Posted on 07/09/2010 5:51:35 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/jul40/f09jul40.htm
British damage Italian battleship
Tuesday, July 9, 1940 www.onwar.com
In the Mediterranean... The Royal Navy’s Force H (with 3 battleships and 1 carrier), under the command of Admiral Somerville, is attacked by high-altitude bombers without loss. Admiral Cunningham’s Mediterranean Fleet and an Italian squadron under the command of Admiral Campioni (with 2 battleships, 8 heavy cruisers and 12 light cruisers) are involved in a brief surface action in which the battleship Guilio Cesare is damaged by a hit from the Warspite after which the Italians break off.
In Vichy France... Marshal Petain is granted powers to make and alter the constitution by vote of the French parliament. He is opposed by only four votes, three in the Chamber and one in the Senate.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/09.htm
July 9th, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM: RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group (Whitley). Operations cancelled due to weather conditions.
Britain is alive with reports of parachute landings, which were officially denied today. In the invasion of Holland, some parachutists were disguised as clergymen. Some rumours say that they have been disguised as nuns in Scotland. Other rumours of “fifth column” activity include secret rays in operation, which stop car engines dead, and spy messages concealed in the personal column of The Times. It is now an offence to spread rumours - a man was fined GBP 25 today for saying that 20 parachutists had landed in Kent. The Ministry of Information has asked people to join the “Silent Column” and to report defeatist talk.
RAF Bomber Command: 2 Group ( Blenheim). 21 Sqn and 57 Sqn. 12 aircraft bombed Stavanger/Sola airfield in Norway. 7 aircraft lost to fighters.
Submarine HMS Salmon sailed on patrol on 4 July but was not heard from since. After the war it was found that she had been routed across a German minefield that had just been laid at 57 22N 05 00E. All 30 crew lost. (Alex Gordon)(108)
Corvette USS Temptress (ex-HMS Veronica) laid down.
Corvettes HMS Dianthus and Jonquil launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
FRANCE: VICHY FRANCE: The French Chamber of Deputies votes for the reform of the Constitution by 395 votes to 3. Thus the French parliament grants Marshal Petain the power to make and alter the constitution.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Action off Calabria: Battle of Punto Stilo - Italian aircraft based out of Sicily start five days of high-level bombing against Admiral Cunningham’s force (and Force H out of Gibraltar) and cruiser HMS Gloucester is hit and damaged.
In a series of actions, Skua II fighters from 800 and 803 Sqns, FAA, break up most of the attacks, downing three and damaging several more of the attackers. No hits are obtained.
Mediterranean fleet heads for a position to cut off the Italians from their base at Taranto.
Eagle’s aircraft fail to find the Italians and first contact is made by a detached cruiser squadron which is soon under fire from the heavier ships. HMS Warspite comes up and damages battleship ‘Giulio Cesare’ with a 15in hit. As the Italian battleships turn away, the cruisers and destroyers engage but with little effect. Mediterranean fleet pursues to within 50 miles of the Calabrian coast before withdrawing.
In what might be the best single incident of long-range shooting on record, the WARSPITE scores a 15-inch hit on the CESARE, almost dead amidships on a moving target, without radar, at a range of over 15 miles. Meanwhile, Italian bombing attacks obtain loads of near misses and one solid hit, which lands on the bridge of the cruiser GLOUCESTER killing the captain and 19 others. No ship is sunk in the actual engagement, but the British destroyer ESCORT is sunk by an Italian sub while on the way home. (Mike Yaklich)
Force H is the subject off repeated bombing attacks by Sicilian based aircraft of Reggio Aeronautica. In a series of actions, Skua II fighters from 800 and 803 Sqns, FAA, break up most of the attacks, downing three and damaging several more of the attackers. No hits are obtained.
Meanwhile, Swordfish I search planes from 813 Sqn, FAA aboard HMS Eagle having established contact with the Italian Fleet for Admiral Cunningham’s Mediterranean Fleet, the 9 Swordfish Is of 824 squadron, FAA, also aboard HMS Eagle, deliver two separate torpedo attacks on Italian warships in the Ionian Sea. Unfortunately for the Royal Navy, the Italian cruisers outmanoeuvre both attacks. The second of the two attacks is delivered within sight of the British Fleet during the gunnery engagement between HMS Warspite and the Italian battleships Conti di Cavour and Giulio Cesare. These are the first aerial attacks delivered by carrier-based aircraft on the Italian Navy in the Mediterranean. (Mark Horan)
Mussolini has told his fleet: “You have obtained our first naval victory!”
AUSTRALIA: Destroyer HMAS Nestor launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: Submarine USS Unbeaten launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
The All-Star baseball game between the American and National League All-Stars is played in Sportsman’s Park, St. Louis, Missouri. The National League is the home team. Before one man is retired, the National League scores three runs on Boston Braves’ right fielder Max West’s home run with two men on. Five National League pitchers, the Reds’ Paul Derringer and Bucky Walters, the Dodgers’ Whit Wyatt, the Cubs’ Larry French, and the Giants’ Carl Hubbell hold the American League’s All-Stars to three hits giving the National League a 4-0 win, the first shutout in All-Star history. (Jack McKillop)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: SS Tiiu sunk by U-34 at 50.20N, 12W.
At 2119, the unescorted Aylesbury was torpedoed and sunk by U-43 about 200 miles SE of Ireland. The master and 34 crewmembers were picked up by HMS Harvester and Havelock and landed at Liverpool. (Dave Shirlaw)
Hussein is jealous of what the French achieved in an incredibly brief period of time.
“. . . the new lower house would comprise representatives of labor, service organizations, farmers and the trades.”
“. . . both houses would be mere advisory bodies to the government.”
“A dispatch from Vichy . . . the new constitutional “reform” aims to give the government authority to create a new France, safeguarding the rights of labor, the family and the nation.”
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 313 July 9, 1940
Battle of Calabria, first major sea battle in the Mediterranean. At 3.15 PM, Italian convoy to Benghazi, Libya (2 battleships Giulio Cesare & Conte di Cavour, 14 cruisers, 16 destroyers, 4 torpedo boats, 5 cargo ships) runs into a British convoy from Alexandria, Egypt to Malta (3 battleships HMS Warspite, Royal Sovereign & Malaya, 1 aircraft carrier HMS Eagle, 5 cruisers, 16 destroyers) 50 miles South of the heel of Italy. A 15-inch shell from HMS Warspite hits Giulio Cesare at a range of 24 km, one of the longest naval artillery hits equaling the shelling of HMS Glorious by German battleship Scharnhorst on June 8. Giulio Cesare does not sink but the Italian battleships withdraw; an indecisive cruiser battle ensues. 76 Italian high altitude bombers attack the British fleet, causing no damage but forcing a withdrawal, but 50 Italian aircraft bomb their own ships (also without damage). At 5 PM, battle ends & both sides withdraw.
Southwest of Ireland, U-34 sinks Estonian steamer Tiiu at 12.32 PM (all 20 crew picked up by a British trawler and landed at Milford Haven) and U-43 sinks British steamer Aylesbury at 9.19 PM (all 35 crew picked up by destroyers HMS Harvester & Havelock and landed at Liverpool). http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/416.html
British submarine HMS Salmon is lost, presumed sunk by a mine, 60 miles of Stavanger, Norway (all 39 hands lost).
German armed merchant cruisers Komet departs Bergen, Norway, to raid in the Pacific Ocean via the Arctic Ocean, assisted by Soviet icebreakers. Komet, with a crew of 270 under Kapitän zur See Robert Eyssen, is equipped with a strengthened bow and a special propeller for ice navigation. Germany plans to send 26 ships via this route but Komet is the only one to attempt the Northern passage. http://www.bismarck-class.dk/hilfskreuzer/komet.html
Luftwaffe again bombs shipping in the English Channel and near the British coast.
This news article tells us nothing about the meeting, but other sources say:
"Richardson protested this redeployment to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and to other politicians in Washington, arguing that the burden of defending a perimeter so far removed was not possible, despite Japan's attack on China and whatever promises had been made to the British to come to their aid if attacked."On October 26, 1940, a White House leak to the Washington-based Kiplinger Newsletter predicted that Richardson would be removed as Commander in Chief.
"He was replaced by Admiral Husband E. Kimmel in February 1941.
"Richardson is consequently a main focus of historical fact seekers, who claim pre-war intelligence that heavily suggested Pearl Harbor was going to be attacked by the Imperial Japanese Navy in early December was deliberately withheld from the military commanders at Pearl Harbor by the Roosevelt administration.[1]
"As of 2010, the CIA refuses to release many of the JN-25 codes deciphered before December 7, 1941."
Richardson argued the US fleet should not be stationed so far forward at Pearl Harbor, but if it were stationed there, then the fleet must be in a constant state of alert for surprise Japanese attack.
Roosevelt wanted the fleet kept in Pearl Harbor, on a decidedly non-alerted status.
The two could not agree and Richardson was fired.
Yep. That's what El Presidente Generalissimo Obama would like here.
The first one that is cited states: "Richardson is consequently a main focus of historical fact seekers, who claim pre-war intelligence that heavily suggested Pearl Harbor was going to be attacked by the Imperial Japanese Navy in early December was deliberately withheld from the military commanders at Pearl Harbor by the Roosevelt administration."
Yet nowhere in the source for this statement does it say that the Roosevelt administration withheld the knowledge of an attack at Pearl Harbor, or that they knew Pearl Harbor itself was going to be attacked at all.
What it does say is that FDR was "white as a sheet" since he expected to "get hit, but not hurt." It also make the well established claim that he knew we were going to get hit "somewhere". Yet no where in the article does it state the FDR expected to be hit specifically at Pearl Harbor or that he intentionally withheld information from the military. In fact, the article makes the exact opposite claim. It claims that FDR accused the Army in the Philippines of withholding information from him, not the other way around, when it came to their capability to defend the Philippines.
There are plenty of sources out there that make a better (and properly researched) argument that FDR knew Pearl was going to get hit, so I would look into those sources rather than use the fallacious Wikipedia source.
The second statement on the JN-25 codes being withheld by the CIA has a [citation needed] request so it is actually completely unsubstantiated.
Wikipedia is only good when there is only one possible answer. When it is something that is open to debate there is the risk like what we see here of the source material being misrepresented, or unsupported statements thrown out there as fact.
For all intents and purposes, our “lower” and “upper” houses have been little more than Hussein’s rubber stamps. He reads all the empty phrases from TOTUS, while Reid, Pelosi and their robots vote his bidding.
Vichy was a dark stain on the history of France. I’m pretty confident 0bamunism will be for us.
I agree with Cougar. Gordon Prange, the pre-eminent U.S. historian on Pearl Harbor, completely rejected any inference that FDR “knew” of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. FDR knew that the Japanese would attack, but everyone believed it would be the Philippines, not Pearl Harbor. If FDR is guilty of anything, it is that he held the belief that the fleet was not in imminent danger of Japanese attack while based at Pearl. This complacency spread generally through the US Command, from Harold Stark to Husband Kimmel. Compounding matters, he had an old, incompetent WW1 retread in Walter Short as Army commander in Hawaii. Short was responsible for defense of the islands, which included the fleet base. His performance here was pretty lame.
Basing the fleet at Pearl was only one aspect where Richardson disagreed with FDR. Despite Richardson’s assurances in the Times that naval assets weren’t going to be siphoned off to the Atlantic, he knew full well that it was inevitable. Finally, these disagreements don’t mean they were the reason Richardson was removed from command. Periodic rotation of fleet commanders was a routine peacetime practice.
I’m going to go out on a limb and take a position that’s probably fairly unpopular around here. Let’s just man up; in discussing Pearl Harbor let’s give credit where it is due; to the Japanese. They had the ingenuity to dream up a daring attack plan, a well trained and equipped navy and naval air arm capable of carrying it out in complete secrecy and finally, the balls to go through with it. Pearl Harbor was really the largest and most successful “commando raid” in history against a foe that was essentially asleep at the switch. No “conspiracy” here; we just plain got beat.
Certainly as with any major event, there is an ever present sense on conspiracy around it. This is true with Pearl Harbor, just as it’s true with the Kennedy Assassination and 9/11.
Unfortunately, as new bits and pieces come out, it tends to only add to conspiracies rather than really vett fact from fiction. I cannot speak to whether the CIA is purposely blocking the release of decoded JN-25-B code that was translated, but I do think if they were (wouldn’t this fall under the NSA though since it’s signals intelligence?) they are not holding a smoking gun. I seriously doubt that any of these decrypts have FDR’s initials on them with a note to “withhold this intel” on it. This is what I do know:
FDR knew we were going to be attacked. And so did everyone in the military establishment.
All stations in the Pacific were warned as such but when it comes down to potential points of contact with the Japanese, Pearl Harbor is not mentioned as a specific target in the communiques that invoked WPL 46 (The Navy’s portion of War Plan Orange). In fact the war warning sent by Admiral Stark states that “AN AGRESSIVE MOVE BY JAPAN IS EXPECTED IN THE NEXT FEW DAYS. THE NUMBER AND EQUIPMENT OF JAPANESE TROOPS AND THE ORGANIZATION OF NAVAL TASK FORCES INDICATES AN AMPHIBIOUS EXPEDITION AGAINST EITHER THE PHILIPPINES, THAI, OR KRA PENINSULA OR POSSIBLY BORNEO.” The Navy was looking at the southwestern Pacific, not in the direction of Pearl.
Portions of the JN-25-B code were being read in 1941, but how much is a matter of debate. Also, that code went silent on the 4th of December when the encipherment was changed. By the 4th, the armada was on its way under radio silence anyway to that’s not a big issue. Of the code that was read there is no definitive proof of exactly when some critical information was decoded and what channels that information made it through.
So my assessment of the events is that we all knew that Japan was going to attack, but all the military planners agreed that the Japanese would stick close to their home waters and attack the Philippines and perhaps Guam (as far as American possessions go). The Japanese strategists as a whole were very Mahanian in general (and continued to be through the war despite the great air battles). They believed in the Mahan doctrine of a decisive battle, preferably in by luring them as close to their home waters (and resources) as possible. It was Yamamoto that thought outside that box and proposed these grand long arm strategies as well as the dependence on air power. He was a minority of this doctrine and it was only his established clout that carried it through to fruition.
As to whether FDR knew Pearl was going to get hit and did nothing to stop it. I’m with henkster in that I feel that is conspiratorial clap trap. I don’t think anyone would argue that FDR wanted us in the war. He wanted us to take on Hitler and to help Britain. Rainbow 5, which was the established plan at the time of December 7th makes that very clear. That’s why the Chicago Tribune jumped on leaking the war plan when Senator Wheeler leaked it to them. That paper was very anti-FDR and jumped on the opportunity to expose him as a warmonger.
However, I don’t believe that he would do nothing if he knew the Japanese were going to hit a specific target. It just doesn’t pass the test of common sense to me. Why would a leader put his entire Western front in peril just to go to war. He knew about the coming attack, prepared his fleet and whooped the Japanese butts over Pearl Harbor, he would have achieved the same ends. The fact that the Japanese attacked us would not have changed, and that was the true catalyst of us going to war. If we had repelled the attack, we still would have had losses, the nation still would have been enraged, and we still would have declared war on Japan. And on December 11th, Germany still would have declared war on the U.S.
My opinion on this is mirrored by Pearl Harbor Survivor James L. Evans USMC:
“I cannot imagine any President or anybody else that would sink his navy to go to war. I mean it makes little sense. Now if Roosevelt or anybody in the Navy Department, Army or whatever knew about it, why not repel them? It would have served the same purpose.”
I don't think Roosevelt believed that the navy would be sunk. The carriers were vulnerable, so they were sent to safety at sea away from the attacking force (but with a war warning to engage the enemy if spotted).
Like most of his generation, he thought capital ships were safe from air attack (ignoring Tarento and the news a few days ago about the British air attack on the French fleet; today's news about the the inconclusive air attacks by the Brits and the Italians was more in keeping with conventional wisdom.
I believe Roosevelt was honestly shocked by the damage to the battleships at Pearl.
Perhaps. But honestly, I agree with the contention that you would have had the same result by repulsing the attack. If Roosevelt knew Pearl was going to be attacked and felt it was necessary to let the battleships take a pounding because they wouldn’t sink, then he was an outright fool.
I have many opinions on FDR, most of them not good, but being a fool is not one of them. On top of that the U.S. Navy, much like the Japanese also were heavily populated by Mahanian proponents. There were very few carrier commanders who, through working directly with the potential of air power, had become converts to this new form of warfare. The only old timer I can think of that felt strongly about the potential of naval aviation was Admiral Moffett and part of that must be attributed to his efforts to keep the naval air assets separate from the army’s. He was killed in the crash of the airship Akron in a storm in 1933.
If you follow Mahan’s teachings, the battleship is the most important ship in your fleet, and the aircraft carriers are just support units for battleship groups. With that type of mentality, you wouldn’t dream at risking the entire backbone of your navy under the assumption that air attacks can’t sink battleships. (Remember that one of these old Navy men is FDR himself)
I think FDR was indeed surprised. He was surprised that the Japanese attacked outside their own side of the Pacific. I haven’t seen anything as of yet that has convinced me that FDR let the fleet at Pearl get hit with foreknowledge.
Is there a good analysis of how it was that the French Assembly voted so heavily for Fascism? Were the non-Fascists not in Vichy or were they cowed into going along by the collapse of the Republic in the face of German aggression?
I've said here before, my major sources for this subject are:
But I often cite Wikipedia because:
But my point here was not necessarily to reopen the entire Pearl Harbor debate (nothing wrong with that, but I was focused on a much smaller point).
My point is that Admiral Richardson objected to stationing the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, and was soon fired, demoted and retired by President Roosevelt.
This much is well known by all.
But is there more to the story?
Answer: yes a lot more.
Victor goes into great detail (pp 154 to 164) on why Richardson objected to moving the fleet to Pearl Harbor, and what were the results of his objections.
I have summarized it by saying: Richardson did not think the fleet safe at Pearl Harbor, and so wanted it kept on constant high-alert.
Since that was not FDR's plan, it got Richardson fired.
I contend that it's impossible to comprehend what happened on December 7, 1941 without first realizing why Richardson was fired.
Richardson fully understood FDR's plan, and would not accept it.
By contrast, Admiral Kimmel and General Short were clueless, and so did as ordered.
BroJoeK
I love you, you are a great poster, and I could agree with you about Pearl Harbor but then we would both be wrong.
Several years ago I was frequent poster on another forum dedicated to WW2, where I encountered people whose knowledge of WW2 made mine look primitive. There I had the pleasure of corresponding with Lt. Cmdr. Phil Jacobsen (Ret), who was one of the WW2 JN-25 codebreakers. He is now sadly deceased, but Lt. Cmdr. Jacobsen cared a great deal about the service he rendered to his country, and spent much of the latter part of his life debunking Stinnett. Lt. Cmdr. Jacobsen’s research and knowledge literally ripped Stinnett to shreds. To me, Phil’s money line was: “I was there. Stinnett was not. I read the decrypted traffic. He didn’t.”
I have no love for FDR. He was a one-world socialist through and through and his misguided economic policies, repeated today, brought short term and long term impairment of our national prosperity. However, there is no question that once committed to war, FDR would settle for nothing less than complete military victory over our enemies. While I do not feel the same about the current regime, there is nothing in the way FDR subsequently prosecuted the war that shows he would deliberately sacrifice his battle fleet to start a war.
Lucius
There is a very good account of this in Shirer’s “Collapse of the Third Republic.” I recommend it highly. It is a pity that the book is not still in print, but you can get copies at Amazon.com. I’ve had my copy since I was in 8th grade and it is literally disintegrating in my hands as I re-read it.
To really understand how easily the French Assembly voted itself out of existence, you have to read Shirer’s whole book and I can’t post it here. But suffice to say that the Third Republic was a flawed body politic from it’s inception, and there were many on the Left and Right that never supported it. The German victory crushed the spirit of those who would defend representative democracy. Don’t forget that there is a big question about just who the Deputies represented at this point. Most of the country is now occupied by Germans. The Deputies are essentially “in exile” in their own country, cut off from their constituents, in some rural backwater town. The last official government is already controlled by fascist-sympathizers like Laval and Weygand. Cowing the beaten and demoralized Deputies turned out to be quite easy in the early bitter aftermath of defeat.
* Robert Stinnett’s “Day of Deceit — the Truth about FDR and Pearl Harbor”
* George Victor’s “The Pearl Harbor Myth — Rethinking the Unthinkable”
You should use those. Using Wiki when it is improperly referenced is just spreading bad information.
First of all, I agree on President Roosevelt -- among his many socialistic flaws was at least one shining virtue: FDR had learned from Woodrow Wilson's First World War example that incomplete victory just doesn't work.
So an enemy dangerous enough for war must be thoroughly defeated.
Otherwise, you'll just have have "round two" as soon as they feel ready again.
Now, on Stinnett's book -- remember, the subject here is Admiral Richardson, not code-breaking.
So, where ever your Lt. Cmdr Jacobson may or may-not have been at the time, he was certainly not in on discussions between Richardson and Roosevelt.
To find data on that, we must look elsewhere.
Stinnett's book spends two pages discussing Richardson's conflict with FDR.
Victor's book devotes more than ten pages to it.
Here is an example from Victor (page 158):
"At [Navy Secretary Frank] Knox's request he [Richardson] visited Washington again in October [1940] and took the occasion to confront Roosevelt.
"His recollection of their long, tense discussion was largely supported by Roosevelt's friend, Adm. William Leahy, who was also present.
"Richardson and Roosevelt restated positions they had taken during the July visit. Richardson urged returning the fleet to the West Coast because of its vulnerability at Pearl Harbor. Roosevelt said the fleet was needed in Hawaii to deter Japan. Richardson said it was too weak to be an effective deterrent, and the Japanese knew that.
"Roosevelt replied:
'Despite what you believe, I know that the presence of the fleet in the Hawaiian area has had, and is now having a restraining influence on the actions of Japan.'"(The basis of this statement is unknown. It was not supported by intercepted Japanese diplomatic messages or other intelligence that has come to light.)
"Both Roosevelt and Richardson made the same arguments over and over, becoming angry and challenging each other.
"Suspecting the fleet's transfer might be part of a hidden plan, Richardson finally broke the stalemate by asking if Roosevelt meant to go to war with Japan.
"That, the president answered, depended on where Japan attacked. If she attacked Thailand or the Dutch East Indies, the United States would not go to war. If she attacked the Philippines, the United States probably would go to war, but (in Richardson's words),
'[the Japanese] could not always avoid making mistakes and as the war continued and the area of operations expanded sooner or later they would make a mistake and we would enter the war.'"The only U.S. territory in the Pacific more important than the Philippines was Hawaii. By inference a Japanese "mistake" meant an attack on Hawaii or on the fleet, either one would enable Roosevelt to enter the war.
"On October 7, the day before his argument with Richardson, Roosevelt had received an ONI memo, written by [Naval Intelligence Commander Arthur] McCullum containing proposed measures to help save Great Britain and ultimately to defeat Germany:
- 'Make an arrangement with Holland for the use of base facilities...in the Dutch East Indies.
- 'Send a division of heavy cruisers to the Orient.
- 'Send two divisions of submarines to the Orient.
- 'Keep the main strength of the US Fleet...in the vacinity of the Hawaiian Islands.
- 'Insist that the Dutch refuse to grant Japanese demands for...oil...
- 'Completely embargo all U.S. trade with Japan, in collaboration with the British Empire.'
"It is worth emphasizing that measures to defeat Germany were directed against Japan.
And the memo ended with,"If by these measures the Japanese could be led to commit an overt act of war, so much the better."
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