RUSSIAN AIR BOMBS RIP SWEDISH TOWN; ACT HELD INTENDED (2/22/40)

Free Republic University, Department of History presents World War II Plus 70 Years: Seminar and Discussion Forum
First session: September 1, 2009. Last date to add: September 2, 2015.
Reading assignment: New York Times articles delivered daily to students on the 70th anniversary of original publication date. (Previously posted articles can be found by searching on keyword “realtime” Or view Homer’s posting history .)
To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by freepmail. Those on the Realtime +/- 70 Years ping list are automatically enrolled. Course description, prerequisites and tuition information is available at the bottom of Homer’s profile.

Selections from West Point Atlas for the Second World War
Evolution of Plan Yellow, October 1939-January 1940
The Far East and the Pacific, 1941 – The Imperial Powers, 1 September 1939

Russian Air Bombs Rip Swedish Town; Act Held Intended – 2-3
The International Situation – 3
Snow Brings a Respite to Finland; Red Drive Lags, Air Raids Dwindle – 4-5
144 British Planes Rushed to Finland – 5
Rockefeller Gives $100,000 for Finns – 5
Australian Minister Stresses War Drive – 5
Term ‘Excellency’ Barred In Addressing Mussolini – 5
Nazi Matron Urges More War Children – 6
Committee Delays Finnish Loan Bill – 6
Nazis Bar Relief in Most of Poland – 7
Vaccine Curbs Smallpox And Yellow Fever at Once – 7
Incidents in European Conflict – 8

http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/feb40/f22feb40.htm

Finns give up Koivisto

Thursday, February 22, 1940 www.onwar.com

The Winter War... The Soviets begin to occupy the islands in the Gulf of Finland. The Finns evacuate Koivisto after blowing up the coast-defense guns there. Meanwhile, the 34th Moscow Tank Brigade, encircled near Kitelae, on the Ladoga front, eats the last of its packhorses and must now survive on starvation rations and biscuits and rusks dropped from Soviet aircraft.

In the North Sea... German He111 bombers attack two German destroyers, by mistake, off the Frisian Islands. The ships blunder into a British minefield and sink.

In Britain... An IRA bomb explodes in Oxford Street, London (7 people are seriously injured). This is the last major incident in an IRA bombing campaign against mainland Britain, begun on January 16, 1939.

In Tibet... The six-year-old Dalai Lama, Jampel Ngawang Lobsang Yishey Tenzing Gyatso (Tender Glory, Mighty in Speech, Excellent Intellect, Absolute Wisdom, Holding to the Doctrine and Ocean-Wide) is enthroned at Lhasa.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/22.htm

February 22nd, 1940

UNITED KINGDOM: RAF Fighter Command: North Sea trawlers are attacked by Luftwaffe aircraft. Little damage is done to the trawlers, the bombers are driven off by the trawlers’[1] machine guns, and two are shot down by fighters.

RAF Bomber Command: Leaflets and Reconnaissance of Vienna. 102 Sqn. Two aircraft from Villeneuve. No opposition over Austria, some en-route.

The first English Electric built Handley-Page Hampden (P2062) flies from Salmesbury airfield in Lancashire.

Corvette HMS Erica laid down.
Destroyer HMS Cattistock launched. (Dave Shirlaw)

NORTH SEA: German destroyers are attacked in error by their own aircraft and run into a minefield laid by RN destroyers. Leberecht Maass and Max Schultz are lost northwest of the German Friesian Islands. U-54 is presumed lost in the same field.

Six type 34 destroyers DD Friedrich Eckholdt (Z-16) flying the flag of Fregattenkapitan Berger, commander of Zestroyer Flotilla 1, DD Richard Beitzen (Z-4), DD Theodor Riedel (Z-6), Leberecht Maass (Z-1), Max Schultz (Z-3), and Erich Koellner (Z-13)sailed from Schilling Roads with the intent of raiding the British North Sea fishing fleet. While transiting a German minefield, the force sighted, and was sighted by a German two-motor bomber.

About a half-hour later the aircraft (an He-111 from 4/KG26) returned and dropped two 100 KG bombs, one of which struck Maass amidships, apparently knocking out her boilers. Eckholdt went to give her assistance. Then, while standing by, the ships came under attack again, with two more bombs being dropped. Either one hit or the ship simultaneously drifted on a mine, but regardless, Maass exploded, broke in half, and sank. There were 60 survivors rescued from the cold water. Some minutes later, the furthest destroyer away from the scene of the Maass’ demise, Schultz exploded and sank. There was a submarine alarm, an aerial alarm, and she was in the minefield. There were no survivors, and no one apparently saw exactly what happened to her. However, at a subsequent inquiry, it was determined that the Luftwaffe aircraft had claimed hits on both destroyers. The was no British submarine in the area, but it had been mined by the British destroyers two weeks before. However, regardless of what actually sank them, the Luftwaffe got the credit. Not a good day for inter-service co-operation! (Mark Horan)

FRANCE: General Gamelin submitted the report that Premier Daladier had commissioned him to make one month before. In his view (he said), “an operation against the Russian oil industry in the Caucasus would make it possible to strike a heavy, if not decisive blow against the military and economic organisation of the Soviet Union.” In a few months the Soviet Union might even get into such difficulties “that it would risk total collapse.” Gamelin pointed out that of the three vulnerable Soviet oil-producing localities, Batum and especially Baku - “by far the most important petroleum centre in the Caucasus” - would be the recommended target of an attack.

FINLAND: The Finns evacuate Koivisto. The SFK takes over responsibility for defending northern Finland, and the Finnish units of Detachment Willamo are subordinated to General Linder. (Mikko Härmeinen)(203)

GIBRALTAR: U.S. freighter SS Sahale, detained by British authorities at Gibraltar the previous day, is released.

TIBET: Lhasa: Buddhists all over the world touched their foreheads to the floor at 4pm today as they bowed in the direction of the almost inaccessible Potala Palace above Lhasa. In monasteries and temples across the Buddhist world they were celebrating the enthronement of the new Dalai Lama - the spiritual leader of the Tibetan Buddhists.
The new representative of this holy line is a five year old peasant boy called Lhamo Dhondup, born in the village of Taktser north-east of Lhasa.
Lhamo, who was selected from three boys in his region, is the 14th in the line of Dalai Lhamas which began in the 14th century.

[1] These would be trawlers commandeered by the Navy, flying the White Ensign and operating with RN crews performing anti-submarine patrols, or escort duties; fair game for the Luftwaffe, rather than the victimisation of innocent merchant seamen bringing home the catch. (Alex Gordon)

ATLANTIC OCEAN:

At 0107, the drifting Loch Maddy was hit by a coup de grâce from U-23 and broke in two 20 miles 70° from Copinsay, Orkneys. The bow section sank, but the stern section was taken in tow by rescue tug HMS St. Mellons and beached in the Inganess Bay, Orkneys. The cargo was salved and the vessel declared a total loss.
At 0020, steam tanker British Endeavour in Convoy OGF-19 was torpedoed and sunk by U-50 about 100 miles west of Vigo. Five crewmembers were lost. The master and 32 crewmembers were picked up by the British SS Bodnant and landed at Funchal, Maderia on 26 February. (Dave Shirlaw)

http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/

Day 175 February 22, 1940

The Gulf of Finland is frozen solid. Soviet 43rd Division attacks with trucks and tanks across the ice and captures Lasisaari and Koivisto islands. Finns spike the guns of the coastal battery on Koivisto before withdrawing across Viipuri Bay.

Operation Wikinger. Without informing the Luftwaffe, 6 German destroyers sortie into the North Sea through a narrow lane between minefields, to disrupt scouting of German warships by British fishing boats. In the moonlight, Heinkel 111s from 4/KG26 mistake the destroyers for Allied ships and bomb the rear of the convoy. At 7.45 PM, destroyer Z1 Leberecht Maas is hit by two bombs and sinks (282 lives lost, 60 survivors). Destroyer Z3 Max Schultz takes evasive action, hits a mine and sinks with her crew of 308. http://www.german-navy.de/kriegsmarine/articles/feature4.html

U-50 sinks British tanker SS British Endeavour 125 miles west of Vigo, Spain (5 lives lost). 32 crew members are picked up by British steamer SS Bodnant and landed on the Portuguese island of Maderia.
http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/274.html

Day 85 of the Winter War, February 22, 1940

The constant enemy bombing on the home front is hampering work in factories and other workplaces.
Photo: SA-KUVA

Enemy unable to break through intermediary defences

The extremely cold winter has made the Gulf of Finland excellent terrain for mounting an assault on the Finnish coast, the severe frost making the ice thick enough to drive a lorry over.
In the morning, the Russian 43rd Division launches an assault on the Koivisto islands from the mainland.
The islands are lost to the enemy. Before abandoning them, the Finnish garrison destroys the guns and fortifications and then withdraws under cover of a snowstorm across Viipurinlahti bay to Säkkijärvi.
On the Isthmus the enemy assaults on the intermediary defensive positions are successfully repulsed.
Soviet troops take Lasisaari island in Viipurinlahti bay.
The staff of II Army Corps reports it has run out of 37 mm anti-tank shells.
Fresh supplies arrive during the night.
Northern Finland: in Kuhmo, Finnish dugouts are destroyed by direct laying fire from heavy field guns.
Ladoga Karelia: the enemy's 204th Reconnaissance Parachute Brigade is sighted on the front on the coast of Lake Ladoga.
Sweden is afraid that giving military aid to Finland would end up dragging it into a major war.
The Swedish Government's policy on Finland is approved by the first chamber of the Swedish Parliament. The chamber nevertheless urges the Swedish people to give whatever voluntary aid they can to Finland.
The constant enemy bombing on the home front is hampering work in factories and other workplaces.
The Finnish Government decides that the working day may be extended by up to two hours to take account of the time lost due to air raids. It also issues pay guidelines for such a contingency.
Members of the public are urged to buy 1939 government bonds.
There has been an increase in the number of volunteers from the United Kingdom since the British Government announced that men aged 27 or over are free to serve in Finland.

Thanks Homer, this is great stuff and I especially like the maps.