March 1st, 1940 (FRIDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group. Leaflets and Reconnaissance - Berlin and Baltic ports. 10 Sqn. Two aircraft. Moderate opposition. One Whitley crashed on landing at Dishforth (K9026). Crew safe.
RAF Fighter Command: Luftwaffe attack on North Sea convoy. No damage.
Women are urged to wear light clothes in order to save dye for forces uniforms.
Two-thirds of the adult population tunes in to Lord Haw-Haw's broadcasts from Hamburg, according to BBC audience research just completed. One person in six is a regular listener to his propaganda. Some 16 million listeners hear the BBC nine o'clock news every night, and about six million of them switch straight over to Lord Haw-Haw afterwards.
Speculation continues about the identity behind his superior drawl, which has been compared with Bertie Wooster's. Norman Baillie-Stewart, the officer imprisoned in the Tower for passing information to Germany before the war, and William Joyce, a former member of Sir Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists, have been suggested.
After much debate the BBC decided not to answer his broadcasts with direct refutation, but it has begun weekly broadcasts at the same hour by a commentator with the pseudonym "Onlooker", believed to be Norman Birkett, the eminent KC.
An order for the first 50 Mosquito light bombers is placed by the Air Ministry with de Havilland.
Destroyer HMS Chiddingfold laid down.
FRANCE: Paris: Gastronomes took another knock today with the publication of new restrictions on what can be eaten and drunk. Meals in hotels and restaurants will be restricted to two, only one of which can be meat, and the sale of spirits will be limited to four days a week. Eating at home offers no escape: ration cards are to be distributed, with bread, pastries and chocolates among foods either restricted or even banned.
The French Premier Édouard Daladier announces that the Allies will send 50 000 men to aid Finland. They will arrive in late March. The Finnish government received the word already yesterday, and it has delayed drafting the Finnish reply to the Soviet demands. The cabinet is divided on the matter; some want to make peace when the Army is still intact, others dread the Soviet demands and want to accept the Allied help and continue fighting.
GERMANY: Berlin: Hitler issues a war directive ordering the invasion of Denmark
and Norway. He also meets Sumner Welles, to whom he says that, "there is no other
solution than a life-and-death struggle."
OKW issues Führer Directive #10a for "Fall
Weserübung
(i) The developing situation in Scandinavia makes it necessary to prepare for the occupation of Denmark and Norway. This would anticipate English action action in the area, secure iron ore supplies from Sweden, and provide naval and air bases for expanded operations against England.
(ii) The basic aim is to lend the operation the character of a peaceful occupation designed to protect the neutrality of the northern countries. Any resistance will be broken by all means available using the smallest possible military force.
Skilful action and surprise will make up for weakness in numbers.
(iii) General of Infantry von Falkenhorst will prepare and command the operation as Commander Group XXI. Timetables and plans should be provided to OKW as soon as possible.
(iv) The crossing of the Danish frontier and landings in Norway will take place simultaneously. Preparations will proceed with the utmost speed, and every effort should be made to ensure surprise.
(v) In Denmark, Grp XXI supported by the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine, shall conduct the surprise occupation of Jutland and Fönen, and the subsequent occupation of Zeeland.
(vi) In Norway, Grp XXI shall conduct the surprise occupation of important places on the coast by landings from the sea and air. The Kriegsmarine is responsible for transport of invasion troops and follow up forces and supplies transported to Oslo and elsewhere.
(vii) After the operation the Kriegsmarine will be responsible for rapidly preparing coastal defences, the Luftwaffe should quickly prepare bases for the prosecution of the air war against England. (Marc Roberts)
U-118 is laid down.
FINLAND: Coastal Group (Maj. Gen. Kurt Wallenius) is formed on the western coast of Bay of Viipuri. Its mission is to repel the expected Soviet assault across the frozen bay, where the Red Army has already captured several islands. Gen. Wallenius's troops are either recently arrived from northern Finland (like Wallenius himself) and are unfamiliar with the environment, or ill-trained coastal defence battalions compiled from older reservists. Wallenius himself is very unhappy with his new mission. He had performed very well in his previous assignment in northern Finland, where his troops had lots of room to manoeuvre. Here there is no room, the men has to stand and fight, to defend every inch. Wallenius considers the situation hopeless. There are allegations he is seen drunk in his HQ.
GIBRALTAR: U.S. freighter SS
Exeter is detained at Gibraltar by British authorities.
REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA: A voluntary oath is taken by the great majority of the Union Defence Force to serve "anywhere in Africa".
AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Lismore laid down.
U.S.A.: The motion picture "Strange Cargo" is released. Directed by Frank Borzage and starring Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Peter Lorre and Paul Lukas, the plot involves prisoners escaping from Devil's Island who encounter a Christ-like figure (Ian Hunter). (Jack McKillop & Jeff Chrisman)
Native Son by Richard Wright was published. The novel tells the story of 20-year old Bigger Thomas, an African-American living in utter poverty.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 0315, SS Mirella was hit in the bow by one torpedo from U-20, but did not sink. The U-boat waited submerged during the daytime, returned to the abandoned ship in the evening and sank her at 2114 hours by a coup de grâce. The wreck in position 52°26´09N/02°05´02E was later dispersed.