Coldest winter since 1894
week from January 22 - 28, 1940

Coldest winter since 1894 (on January 28) was the main event of the week !

MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 1940

Winter War, Finland: Finnish authorities announce formation of a Foreign Legion, inc. British volunteers.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 23, 1940

Home Front Britain: Large number of road accidents in the 'black-out' necessitates reduction in speed limit from 30 to 20 mph.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 1940

Winter War, Finland: Fierce fighting northeast of Lake Ladoga. Finns repel all attacks.

Picture: This Finnish sniper in the Karelian forest wears a snow-camouflage suit and is armed with a rifle with telescopic sights. Snow suits such as the one shown here were merely a thin cloth smock with hood and loose over-trousers worn on top of normal winter clothing.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 1940

Occupied Poland: 'Goring-Frank Circular': all material resources and manpower to be ruthlessly exploited for the immediate benefit of the Reich (copies of this top secret document quickly obtained by Polish government in Paris and widely publicized) .

FRIDAY, JANUARY 26, 1940

Home Front France: Paul Ferdonnet, the 'Radio Traitor' - notorious for his pro-Nazi broadcasts in French language from Stuttgart - is tried in absentia by a military tribunal (sentenced to death March 7, 1940).

Diplomacy: US-Japanese Treaty of Navigation and Commerce lapses. USA having refused to negotiate in protest against Japanese aggression in China.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 27, 1940

Home Front Britain: Churchill (uneasy at slow increase in war production) speaks at Free Trade Hall, Manchester: 'each to our station. . . there is not a week, nor a day, nor an hour to be lost !'
Speech broadcast to the Dominions and USA.

Home Front South Africa: General Hertzog's peace resolution in Parliament defeated by 81 votes to 59.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 28, 1940

Home Front Britain: Director of Censorship permits newspapers belatedly to reveal details of Britain's (MAIN EVENT) coldest winter since 1894: River Thames and Southampton Docks frozen; 18°C (33°F) of frost at Buxton (Derbys.).

Picture: this photography from the grandfather of the author of this website shows two German soldiers in the deep snow in a forest at the Western Front in this coldest winter since 1894.