German forces lay mines off the southwest coast of Sweden, inside the 4-mile limit of Swedish territorial waters. Germany continues laying its game-changer magnetic mines, this time off southwest Sweden. They are within the four-mile limit of Swedish territorial waters. This is a key strait for international shipping traffic and neutral ships are bound to be affected.
A former Polish Ambassador to France, Count Alfred Chlapowski, 65 years old, is reported to have been executed by the Germans, together with many other prominent Poles, in the Provinces of Poznan, Pomorze and Silesia, now incorporated in the Reich.
Czech protests halt a health drive. Women fear that inoculations are a German plot to kill.
The governments of Italy, Japan, Denmark and Sweden make representations to the British Foreign Office regarding the policy of reprisals. Several currently neutral nations — Italy, Japan, Sweden, and Denmark — make inquiries to the British foreign office as to exactly what “reprisals” Prime Minister Chamberlain has in mind as payback for Germany’s magnetic mines.
The British change their minds on the U.S. role in the war. As the French, they prefer to run the war and make the peace.
After attempts to save New Forest ponies in the blackout by painting them like zebras, they are removed to safe pastures.
Reports are made of a raid over the North Sea by an unknown number of enemy aircraft against British warships. There are no casualties.
The American Field Service, the corps of volunteer ambulance drivers that carried more than 500,000 wounded for the French Army before the United States entered the World War, has been revived.
International Olympic Committee President Henri de Baillet-Latour announced the cancellation of the 1940 Winter Olympics, which would have been held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. International Olympic Committee President Henri de Baillet-Latour officially cancels the 1940 Winter Olympics because they were to be held (again) at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. The games were just awarded to Germany in June 1939 after plans collapsed to hold them at St. Moritz, Switzerland. Hitler had stepped in then to offer an easy alternative. There is some dispute over whether the IOC pulled the games from Germany on its own or Hitler withdrew the invitation due to the war situation, but in any event, it would prove to be impossible to hold them anywhere.
The 1940 Summer Olympics, originally scheduled to be held in Tokyo but then switched to Helsinki, Finland at Japanese request, are still officially up in the air. However, especially with tensions growing between Finland and the USSR, it does not look promising.
A new Rumanian cabinet is formed by Tatarescu. A smaller pro-German element is reported.
Negotiations in Istanbul for creation of a Balkan peace bloc to resist either German or Russian penetration were reported resumed today after a series of diplomatic consultations.
There are more Luftwaffe reconnaissance flights over the Orkney and Shetland Islands.
The RAF also conducts aerial reconnaissance, over Wilhelmshaven and Heligoland.
Sailing with Convoy SL.8B, the British steam merchant Royston Grange was torpedoed and sunk by the U-28, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Günter Kuhnke, approximately 50 miles southwest of Lands End, England in the eastern Atlantic Ocean (49°15′N 9°16′W). At 1319 hours the Royston Grange (Master Arthur George Phelps-Mead) in convoy SL.8B was hit by one torpedo from U-28 and sank. The master and crew were picked up by the British trawler Romilly. The 5,144-ton Royston Grange was carrying general cargo and grain and was bound for Liverpool, England.
U-28 also engages in some mine-laying on this patrol.
Between 2200 hours and just after midnight, the unescorted British steam merchant Uskmouth was shelled and then torpedoed and sunk by the U-43, commanded by Korvettenkapitän Wilhelm Ambrosius, approximately 120 miles west-northwest of Cape Finisterre, Spain in the eastern Atlantic Ocean (43°23′N 11°27′W). At 2256 hours on 25 November 1939, U-43 opened fire with the deck gun at the unescorted Uskbridge (Master Henry Hunter) about 120 miles west-northwest of Cape Finisterre, after two G7a torpedoes fired at 2238 and 2245 hours malfunctioned. As the ship began to burn, the Germans had to cease fire due to a defect on the gun. At 2311 hours, they fired a G7e torpedo as coup de grâce but missed and shelled her again until 0012 hours. A total of 149 rounds had been fired as the U-boat left the completely burning and slowly sinking ship. Of the ship’s complement, 2 died and 23 survivors were picked up by the Italian steam merchant Juventus. The 2,483-ton Uskmouth was carrying coal and was bound for Monaco.
The British cargo ship Charles Livingston came ashore at Ainsdale, Lancashire in a gale. Ten of her crew rescued, 23 killed.
The German vorpostenboot (patrol boat) V-301 Weser struck a mine and sank in the Baltic Sea off Langeland, Denmark.
The Gneisenau having had a successful cruise, it gets a new commander, Harald Netzbandt.
The French Force de Raide heads north to hunt for the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.
The German cargo ship Gerrit Fritzen was wrecked on Schiermonnikoog, Friesland, Netherlands.
The Dutch fishing trawler Sylvain left port on this date and disappeared in the North Sea with all eleven hands. She was probably sunk by a mine on 25 November.
Convoy OA.41 departs from Southen, OB.41 from Liverpool, HSF.10 from Halifax and SL.10F from Freetown.
Saturday, 25 November
Light cruiser AURORA and destroyer INGLEFIELD were attacked by German bombers off southwest Norway, 100 miles east of Scapa Flow, but neither ship was damaged. Heavy cruiser DEVONSHIRE and light cruiser COLOMBO also reported they were being shadowed by German aircraft.
Destroyers INGLEFIELD, IMOGEN and IMPERIAL were ordered at 1015 to Scapa Flow to refuel. IMOGEN lost a rating overboard in heavy weather.
Light cruiser DELHI departed Scapa Flow.
Light cruiser DUNEDIN departed Scapa Flow and arrived at Loch Ewe on the 28th.
Armed merchant cruiser LAURENTIC arrived at Liverpool.
Light cruiser GLASGOW arrived at Scapa Flow.
Light cruiser DIOMEDE departed Loch Ewe on Northern Patrol duties and arrived back at Loch Ewe on 2 December.
Anti-aircraft cruiser CALCUTTA departed Grimsby on escort duties and arrived in the Thames on the 28th.
Destroyers IMOGEN, INGLEFIELD, and IMPERIAL arrived at Scapa Flow to refuel prior to escorting convoy ON.3 from Methil.
Convoy BC.15 of nine steamers, including BARON CARNEGIE and NIGERIAN (Commodore) departed the Loire escorted by destroyers VANESSA and VESPER, and safely arrived in the Bristol Channel on the 26th.
Convoy OA.41 of 17 ships departed Southend escorted by destroyers GRAFTON and GALLANT on the 25th.
Convoy OB.41 departed Liverpool escorted by destroyers ESCAPADE and MONTROSE until the 27th.
Convoy FN.41 departed Southend, escorted by destroyer VALOROUS and sloop BITTERN. Minesweeper HALCYON sailed with the convoy for the passage north and it arrived at Methil on the 27th.
Convoy FS.42 departed Methil, escorted by sloops PELICAN and HASTINGS, arriving at Southend on the 27th.
U-28 sank steamer ROYSTON GRANGE (5144grt) from convoy SL.8B, south of Ireland in 49 15N, 09 16W. The survivors were rescued by another ship in the convoy, and destroyers VERSATILE and WITHERINGTON made six depth charge attacks on a submarine contact, resulting in light damage to U-28. Destroyers WANDERER, VISCOUNT and a British flying boat also searched the area.
U-43 sank steamer USKMOUTH (2483grt) off Cape Finisterre in 43 23N, 11 27W. Two crew were lost, with French destroyer L’INDOMPTABLE rescuing one survivor and Italian steamer JUVENTUS (4920grt) the rest on the 26th. L’INDOMPTABLE counter-attacked U-43 in 43-30N, 11-30W and was also missed by a torpedo. U-43 arrived back at Wilhelmshaven on 14 December and began repairs that continued until March 1940.
British air reconnaissance reported sighting four outbound U-boats escorted by two destroyers and four aircraft off the Hook of Holland. Destroyers KEITH, BRILLIANT, JUPITER and the Polish ORP BŁYSKAWICA patrolled in the North Sea for these ships without success.
Destroyer ESCORT attacked a submarine contact SW of Land’s End in 49 17N, 07 14W.
Destroyers ICARUS and ILEX hunted for a submarine after a merchant ship reported being attacked 20 miles SE of Aberdeen. Destroyer ESKIMO joined them.
Destroyers MONTROSE and WALKER hunted for a submarine in 53-26N, 3-51W reported by D/F.
Anti-submarine trawler SEDGEFLY (520grt) attacked a submarine contact off Harwich in 51-53N, 0-43E.
German auxiliary patrol boat Vp.301 (trawler WESER, 650grt) was sunk on a defensive minefield near Langeland Island in the Belt.
Convoy HXF.10 departed Halifax at 0900 escorted by Canadian destroyers HMCS ASSINIBOINE and HMCS SKEENA, which left Halifax at 0800/25th and turned the convoy over to the ocean escort, armed merchant cruiser LETITIA at 2359/25th. Destroyers WOLVERINE and VERITY from OA.44 were escorts from 4 to 9 December and destroyers VERSATILE and WITHERINGTON from convoy OB.44, from 4 to 6 December. The convoy arrived at Liverpool on the 9th.
Convoy SLF.10 departed Freetown escorted by armed merchant cruiser CARNARVON CASTLE, and was joined on 7 December by destroyers BROKE, ESCAPADE, VETERAN, and WALPOLE. The convoy arrived in the UK next day.
Australian light cruiser HMAS PERTH carried out a reconnaissance in the southwestern Caribbean, and arrived at Kingston on 1 December.
Heavy cruiser CORNWALL departed Colombo on patrol duty in Force I.
Light cruiser NEPTUNE departed Freetown on patrol duty.
French heavy cruiser ALGÉRIE and destroyers LE TERRIBLE and LE FANTASQUE which departed Dakar on the 21st passed Gibraltar and arrived at Toulon on the 26th. The third member of the 10th Large Destroyer Division, L’AUDACIEUX left Dakar on the 22nd and arrived at Toulon on 4 December for repairs.
In operations in the South Atlantic in 23-48S, 3-29E, two Swordfish aircraft of 810 Squadron from aircraft carrier ARK ROYAL collided. Lt H Pardoe was rescued, but Leading Airman E H Shayler and LAC A Lawson RAF were lost in one aircraft. Lt A W Stewart, Leading Airmen L M Lloyd and A B W Freik from the other were rescued.
U.S. President Roosevelt’s suggestion that national defense expenditures be placed on a “pay-as-you-go” basis as an alternative to continued heavy Federal borrowing won the support today of the Georgia Congressional delegation, as all of its members except Senator Walter F. George called on the Chief Executive at the Little White House in Warm Springs, Georgia, where the president is spending the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
Representative Carl Vinson, chairman of the House Naval Affairs Committee, said that he reflected the views of his colleagues in declaring that the nation ought not to pass on to future generations the cost of an expanded armament program necessitated by disturbed world conditions. President Roosevelt yesterday forecast a $500,000,000 increase in expenditures for national defense next year and said that the country would have to decide soon whether special national defense taxes or continued government borrowing would be used to meet the full resulting $2,500,000,000 defense outlay. The reaction of the Georgia delegation was the first definite response to the President’s call for a national discussion of the question.
As spokesman for the delegation, Mr. Vinson suggested that sufficient funds could be raised by an adjustment of levies on incomes in the lower brackets and upward revision of inheritance and gift taxes. The President spoke yesterday of special national defense taxes, but Mr. Vinson did not use that expression. Representative Eugene E. Cox, influential member of the House Rules Committee, the only other member to express his views, said that the idea of placing national defense costs on a current basis “impresses me most favorably.”
Mr. Vinson, in his statement, declared: “I have been thinking about this question for some time and have even discussed it with a number of members of the House. It seems to me that this generation ought to hear the burden of the cost of protection. By a proper adjustment of the income tax in the lower brackets, and of the inheritance and gift taxes, sufficient money could be raised to support an adequate defense.”
The ten Georgia House members and Senator Richard B. Russell came to Warm Springs to pay their respects to the President. Senator George, whom the President sought to eliminate from the Senate during the unsuccessful “purge” campaign of last year, was conspicuously absent. From his home at Vienna the senior Senator said he had not been invited. Members of the visiting group said that they had made all the arrangements.
Senator Key Pittman of Nevada, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said tonight that the United States should not even attempt to “appease” Japan and that conditions between the two nations were. “aggravating.” He served notice that he would urge the next session of Congress to enact legislation giving President Roosevelt power to impose an embargo against Japan.
“I see no occasion for acts of appeasement, or even expressions of appeasement on behalf of the United States toward Japan,” he said. “The conditions between this government and Japan are the same as they were, if not more aggravating than at the time our government denounced the commercial treaty of 1911 with Japan. The information I have shows that Japan has continued to violate. the rights of our citizens in China. under the Nine-Power Treaty. Furthermore, it would seem to be futile to enter into a new commercial agreement with Japan until Japan has made some effort to keep her former agreements under the Nine-Power Treaty.” Senator Pittman’s comments were made in an interview when he returned to his office after a week spent in a hospital recovering from bronchitis.
Within the last fortnight there have been reports that the United States was preparing to discuss a basis for renewing the trade treaty. This week, however, Acting Secretary of State Sumner Welles emphatically denied that this was the case, and explained that Japan seemed to be adding to rather than diminishing points of friction with this country. The latest incident concerns the Japanese military blockade of the International Concession at Tientsin.
Some Republican members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, notably Senators William E. Borah of Idaho and Arthur H. Vandenberg of Michigan, have suggested a more conciliatory attitude toward Japan. Today Senator Pittman answered any hint that the committee leadership held such views. “This is no time for our government to take the initiative in any foreign matters,” he said. “No one can even guess what will happen tomorrow. No one could have the temerity to prophesy what alliance may grow up in the near future. This opinion of mine also applies to trade treaties.”
The United States Navy “is prepared to exercise its vital function of bringing the enemy to our terms as quickly as possible while keeping him at a safe distance from our shores,” Acting Secretary of the Navy Charles Edison assured the President and the American people today in his annual report for the fiscal year 1939. He declared that morale was high, adding that “the education and mental caliber of our enlisted men are superior” and that “the fine quality of the leadership of the officers has been again confirmed by gratifying accomplishments in the naval operations conducted during the year.”
Mr. Edison stressed the importance of a continuing building program from year to year without lapse and this was interpreted as complete naval endorsement of the proposed $1,300,000,000 third expansion bill which Chairman Vinson of the House Committee on Naval Affairs will introduce in the first week of the next session of Congress. “In view of the threatening international situation, it is probable,” Mr. Edison said, “that our present orderly program may have to be accelerated, but under no circumstances should it be retarded. The department makes its yearly request for funds for naval construction based on a continuing program in order to prevent any reduction in the effectiveness of the fleet which would jeopardize national security.”
He urged 100 per cent manning of the ships of the fleet, saying that the only ships now 100 percent manned were the submarines. Battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers and auxiliaries were manned at about 85 percent of their war complement, he reported. “While the 85 per cent allowance is adequate for the peacetime requirements of certain types of combatant ships,” he added, “the total personnel is inadequate in experienced men to provide for mobilization of the fleet.”
As a result of a series of conferences, a group of Republican leaders, including nearly all of the most important in New York State, have decided to put forward District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey for the Republican nomination and will open headquarters for Mr. Dewey in New York with J. Russel Sprague of Nassau County as campaign manager. The headquarters are expected to be opened this week after the close of the trial of Fritz Kuhn, German-American Bund leader, and before Mr. Dewey’s departure for Minneapolis, where he will speak on December 6 under the auspices of the Minnesota Republican State Central Committee. At the same time a majority of the members of the executive committee of the Republican State Committee will join in a resolution pledging support of Mr. Dewey and urging the delegates to the national convention to vote for him for the Presidential nomination.
The threatened strike of 35,000 technicians in the motion picture industry, which would have paralyzed production in the film capital, was averted today when Joseph M. Schenck, representing the producers, informed William Bioff, leader of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and head of a conference of studio unions, that the studios would tentatively meet union demands for a 10 percent increase. The producers agreed to retain the 10 percent wage increase already granted to 12,000 I.A.T.S.E. members and to include an additional 23,000 studio workers, affiliated with the American Federation of Labor in the advance. But the producers stipulated that the increases were to extend only until February 15, when they may be surrendered.
Paul V. McNutt has ordered a survey of the administrative costs and efficiency of the Federal Security Agency with a view to its possible reorganization. The agency has 21,000 employes and an annual budget of about $800,000,000.
The United Automobile Workers of America (C.I.O.) today declared that it was calling a strike immediately at the main Dodge plant of the Chrysler Corporation, one of the eleven plants which the union alleged had “locked out” its workers.
Neutrals expand arms buying in the United States. China becomes a significant purchaser. Neutral nations of Europe and also China were the conspicuous factors in the arms exports industry in October, according to the report of the State Department, which reveals a total of $9,274,478.83 in respect to licenses issued.
U.S. Employment rises in the building trades as September is the sixth month in a row to show such an increase.
New York had the lowest diphtheria death rate of any of the five largest cities in the United States in 1938, it was reported yesterday in the November issue of the Quarterly Bulletin of the city Health Department. Only twenty-six diphtheria deaths occurred here last year.
U.S. Navy destroyer USS Yarnall (DD-143) drifts aground in Lynnhaven Roads (Virginia); refloated that same day, she enters the Norfolk Navy Yard for repairs on 26 November. Yarnall had only been in commission since 4 October 1939.
Bill Monroe made his debut performance on the Grand Ole Opry with a rendition of Muleskinner Blues.
College Football Scores:
Auburn 7, Georgia 0
Boston College 38, Kansas State 7
Brigham Young 7, @ Wyoming 7
California 32, @ Stanford 14
Centenary (LA) 13, Rhodes 7
Citadel 34, @ Erskine 0
(15) Clemson 14, @ Furman 3
Colgate 0, @ Columbia 0
(3) Cornell 26, @ Pennsylvania 0
(8) Duke 28, @ North Carolina State 0
(12) Duquesne 22, Carnegie Mellon 7
George Washington 7, Bucknell 6
(19) Georgia Tech 21, @ Florida 7
Gonzaga 7, @ Portland 0
Hampden-Sydney 12, Randolph-Macon 0
Illinois 46, @ Chicago 0
(9) Iowa 7, @ Northwestern 7
Michigan 21, (6) Ohio State 14
Michigan State 18, Temple 7
Minnesota 23, Wisconsin 6
Mississippi State 18, @ Mississippi 6
(10) Missouri 20, @ Kansas 0
Nebraska 13, (14) Oklahoma 7
New Mexico 7, Arizona 6
Oklahoma State 20, Creighton 9
Oregon State 13, @ (13) UCLA 13
Penn State 10, Pittsburgh 0
(19) Princeton 28, Navy 0
Purdue 7, @ Indiana 6
Saint Louis 6, South Dakota 0
San Diego Marines 18, Arizona State 0
(17) Santa Clara 7, Saint Mary’s (CA) 0
South Carolina 7, Miami (FL) 6
(4) Southern California 20, @ (7) Notre Dame 12
Southern Methodist 21, Baylor 0
Texas Christian 21, Rice 0
Texas Tech 13, Montana 0
Texas-El Paso 34, @ New Mexico State 0
(5) Tulane 52, Sewanee 0
Tulsa 14, Drake 0
Villanova 7, @ Manhattan 0
Washington 20, Oregon 13
Washington (MO) 32, Missouri-Rolla 0
William & Mary 7, @ Richmond 0
Yale 20, @ Harvard 7
In an endeavor to fit the country’s trade to the new conditions created by the European war, the Brazilian Government is instituting a series of measures affecting both domestic and foreign markets.
In the Battle of South Kwangsi, the Chinese forces have taken a beating at Nanning and are retreating northward to Wuming as the Japanese take control of the town. The Japanese now have cut off Chungking, as intended.
The capture of Nanning by the Japanese, which cut the motor highway from French Indo-China to the interior provinces, although a blow to the Chinese cause, does not in itself mean a severe crippling of Chinese imports of war materials, in the opinion of Rey Scott, cameraman and correspondent, who returned last week from that territory.
The Chinese have a good alternate route for their supplies over the French-owned narrow gauge railway from Haiphong to Yunnan and thence by motor roads to the interior, he said yesterday in an interview. He said the Chinese also have the little-molested motor road north from Burma. The danger in the seizure of Nanning is the air threat to the alternate routes, as it puts the Japanese several miles closer to those. Heretofore their attacking planes have operated from an aircraft carrier off the Chinese port of Pakhoi, in the Gulf of Tonkin.
The French-owned railway is in fairly good condition, Mr. Scott said. He said he was told in Haiphong that a motor road parallels the railroad. The Japanese have refrained from bombing the French-owned railroad. Mr. Scott said the French had extraterritorial status in a strip five miles on each side of the line. “So far as I could see, munitions were not being handled over the Haiphong-Nanning-Chungking route,” he said. “Most of the supply trains were carrying in gasoline and lubricating oil and bringing out tung oil, which is exported to the United States.”
The Japanese Army announced today that it would permit 50,000 tons of coal to enter the blockaded British Concession starting Monday. The agreement, resulting from delicate negotiations between British consular and Japanese military officials, came as a northerly gale brought the coldest weather of the year. Shivering residents of the British and French Concessions, who have been besieging coal companies without avail, received the news with relief. Since the Japanese blockade began last June 14 only a minimum of coal for essential public services has been permitted to enter the concessions, even though large quantities were available nearby.
Three battalions, comprising the French garrison in Shanghai, embarked tonight on the first stage of a journey that was expected to lead eventually to the Western Front in France. The troops, who came to Shanghai from French Indo-China during the Chinese-Japanese hostilities in 1937, were augmented by French civilians residing here and conscripted for war service. French troops from North China were expected to replace the departing forces.
Counter-measures by Japan are threatened if imports of important supplies from Germany are interrupted by Britain’s proposed export blockade of Germany. The sinking of the Japanese liner Terukuni Maru is overshadowed by the proposed interference with German exports. The Foreign Office charged tonight the British Government had violated promises made to the Japanese Government to respect German trade. The statement reads: “Even if the sinking of neutral vessels in British waters were due to German action, the British Government’s proposed measure not only exceeds the limits of reprisal recognized under international law, but also violates the undertakings the British Government made to the Japanese Government not to interfere in any way with the export of German goods. The British measure really inflicts greater losses on neutral powers than on Germany.”
The statement observes that the extent to which the British Government intends to prevent exports of German products is not yet clear and continues: “It is possible the British Government may cut off imports by Japan of important articles from Germany in which the Japanese Government can never acquiesce.” Mamoru Shigemitsu, the Ambassador to Britain, has been instructed to file a vigorous protest. If it is disregarded, the statement warns Britain, “in case vital interests of Japan should be affected by the proposed British measure, Japan would be compelled to take appropriate counter-measures.”
News reports of German origin indicate a league of neutrals is being formed to take action against British control of the export trade. from Germany. The recent losses through new developments in mine warfare are ignored by those messages which represent that all neutrals are indignant against Britain. They inform Japanese readers that the attitude of Sweden, the Netherlands and the United States is “first to outline a new bloc of neutral States whose influence might become effective if they could be induced to define their common standpoint in a joint declaration.” Sweden is reported to have taken the Initiative in proposing the defensive bloc.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 148.64 (+0.17).
Born:
Martin Feldstein, American economist (1977 John Bates Clark Medal), chief economic adviser to President Reagan, in The Bronx, New York, New York (d. 2019).
Rosanna Schiaffino, Italian actress (“Minotaur”, “Mazzabubu”), in Genoa, Italy.
Shelagh Delaney, dramatist and screenwriter, in Broughton, Salford, England, United Kingdom (d. 2011).
Died:
Wilfred Trotter, 67, English surgeon who was a pioneer in neurosurgery, popularized the concept of herd instinct, and was an authority in cancers of the head and neck.
Naval Construction:
The Royal Navy Flower-class corvette HMS Auricula (K 12) is laid down by George Brown & Co. (Greenock, Scotland); completed by Kincaid.
The Royal Navy Bar-class boom defense vessel HMS Barnstone (Z 37) is launched by the Blyth Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. Ltd. (Blyth, U.K.).
The Royal Navy armed merchant cruiser HMS Corfu (F 86) is commissioned. Her first commanding officer is Captain Sir William Gladstone Agnew, RN.
History Diaries 