Posted on 05/05/2010 4:42:00 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
News of the Week in Review
Twenty News Questions – 9
Can Germany Be Stopped? Lessons of the War – 10-11
What Germany Gained From Norwegian Conquest (map) – 12
Reich Raises Prestige by Triumph in Norway – 13-14
Chamberlain’s Power is Likely to Continue * - 15-16
Answers to Twenty News Questions – 17
* Subtitle: Britain Faces Cabinet Crisis Over Reverses in Norway but With No Sharp Change Projected
Good call, Ray. If there is any change in that forecast I hope you give us an update. (Isn’t hindsight fun?)
The attack on France is just a few weeks away.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/may40/f05may40.htm
Germans advance from Trondheim
Sunday, May 5, 1940 www.onwar.com
In Norway... The German forces continue to advance north from Trondheim. More Allied troops arrive in the north at Tromso and Harstad. This contingent is from the French Foreign Legion and the exiled Polish forces.
In London... A Norwegian government in exile is set up with British support.
In Ireland... Captain Hermann Goertz, a member of the Abwehr (a German military intelligence organization), lands by parachute near Dublin. He subsequently makes contact with Irish Army officers and members of the IRA. (Goertz is detained by Irish authorities in November 1941.)
Very few.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/05.htm
May 5th, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM: London: The Norwegian defence and foreign ministers arrive for talks.
Light cruiser HMS Fiji commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
FRANCE: Paris: The newspaper of the exiled German Social Democratic Party, ‘Neuer Vorwarts’ [New Way Forward], closes down after key members flee to London.
GERMANY: Fall Gelb is put back one more day to May 8.
NORWEGIAN CAMPAIGN:
German forces continue their advance north from Trondheim, Norway.
Submarine HMS Seal successfully lays mines in the southern Kattegat on the 4th before being damaged by a German mine herself. Trying to make for neutral Sweden on the surface, she is attacked and captured off the Skaw by German air and sea patrols. Lt Gunther Mehrens, piloting an Ar 196A-3 from Ku.Fl.Gr.706, spotted HMS Seal. Mehrens attacked with his cannon and bombs, forcing the suubmarine’s surrender. Mehrens then alighted, picked up the commander Lieut-Cdr R. Lonsdale and flew him to Aalborg, the Seal being towed into Frederikshavn. There are no casualties, the entire crew being made PoWs. Two escape during captivity and reach Switzerland. HMS SEAL is recommissioned as U-B and put into service for the Kriegsmarine. (Alex Gordon)(108)
French Foreign Legion troops land at Tromsø .
The German commander, Major General Valentin Feurstein, begins marching the 2nd Division northward without even waiting for all his troops to reach Trondheim.
Greenock: HMS Ark Royal proceeding to Norway, HMS Glorious and Furious embarking provisions, ordnance, stores, and supplies form the two RAF Squadrons. (Mark Horan)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 248 May 5, 1940
HMS Seal comes to the surface at 1:30 AM with no power or steering. 2 Arados & a Heinkel attack at 2:30 and Seal surrenders using a white table-cloth. All 60 crew are taken prisoner 3 hours later but fail to scuttle Seal, which is towed to the new German base at Frederikshavn, Denmark. She will be repaired & commissioned into the Kriegsmarine November 30 as UB. http://www.naval-history.net/WW2Ships-Seal.htm
http://www.uboat.net/boats/ub.htm
To support the landings of British Independent Companies (intercepting 2nd Gebirgsjäger advance towards Narvik), destroyers HMS Juno & Veteran arrive at Mosjöen while HMS Nubian & Firedrake go to Bodö.
At 5.25 AM, Hegra Fortress surrenders (under siege since April 12, resisting infantry and artillery attack plus Luftwaffe bombing), following Allied evacuation around Trondheim and the surrender of Southern Norway. 190 volunteer soldiers and civilian nurse Anne Margrethe Bang become POWs. 150-200 Germans have been killed or wounded attacking the Fortress while 6 Norwegians died (14 wounded).
(The next day, 6 May, the prisoners from Hegra were marched 50 kilometres to Berkåk where a PoW camp was established. At Berkåk the prisoners were set at work at building an improvised road from the river Orkla near Berkåk across the woods to Brattset, to help the German logistic system that had been severely hampered by the numerous blown bridges. Due in part to the poor physical condition of the prisoners after the harsh siege they had just experienced the road was never completed. At the end of May, Adolf Hitler personally ordered their release as an act of recognition of the defense they had put up under difficult conditions. The release happened in groups and by mid-June the last PoWs had been let go.)
The Nazis seem to get easily excited about claiming sinking Royal Navy ships. The Warspite was not sunk and survived the war.
In light of the multiple German claims of damaging or sinking her, Warspite seems as resilient as Jim Rockford's Firebird.
The change from Chamberlain to Churchill was not a sure thing.
Many Brits did not trust Churchill -- too eratic, too, well, imaginative.
And now Norway is added to Galipoli in his list of "accomplishments." Oh dear.
So Chamberlain's first choice as successor was his Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax. But for reasons an American might never understand, that was impossible.
The selection then fell reluctantly to Churchill.
Among Churchill's many assets was an ever deepening friendship with Franklin Roosevelt. In the end, this would make all the difference.
Whether he knew it then or not, Chamberlain was, or would soon be, mortally ill with bowel cancer and die almost six months to the day later, age 71.
So, do I have to pay a penalty for jumping the gun? ;-)
Homer:
This is one of the rare instances I’m disappointed in your selections from the Times. I’d liked to have seen the full article on isolation of the U-235 isotope. It seems that such a powerful naturally occurring substance will have some ramifications in the current war, especially since it is being sought by Germany.
I’ll have to go dig through my copy of Rhodes’ “The Making of the Atomic Bomb” for more on this.
There will be a steady stream of such articles in the coming year, until all news of research into nuclear physics “goes dark.” The astute reader of the New York Times science articles will deduce that construction of atomic weapons is possible. One such reader was a crew member of the Enola Gay. The crew was never told what they were training for, and even on the bomb run to Hiroshima, they were only told it was a very powerful weapon of a new type. When pressed what it was, the crewman asked if it were a “chemist’s nightmare” and told “no.” The astute crewman then asked if it were a “physicist’s nightmare” and told “something like that.” He then put two and two together and asked “Sir, are we splitting atoms today?”
Not the first war in which the Germans could claim to have sunk Warspite. She was badly damaged at Jutland, taking 15 hits and temporarily losing her steering. She almost foundered on the way home.
A beautiful ship, and a tough one, too, she probably saw more surface combat than any other dreadnought.
During the Battle of Calabria (July 9, 1940), she achieved the longest hit on a moving target in history, shelling the Italian battleship Giulio Cesare from a range of over 26,000 yards. Heavily damaged off Italy by three German FX-1400 guided missiles on September 16, 1943, she barely made it back to port. Temporarily repaired, she returned to action as a bombardment monitor, shelling the Normandy defenses and several French ports before finally being put in reserve.
After the war, there was a strong movement to preserve her as a museum ship, but the British Admiralty refused to listen to these pleas and she was sold for scrap in 1947. A sad end to such a gallant ship.
The British built all these magnificant ships in the late 19th thru World War II and the only one preserved is some dinky cruiser in the Thames. Very sad.
As an American, I still consider Churchill a better leader than Roosevelt. Roosevelt was a socialist who cozied up too close to Uncle Joe. Churchill recognized the evil regime of both Hitler and Stalin before many would listen.
Not quite correct. Second oldest British warship in commission. .
HMS Victory is older, but in dry dock.
As for afloat, the USS Constitution (in commission and afloat), USS Constellation (afloat, not in commission)USS Texas (afloat, not in commission, plans are to take her out of the water, but that hasn't been done yet).
Off the top of my head. May be other older ships out there as well. But at best, number 4 on the list of oldest warships afloat.
That's what I get for letting my inventory dwindle. I have to scroll and grab instead of being more careful. I don't normally use my valuable time at the library to cover old ground, but this is an exception. I will revisit 5/5/40 on my next trip and get the rest of the story. Thanks for pointing it out.
Churchill may have been the greatest leader of the 20th Century. He was the only cabinet-level leader of a major combatant in both wars, and continued active in public life into the 1950’s.
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