* German Shepherd story alert. Read the original account from May 29.
Now that's what I call a dog-hero.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/sep40/f07sep40.htm
Germans begin “The Blitz”
Saturday, September 7, 1940 www.onwar.com
Over Britain... The Germans alter the tactics of their air offensive and send a major daytime raid against London. This gives the RAF a welcome respite from the airfield attacks which have been so damaging during the last few days. The German attack on London follows from a suggestion of Hitler which coincides with Goring’s own theories. The German tactic is that the RAF will be forced to commit its carefully hoarded reserves and that they can then be destroyed. Kesselring’s 2nd Air Fleet is to attack London by day with 500 bombers (including some brought from Norway and Denmark) and 600 fighters. Sperrle is to attack by night with about 300 bombers, as all his fighters have been switched to Kesselring. In addition there are about 100 Me110s and over 200 Stukas. The British have about 350 aircraft in their frontline squadrons with more in reserve. Park is modifying his tactics slightly to cope with the bigger German formations and now intends pairing his squadrons where possible. In the afternoon the Germans send 300 bombers and 600 fighters to attack targets in the London dock area. The British interceptions are not well managed because of the change of tactics comes as a surprise. The Luftwaffe loses 41 aircraft and Fighter Command 28 shot down and several more damaged. The bombing is most effective. During the night Sperrle follows up the attack with 250 bombers with the still-blazing fires to guide them to their target. The damage is very serious. There is little the RAF can do at night to achieve interceptions although the first airborne radar sets are coming into operation. Despite the damage done it is clear that the casualties and the disruption of civilian life are not as great as prewar fears suggested. There is no question of the Germans achieving a decisive result in these operations. These attacks become known as “The Blitz” by the British people.
From London... The British authorities decide that they have information that a German invasion is likely in the next few days and accordingly they issue an invasion warning. This warning is in the form of the signal word “Cromwell” which means that an invasion is imminent and its issue causes some wild measures to be taken. In fact this signal has been chosen because its true meaning corresponds most nearly to the needs of bringing about a higher state of readiness. No other code word has this effect.
In the North Atlantic... During the night (September 7-8), U-47 sinks one ship from convoy SC-2 by attacking while surfaced.
More on Niemoeller:
"Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller (14 January 1892 – 6 March 1984) was a German anti-Nazi theologian[1] and Lutheran pastor. He is best known as the author of the poem First they came...."
"Like most Protestant pastors, Niemöller openly supported the right-wing opponents of the Weimar Republic.
He even welcomed Hitler's accession to power in 1933, believing it would bring a national revival.
However, he decidedly opposed the Nazis' Aryan Paragraph.
In 1936, he signed the petition of a group of Protestant churchmen that sharply criticized Nazi policies and declared the Aryan Paragraph incompatible with the Christian virtue of charity.The Nazi regime reacted with mass arrests and charges against almost 800 pastors and ecclesiastical lawyers.
In 1933, Niemöller founded the Pfarrernotbund, an organization of pastors to "combat rising discrimination against Christians of Jewish background."[10]
By the autumn of 1934, Niemöller joined other Lutheran and Protestant churchmen such as Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer in founding the Confessing Church, a Protestant group that opposed the Nazification of the German Protestant churches.
The author and Nobel Prize laureate Thomas Mann published Niemöller's sermons in the United States and praised his bravery."
There is much more of interest about Martin Niemoeller, including his WWI U-boat service.
He is perhaps representative of clergy who first supported the Nazis, but were later arrested and spent the war in concentration camps, where many perished.