March 28th, 1940 (THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:New blue 1 pound and mauve 10 shilling notes are announced.
London: The new French Premier, Paul Reynaud, arrived in London today with General Gamelin (Allied C-in-C), for a meeting of the Supreme War Council. In a "solemn declaration" issued after the meeting, Reynaud and Chamberlain pledged their governments never to agree to "an armistice or treaty of peace except by mutual agreement".
Reynaud flew London with a plan for bombing Soviet oilfields in the Caucasus, aimed at stopping oil deliveries to Germany and crippling the Soviet Union. The British are unenthusiastic.
A plan to stop Swedish iron ore deliveries to Germany is also being worked on by the British Chiefs of Staff after the Supreme War council discussed a joint Anglo-French operation to lay mines in Norwegian territorial waters and, if the Germans seem ready to interfere, to send a military expedition to Norway. The contingency plan prepared for such an eventuality has had to be abandoned, however, because the excuse for landings in Norway was to have been a clause in the constitution of the League of Nations allowing transit for troops if they were going to the aid of a victim of aggression. This is now invalid, of course, because of the Finnish surrender. The operation is timed to start on 5 April but is later deferred to 8 April, a vital difference in view of the timing the Germans fix for their own landings.
Most of Germany's iron ore from Sweden comes through ice-free Narvik in northern Norway. The allies had hoped to use the Finnish war to persuade Norway and Sweden to allow them to land forces in the northern regions of those two countries, ostensibly to aid Finland but mainly to interrupt Germany's iron ore supplies. Norway and Sweden firmly rejected this infringement of their neutrality. Now the Allies are preparing to go ahead with their plan, irrespective of the pleas of neutrality.
RAF Fighter Command: One German bomber was shot down off the northeast coast of Scotland and another damaged by fighters over the North Sea. A trawler was damaged in an attack by 8 German aircraft in the North Sea; the trawler was damaged and 2 men wounded.
NORTH SEA:
Denmark Strait: HM Armed Merchant Cruiser Transylvania intercepts the German merchant ship Mimi Horn, but she is scuttled by her crew.CANADA: Elections return MacKenzie Kings's Liberal Party to power.