Posted on 04/21/2010 4:56:49 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Winston S. Churchill, The Gathering Storm
The News of the Week in Review
Duel For Norway – 8-12
Twenty News Questions – 13
Campaign in Norway Nears Its First Climax – 14-16
Answers to Twenty News Questions - 17
Germans capture Lillehammer
Sunday, April 21, 1940 www.onwar.com
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/apr40/f21apr40.htm
In Norway... The Norwegian forces are pushed out of Lillehammer by German attacks on both sides of Lake Mjösa. There is fighting near Namsos, Trondheim, and Narvik.
There is something familiar about this headline.
Whatever, I hope the Norwegians can get it back before the winter olympics.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/21.htm
April 21st, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM: Submarine HMS Upright launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
NORWAY:
German troops push Norwegian and British forces out of Lillehammer.
The British had scarcely settled in at Lillehammer when General Pellengahr’s men hit them. The Germans quickly outflanked the British position, forcing Morgan’s entire line to fall back. That night a German motorized machine-gun battalion made a daring drive through the retreating British and Norwegians and seized Lillehammer.
A German column of mountain troops moves overland from Trondheim to Steinkjer by rail and road. Equipped and trained for snow fighting and supported by a battery of mountain guns, they moved forward carrying their machine-guns and mortars forward in motorcycle sidecars using the minor farm road to get into position over Carton de Wiarts Mauriceforce.
The RAF attacks Aalborg and Stavanger while 36 aircraft carry out reconnaissance over German waters. The Stavanger defences have been strengthened with a balloon barrage and extra searchlights.
RAF Fighter Command: RAF base party of No. 223 Sqn. with 6 officers and 60 men leaves for Norway aboard a warship. They arrive at Aandalsnes at midnight and immediately begin to clear their stores out of the danger area.
Three hours later the petrol is safely stored in a railway tunnel five miles outside the town and the billeting officer has found a hotel to accommodate the men. The hotel had been the Expeditionary Force HQ but had been evacuated because it stood in the zone of near misses of bombs aimed at the jetty.
U.S. Military Attaché Captain Robert E. Losey, USA, is killed in a German bombing raid on Dombas. The U.S. Minister to Sweden, Frederick A. Sterling, orders Naval Attaché Lieutenant Commander Ole E. Hagen, USN, to proceed to receive Captain Losey’s remains. (Jack McKillop)
(Mark Horan adds for todays’ Fleet Air Arm activity): This date saw the arrival at Scapa Flow of the Royal Navy’s two other operational fleet carriers, HMS Ark Royal arriving from Alexandria via Malta and Gibraltar, carrying 810, 820, and 821 Squadrons (all Swordfish), and HMS Glorious arriving from the Clyde with 825 Squadron (Swordfish) and 802 Squadron (Sea Gladiators). The day saw intense activity as HMS Ark Royal disembarked 821 Squadron and prepared for the return of her long absent fighter squadrons, while HMS Glorious disembarked 825 Squadron and her pilots began ferrying aboard the first RAF Squadron to be brought to Norway, 263 Squadron’s 18 Gladiator IIs. One of these aircraft, N5624, crashed over the side during recovery. Meanwhile, HMS Furious continued to cruise off Northern Norway, though her two embarked Squadron had but 10 operational Swordfish remaining. Previously, 800, and 801 squadrons had each operated nine aircraft, six Skua IIs and three Rocs. Now each was expanded to twelve-planes by adding a third Skua section and ordered to prepare to embark on HMS Ark Royal.
Greenock: HMS Ark Royal remains at Greenock loading stores. At 1100, HMS Glorious departs Greenock in company with the destroyers HMS Hyperion, HMS Hereward, and HMS Hasty to fly on her air group consisting of 802 Squadron (Sea Gladiators), 812 Squadron (Swordfish), 823 Squadron (Swordfish), and 825 Squadron (Swordfish). That afternoon, as she rounds Northern Scotland, she commences flying aircraft off and on. First, the Swordfish of 812 and 825 Squadrons depart for Prestwick, carrying the pilots of 802 Squadron ashore so that they can ferry the RAF Gladiator IIs of 263 Squadron to Hatston in preparation for flying them out to the ship. In the flurry of aerial activity that follows, one of these aircraft, N5624, crashes killing the pilot, Petty Officer Cornelius Desmond Gordon-Wilson, RAFVR.
Off NORWAY: HMS Furious, with only ten Swordfish remaining, continued to cruise off Northern Norway, now in company with HMS Isis, HMS Ilex, and HMS Imogen. The days only activity occurs at 1340, when the German trawler Rhein (254 BRT) is sighted and, facing overwhelming force, surrenders to Imogen. (Mark Horan)
U.S.S.R.: Soviet submarine SC-135 launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
SINGAPORE: Conference between UK, US, and Dutch. (Air Vice-Marshal Sir Robert Brooke-Popham chaired meeting, US naval representative was Captain ‘Spec’ Purnell, Chief of Staff to ADM Hart, Commander of the Asiatic Fleet); “ADB” Plan was developed but both US War and Navy Departments recommended it be rejected as they felt it was defeatist and compromised US interests by insisting on defence of trade routes over offensive actions against Japanese. (Marc Small)
U.S.A.: The quiz show, “Take It or Leave It,” debuts on CBS radio at 2200 hours Eastern time sponsored by Eversharp with Bob Hawk as the Quizmaster. Contestants, chosen from the studio audience, tried to answer seven questions valued at $1-$2-$4-$8-$16-$32-$64. The questions were asked and answered and if you got it wrong, you left without any consolation prize. The show remained on the radio until September 1950. (Jack McKillop)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-51 was attacked by submarine FS Orphee with two torpedoes, but both missed.
At 0749, the unescorted Cedarbank was torpedoed and sunk by U-26 NW of Bergen. 14 crewmembers and one gunner were lost. The master and 29 crewmembers were picked up by HMS Javelin and landed at Aalesund. (Dave Shirlaw)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 234 April 21, 1940
A German destroyer and troop transport ship sail up through the melting ice of the Trondheimfjord and land mountain troops at Verdal and Kirknessvag, on the flank of General de Wiart’s 146th Brigade which retreats back to Vist. British and Norwegian base at Steinkjer is bombed into the ground, worsening 146th Brigade’s position.
Further South, Morgan’s 148th Brigade joins Norwegian positions around Lake Mjøsa which are being pummeled by German heavy artillery and 8 He111 bombers. However, 148th Brigade is swept up in retreat before they have dug in (or in some instances even arrived at the front). They set out at midnight on a 14 mile march over hilly, snow-bound lanes back to Lillehammer.
U-26 sinks British MV Cedarbank in supply convoy AP-1 (carrying motor transports, AA guns, ammunition and 75 tons of rations for 148th Brigade) 50 miles northwest of Ålesund, Norway (15 lives lost). 30 survivors are picked up by destroyer HMS Javelin and landed at Ålesund.
First American military casualty of WWII. Air attaché to American embassies in the Nordic countries, Captain Robert M. Losey, is killed observing Luftwaffe bombing attack on Dombås railway junction from the safety of a tunnel. http://www.afsa.org/fsj/dec03/cleverley.pdf
There is a lot of “fog” isn’t there. I’m still not sure if they know who holds Narvik day to day either.
Notice the Churchill reference to Tanga in post 3. Lord HawHaw must have hit a sore spot with his broadcast back on April 8 or 9.
1. In accounts of British troop landings in Norway the word Gallipoli has been recalled repeatedly. Explain.
Ouch.
Lol. Ouch is right. I agree that it is a definite possibility that Lord Haw Haw hit on something there. As we progress in this war I have a few more examples that I don’t think the press hit on (we’ll see) FDR, Marshall, King, and Ike will all voice concerns of Churchill trying to avenge Gallipoli with his obsession with hitting the “soft underbelly of Europe” beginning with taking control of Africa and then moving into Italy. While I agree with this assessment to a degree at least when it directly pertains to Churchill, I think there is more to the resistance to the cross channel invasion than just that that I wont get into now.
It would be interesting to add up, someday, how many amphibious landings the Americans made during the war -- surely it was dozens? -- and how many of those failed as miserably as British amphibious operations seemed inevitably to do?
But perhaps Churchill eventually got a certain wry satisfaction, and a certainly famous quote, regarding the unsatisfactorily US lead landing at Anzio, Italy.
"I had hoped we were hurling a wildcat into the shore, but all we got was a stranded whale."
Apparently these comments could apply to most Churchill conceived amphibious landings.
Indeed, Anzio itself was Churchill's brainchild.
So maybe US generals Lucas & Clark had simply caught the "British disease"?
I think some of the British failures served as instrumental tools to the Americans as they got their feet wet (excuse the pun). Developments like the Amphtrac and other landing craft were results of lessons picked up from the earlier allied failure along with the additional experience that the Americans themselves gained in their first attempts at landing. But you are absolutely correct in that some of the British landings were disasters of historic proportions.
The funny thing about Churchill, in my opinion, is that he was an idea guy. He was the type of personality that would come up with something and say, “Let’s try this”. Sometimes the was to his Generals shegrin. He would doggedly push for something once he had it lodged in his head and was very hard to convince otherwise. Anzio is a great example of that.
And note that the war criminal Churchill is still plotting aggressive war against a neutral.
Well, do remember that the French wanted to hit Soviet oil fields at this point. Churchill did not hold a monopoly on aggressiveness against a neutral, actually Hitler still held that moniker. The only country he ever declared war on was the United States, the rest were all neutrals when he attacked save France. That said, Churchill was guided from some colonial inclinations that definitely guided some of his decision making. This will play into some of the opinions of the American command that Churchill was more interested in protecting the Colonial Empire over all else. But we will get into that later.
The reference to "Tanga" escapes me.
What and where was that?
Tanga Islands in the Pacific?
Say what?!
What "neutral" country are you talking about?
Undoubtedly true.
Sad to say, on amphibious landings Brits proved pretty good at showing our guys what doesn't work.
But what strikes me most about Brits in Norway is:
I doubt if all that is necessarily Churchill's fault.
On the other hand, you'd think Churchill could see some of this ahead of time, wouldn't you?
Sweden. After Narvik, he still plans to seize the Swedish iron ore region.
And as our friend noted, the French and British still have their eyes on the Russian oil fields. (Although the Anglo-French would have been justified in going after Russia following that country’s invasion of Poland, it’s a little late at this point for them to do the right thing.)
So, if as established ex post facto at Nurenburg, plotting aggressive war is a war crime, Churchill could well have been charged (if the war crimes tribunals had been just) for his actions at this stage of the war.
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