Posted on 01/07/2010 4:52:55 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
News of the Week in Review
Additional Bylines not in Thread Header: C.L. Sulzberger, G.E.R. Gedye, Harold Denny, C. Brooks Peters, James B. Reston, Hugh Smith
How the Theatre of War May Spread in Europe and Asia (Map) – 19
Factors are Forming to End War Deadlock – 20-21
Allies Watch Far-Flung Arc – 22-23
Rumania Weighs Her Might – 24
Russians Anxious to Appease Japan – 25
Why the Russian Army Has Bogged in Finland – 27-28
Hitler’s Men Who Run Reich – 29-30
A Fair Nazi Back in England – 30-31
Keeping Neutral a Strain to Eire – 31
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Apparently, reasons for Hore-Belisha's dismissal are not certain, even today:
"In January 1940, Hore-Belisha was dismissed from the War Office in a shock move that many did not understand at the time."Once again, he was accused of having dragged Britain into the war in order to protect Jewish people on mainland Europe, and was considered a warmonger who did not have Britain's interests at heart.
"By 1940, his relations with Lord Gort, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff and commander of the British Expeditionary Force in France, had deteriorated such that neither man had confidence in the other. Gort and other generals disliked Hore-Belisha's showmanship, but their main disagreements had stemmed from differences of opinion (the Pillbox affair) concerning the defence of France along the border with Belgium. Hore-Belisha was unpopular amongst his fellow ministers, with meetings of the War Cabinet said to be regularly tense and loud....
"...Due to the sensitive nature of the disagreements, many MPs and political commentators were bewildered as to why the dismissal had taken place, and Hore-Belisha's formal statement to the Commons left them little wiser.
"A common belief was that Hore-Belisha's bold reforms at the War Office had been opposed by the established military commanders, often caricatured as Colonel Blimps, and that they had forced his resignation.
"Others claimed that Hore-Belisha had been dismissed due to anti-semitism, or even due to pressure by the Royal Family upon Chamberlain because of Hore-Belisha's previous support for Edward VIII during the abdication crisis, although the offer of alternative office and Hore-Belisha's original appointment argue against this."
i wonder if there are still minks in pelham bay NYC?
The article on the five who run the German war effort is a hoot. Looks like it was written using a phone book. And inaccurate as hell. Ludwig Beck had been the Chief of Staff of the German Army prior to the Sudeten crisis, and was opposed to Hitler’s plans for expansion. He either resigned or retired well before Case White. He was also well out of synch with current military thought in Germany, arguing tanks wouldn’t work because there was no place to run telephone lines to on them.
Beck was an organizer of one of the earliest Army conspiracies to overthrow Hitler [starting with the Rhineland occupation, and going forward as far as the Sudeten crisis], and was a participant in Valkyrie. He was allowed by Gen. Fromm to commit suicide in the Bendlerstrasse when the coup failed.
Of great interest are the military planners excluded from the article: Rundstedt, Student [airborne ops], Doenitz [U-boats], Kesselring and Sperrle, and a junior General serving as Rundstedt’s C/S: Erich von Manstein und Lewinski.
"Front-line Finnish officers and men consider that on the basis of performance thus far a Finn is worth ten Russians and they estimate, probably with exaggeration, that casualties have been in the ratio of twenty Russians to one Finn...."
In fact, Soviet troop losses were about five for every one Finn killed.
In aircraft it was 10-to-one, and in tanks over 100 Soviet tanks for every Finnish tank destroyed.
That five-to-one against Finland compares to the Soviets' overall victorious war record against Germany of three-to-one.
On the Western Front in 1940 the ratio was approx. three French, Brits & other allies killed for every German.
The Western Front in 1944-45 saw roughly three Axis troops killed for every two of the allies.
The Germans lost about 10 soldiers killed on the Eastern Front for every one killed by the allies after D-Day in 1944.
The DePuy brothers put it at two Germans were worth three western soldiers in combat effectiveness, and one German was worth at least six Soviets.
No doubt that's true, if you are more careful about how you select the data. I am merely taking overall numbers from Matthew White and Wikipedia.
In general, you'd expect an army on offense to lose more than than the defenders as indeed happened during the Winter War in Finland. But this was far from always the case.
The booty taken on the Raate road includes 43 tanks, 71 field and anti-aircraft guns, 29 anti-tank guns, a number of armoured cars and tractors, 260 lorries, 1,170 horses, and an assortment of infantry weaponry, ammunition, and medical and communications material.
Photo: SA-KUVA
Finns capture major prize on the Raate road
I found the reference to Ludwig Beck interesting too. I know that he resigned in late August of 1938 just as things were coming to a head with the Czech crisis. But from what I understand they didn’t make it public. Maybe that is why this reporter still thinks that he is still somehow involved in the War Plans sector for the Nazis. His cautious nature didn’t work with Hitler’s aggressive standard and that played a major role in pulling him to become a conspirator against him. (Well, in my opinion anyway).
You might enjoy the book I based my post on: “Understanding War: History and Theory of Combat”, by T.N. Dupuy, Paragon House Publishers, 1987.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/jan40/f07jan40.htm
The Winter War... General Semyon Konstantinovich Timoshenko takes command of all the Soviet forces engaged in the war with Finland. His troops on the Karelian Isthmus are now organized in two armies, Seventh and Thirteenth. The Finns are in the process of a reorganization also. In the fighting north of Lake Ladoga the Finnish pressure on the Soviet 18th and 168th Divisions continues. Finnish claims estimate 50,000 Soviet troops have perished in the last five weeks.
In the North Sea... German ships depth charge the Royal Navy submarine Seahorse in the Heligoland Bight.
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