Rescue from the Altmark
week from February 12 - 18, 1940

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1940

Sea War Atlantic: U-33 sunk in the Clyde by minesweeper HMS Gleaner; naval Enigma cipher machine rotors recovered.

Picture: a minesweeper is firing waterbombs against a U-Boat.

Winter War, Finland: Finnish Cabinet decides, in principle, to make peace.

North Africa: Australian Imperial Force and detachment of NZ troops arrive at Suez.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1940

Sea War Atlantic: British cruiser HMS Dorsetshire intercepts German blockade-runner Wakama (scuttled) near Rio de Janeiro. Brazil makes vigorous protest.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1940

Diplomacy: Finnish Note (circularized to many foreign governments) accuses USSR of adopting 'illegal' methods of warfare, inc. indiscriminate bombing of unprotected towns, hospitals and railway trains and abuse of the white flag (some Russian soldiers having feigned surrender before attacking).

Home Front Britain: IRA plants five bombs in Birmingham. Two shops were damaged.
Government gives formal permission for British volunteers to serve in Finnish armed forces.
Harry Tate, music-hall comedian, dies (aged 67).

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1940

Winter War, Finland: Finnish forces withdraw to second line of defences in Mannerheim Line (operation completed February 17).

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1940

Sea War Atlantic: (MAIN EVENT) RESCUE FROM THE ALTMARK. Boarding party from destroyer HMS Cossack rescue 299 British merchant navy personnel from German supply ship Altmark (formerly attached to Admiral Graf Spee) in Joessing Fjord, Southwest Norway; seven German sailors killed. Norway protests British violation of her neutrality, on February 17, and proposes international arbitration, February 25).

Picture: the supply ship Altmark, with 303 prisoners on board which which came from the sunken ships of the Admiral Graf Spee,, was on her way back to Germany. In Joessing Fjord, the British destroyer Cossack entered the neutral Norwegian territorial waters. The British boarded the ship, rescued almost all the prisoners and killed a number of German sailors.

Diplomacy: Sweden refuses Finnish appeal for right of passage of foreign troops and direct military assistance.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1940

Diplomacy: President Roosevelt sends Sumner Welles, Under-Secretary of State, on 'fact-finding' tour of Europe and appoints Myron C. Taylor as his 'personnal representative' to the Vatican.

Neutrals, USA: United States Lines sells liner President Harding and seven cargo ships to a Belgian concern in attempt to circumvent ban on US seaborne trade with Europe imposed by Neutrality Act.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1940

Sea War Atlantic: Operation Nordmark. Battlecruisers Gneisenau and Scharnhorst and cruiser Admiral Hipper make unsuccessful sortie against 'HN' convoy route (Britain-Scandinavia); but escorting U-boats sink 12 merchant ships and destroyer HMS Daring.

Western Front: German infantry detachment, with heavy mortar support, make unsuccessful raid on French outpost near river Moselle.

Sino-Japanese war, China: Battle of Nanning. Japanese forced to withdraw from city after heavy fighting.

Picture: a column of Chinese soldiers singing patriotic songs march along a dirt road during the winter fighting. They wear winter-weight ski-types caps with the ear flaps tied on top. Most of the men are armed with the Hanyang 88 rifle but two men in front have later Mauser models .