75 years ago today… September 11, 1939 Germany batters Warsaw, subjecting it to all-day shelling and continuous air raids. Foes fight in the streets as women and girls dig trenches. One of the great cities of Eastern Europe is beginning to die, its buildings being crushed and burned by the bombs of the invaders. Germany announced a counter blockade against Britain, saying that “in the economic warfare forced on her by Britain Germany is not only able to resist every pressure of blockade and every form of British hunger warfare, but to reply to it with the same methods. Germans warn the Czechs that enlistment in any foreign army is treason. Hitler flies over the eastern front and follows the retreat of Polish troops. Irish sympathies mainly lie with Britain. Germany is not as popular as in 1914. The Reich’s economy is on a full war basis. Wages, prices, costs, and supplies are now controlled by official decree. German cipher (B-dienst) experts crack the British merchant ship code, identifying convoy meeting points. The unescorted and unarmed British steam merchant Blairlogie was stopped by gunfire and after the crew abandoned ship was torpedoed and sunk by the U-30, commanded by Oberleutnant zur See Fritz-Julius Lemp, about 200 miles west of Ireland in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. Of the ship’s complement, all 30 survived and were picked up by the steam passenger ship American Shipper. The 4,425 ton Blairlogie was carrying scrap iron and steel and was bound for Lands’ End, England. U.S. tanker R.G. Stewart is stopped by shot fired across her bow by German submarine U 38 about 253 miles west of Ushant, France, 48°17N, 11°16W The unescorted British motor tanker Inverliffey was stopped by gunfire and after the crew abandoned ship was torpedoed and sunk by the U-38, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Liebe, southwest of the Scilly Isles in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. Of the ship’s complement, all 49 survived and were picked up by the American steam merchant City of Joliet. The 9,456 ton Inverliffey was carrying gasoline and was bound for Coryton, England. The unescorted British steam merchant Firby was stopped by gunfire and after the crew abandoned ship was torpedoed and sunk by the U-48, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Herbert Schultze, about 270 miles west of the Hebrides in the northern Atlantic Ocean. Of the ship’s complement, all 34 survived and were picked up by the destroyer HMS Fearless. The 4,869 ton Firby was carrying Ballast and was bound for Port Churchill, Hudson Bay. German armored ship Admiral Graf Spee provisions from tanker Altmark; security measure of launching the warships Arado AR 196 seaplane pays dividends, as British heavy cruiser HMS Cumberland is spotted closing the area. Admiral Graf Spee and her consort alter course and are thus not sighted. Air Vice Marshal Arthur Harris assumed command of British Royal Air Force Bomber Commands Lincolnshire-based No. 5 Group with his headquarters at St. Vincents House in Grantham. No. 5 Group was the sole operator of the Handley-Page Hampden bomber with six Hampden squadrons available at the outbreak of war - Nos. 44 and 50 Squadrons based at Waddington, 49 and 83 Squadrons based at Scampton, and 61 and 144 Squadrons at Hemswell. Harris would command the group for fourteen months before being appointed G. O. C. Bomber Command on 22 Feb 1942. After a $10 million outlay, Finland suspends work on the 1940 Olympic Games for three months. The Viceroy of India, Lord Linlithgow, announced to the two houses of the Indian Legislature that due to Indias participation in the war, the plans for the Federation of India under the Government of India Act 1935 would be indefinitely postponed. U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt wrote to Winston Churchill and Neville Chamberlain, encouraging them to communicate with him personally, i.e., bypass the official diplomatic channels. The Roosevelt administration proposes voluntary military training for the Civilian Conservation Corps. Providing separate units and barring compulsion is expected to allay opposition. President Roosevelt plans a call to Congress before the week ends. The threat of filibuster against the repeal of the arms embargo is not expected to halt him. Rising sugar prices lift the feeling of gloom in Puerto Rico, as the island looks forward to a new era of prosperity. Admiral William D. Leahy, USN (Ret.), former Chief of Naval Operations (1937-1939), takes office as Governor of Puerto Rico. In the first redeployment of patrol squadrons on the Neutrality Patrol, VP-33, equipped with Consolidated PBY Catalinas, transferred from the Canal Zone to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for operations over the Caribbean. Two days later, the Catalinas of VP-51 arrived at San Juan, P.R., from Norfolk to patrol the southern approaches to the Caribbean through the Lesser Antilles. Navy charters barkentine Bear of Oakland for operations in the U.S. Antarctic Service and commissions her as auxiliary Bear (AG-29). The U.S. Navy originally acquires Bear, built in Scotland for the sealing trade, to rescue the survivors of the ill-fated Greeley Arctic Expedition in 1884. The Navy transfers the ship to the U.S. Treasury Department in 1885 for deployment in the Revenue Cutter Service (later U.S. Coast Guard). In 1929, the Coast Guard transfers her to private ownership. Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, USN (Ret.) acquires Bear in 1932 for use in Antarctic exploration.(The expedition will be under the command of Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, USN (Ret.) (Byrd is appointed commanding officer of the expedition on 13 July 1939). Civilian sources provide scientific staff and dog drivers; sailors, marines and soldiers perform the supporting aviation, radio, photography, commissary, carpentry, and mechanical duties, as well as operate tractors and light tanks and the Armour Institute of Technologys Snow Cruiser, the unique vehicle developed for polar exploration. Japanese airplanes devastate the city of Luchow. The bombing leaves the city without medical supplies, the Chinese say. Soviet submarine S-1 is commissioned. Trawler HMCS Arras is commissioned. The patrol craft (ex-fishing vessel) HMCS Rayon DOr is commissioned. Postwar she served as a commercial trawler until 1954. https://youtube/watch?v=C8eAmFrPS7U
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 13:28:13 +0000
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