Day 151 January 29, 1940

At 5 AM, Colonel Siilasvuo's 9th division attacks Soviet 54th division, which has been moving slowly towards the road junction at Kuhmo. 54th division is stopped dead in its tracks, to be cut into mottis.

German planes attack vessels off the British coast. Unarmed lightship East Dudgeon is strafed and bombed. 8 crew take to the lifeboat which capsizes near shore drowning 7. Several other British and neutral ships are destroyed.

At 3.30 PM, Norwegian SS Eika carrying salt from Spain is sunk by a torpedo from U-51 (14 lives lost). Harald Støle (age 16) and Alfred Johansen are rescued by U-51. Støle turns 17 on the voyage to Wilhelmshaven, arriving 8 February. Both men will be home in Norway soon after.
http://www.warsailors.com/singleships/eika.html

USSR suggests negotiations to the Finns via a diplomatic note to Sweden. "Soviet Union has no objection in principle to a possible agreement with the Ryti (Finnish) government." Simultaneously, Red Army is preparing a massive assault on Finnish defenses.

Day 150 January 28, 1940

Finland. Soviet shelling of Finnish defensive positions on the Karelian Isthmus continues, with increasing intensity. Fort Poppius and Million Fort in the Lähde sector near Summa are badly damaged by the bombardment, leading to defensive weakness in the Mannerheim Line. On the North shore of Lake Lagoda, Finns destroy the Pieni-Kelivaara motti in one day, capturing 2 field guns, 2 antitank guns, 9 mortars, 9 machineguns and 100 rifles. Dug in Soviet troops in the nearby West Lemetti motti resist a similar attack, leading to new tactics to gradually reduce mottis.

German submarines sink 2 neutral Greek ships. At 2.52 AM 100 miles West of Brest, steam merchant SS Eleni Stathatou is hit but not sunk by a torpedo from U-34. Having only one torpedo left, U-34 waits for Eleni Stathatou to sink. When she starts moving again, U-34 sinks her at 4.21 with the last torpedo (12 lives lost).
http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/217.html

At 8 PM 200 miles off Portugal, U-44 sinks coal carrier SS Flora with one torpedo (all 25 hands lost).
http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/218.html

Day 149 January 27, 1940

Finland. At the "Motti meeting", General Hägglund orders Finnish IV Corps to attack the "Pieni-Kelivaara" and "Lemetti West" mottis to test various tactics.

U-20 destroys 4 small, empty, neutral steamers off the Orkneys. At 8 PM, Norwegian SS Faro is damaged by a torpedo explosion 20m away but does not sink. The crew of 15 takes to the lifeboats. 7 men in one boat reboard Faro at dawn and drift ashore in Taracliff Bay. The other lifeboat drifts away, coming ashore on Copinsay the following day with 1 man still alive (7 lives lost). U-20 torpedoes Danish SS Fredensborg (20 lives lost) and SS England (another 20 dead) coming to the rescue of Faro at 8.52 and 9.24.

http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/212.html
http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/214.html

At 11.13 PM, U-20 torpedoes Norwegian SS Hosanger (17 lives lost). The sole survivor, Magnus Sandvik, floats on a raft for 15 hours until he is rescued by HMS Northern Reward. Sandvik is too frozen to attach a line to himself, so a sailor from HMS Northern Reward jumps overboard to fasten it to him. He is transferred to HMS Maori and hospitalised at Kirkwall.

Day 148 January 26, 1940

HMS Durham Castle hits a mine, laid by U-57 on 21 Jan, and sinks 11 miles off the Northeast coast of Scotland. Durham Castle, an 8,000 ton former passenger ship with Union-Castle Mail SS Co. and recently requisitioned by the Admiralty, is being towed to Scapa Flow for use as a stores and accommodation ship.

Finland. Fighting continues along the Taipale River at the eastern end of the Karelian Isthmus. Finnish 7th Division defending Taipale announces overall losses of 816 men killed and 2020 wounded, since the start of the war. Soviet losses are unknown but likely 10 times this, given the WWI-like slaughter that has taken place. Further North, the last units of Finnish 9th division arrive in the village of Kuhmo for the assault on Soviet 54th division.

Phoney war. About half the 750,000 children evacuated from London since Sept 1939 have now returned. Many people in England believe that war with Germany has been averted.

Day 147 January 25, 1940

Germany tests Norwegian, Belgian and Dutch neutrality. U-14 sinks Norwegian SS Biarritz, sailing from Antwerp (Belgium) to Oslo, 36 miles off the coast of Holland. 26 crew and 11 passengers (including women and several Norwegian sailors returning home) die. 21 survivors are picked up by Norwegian steamer Borgholm. Despite this provocation, Norway remains steadfastly neutral, paralysed by fear of German aggression.

At 04.11 AM, U-44 sinks French SS Tourny in convoy 56-KS with one torpedo 20 miles off Porto, Portugal (8 lives lost, 9 survivors rescued by Spanish steamer Castillo Monforte). U-44 hunts another steamer all night but is depth charged and chased off by an escort vessel.

5 miles off the east coast of England near Newcastle, U-19 sinks Latvian SS Everene at 9.12 PM (1 killed, 30 survivors picked up by British fishing boats Dole and Evesham), and Norwegian SS Gudveig at 9.30 (10 lives lost, 8 survivors).
http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/210.html

Day 146 January 24, 1940

At 11.40 AM, U-44 sinks French steamer SS Alsacien (cargo of phosphate from Africa to France) with one torpedo 5 miles off the Portuguese coast, near Lisbon (4 lives lost). http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/206.html

U-23 has been hunting Norwegian steamer SS Varild (in ballast between Norway and England) since 8 PM the day before. U-23, fires 2 torpedoes but the first jams in the tube the second runs off course, becoming a kreisläufer (circle runner). U-23’s third torpedo sinks Varild at 7 PM off the East coast of Scotland (all 15 hands lost). http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/197.html

Finland. Force Talvela still holds Soviet 8th Army at Kolla, with attacks and counterattacks along Aittojoki (River Aitto; joki is river in Finnish).

Day 145 January 23, 1940

U-19 spots 20 unescorted steamers off Northumberland and sinks Norwegian SS Pluto (8.43 AM) & British SS Baltanglia (8.55 AM) with one torpedo each. Finnish steamer picks up all SS Pluto’s 22 crewmen. The 27 man crew of SS Baltanglia makes land in two lifeboats.
http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/204.html

Colonel Siilasvuo‘s Finnish 9th Division arrive in the village of Kuhmo to prepare an attack Soviet 54th division.

New Soviet commander Simyon Timoshenko completely revises plans for the invasion of Finland. He abandons Meretskov’s strategy to fight along the entire frontier. He instead concentrates all his forces in a direct assault on the Karelian Isthmus to wear down the Mannerheim line in a battle of attrition; essentially Chief of Staff Shaposhnikov’s original plan. There is no intention to continue offensives along the Northern frontier or reinforce the divisions already engaged in this region. Thousands of Soviet troops trapped North of Lake Lagoda are left to their fate, although 54th division will be supplied by airdrop.

Day 144 January 22, 1940

Norwegian motor vessel MV Segovia (750 tons of general cargo, including 140 tons of oil, 45 tons of cork, wine and almonds) goes missing in the North Atlantic off the West coast of Scotland, presumed sunk by U-55 (all 23 hands lost).

The speech on Jan 20 by First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churhill, imploring neutral countries to support Finland (a thinly veiled invitation to Norway and Sweden to allow Allied troops passage across their territory to Finland), rebounds on him. He is reprimanded by British Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax for interfering with foreign policy. Also, he is ignored by Norway and Sweden, who realize that British access to Finland is a means to choke off supplies of Swedish iron ore to Germany. They rightly suspect that Hitler would react to any Allied presence by intervention of his own. French Prime Minister Daladier favors Churchill’s plan as a way to fight the Germans away from French soil.

Day 143 January 21, 1940

U-22 has a busy morning in the Moray Firth, Scotland. At 5.38 AM, U-22 fires at British MV Cyprian Prince but misses and at 6 AM sinks British destroyer HMS Exmouth with one torpedo (all 189 lives lost). At 7.11 AM Danish SS Tekla is hit by one torpedo killing 4 crew members. 10 men in the starboard lifeboat are hit by the ship’s mast (5 men drowned). 9 survivors are rescued by destroyer HMS Sikh and Norwegian SS Iris.

Swedish steam merchant SS Andalusia goes missing early in the morning off the West coast of Scotland (all 21 hands lost), believed sunk by U-55.

British cruiser HMS Liverpool stops Japanese liner Asama Maru 35 miles from Japan and imprisons 21 German sailors, survivors of the German liner Columbus (scuttled off the US coast on December 19 1939) who are returning to Germany. After Japanese diplomatic protests, 9 Germans will be returned to Japan by the British as "unsuitable for military service".

http://www.lancs.ac.uk/staff/ecagrs/asama%20maru.htm

Day 142 January 20, 1940

At 4.15 AM, U-44 hits Greek steamer Ekatontarchos Dracoulis with one torpedo West of Portugal (6 lives lost). Korvettenkapitän Mathes holds fire as the survivors take to the lifeboats. http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/190.html

At 8.26 PM, U-57 sinks Norwegian steamer SS Miranda with one torpedo about 30 miles off the Scottish coast (14 lives lost). 3 survivors are picked up the next day by RRS Discovery II (Antarctic exploration vessel) and taken to Kirkwall.

British tanker MV Caroni River hits a mine laid the day before by U-34 and sinks during sea trials in Falmouth Bay, England. All 43 crew are taken to shore.http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/191.html
http://www.submerged.co.uk/caroni.php

Speaking to Parliament, Churchill supports Finland, criticizes the ‘brutish’ Soviets and compares “Nazidom to Bolshevism”. The Finns (incorrectly) expect material aid from Britain. Hitler (correctly) guesses the Allies will act in Scandinavia. He postpones the invasion of France, Belgium and Holland until the Spring (to draw up a new plan) and turns his eyes on Norway.

Day 141 January 19, 1940

At 1.45 AM U-9 finishes a busy night in the North Sea. U-9 finally catches up with SS Patria again and sinks her with one torpedo (19 lives lost). 4 survivors are picked up by the Swedish merchant SS Frigg.

U-55 sinks Norwegian SS Telnes off the Orkney Islands, Scotland (18 lives lost).

At 12.50 PM, Royal Navy destroyer HMS Grenville hits a mine, capsizes and sinks in the Thames estuary (77 lives lost). Two other destroyers brave the minefield to rescue 118 survivors.
http://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono-10DD-24G-Grenville1.htm

At 9 PM, French steamer SS Quiberon is hit with one torpedo from U-59 and sinks with all hands lost, off Great Yarmouth, England.

At 10 PM U-44 begins stalking Greek steamer Ekatontarchos Dracoulis in the Bay of Biscay. Around midnight, U-44 fires a torpedo that detonates prematurely.

Royal Navy submarine HMS Sunfish fires 4 torpedoes at U-14 off Heligoland, Germany but all miss.

Day 140 January 18, 1940

Having already destroyed Soviet 163rd & 44th divisions, Colonel Siilasvuo is ordered to take Finnish 9th division 30 miles South to Kuhmo to attack 54th division, another part of Red 9th Army (now commanded by V. I. Chuikov).

Bay of Biscay. U-44 torpedoes Danish vessel SS Canadian Reefer carrying fruit to Britain. The crew of 26 is rescued by a Spanish trawler. http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/184.html

U-boats hunt neutral Swedish steam merchants in the North Sea. At 4.25 PM, U-25 sinks SS Pajala with 3 torpedoes. HMS Northern Duke, escorting Pajala to Kirkwall for contraband inspection, rescues the crew of 35 and unsuccessfully attacks U-25 with depth charges. At 5.45 PM, U-55 sinks SS Foxen (17 lives lost). 2 survivors are rescued by Norwegian ships, one on Jan 24. At 10.30 PM, U-9 misses SS Patria with 2 torpedoes but sinks another Swedish boat SS Flandria with one torpedo at 11.53 PM (17 dead). 4 survivors will be rescued from a raft 2 days later by Norwegian merchant SS Balzac.
http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/185.html

Day 139 January 17, 1940

Record cold weather strikes Finland. The mercury drops to −43°C (−45°F) on the Karelian Isthmus and −45°C (−49°F) further North in Summa. Even at noon it is −39°C (−38°F) in Taipale and Lake Lagoda freezes over completely creating new problems for the Finns. Soviet troops freeze to death while Finns stay warm in heated tents and mobile saunas. However, frostbite leads to thousands of casualties on both sides.

The German Enigma code is first broken by Polish and French cipher experts at Poste de Commandement Bruno (Chateau de Vignolles at Gretz-Armainvillers, 40 km northeast of Paris) and Dilly Knox’s team at Government Code and Cypher School (Bletchley Park, England), using a German transmission intercepted by the Poles on 28 October 1939.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptanalysis_of_the_Enigma#Polish_breakthrough
http://www.century-of-flight.net/Aviation%20history/WW2/Enigma.htm

U-25 torpedo British steamer SS Polzella near the Shetland Isles, Scotland. U-25 shells and torpedoes Norwegian ship SS Enid attempting to rescue Polzella’s crew of 36 (they all perish in the water). Enid’s crew of 16 takes to the lifeboats and are rescued by British trawler SS Granada and Danish merchant SS Kina.

http://www.warsailors.com/singleships/enid.html

Day 138 January 16, 1940

Bitter cold and heavy snow force postponement of the planned German invasion of France, Holland and Belgium scheduled for Jan 17. However, Hitler cancels the attack altogether, fearing that the plans fell into Allied hands following the plane crash at Mechelen-sur-Meuse, Belgium on Jan 10 (the Mechelen incident). Mobilization of Belgian and Dutch troops convince the Germans that the plans have been recovered intact, despite Allied deception that the plans were successfully burned by Luftwaffe Major Reinberger after the crash.

U-44, still in the Bay of Biscay, torpedoes Greek steamer SS Panachrandos at 6.11 AM. Panachrandos sinks within three minutes with all 31 hands lost.

At 4.19 PM, British tanker SS Inverdargle (with a cargo of 12,000 tons of aviation fuel) strikes a mine and sinks in the Bristol Channel (all 49 hands lost) just 30 miles from her destination at Avonmouth Docks.

Day 137 January 15, 1940

Finland. The Finnish & Soviet Armies face each other along the entire frontier but there is little movement. On the Karelian Isthmus, Red Army shells the Mannerheim Line to wear down the Finns & chip away at their defenses. Red Army divisions have been abandoned by Stalin and are freezing all the way North from Lake Lagoda. Held at Salla, Raate & Kollaa, they are isolated and chopped into mottis by the Finns.

Bay of Biscay. At midnight, U-44 sinks Norwegian steamer SS Fagerheim with one torpedo (15 lives lost). 5 survivors are rescued and taken to Vigo, Spain. Later, at 7 AM, Dutch MV freighter Arendskerk tries to outrun U-44 but is stopped with seven shots across her bow. The crew is ordered to abandon ship and Arendskerk is sunk with one torpedo & shells from the deck gun. All 65 crew are picked up by the Italian steamer Fedora, transferred to the Dutch passenger-freighter Poelau Bras and landed at Lisbon, Portugal.

http://www.justinmuseum.com/famjustin/Schryvers1.html

Day 136 January 14, 1940

The Kriegsmarine takes over planning the invasion of Norway and begins revising & expanding Studie Nord. They considerably increase the commitment of troops from one division to a full army corps (mountain division, airborne division, motorized rifle brigade & two infantry divisions) & propose a simultaneous occupation of all strategic targets to reduce the threat of Norwegian resistance (& retaliatory British intervention). To achieve coordinated arrival of troops along the Norwegian coast and increase the element of surprise, they will use German warships as troop transports instead of the much slower merchant ships or air transports with limited range. This bold plan assures operational success but risks exposing ships & troops to attack by the Royal Navy.

Day 135 January 13, 1940

At 4.30 AM, U-20 torpedoes Swedish steamer SS Sylvia northeast of Aberdeen. Sylvia sinks within a minute with all 20 hands lost.

In a rare Soviet submarine attack, ShCh-324 surfaces and fires one torpedo (which misses) at a convoy in the Sea of Åland between Sweden and Finland. Finnish naval escort Aura II (the converted Finnish presidential yacht) drops depth charges damaging ShCh-324. However, one depth charge explodes in its thrower, obliterating the small wooden ship (26 lives lost). Finnish escort vessel Tursas picks up 15 survivors. ShCh-324 escapes back to home port.

http://users.tkk.fi/jaromaa/Navygallery/Background/Wartime/winter.htm

This is the first war in history where metal is more important than men. The ability to build and replace warships and submarines, artillery and tanks, trucks and other vehicles (rather than train and replace soldiers) is paramount. British diplomatic moves to intercept shipping in Norwegian waters threaten Swedish iron ore supplies, upon which German war production depend.

Day 134 January 12, 1940

At 6.50 AM, U-23 hits Danish oil tanker SS Danmark (anchored in Inganess Bay, Orkney Islands, Scotland) with one torpedo. Danmark breaks in two and drifts ashore; her crew of 40 escapes. She is carrying 14000 tons of fuel from Aruba in the Caribbean, depriving the Allies of valuable fuel supplies.

The capture of German invasion plans at Mechelen on Jan 10 has several consequences. France is alerted to the planned attack. French Supreme Commander Gamelin shrewdly uses the invasion scare to pressure neutral Belgium to allow access to Allied troops. Hitler learns of the breach and goes berserk, foaming at the mouth at Luftwaffe incompetence. He blames Luftflotte 2 commander General Hellmuth Felmy and replaces him with General Albert Kesselring. Captured Luftwaffe Majors Reinberger and Hoenmanns are sentenced to death in absentia. Hoenmanns wife dies under interrogation by the Gestapo.

Day 133 January 11, 1940

Finland. Finnish IV Corps surrounds Soviet 168th division in the "Great Motti of Kitilä", North of Lake Lagoda. This does not precipitate a battle of destruction as happened to Soviet 44th division on Raate Road, but 168th division is immobilized, rendered ineffective and gradually broken into smaller mottis by 4th Jaeger battalion led by Major Matti Aarnio. He becomes famous as "Motti-Matti".

At 11 AM, British oil tanker SS El Oso hits a mine and sinks 6 miles west of the Bar Lightship, Liverpool (3 lives lost). Captain and 31 men are taken to Liverpool by British destroyer HMS Walker.

http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/171.html

At 4.32 PM, U-23 torpedoes and sinks Norwegian coal carrier SS Fredville (collecting coal from Methil, Scotland), 100 miles east of the Orkney Islands (11 lives lost). 5 survivors in a lifeboat are taken to Kopervik, Norway by a Swedish ship.

Day 132 January 10, 1940

On the day that Hitler sets the date for the much-postponed invasion of France, Belgium and Holland (for January 17), the Case Yellow plans fall into Allied hands. Two Luftwaffe Majors Reinberger and Hoenmanns fly a complete set of operational plans (contravening standard security procedures) from Loddenheide airfield in Münster to 7th Air Fallschirmjäger (paratrooper) Division in Cologne. They get lost in fog and crash land near Mechelen-sur-Meuse, Belgium. Their attempt to burn the plans before they are captured fails and the Belgians pass the remaining papers to the Allies. The German military attaché to Holland soon learns of the breach and Case Yellow will be cancelled forever.

http://www.powerglidertaifun.de/Taifun_1940/TaifunJan1940.htm

Military training starts for 350 Hungarian men to fight in Finland (out of 25,000 volunteers). They will ultimately become Hungarian Volunteer Detached Battalion commanded by Lieutenant Imre Kémeri Nagy with 24 officers, 52 NCOs, 2 doctors and 2 padres.

Day 131 January 9, 1940

2.21 AM, Norwegian merchant Manx is torpedoed by U-19 off Northeast Scotland and sinks rapidly with 9 hands lost. 8 men escape on an upturned lifeboat but Norwegian steamer Leka rescues only 4 survivors 8 hours later. Norwegian merchant Isis rescues 2 men on a raft.

10 AM, British submarine HMS Starfish attacks German minesweeper M-7 off Heligoland Bight, Germany, but her torpedoes misfire. M-7 attacks Starfish with depth charges all day. Starfish escapes to bottom at 27m but with water pouring in, Lt. Thomas Turner orders Starfish to surface at 6.20 PM. All hands escape & are taken as POWs. Starfish sinks. After losing submarines HMS Seahorse and Undine on Jan 7, Britain suspends operations in Heligoland Bight.

British Liner SS Dunbar Castle hits a mine and sinks off Ramsgate, Southeast England. The Captain, 7 crewmen, 1 passenger and a racehorse are killed. Chief Officer Herbert Robinson wins the OBE for evacuating 189 survivors in the lifeboats.

http://www.maritimequest.com/daily_event_archive/2009/01_jan/09_mv_dunbar_castle.htm
http://www.clydesite.co.uk/clydebuilt/viewship.asp?id=550

Day 130 January 8, 1940

Finnish 9th division takes possession of Raate Road at dawn, as the last dug-in Soviet troops surrender around Lakes Kuivasjarvi and Kuomasjarvi (near Captain Mäkinen’s original roadblock). Mopping up stragglers in the woods will take several days. Finns capture 43 tanks, 70 field guns, 278 trucks and other vehicles, 300 machine guns, 6,000 rifles & 1,170 horses. Another entire Soviet division is gone, estimated at 10-15,000 dead (not even the Soviet know how many men went onto the Raate Road; the Finns do not bother to count the frozen bodies). Finns take only 1000 prisoners and another 700 make it back to USSR. Many of those retreating are shot by NKVD and when Finland returns the prisoners, they are also executed for ‘treason’. Finnish casualties in the Battle of Raate Road are 2,700 dead, missing and wounded.

Rationing is introduced in Britain. Each person is allowed four ounces (112 g) of bacon and 12 ounces (336 g) of sugar per week.

Day 129 January 7, 1940

Battle or Raate Road ends. The day begins with heavy fighting and ends with a complete rout of Soviet 44th division. At 3 AM, the mottis at the Western end (the head) of the Soviet column collapse completely. As the day progresses, Soviet 44th division gradually gives up the entire length of Raate Road with soldiers trying to retreat back to safety in the USSR or scattering into the woods. Finns again hold their positions where Raate Road crosses the destroyed Purasjoki River bridge, limiting the Soviet retreat. Finnish troops at the village of Raate near the border block an attempt to relieve 44th division with fresh troop from USSR. Only a few pockets of Soviet troops remain to be mopped up by the Finns.

In separate incidents near Heligoland, German Minesweepers and A/S trawlers sink Royal Navy submarines HMS Seahorse (all 36 crew lost) and HMS Undine. Undine’s crew of 27 are rescued by their attackers.

Day 128 January 6, 1940

Battle or Raate Road. Starting at 3 AM, Finns make several cuts in the Soviet column up to 5 miles East of Mäkinen’s original roadblock. As the Finns crush this part of the column, Soviet troops start to abandon their positions and flee into the forest where they are hunted down by the Finns or freeze to death. Task Force Fagernas holds the Purasjoki River crossing against NKVD tank counterattack and also manages to cut the road again further East near the border, frustrating the arrival of any reinforcements. As his division is being chopped into ever smaller mottis, 44th’s Commander Vinogradov orders a general retreat but there is nowhere to go.

Sweden and Norway both reassert their neutrality and reject British suggestions to protect shipping in Norway’s waters with Royal Navy ships. They rightly suspect this would lead to aggressive moves by Germany both at sea and on land to protect vital supplies of Swedish iron ore.

Finnish fighter ace, Jorma Sarvanto, flying a Fokker fighters shoots down six German Ilyushin bombers in about 25 minutes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorma_Sarvanto

Day 127 January 5, 1940

Annihilation of Soviet 44th division begins. Colonel Siilasvuo’s Finnish 9th division attacks along the entire 20 mile length of Raate Road. They meet surprisingly strong Soviet resistance and take heavy casualties. Captain Lassila’s battalion, which has been manning a 500 meter roadblock for 3 days, takes 96 casualties (10% of its strength).The Finns only manage to cut the Raate Road once when Task Force Fagernas blows up the strategically important Purasjoki River bridge 5 miles from the border at 10 PM. Equally important, Task Force Fagernas prevents the arrival of NKVD 3rd regiment reinforcements. 44th division is now isolated and cannot move forward or retreat back into USSR.

The first Swedish volunteer troops reach Finland. Given the movement of volunteers from Sweden and Norway, USSR accuses Norway and Sweden of pursuing "unneutral" policies.

Day 126 January 4, 1940

Finland. Finns give Soviet 44th division another day to suffer in the subzero temperatures while they prepare for an assault on Raate Road. They drag guns & munitions into place and Task Force Kari clears Soviet flank forces from the village of Eskola. Many Soviet troops freeze to death or die of starvation & frostbite is widespread. Dry gangrene is common as limbs quickly mortify from frostbite & minor wounds. Amputated limbs pile up.

Britain & France develop plans to send troops to Finland overland via Norway & Sweden (requiring, of course, permission from these two neutral countries). They have a hidden agenda to seize Swedish iron ore mines at Gällivare which supply much of Germany’s war needs. British Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax sends a diplomatic note to sound out Norway (Sweden is cc’d) asking to send Royal Navy vessels into Norwegian waters, citing German sinking of British merchant ships.

The first Norwegian volunteers leave Oslo for Finland.

Day 125 January 3, 1940

Soviet submarine S-2 hits a mine (all 50 crew lost) in the Sea of Åland between Finland and Sweden. Both countries claim the sinking in their waters.

http://www.uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/5087.html
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=158846
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/09/soviet-submarine-that-san_n_213174.html
http://warrelics.eu/forum/battlefield-archeology/soviet-submarine-s-2-lost-1940-discovered-8357/

Battle of Raate Road. Soviet 44th division stubbornly resists further attacks and the Finns do not manage to cut the stationary column. The immobilised Soviet troops desperately try to stay warm in sub-zero temperatures, flocking to field kitchens for warm food and huddling around log fires cut from the expansive forests. In simple but stunningly effective tactics, the Finns target the kitchens & fires to wear down the Soviet soldiers with cold & hunger and Finnish snipers select Red Army officers. Colonel Siilasvuo prepares for coordinated attacks on 44th division’s extended flanks. He sends two regiment-size Task Forces (TF Kari and TF Fagernas) skiing along his ice road as far as 20 miles to the Soviet border, just south of Raate.

Day 124 Jan 2, 1940

Battle of Raate Road. Soviet 44th division now stretches 30 km, resembling a fallen tree. Siilasvuo’s 9th division sets about cutting it into mottis (Finnish word for logs), as they can destroy the column more easily by dividing it into isolated elements. At midnight, Captain Lassila’s battalion attacks a 500 meter section of Soviet artillery (parked 5 km East of Mäkinen’s roadblock). 6 Maxim MGs rake each end of the section, while infantry move up the middle and fan out East and West. Soviet gunners cannot fire back as the field guns face up the road and they cannot level antiaircraft MGs down at the Finnish troops. Lassila creates roadblocks at either end of the cleared section with felled trees and land mines. He brings up 9th Division’s only 2 Bofors antitank guns just in time to repel Soviet counterattack at 7 AM. 7 tanks are destroyed which further deepens the roadblock. While Soviet troop shiver in fear, the Finns relax in warmed tents with hot food.

Day 123 January 1, 1940

At 11 AM, U-58 sinks the neutral Swedish steamer SS Lars Magnus Trozelli with one torpedo, 50 miles northeast of Aberdeen (7 dead). The survivors are picked up Norwegian merchant Ask.

German Dorniers and Junkers bomb RAF Coastal Command (18 Group) at Sullom Voe in the Shetland Islands, Scotland, which flies Catalina and Sunderland flying boats in search of U-boats. Light cruiser HMS Coventry, also in Sullom Voe, is nearly hit by a bomb & damaged. Two Ju 88 dive bombers are engaged by Gloster Gladiators of RAF Shetland Fighter Flight from Sumburgh Aerodrome. One Ju 88 is shot down into the sea.

Battle of Raate Road. Resting most of his troops, Siilasvuo begins the destruction of Soviet 44th division. 1000 men under Captain Eino Lassila ski along the Winter Road, South of Lake Kuivasjarvi. After eating a hot meal, they move three miles north through thick woods and deep snow. At 11 PM, they are in position looking down on the Soviet column on the Raate Road.

Day 122 December 31, 1939

At 9.47 AM, U-32 sinks the neutral Norwegian vessel SS Luna (cargo of rubber hose and zinc plates from London to Trondheim) with one torpedo. The crew is picked up by the Norwegian steamer Colombia and taken to Kopervik.

Battle of Raate Road. Colonel Siilasvuo rests Finnish 9th division but sends scouting parties along his ice road on Lake Voukki, parallel with Raate Road to the South. Soviet 44th division is now stationary, stretched for 30 km along the Raate road. Finnish scouts find the largest concentration of tanks and artillery entrenched just East of the roadblock set up by Captain Mäkinen’s 2 machine gun companies, which has been holding 44th Division since Dec 23. Siilasvuo decides to begin his attacks here.

Day 121 December 30, 1939

Battle of Suomussalmi ends. Finnish 9th division destroys the remnants of Soviet 163rd division retreating over the ice of Lake Kiantajärvi. A platoon led by Capt. Kuistio in 2 trucks (armed with 4 MGs, 1 twin antiaircraft-MG and various sub-MGs) harass the end of the Soviet column at the northern end of Lake Kiantajärvi, killing 500. Finnish artillery and Bristol Blenheim Mk I bombers blast Soviet troops, horses, trucks, guns and tanks through holes in the ice into the freezing water. An entire Soviet division is gone (estimated at 10-15,000 dead). Finnish casualties are 420 dead/missing and 600 wounded but they capture much valuable materiel. Finnish war booty from Suomussalmi include; 625 Rifles, 33 LMG's, 19 MG's, 2 AntiAircraft-MG's (four barrels), 12 AntiTank-guns, 27 Field and AntiAircraft-guns, 26 Tanks, 2 Armored cars, 350Horses, 181 Trucks, 11 Tractors, 26 Field kitchens, 800,000 rounds of 7.62 mm rifle ammo, 9,000 artillery shells, a field hospital, and a bakery. (These figures are items that were counted and transported away from the front. In addition, hundreds of rifles, LMG's and MG's were taken into use immediately and thus never counted.)

9th division commander Colonel Siilasvuo turns his attention to Soviet 44th, stationary on the Raate road. After 6 days of inactivity, their engines are seized and gun-oil in the standard Red Army 1902 model Moisin-Nagant 7.62 mm rifles is frozen. Men and horses huddle for warmth.

Day 120 December 29, 1939

After being trapped and constantly attacked in Suomussalmi for 22 days, Soviet 163rd division evacuates on an ice road ice over Lake Kiantajärvi. 2000 men, 48 trucks, 20 field guns and 6 tanks head 20 km northeast towards their own lines in a 4 km long column. Finnish 9th division moves into Suomussalmi, killing Soviet delaying forces in the deserted village and stragglers on the frozen lake. Overnight, the Finns start to chase the slowly-moving column.

Stalin endorses Chief of the Staff Shaposhnikov’s plan for a massed attack on the Karelian Isthmus towards Viipuri and Helsinki. Commander of Kiev Military District Semyon Timoshenko volunteers to lead the new operation. Kirill Meretskov, his all-frontier plan having failed, is demoted from overall command to lead 7th Army on the Isthmus. Meretskov survives this humiliation and finds glory defending Leningrad and, ironically, fighting Germans in Finland. He will become a Marshal of the Soviet Union.

Day 119 December 28, 1939

The Soviet invasion plans assumed the political & military collapse of Finland in 12 days but they have few gains to show after a month of fighting. Only 14th Army in Lapland has achieved its objectives. Stalin pragmatically & ruthlessly abandons Meretskov’s plan & orders a ‘temporary defensive posture’ prior to concerted attacks on the Mannerheim Line. He similarly abandons the elements of the Red Army currently on the border from Lake Lagoda to Lapland. 14th Army & 9th Army (122 Div) held in Lapland, 9th Army (163 & 44 Div) trapped around Suomussalmi and 8th Army held North of Lake Lagoda are left to the mercy of the Finns. There is no plan to reinforce, resupply or evacuate them; retreat or surrender will be punished by death when they return to the Soviet Union.

Outer Hebrides, Scotland. 4 AM, U-30 sinks the British antisubmarine trawler HMS Barbara Robertson (1 dead) and asks Swedish merchant Hispania to pick up survivors. 3.45 PM, U-30 hits the British battleship HMS Barham with one torpedo (4 dead) and is chased off by her escort destroyers HMS Isis and Nubian. HMS Barham limps to dock in Liverpool but is out of action for 6 months for repairs.

Day 118 December 27, 1939

Finland. Soviet 4th division desperately tries to reinforce it’s bridgehead on the Finnish side of the Suvanto River, at the Eastern end of the Karelian Isthmus. Thousands of Soviet troops cross the ice in bright moonlight and are punished by Finnish artillery & machinegun fire, leaving the ice “littered with piles of bodies”. In response, Finnish artillery shells the dug in Soviet troops on the bridgehead. Finnish 6th separate battalion attacks at 11.45 AM & clears the trenches in several hours of close combat. Battle of Kelja is over at 6 PM with 2000 Soviets dead. Finns have 400 dead and wounded but capture 6 anti-tank guns & hundreds of machineguns & rifles.

In Suomussalmi, Finnish 9th division with artillery support moves in on the trapped Soviet 163rd division. Despite cold, hunger and poor leadership, the Soviet troops hold out in fierce hand to hand combat. 44th division hears the battle but again fails to march to the sound of the guns.

Day 117 December 26, 1939

Pembroke, Wales. Royal Australian Air Force personnel arrive by boat for anti-submarine duty in Sunderland flying boats with No. 10 Squadron.

Finland. Finnish 9th division receives artillery support and begins bombarding the beleaguered Soviet 163rd division trapped in Suomussalmi, in preparation for the final assault.

Taipale sector, near Lake Lagoda, on the Eastern end of the Karelian Isthmus. Soviets and Finns battle over the Soviet foothold on the Finnish side of the Suvanto River near the village of Kelja. Soviet infantry supported by tanks attempt to cross the frozen river but are turned back by shelling from Finnish artillery and shore batteries at the Kekinniemi fort. The Finns attack twice in company strength at 07.30 and 16.15 hrs but fail to dislodge the dug in Soviets.

Day 116 December 25, 1939

After a lull in the fighting since Dec 17, Red Army resumes attacking the Taipale sector of the Isthmus. At 5-7 AM in darkness, snow and mist, Soviet 4th Rifle Division crosses the frozen Suvanto River and gains 3 bridgeheads. Finnish artillery and machineguns take a heavy toll and Soviet troops are pushed back across the ice at Patoniemi and Volossula. The Soviets dig in on the shore near the village of Kelja (now Kelya in USSR) and hold on throughout the night.

Soviet 163rd division attempts another break out but is again penned up in Suomussalmi. Some desperate Soviets try to cross frozen Lake Vuonanlahti to escape West further into Finland. They are rapidly picked off by the Finns due to their dark clothing. The forward elements of 44th division on Raate Road, still with no artillery support, again fail to come to the aid of the trapped 163rd division.

Day 115 December 24, 1939

The Red Army has little to show for 24 days of fighting, only having pushed the Finns back to prepared defenses on the Isthmus. Stavka had planned 12 days to conquer Finland, making political assumptions that the Finnish populace and army would rebel against the Capitalist government and welcome the Soviet liberators. Consequently, the Soviet troops are running out of food, fuel and ammunition. Worse, they do not have winter clothing. Not only do they freeze but their dark uniforms stand out clearly against the snow making easy targets.

Soviet 163rd division tries to break out of Suomussalmi but is pushed back. 44th division, now stationary for miles along the Raate Road, hears the guns but inexplicably does not move out in support. Finnish "Group Talvela" pursues beaten Soviet 75th and 139th divisions back across the Russian border. The Finns are briefly in possession of Soviet soil.

Day 114 December 23, 1939

At 6.30 AM, 4 Finnish divisions counterattack on a 28 mile front on the West side of the Karelian Isthmus, trying to trap resting Soviet forces in a massive encirclement. They immediately run into the Red Army in force and are repulsed. Soviet tanks are brutally effective against Finnish troops without antitank or artillery support. General Öhqvist calls off the attack at 2.40 PM, at a cost of 1300 dead and wounded (+ 200 cases of frostbite).

The Finns have more success further North. Captain Mäkinen’s 2 machine gun companies (9th division) attack the arriving Soviet 44th division, consisting of about 15,000 men, strung out over several km of the Raate road. 44th is back to front; 25th rifle regiment leads, followed by artillery and tanks, with mobile reconnaissance units at the rear. 25th regiment, unsure of Finnish numbers and unable to bring up guns and armor, stops and takes up defensive positions. The whole column grinds to a halt, never to move again.

Day 113 December 22, 1939

Finnish 9th division chips away at Soviet 163rd division entrenched at Suomussalmi. 163rd has put up solid resistance despite having been surrounded for 10 days; however, time is on the Finns side as temperatures drop and Soviet supplies run out. Soviet 44th division is within a few km of Suomussalmi, having struggled 9 days up the road from Raate to relieve 163rd.

Finnish "Group Talvela" overruns Soviet 75th division in hand to hand combat at Ägläjärvi. 75th division retreats pell mell back down the road towards the Russian border. Group Talvela, part of IV Corps, has now put 2 Red Army divisions to flight in 10 days.

As Red Army attacks on the Karelian Isthmus falter, Finnish Commander in Chief Field Marshall Mannerheim takes the initiative. He hastily agrees to Öhqvist and Österman’s plan to counterattack to deal a demoralising blow to the weary Soviet forces.

Day 112 December 21, 1939

Stalin’s 60th birthday (official).
Soviet attacks on the Mannerheim Line weaken. Finns attack at Suomussalmi and Ägläjärvi. In Lapland, Soviet 122nd division is stopped at the villages of Pelkosenniemi and Kemijärvi (having advanced 45 miles since Nov 30) and will gradually be pushed back 20 miles to Salla (Battle of Salla). The Red Army had planned to be in Helsinki by Stalin’s birthday but the Finns clearly have the advantage. General Hugo Österman, Finnish commander on the Karelian Isthmus, boldly presents CiC Field Marshall Mannerheim with a plan for a counterattack on the Isthmus (prepared by II Corp’s commander General Harald Öhqvist).

Between 7.25 and 10.16 AM, U-21 sinks 2 small neutral Swedish merchant ships SS Mars and SS Carl Henckel with one torpedo each. picks up no survivors and 28 men die overnight. 1 survivor from Mars and 7 from Carl Henckel are picked up the next day and taken to Kristiansand.

Day 111 December 20, 1939

Finnish 27th regiment, now reinforced and renamed 9th division, continues finishing off Soviet 163rd division at Suomussalmi and awaits the arrival of Soviet 44th division from Raate.

Finnish "Group Talvela" (16th Infantry Regiment plus four separate infantry battalions and one battalion of Artillery) attacks Soviet 75th division surrounded at Ägläjärvi.

Red Army continues attacking the Mannerheim Line but lose the initiative in the First Battle of Summa. With temperatures as low as -20C (-4F), the engines of tanks and other vehicles have to be run continuously to prevent freezing up. Fuel runs out, tanks are stranded and Red Army infantry goes forward unsupported. Taipale sector of the Line is noticeably quiet after daily WWI-style artillery/infantry attacks abruptly stopped on Dec 17. From Nov 30, Red Army troops have been marched into a terrible slaughter of accurate Finnish machinegun, mortar, field artillery and coastal battery fire on well-plotted ground.

Day 110 December 19, 1939

Finland. Soviet tanks exploit a swampy gap near Summa to get behind the Mannerheim Line. Without infantry support, they are quickly destroyed with satchel charges & Molotov cocktails. As Soviet 44th division advances slowly up the Raate Road to rescue the 163rd division trapped in Suomussalmi, the Finns build a hidden ice road parallel on the lake. Another Soviet division starts to disintegrate as Finns surround 75th div. at Ägläjärvi.

Using the mine recovered by Ouvry & Lewis on Nov 23, British scientists Goodeve & Bullard devise a method demagnetize ships to prevent from detonating magnetic mines (“degaussing”).

Captain Hans Langsdorff shoots himself in Buenos Aires. He symbolically goes down with the Graf Spee (writing in his final letter “for a captain with a sense of honor …. his personal fate cannot be separated from that of his ship”), an honorable death for a man who sunk 9 ships with no lives lost and spared the lives of his crew. History will brand him incompetent for taking on Harwood's cruiser squadron and a coward for failing to fight out of Montevideo.

Day 109 December 18, 1939

Finland. Soviet assaults on the Mannerheim Line around the village of Summa gain no ground with further heavy losses. North of Lake Lagoda, the line at Kollaa holds and Finnish IV Corps pushes Soviet 75th and 139th divisions back to Ägläjärvi. In the far North, 3 Finnish companies under Captain Pennanen (retreating since Nov 30) hold Soviet 52nd division at Höyhenjärvi where they will stay frozen for two months.

Battle of Heligoland Bight. 22 RAF Wellingtons (9, 37, 149 Squadrons) are sent in daylight to bomb ships off the German North Sea coast (site of the famous WWI naval battle). They reach their target safely but find only ships in harbor which they do not bomb find to avoid German civilian casualties. Returning home, they are attacked by about 50 Messerschmitt fighters. 10 bombers are shot down, 2 ditch flying home and 3 crash land. 2 Messerschmitts are also shot down. RAF suspends daytime bombing until April 1940.

Day 108 December 17, 1939

Hitler cables Captain Langsdorff to fight his way out of Montevideo or scuttle Graf Spee instead of internment in Uruguay. As he can only leave port between 5 - 8 PM and cannot outrun the superior British forces, he decides to save his crew and scuttle Graf Spee. Most of the crew transfer to German merchant vessel Tacoma. At 6.15 PM Graf Spee sails 4 miles out and is blown up at sunset in 7 meters of water, her topside protruding above the water for many years. Langsdorff and his crew are taken to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-fornv/germany/gersh-a/grf-sp-l.htm

Finland. Red Army has made little progress on the Karelian Isthmus since the Finns fell back to the Mannerheim Line on Dec 6. Soviets assault the village of Summa, which provides road and rail access North to the centre of Finland (“gateway to Viipuri”). Despite heavy artillery bombardment, the Finns are ready and mow down the advancing Soviet troops. Some Soviet tanks penetrate Finnish defenses but are isolated and destroyed.

Day 107 December 16, 1939

In Montevideo, British diplomats play for time to contain Graf Spee, dispatching another merchant vessel from Montevideo at 5 PM to prevent Graf Spee sailing for another 24 hours. However, Uruguay insists the British cease this ploy as Graf Spee’s stay of 3 days expires at 8 PM tomorrow. Graf Spee continues her rapid repairs. Commodore Harwood refuels his ships in anticipation of renewed battle. Harwood receives news he is promoted to Rear-Admiral and knighted.

A signal from the Admiralty stated Commodore Henry Harwood was promoted Rear Admiral from the 13th. of December, and the King bestowed the Knight Companion of the Bath ( KCB ) on him, and the Companion of the Bath ( CB ) on the three cruiser Captains, C.H.L Woodhouse in Ajax, W.E. Parry in Achilles, and F. S. Bell in Exeter. Much rejoicing in the British ships lying in wait off the River Plate.

http://ahoy.tk-jk.net/macslog/TheBattleoftheRiverPlate..html

In Finland, Soviet ‘road strategy’ fails to get men and equipment in force to the point of contact. Finnish resistance becomes a rout in places. Finnish IV Corps, having scattered Soviet 139th division in Tolvajärvi on Dec 12, meets Soviet 75th division marching to the rescue and puts them to flight also. As the Finnish noose tightens on the surrounded 163rd division in Suomussalmi, Soviet 44th Division advances slowly up the Raate Road to rescue them. Disaster awaits them.

Day 106 December 15, 1939

Graf Spee has 2 days to leave Montevideo. Captain Langsdorff buries his 36 dead sailors; released British prisoners lay wreathes at the funeral. Graf Spee readies to leave, taking on fuel from a German tanker while the crew repairs damage. As only HMS Cumberland and the damaged light cruisers Ajax and Achilles are positioned to prevent a break out, British diplomats spread rumors that several vessels including battleship Renown and aircraft carrier Ark Royal are nearby. British ships start leaving Montevideo at regular intervals to prevent Graf Spee sailing (she is required to give enemy merchant ships 24 hours head start). SS Ashworth sails at 5 PM.

Southwest of Ireland, U48 stops neutral Greek steamer SS Germaine. The crew is ordered into the lifeboats and rescued by Norwegian SS Vinland. As her cargo is destined for Britain, Germaine is torpedoed.

Finland. Entire Soviet divisions are surrounded North of Lake Lagoda near Tolvajärvi and Suomussalmi.

Day 105 December 14, 1939

Battle of the River Plate. Capt. Langsdorff releases 61 prisoners held on Graf Spee. He requests two weeks for repairs in Montevideo. British naval attaché, Henry McCall, presses Uruguay to expel Graf Spee within 24 hours, per international law. Uruguay compromises and gives Graf Spee 3 days. Royal Navy’s Harwood is furious at the prospect of Graf Spee sailing against his depleted cruiser force. Fortunately, heavy cruiser HMS Cumberland arrives at 10 PM to replace the damaged HMS Exeter, sailing directly from the Falkland Islands in 34 hours.

http://www.deutschland-class.dk/admiral_graf_spee/gallery/gallgrafspeemontevideo.html

League of Nations expels USSR for the invasion of Finland in violation of Soviet-Finnish non-aggression pacts (1932 and 1934) and the League of Nations Charter (signed by USSR in 1934).

Hitler orders OKW to plan for an invasion of Norway (codenamed Studie Nord) to protect crucial supplies of iron ore from Sweden.

Day 104 December 13, 1939

Battle of the River Plate. Graf Spee spots British cruisers HMS Exeter, Ajax & Achilles. Intent on battle, Capt. Langsdorff closes rapidly ignoring safer options (pick off the smaller ships with his longer range guns or outrun the warships). At 6.18 AM he opens fire on the heavy cruiser Exeter from 11 miles. Commodore Harwood’s plan is to spread his ships & split Graf Spee’s fire. All three cruisers return fire by 6.23. Ajax & Achilles 6-inch shells rake Graf Spee’s topside but do not penetrate Graf Spee’s armor. Achilles is hit (4 dead) & Exeter is badly damaged by seven 11-inch shells (61 crew killed) but continues firing. At 6.38, 8-inch shell from Exeter penetrates Graf Spee’s armor, wrecking her fuel processing system. With only enough fuel for 16 hours, Graf Spee is forced to flee to the port of Montevideo, Uruguay, pusued by HMS Ajax & Achilles.

In the North Sea, Submarine HMS Salmon torpedoes German cruisers Leipzig & Nürnberg. Both stay afloat and will be repaired. Leipzig is so badly damage that she will never again be fit for combat duty and is only used as a training ship.

Day 103 December 12, 1939

9 miles off the coast of Scotland at 4 AM, battleship HMS Barham collides with an escorting destroyer in dense fog. HMS Duchess is cut in half and sinks (124 lives lost, 25 survivors).

Graf Spee and Royal Navy cruisers converge on the River Plate estuary from different directions. Despite orders to avoid battle, Captain Langsdorff expects escorted convoys. As Graf Spee will return home to refit engines and other systems after 4 months at sea and thousands of miles, he is willing to take minor damage. He strips Graf Spee for battle, removing fake funnels and dumping damaged equipment such as the Arado seaplane’s engine.

Submarine HMS Salmon tries to stop the German liner SS Bremen (which is known to have no passengers) off Norway but an escorting seaplane attacks forcing her to dive. Salmon does not torpedo the liner to comply with existing Anglo-German naval treaties, a decision that likely delays German unrestricted submarine warfare.

Day 102 December 11, 1939

Finland. Soviet 163rd division’s nightmare begins, having advanced 10-30 km since crossing the border. 662nd regiment is held at the North end of Lake Piispajarvi by Finnish 16th battalion. To the South, 81st and 759th regiments are held up in Suomussalmi by a company of 58 Finnish border police, since Dec 7. Suomussalmi village is a critical road junction sitting in a network of lakes. Beyond, easier terrain and a rail junction at Puolanka provide the Red Army access to the Gulf of Bothnia. To prevent this, Finnish 27th regiment (4500 men traveling on skis, no artillery, no anti-tank or anti-aircraft guns) attacks the Soviet supply line along the Raate Road, isolating Soviet troops in Suomussalmi.

http://www.winterwar.com/Battles/Suomussalmi.htm

Battle of the Atlantic. U-38 commits a political blunder, sinking neutral Greek freighter SS Garoufalia (4 lives lost) in neutral territorial waters of Norway. 25 survivors, including 2 Norwegian pilots, are picked up by Norwegian steamer SS Tellus and report the sinking.

http://www.uboat.net/allies/merchants/ships/142.html

Day 101 December 10, 1939

Finland. Despite primitive construction, the Mannerheim Line is remarkably effective. Cleared paths in the forest funnel Soviet troops into minefields and fields of fire pre-ranged for both machine guns and the limited Finnish artillery. Adjacent pill boxes provide mutually-supporting fire. Granite blocks and other obstacles block the killing fields to prevent tanks advancing on the Line. 7th Army on the Soviet left flank is also shelled by coastal batteries on the island of Saarenpää. Soviet battleship Oktjabrskaja Revolutsija shells Saarenpää but misses the batteries in dense fog. The Finnish batteries on the islands in the Gulf of Finland prevent the Soviet Baltic Fleet from landing troops behind the Mannerheim Line.

Baltic Fleet submarines sink three ships including two German vessels; SS Reinbeck in the Gulf of Finland (off Helsinki) and SS Bolheim in the Gulf of Bothnia. Most ships attacked by Soviet submarines are German although USSR and Germany are allies.

Day 100 December 9, 1939

Battle of the River Plate. Graf Spee sails towards the River Plate estuary (separates Uruguay and Argentina) to attack a convoy of 4 ships tought to be leaving Montevideo. Graf Spee’s Captain Hans Langsdorff is acting on information captured from British steamer SS Streonshalh (sunk on Dec 7).

Meanwhile, Royal Navy Force G (light cruisers HMS Ajax and HMS Achilles) is already heading to River Plate, following Commodore Henry Harwood’s hunch that Graf Spee will try the busy shipping lanes of South America. Harwood makes the wise decision to order the heavy cruiser HMS Exeter (currently refitting in Port Stanley, Falkland Islands) to join them in the River Plate estuary. Another heavy cruiser, HMS Cumberland, remains refitting in Port Stanley.

Western Front. Corporal Thomas Priday (King's Shropshire Light Infantry) becomes the first British soldier killed in action in WWII, a victim of “friendly fire” while on patrol.

Day 99 December 8, 1939

Before dawn, Belgian steamer Louis Scheid (which rescued 62 survivors from Tajandoen on December 7) runs aground in front of the Thurlestone Golf Club, Warren Point, Devon, England. As she breaks up in very heavy seas, all survivors from Tajandoen and Louis Scheid are rescued by the Salcombe lifeboat.

http://www.twothirdsblue.co.uk/Louis_Sheid/History/index.html

At 11.55, U-48 sinks a straggler from convoy OB-48, SS Brandon (9 lives lost). Survivors are picked up by 2 Belgian trawlers and landed at Milford Haven, Wales.

Finland. The Red Army is at a standstill. 7th and 13th Armies are held on the Mannerheim Line, a series of unconnected concrete bunkers and granite/earth/timber forts between the lakes on the Isthmus (meager compared to the mighty Maginot and Seigfreid Lines). 8th army stalls at the River Kollaa. 9th Army’s thrusts across the frozen lakes out of Suomussalmi are repulsed. Only 14th Army makes progress in the far North region of Petsamo, against 3 Finnish companies led by Captain Antti Pennanen.

Day 98 December 7, 1939

800 miles East of Rio de Janeiro, German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee sinks her last victim 3,895-ton British steamer SS Streonshalh (cargo of wheat). Graf Spee stops Streonshalh and takes the crew of 32 on board before sinking her with scuttling charges and 6 inch shells fired at the waterline. Papers captured from Streonshalh tell Graf Spee’s Captain Hans Langsdorff that a convoy of 4 ships is leaving Montevideo on December 10. He heads for the estuary of the River Plate to intercept them.

Captain Langsdorff has followed the rules of sea warfare throughout and no lives have been lost on any of the 9 ships sunk. 61 prisoners now held on Graf Spee (crew of Streonshalh plus the captains and officers of the other 8 ships) are in for a stormy ride. 305 more British Merchant Navy crewmen are held on the Altmark in mid-Atlantic.

5 AM, U-47 mistakes neutral Dutch freighter MV Tajandoen (cargo, cement, iron and steel) for a tanker and sinks her with one torpedo (6 lives lost) 50 miles south of Land’s End. Belgian steamer Louis Scheid rescues 62 survivors and, in fear of being torpedoed, runs for the shallows off the Devon coast in a gale.

5 PM, U-38 sinks British freighter SS Thomas Walton (13 lives lost) 80 miles from Narvik, Norway. U-38 also fires a torpedo at the German ship SS Sebu which rescues 31 survivors, taking them to Bodo, Norway.

Finland. Having advanced 40km in 7 days above Lake Lagoda, Soviet 8th Army (7 divisions) threatens to turn the Mannerheim Line but is held by 2 Finnish divisions at the River Kollaa. Here they will remain until the end of the Winter War; “Kollaa Holds” becomes a rallying cry for the Finns. Further north, Soviet 163rd division (part of Dukhanov’s 9th Army) takes the village of Suomussalmi, sparking the worst Soviet disaster of the Winter War.

Day 97 December 6, 1939

Winter War Finland. Fighting continues in the Karelian Isthmus as the Finnish forward defensive troops fall back to the Mannerheim Line. The Soviets already have a taste of the Finnish defenses as their losses mount attempting to cross the Taipale River at the eastern end of the Mannerheim Line.

Battle of the Atlantic. Before heading to Germany for repairs, Graf Spee goes hunting in shipping routes of the River Plate estuary (South America). However, the Admiralty has learned of Graf Spee’s sinkings near St. Helena, off the coast of Africa (December 2 and 3). Commodore Henry Harwood, Royal Navy’s expert in engagement of a battleship by smaller vessels, guesses correctly that the German raider will head to the River Plate. He sails his cruiser squadron Force G (HMS Exeter, Ajax and Achilles) from the Falkland Islands.

U-47 sinks the neutral Norwegian ship MV Britta 50 miles off Land’s End, England (6 dead). 25 survivors are picked up by the Belgian trawler Memlinc.

Day 96 December 5, 1939

After sinking Royal Oak on their amazing Oct 14 sortie into Scapa Flow, Gunther Prien and U-47 are at sea again. Departing Kiel on November 16, U-47 is now in the Bristol Channel just South of Ireland. U-47 sinks British merchant ship SS Navasota (in ballast from Liverpool to Buenos Aires) in convoy OB-46 with one torpedo (37 lives lost). 37 others are picked up by HMS Escapade. 8 more, rescued by British steamer SS Clan Farquhar, are taken to Capetown, South Africa 22 days later. One survivor, Albert Newbury of Wales was previously torpedoed on board SS Lochavon by U-45 on October 14. Whether Albert stayed in Capetown or returned to sea is unknown.

Day 95 December 4, 1939

Finnish terrain of deep impenetrable forests and long parallel glacial lakes forces Red Army onto the few roads, churned into frozen ruts by heavy tracked vehicles and clogged with horses, men and machines. This road strategy slows their advance everywhere and, worse, forces them into minefields and ranged killing zones in front of the Mannerheim line on the Isthmus. The Soviets grind forward days behind schedule, their hopes for blitzkrieg dashed. North of Lake Lagoda, Soviet 8th Army advances slowly with little resistance but comes in range of Finnish shore batteries at Taipale which pulverise them with higher firing rate and greater accuracy than mobile artillery.

U-36 is two days out of Wilhelmshaven (heading to the Kola Peninsula 25 miles from Mumansk to scout a proposed submarine base) when she is sighted on the surface by British submarine HMS Salmon near Stavanger, Norway. Salmon sinks U-36 with one torpedo (all 40 lives lost).

Day 93 December 2, 1939

Finland. Red Army advances slowly on the Isthmus with massive casualties. In the far North, a handful of Finnish troops (10th Separate Company and 5th Separate Battery, part of the Lapland Group) face 2 Soviet divisions (104th crosses the border on foot while 52nd takes Petsamo by boat). International Olympic Committee cancels the planned 1940 Helsinki Summer Olympic Games.

Battle of the Atlantic. Near St. Helena again, Graf Spee’s Arado seaplane spots British freighter Doric Star (cargo of meat, dairy products and wool). Doric Star is stopped with 2 long distance shells but the crew radios a distress message and sabotages her engines. After transferring her crew, Graf Spee sinks Doric Star with shell fire and a torpedo.
http://www.bluestarline.org/doric.html

German liner Watussi is stopped by battleship HMS Renown and cruiser HMS Sussex and scuttled 80 miles South of Cape Town. Watussi’s crew of 155 and 43 passengers are rescued by HMS Renown and will spend the rest of the war in South Africa.
http://rapidttp.co.za/waratsea/watussi.html

Day 92 December 1, 1939

Finland. Stalemate continues on the Karelian Isthmus as Red Army infantry advance though dense mine fields and are mown down by Finnish crossfire. Soviet tanks operate independently from infantry, occasionally penetrating Finnish defenses (Finnish soldiers have never seen tanks before and often are terrified) but to little effect.

North of Lake Lagoda, Finnish forces panic and retreat, presenting a dangerous opportunity to the Red Army. A Soviet flotilla sails towards Taipale on Lake Lagoda, at the eastern end of the Isthmus. They are to shell Finnish shore batteries and land at Taipale, turning the Mannerheim Line. However, the Finnish guns fire first, forcing the battleship Orangenbaum onto a sandbar (she remains useless for several weeks).

Similarly, Soviet cruiser Kirov is shelled at a range of 24km trying to attack Finnish coastal batteries on the Hanko Peninsula. Damaged by near misses, Kirov returns to Liepāja for the rest of the Winter War.

Day 91 November 30, 1939

USSR invades Finland with 21 divisions, violating three non-aggression pacts.

At 6.50 AM, artillery barrage starts on the Karelian Isthmus. At 8 AM, Soviet 7th Army advances across the entire Isthmus into mine fields pre-ranged by Finnish machine guns and artillery. 9 Soviet infantry divisions plus tanks (250,000 men) are held by Finnish covering forces (21,000 men) in front of the main defensive line (Mannerheim Line). Soviet planes bomb Helsinki.

Initially, Soviet attacks along the 800-mile border from Ladoga to the Arctic Sea meet little resistance. Eighth Army advances north of Lake Ladoga. Ninth Army strikes into central Finland for the Gulf of Bothnia to cut Finland in half. Fourteenth Army aims to capture the Arctic port of Petsamo.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Winterwar-december1939-soviet-attacks.png

Day 90 November 29, 1939

Battle of the Atlantic. U-35 is brought to the surface in the North Sea by a concerted depth charge attack involving British destroyers HMS Kingston, Icarus and Kashmir. The submarine crew scuttles U-35 but all 43 men survive and are interred briefly at the Tower of London and before going to P.O.W. camps.

Winter war. The Finnish government vainly tries to restart negotiations with the Soviets, suggesting conciliation or arbitration, in accord with the non-aggression treaty. The Finns even offer to withdraw their troops from the border unilaterally. At midnight, Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov orders the invasion of Finland.

Day 89 November 28, 1939

Winter War. To observe the correct diplomatic etiquette before declaring war, USSR withdraws from its non-aggression pact with Finland, amid further Finnish protests. The Soviets maintain that Finland is the aggressor, despite a Finnish investigation revealing that Finnish border guards witnessed the shelling of Mainila by Soviet mortars.

Battle of the Atlantic. In the North Sea, Royal Navy trawler HMS Kingston Beryl scuttles the stern section of SS Gustaf E. Reuter which was torpedoed by U-48 on November 27.

Day 88 November 27, 1939

Winter War. Following the shelling of Mainila and the Soviet accusation of Finnish aggression, the Finns naively reply with a diplomatic note. They claim they could not have fired the shots, having previously withdrawn their guns out of range to avoid just such an incident. Ignorant of the coming storm, the Finns suggest both sides withdraw from the border areas to avoid further incidents.

Battle of the Atlantic. U-48 torpedoes the Swedish tanker SS Gustaf E. Reuter near Fair Isle off the Northeast coast of Scotland but fails to sink her. One man is killed but 32 others are rescued by the Royal Navy trawler HMS Kingston Beryl. SS Gustaf E. Reuter is taken under tow but she breaks up in a gale overnight.

Day 87 November 26, 1939

At 2.30 PM, Red Army stages a border incident to justify the coming invasion of Finland. They fire 7 mortar shells into a field near the village of Mainila on the Karelian Isthmus, half a mile inside Soviet territory. Fortunately, they clear the area beforehand and no one is hurt. Unfortunately, they are observed by Finnish border guards.

At 9 PM in Moscow, Finnish ambassador Yrjo-Koskinen is summoned to the Kremlin to be informed that “Finnish artillery shelled the area, killing 4 Soviet border guards and wounding 7 more”. The Finns are asked to withdraw their forces 20 – 25 km from the border.

This flimsy pretext does not fool international observers. John Colville, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s private secretary, calls it “a technique which does not gain in dignity for being second-hand”, noting the similarity with Hitler's excuse for invading Poland.

Day 86 November 25, 1939

At 1.19 PM, U-28 hits the British merchant ship SS Royston Grange (carrying general cargo and grain) with one torpedo. Royston Grange, sailing from Buenos Aires to Liverpool with convoy SL-8B, sinks about 50 miles southwest of Lands End. The crew are rescued by the trawler Romilly and taken to Swansea. U-28 also lays mines in the Bristol Channel on this patrol, which cause the sinking of the 9,577 ton SS Protesilaus on 21 January 1940.

Between 10 PM and midnight, U-43 repeatedly attacks British steamer SS Uskmouth about 120 miles northwest of Cape Finisterre, Spain. Her first 2 torpedoes malfunction and then U-43 shells Uskmouth with her deck gun. At 11 PM, U-43 fires another torpedo which misses. They continue shelling (firing 149 rounds in total) until Uskmouth sinks at midnight. Two men die but the captain and 22 crew are rescued by Italian merchant vessel SS Juventus and landed at Ramsgate on 30 November.

Day 85 November 24, 1939

Finnish Prime Minister Aimo Cajander has refused to believe that USSR would attack Finland, relying instead on existing treaties, diplomacy and Finnish neutrality. In a speech to the nation, he makes an about face. He reviews Soviet actions in Poland and the Baltic nations, then again rebuffs Soviet demands for bases. He warns that each Finn “has his own guard post” and “must learn to plow carrying rifles”. Commander-in-Chief Field Marshall Mannerheim spreads the woefully under strength Finnish Army of 200,000 across the Karelian Isthmus (40 miles).

The Soviets, however, prepare to cross the entire Finish border and deploys 800,000 men from the Gulf of Finland to the Arctic Circle. Red Army supplements the supply of troops by sending press gangs out in St. Petersburg. One middle-aged man with no military training is ‘recruited” while out shopping for shoes for his wife. He still has her shoes in his kitbag when he is captured by the Finns weeks later.

Day 84 November 23, 1939

Between 1 - 3.30 PM, LtCmdr Ouvry and CPO Charles Baldwin defuse and recover a 7 ft long German magnetic mine (660 lbs of explosive) using specially-designed non-magnetic brass tools. Churchill hosts a party at the Admiralty. Ouvry, Lewis and Baldwin will receive medals from King George VI; the first Royal Naval decorations of the war.

Photos of Ouvry and his mine http://www.worldnavalships.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4927

A nice summary of the disarming and recovery of the magnetic mine by Ouvry, Lewis, Baldwin and others. Also the subsequent discovery of the mechanism of these mines and ways to combat their threat.http://www.capdantifer.org.uk/sweepers/textLMNO.html

In a David and Goliath battle near Iceland, merchant cruiser HMS Rawalpindi (armed with only four 6 inch guns) is sunk by battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau (265 lives lost). The Germans rescue 37 survivors and HMS Chitral saves 11. As Rawalpindi radioed their position, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau terminate their raiding mission.

U-33 torpedoes German merchant ship Borkum (captured by HMS California, Nov 18), killing 4 German sailors but none of the British prize crew. U-33’s commander von Dresky finds no glory on this sortie; in addition to Borkum, he has sunk only 5 tiny trawlers, picking up no survivors.

Day 83 November 22, 1939

Between 8 and 9 PM, a low-flying Heinkel He111 is seen dropping magnetic mines by parachute in the Thames Estuary at Shoeburyness. 2 mines land on mud flats that are very shallow and uncovered at low tide. Two officers with the Render Mines Safe group (HMS Vernon), Lieutenant Commanders John Ouvry and Roger Lewis, are summoned to the Admiralty and dispatched by Churchill himself to recover the mines. These mines have caused the loss of 50,000 tons of shipping since October 16 and countermeasures are crucial.

In the Bay of Biscay, U-43 torpedoes French merchant ship SS Arijon, en route from Antwerp for Buenos Aires (cargo of steel bars).

Day 82 November 21, 1939

U-33’s captain has developed a taste for small fry. After sinking 3 fishing boats yesterday, he sinks 2 more. SS Sulby is sunk at 8:30 AM after a warning shot, 50 miles north of Ireland in heavy seas. A lifeboat with 7 survivors is rescued the following day but the captain and 4 men are lost. SS William Humphreys is sunk at 9:30 AM; 13 crew take to the lifeboat but they are never found.

Brand-new British cruiser Belfast strikes a magnetic mine in the Firth of Forth. The mine makes only a small hole in the hull but causes severe internal damage, injures 21 crew and keeps her out of action until 3 Nov 1942. Destroyer HMS Gypsy is sunk by a mine in the English Channel off Harwich (30 lives lost).

Battleships Scharnhorst & Gneisenau sail into the Iceland-Faroes passage on their first wartime sortie, with light cruisers Köln & Leipzig.

After 18 days in the Indian Ocean, Graf Spee passes The Cape of Good Hope seeking better hunting back to the Atlantic.

At 12.50 PM, French trawler Les Barges II is sunk by U-41 in the Bay of Biscay. The crew escapes and are picked up by a Spanish trawler. U-41 stops 17 other trawlers; all are neutral Spanish vessels.

Day 81 November 20, 1939

Battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau are the pride of the German fleet. They are the largest (32,000 tons, 235 m long, 30 m beam) and best armed (9 11-inch guns, 12 6-inch guns, 14 4-inch guns, 6 torpedo tubes, 3 Arado seaplanes) ships in the Kriegsmarine. Gneisenau was built at Kiel, Germany, launched on December 8, 1936 and commissioned on May 21, 1938. Scharnhorst was built at Wilhelmshaven, Germany, launched on 3 October 1936, and commissioned on 7 January 1939. After months of sea trials, they are finally ready to face the Royal Navy.

The commander of U-33 Kapitänleutnant Hans-Wilhelm von Dresky has a busy, if undistinguished, day. U-33 sinks 3 tiny unarmed British trawlers off Tory Island on the northwest coast of Northern Ireland. SS Thomas Hankins is sunk at 10:30 AM. The crew take to the lifeboat and is rescued by another trawler 10 hours later. They report being hit with 5 shells from U-33’s deck gun without warning. SS Delphine is sunk at 4 PM and the crew of 13 makes land the following day after the chief engineer blocks a hole in their lifeboat with his foot for 22 hours. SS Sea Sweeper is sunk at 5 PM and the crew is rescued by the trawler Lois.

Day 80 November 19, 1939

In response to Germany laying magnetic mines in the English Channel, First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill wants mines dropped by air into the Rhine in the Ruhr area to disrupt river shipping. He also proposes launching time-activated mines into the Rhine along the French/German border between Strasbourg and the Lauter River, to float downstream.

A deadly game of cat and mouse in the Bay of Biscay. U-41 hunts the British steamer SS Darino. Over 8 hours U-41 misses with 3 torpedoes. At 1:50 AM, Darino is sunk by a fourth torpedo (16 lives lost). 11 crew are picked up by U-41, transferred to an Italian merchant ship and later landed at Dover. Nearby, U-49 stalks Convoy HG-7 from Durban to Dunkirk via for 3 hours. U-49 fires 2 torpedoes that miss the British steamer SS Pensilva (cargo of maize) but a third torpedo sinks her at 12.19 PM. The Captain and crew are rescued by the destroyers HMS Echo and Wanderer and returned to England.

Day 79 November 18, 1939

At 10.30 AM Dutch liner Simon Bolivar hits a German magnetic mine laid yesterday in the English Channel, 10 miles east of Harwich. Out of 400 onboard, including 30 children, 86 are killed. International law requires notification of mine-laying in shipping lanes, leading to widespread public outrage in England and Holland. Holland protests to Germany in vain.

German merchant ship SS Borkum, running supplies to Germany through the British blockade, is stopped in the Denmark Strait by the British armed merchant cruiser HMS California. A British prize crew is put on board and sails Borkum towards Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands.

Hitler receives a memo from General Blaskowitz, Wehrmacht Commander in Poland, complaining about SS and Einsatzgruppen atrocities and the effects on ordinary soldiers. The memo annoys everyone from Hitler and Himmler to Chief of Staff Alfred Jodl. Blaskowitz is blacklisted from command in the invasion of France.

Day 78 November 17, 1939

USSR-German collaboration. As part of the Molotov-Ribbontrop pact extension following the partition of Poland, USSR offers Germany a northern base ‘Basis Nord’ to support their blockade of Britain. Naval High Command sends U-36 and U-38 to scout the proposed location at Zapadnaya Litsa on the Kola Peninsula, 25 miles from Mumansk.

Anglo-French Collaboration. Supreme War Council meets in Paris. They agree to an immediate advance to the River Dyle between Antwerp Line and Brussels if the Germans invade (the Dyle Plan or "Plan D"). However, the French turned down proposals to bomb industrial targets in the Ruhr fearing Luftwaffe retaliation against Britain and France.

German destroyers, Z11 Berndt von Arnim, Z19 Herman Künne and Z21 Wilhelm Heidkamp lay magnetic mines in major shipping lanes in the English Channel. No notification is made, contravening International law and leading to catastrophic results the next day.

Day 77 November 16, 1939

German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee stops the Dutch vessel SS Mapia about 350 miles Southwest of Madagascar. Graf Spee’s captain, Hans Langsdorff, permits Mapia to proceed due to Dutch neutrality, allowing her to report his identity and position upon reaching port. His goal is to confuse Allied warships hunting him as to the number and location of German sea raiders. Langsdorff decides that, given the lack of targets, his work is done in the Indian Ocean and he sets sail for The Cape of Good Hope to go back to the Atlantic.

King Carol of Romania’s offer to mediate is rejected by Germany and the Allies.

Day 76 November 15, 1939

Following rejection of appeals for peace by King Leopold of Belgium and Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, German Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop announces that the German peace offer to Britain and France is now withdrawn.

Graf Spee has been cruising trade routes in the Indian Ocean since Nov 3 and needs a kill to register her presence. However, the expected prey does not materialise as wool clipping season in Australia is late and cargo ships await loading in Australia. Graf Spee sights SS Africa Shell, a tiny British oil tanker belonging to the Shell Company of East Africa, 6 miles off Zabora Point Mozambique (at the southern end of the channel between Madagascar and Mozambique). Africa Shell is empty, sailing to port in Delagoa Bay (now the capital Maputo). Africa Shell’s crew are taken off by Graf Spee’s launch and she is sunk by shell fire (see photo and link). The Allies will soon know that a raider is at large in the Indian Ocean.

http://www.maritimequest.com/freighters/02_pages/a/africa_shell_1938_page_1.htmVery nice account of the stopping and sinking of the SS Africa Shell by German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee on November 15, 1939, including a series of photographs taken from Graf Spee. Notably, one photo shows a launch taking the crew off Africa Star before she is sunk. This gentlemanly behaviour ensured that no lives were lost on any of the ships sunk by Graf Spee.

Day 75 November 14, 1939

The Phony War is in full swing. Not much happens in mainland Europe but men are still dying in the Battle of the Atlantic. While the Finnish Army of 175,000 – 200,000 troop dig in on the Karelian Isthmus in anticipation of a Soviet invasion, the Red Army musters about 4 times as many along the entire Finnish border.

Hitler also rejects peace appeals by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands and King Leopold of Belgium, previously rejected by the Allies on November 12.

Day 74 November 13, 1939

Battle of the Atlantic. During the night, 4 German destroyers (Zerstörer Z20, Z18, Z19, Z21) lay magnetic mines in mouth of the river Thames. 5.26 AM Cruiser HMS Adventure and destroyers HMS Basilisk and Blanche sail into the minefield; Adventure detonates a mine (23 lives lost) but safely reaches harbor. 8.20AM Blanche, escorting Adventure, is badly damaged by another mine (1 dead, 12 injured). She is towed by tugboat Fabia but capsizes, becoming the first British destroyer lost to enemy action. Two merchant vessels SS Ponzano and SS Matra are also sunk by these mines.
http://www.carlson.eclipse.co.uk/charles-voyage/charles-voyage.html
An excellent website dedicated to the mining of HMS Adventure and HMS Blanche, maintained by the grandson of a casualty on HMS Adventure. Includes photographs of the damage to HMS Adventure and accounts from the captains of both HMS Adventure and HMS Blanche.

Winter War. Finnish diplomacy has failed. Paasikivi and Tanner leave Moscow for the last time before the outbreak of hostilities. Paasikivi will return to surrender in March 1940. Tanner is tried in 1946 for war crimes and spends 3 years in jail.

King Carol of Romania offers to mediate peace after the Allies rebuff Dutch and Belgian royalty. He too is viewed as acting for Hitler.

Day 73 November 12, 1939

At 7 AM, U-41 (Kapitänleutnant Gustav-Adolf Mugler in command) shells and sinks the British steam trawler Cresswell off the Outer Hebrides, Scotland (6 lives lost). U-41 picks up 8 survivors, At 10 AM, U-41 sinks Norwegian tanker Arne Kjøde (cargo of gas oil, en route to Denmark) with one torpedo. Note that both Denmark and Norway are neutral at this time. The crew takes to 2 lifeboats but one capsizes with 5 lives lost, including the captain. 34 survivors will be picked up on Nov 14 by the British trawler Night Hawk and the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Isis.

British and French governments politely refuse offers of mediation by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands and King Leopold of Belgium, suspecting they are acting for Hitler. First Lord of the Admiralty Churchill broadcasts a speech on the first 10 weeks of the war, emphasising the continued threat to Europe from Nazi Germany. “If words could kill, we should be dead already.”

Day 72 November 11, 1939

British, French, Belgian and German troops mark the twenty-first anniversary of the Armistice, at 11 AM on November 11 1918, on the very battlefields where their fathers fought The Great War (World War One, as it would soon be known). Many in Britain hope that Germany’s expansion in Europe will not bring another general war. Others, including Churchill, believe the storm has not passed and that Hitler will continue his plans for European domination. As Armistice Day falls on a Saturday, the two-minute silence of remembrance in Britain is moved to Sunday to avoid disrupting war production. This begins the new tradition of Remembrance Day on the Sunday closest to November 11. Sales of the symbolically pacifist white poppies drop from 85,000 in 1938 to almost nil.

Day 71 November 10, 1939

The Phony War on the Western Front continues. The Dutch believe the date of the invasion is November 12, due to Hans Oster’s leak to their military attaché. They cancel Army leave, reinforce the border and prepare to flood strategic areas. On the French border, German troops reinforce the Siegfried Line. German probing attacks stimulate French rifle and artillery fire.

In Paris, French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier and Commander-in-Chief General Maurice Gamelin receive Anthony Eden, British Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs (a British cabinet post handling British relations with the Dominions), and delegates from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain stays home in London suffering badly from gout. Chamberlain will recover from gout but things only get worse for him. Six months from now he will resign as Prime Minister and in a year he will be dead from cancer.

Day 70 November 9, 1939

The Finnish government responds to continued Soviet demands for land concessions and military bases by rescinding their offer to yield the Gulf of Finland islands. Their embarrassed delegates, Paasikivi and Tanner, still in Moscow, are left to communicate this. At 6 PM they meet Molotov and Stalin for the final time; “Finland cannot grant to a foreign state military bases on its own territory”. Before they leave, Stalin, incredulous, asks “Nothing doing”? At midnight, Molotov enquires whether Finland will sell the Hanko peninsula to get around this impasse. The Finns pack their bags for the last time. Nothing doing.

Hitler issues directive No. 9. German aircraft and submarines are directed to mine British sea lanes and to target attacks on British merchant shipping, ports and storage depots. His goal is to starve Britain out of the war, reflecting on the blockade that crippled Germany in the First World War.

Day 69 November 8, 1939

An assassination attempt is made on Hitler, on the 16th anniversary of his attempt to seize power on Nov 8, 1923 (the Beer Hall Putsch). Hitler makes his annual speech to the surviving veterans of the Putsch at the Bürgerbräukeller in Munich. A time bomb has been planted by German carpenter Georg Elser in a hollowed out pillar behind the speaker's rostrum. Hitler cuts short his speech to catch the train back to Berlin as it is too foggy for him to fly. The bomb explodes at 21:20, exactly as Elser planned, but Hitler had left 13 minutes earlier. Eight people die and sixty-three are injured, sixteen of them seriously.

Elser is arrested in Konstanz, trying to cross the border into Switzerland. He is transferred to Gestapo headquarters in Berlin where he confesses under torture. He will eventually be held at the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps until April 1945, when Hitler orders his death to prevent liberation by the advancing Allies.

Day 68 November 7, 1939

The invasion of France “Case Yellow”, set for Nov 12, is cancelled due to bad weather. This pattern - planned launch of the attack then postponement by the weather - is repeated many times through November and December 1939 and into January 1940. Hitler does not get his early pressure on the Allies and the Phony War continues.

Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands and King Leopold of Belgium appeal for peace and offer themselves as mediators.

Day 67 November 6, 1939

Western Front. In the first large air battle over the Saar in northwestern France, 9 French Curtiss P-36 Hawk fighters shoot down 4 out of 27 German Messerschmitt Bf 109E. French losses are not recorded. The P-36 Hawk with four 7.5 mm Browning machine guns does well early in the war, despite being outgunned by the Bf 109E with two 7.92 mm MG 17s plus 2 wing-mounted 20 mm cannon.

Around 1830, General Carl von Clausewitz, director of the Prussian War Academy and a military historian and theorist, wrote his book “On War”. His famous line "Der Krieg ist eine bloße Fortsetzung der Politik mit anderen Mitteln" is liberally translated as "War is merely a continuation of diplomacy (politics) by other means". If this is true, then a declaration of war requires certain preliminary diplomatic maneuvers. In Moscow, these diplomatic niceties continue, with the Finns hoping to avert or at least delay war while the Soviets lay the final touches to their invasion plans.

Day 66 November 5, 1939

The invasion of France, Belgium and the Netherlands “Case Yellow” is set for November 12. Commander-in-Chief, General von Brauchitsch, warns Hitler that the Army is unprepared for an immediate invasion and also reminds him of the risks of a Winter campaign. In addition, von Brauchitsch asks Hitler to allow Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH) to supervise military operations without interference. Hitler loses his temper, asserts that the General Staff are disloyal and cowards, and insists the attack goes ahead.

Colonel Hans Oster of German military intelligence (Abwehr) learns of the plans. He informs his friend Colonel Bert Sas, the Dutch military attaché in Berlin, of the exact date of the planed invasion of the Netherlands. He will do this more than twenty times as the invasion is repeatedly delayed and rescheduled.

Day 65 November 4, 1939

Captain Hector Boyes, British Naval Attaché in Oslo, receives an anonymous letter offering German technical secrets. He is requested to signal interest by changing the BBC World Service's German broadcast announcement to "Hullo, hier ist London". He arranges this and a week later receives a parcel with a 7-page typewritten report (which becomes known as the "Oslo Report") and components of a prototype proximity fuse. They come from physicist Hans Mayer, director of the Siemens communications laboratory, who hopes to weaken the Nazi regime by revealing details of military secrets. Mayer arrived in Oslo on October 30, on a business trip, and typed the letter and report on a typewriter borrowed from his hotel.

The Oslo Report is initially considered a fake by British intelligence but is ultimately accepted. Mayer is sent to a concentration camp in 1943 for criticising the Nazi regime but never suspected of spying. He survives the war.

Days 53 - 64 (October 23 - November 3, 1939)

Day 64 November 3, 1939
The Finnish delegates Paasikivi and Tanner again meet with Molotov and Stalin at the Kremlin. The Finnish position has not changed since Oct 23; they offer islands in the Gulf of Finland but the Hanko peninsula (guarding the mouth of the Gulf) is not for discussion. The Soviet position has not changed either; Molotov warns “now is the turn of the military to have their say”.

USA neutrality law, preventing trade in arms and war materials, loans or credits to belligerent parties in a war, is an isolationist policy to insulate America from oversees wars. This is revised in the Neutrality Act of 1939 to allow arms trade with belligerent nations on a cash and carry basis.

German Commander-in-Chief von Brauchitsch rejects Manstein’s first memorandum on the invasion of France; however, he does allocate more tanks to General Rundstedt’s Army group A (Manstein’s superior). Undaunted, Manstein will revise his plan and submit more memos to Brauchitsch.


Day 63 November 2, 1939
As Finnish diplomats try to avert war by extending negotiations, the Soviet leadership has a clearer view of the situation. Unlike Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, which quickly granted Soviet access to bases, the Finnish government has resisted both subtle and direct threats of invasion and seems unlikely to change tack now.

Stalin has rejected Chief of the General Staff Boris Shaposhnikov’s plan for a direct but prolonged charge up the Karelian Isthmus to the Finnish capital Helsinki. Instead, he prefers the plan of Kirill Meretskov (Commander of the Leningrad Military District) to cross the entire 800 mile border. He believes blitzkrieg tactics and the desire of the Finnish people to be liberated by their Soviet neighbours will lead to a swift victory. The Finnish terrain (lakes, forests and marshes) and the will of the Finnish people prove both assumptions to be incorrect.


Day 62 November 1, 1939
The Finnish delegates Paasikivi and Tanner leave by train for Moscow to negotiate again with the Soviets. The Finnish position has not changed and they do not intend to give up any more territory than the Gulf islands already offered on October 23. Their goal is to keep the negotiations alive, in order to delay military action by the USSR, as they have been informed by Field Marshall Carl Gustav Mannerheim (Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish army) that the Finnish army is not ready to fight. Political belief in Finnish neutrality has blinded them to Soviet ambitions to reclaim ‘lost Russian’ territory and the antebellum Army is grossly under prepared. The Finnish army numbers about 200,000 men, with no tanks, little heavy artillery (except coastal batteries on the Gulf of Finland and Lake Lagoda), about 100 Bofors anti-tank guns and precious little ammunition for any of these weapons.


Day 61 October 31, 1939
Erich von Manstein’s first memorandum on the invasion of France arrives at Army High Command (Oberkommando des Heeres or OKH). It will be quickly rejected but 5 more memoranda will follow. He has been working on an armored thrust through the Ardennes Forest and along the River Somme, to isolate the Allied forces in Northern France and Belgium. Although Manstein does not know it, his plan is completely in line with Hitler's thinking.

To increase pressure on Finland, Molotov makes a speech to the Supreme Soviet publicly announcing negotiations which have so far been secret. This successfully isolates Finland from potential international support (e.g. Sweden) but fails to cause the expected uprising of the Finnish public against their government. Instead the Finns are proud of their hard-won independence and rally behind their leaders. This is not the last time the Soviets miscalculate the Finnish people.


Day 60 October 30, 1939
Hitler is impatient with Halder’s lack of progress for an aggressive plan to invade France. He suggests to Generaloberst Alfred Jodl (Chief of Operation Staff, Oberkommando der Wehrmacht) that a tank force should advance through the Ardennes Forest. Although this is initially deemed impractical, Hitler's idea will find form in the plans being developed by Manstein.

Battle of the Atlantic. Royal Navy battleships HMS Nelson and Rodney, cruiser HMS Hood and destroyers HMS Icarus, Impulsive, Ivanhoe, Intrepid and Kelly are escorting iron ore ships from Narvik to the Firth of Forth. The battle group, under Admiral Charles Morton Forbes (Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet), encounters German U-boats west of the Orkney Islands. U-56 hits HMS Nelson, the flagship of the Home Fleet, with three torpedoes but none explode. However, U-57, U-58 and U-59 do not engage the British ships.


Day 59 October 29, 1939
The first Luftwaffe plane is shot down over the British mainland at Haddington, East Lothian, on The Firth of Forth. The aircraft is a Heinkel He 111, part of Luftflotte 2 based in Northern Germany to attack shipping off the coast of Scotland and the Royal Navy Home Fleet at Rosyth (Firth of Forth) and Scapa Flow. RAF Spitfires of both 602 and 603 Squadrons claim the kill. Two survivors, from the crew of 4, become among the first German POWs held in Britain, at Grizedale Hall in Lancashire (Camp 1) or Glen Mill Camp also in Lancashire (Camp 176).

Soviet troops begin occupying bases in Latvia. Soviet troops continue mobilizing and Finnish troops dig in along their shared borders.


Day 58 October 28, 1939
Graf Spee has been ordered out of the Atlantic to avoid British warships. She meets up with her support ship Altmark west of The Cape of Good Hope, refuels and transfers the prisoners from her last victim, SS Trevanion. At midnight, Graf Spee sets sail for the Indian Ocean.

Captain Brown of SS Huntsman, already a prisoner on Altmark, records in his diary - “"Graf Spee returned after nine days absence. We were not allowed on deck as she was oiling from the Altmark and storing by motor boats. Fine weather, sea smooth. Capt Edwards, Chief Officer and Ch. Engineer of Trevanion were ushered into our quarters. Now thirteen in our quarters & thirty-four in the Officers deck.”


Day 57 October 27, 1939
Although technically unnecessary, King Leopold III of Belgium declares his commitment to Belgian neutrality. The Treaty of London, signed on 19 April 1839 by the United Kingdom, Austria, France, Prussia, Russia and the Netherlands, guaranteed the independence and neutrality of Belgium and committed the signatories to guard that neutrality in the event of invasion.

Erwin Rommel has commanded Hitler's personal protection detail (FührerBegleitbataillon) since 1938. Promoted to Generalmajor in August 1939, he protected Hitler's field headquarters in Poland. During the Polish campaign and afterwards in Germany, Rommel takes advantage of staff meetings and meals with Hitler to lobby for a field command. A proponent of mobile armored warfare, he naturally has his eyes on a Panzer division. It has taken Rommel 21 years to rise from Captain to the lowest rank of General; in less than three years his rank will be Generalfeldmarschall.


Day 56 October 26, 1939
Hans Frank, a dedicated Nazi, is given rank of SS Obergruppenführer and appointed Governor-General of the General Government for the occupied Polish territories “Generalgouvernement für die besetzten polnischen Gebiete” (or simply General Government). A decree imposes compulsory labour on all Jews aged 16 -60.

General Government is a German police state “colony”, with no Polish representation, and Hitler plans for complete Germanification within 15-20 years. This area (approximately 95,000 square km with a population of 12 million) lies between Western Poland, annexed into Germany, and Eastern Poland, now occupied by USSR. Frank is responsible for segregating Jews into city ghettos and exporting Polish civilians to Germany as forced labour. He will eventually be found guilty of war crimes at the Nuremberg trials and hung on October 16, 1946.


Day 55 October 25, 1939
Paasikivi and Tanner change trains in Leningrad. Ominously, they see significant concentrations of Red Army troops around Leningrad. North of the city, on the Soviet portion of the Karelian Isthmus, construction of additional road and rail connections is underway. While it might seem careless for the Soviets to allow their preparations to be observed, the obvious route of Soviet attack into Finland is across the Karelian Isthmus (a 30 mile wide strip between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Lagoda) and the Finns are already fortifying the Mannerheim Line to defend against this. Unknown to the Finns, the Red Army is also planning to attack along the entire 800 mile border running North from Lake Lagoda to the Barents Sea.

Battle of the Atlantic. U-16 is sunk by HMS Cayton Wyke, a requisitioned trawler converted for minesweeping, and patrol vessel HMS Puffin.


Day 54 October 24, 1939
Paasikivi and Tanner, the Finnish delegation to negotiate the border dispute with USSR, leave Moscow by train for Leningrad and then Helsinki. The talks are public knowledge but the topic of acquisition of bases and territory by USSR is top secret. The New York Times speculates that either the Finns are negotiating a loan to make up for trade revenues with Britain lost as a result of German sinking of neutral vessels, or that Tanner as head of the Finnish Socialist party is reporting to Moscow on the attitude of finish workers. This secrecy will not be maintained for long.

82,000 kg of Polish gold has traveled from the Romania port of Constanţa on Sept. 16 to Istanbul in Turkey on Sept. 19, and then on to Beirut, Lebanon where it was loaded on French warships bound from France. It finally arrives in Paris.


Day 53 October 23, 1939
The Finnish delegates Paasikivi and Tanner arrive in Moscow by train and go to the Kremlin to negotiate with Molotov and Stalin. The Finns are prepared to give up 6 islands in the Gulf of Finland and they offer to move the border near Leningrad 13 km North, giving some protection to USSR’s second city. Stalin continues to demand a border move of 70 km, as well as a ‘lease’ on the entire Hanko peninsula to station 5000 troops and a naval base. He adds ominously that there will be no haggling but the Finns are not authorized to make these concessions and the meeting breaks up acrimoniously, with each side accusing the other of provoking war. Paasikivi and Tanner return to the Kremlin at 11 p.m. to hear Stalin’s final offer to reduce the Hanko garrison to 4000 but conceding this is still beyond their remit. They agree to take the Soviet terms (which, in reality, are not much different from those presented Oct 12) back to Helsinki for discussion by the Finnish government. While the Finns engage in more diplomacy, USSR prepares for war.