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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.

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.

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

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

19 October 1939-

Herman Goering issued a verbal order to a Dr. Kajetan Muehlmann asking him to undertake the immediate securing of all Polish art treasures.

Kajetan Mühlmann - he was a Staatssekretar in Seyss-Inquart’s government in Austria 1938, and has social and professional connections to Seyss-Inquart, Göring, Heydrich (as undercover agent?) and also to Hitler concerning artistic matters.

He was captured by the U.S. Army in the Austrian Alps on June 13, 1945. Later he was transferred to an American POW camp, where he gets a lot of privileges because of his special talent as painter.

Dr. Muehlmann himself gives evidence of this order in Document 3042, found in the document book last introduced as Exhibit USA 375.

His War Crimes Trial statement, as entered by Col. Story in Georing’s trial:

Kajetan Muehlmann states under oath:

“I have been a member of the N.S.D.A.P. since 1st April, 1938. I was Brigadier General (Oberfuehrer) in the S.S.

I was never an illegal Nazi.

I was the special deputy of the Governor General of Poland, Hans Frank, for the safeguarding of art treasures in the Government General, October, 1939 to September, 1943.

Goering, in his function as chairman of the Reich Defence Council, had commissioned me with this duty.

I confirm that it was the official policy of the Governor General Hans Frank, to take into custody all important art treasures which belonged to Polish public institutions, private collections and the Church. I confirm that the art treasures mentioned were actually confiscated; and it is clear to me that they would not have remained in Poland in case of a German victory, but they would have been used to complement German artistic property.

Signed and sworn to by Dr. Muehlmann.”