March 19th, 1940 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group. Bombing - Hornum. 10 Sqn. Eight aircraft. Moderate opposition. 51 Sqn. Seven aircraft. Moderate opposition. One gunner wounded, one aircraft FTR. 77 Sqn. Seven aircraft. Moderate opposition. 102 Sqn. Eight aircraft. One returned early U/S. Moderate opposition.50 RAF bombers tonight attacked the German seaplane base at Hornum, at the southern end of the North Sea island of Sylt. The raid, publicly disclosed in the Commons by the Prime Minister as it was happening, is a reprisal for the German bombing of Scapa Flow three days ago which killed six sailors and one civilian. 4 Group sent eight aircraft from No 10 Sqn., and 22 from Nos. 51, 77 and 102 Sqn. 5 Group sent 20 Hampdens, to form the greatest number of RAF aircraft to concentrate on a single German target to date. All aircraft claimed to have attacked the target as briefed, with the exception of a crew from 102 Sqn. which returned early. One crew from No. 51 successfully evaded an attack from an Arado float plane (Ar 196) but encountered severe Flak and the tail gunner was wounded. One aircraft (N1405 of No 51 Sqn. Flt Lt J.E. Baskerville) FTR claimed by Luftwaffe Flak.
Westminster: Chamberlain defends the lack of Allied aid to Finland, saying that Mannerheim only requested it once, in January. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain makes a detailed statement in the House of Commons on British plans and actions on Finland's behalf. A 100,000-strong Anglo-French expeditionary force could not be sent due to the refusal of entry by Norway and Sweden. Large quantities of arms ammunition, equipment and aircraft (152) had been delivered or promised.
London: A woman is fined £75 for buying enough sugar for 140 weekly rations; she drove away from the shop in a Rolls-Royce.
Corvette HMS Polyanthus laid down.
FINLAND: Helsinki: Official figures are released showing that 15,700 Finns were
killed in the war with Russia.
Finnish losses were 26 662 killed during the Winter War (30 November 1939 -
13 March 1940). This amount of dead breaks down as follows:
- 16 725 KIA (body recovered)
- 3 433 KIA (body not recovered)
- 3 671 died to their wounds
- 1 727 MIA (presumed dead)
- 28 died while POW
- 715 killed by diseases or accidents
- 363 the cause of death not known
It is also interesting to see how the number of dead breaks down by the months:
-November 1939 (just one day): 100=20
-December 1939 (31 days): 5400
-January 1940 (31 days): 3290
-February 1940 (29 days): 8974
-March 1940 (13 days): 7478
+ some 1300 men who succumbed to their wounds or were declared legally dead after the war
Note how during the 13 days of March almost as many men were killed as during the 29 days of February! The reorganized Russian attack began in early February and the fighting grew fiercer as the time went by.
As there were also 16 437 severely and 27 120 lightly wounded, the total amount of Finnish losses during the 105 days of Winter War is about 70,000.
Since early 1990's groups of volunteers have every summer travelled to the old battlefields of Winter and Continuation wars in Russian Karelia to search for the bodies of Finnish soldiers. Some dozens have been recovered each year, and some of these have been identified by one way or another. Sometimes the ID tag is still intact, or there's some other hint of the body's identity to allow DNA comparison with living relatives (if any). But it is possible to identify only few bodies (often the remains consist only of some small bones, a uniform button or other piece of uniform revealing the nationality), the unidentified majority being buried in a collective ceremony in military cemeteries at Lappeenranta, Joensuu or Kajaani.
Source: Lentil, Riitta and Juutilainen, Antti: Talvisodan uhrit ('The Losses of Winter War'). Article in the book Leskinen, Ari and Juutilainen, Antti (eds.): Talvisodan pikkujttilinen (Juva 1999).
CANADA: The first strong condemnation of Nazism by an official representative of the U.S. government takes place in Ottawa. The U.S. Ambassador to Canada, James Cromwell, declares that Hitler's Germany is openly trying to destroy the social and economic order on which the government of the United States is based.
ATLANTIC OCEAN:
U-19 sank SS Charkow and Minsk.