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Post by Pumba on Jun 11, 2012 8:34:25 GMT 8
May 26, 1940 Lord Gort, BEF commander, just received telegram from French Gen. Weygand: "British must counter-attack vigorously at once." He ignores it. --------------------------- Gort has had news from King Leopold: Belgian Army, now without British support, must surrender. Gort: "Belgians think us awful dirty dogs." ------------------------- Hitler has now authorized Luftwaffe to bomb mainland British targets; 8 civilians killed today in "test raids" on Yorkshire & Essex. ------------------------ Himmler, head of SS, now telling Hitler: "In 5 years the concept of the Jew will have disappeared from Europe" via emigration to the east. ------------------------- Vicious battle raging in Calais; under furious German shelling, British defenders retreating to city's medieval citadel  ----------------------------- German dive-bombers smashing Calais to rubble. British & French troops taking shelter in cellars of the ancient Citadel  ------------------------------ Calais defenders told: "Every hour you hold out helps save the BEF". But German tanks have abandoned siege- they're racing towards Dunkirk. ------------------------------- All iron railings from London houses & parks being chopped down to be recycled for weapons. Bandstands also sacrificed.  ------------------------------- British troops in Norway have first modern plane reinforcements- squadron of Hurricanes just landed (on a runway made of sod & chicken-wire) ----------------------------- UK troops in Norway don't know that, due to disaster in France, they're to be evacuated- they're getting ready to attack Germans at Narvik. --------------------------- Today is a national day of prayer for troops in UK; Westminster Abbey packed. 1 UK soldier in France: "I'd rather they sent some artillery." |
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Post by Pumba on Jun 11, 2012 8:41:35 GMT 8
May 27, 1940 Churchill has given the order to begin "Operation Dynamo": the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from France, via Dunkirk. ------------------------- French Commander-in-Chief Weygand wasn't told of BEF's plan to flee France- furious, he phones Churchill: "Your decision dishonours Britain" ------------------------- UK Cabinet now discussing negotiated peace with Germany, which Mussolini has offered to arrange. Foreign Sec. Lord Halifax wants to give in. --------------------------- Churchill: If Britain can get peace & independence by surrendering some land "I would be happy to get out of our present difficulties." ---------------------------- Calais has fallen; French & British troops surrendering. Germans amazed how few remain: "You fought with great courage"  -------------------------- 1 British soldier ordered to evacuate is Bill Hersey, who married a French girl, Augusta, 2 months ago. His Captain tells him "Go & get her" ---------------------------- 11.30PM Bill arrives at Augusta's house on bike: "Get your things- you're leaving. You're British now. This is the only way you can be safe" --------------------------- Dressed as a soldier, in steel helmet & greatcoat, Augusta is smuggled into an army truck. With rest of regiment she & Bill head for Dunkirk ------------------------- Germans dropping (accurate) propaganda leaflets on encircled French & British troops, urging them to surrender.  ------------------------ Evacuating British troops have been told: "Make for the pillar of smoke." Dunkirk has been set on fire by German bombs.  -------------------------- An Allied force of British, French, Poles & even Spaniards- in French Foreign Legion- have captured port of Narvik, Norway, from Germans. ------------------------ Capt. Pierre Lapie, French Foreign Legion: "We had misgivings over these Spaniards- all Communists- but their fighting prowess was superb." -------------------------- Allies plan to wreck port of Narvik, then flee Norway. British general: "I feel despicable pretending to Norwegians we will go on fighting" -------------------------- Hitler has- belatedly- ordered Wehrmacht to finish off trapped Allies. French & British troops fighting desperate battles to slow them down. ------------------------- An RAF bomber, compass disabled by a magnetic storm, has mistaken the Thames for the Rhine- & bombed a British airfield near Cambridge. |
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Post by Pumba on Jun 11, 2012 8:51:16 GMT 8
May 28, 1940 100 British soldiers, out of ammo after day's fight to cover Allied retreat, just surrendered. SS machine-gunned men carrying the white flag ------------------------- SS leading surviving UK POWs out of La Paradis farm- where they were taking cover- into a nearby meadow. Private Albert Pooley is 1 of them. -------------------------- Pooley: "I saw with one of the nastiest feelings I have ever had in my life two heavy machine guns pointing at the head of our column." ---------------------------- "Guns began to spit fire- for a few seconds shrieks of stricken men drowned guns' crackling." 97 prisoners murdered. Pooley is left for dead ----------------------------- 6PM Navy arriving at Dunkirk find chaos; Naval Capt. William Tennant, sent ashore: "Mobs of drunken soldiers prowl through the burning town" ------------------------------ "A bullet whines past us. 1 snarling group appears, rifles ready. I defuse the situation with my hip flask: 'Here old chap, have a drink" -------------------------- King Leopold of Belgium has requested an armistice, despite demands of his government that he flee country to carry on fight in exile. -------------------------- Hitler has replied to the Belgian request for peace terms: nothing less than "unconditional surrender" will be accepted. ------------------------------ 1st day's evacuation at Dunkirk has not gone well. Only 7,669 men saved (of 300,000+), & Germans are within 4 miles of city- artillery range ---------------------------- As Allies flee country, once-friendly Belgians turn sour. Augusta Hersey- still disguised as a soldier- was refused bed or water last night. -------------------------- King Leopold has surrendered Belgium, unconditionally, to the Germans, saying: "The cause of the Allies is lost."  --------------------------- US Ambassador to France, William Bullitt, advising US arm French police "to quell a Communist uprising" & Navy evacuate French gold reserves -------------------------- Belgian surrender being condemned by Churchill, French PM Reynaud, & Belgian PM Pierlot- who's announcing on radio King has forfeited crown. ------------------------ Grenadier Guards, part of the thin line protecting Dunkirk, just cracked open their last ammo boxes- finding not bullets, but signal flares. ------------------------ 1 British Captain has an idea. Waiting until Germans charge his men, he fires a red flare: a signal to the German mortars to shell UK lines. ------------------------- Assuming it's a German flare, mortars open fire- cutting through attacking German infantry. Shelled by their own side, they're falling back. |
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Post by Pumba on Jun 11, 2012 8:57:43 GMT 8
May 29, 1940 UK Foreign Sec. Halifax wants peace deal. Churchill: "Nations that go down fighting rise again, but those who surrender tamely are finished" ------------------------- Halifax: "We will get better terms from Hitler now, before France goes out of the war & our factories are bombed, than in 3 months time." -------------------------- 7PM Churchill to Cabinet: no peace with Hitler; "If our long island story is to end, let it be only when we lie choking in our own blood." ------------------------ Churchill: "25 experienced politicians burst out cheering. I'm certain every Minister is ready to be killed quite soon rather than give in." ----------------------- Sky over France is cloudless blue- a nightmare for fleeing Allied troops. 1 man: "Luftwaffe are everywhere, smashing anything that moves." ----------------------- "We pass a battery of destroyed anti-aircraft guns, barrels split & curled back like sticks of celery."  ---------------------------- 1 desperate British solder at Dunkirk: "God help me, I've learned to pick dead men's pockets- & they're often empty by the time I get there" --------------------------- 1 Navy ship approaches Dunkirk: "Look at the wretched refugees on the beach." "Those aren't refugees- they're the BEF!"  ----------------------------- Troops queuing on beach are up to their necks as tide comes in- they're terrified of losing place in line for rescue.  -------------------------------- French officer René Chambrun just arrived in Dover from Dunkirk: "People cluster in dead silence around a newspaper. Headline: CALAIS FALLS" ----------------------------- Chambrun is en-route to France with secret documents- only safe way out of German encirclement is via Dunkirk. Luftwaffe control skies. ----------------------------- Italy secretly preparing to attack France. Count Ciano: "I've seldom seen Mussolini so happy. This is his real dream: to lead Italy to war." ---------------------------- Mussolini is desperate to join winning side. Ciano- Italy's Foreign Minister- to French: "Win a few victories, & you'll have us as allies." |
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Post by Pumba on Jun 11, 2012 9:45:52 GMT 8
May 30, 1940 U-boat has torpedoed HMS Wakeful, returning from Dunkirk. 650 soldiers were jammed below decks. 1 of them has survived.  ------------------------------- 2nd destroyer, HMS Grafton, has gone to try & find survivors from Wakeful- & been torpedoed by same U-boat, lying in wait for rescue ships. -------------------------- Basil Bartlett is aboard sinking Grafton: "Ship is trembling violently. I pushed my way on deck- a mass of twisted steel and mangled bodies" ------------------------- "Someone said: ‘Keep down. They’re machine-gunning us.’ I huddled against a steel door to watch the fight." Read more: ww2today.com/29th-may-1940------------------------- Arthur Seyss-Inquart, new Reich Commissioner for occupied Netherlands, promises to "respect Dutch laws" where possible.  ------------------------- Dutch Jews hope Nazis respect Dutch laws, as promised. 1 example: Frank family of Amsterdam. Photo: daughter, Anne (11)  ------------------------- Augusta Hersey asks soldier husband, Bill, why they're fleeing her homeland: "We're going to UK so we can return to fight in France later." ------------------------ Capt William Tennant, coordinating evacuation at Dunkirk, demanding Admiralty: "Send every boat in the country, if we're to stand a chance!" ----------------------------- Since last night, UK radio broadcasting appeal to owners & crew of ocean-going boats to volunteer (not told for what): www.bbc.co.uk/archive/dunkirk/14312.shtml---------------------------- A astonishing flotilla of small ships, volunteered from across UK, now heading out across the Channel towards Dunkirk.  ---------------------------- Boats range from paddle steamers to yachts, fishing vessels, car ferries. Crew- all volunteers- told: "We've no guarantee you'll come back" --------------------------- From a British officer at Dunkirk: "The whole front is one long line of blazing buildings, a high wall of fire."  ---------------------------- "Stepping over the bodies on the promenade we march down the slope to the beach. Dunkirk is a lurid study in red and black: flames, smoke." ------------------------- French troops may now evacuate via Dunkirk- but beaches are in chaos. Some disorderly British are shooting French who try to board the boats -------------------------- Germany is announcing major increase in food rations, as food floods to Reich from its new vassal states in Scandinavia & the Low Countries. -------------------------- Dora Clements, a nurse at Dunkirk: "I have 1 young man who is only partly in this world- a mortar has removed his leg."  --------------------------- "He's suffering acutely; morphine no help. Doctor says in a low voice, 'Give him heroin, Sister.' This is 1 patient who won't leave France." ------------------------- Dora: "[Soldier given heroin] lies still now, completely relaxed, lost in a dream world where the lotus-eaters smile & pain was never known" |
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Post by Pumba on Jun 11, 2012 13:12:38 GMT 8
May 31, 1940 French ship Bourrasque (Snowstorm) laden with 700 men from Dunkirk, has hit a mine. Note men clinging on as she sinks.  --------------------- Bourrasque has broken in half, plunging to bottom- sucking down those too close. Less than 100 survivors to be rescued.  ------------------------- German Gen. Halder: "Bad weather has grounded Luffwaffe- now we must watch countless 1000s of enemy getting away to England under our noses" -------------------------- Sgt. Lee Howard: "Chaos on the beach. Our boat was near capsizing, so captain ordered 1 man out- then shot him in the head when he refused." ------------------------- As clouds clear over Dunkirk, the Luftwaffe return; Stanley Allen is there: "They're machine-gunning hospital ships- that isn't cricket." ------------------------- British troops are driving their trucks & ambulances into the sea to create makeshift piers & stop Germans getting them  ------------------------ William Shirer, US journalist in Berlin: "3 weeks ago today, Hitler hurled his armies west. In 3 weeks, he has overrun Holland & Belgium." ------------------------- Shirer: "He's knocked out the BEF; it's surrounded. Some of the men, at least, are getting away at Dunkirk. But as an army it's finished." ------------------------ 1st prisoners have arrived at Auschwitz concentration camp: 30 ordinary German criminals, to be kapos (supervisors) over "subhuman" Poles. ------------------------- Italians now banned from driving private cars; petrol "conservation program" announced- government are secretly readying an attack on France ---------------------------- Men arriving back from Dunkirk- many in state of shock or injury. 1 officer arrived wearing only a blanket & a monocle  |
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Post by Pumba on Jun 11, 2012 13:20:31 GMT 8
June 1, 1940 Men at Dunkirk wild at Luftwaffe raids- & RAF's absence. 1 lies on back, taking potshots with a rifle: "Come down & fight fair you bastards" ------------------------- Naval officer has arrived at Dunkirk with a message for "some bloke named Gort". Lord Gort, commander of BEF, has been ordered back to UK. -------------------------- Beachmaster in charge of La Panne beach: "French company marched up, as if on parade. But I have orders to let only British troops aboard" -------------------------- Bill Hersey, British soldier, is on La Panne beach at Dunkirk. With him: his new French wife, Augusta, disguised as a soldier. ------------------------ Weather's humid, stifling. Augusta has taken off greatcoat- revealing a dress underneath. The Beachmaster spots her: "No women on the beach" -------------------------- Bill: "But she's my wife!" Beachmaster: "I said no women on the beach." Bill cocks his rifle. "I said she's my wife." Beachmaster turns away ---------------------------- Bill & Augusta have managed to board a British destroyer- but on their way out of Dunkirk harbour, they've hit a mine. ---------------------------- Bill & Augusta have been picked up by minesweeper, HMS Speedwell, now heading for Dover. Now safe, Augusta has told Bill that she's pregnant ------------------------- Triumphant cartoon today in German magazine Lustige Blätter; Churchill's losing the game against Death: "The last card"  -------------------------- By unofficial estimates, 75% of the British Expeditionary Force has now been rescued from Dunkirk. ------------------------- From today's New York Times: "So long as the English tongue survives, the word Dunkirk will be spoken with reverence." But it's not over yet ------------------------- With Nazi invasion looming, Britain launching Operation Fish: shipment of British gold reserve -£150 million- to Canada  ---------------------------- Watching Allied troops evacuating Norwegian port of Narvik, 1 local remarks: "I see the British intend to fight to the last Norwegian." -------------------------- French are requesting all British troops evacuated from Dunkirk be sent back to France to defend Paris- "with nothing but rifles if need be" |
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Post by Pumba on Jun 11, 2012 13:28:01 GMT 8
June 2, 1940 RAF pilot Douglas Bader, flying over Dunkirk: "Sea from Dunkirk to Dover looks like a road on a bank holiday. It's solid with shipping." ------------------- Bader & other UK pilots fighting desperate air battles against Luftwaffe, but are hidden by clouds. Soldiers at Dunkirk think RAF are absent ----------------------- HMS Speedwell back in UK; asked how many onboard, Captain shouts: "599 men & 1 woman!" Bill & Augusta Hersey & whole ship burst out laughing ---------------------- Royal Navy Capt. Tennant, horrified by today's bombing of 4 Allied destroyers: "I'm sorry, no more ships by day- evacuation at night only." ----------------------- BEF evacuates, but war goes on. 1 French solder: "So Germans have taken Arras & Lille. France must rediscover the old spirit of 1914 & 1789" ----------------------- Last UK troops at Dunkirk retreating to beaches. French 1st Army fight on alone to hold off Germans- knowing there is no evacuation for them ------------------------- Hitler ordering Luftwaffe to abandon Dunkirk & get ready to bomb Paris; his attention is now on "Plan Red"- the final destruction of France. ------------------------ Baron von Richtofen- Luftwaffe General, cousin of the famous "Red Baron"- writes in his diary: "A victory over England has been thrown away" ------------------------ UK MP Henry Channon: "I wonder as I gaze out on London's barrage balloons, barbed-wire & soldiers, is this really the end of England?" --------------------------- Hitler touring captured French territory, is now at Vimy Ridge, Canadian WWI memorial- & has ordered the SS to guard it  --------------------------- Hitler- a Great War veteran who fought near Vimy Ridge- is incensed at rumours German troops are defacing the memorial: "It is my favourite" --------------------------- UK: As word spreads of civilian boats rescuing troops at Dunkirk, a myth is already being born; Daily Express cartoon:  ---------------------------- Don McCormick, clearing boats arriving from Dunkirk: "From 1.45am I've been carrying corpses- loose hands & brains are all in a day's work." ---------------------------- Donald: "I feel like crying- it's all so pointless. I hate the callousness of most of our people, who just want to pinch cigarettes & money" |
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Post by Pumba on Jun 11, 2012 13:32:21 GMT 8
June 3, 1940 Some men at Dunkirk have been driven mad by thirst, shock, & random bombing; 1 wanders naked, saying: "I am Mahatma Gandhi". ------------------------ Augusta, French wife of Dunkirk evacuee Bill Hersey, arrested in UK as a suspected spy. Bill just had time to give her his parent's address. ------------------------ UK Minister of War Anthony Eden now on BBC announcing "Battle for the Ports" in France & evacuation of BEF; listen in: www.bbc.co.uk/archive/dunkirk/14341.shtml---------------------------- Winston Churchill, in tears, is dictating a speech to secretary Mary Shearburn; he must explain Dunkirk & try to inspire a desperate nation. --------------------------- Mary: "Winston's very frustrating, pacing in & out of earshot, muttering through tears: 'We shall fight them... We shall NEVER surrender!" --------------------------- Wild jubilation at Dunkirk; French evacuee: "If this is how the English celebrate defeat, what do they do for victory?"  ---------------------------- In Britain, royal bunting- saved from coronation of King George, 4 years ago- is being hung to welcome troops home. ------------------------- Walter Gilding, UK soldier just back from Dunkirk: "I thought we were going to be shot- we'd run away. But they clap as if we're heroes." ------------------------ German reconnaissance planes shot down over Sweden & Switzerland. Are Nazis planning to attack every non-Fascist nation in western Europe? --------------------------- Brigadier Beckwith-Smith, to his men at Dunkirk: "I'll pay £5 for each Stuka shot down with a rifle. Take them like a high pheasant." --------------------------- With Royal Navy ships forbidden to approach Dunkirk by day for fear of Luftwaffe, small civilian ships working desperately to clear beaches. |
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Post by Pumba on Jun 11, 2012 13:44:23 GMT 8
June 4, 1940 German bombers have conducted a mass raid on Paris, aimed at airbases, train stations & factories; 254 people are dead.  -------------------------- General Hugo Sperrle is mastermind of Paris bombing- "Operation Paula". His aim: "desirable influence on French morale"  -------------------------- Mussolini to his generals: "In 1 week we attack France." 1 protests: "This is madness! We have not even enough shirts for the troops!" ------------------------- 11PM Last ship carrying UK troops has left Dunkirk. Gen. Alexander toured beach in a motorboat to check for stragglers.  -------------------------- Amid desperate final scenes of evacuation, French troops were elbowed off pier by British, saying: "It's your country, you fight for it." --------------------------- From today's Irish Times: "The present number of States with the democratic system can almost be counted on 1 hand." www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2011/0603/1224298322343.html----------------------- The Germans have captured Dunkirk. French fought all night to let as many as possible escape, but are now surrendering.  ----------------------- Destroyer HMS Ivanhoe was 1 of final ships out of Dunkirk last night. A bomb hit her deck, crammed with men. Silvester MacDonald is onboard: ---------------------- Silvester: "The devil himself couldn't have imagined the sight: bodies in navy blue & army khaki entangled in a grotesque heap on the deck." ----------------------- German troops now stand looking over the Channel, surrounded by wrecked & abandoned British guns, tanks & equipment.  ----------------------- Luftwaffe pilot Bernt Engelman: "British have rescued their troops. Adolf can say goodbye to his blitzkrieg on England"  -------------------------- Some British soldiers fresh from Dunkirk, convinced UK is finished, are ditching their uniforms & equipment, deserting back to their homes. ---------------------- Winston Churchill now in House of Commons, to brief Parliament on British collapse in France; it's only his 4th speech as Prime Minister. ----------------------- Churchill just said of Dunkirk: "We must [...] not assign to this deliverance the attributes of a victory. Wars are not won by evacuations." ------------------------ "We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight at sea & air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be..." ------------------------ "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields..." Listen now: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6llT2ZYg-4E |
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Post by Pumba on Jun 11, 2012 13:52:33 GMT 8
June 5, 1940 With the British chased from Europe, David Low cartoon in today's Evening Standard asks: "Where Next?"  ------------------------ UK: Nella Last just heard Churchill on radio: "I forgot I was a middle-aged housewife with backache- I felt somehow undying & worthwhile." ------------------------- General Weygand, French commander-in-chief, has requested 22 UK fighter squadrons sent to defend Paris "at once". British politely decline. ------------------------ Strikes are now banned in Britain; miners & farmers may not leave their jobs without govt. permission; workers advised not to take holidays. -------------------------- New emergency measures announced by Ernest Bevin, Minister for Labour: "I cannot have a peacetime economy in wartime."  -------------------------- France north of Paris has been emptied as 12 million people flee the Nazis- largest mass migration in Europe's history.  --------------------------- Parisian Professor Andre Morize: "France is confused, tangled up like a vast skein of wool being manipulated by a superhuman, evil power." -------------------------- Joy as British meet loved ones they feared captured in France; like this soldier & his girlfriend at a London station:  -------------------------- UK: Guardian newspaper reports "House of Commons still trying to adjust to one of the gravest speeches ever made to it" www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/1940/jun/05/greatspeeches |
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Post by Pumba on Jun 11, 2012 14:00:08 GMT 8
June 6, 1940 Prof. Andre Morize, on US radio now: Paris bombing "as if a beautiful woman had been slapped in the face by a drunkard" www.thecrimson.com/article/1940/6/5/prof-andre-morize-describes-paris-bombing/--------------------------- UK author JB Priestly now on radio, explaining role of "little ships" in "hell of Dunkirk"; listen now: www.bbc.co.uk/archive/dunkirk/14310.shtml-------------------------- French troops evacuated from Dunkirk- 109,000 of them- are being repatriated to fight on in France, at their insistence  --------------------------- Germans have now launched "Fall Rot"- Plan Red- to break the Allies & conquer France. They're only 58 miles from Paris:  --------------------------- Noon: UK War Cabinet now hearing the grim tally of Dunkirk- all Britain's best tanks & guns lost. ww2today.com/the-british-count-the-cost-of-dunkirk---------------------------- 1 British Colonel, who asked War Office to resupply his lost tanks & trucks, today received this reply: "We haven't even got enough rifles!" --------------------------- New French defence tactic being tried: "hedgehogs" of men & tanks which can fight back even when encircled by Germans  --------------------------- "Hedgehogs" slowing Germans down- mostly due to French Char-B tanks, with armour too thick for Wehrmacht guns to crack  --------------------------- French hoped not to repeat the World War: a bloody battle of attrition. Now they'd settle for that rather than let Paris- or France- fall. -------------------------- Hitler's triumphant Order of the Day: "Dunkirk has fallen- the greatest battle of history has ended. Soldiers! You have not disappointed me" |
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Post by Pumba on Jun 11, 2012 14:05:12 GMT 8
June 7, 1940 50 US planes head to France, via Canada; US neutrality law says they can't be flown over border, so a farmer helps out:  --------------------------- US Ambassador to Britain Joseph Kennedy advising President that Allied defeat is inevitable: "They have nothing to fight with but courage." ---------------------------- UK pollsters report public "almost impressed" by Nazis; 1 says: "Hitler's done everything he said he would- he's really a wonderful bad man" ---------------------------- UK Ministry of Information on fascination with Hitler: "We must reduce Hitler to the status of a man who eats & breathes & cleans his teeth" ---------------------------- William Shirer, US journalist in Berlin: "Church bells ring & flags are out today to celebrate victory in Belgium, but no real elation here" ---------------------------- French "hedgehogs"- all-round strongpoints- already being bypassed by German tanks, who just leave them to be mopped up by infantry. -------------------------- 1 German soldier: "In the ruined villages, the French fight to the last man- some hedgehogs carry on when our men are 20 miles behind them" --------------------------- General Rommel, racing ahead of German advance: "We have broken past the Maginot line- it's like some beautiful dream!"  ------------------------------ Smoking ban for female students at German universities: "Your cigarettes should go to army; also, science has proven smoking bad for women." |
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Post by Pumba on Jun 11, 2012 14:10:45 GMT 8
June 8, 1940 US citizens in UK & Ireland advised to head home on liner Washington, leaving next week- might be last chance to leave before Nazi invasion. ---------------------- Distant rumble of guns drifting over Paris. Government claims it's French anti-aircraft guns. It's actually German artillery, getting closer ------------------------- King Haakon of Norway (left) has fled the country on a British warship. Without Allies, Norwegians can't fight Nazis. ------------------------ The League of Nations has sacked ¾ of its staff; with Europe at war, & the League's protests ignored, there doesn't seem much point. ----------------------------- Sir Keith Murdoch, newspaper proprietor, has been appointed Australian Minister of Information- in charge of propaganda Down Under. -------------------------- French forces now fighting desperately to hold back the tide of the Wehrmacht; German casualties have doubled to 5000/day. ----------------------- Constantin Joffe, French Foreign Legion: "Jews of my regiment seem to be in perpetual fear, but are the first to volunteer under fire." ------------------------ Joffe: "[Jewish troops] fight on, under heavy shelling. They do it without swagger, perhaps without enthusiasm, but they do it." ----------------------- Media blackout in UK; George Orwell reports: "In the midst of a fearful battle, one has the impression there's no news" orwelldiaries.wordpress.com/2010/06/08/8-6-40/------------------------ Last Allied troops evacuating from Norwegian port of Narvik; with them go country's government, royals, & gold reserves  ---------------------------- UK aircraft carrier HMS Glorious is returning with men from Norway- with no planes on deck or lookouts for German ships  |
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Post by Pumba on Jun 11, 2012 14:25:15 GMT 8
June 9, 1940 Glorious- sailing almost blind- has spotted 2 German destroyers- Scharnhorst & Gneisenau- heading in to attack. UK planes ordered: scramble! ------------------------ Scharnhorst, firing from 24,000 metres away, has scored a fluke hit on Glorious- crippling her hanger & stopping her from launching planes. ------------------------- Glorious's 2 escort destroyers, HMS Acasta & Ardent, charging the 2 German cruisers (sorry, not destroyers) in a brave but hopeless attack. --------------------------- HMS Glorious, Acasta & Ardent have all been sunk- at least 600 men dead, over 900 in the water. Germans leaving; more: -------------------------- All Italian merchant ships ordered to proceed to the closest neutral port; Mussolini is secretly planning to attack France in 3 day's time. ---------------------------- First German tanks have broken past the Weygand Line- France's last defence guarding the city of Paris. ------------------------ General Weygand, French Commander-in-Chief: "Once we're finished, the English won't wait two weeks before begging Hitler for peace!" -------------------------- Hitler has issued Führer Directive #14: with French defences stronger than expected, all German forces are directed south- towards Paris. ------------------------ After advancing 100km in just 2 days, General Rommel & his 7th Panzer division are relaxing on the banks of the Seine.  -------------------------- All road signs are being removed from southern Britain, to confuse German parachutists when they invade.  --------------------------- German radio has announced sinking of UK aircraft carrier HMS Glorious- which British Admiralty didn't know was missing  --------------------------- 900 men from Glorious are adrift in North Sea. Only ship to hear distress call, HMS Devonshire, has Norwegian royalty onboard & won't stop. |
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