Sunday, March 16, 2014

March 7,1940; HEAVY LOSSES AT VIIPURI

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, MARCH 7, 1940:





Heavy Losses
Are Suffered
In Bay Fight
Thirty Tanks Lost
In Fierce Battle
At Viipuri

Welles Talks
War Situation
For Over Hour
With Daladier

Plunges Into Parleys
With High French
Regime Chiefs

Paris, March 7—(AP) —
President Roosevelt's fact finding emissary, Sumner Welles, was closeted for an hour and forty minutes today with forceful Premier Daladier who has vowed to crush the present German regime.
Plunging into a crowded three day schedule for- his Paris visit, the undersecretary of state called, first on President Lebrun before meeting the premier at his war office headquarters.
Wells already had surveyed the German and Italian attitudes toward the present war in visits to
Berlin and Rome. His next stop will be London after talking with French chieftains as well as the
Polish government-in-exile in France.
Goes To France
President Lebrun received the American envoy ,at the Elysee Palace soon after he alighted from a trail! which brought him overnight from Switzerland

 

Liner Queen Elizabeth Gets
To New York Harbor Safely
After Mad Dash Across Sea

New York, March 7. — (AP)—With the "red duster" union jack proudly. flying at her mast, Britain's new $28,750,000 liner Queen Elizabeth — the largest, fastest
ship afloat — arrived within the safety of New York harbor waters today at the end of her bold dash3000 miles across the Atlantic.
Her giant engines turned up apparently close to her top speed of more than 32 knots.
Only a few figures were seen on the decks, and from the planes there was no indication that the world's largest ship even had a name painted on her gray-smudged prows.

 

LAST MINUTE

BULLETINS

London, March 7—(AP)—Two German warplancs fought with British. Pursuit  planes off the coast of England tonight Onlookers saw one raider almost collide with a British plane as the fight in the clouds began.

 In a few minutes a second raider with two British fighters in pursuit appeared. Then came three more British planes and the two Germans "were driven out to sca, the onlookers said.

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

March 4, 1940; VIPURI ENCIRCLED BY REDS

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, MARCH 4, 1940:


Russians Claim Six
Forts. Big Guns
Captured

MOSCOW—(AP)—Red forces closing in on Viipuri reported new advances to the north and south of the shell-shattered port city today and Indicated strategy of encircling it and severing all supply lines before the knockout blow.
Two newly won positions were Tupuransaari, a bay of Viipuri island 15 mi.es to the south, and Saarela, a hamlet an undisclosed number of miles to the north, the Red army announced.

On the island, the Reds reported capturing six fortifications, five of them iron and concrete forts with heavy coast defense guns in full working order. At Saarela, the Russians said they took the fully equipped headquarters of a "large military formation" and four 75-millimeter guns.
The communique reporting th gains did not mention fighting in Viipuri itself, into which the Russians had said they battled their way Saturday, seizing the railway station and the surrounding southern end of town.

First Raid West of
Dover; Press Raps
War Leaders

LONDON—(AP)—Rumblings of dissatisfaction with Britain's war leadership sounded today in the press with reports of the first German aerial attack in the English channel.
A Heinkel bomber swooped on the 8,441-ton liner Domala with bombs and machine-gun fire, probably killing 108 persons—the heaviest toll aboard a merchantman since the Athenia went down, with a death list 113 on the first day of the war last Sept. 3.
Never before had a German war plane raided shipping west of the straits of Dover.
Attack Made at Dawn
The attack occurred about dawn Saturday. It and five other weekend blows to British shipping became known amid mixed foreboding and confidence over the course of the six month- old war.
It was disclosed later that a German plane bombed and machine gunned the Dutch freighter Jonge Willem before the steamer went to the aid of the Domala. It was believed to have been the same plane that attacked the British vessel.
A crewman said the plane dived in the Jonge Willem and dropped a bomb which fell about 20 feet away and also attacked the ship with machine guns. There were no casualies.
"A little later," the crewman said, we saw flames several miles away and steamed to the spot. "Although the Daily Mail found “proof of our supremacy" in the activities of the British navy and airforce, H warned of the necessity of knowing "we have the right men" in the government.
Ask Younger Officers
It may become necessary to inquire whether we- are as well served as we should be by the higher command of the royal air force," it declared, "and whether these posts should not be filled with younger officers familiar with up-to-date machines and strategy and tactics appropriate to their use."

 

March 3, 1940; HITLER DETERMINED TO RULE CENTRAL EUROPE

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, MARCH 3, 1940:


BRUSSELS, March 2.— (INS)— Abig German bomber today shot down two Belgian army planes in a dramatic air battle over Belgium's neutral territory. The German air force was formally accused by Belgium of a "serious violation of Belgian neutrality and an aggressive act." One of the Belgian fliers was killed; the other pilot parachuted to safety as his plane spun to earth.

The air battle was precipitated when three single-seated Belgian military monoplanes gave chase to and surrounded a German Dornier=17 bomber over the Saint Hubert district in the Belgian province of Luxembourg, not far from the western front. The third Belgian plane was put out of action when German bullets cut Its machine gun controls, but It managed to escape the terrific fire unleashed by the Nazi bomber, and made a normal landing. The Nazi plane disappeared across the German border, some 45 miles distant from the scene of the battle.
10 DIE IN CRASHES.
Simultaneously, three Belgian army planes crashed in other Belgian- areas today, killing 10 men and injuring one. These crashes, however. were accidental and bore no relation to the German-Belgian air duel.

 

Materials, Lives
Spent Lavishly
By Reds

HELSINKI, March 2.—(INS) — Annihilation of the Thirty-fourth Moscow tank brigade, with the killing of at least 2000 Russians, was officially announced tonight, but unofficial reports indicated Finnish troops already have abandoned Viborg to the Red army.
The Finnish high command revealed in its communique tonight that the Russian tank force was encircled northeast of Lake Ladoga and Its destruction -completed."
105 TANKS SEIZED.
No less than 105 Soviet tanks, all virtually undamaged, were seized by the Finnish troops that closed in on the surrounded Russians. The big haul of booty also included 12 armored cars, six artillery guns and large quantities of firearms and ammunition.
Most of the isolated and starving Russian tank officers and men froze to death behind their stalled machines, it was indicated.
On the Karelian isthmus, meanwhile, it was reported the Finnish troops withdrew from most of the southeastern seaport of Viborg and that the Red army -was scheduled to march into Finland's haf-ruined second city at noon tomorrow. This report was not officially confirmed.
Tonight's communique, however, admitted further Finnish retreats from points south and east of Viborg, namely In the Sainio and Heinjoki sectors.
FURTHER RETREAT. "
Subsequently, It was unofficially reported Finnish troops withdrew from second-line to third-line fortifications along the entire western half of the Mannerheim line.
An estimated quarter million Soviet troops were concentrated in the unceasing push to seize Viborg, while another quarter million were attacking other sectors of the
Mannerheim line.

 

 

 

 

 DEIFICATION OF DICTATORS, AS IN THE CASE
OF HITLER, IS FANTASTIC AND YET REAL

Among Americans today there is a disposition to be cynical about the avowed aims of the British and the French to crush the menace of Hitlerism. It may very well be that the Allied statesmen, in their attacks on dictators, are providing the ideals for power politics. Nevertheless, we cannot properly be cynical about the dangers of dictatorship as manifested in Italy and Russia, as well as Germany.
George Catlin makes this point clear in his new book, "The Story of the Political Philosophers." He shows clearly the development of the idea of deifying the dictator from the time of the Caesars, through the age of benevolent despotism, down to the modern leadership principle. Hitler, for example, poses not only as the successor to Charlemagne's Roman Empire "of the German people," but as the .head of a new religion— a political religion of the sword, a new Islam, with himself as its Mohammed." Mr. Catlin thinks that Hitler has accomplished this deification more than in the case of either Italy or Russia.
Goering has revealed the dangers of the "fuhrer-princip" in this passage:
We Nazis believe that, in political affairs, Adolf Hitler is infallible, just as the Roman Catholic believes that, in religious matters, the Pope is infallible. .. . His will is my law. .. . The laws of Nature demand that authority should be exercised from above downward and responsibility from below upwards. . . the leader at the top is responsible to the people as a whole and to their future.
The religious aspects of the Nazi secular faith have been stated by Hans Kerrl:
As Christ in his twelve disciples raised a stock fortified unto martyrdom, whose belief shattered the great Roman Empire, even so in Germany we are experiencing the same thing . . . Adolf Hitler is the true Holy Ghost.
This heroic, patriotic faith has had a long history, having derived its force from the idolatrous East and the bureaucrat's feeling that there must be some sentiment to cement the political structure. The Roman Empire, having conquered Egypt, absorbed Egyptian manners and began to salute Caesar as the godlike Pharaohs before him:
Prince of princes, elect of Ptah and Nun the father of the gods, King of Upper and Lower Egypt, lord of the two lands, autocral, son of the sun, lord of diadems, Kaiser, ever living, beloved of Ptah and Isis.
The same deification has come to light in Germany, where, however, there is none to remark with the dry skepticism of Vespasian on accepting his official fate: "Bah! I see I'm becoming a god."
To many Americans this dictatorial theology seems fantastic, and yet it is real. It accounts, in no small measure, for the feeling in Europe that Hitlerism must go before there can be security and orderly life on the Continent.