Posted on 10/19/2009 5:41:31 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
This map will also be posted on my profile.
Winston S. Churchill, The Gathering Storm
Ah the phony war. I personally prefer what the Germans called this period, der sitzkrieg.
Wow. MSM reported news different back then. The stories are full of facts and sources. Quotes are attributed and it is informational almost boring. This must be what news was suppose to be. You can’t find dry factual stuff written in print as news anywhere like that anymore.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1939/oct39/f19oct39.htm
German Army agrees on Western campaign
Thursday, October 19, 1939 www.onwar.com
From Berlin... OKH issues Fall Gelb (Operation Yellow) in response to Directive No. 6 issued by Hitler on October 9th. It provides for a holding action on the French border with the main attack being sent through central Belgium and some attention being devoted to the Dutch. Meanwhile, Hitler officially incorporates western Poland into the German Reich.
In Occupied Poland... The first Jewish ghetto is established in Lublin, the center of a Jewish “reserve” in eastern Poland.
In Ankara... An Ango-French-Turkish Treaty of Mutual Assistance is signed. Allied commanders General Maxime Weygand and General Archibald Wavell represent France and Britain respectively. The term of the treaty is 15 years. The Turks pledge to aid the Allies if the war reaches the Mediterranean, but not if such aid could bring Turkey into conflict with the Soviet Union. In return, Turkey receives control of the disputed Sanjak of Alexandretta from French Syria.
In Britain... Two German airmen, half the crew of a bomber shot down over the North Sea on Tuesday, drifted ashore in a collapsible rubber boat near Whitby.
In London... The Ministry of Transport announces that in September, first month of the black-out, the total number of persons killed on the roads of Britain was 1130, compared with 617 in August.
President Roosevelt’s response to Dr. Einstein
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
October 19, 1939
My dear Professor:
I want to thank you for your recent letter and the most interesting and important enclosure.
I found this data of such import that I have convened a Board consisting of the head of the Bureau of Standards and a chosen representative of the Army and Navy to thoroughly investigate the possibilities of your suggestion regarding the element of uranium.
I am glad to say that Dr. Sachs will cooperate and work with this Committee and I feel this is the most practical and effective method of dealing with the subject.
Please accept my sincere thanks.
Dr. Albert Einstein,
Old Grove Road,
Nassau Point,
Poconic, Long Island,
New York
NAVAL EVENTS-Thursday, 19 October
While in dock at Devonport, destroyer KEMPENFELT was transferred to the Canadian Navy as HMCS ASSINIBOINE. She had been there since 29 September repairing collision damage from the day before. As ASSINIBOINE, she departed Plymouth for Halifax on 7 November.
Light cruisers CARDIFF, DIOMEDE, DRAGON departed Sullom Voe for Northern Patrol.
Two cruisers were on Northern Patrol between the Shetland and the Faroes, AMCs AURANIA, CALIFORNIA, CHITRAL between the Faroes and Iceland, and light cruiser SHEFFIELD and AMCs RAWALPINDI, SCOTSTOUN, TRANSYLVANIA in the Denmark Strait.
Destroyers INTREPID, ICARUS, IVANHOE arrived at Loch Ewe and sister ship IMPULSIVE at Scapa Flow on the 25th, all for duty with the Home Fleet.
Destroyers ILEX, ISIS, IMPERIAL joined the 22nd Flotilla at Harwich on the 31st, were released from the Flotilla on 5 November and rejoined the 3rd Flotilla operating with the Home Fleet – IMOGEN, after completing repairs, and IMPERIAL on 8 November, ILEX and ISIS on the 14th, and INGLEFIELD, also after completing repairs, on the 16th.
Destroyer WHITEHALL and sloop WESTON attacked a submarine contact three miles ENE of St Abb’s Head.
Convoy OA.22 of nine ships departed Southend escorted by destroyer VESPER, which stayed until the convoy dispersed on the 21st.
Convoy OB.22 departed Liverpool escorted by destroyers MACKAY and VIMY, the destroyers detaching on the 22nd to escort SL.4.
Prize regulations for U-boats were lifted for shipping as far west as 20 degrees.
German tanker BISKAYA (6386grt) had departed Hamburg on 13 August for Port Arthur, Texas, but with the start of war, found refuge at Las Palmas until 7 October when she attempted to return to Germany. She was captured on the 19th by armed merchant cruiser SCOTSTOUN on Northern Patrol in the Denmark Strait, taken to Leith by a prize crew commanded by Lt Cdr R H A Clark RNR, and renamed EMPIRE UNITY in British service.
German tanker GONZENHEIM (4574grt), which had departed Buenas Aires on 14 September, was intercepted by armed merchant cruiser RAWALPINDI on Northern Patrol in the Denmark Strait, and scuttled.
French destroyer FOUDROYANT had arrived at Casablanca on 13 September with convoy 9.B of steamers STRASBOURGEOIS, MAROC, JUMIEGES and POITIERS after leaving Brest on the 7th October, as well as SAINT NAZAIRE, escorted by sloop CHEVREUIL after leaving Quiberon, also on the 7th.
Quite separately, destroyer BOURRASQUE reached Casablanca on the 17th with convoy 3.K of steamers MARRAKECH and KERGUELEN. They had left Le Verdon on the 13th. Both destroyers then departed Casablanca and arrived at Gibraltar on this date.
Heavy cruiser DORSETSHIRE departed Hong Kong for Singapore and duty with the 4th Cruiser Squadron in the East Indies Station. She left Singapore on the 22nd for Colombo.
War Diary and War Standing Orders of Commander in Chief, Submarines- Admiral Donitz
Still no report from U 40 on her Channel passage. This fact, added to radio intelligence reports on the 14th that 4 U-boats had been sunk, one of them by French forces, gives rise to the suspicion that U-40 and U 12 (see F.O. U/B West’s War Log) have been lost in the Channel.
According to radio intelligence reports 2 boats were sighted in the Channel west of the Straits of Dover, so it must be assumed that the boats got through the mined Dover-Calais narrows and were lost west of this. I view the question of the Channel passage as follows:
1) U 31 passed the Dover-Calais narrows once, U 15 twice, probably also U 12 and U 40 once each.
2) U 35 did not have to turn back, her doing so does not disprove the possibility of getting through the Channel.
3) Danger from mines must be regarded as the most dangerous aspect of the Channel passage. In all probability however, there have not been any victims of mines as yet, possibly U 12 on her way back.
4) Losses of boats so far have been 2 in the Atlantic or North Sea (U 27, 30), 2 probably in the Atlantic (U 42, 45), 2 perhaps in the Channel. These losses do not preclude the Channel passage.
5) The danger of surprise air attack is no greater in the Channel than in the open sea area, as boats have to proceed submerged by day anyhow.
6) I am therefore loath at present to give up the enormous advantage of the short approach route through the Channel. But the question will have to come up for constant consideration.
U 46 encountered a fresh convoy of 15 ships, but she was soon driven off by destroyers and lost contact. On the orders of Naval War Staff, the area in which unrestricted action can be taken against darkened ships has been extended to 30 degrees west.
Telegram
URGENT
Moscow, October 19, 1939.
No. 568 of October 19
Reference your telegram No. 594 of October 17.
Molotov today informed me that Stalin approved the account of the negotiations in Moscow that the Reich Foreign Minister contemplates making in his forthcoming speech. He only asked that instead of the sentences quoted as the statement of Stalin:
“Germany was taking a proud attitude . . . “ up to “ . . . getting into a difficult position,” the following version be adopted: “The attitude of Germany in declining military aid commands respect. However, a strong Germany is the absolute prerequisite for peace in Europe, whence it follows that the Soviet Union is interested in the existence of a strong Germany. Therefore the Soviet Union cannot give its approval to the Western powers creating conditions which would weaken Germany and place her in a difficult position. Therein lies the community of interests between Germany and the Soviet Union.”
SCHULENBURG
The Avalon Project-http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/ns113.asp
19-OCT-1939
Bristol Blenheim Mk.I
Operator: RAF 108 Sqn.
Registration: L1213
Airplane damage: Written off (damaged beyond repair)
Location: Bicester, Oxfordshire - United Kingdom
Phase: Initial climb
Nature: Military
Departure airport: Bicester
Narrative:
Flew into ground at night & DBF.
Dunkirk should be interesting...
The Black Sea is another area where I don’t remember reading or hearing a lot about battles during WW2.
Native Germans are being evacuated (”Resettled”) from soon-to-be Soviet Controlled Latvia to Posen, in what German Papers are calling “the Great Migration”:
From the Latvian Newspaper “Jaunakas Zinas” (Translation: The Latest News)
-First 59 resettlers left Liepaja port on the board of “Frigg”. They were the citizens of Germany, who resided in Latvia.
- Now, when the registration of the resettlers has almost been completed, the packaging of the properties of the resettlers has started. The German society has organized in Riga 5 shops of packaging materials and will offer 30,000 boxes, 9000 kg of wood shavings, 15,000 kg of jute, 11,000 kg of nails and 20,000 wooden plates for making inscriptions on packages. The harbor has reserved 10,000 sq. meters for storing of packages, and 2,500 of them are now filled in.
- The Minister of Justice ordered that the judges desiring to emigrate should not take part in court sessions anymore.
- A report of Anslavs Eglitis (a well-known Latvian author) about the German colony Irsi [Hirschenhof] is published .
Already in the train he has heard talks how cheaply Germans sell out their properties. That a horse was bought for 60 Ls (normal price about 200-300 Ls), two dozens of geese were bought for 10 Ls etc. In the colony he also observed that many, especially elderly, peasants could hardly begin to negotiate prices, rather agreed with everything and gave up as lost.
Almost all colonists are ready to emigrate, but the author did not see any happy resettler.
http://www.roots-saknes.lv/Ethnicities/Germans/1939/German_Migrations1939SO.htm
Not too phony for those aboard the Royal Oak and other ships being sunk
There were several, but the Soviets basicly controlled the Black Sea throughout the war, despite sometimes heavy losses from Axis aircraft.
The Germans would eventually move several older submarines OVER LAND, to Romania, in to the Black Sea, but the results would never justify the cost of getting them there.
Italian E-Boats would have more success.
Before or after they removed the screen doors?
initial climb= take off?
In another words, crashed on take-off?
E-Boats.
I’ll look that up.
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