KNUDSEN URGES FULL AID TO BRITAIN (1/19/41)

Microfilm-New York Times archives, Monterey Public Library | 1/19/41 | Turner Catledge, Herbert L. Matthews, Larry Allen, Helen Fraser, Hanson W. Baldwin

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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NEWS OF THE WEEK IN REVIEW

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[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents World War II Plus 70 Years: Seminar and Discussion Forum
First session: September 1, 2009. Last date to add: September 2, 2015.
Reading assignment: New York Times articles delivered daily to students on the 70th anniversary of original publication date. (Previously posted articles can be found by searching on keyword “realtime” Or view Homer’s posting history .)
To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by freepmail. Those on the Realtime +/- 70 Years ping list are automatically enrolled. Course description, prerequisites and tuition information is available at the bottom of Homer’s profile. Also visit our general discussion thread

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Selections from West Point Atlas for the Second World War
North Africa, 1940: Graziani’s Advance and Wavell’s Offensive, 13 September 1940-7 February 1941 (Map 34a)
Marcks’ Plan, August 5, 1940
Operation Barbarossa (Dir. 21), December 18, 1940
The Mediterranean Basin (Map 33)
The Far East and the Pacific, 1941 – The Imperial Powers, 1 September 1939

[Homer_J_Simpson]

William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Winston S. Churchill, The Grand Alliance

[Homer_J_Simpson]

OPM Head for Bill – 2-3
Truce Halts Strike on New Haven Paper – 3
Russians Up 36,300 Feet Claim a Balloon Record – 3
The International Situation – 4
Dictators to Meet in Germany Today to Map New Moves – 5
Bombs and Shells Thrown on Tobruk – 6
Stuka Units Bomb Malta Base Again – 6
Housewife’s View of British Rations – 7
Chinese Communist Sees Friction Ended – 7
City to Ward Off ‘Invasion’ by Air – 8-9
President’s Wife Honored by Austrian Group (photo) – 10
The Texts of the Day’s War Communiques – 11

News of the Week in Review
Twenty News Questions * – 12
A Strategic Map of the War in Europe – 13
War’s Climactic Phase May Come in the Spring – 14-15
Lease-Lend Bill Holds Majority in Congress – 15-16

* Find the answers to the questions in the thread for this coming Saturday, January 22.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1941/jan41/f19jan41.htm

British attack Italian Eritrea

Sunday, January 19, 1941 www.onwar.com

In East Africa... The British forces in the Sudan begin their offensive against the Italians in Eritrea. The British force is led by General Platt and includes 4th and 5th Indian Divisions and units of the Sudan Defense Force. The Italian troops in the various border positions amount to 17,000 men and are led by General Frusci. There is the equivalent of four more divisions in the interior of the country. Kassala is taken immediately.

In Germany... Hitler and Mussolini meet at the Berghof (January 19-20). Mussolini is unwilling to accept German help in Albania but is prepared to accept some aid in Africa. Hiter says that he will attack Greece if it seems that Britain is going to come in.

In the Mediterranean... In further aerial attacks, slight damage is done to Illustrious.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/19.htm

January 19th, 1941

UNITED KINGDOM: Fair Isle, Orkney: The Lerwick lifeboat arrives to collect the German airmen who crashed here two days ago and take them to Shetland. Karl Heinz Thurz, the pilot of the Heinkel He-111, turns 21 today.

GERMANY: Berchtesgaden: A chastened Mussolini arrived here today to plead with Hitler for military aid. The location is significant - until now, the two dictators have met on “equal terms” on their borders. Count Ciano found the Duce “frowning and nervous” on his special train - clearly worried that Hitler would be insultingly condescending to him after Italy’s string of defeats in North Africa, Greece and Albania. Much to his surprise - and obvious relief - Mussolini found Hitler cordial and welcoming. The Fuhrer has already agreed to bolster the Italian army in Libya with anti-tank formations and squadrons of the Luftwaffe, and to send an army corps of two and a half divisions to Albania. The price to the Duce is total subordination to Hitler in all military matters.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: The destroyer HMS Greyhound, escorting a convoy to Greece sinks Italian submarine ‘Neghelli’ off Phalconera in the Aegean.
MALTA: In further aerial attacks, slight damage is done to the damaged aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious. (Jack McKillop)

ERITREA: British forces of the 4th and 5th Indian Divisions in East Africa under Major-General William Platt, acting on information obtained by breaking the Italians’ coded messages, invade Italian-occupied Eritrea. British Intelligence had been privy to secret Italian communiques from Africa for the past five months; every instruction sent from one Italian military unit to another was analyzed by the Brits. The Italian viceroy in Ethiopia was unwittingly receiving and transmitting every Italian military secret-and weakness. Consequently, British forces were able to organize a strategy to advance on Italian-occupied territory, with Italian troop movements in mind. (Jack McKillop)

U.S.A.: Secretary of State Cordell Hull responds to German Chargé d’Affaires Hans Thomsen’s protest over the incident concerning the tearing down of the Reich flag over the consulate in San Francisco yesterday, promising a full investigation. (Jack McKillop)

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/

Day 507 January 19, 1941

British Commander-in-Chief Middle East General Wavell opens a 3-pronged offensive to drive the Italians from East Africa. 4th Indian Infantry Division (fresh from the success of Operation Compass in Egypt) and 5th Indian Infantry Division capture the railway junction at Kassala, Sudan, on the border with Italian Eritrea. Led by British General William Platt, they plan to advance South from Sudan, through Eritrea into Ethiopia. In addition, General Cunningham will swing Northeast from Kenya, through Italian Somaliland into Ethiopia. A planned amphibious assault will retake British Somaliland and all 3 forces aim to converge on the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa. Emperor Haile Selassie crosses the border from Sudan, returning to Ethiopia whence he fled in May 1936 during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War.

At 8 AM, British transport ships Clan Cumming, Clan MacDonald & Empire Song leave Pireaus, Greece, for Alexandria, Egypt, escorted by anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Calcutta and destroyers HMS Greyhound, Defender & Janus. At 11.53 AM 25 miles South of Pireaus, Italian submarine Neghelli damages Clan Cumming with a torpedo. HMS Greyhound sinks Neghelli with depth charges (all 46 hands killed). HMS Janus escorts Clan Cumming back to Pireaus.

Luftwaffe Stukas dive bomb Valletta Harbour, Malta. British aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious and destroyers HMS Imperial and HMS Decoy are damaged by near misses (no serious damage is done). A Fairey Fulmar from HMS Illustrious shoots down a Stuka and is then itself shot down (pilot and navigator are both rescued).

Hitler meets Mussolini at the Berghof, to offer German help to Italian efforts in North Africa (which is accepted) and in Albania (which Mussolini rejects). Hitler says that he will attack Greece if a British presence there threatens the oil refining at Ploieşti, Romania.

[CougarGA7]

I’ll take a shot at twenty questions again.

1. Berehaven is an island.
2. (d) The Pioneer Corps are military engineers I think.
3. These three men were in command of the Italian Albanian forces that invaded Greece. Prasca and Soddu didn’t last long since the Greeks opened up a can of whoopass on them.
4. Wow, this will be a total guess. There’s the Austrio-Prussian War, the Franco-Prussian War, World War I of course, then there were their wars of unification which I think there were two in the 1850s? Finally there is the war going on now. So that would be 6.
5. (b) Picchiatelli are Italian Stukas.
6. (a) Malta - Great Britain, (b) Crete - Greece, (c) the Dodecanese - Italy, (d) Cyprus - also Great Britain
7. The Italians invaded Ethiopia in 1936, and I’m not sure what the alliance is unless they are meaning the alliance between Britain and Haile Selassie’s government in exile.
8. A busker is a street performer.
9. Bengazi, Tripoli and I think Derna are in Libya so the others must be in Albania.
10. Ankara, Turkey; Sofia, Bulgaria; Bucharest, Rumania; Budapest, Hungary; Belgrade, Yugoslavia; and Tirana, Albania.
11. (a) 1776 is the bill number for Lend-Lease and no I don’t think it is a coincidence. (b) 77th Congress is in session, (c) 17.5 billion is the amount of money requested for military spending (I think).
12. Total guess. (a) cotton. (coffee would be my second guess)
13. Willkie was supporting F.D.R. Hoover is against it and I can’t think of a third.
14. Wheeler and Clark are definitely against it, so Purvis and Gibson are probably for it.
15. I’ll guess 3,000.
16. He was inaugurated in January of 33 so that would be 8 years.
17. That would have to be mercury.
18. I hate these ones. (a) Clarence A. Hathaway - not sure at all, (b) Captain G.V. Richardson - no clue, (c) Rosier and Martin - I’ve got nothing here.
19. I’m not finishing well. Don’t know who these guys are.
20. viruses are smaller than bacteria. So I assume that filterable virus is one that passes through whatever filters they have at the time.