Leningrad.
U-162 is commissioned.
U-702 chief engineer killed during an accident in Kiel. The boat was undergoing trials at the time. (Dave Shirlaw)
FINLAND: The Finnish advance in Karelian Isthmus is stopped. The troops have reached the outermost defences of Leningrad and dig into defence. Three years of trench warfare follows here, until the Soviet attack in June 1944.
Meanwhile the Karelian Army advances into eastern Karelia north of Lake Ladoga. The first signs of war weariness are already showing in the men. There have been instances of men declining to follow orders to cross the pre-1939 border; the common opinion is that the war is fought to reconquer the territory lost in the Winter War, not to annex new ‘living space’ from east. However, the majority of men are content with grumbling, and the serious cases of insubordination are few.
The official explanation for crossing the old border is to get as short lines of defence as possible. Tactically this is true, but the Finnish leadership is already discussing what shape the post-war ‘Greater Finland’ shall take. The most favoured option is the so-called ‘border of three isthmuses’: Karelian Isthmus (between Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga), Onega Isthmus (between Lakes Ladoga and Onega) and the isthmus between Lake Onega and White Sea, of which English name I don’t have a clue (”Maaseln Kannas” is the Finnish name). The status of Kola Peninsula is still unclear; whether is will be claimed by Finland or Germany has not been decided yet.
If all this sounds preposterous, well, there were also some nutcases who thought that the Ural Mountains were Finland’s ‘natural’ eastern border.
One wonders what these people (who were very few and belonged to the lunatic ultra-right-wing fringe) would have done with the 150 million-strong Russian minority... No-one in the Finnish military or political leadership entertained this notion. (Mikko Härmeinen)
U.S.S.R.: A volunteer Spanish “Spanish Division” arrives on the Leningrad Front to begin service with German forces against the Soviet Union.
Recon elements of Generalleutnant Walter Model’s 3 Pz.Div. (XXIV Pz.K.) discovered a gap in Soviet defenses between Konotop and Baturin.
ROMANIA: Marshall Ion Antonescu fires the commander of the 4th Army, General Cuiperca. It comes after the first two rounds of bloody fighting, in which the Romanians failed to completely breach the Russian defences (backed up by prodigious quantities of artillery and mortar fire) at Odessa. Cuiperca frankly reported to Antonescu that his troops lacked the strength, both physically and in terms of morale, to successfully resume the assault. Antonescu, known for his frank speaking himself in a command culture where direct talk was often perceived as impolite and insulting, did not respond well to this analysis.
Antonescu claims that Cuiperca lacks “faith in the battle capacity of the Romanian Army.” Antonescu has brought in his own defence Minister, Iacobici, to replace Cuiperca at 4th Army - a man considered one of the great academic brains of the Romanian staff. (Michael F. Yaklich)
ARCTIC OCEAN: In the Svalbard Islands in the Norwegian Sea, British, Canadian, and Norwegian troops land on Spitsbergen Island to destroy coal mines the Germans Nazis might use for fuel. (Jack McKillop)
IRAN: Tehran: Iran expels German and Italian “tourists” and diplomats. She accepts the Anglo-Soviet armistice terms. (Jack McKillop)
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: MacArthur complains to Grunert that the training of the mobilized Philippine troops is not going well.
Marshall advises MacArthur that he had “the highest priority” for supplies and for the filling of the “authorized defence reserve” of 50,000 men. (Marc Small)
CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Port Hope laid down Toronto, Ontario.
Corvette HMCS Dunvegan commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: The USN’s Bureau of Aeronautics requests that the National defence Research Committee and the Naval Research Laboratory to develop an interceptor radar suitable for installation in a single-engined, single-seat fighter, e.g., the F4U Corsair. (Jack McKillop)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-81 sinks SS Empire Springbuck in the 65 ship Convoy SC-42. (Dave Shirlaw)
The “Blue Division,” listed as the 250th Infantry Division in the Wehrmacht order of battle, will get a reputation for not retreating and also of having its way with the local ladies.
This is also a brilliant move on Franco’s part. It allows him to pay back the help he received from Hitler without becoming an active belligerent and being at war with Britain. It also allows him to get rid of some of the more virulent young fascist hotheads who want to join in Germany’s war.
For more information:
http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/axis_allies/blue_division.htm