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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

Day 94 of the Winter War, March 2, 1940

Tampere is bombed by over a hundred enemy aircraft, including some fighters.
Photo: SA-KUVA

Soviet troops attack delaying positions on the Isthmus

Three Soviet divisions launch a massive general offensive.
The fiercest fighting is on the Karelian Isthmus, at Käremäenlahti to the south of Viipuri and in the Lyykylä sector east of the city. The Finns are forced to withdraw from the frontline strongholds.
Enemy strikes towards the islands of Tuppuransaari and Teikarsaari are supported by a massive artillery bombardment. A Finnish counterattack around midday is unsuccessful and Tuppuransaari runs out of ammunition. Both islands are lost to the enemy.
The enemy also manages to reach land on the western shore of Viipurinlahti bay.
In Ladoga Karelia, the Soviet artillery in Kollaa begins an intensive bombardment at 6.30 in the morning, followed by an assault with two divisions across the entire breadth of the Finnish positions.
Finnish reconnaissance planes have in the past couple of days observed firing stations for approximately 50 enemy artillery batteries in the centre of the Kollaa front. During the course of the day the enemy artillery in Kollaa fires about 30,000 rounds, against less than 1,000 on the Finnish side.
Despite the enemy's massive numerical superiority, the fighting becomes bogged down in trench warfare with very heavy casualties on both sides.
The enemy artillery at times reaches a rate of 200 rounds a minute.
Despite the extremely difficult conditions and the pounding it has taken from the air due to the Soviet Union's aerial superiority, the Finnish defence nevertheless holds firm.
The Russians also launch assaults with artillery and tank support on the River Aittojoki.
The Russian assaults are repulsed.
In the north, the Finns defending the Kuusijoki line in Kuhmo are unable to withstand the Russian assault.
The assault was preceded by an artillery bombardment of around 3,000 rounds.
In Salla, nine members of a company of Swedish volunteers are killed when the company is surrounded by the Russians. The enemy loses 200 of its own men.
Battle is joined at Löytövaara in Kuhmo.
In Ladoga Karelia, an enemy ski battalion is wiped out between Mustalampi and Lavajärvi.
Tampere is bombed by over a hundred enemy aircraft, including some fighters.
Over 70 buildings are destroyed by Soviet bombers in Lahti.
Foreign Minister Tanner explains to the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee why the Government has postponed acceptance of the Soviet Union's peace terms.
Sweden's Foreign Minister Christian Günther delays passing on Finland's answer to Moscow.
The Allies ask the Norwegian and Swedish Governments to allow their troops to pass through Norway and Sweden en route to Finland.
Norway and Sweden refuse permission.
A battalion of Hungarian volunteers arrives in Finland.
The office of the Canadian Prime Minister announces there are no legal obstacles to Canadian volunteers participating in the war in Finland. The first batch of volunteers board ship in Ottawa en route for Finland.

While the Reich Envoy is communicating with the Irish government, the Abwehr is attempting to communicating with the I.R.A with almost comical results. The sideshow of German Intelligence trying to infiltrate Ireland is a sad showcase of just how incompetent they were which in many respects would cost the German's dearly often during the war. In all there were a total of twelve agents dispatched to Ireland for different reasons. None of them had any significant results. Just to get everyone up to date on the current situation with infiltrating Ireland I'll review some events.

Between 1935 and up to 1937 Hitler forbade the Abwehr from active operations in Ireland since he felt that England would become an ally in due course and Ireland fell under his list of English countries.

By 1937 he started to see that an alliance was unlikely and Admiral Canaris was suddenly straddled with the daunting task of trying to establish an intelligence network on the Emerald Isle. The Abwehr did, however, make contact with the I.R.A. when two members of the German Academic Exchange Service made contact with Tom Barry (I.R.A. Chief of Staff) and Sean MacBride (I.R.A. Director of Intelligence). Not much headway was made from this though since the Germans wanted the I.R.A. to conduct intelligence gathering in the North and in 1937 the I.R.A. was more interested in their latest bombing campaign.

Contact between the I.R.A. and the Abwehr was not re-established unit February of 1939 when Oscar Pfaus, officially representing the Frankfurter Zeitung newspaper, made contact with I.R.A. Chief of Staff Scan Russell while in Dublin. Russell, in need of funding, weaponry, and explosives, agreed to send a representative to Berlin for talks.

The man selected was James O'Donovan, his Director of Chemicals. He spoke some German and was an explosive expert as demonstrated by the three fingers missing from his right hand. He made 3 trips to Germany with the last coming right before the invasion of Poland. In this last trip O'Donovan left without the keyword necessary to decipher the codes provided to the I.R.A. along with the radio they had been set up with for talking to Germany. This really wasn't too significant though since the I.R.A. also used the radio for their internal propaganda broadcasts and it was only a matter of time before Irish Military Intelligence zeroed in on the source. The transmitter was seized on December 24, 1939.

The priority for the Abwehr now became getting a replacement radio to the I.R.A. and thus re-establishing contact. The first attempt to do so involved sending sixty year old Ernst Weber-Drohl with the new radio. Ernst, a former professional wrestler and circus strongman was clearly not the best person for this mission. On January 31, 1940 he was put in a dingy off the coast of Ireland by the submarine U-37. Not long after he had started to row towards shore he capsized his dingy sending the transmitter to the bottom of Sligo Bay. With help from the submarine crew he did make it to shore and eventually met up with Jim O'Donovan. Unfortunately, he also was soon discovered by the Irish Police and arrested for making an illegal landing.

I'll continue this tale when the next attempt is made to land an agent in Erie. We will see if the next person has the Luck of the Irish. In the mean time the I.R.A. and the Abwehr are still not in communication.

Data sourced from The Irish Interlude: German Intelligence in Ireland, 1939-1943. Mark M Hull, The Journal of Military History; Jul 2002, pp 695-717