HITLER HOLDS NO AID CAN SAVE BRITAIN; SAYS HE NOW WILL EASE ITALY’S LOAD (3/17/41)

Microfilm-New York Times archives, Monterey Public Library | 3/17/41 | C. Brooks Peters, Robert P. Post, James MacDonald, Harold Denny, Hanson W. Baldwin

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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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]

Winston S. Churchill, The Grand Alliance

[Soothesayer]

Hitler was right about one thing:

nothing ever did save Britain

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Derides U.S. Help – 2
Nine Ship Unions Back President – 2
The International Situation – 3
London Sees Tonic – 3
British Girls, Men Drafted for Work – 4
New Zealand Censor is Target of Attack – 4
De Gaullists Cowed in French West Africa by Purge and Fear of Reprisals on Kin – 5
Non-Defense Outlay up 3 Billions in Decade, Manufacturers Say, Urging ‘Realistic’ Cuts – 5
U.S. Flotilla is Visiting in New Zealand; Its Purpose is ‘Good-Will and Recreation’ – 6
British Submarine is Listed as ‘Lost’ – 6
Balkans on the Brink – 7
The Texts of the Day’s War Communiques – 8

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1941/mar41/f17mar41.htm

Italians leave Jijiga to British

Monday, March 17, 1941 www.onwar.com

In East Africa... General Cunningham’s northward advance reaches Jijiga which has been evacuated by the Italians.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/17.htm

March 17th, 1941

UNITED KINGDOM: Jam and marmalade are rationed to eight ounces per person per month.
Ernest Bevin, Minister of Labour, calls on ‘The Women of Britain’ to man the factories and invites 100,000 volunteers to come forward. His basic rules is that no man will do any job in the services or industry which could be done by a woman.

Next month all women aged 20 and 21 will be registered. Thousands of women will then take jobs in new munitions factories, fill positions vacated by men who will soon be de-reserved under new regulations, and provide enough labour to work continuous three-shift systems in shell-filling factories.

London: The Admiralty:

Plans are sent to the C-in-C Med. concerning the intended sailing of the SS Parracombe early in April carrying about 12 Hurricanes, a number of Harvey projectors with their ammunition and other stores direct to Malta. The SS Parracombe will be disguised as Vichy French, unescorted and manned by picked crew. It will be scuttled if captured.

Destroyer KNM Arendal (ex-HMS Badsworth) launched.

Minesweeping trawler HMS Orfsay launched.

Corvette HMS Dianthus commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)

GERMANY: A daily report by the SS on the mood of the German people pays attention to anti-Nazi feeling, especially spread by the church. It notes: “Even a foreign-language prophecy which admits of no ambiguity has been used in church circles, saying that the time has come for Germany to be called the most warlike nation of the world ... the most dreadful warrior will rise from her ranks to spread war throughout the world and the peoples of the world will bear weapons and call him the Antichrist.”

U-218 laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)

ADRIATIC SEA: Italian torpedo boat Andromeda is sunk off Albania by RAF bombers. (Jack McKillop)

FRENCH MOROCCO: Spain hands the residence of the ‘Mendoub’ of Tangiers, the representative of the Sultan of Morocco ejected by Franco yesterday, to the German consul.

ETHIOPIA: The 11th African Division under Lt-Gen. Cunningham captures Jijiga in central Ethiopia, having advanced 744 miles up the Italian built Strada Imperiale in just 17 days. They are 1,000 miles from the Kenyan border.

The attackers at Keren pause to re-group.

CANADA: Corvette HMCS Wetaskiwin departed Esquimalt for Halifax via Panama Canal.

Corvette HMCS Kamloops commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)

U.S.A.: The U.S. Coast Guard cutter USCGC Cayuga (CGC-54) leaves Boston, Massachusetts, with the South Greenland Survey Expedition, composed of State, Treasury, War, and Navy Department representatives, on board to locate airfields, seaplane bases, radio and meteorological stations, and aids to navigation in Greenland. This ship will be transferred to the British Royal Navy on 12 May 1941. (Jack McKillop)
The USN Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics approved a proposal for establishing a special National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) committee to promptly review the status of jet propulsion and recommend plans for its application to flight and assisted takeoff. (Jack McKillop)
The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., is officially opened by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. (Jack McKillop)

ATLANTIC OCEAN: Two German U-boats that were attacking Halifax/UK Convoy HX112, are sunk about 380 miles (612 kilometres) southeast of Reykjavik, Iceland, in a battle with convoy escorts of the 5th EG commanded by Commander MacIntyre.

(1) U-100 (Type VIIB), commanded by Kapitänleutnant (Lieutenant Commander) Joachim Schepke who had sunk 26 ships on 14 patrols for 137,819 tons, is sighted by HMS SCIMITAR which drives U-100 under. SCIMITAR then calls up destroyers HMS WALKER and HMS VANOC. At last some of HMS VANOC’s depth charges explode close to their target sending U-100 sliding, stern first to 750 feet, deeper than any U-boat had ever gone. Schepke, in fear of the pressure hull imploding, blew all ballast tanks and surfaced. At 1,000 yards the technicians manning the nonrotating Type 286M radar on HMS VANOC pick out the contact with U-100, the first verifiable British surface-ship radar contact on a U-boat. HMS VANOC rams U-100 at 0318 killing Schepke during the collision. Six of the 44-man crew survive; and

(2) U-99 (Type VIIB), commanded by Kapitänleutnant (Lieutenant Commander) Otto Kretschmer who had sunk 38 ships on 16 patrols for 244,749 tons, commences an attack at 2200 hours, sinking five ships including three tankers with one salvo of torpedoes. At 0130 MacIntyre in HMS WALKER gets a firm sonar contact with U-100. MacIntyre calls on HMS VANOC to commence depth-charge attacks on the U-boat. At length, HMS WALKER leaves to rescue merchant seamen, leaving HMS VANOC to continue the hunt. U-99 is scuttled at 0343 hours after being depth charged by the British destroyer HMS Walker, who was surprised to find another U-boat so close to the site of the previous sinking. U-99 is forced to the surface and the crew abandon ship, although its engineer re-enters the U-boat to ensure that it would sink and is lost; 40 of the 43-man crew, including Kretschmer, survive. The loss of two U-boat aces in one night lowers the morale of the German submarine service. Kretschmer holds the Knight’s Cross with Swords. (Jack McKillop)(106)

SS J.B. White, Canadian merchantman, torpedoed and sunk between Iceland and the Faeroe Islands by U-99, Kptlt Otto Kretschmer, Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords, CO. Two lives are lost from her crew of 40 men.

At 2107, U-106 attacked Convoy SL-68 north of the Cape Verde Islands and reported three ships with 21,000 tons sunk and another with 7,000 tons damaged. In fact, only two ships, Andalusian and Tapanoeli were hit and sunk. The master, 39 crewmembers and two gunners from Andalusian landed on Boavista, Cape Verde Islands. They were brought to Funchal by the Portuguese merchantman Nyasa. (Dave Shirlaw)

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/

Day 564 March 17, 1941

Overnight 250 miles Southeast of Iceland, U-99 & U-100 attack convoy HX-112. U-99 sinks 2 freighters & 3 tankers and damages another tanker but then withdraws, out of torpedoes. At 3.18 AM, U-100 is depth charged by destroyers HMS Walker & HMS Vanoc and then rammed and sunk by HMS Vanoc (38 dead including U-boat ace Kapitänleutnant Joachim Schepke). At 3.43 AM, HMS Walker drops 6 depth charges on U-99 which surfaces and the crew abandons ship (3 dead). 6 crewmen from U-100 and 40 from U-99, including Korvettenkapitän Otto Kretschmer (WWII’s top U-boat ace), are rescued by HMS Walker & HMS Vanoc and go into captivity.

In mid-Atlantic 1150 miles Southwest of Cape Verde Islands, German armed merchant cruiser Kormoran and U-124 meet cruiser Admiral Scheer. U-124 sends replacement quartz for the radar to Admiral Scheer but again the sea is too rough to transfer torpedoes from Kormoran to U-124.

Operation Canvas. 11th African Division captures Jijiga, Eastern Ethiopia, unopposed. They have covered 500 miles in 15 days from Mogadishu, Italian Somaliland, mainly along the Italian-built “Imperial Road”.

U-106 has stalked convoy SL-68 for 2 days. At 9.07 PM 250 miles West of Dakar, Senegal, U-106 sinks British SS Andalusian (40 crew and 2 gunners reach Boa Vista, Cape Verde) and Dutch SS Tapanoeli (all 75 crew survive). U-106 & U-105 will prey on this convoy for the next 4 days.

[Ingtar]

The union bus strike and the sabotage of the train seem of the most interest and relate best to today.

[CougarGA7]

[CougarGA7]

Couple more items for today:

Colonel-General Franz Halder reports to Hitler that the enemy forces in Russia now number 155 divisions while he only has 134 divisions with 21 reserve divisions. Of the reserves, 9 divisions were designated for operation MARITA, the planned invasion of the Balkans.

Ernest Lawrence meets with Karl Compton to try to instill a sense of urgency in Brigg's Uranium Committee, now part of the NDRC (National Defense Research Council). Lawrence states that he fears that unless the United States begins a serious effort in developing the atomic bomb, the Nazis will beat them to it.

[Larry381]

The Sinking of U-100 and the Death of Schepke

[Homer_J_Simpson]

I wish I had more time to go through Life magazine this week. Like every week. Once again a there is lots to chew on, though there is hardly enough exposed flesh to get excited about.

A few things I noticed: The photo of the British commandos and sailors holding the Nazi flag on pg 34 might be the same one the Times had on March 11 or 12 that I posted. It’s hard to tell for sure since my copy was so bad. All classic movie fans from must check out the photo on pg 45. David O. Selznik, Joan Fontaine and Hitchcock at the Academy Awards. That pic is right next to one of a frowzy looking Unity Mitford. I thought she succumbed to the injury she sustained in Germany. I am concerned to see the spread on “Citizen Kane.” I am a over a month beyond this date in my news gathering and I haven’t come across a review of that movie yet. I hope I didn’t miss it.

Did anyone read Baldwin’s piece on the Balkans today? It is an interesting mix of sound analysis and missing the boat. He makes the British effort in Greece sound like a reasonable, though dangerous, course for them. He explains the importance of Turkey in the Middle Eastern picture in a way I haven’t really considered since the possible scenario he painted didn’t come to be. Yet he missed the gorilla in the living room. Or the Bear, I should say. As he puts it, “The German leaders know that the campaign of Britain is the decisive campaign . . .”

I don’t think the German leaders know any such thing. For them this is all about protecting their flank for the invasion of the U.S.S.R.

Anyway, I thought it was interesting to read the analysis of a well-informed writer at this point on the road to Barbarossa.

[Chaguito]

Recognizing that yours is a WWII history post, I still couldn’t help but notice that the Bus driver union was on strike and convinced Mayor LaGuardia to withold police protection for possible scabs. Wonder why they wanted him to withold that protection...

Just an extraneous observation

[iowamark]

Citizen Kane premieres in New York on May 1, 1941. Welles' arrival:

[Homer_J_Simpson]

That's a relief. Thanks. I'll be on the lookout on my next trip to the library.

And a great photo, too.

[CougarGA7]

I did some looking and found articles by Bosley Crowther on May 2nd and May 4th. All I can pull up without subscribing is the Headline and the first paragraph so I can't really tell which one is a serious review.

I'm going to go back now and read the Baldwin article. I hadn't gotten to that yet. I can say I finished the LIFE though and it is relatively porn free this time.

[CougarGA7]

That is very interesting. Clearly he is not even anticipating a German attack on the Soviet Union.

He mentions the gamble the Germans are taking since many resources they need for the war effort come from the Balkans. He couldn’t be more right.

50% of its cereal and livestock, 45% of its bauxite, 90% of its tin, 40% of its lead, and 10% of its copper all come from that region. Then of course we have the Rumanian oil.

[PAR35]

Look at page 48 again. Joan Blondell may have her clothes on in that pose, but see what the sculptor has done.

And what all is going on on 58-60?

YIKES. Just saw pages 106-108.

And ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ on page 119

[CougarGA7]

Clearly I don’t pay as close attention. I apologize for the smut it the latest issue.