* See reply #4.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/feb40/f03feb40.htm
German bombers sink shipping
Saturday, February 3, 1940 www.onwar.com
In the North Atlantic... Off the eastern coast of Britain, about 20 German bombers attack shipping, sinking 2 ships and losing 3 aircraft.
The Winter War... Finnish forces continue to hold the Soviet assault on the Mannerheim Line.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/09.htm
February 9th, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM: RAF Fighter Command: Luftwaffe aircraft attacked shipping off the east coast. Two enemy aircraft were destroyed, 2 naval trawlers were sunk, 3 merchant ships damaged. Two more German aircraft were severely damaged.
FINLAND: Helsinki: Fierce fighting continued today as General Timoshenko pressed his massive and well organised attack on the Mannerheim Line. The offensive opened with a concentrated barrage of 300,000 shells on the Finnish positions near Summa.
The Russian guns are virtually wheel to wheel, at the same time as Red Air Force bombers attack Finnish lines of Communication and reserve bases.
The Russians have assembled 1500 aircraft including the new Ilyushin I16/17 fighter and are using troop-carrying armoured cars mounted on sledges, armed with machine-guns, for the first time. These dash forward, laying smoke screens, dropping off their troops and carrying on. Tanks, each accompanied by a group of soldiers, are then sent forward through the smoke to attack the Finnish positions. In the way the Russians hope to avoid the heavy casualties they suffered in the first round of fighting when massed ranks of infantry were driven into the Finnish machine gun fire.
GIBRALTAR: U.S. freighter SS Scottsburg, detained by British authorities yesterday, is released. (Jack McKillop)
TURKEY: The government dismisses 80 German technical advisers. (Jack McKillop)
CANADA:
AMC conversion for HMCS Prince David awarded to Halifax Shipyard Halifax , Nova Scotia.
AMC conversion for HMCS Prince Robert awarded to Burrard Drydock N. Vancouver , British Columbia. (Dave Shirlaw)
USA: Washington: The under-secretary of State, Sumner Welles, is to be sent to Europe to try to negotiate a peace.
The motion picture “Broadway Melody of 1940” is released. Directed by Norman Taurog, this musical stars Fred Astaire, Eleanor Powell, George Murphy and Frank Morgan. (Jack McKillop)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 0105, the Chagres (Master Hugh Roberts) struck a mine, laid on 6 January by U-30 and sank 5.5 miles 270° from the Bar Lightvessel, Liverpool. Two crewmembers were lost. The master and 61 crewmembers were picked up by HMS Loch Montreith and landed at Liverpool. (Dave Shirlaw)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 162 February 9, 1940
Finland. Mannerheim Line starts to crack in the Summa sector. Soviet troops take a bunker near the village of Karhula, north of Marjapellonmäki (Hill 38). Finns are unable to retake the position despite bringing up reserves. North of Lake Ladoga, Finnish troops surround Soviet JR 203 creating the ‘regimental motti’.
German destroyers Z3, Z4 and Z16 lay 110 mines in The Shipwash, a busy sea lane in the North Sea east of Harwich, England. Mines laid near Liverpool by U-30 on Jan 6 claim another victim. British steamer SS Chagres (1500 tons Cameroonian bananas) sinks 10 miles from her destination (2 lives lost). 62 crew members are taken to Liverpool by anti-submarine trawler HMS Loch Montreith.
Germany. OKH Chief of Staff Halder tires of von Manstein’s criticism of Case Yellow, his invasion plan for France, Belgium and Holland. Halder promotes Manstein to command an army corps garrisoning Poland, well away from planning forthcoming campaigns.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mannerheim_Line
The Mannerheim Line (Finnish: Mannerheim-linja) was a defensive fortification line on the Karelian Isthmus built by Finland against the Soviet Union. During the Winter War it became known as the Mannerheim Line, after Field Marshal Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim. The line was constructed in two phases: 1920–1924 and 1932–1939. By November 1939, when the Winter War began, the line was by no means complete.[1]