April 17th, 1940 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:
RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group. (Armstrong-Whitworth Whitley Mk Vs. ) 58 Sqn. Two aircraft to Kjeller and Fornebu. No bombing due to weather.
77 Sqn. Three aircraft to Trondheim. No bombing due to weather.
102 Sqn. Three aircraft to Trondheim. No bombing due to weather.
NORWEGIAN CAMPAIGN: Heavy cruiser HMS Suffolk bombards Sola airfield near Stavanger, but as she returns is badly damaged by Ju88 bombers. She barely make Scapa Flow. RAF Hudsons spot for the Navy’s gunners.
RAF bombers attack a submarine in Bergen Fjord and a supply ship at Larvik. At noon 12 Blenheims attack Stavanger. 2 FTR. At night 11 Wellington’s renew the attack on Stavanger airfield. One Wellington is lost.
In the south a mixed force of British aircraft mine German sea and coastal communications.
British troops are sent in two forces to land at less conspicuous ports that are still in Norwegian hands to effect an attack on Trondheim. ‘Mauriceforce’ is to land at Namsos, 80 miles to the north of Trondheim. ‘Sickleforce’ is to land at Aandalsnes, 100 miles to the southwest. The heart of Mauriceforce is the British 146th Brigade under Maj. Gen. Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart, a stiff-backed veteran who had left Oxford to enlist in the army during the Boer War. He wore a piratical black patch over the empty socket of an eye he had lost in the Middle East, an artificial hand to replace one lost in France during WW1 and a splendid collection of medals that included the Victoria Cross.
Carton de Wiart had arrived at Namsos by flying boat, intending to prepare the way for his troops. He had some problems. The 15 mile fjord leading to the tiny port of Namsos proved too winding and narrow for bulky troop transports to navigate; the ships would be easy targets for the Luftwaffe. Before entering the fjord, therefore, much of the British brigade had to be transferred to destroyers. In the confusion, equipment was misplaced, and one transport sailed home with 170 tons of weapons, rations and ammunition still aboard, leaving the 146th with just two days’ supplies. Even the brigade commander was missing; he was aboard one of the transports heading for Narvik.
(Mark Horan adds): It was decided that the Skua squadrons at RNAS Hatston would continue the armed reconnaissance sorties to Bergen. Working under the same plan as the day before, two aircraft from 800 Squadron were dispatched in company around 0945, some 4 1/2 hours late due to weather. Each carried as single 250 SAP pound bomb and eight 20 pound Cooper bombs. Again, the actual reconnaissance was carried out at low level, from 5,000 feet to 1,000 feet. One Skua sighted a small warship, identified as Bremse, tied up at the Dokajeer jetty and dive bombed her at 1150, but no results were noted. Photos were taken, and both aircraft headed back, one making it to Hatstaon, but the Captain R. T. Partridge, RM, caught but a 180 degree shift in the wind direction, made a forced-landing at RAF Sumburgh in the Shetlands, his 6A:L3025 being seriously damaged when it overturned on the soggy ground.
Meanwhile, at noon word was received at RNAS Hatston from HMS Suffolk that she had been seriously damaged while returning from bombarding Stavanger, by Luftwaffe aircraft and was returning to Scapa under threat of further air attack, and was requesting air cover. 803 Squadron was placed on alert to fly fighter patrols over her throughout the day. The two Skuas of Green Section led by Lieutenant H. E. R. Torin, RN were dispatched immediately, meeting her 150 miles off the coast. Almost immediately, several German bombers were sighted at 1340, but the duo was able to break up their attacks, one Do-18 being badly damaged. An hour later, the six Skuas of 803's Blue (Lieutenant W. P. Lucy, RN) and Yellow (Lieutenant L. A. Harris, RM) Sections arrived to relieve Green Section. At 1440, both sections shot up a He-111, while Blue section also chased off a Ju-88. About 30 minutes later two sections of 801 Squadron arrived overhead. Red section, led by Lieutenant R. L. Strange, RN chased off a snooper at 1520, while at 1533 Yellow section, led by the Squadron OC Lieutenant-Commander H. P. Bramwell, RN, jumped a Do-18G of 1/KuFlGr 406 and shot it down.
Still later, after refuelling, 803 Yellow section and Blue-leader returned, this time leading a section of Gladiators from 804 Squadron, also based at Hatston, and they covered Suffolk's arrival at Scapa without further action.
Meanwhile, with the bulk of the Home Fleet having returned to Scapa to refuel, HMS Furious, with inadequate facilities available, was slowly refuelling. She also took the time to repair her tired and somewhat mangled air group, which now consisted of 12 Swordfish, five of 818 Squadron and seven of 816 Squadron. Fortunately, crew casualties to date have not be serious: two dead and three wounded.
S
class submarine HMS Sterlet lost in the Skagerrak with all crew of 30. It is
thought that she may have been sunk by minesweeper M 75 on 17 April or mined as
she made her way home on 22 April.
FRANCE: General Weygand reports to Gamelin and to General Vuillemin, the C-in-C of the French Air Force, that "the preparations for the bombing of the Caucasian oil fields have advanced so far that the operation can take place shortly." The French High Command accept Weygand’s proposal and decide to attack the USSR at the end of June or beginning of July 1940.
GERMANY: Upon hearing of the loss of Narvik, Hitler had a fit of hysteria; he demanded that General Dietl’s troops there be evacuated by air - an impossibility. ‘Each piece of bad news, leads to the worst fears.’ said Jodl in his diary.
AUSTRALIA: The ocean liner QUEEN MARY arrives after her secret voyage from New York.
U.S.A.: Washington: Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, says that any threat to the status quo in the Dutch East Indies would imperil peace in the Pacific.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: HMS Ark Royal in company with the destroyers HMS Westcott and HMS Bulldog are en-route to the Clyde. HMS Glorious, in company with the destroyers HMS Velox and HMS Watchman continue towards the Clyde.