February 22nd, 1940 (THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:
RAF Fighter Command: North Sea trawlers are attacked by Luftwaffe aircraft. Little damage is done to the trawlers, the bombers are driven off by the trawlers'[1] machine guns, and two are shot down by fighters.
RAF Bomber Command: Leaflets and Reconnaissance of Vienna. 102 Sqn. Two aircraft
from
Villeneuve. No opposition over Austria, some en-route.
The first English Electric built Handley-Page Hampden (P2062) flies from
Salmesbury
airfield in Lancashire.
Destroyer HMS Cattistock launched.
NORTH SEA:
German destroyers are attacked in error by their own aircraft and run into a minefield
laid by RN destroyers. Leberecht Maass and Max Schultz are lost northwest of the German
Friesian Islands. U-54 is presumed lost in the same field.
Six type 34 destroyers DD Friedrich Eckholdt (Z-16) flying the flag of Fregattenkapitan Berger, commander of Zestroyer Flotilla 1, DD Richard Beitzen (Z-4), DD Theodor Riedel (Z-6), Leberecht Maass (Z-1), Max Schultz (Z-3), and Erich Koellner (Z-13)sailed from Schilling Roads with the intent of raiding the British North Sea fishing fleet. While transiting a German minefield, the force sighted, and was sighted by a German two-motor bomber.
About a half-hour later the aircraft (an He-111 from 4/KG26) returned and dropped two 100 KG bombs, one of which struck Maass amidships, apparently knocking out her boilers. Eckholdt went to give her assistance. Then, while standing by, the ships came under attack again, with two more bombs being dropped. Either one hit or the ship simultaneously drifted on a mine, but regardless, Maass exploded, broke in half, and sank. There were 60 survivors rescued from the cold water. Some minutes later, the furthest destroyer away from the scene of the Maass' demise, Schultz exploded and sank. There was a submarine alarm, an aerial alarm, and she was in the minefield. There were no survivors, and no one apparently saw exactly what happened to her. However, at a subsequent inquiry, it was determined that the Luftwaffe aircraft had claimed hits on both destroyers. The was no British submarine in the area, but it had been mined by the British destroyers two weeks before. However, regardless of what actually sank them, the Luftwaffe got the credit. Not a good day for inter-service co-operation! (Mark Horan)
FRANCE:
General Gamelin submitted the report that Premier Daladier had commissioned him to make
one month before. In his view (he said), "an operation against the Russian oil
industry in the Caucasus would make it possible to strike a heavy, if not decisive blow
against the military and economic organisation of the Soviet Union." In a few months
the Soviet Union might even get into such difficulties "that it would risk total
collapse." Gamelin pointed out that of the three vulnerable Soviet oil-producing
localities, Batum and especially Baku - "by far the most important petroleum centre
in the Caucasus" - would be the recommended target of an attack.
FINLAND: The Finns evacuate Koivisto. The SFK takes over responsibility for defending northern Finland, and the Finnish units of Detachment Willamo are subordinated to General Linder. (203)
GIBRALTAR: U.S. freighter SS
Sahale, detained by British authorities at Gibraltar the previous day, is
released.
TIBET: Lhasa: Buddhists all over the world touched their foreheads to the floor at 4pm today as
they bowed in the direction of the almost inaccessible Potala Palace above Lhasa. In
monasteries and temples across the Buddhist world they were celebrating the enthronement
of the new Dalai Lama - the spiritual leader of the Tibetan Buddhists.
The new representative of this holy line is a five year old peasant boy called Lhamo
Dhondup, born in the village of Taktser north-east of Lhasa.
Lhamo, who was selected from three boys in his region, is the 14th in the line of Dalai
Lhamas which began in the 14th century.
[1] These would be trawlers commandeered by the Navy, flying the White Ensign and operating with RN crews performing anti-submarine patrols, or escort duties; fair game for the Luftwaffe, rather than the victimisation of innocent merchant seamen bringing home the catch. (Alex Gordon)
ATLANTIC OCEAN:
At 0020, steam tanker British Endeavour in Convoy OGF-19 was torpedoed and sunk by U-50 about 100 miles west of Vigo. Five crewmembers were lost. The master and 32 crewmembers were picked up by the British SS Bodnant and landed at Funchal, Maderia on 26 February.