Posted on 03/06/2008 6:40:06 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
What Germany actually is trying to do according to an opinion officially sanctioned and expressed to this writer, is by a prearranged agreement with Rome to hide behind Italy’s skirts to as not to arouse French and British suspicions regarding her intentions.
Thus, according to this opinion, while Italy is content to let her own Mediterranean and Spanish activities take the spotlight, Germany is going ahead with her pre-concerted program and intensifying, rather than modifying, her Spanish intervention. All this, it is held, is in conformity with Chancellor Adolf Hitler’s declaration in his Reichstag speech in which he let it be clearly known that Germany was not disposed to permit a Loyalist triumph.
The new German activities, it is thought here, are aimed principally at France. News from France indicates her government is thoroughly alive to the situation and is not disposed to permit any new deal that will further the Italo-German program.
The impression is growing stronger here that France now is convinced that a Loyalist victory in Spain is identified with her own most vital interests.
The Defense Minister’s revelations were that seven German submarines, “mothered” by the supply ship Wollin, have been operating in the Mediterranean Sea with bases at Cadiz, Ceuta and the Canary Islands. Three other supply and repair ships carrying a small army of technicians are also reported active on the two Spanish coasts, while intercepted radio messages were said to show that these ships have been called upon to replace torpedoes that German submarines discharged. These same ships are accused of having cooperated in placing mines outside Spanish ports.
These facts are held to acquire additional significance in view of the report that the German General Zander, who has been identified as chief of the Sixth Aerial Sector of Germany, is now directing all the German forces on the Insurgent side.
The government further claims to have information that Italy has been sending Insurgent Spain a large number of forces recruited from Somaliland, Tripoli and other Italian possessions in Africa with the intention of passing them off as Spanish Moors when the time comes for assessing the number of Italian forces in Spain for the purpose of the withdrawal agreement.
These forces, according to Premier Juan Negrin, have been transported by land and sea with the aid of the Italian Navy. Majorca, the Premier charges, has been made the base of distribution.
What may be taken as an inspired statement appearing in the official government newspaper La Vanguardia said in part:
“Officially and publicly it is Italy that bears the brunt of the foreign invasion of Spain while Germany remains in the background. This apparent lull on the part of Germany is defensive acting intended to keep France from becoming suspicious.
“France would not be greatly alarmed by further Italian intervention provided it were made single-handed, but would immediately realize the German intervention was a direct threat to her.”
The American-Spanish Relief Fund, national Catholic movement on behalf of the civil war victims in Spain, has received $5,650 in contributions from the Association of Patriotic Spanish Women of Puerto Rico, it was announced yesterday by John J. M. O’Shea, director. The total amount collected by the fund to date is about $25,000, he said.
The stenographer, Helen Rodocanachi, confessed to a court martial that shw gave copies of confidential documents to Johannes Horny, accused of being an agent for “an unnamed power.”
The documents chiefly were legation reports.
She was sentenced to five years in addition to deportation to the Island of Anafi. Horny received a seven year prison term.
The Blizzard Men of 1888, an organization of survivors of New York City’s most severe snowstorm, will hold ath fiftieth anniversary reunion luncheon on Saturday I the grand ballroom of the Hotel Pennsylvania. Personal experiences will be narrated by survivors of the great storm.
George U. Harvey, President of the Borough of Queens, is scheduled to speak. Major Anthony Fiala, a polar explorer, Captain W. T. Cox, secretary of New Jersey Pilots Association, and former Representative Allen Benny of Perth Amboy, N. J., are others who will give addresses.
Mrs. Theodorus Van Wyck, widow of the first president of the organization, will appear as a pianist. D. A. Woodhouse, the president, will preside.
The blizzard swept the eastern section of the country, and is remembered as the worst snowstorm in the Eastern United States. March 12, 1888 was the first day of the storm, when the wind began to pile up snow which blocked all traffic and rose to second-story window.
A book entitled “The Great Blizzard of 1888” has just been published. It was written, after extended research, by Dr. Samuel Meredith Strong, former president of the organization and is dedicated to the members. Recollections of survivors and photographs of snow-clogged streets and storm disasters are included in the 100-page volume.
The paralysis of transportation is shown in the photographs. An abandoned horse-car on University Place, corner of Ninth Street, is seen over the top of snowdrifts, and is filled with men trying to keep warm. The statue of George Washington at the Sub-Treasury Building in Wall Street surmounts a huge drift.
Digging trains and tracks out of the huge drifts at the rear of the old Grand Central depot is seen in another graphic portrayal. More than 200 signed statements by survivors appear in the book all giving tragic as well as humorous phases of the blizzard. Among the contributors are James Speyer, the banker and Henry W. Taft.
PARIS, March 5 (AP). – Mrs. Harold E. Dahl, wife of the Champaign (Ill.), aviator held in Spain as a prisoner by the Insurgents, conceded tonight that he likely would be held until the end of the civil war.
She said two Russians who were sentenced to death with her husband last year and then spared by order of Generalissimo Francisco Franco had been released, but that the American remained in the Salamanca prison hospital. Mrs. Dahl receives letters from her husband regularly and said he had hoped to be released with the Russians.
Dahl was shot down by the Insurgents last year when he was flying for the Spanish Government. Two months ago an Insurgent spokesman in Salamanca indicated the American probably would be held for the duration of the Spanish conflict.
More short articles at Reply #2.
Fascinating, thanks for posting.
The ADMIRAL SCHEER or the DEUTSCHLAND [subsequently LUETZOW] actually shelled a Spanish port, if I recall correctly.
The narrative ends prior to the date you've specified ... but the early German attempts were apparently unsuccessful.
“Whitey” Dahl was a real character. Somebody should make a movie about this guy’s life.
It was in Spain where the Germans developed the fighter formations and tactics [Werner Molders], as well as the close support tactical air doctrines [use of early model STUKAS, etc] that became such an integral part of Blitzkrieg. And several German officers first gained reputations as experts serving in Spain, notably Ritter Von Thoma [panzers], and Wolfram Von Richtofen [dive bombers and close air support].
Right you are. The following is from Wikipedia.
During the Spanish Civil War, the Deutschland was deployed to the Spanish coast in support of Franco's Nationalists in a total of seven operations between 1936 and 1939. During one of these deployments, on May 29, 1937, the Deutschland was attacked by two Republican bombers and as a result 31 German sailors were killed and 101 were wounded. In retaliation, Deutschland's sister ship Admiral Scheer bombarded Almería, killing 19 civilians and destroying 35 buildings. The dead German sailors were first brought to Gibraltar and buried there, but the bodies were exhumed on Hitler's orders and accompanied the Deutschland back to Germany for a large military funeral with Hitler attending
After the start of World War II, she was renamed Lützow in November 1939, because Adolf Hitler feared that the loss of a ship with the name Deutschland (Germany) would have a significant negative psychological and propaganda effect.
So you know of him. That is very interesting. How did he fare after his capture by the "Insurgents."?
And is a crucial part of warfare to this day. Isn't that the primary roll of the A-10?
Not just the ground support. The ROTE and KETTE [two pairs of two wingmen] formations used by KONDOR LEGION and the LUFTWAFFE JADGSTAFFELN are the basic formations used by all fighter planes today.
The WARTHOG [A 10] takes more of the philosophical approach of a Russian STURMOVIK than a STUKA [although latter model JU-87s had success as “tank busters”]. The nearest German equivalent to the A 10 was probably the Henschel 129 [or was it 124?].
D'oh! Roll = Role
That's what happens when I post while thinking about breakfast.
Btw, I don’t always get to read these the day you post them, but do always go back later to read.
Very informative discussions.
Much appreicated.
Thanks!
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