[Doug64]

November 11, Monday

British attack Italian fleet in Taranto

Mussolini, whose forces are taking a humiliating battering in Greece, has a new worry tonight. The balance of maritime power in the Mediterranean has been changed by a British air attack which has disabled three Italian battleships in a few minutes. The target is the core of Mussolini’s fleet tucked away in Taranto harbor, in southern Italy, surrounded by anti-aircraft batteries.

The attack, codenamed Operation Judgement, takes place in bright moonlight. Twenty-one Swordfish of the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm fly from the carrier HMS Illustrious, after the carrier HMS Eagle is pulled out at the last moment.

The pathfinders are Swordfish which drop flares. Immediately behind them come the torpedo carriers, swooping from 8,000 to 5,000 feet (2,438 to 1,524 meters) before making a perilous gliding approach to only twenty feet (six meters) above water before releasing their torpedoes as cannon fire erupt around them. In the confined space of the harbor the torpedoes have a devastating impact. At least nine torpedoes strike their targets. In all, seven ships are severely damaged, including the battleships Littorio, Conte di Cavour, and Caio Duilio. As this attack ends, a bomber which had been delayed on take-off arrives to attack a pair of cruisers tucked away in the inner harbor, and soon they too are sinking.

British sources point out that earlier this year the Italian fleet of six battleships and numerous cruisers, destroyers, and submarines was stronger than the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean. Now, however, after suffering earlier losses (two cruisers, nine destroyers, and 25 submarines) Italy is no longer the region’s dominant sea power.

The cost of the latest exploit is two Fleet Air Arm aircraft missing. The crew of one of these is in captivity. The First Lord of the Admiralty, A.V. Alexander, is fond of pointing out that the Fleet Air Arm has destroyed at least 55 enemy aircraft off Norway and the British Isles and in the Mediterranean. A hard-pressed RAF has been augmented by 68 Royal Navy pilots.

In such an attack as Operation Judgement, the stability of the aircraft must be matched by the pilot’s nerve as he flies into enemy gunfire. Confirmation of the raid’s results by photo-reconnaissance is now awaited. The Prime Minister is expected to underline the significance of what he already calls “a determined, successful attack” with a statement in Parliament.

[Potemkin]

Thus ended Il Duce’s attempts to recreate the Roman Empire. Sic transit gloria mundi….

[Doug64]

Thus ended Il Duce’s attempts to recreate the Roman Empire. Sic transit gloria mundi….

He’s still going to be kicking against the pricks for awhile, but yeah.

[Doug64]

November 15, Friday

Coventry is razed to the ground

German bombers tore the heart out of Coventry last night. The cathedral was turned into a mound of rubble, and many factories making munitions, engines for tanks and aircraft, and other supplies for the war effort were badly damaged. In all, 568 people died and 863 were seriously hurt. “Coventry is finished,” says one survivor.

The citizens are in a daze. Many have fled from the shattered remains of this once beautiful medieval city. The army wants to impose martial law until essential services are restored. There is no water supply or transport. There are no telephones. Pubs and shops that survive remain closed. The air is still warm from the fire which raged through the city center. A pall of sooty fog obscures daylight.

The raid shows the terrible power of a concentrated attack on a small, densely populated area. There were 449 bombers, led by the specialized pathfinders of the KG100 Squadron, which arrived in three streams over Lincolnshire, Portland, and Dungeness. The first bombs, 10,224 incendiaries and 48 small high-explosive devices, were dropped by thirteen He111 planes of KG100 at 7:20 pm. They started fires that acted as beacons for the main force. Land mines, high explosive, and incendiary bombs came crashing down. Groups of bombers were assigned to particular factories, but the factories are situated in residential areas and ordinary homes took the brunt of the bombing. It is estimated that 60,000 out of the city’s 75.000 buildings have been damaged, including 111 factories, 600 shops, 28 hotels, 121 offices, and all the city’s railway lines.

The city’s defenses were ineffectual. Coventry had forty anti-aircraft guns, reinforced by light guns and mobile batteries, and 120 sorties were flown by night fighters ranging from obsolete Gladiator biplanes to Beaufighters carrying experimental airborne RDF. But the Germans lost only one of the 450 bombers that set out for Coventry, and that was probably by accident.

The tragedy of the Coventry raid is that it was known that the Germans were planning just such a raid against an industrial city. The interrogation of prisoners and decoding of Enigma messages had even revealed its codename: “Moonlight Sonata.” What wasn’t known was the precise target and date of the raid. Even if they had been known, Churchill could have done nothing without revealing one of Britain’s greatest secrets: that it had cracked Enigma.

The target was still unclear until 3 pm, barely four hours before the first bombs fell, when the British RAF Counter-measures Organisation reported that the German Knickebein targeting beams were intersecting over Coventry.

Various countermeasures under the codename “Cold Water” were immediately implemented. They included attacks on the airfields occupied by KG100, a precision attack on the Knickebein transmitters, an attack on a German city, and maximum use of night fighters and anti-aircraft guns. But none of the measures could prevent the tragedy that befell Coventry.

Libya: British troops prepare for battle

As Italian troops work to fortify the remote coastal village of Sidi Barrani, the limit of their advance toward the Nile Delta, British troops are carrying out clandestine preparations for a major counter-offensive. Moving only by night and lying low under camouflage netting by day, they are burying large quantities of fuel and water in secret dumps along the 75-mile “no-man’s-land” from Mersa Matruh westwards. Marshal Graziani shows no sign of advancing further. An Italian observer reports a “holiday atmosphere” in their ranks as more British tanks arrive in Egypt.

[Potemkin]

November 15, Friday

Coventry is razed to the ground

German bombers tore the heart out of Coventry last night. The cathedral was turned into a mound of rubble, and many factories making munitions, engines for tanks and aircraft, and other supplies for the war effort were badly damaged. In all, 568 people died and 863 were seriously hurt. “Coventry is finished,” says one survivor.

The citizens are in a daze. Many have fled from the shattered remains of this once beautiful medieval city. The army wants to impose martial law until essential services are restored. There is no water supply or transport. There are no telephones. Pubs and shops that survive remain closed. The air is still warm from the fire which raged through the city center. A pall of sooty fog obscures daylight.

The raid shows the terrible power of a concentrated attack on a small, densely populated area. There were 449 bombers, led by the specialized pathfinders of the KG100 Squadron, which arrived in three streams over Lincolnshire, Portland, and Dungeness. The first bombs, 10,224 incendiaries and 48 small high-explosive devices, were dropped by thirteen He111 planes of KG100 at 7:20 pm. They started fires that acted as beacons for the main force. Land mines, high explosive, and incendiary bombs came crashing down. Groups of bombers were assigned to particular factories, but the factories are situated in residential areas and ordinary homes took the brunt of the bombing. It is estimated that 60,000 out of the city’s 75.000 buildings have been damaged, including 111 factories, 600 shops, 28 hotels, 121 offices, and all the city’s railway lines.

The city’s defenses were ineffectual. Coventry had forty anti-aircraft guns, reinforced by light guns and mobile batteries, and 120 sorties were flown by night fighters ranging from obsolete Gladiator biplanes to Beaufighters carrying experimental airborne RDF. But the Germans lost only one of the 450 bombers that set out for Coventry, and that was probably by accident.

The tragedy of the Coventry raid is that it was known that the Germans were planning just such a raid against an industrial city. The interrogation of prisoners and decoding of Enigma messages had even revealed its codename: “Moonlight Sonata.” What wasn’t known was the precise target and date of the raid. Even if they had been known, Churchill could have done nothing without revealing one of Britain’s greatest secrets: that it had cracked Enigma.

The target was still unclear until 3 pm, barely four hours before the first bombs fell, when the British RAF Counter-measures Organisation reported that the German Knickebein targeting beams were intersecting over Coventry.

Various countermeasures under the codename “Cold Water” were immediately implemented. They included attacks on the airfields occupied by KG100, a precision attack on the Knickebein transmitters, an attack on a German city, and maximum use of night fighters and anti-aircraft guns. But none of the measures could prevent the tragedy that befell Coventry.

[Doug64]

November 17, Sunday

Battle of Britain chiefs replaced

Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding, Commander-in-Chief of Fighter Command since 1936, and Air Vice-Marshal Keith Park, Commander of 11 Group, the two men who planned and controlled the strategy that won the Battle of Britain, have been deprived of their jobs.

It may be argued that the austere Dowding—nicknamed “Stuffy”—is overdue for retirement and that the New Zealander Park is worn out and deserves a rest, but the manner of their dismissal has enraged their young pilots. Dowding, a brilliant organizer whose uncompromising manner has never made him popular with the Air Staff, was told, albeit courteously, that he had to go in for a personal interview on November 13th. The official letter informing him of his retirement says that the Air Council has “no other work to offer you,” although this may not exclude a non-operational role. Park will take over No. 23 Training Group.

Air Vice-Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory, Commander of 12 Group, is known to have opposed the tactics of Dowding and Park. Leigh-Mallory believes in the “big wing” rather than Dowding’s “penny packet” tactics. He seems to have won his point—he is to take over Park’s group.

[Doug64]

November 20, Wednesday

Indian troops reinforce Allies in Africa

On the dust-swept docks of Suez and Port Sudan, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Untouchable, and British cooks prepare meals for their separate company messes. Egyptians and Sudanese sniff the conflicting cuisines with amazement. The British Indian Army and its baggage have arrived in Africa.

The role of these soldiers isn’t popular with the Hindu majority back home in India, where the Congress Party remains aloof from the war. Muslims, on the other hand, support the war effort, a situation that can only widen the gap between the two communities when India’s future is discussed after the war. However, a few reinforcements have been more welcome. Britain has only 8,000 troops in the Sudan against 92,000 Italians in Ethiopia.

Hungary signs pact with Axis powers

Hungary today signs a protocol linking itself to Germany, Italy, and Japan. After the ceremony in the Belvedere Palace, the former home of Emperor Franz Josef, the Hungarian Foreign Minister, Count Csaky, emphasizes that this doesn’t mean that Hungary will change its attitude towards Russia. In fact, the protocol merely regularized the existing situation in which Hungary accedes to all of Germany’s demands.

Breakfast without marmalade for UK

There may be no marmalade for British breakfasts unless the Ministry of Food stops haggling over the price it is prepared to pay for the current crop of Seville oranges. Any further delay means that the fruit will start going bad. The dispute is over £77,000, which can make the difference of a farthing to a two-pound jar of marmalade. Housewives who are waiting to make their own marmalade are getting frustrated. Extra sugar is available—but no oranges.

Bomber penetrates US neutrality laws

A US bomber fresh off the drawing board has penetrated not only German defenses but also the complex web of US law prohibiting the supply of war material to belligerents.

Two years ago, a British defense team, shopping in the US, asked Lockheed for a long-range reconnaissance bomber. None existed, but the Lockheed Super-Electra airliner was adopted in 24 hours. This became the Hudson. When the war began, some legal way had to be found to avoid infringement of US neutrality. President Roosevelt revived an 1892 law permitting the lease of army property “not required for public use” for periods up to five years.

[Potemkin]

November 20, Wednesday

Indian troops reinforce Allies in Africa

Britain has only 8,000 troops in the Sudan against 92,000 Italians in Ethiopia.

That’s hardly a fair fight - Britain clearly has too many troops.

[Doug64]

That’s hardly a fair fight - Britain clearly has too many troops.

They weren't really that bad ... right?

[Potemkin]

They weren't really that bad ... right?

On being ‘warned’ by von Ribbentrop in 1939 that, “If there is war, we will have the Italians on our side this time,” Churchill replied, “My dear Ambassador, that’s only fair. We had them the last time.”

Yes, they really were that bad.

[Tainari88]

On being ‘warned’ by von Ribbentrop in 1939 that, “If there is war, we will have the Italians on our side this time,” Churchill replied, “My dear Ambassador, that’s only fair. We had them the last time.”

Yes, they really were that bad.

Did they have plenty of Italian food on their side? because British food in WWII sucked. Hee hee.

[Doug64]

November 21, Thursday

Last Italian stronghold in Greece falls

With bands playing and their blue and white flags held high, kilted Greek troops march in triumph through the streets of Koritsa today as the last Italian invaders flee from Greek soil. Mussolini’s boast that “we will break Greece’s back” hadn’t taken into account the speed of Greek counterattacks.

Koritsa had been surrounded for several days before the Greeks finally stormed the Italians’ shallow trenches with bayonets and trench knives. The invaders surrendered in their hundreds, retreat becoming a rout as they abandoned a complete arsenal of heavy guns, anti-tank weapons, food, and a huge stock of gasoline. Some reports speak of rape and other atrocities as blackshirt divisions retreated through Albanian villages.

As news of the fall of Italy’s biggest base in occupied Albania is flashed to an electrified world, Winston Churchill cables to General Metaxas, “We are all inspired by this feat of Greek valor ... long live Greece!”

[Doug64]

November 24, Sunday

Craigavon, Northern Ireland Premier for nineteen years, dies

Viscount Craigavon, the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland since 1921, dies tonight. He was 69. Formerly James Craig, a typical Ulsterman of Scottish descent, he was a rugged man with no claim to intellectual attainment. He had fiercely resisted Home Rule—the establishment of the Irish Free State and two separate Parliaments in Ireland. After Sinn Fein outrages in 1922, he was responsible for a law instituting the punishment of the lash for carrying guns or bombs.

[Doug64]

November 29, Friday

Civil war breaks out in Romania

Romania is in a state of anarchy today following the massacre of 64 political prisoners by the extremist Iron Guard movement. There is shooting in the streets as the Guards clash with the Army, and rival factions of the Guards fight among themselves.

The young King Michael, who has just succeeded to the throne abdicated by his father, is reported to have fled from the capital and to be seeking refuge in Yugoslavia.

Among the victims of the anarchy are the former premier, Professor Jorga, and Dr. Madgearu, a former Minister of Finance. German involvement is suspected but so far unproven.

[Doug64]

November 30, Saturday

Southampton hit by Coventry-style raid

After a week in which Luftwaffe bombers have struck at several British cities, notably Liverpool and Bristol, it is the turn of Southampton to experience this night the terror of sustained bombardment from the air. Some 137 people are feared to have died, and nearly 500 to have been injured in an attack lasting for more than seven hours.

The style of the attack—using thousands of small incendiary devices to start fires, followed by heavy high-explosive bombs—follows the pattern of the raid on Coventry earlier this month. In Southampton, hundreds of flares are dropped as successive waves of bombers hit churches, offices, shops, and homes. At one time, burning buildings include convents, theaters, and hotels. A theater and newspaper office are burned out. As a hospital’s patients are evacuated, a porter throws an incendiary bomb from the hospital roof. Sixty people leave a pub just before it is blown up by high-explosive bombs. Inside, a voice cries, “Find me! I’m near the dartboard.” Other customers return and dig him free.

Pressure is growing to evacuate all women and children, although some of the bravest ambulance drivers here are female.

Firemen: front-line heroes of the Blitz

The ferocious raid on Southampton tonight illustrates the problems that firemen face night after night. After lighting the sky with flares, the Germans rain incendiaries on the center of the city, creating an inferno, followed by high-explosive bombs that fracture 74 water mains. Water pressure falls sharply. Many fires have to be left to burn while what water is available is concentrated on the town center and the docks.

The local fire brigades are reinforced by 200 men from other authorities, who send 160 pumps from London, Newbury, Newport, Monmouthshire, and Nottingham. However, many of them can’t be used because their hose couplings don’t fit Southampton’s hydrants. Standardization is badly needed.

Lack of water pressure means that many pumps stand idle while the glow of the fire can be seen from Staines. German radio will claim it could be seen from France.

Like raids on Coventry, Birmingham, and Bristol earlier this month, Southampton demonstrates the heroism and devotion to duty of the regular firemen and the 60,000 men of the Auxiliary Fire Service. Their tour of duty (48 hours on, 24 off) often keeps them firefighting for as long as 40 hours nonstop while the bombs fall around them. Hundreds have been killed, thousands injured, and many blinded.

Japanese recognize Chinese “puppets”

Japan has formally recognized China’s breakaway. Reformed Kuomintang government and its premier, Wang Ching-wei, after last-minute secret peace talks with Marshal Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang in Chungking break down.

Chungking is now expected to go on a diplomatic offensive against what it calls Wang Ching-wei’s puppet government and warn foreign governments that it will break off relations with any power that recognizes the new regime.

[Rich]

I mentioned in another thread that Mussolini's rise to power and then his Italianisation of South Tyrolia should have been a Godsend for German nationalism in the nineteen twenties. Mussolini's expansionist aims would almost inevitably bring him into conflict with France over their land border, over Corsica and over North Africa. Mussolini's conflict with Yugoslavia gave an excellent opportunity to break up the anti German post WWI victors coalition. Then there was Mussolini's aspirations against Albania and Greece, likely to antagonise Greece's ally Britain. Mussolini's African aspirations were another inevitable source of conflict with Britain.

As I said before Germany not only needed to start rebuilding its power without getting into a war with Britain, France or the Soviet Union, it needed to avoid triggering an arms race, within which it could not compete, until it was a lot stronger economically. Italy was the perfect enemy to allow Germany to start remilitarising without setting off alarm bells in London, Paris or Moscow.

A second reason for priortising conflict with Italy was that if Germany was to rebuild its power it need to establish a base or bases in the Mediterranean.

[Potemkin]

I mentioned in another thread that Mussolini's rise to power and then his Italianisation of South Tyrolia should have been a Godsend for German nationalism in the nineteen twenties. Mussolini's expansionist aims would almost inevitably bring him into conflict with France over their land border, over Corsica and over North Africa. Mussolini's conflict with Yugoslavia gave an excellent opportunity to break up the anti German post WWI victors coalition. Then there was Mussolini's aspirations against Albania and Greece, likely to antagonise Greece's ally Britain. Mussolini's African aspirations were another inevitable source of conflict with Britain.

As I said before Germany not only needed to start rebuilding its power without getting into a war with Britain, France or the Soviet Union, it needed to avoid triggering an arms race, within which it could not compete, until it was a lot stronger economically. Italy was the perfect enemy to allow Germany to start remilitarising without setting off alarm bells in London, Paris or Moscow.

A second reason for priortising conflict with Italy was that if Germany was to rebuild its power it need to establish a base or bases in the Mediterranean.

Mussolini himself was fully aware of this at the time, which is why he was hostile to Nazi Germany initially. Mussolini expected Hitler to be an unprincipled opportunist, just like himself. If he had been in Hitler’s position, he would have attacked Italy. But Hitler was a true believer in his own demented ideology. The first person to drink Hitler’s Kool Aid was Hitler himself. In no sense was Hitler a geopolitical ‘realist’ - instead, he saw himself as a messiah on a world-historic mission to redeem the German Volk. That meant defeating France, humbling Britain, and carving out Lebensraum in the East. Italy was more or less irrelevant to these plans. He even laid it all out in a book even before he gained power, for anyone to read who wanted to. Attacking Italy was the obviously smart thing to do, but doing so would have contradicted his ideological principles. So he didn’t do it. Once Mussolini understood that about Hitler, he became much more enthusiastic about him. Lol.

[Doug64]

December 1940

December 1, Sunday

US ambassador to Britain goes home

Joseph P. Kennedy, the pessimistic US ambassador in London, has resigned. For many months there have been reports that President Roosevelt was displeased with his ambassador, who has made no secret of his belief that Hitler should be appeased, or of his conviction that Britain will lose the war. He has great influence on Wall Street, however, and Roosevelt needed his endorsement.

There are reports that his resignation followed a painful scene at the President’s home at Hyde Park in New York state.

The ex-ambassador isn’t going home empty-handed. He has taken a London air-raid siren to install in his Cape Cod home.

How the RAF cares for physical and mental health of airmen

Among the many lessons learned by the RAF during the Battle of Britain is how to care for the mental and physical health of its young but exhausted and often dreadfully burned pilots.

The RAF got off to a slow start. One serious problem for the pilots was the lack of proper air-sea rescue arrangements at the start of the battle. Many young men who survived in the air drowned in the sea because nobody came to pick them up. This was a need which was soon rectified. There is another need, however, which has been recognized. When aircraft are hit they burn, and their pilots burn with them. The RAF has organized a Burns Unit at the Queen Victoria Hospital at East Grinstead and put a dapper little plastic surgeon in charge.

He is Archibald McIndoe, and he is already rightly famous for how he is rebuilding the faces and restoring the confidence of his “guinea pigs.” McIndoe has to treat the minds of his young men as well as their bodies. “Imagine how they feel,” he says. “On Friday night they are dancing in a nightclub with a beautiful girl and by Saturday afternoon they are a burnt cinder.”

Other pilots carry no physical marks but whose minds are wounded. These are the men who can no longer fly through fear. Some are stripped of their ranks and labeled “LMF”—Lack of Moral Fibre. Officially, their numbers are small—only 0.4 percent of Bomber Command pilots were classified as “LMF” at the height of the Luftwaffe offensive.

[Doug64]

December 2, Monday

Franco promises to keep out of the war

In a significant act of defiance, the Spanish dictator General Franco today ignores pressure from Nazi Germany and signs a financial pact with Britain. At the same time, Franco gives a categorical assurance to Britain and the US that under no circumstances will Spain join the war against Britain or allow Spain to be used for military operations. The pact with Britain will release Spanish funds in London, which have been frozen since the start of the Spanish Civil War.

[Rich]

That meant defeating France, humbling Britain, and carving out Lebensraum in the East.

So again I repeat I'm not denying that Hitler was extremly bigoted, thoroughly racist and showed time and again a callous disregard for human life. However I fundamentally disagree with the mainstream view that conquering the Ukraine was ever one of Hitler's primary drives. I believe the occupation of the Ukraine as mentioned in Mein Kampf was just a means to the end of defeating the French in a rerun of the western Front of WWI. This obsession and strategic inflexibility led to the most absurd wishful thinking on Hitler's part. Suggesting that Britain and Italy might ally with Germany to defeat France. I mean it was totally delusional, what possible reason could Britain and Italy have for wanting to go to war with France in order to make Germany utterly dominant over Europe? This was the thinking of a man who was totally obsessed. We've seen similar sort of delusional think of those who have become totally obsessed with defeating Russia in the present day.

I would note Hitler's almost complete lack of interest in the racial management of Poland. The different appointed officials had completely different policies on which Poles were accepted as Germans and which were not. This is very strange behaviour from a man who was supposed to be obsessed about the racial superiority of the Germanic over the Slav.

Very crudely speaking in WWI, the Germans started with a France first strategy and then went over to a Russia first strategy. In all probability this second strategy would have been successful if the Americans hadn't entered the war. I suspect Hitler thought that he just had to kick in the door in and that Ukraine was there for the taking any time he wanted. This is why from 1933 to the autumn of 1940, Hitler did absolutely nothing to position himself to better be able to take Ukraine. Quite the reverse. By the time that Hitler decided to go east the Soviet Unions defensive position had improved immensely from where it was in 1933. Although by the time Barbarossa was launched it amassed the greatest invasion force in history it was still essentially seen as a side show, with production priorities intended to be returned to navy and air force to fight Britain and possibly the United States, in a matter of weeks. But I'm in danger of getting ahead of ourselves.