Posted on 10/17/2009 5:24:39 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
is important to us from a military point of view as an advanced jumping-off point and for strategic concentration of troops. To that end the railroads, roads and communication channels are to be kept in order.
William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
Germans raid Scapa Flow
Tuesday, October 17, 1939 www.onwar.com
In Britain... German Ju88 bombers strike the British naval base at Scapa Flow. The training battleship Iron Duke (which was the flagship of Admiral Jellico — 1914 to 1917 — during World War I) is damaged and has to be beached.
In the North Sea... German destroyers lay mines by night off the Humber estuary.
In Paris... The French report sharp infantry engagements on the front near Saarbrucken.
In Berlin... The Germans report “absolute quiet” on the Rhine Front. A lone German soldier was accidentally killed by falling shrapnel from a German anti-aircraft gun.
In Moscow... Turkish representatives break off talks for a defense treaty with the Soviet Union. While the prolonged Turkish-Soviet negotiations end without agreement there are professions of mutual friendliness. Soviet representatives paid tribute to Turkish Foreign Minister Sarajoglu before his departure. Last minute Soviet proposals conflicted with Turkish engagements to Britain and France and these were rejected by Sarajoglu.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Iron_Duke_(1912)
During the Second World War, she was used as a base ship at Scapa Flow, where she was forced to beach during an air attack in 1939. She was refloated and saw continued service until the conclusion of hostilities. She was sold in 1946 as scrap, and broken up in Glasgow in 1948. Iron Duke’s bell is on display at Winchester Cathedral. A wide variety of domestic nick-nacks made of teak from Iron Duke [1] are sold to the public.
HMS IRON DUKE
http://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono-28Depot-Iron%20Duke.htm
1939
October 16th
Scapa Flow deployment in continuation. During attack by Ju88 aircraft on Scapa Flow sustained some damage from near misses. One Boiler Room and two magazines were flooded
Ship developed significant list had to be beached at Ore Bay..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Southampton_(C83)
HMS Southampton was a member of the first group of five ships of the “Town” class of light cruisers. She was built by John Brown & Company, Clydebank, Scotland and launched on 10 March 1936.
Southampton was later damaged on 16 October, 1939 whilst lying at anchor off Rosyth, Scotland, when she was struck by a 500 kg bomb in a German air raid. The bomb was released from only 150 m height by a Ju-88 of I/KG.30, and hit the corner of the pom-pom magazine, passed through three decks at an angle and exited the hull, detonating in the water. There was minor structural damage and temporary failure of electrical systems. She was repaired and at the end of the year she was one of the ships involved in the hunt for the German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau after the sinking of HMS Rawalpindi. She then served with the Humber Force until February 1940, and then went to the 18th Cruiser squadron at Scapa Flow. On 9 April 1940, Southampton was operating off the Norwegian coast when she sustained splinter damage in a German air attack. The main battery director was temporarily knocked out. After being repaired, she had anti-invasion duties on the south-coast of England until she returned to Scapa Flow in October.
HMS SOUTHAMPTON
Ju 88. The most underrated aircraft of WW II. Did it all. Dive bomber, bomber, torpedo bomber, recon, night fighter.
btt
In Paris... The French report sharp infantry engagements on the front near Saarbrucken.
Read these and other stories in tomorrow's edition of The New York Times. By then the "sharp infantry engagements" will have expanded to an attack by 100,000 Germans.
You would think the different performance requirements would make this almost impossible. Especially the torpedo bomber/fighter combination.
Another bomb exploded in the water beside the destroyer Mohawk, causing only superficial damage, said the official version of the attack by the Germans. Commander R.F. Jolly of the Mohawk was one of those killed.
Unofficially, Cdr. Jolly might take issue with the "superficial" part.
http://www.uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/4426.html
HMS Mohawk (F 31)
Destroyer of the Tribal class
One of the more famous classes of destroyers in the Royal Navy.
http://www.uboat.net/allies/commanders/1370.html
Richard Frank Jolly, RN
Events related to this officer
Destroyer HMS Mohawk (F 31)
16 Oct 1939
While providing escort for a North Sea convoy on 16th October 1939, HMS Mohawk (Cdr R.F. Jolly, RN) was attacked by a German Ju-88 aircraft. Before the aircraft was destroyed, it released two bombs which fell to starboard (abreast of the bridge) and to port (abreast of the torpedo tubes). The bombs exploded on the surface of the sea well before most men had time to reach their action stations. Machine gun bullets and jagged metal splinters decimated the mooring party on the fo’c’sle, slashed through the bridge, the wheelhouse, the director and the communications system. The personnel manning the machine guns, the search light position and after control position were mowed down by the projectiles. Fifteen men were killed and thirty injured, mostly experienced officers. On the bridge, Cdr R.F. Jolly, RN suffered a mortal stomach wound. While denying the comfort of medical attention, and in great pain and suffering, he commanded his ship for 35 miles until she was safely in port. After being taken to hospital at South Queensferry, England, he died several hours later. For his gallantry, the Captain was awarded the George Cross posthumously. The ship was patched up at Rosyth then made her way to the Hawthorn Leslie Yard on the Tyne river for permanent repairs and a refit.
"Superficial," indeed!
What we are learning is that the “Phony War” (also called the Twilight War by Winston Churchill, der Sitzkrieg (sitting war) in German) was hardly that for the Royal Navy and the Kriegsmarine.
The winter of 1939-40 was fought in deadly earnest on the high seas between the two and was for them as real as it gets.
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