Posted on 10/23/2010, 1:08:04 PM by Homer_J_Simpson
Plus a special guest map from Michael Korda’s, “With Wings Like Eagles,” showing the air defenses of England and Wales, August 1940.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/oct40/f23oct40.htm
Franco noncommittal to Hitler
Wednesday, October 23, 1940 www.onwar.com
In Occupied France... Hitler meets General Franco at Hendaye in southern France. Hitler tries to persuade Franco to join the war and offers as bait the allocation of Gibraltar and territory in North Africa. Franco is uncertain about how to proceed and successfully muddles the issue, leaving Hitler no better informed as to what is Spanish policy but without causing offense.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/23.htm
October 23rd, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM:
Battle of Britain: By night Glasgow and London are bombed.
Losses: Luftwaffe, 3; RAF, 1.
London: MPs protested today at critical comments by the author H G Wells, now lecturing in America, about British politicians and generals, whom he has also criticised in the Sunday Pictorial magazine. The government was asked why he was allowed to go abroad to denigrate his country at its hour of peril. Emanuel (Manny) Shinwell, a Labour MP, deplored Wells’s speech but said that we were fighting for the right of free expression. Mr Peake, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Home Office, said that Britain needed all the dollars it could earn; an American senator has said that Wells is harming Britain’s cause.
Destroyer HMS Avon Vale launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
FRANCE: Hendaye: Hitler fails to persuade Spain’s General Franco to join the Axis or to let Germany attack Gibraltar through Spain.
CANADA: Minesweepers HMS Kelowna and Courtenay ordered from Prince Rupert Dry Dock and Shipyards Co, Prince Rupert, British Columbia.
U.S.A.: Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox makes a public statement that it was now US policy to fully defend the Philippine Islands against any and all attack. (Marc Small)
USS Conner (DD-72), commissioned as HMS Leeds (G-27), USS McCalla (DD-253), commissioned as HMS Stanley (I-73), USS Philip (DD-76), commissioned as HMS Lancaster (G-05), USS Rodgers (DD-254), commissioned as HMS Sherwood (I-80), USS Stockton (DD-73), commissioned as HMS Ludlow (G-57), USS Twiggs (DD-127), commissioned as HMS Leamington (G-19), and USS Evans (DD-78), commissioned as HMS Mansfield (G-76), and USS Yarnell (DD-143), commissioned as HMS Lincoln (G-42), as part of the destroyers-for-bases deal. (Ron Babuka)
USS Conway (DD-70), commissioned as HMS Lewes (G-68), part of the destroyers-for-bases deal. Lewes outlives all of her sisters in British service; stripped of valuable scrap and scuttled off Sydney, Australia 25 May 1946. (Ron Babuka)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 419 October 23, 1940
Battle of Britain Day 106. The weather deteriorates further with poor visibility due to low cloud and drizzle. Luftwaffe mounts only reconnaissance flights and sporadic raids of single bomb-carrying fighters. No fighters are shot down by either side. There is relatively light night bombing of London and Glasgow and minelaying off the Yorkshire coast in Northeast England.
In an attempt to bring Fascist Spain into the war on the side of Germany, Hitler travels to Hendaye, Southern France, to meet General Franco. Over 9 hours of negotiations, Hitler offers Gibraltar and territory in North Africa to Spain but Franco demands French Catalonia (North of the Pyrenees), almost all of Morocco and a large chunk of Algeria. Hitler later confides (to Mussolini) that he would rather have 3 or 4 teeth pulled out than continue the discussions.
10 more WWI-era US Navy destroyers are transferred to Royal Navy at Halifax, Nova Scotia, for escort duty as part of the “destroyers for bases” deal between Churchill and Roosevelt.
Interesting story in there about Gallup finding that Wilkie would be leading FDR if not for the international crisis.
The Battle of Britain and Churchill's speeches are working in Roosevelt's favor.
And I swear I didn't read today's polling story before I made my highly astute comment to BroJoeK last Monday. (See reply #10 from the 18th.)
Date: 23rd October 1940
Enemy action by day
Enemy activity was on a small scale, no raids being reported between 0600 and 1200 hours. All those plotted during the day, except one, appear to have been made by single aircraft. Our fighters damaged one enemy aircraft, but themselves suffered no loss.
Reconnaissances
South East
At 1240 hours an aircraft from Calais flew from Dover to Dungeness and Hastings, where it turned North and crossed the Inner Artillery Zone. This aircraft is reported to have attacked the Stanmore before returning across the IAZ and going across Kent. At 1245 a reconnaissance was flown off the North Foreland.
At 1323 hours a raid from Holland came into the Estuary over a convoy off Clacton, circled Harwich for ten minutes and returned to the Scheldt; this was followed at 1331 hours by another from Holland into the Estuary, over two convoys North West of Herne Bay and then to South East London and back to the Scheldt.
Between 1424 and 1522 hours a reconnaissance was made from the South of Orfordness to Luton, North of North Weald and Clacton.
At 1522 hours an unidentified aircraft crossed the coast between Southwold and Orfordness and flew to Peterborough, Grantham, Wittering, Duxford and Bury St Edmunds and faded North of Martlesham.
At 1547 hours a raid flew into the Estuary as far as Hornchurch.
At 1610 hours an aircraft from the Scheldt flew over a convoy in the Estuary and then via the Blackwater to Hornchurch, Gravesend and Rochester and back to Holland.
Between 1630 and 1700 hours two aircraft crossed the coast at Beachy Head but did not penetrate far inland. At 1700 hours an unidentified aircraft was off Southwold and a single enemy aircraft entered the Estuary and flew to Hornchurch, round the London area and out over Sheppey.
Between 1700 and 1800 hours a reconnaissance was made from the Dutch Coast to the Mouth of the Estuary.
South and West
At 1210 hours a single enemy crossed the coast near St Alban's Head, passed near Swindon and turned South to the Isle of Wight and Le Havre.
Between 1359 and 1440 hours a raid from the East of Cherbourg passed between two convoys off Portsmouth but did not cross the coast.
At 1536 hours a reconnaissance from the Caen areas flew over Portsmouth and Southampton.
Night Operations - 23rd/24th October 1940
1800 Hours to 2100 Hours
The first aircraft engaged on night operations was plotted leaving the Abbeville area at 1807 hours and between that time and 2100 hours activity developed on a moderate scale only, 10 tracks being plotted from the Dutch Islands via the Estuary to London, and 17 from the Somme area towards the same objective. At 2100 hours there was only one raid inland, flying East down the Estuary.
2100 Hours to 0100 Hours 24/10/40
Although slight activity was continued towards London, mainly from Eastern points, throughout this period, about 12 enemy aircraft began to penetrate the Yorkshire Coast from the East. These held their course until they reached the Western seaboard and were tracked a short distance out to sea off the Lancashire Coast. It is conjectured that these aircraft were minelaying as their speeds varied between 150 and 180 mph only. The majority returned on reciprocal courses, while other tracks returned on reciprocal courses, while other tracks indicated probable minelaying off the Lincolnshire and Yorkshire coasts. A few enemy aircraft may also have been minelaying in the Estuary.
0100 Hours to 0600 Hours
A series of 13 raids approached Montrose at 0150 hours, continuing West and returning reciprocally. South England was clear by 0152 hours, but new waves appeared from Dieppe at 0440 hours, and from Holland at 0500 hours heading for London. These raids were still in progress at 0600 hours.
________________________________________
Statistics
Fighter Command Serviceable Aircraft as at 0900 hours, 23rnd October 1940
Casualties:
| Enemy Losses | ||
| By Fighters – By Day | ||
| Destroyed | Probable | Damaged |
| 1 Ju88 | ||
| Nil | Nil | 1 |
Patrols:
Balloons:
Serviceability of Aerodromes:
Organisation:
Home Security Reports
FDR was a lying pinko skunk.
All your comments are highly astute, and clever too... ;-)
What do you predict -- will Hitler see the mailed-fist starting to clench across the Atlantic, and will he sue for peace, thus helping elect Willkie, before it's too late?
Oh, the suspense. :-)
Lying? Obviously, he was a Democrat politician.
Pinko? None pinker until our current Democrat President.
Skunk? Well, he was a three-pack-a-day smoker. So I guess that did make him a literal stinker.
But I think in those days the word "stinker" was reserved for drunks, like Churchill.
Amazing that on such fallible men the fate of mankind depended...
One article on the second picture about the French Fleet hides an interesting fact. Churchill was desperately trying to get the U.S. into the war (as was France). One of the blackmail items Churchill used was the threat of the French Fleet going over to Hitler. That, and the “suggestion”, that if the UK went under, he couldn’t guarantee that the British navy wouldn’t be handed over as well by his successor (probably the ace appeaser Halifax) and overpower America’s influence in the Atlantic.
There was a very large appeasement/defeatist element amongst British “elites” and businessmen then, which is one reason Rudolph Hess was branded a madman - if it came out that he came to contact this element, and named names, it would have been “embarrassing” (cough).
I have some heartburn with Churchill, but if it hadn’t been for his iron will to stick it out, the UK would have gone the Halifax route.
My proven analytical skills qualify me to make the following prediction:
Hitler may be crazy, but he's not stupid. He knows he can't prevail in a prolonged war because of his limited natural resources. Goering has failed to knock the RAF out of the sky, so there will be no invasion. And it also looks like the English are not going to throw Churchill out and replace him with an appeaser. Hitler the realist will consolidate his gains in western Europe and demobilize to some extent to get German industry back to normal. He and Stalin will reach an understanding over the Balkans and the non-aggression pact of last year will once more ensure a frosty but nonviolent situation in the east. Mussolini may continue to harass the British in the Mediterranean and Africa but the Fuhrer will keep him on a leash just short enough to prevent a major flare-up in that region.
This will all develop too slowly to help Willkie on election day, however. The war fear will last long enough to get Roosevelt his third term. The problem will come next year. As the new international status quo settles in the economic doldrums will return and the American people will be back in the middle of a depression.
That is the easy part. You don't need to be an expert in foreign affairs to see such a future for the west. Asia is a different kettle of fish. I don't pretend to see the future of the Pacific rim with anything like that sort of clarity. Those Asians just don't think like we do so there is no telling which way they may jump. I will only go so far as to predict Soviet-Japanese non-aggression pact with similar to the Hitler-Stalin one.
That hardness of Churchill was baffling to the Nazis. They really believed that once they had knocked the French out of the war that the Brits would be eager for piece. They still really thought that and viewed Churchill as a lone (but important) decenter. In Goebbels’ diary in late June of 1940 he wrote, “Are the English giving in? No sure signs visible yet, Churchill still talks big. But then he is not England.” So even the Nazi propaganda minister believed that if Churchill was gone that the British would fold. He may well have been correct on that account too.
I believe he was. To a great degree, the British aristocracy and businesses thought (as epitomized by Halifax) that Hitler would be a bulwark to Communism and were willing to settle for a peace that left their independence and colonies alone. Hitler was proposing "you stick with America and rule your colonies, we rule Europe".
Lots of unofficial peace feelers were going out when France was collapsing, with some trying to get a deal brokered by either the U.S. and/or Italy.
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