Posted on 12/22/2010 5:17:23 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
Winston S. Churchill, Their Finest Hour
News of the Week in Review
Twenty News Questions – 10
The Week’s Event’s in North Africa (map) – 10
Italy’s Path is Harsh; Duce’s Dreams Fading – 11
How All France is Divided into Many Parts (map) – 12
Petain Role that of France’s Savior – 13-14
Answers to Twenty News Questions – 14
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1940/dec40/f22dec40.htm
Germans bomb Manchester
Sunday, December 22, 1940 www.onwar.com
Over Britain... German aircraft raid Manchester during the night.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/22.htm
December 22nd, 1940
UNITED KINGDOM:
Westminster: Churchill’s business today includes meeting with the Ministry of Supply. They discuss the state of Britain’s stock piles of drop-forgings (vital for armaments production). Britain needs 441,000 tons annually and is only producing 208,000 tons with 7,000 tons imported from the USA. Britain must expand its own production and obtain more from the US.
He also addresses the serious shortage of accommodation for those bombed out of their homes and suggests that it may be necessary for the government to commandeer suitable property.
Churchill meets with the Home Secretary to discuss the continuing internment of various individuals without trial by jury or habeas corpus. These individuals include Oswald Mosley and his wife, and Pandit Nehru. He asks that in the case of Nehru the rigorous character of his imprisonment be removed.
GERMANY: U-557 launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
MEDITERRANEAN SEA:
While escorting HMS Malaya destroyer HMS Hyperion is torpedoed by Italian submarine Serpent 24 east miles of near Cape Bon at 37 40N, 11 31E. She is taken in tow by HMS JANUS but later has to be scuttled. (Alex Gordon)(108) Malaya carries on and is met by Force H.
The press report that the British Mediterranean Fleet bombarded Valona and poured a hundred tons of high explosives on the port. During this action, not an Italian vessel or plane was seen.
15 aircraft from HMS Illustrious bomb Tripoli, Libya.
The British saved the world during the Battle of Britain. The “so few”.
Meanwhile, the American peoples’ desire to avoid war ended up costing 10’s of millions of lives.
The delay also increased the number of American casualties once America did enter the war.
Irony. War is bad and should be avoided. Delaying going to war against evil is very costly.
The left will never admit to this.
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 479 December 22, 1940
Overnight, convoy MG1 (including destroyers HMS Hyperion, Ilex & Janus) runs the Strait of Sicily under cover of darkness. At 1.56 AM 24 miles East of Cape Bon, Tunisia, Italian submarine Serpente torpedoes HMS Hyperion (2 killed, 14 injured). Hyperion sustains major structural damage and cannot be towed despite 2 attempts. Ilex takes off the survivors and Janus scuttles Hyperion before dawn, to prevent her falling into Italian hands.
Overnight, Luftwaffe bombs the industrial city of Manchester in the English Midlands. Following the usual pattern, pathfinder aircraft drop incendiary canisters to start fires, which act as beacons for the following waves of bombers. In all, 270 aircraft drop 1,032 incendiary canisters and 272 tons of high explosive bombs. The Piccadilly area is set ablaze and many shelters collapse. The Gibsons shelter, part of Hulme Town Hall, receives a direct hit trapping 450 people but all are rescued alive. Liverpool is also bombed again but less than the last 2 nights.
Ping me, Professor!
Tower rooms overlooking Central Park, $75 a month... *sigh*
Remember that the minimum wage was 30 cents per hour.
Would it have made a dramatic difference if the US had declared war on Nazi Germany in 1940 rather than 1941? The US was totally unprepared for war, our Army was tiny, we had zero heavy tanks in service.
Interesting blurb about the Germans asking for the recall of 3 Americans from our embassy in Paris because they accused them of helping a British officer escape. (I’m guessing either a shot down flier or maybe a Brit who had gone to ground and escaped from a POW camp. At that time the usual thing was to get them over the border into unoccupied France and from there over the Pyrenees and into Spain.)
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