CLIPPERS CANCEL STOP AT BERMUDA; AVOID CENSORSHIP (2/26/40)

Microfiche-New York Times archives, Cabrillo College Library | 2/26/40 | Herbert L. Matthews, Walter Duranty

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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[Homer_J_Simpson]

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.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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

[Homer_J_Simpson]

There is a peculiar lack of news from Finland today.

‘Weather’ is Cause – 2-3
The International Situation – 3
Welles in Rome; Greeting is Mild – 3-4
New Soviet Canal Will Go to Latvia – 5
Danube Discussed by Riparian States – 5
Ukranian Press Claims in Bucharest – 6

[Peter W. Kessler]

And Roosevelt was setting up for an unprecedented third term.

[smokingfrog]

New Group for More Medical Care is Assailed as Obstructive Lobby

Some things never change...

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/feb40/f26feb40.htm

Finns withdraw to final line

Monday, February 26, 1940 www.onwar.com

The Winter War... After the failure of counterattacks against the Soviet penetrations, the Finnish command orders their forces to retreat to their third, final line of defense.

In Britain... The war office announces that northern Scotland is to become out of bounds for unauthorized people from March 11th. Meanwhile, the liner Queen Elizabeth (83,700 t.) leaves Clydebank with a skeleton crew on a secret maiden voyage to Halifx, Nova Scotia and New York. She is equipped with giant electric “de-gaussing” cable, to neutralize magnetic mines.

In Paris... Anti-aircraft guns drive Luftwaffe reconnaissance planes away from the city.

In Rome... Sumner Welles meets Mussolini and his son-in-law Count Galeazzo Ciano, the foreign minister.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/26.htm

February 26th, 1940

UNITED KINGDOM: The War Office announces that northern Scotland is to become out of bounds for unauthorised people from 11 March.
RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group. Leaflets and Reconnaissance - Berlin. 10 Sqn. Two aircraft. Moderate opposition.

River Clyde: The new ocean liner RMS QUEEN ELIZABETH leaves Clydebank on a secret maiden voyage to Halifax, Nova Scotia and New York City on one of only two tides high enough to carry the 83,673 ton ship down the river and out to sea. She is manned by a skeleton crew and equipped with a giant electric “de-gaussing” cable, to neutralise magnetic mines. (Jack McKillop)
Minesweeping trawler HMS Olive launched. (Dave Shirlaw)

FRANCE: Paris: Anti-aircraft guns drive Luftwaffe reconnaissance planes away from the city.

FINLAND: The army evacuate Koivisto fort, and prepare for a prolonged siege at Viipuri.

Today takes place the first and only Finnish armored operation of the Winter War. While the Red Army continues to advance towards Viipuri on the southern part of the Karelian Isthmus, the Jäger Battalion 3 and 4th Panzer Company (13 Vickers 6 tonners) are subordinated to the 23rd Division (Col. Woldemar Oinonen) to make a counterattack against the Soviet forces at the village of Honkaniemi, 10 km south-east of Viipuri.

After desperately hasty preparations, the Jäger Battalion 3 and 4th Panzer Company are to attack at 6.15 am, supported by a field artillery battalion. But the Panzer Company is able to get only 6 of its 13 tanks going, and Finnish artillery preparation partly hits the Jäger Battalion’s positions. Finally the Panzer Company’s six tanks are the only Finnish force to attack, but one of them is stuck in a ditch. The remaining five meet in the Honkaniemi village the Soviet 112th Tank Battalion of the 35th Tank Brigade, and are all destroyed without hurting the enemy. Finnish losses are 1 KIA, 3 WIA and 5 MIA. (Mikko Härmeinen)

U.S.S.R.: Soviet submarine M-32 launched. (Dave Shirlaw)

GIBRALTAR: U.S. passenger liner SS Washington is detained at Gibraltar by British authorities. (Jack McKillop)

ITALY: Rome: Sumner Welles meets Mussolini and his son-in-law Count Galeazzo Ciano, the foreign minister.

U.S.A.: The US Army, increasingly aware of the possibility of becoming involved in the European war, creates the Air defence Command headed by Brigadier General James E. Chaney and based at Mitchell Field, Hempstead, Long Island, New York. The new command is primarily a planning agency, charged with development of a system of unified air defence for cities, vital industrial areas, continental bases, and armies in the field, Although limited in size to a staff of only ten officers, the command undertakes to study the special capabilities of pursuit aviation, antiaircraft artillery, radio equipment, barrage balloons, and passive defence measures and to formulate the most effective combination of the several means of defence. (Michael Ballard and Jack McKillop)

[PAR35]

Pan Am 1, Churchill 0 in that match.

[CougarGA7]

Day 89 of the Winter War, February 26, 1940

Eastern Finland: British pilots bring 12 Bristol Blenheim bombers directly to Jukajärvi airstrip in Juva.
Photo: SA-KUVA

Enemy pushes north in force along the banks of the Vuoksi

• Marshall Timoshenko orders his troops to take Viipuri.

• The Soviet force is ordered to surround and totally destroy the city's Finnish defenders.

• The plan of attack includes an assault by two army corps across Viipurinlahti bay to encircle the city from the southwest.

• Further east the enemy also attacks to the north along the banks of the Vuoksi with another two army corps.

• Colonel Oinonen, the new commander of the Finnish 23rd Division, decides to launch a counterattack on the enemy troops which have overrun the Honkaniemi area. The counterattacking force includes a strengthened battalion with its own tanks. H-hour is set for 5.00 a.m.

• H-hour has to be put back when the attacking force is unable to establish contact with its own artillery. When contact is finally established about an hour later, part of the preliminary artillery bombardment comes down among the Finnish troops, killing or wounding 30 men.

• When the troops on the Isthmus at Lake Näykkijärvi move into battle between 6.15 and 10.00 a.m., a fierce tank battle ensues in the area around Honkaniemi station.

• The Finns lose five of the six old Vickers tanks used in the attack.

• The attacking troops are finally forced to withdraw to their starting positions.

• The Russians bring more men into the area to support the breakthrough.

• Two strongholds are initially lost in the Terenttilä area in Taipale, but are retaken in a counterattack.

• Eight Finnish aircraft bomb the Lotinanpelto airfield near the mouth of the River Syväri and the Murmansk railway line.

• Foreign Minister Tanner arrives in the evening in Stockholm and meets Professor T.M. Kivimäki, who has just returned from a fact-finding mission to Germany and urges acceptance of even harsh peace terms. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs communicates the peace terms to Finland's diplomatic representatives in Paris and London.

• 80 enemy bombers pound the marshalling yard and the surrounding district in Kouvola, causing a temporary break in traffic to the east and south.

• Eastern Finland: British pilots bring 12 Bristol Blenheim bombers directly to Jukajärvi airstrip in Juva.

• Abroad: in Stockholm, holders of steel von Döbeln rings bearing the election slogan "Honour - Duty - Will" exchange them for gold rings, the proceeds from the sale to go to help the Finnish cause.

• Finland's good will envoys in the United States, the great runners Taisto Mäki and Paavo Nurmi, are today guests of honour at the US indoor championships in New York's Madison Square Garden. Finland's blue and white flags are raised on the flag poles side by side with the Stars and Stripes.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/

Day 179 February 26, 1940

Finland. Red Army renews its offensive towards Viipuri. Finnish 23rd Division counterattacks with 8 Vickers Mark E light tanks (Battle of Honkaniemi, the only Finnish tank attack). They destroy 3 Soviet tanks but all 8 Finnish tanks break down or are destroyed and the Finns withdraw. http://www.winterwar.com/Battles/Naykkijaervi.htm

Newly-constructed British liner Queen Elizabeth leaves Clydeside on the Spring tide. Due to her weight, today is one of only two tides this year high enough to float her from dock. Churchill worries that Germany will attempt to sink her. He establishes an elaborate ruse to convince German spies that she is going to Southampton for final fitting. Instead she will head across the Atlantic to New York, where she will remain for 8 months before going to Singapore for refitting as a troopship. During the course of the war she will sail 500,000 miles and carry more than 750,000 troops from Australia and America to various theatres. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Queen_Elizabeth#Maiden_voyage