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Now that Capt Harlock's brilliant Civil War thread has come to an end, is there any enthusiasm for a day by day on another topic?

I would be happy to do such for the naval war 1939-45 if there is interest?

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Now that Capt Harlock's brilliant Civil War thread has come to an end, is there any enthusiasm for a day by day on another topic?

I would be happy to do such for the naval war 1939-45 if there is interest?

You would certainly have my interest.

Best wishes,
Steve

ORIGINAL: shunwick

You would certainly have my interest.

+1

Yes!

Go for it![:)]

+1

+1

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Now that Capt Harlock's brilliant Civil War thread has come to an end, is there any enthusiasm for a day by day on another topic?

I would be happy to do such for the naval war 1939-45 if there is interest?

Do it. Do it. Do it.

Only if it has picture of Mr Wilkes at the pet shop with Rachel Pilsem.
Then warspite1 would be my friend.

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Now that Capt Harlock's brilliant Civil War thread has come to an end, is there any enthusiasm for a day by day on another topic?

I would be happy to do such for the naval war 1939-45 if there is interest?

I would be a eager follower. [:)]

Would it be a '76 years since' kind of thread?

Yep +1 here also.
Looking forward to it.

Sounds nice.

I appreciated Harlock's all-business approach to his journal. May I request you keep this in the same vein?

Over here business, and over there pleasure, so to speak.

Thanks for your consideration.

Nate

Since the first shots of WWII were a naval bombardment, it certainly has promise. Would you be covering both Atlantic and Pacific?

1st - 3rd September 1939 (Poland and the Baltic)

The Polish Navy 1st September 1939

The Polish nation that emerged from the Versailles treaty after World War I had to efectively build its navy from scratch. The Polish navy that found itself at war with Germany in September 1939 was smaller than had been envisioned in the 1920's, reflecting the economic reality that Poland - like all nations - was faced with during the inter-war years.

The main naval base was located at Gydnia, north of Danzig.

DD - Destroyer
SS - Submarine

4 x DD (Wicher, Burza, Grom, Blyskawica)
5 x SS (Rys, Wilk, Zbik, Orzel, Sep)
1 x Minelayer (Gryf)
6 x Minesweepers (Czajka, Jaskolka, Mewa, Rybitwa, Czapla, Zuraw)
2 x Gunboats (General Haller, Komandant Pilsudski)

There was also a small river flotilla.


1st September 1939

The conflict that was to become World War II began with the German invasion of Poland in the early hours of 1st September.

Only a few days prior to the attack, the British and Polish had agreed a plan – Operation Peking - that would see three of Poland’s four destroyers sail for the United Kingdom to serve alongside the Royal Navy. It was realised that these ships would be unlikely to survive any German attack for very long – either falling victim to the much larger Kriegsmarine or the Luftwaffe. All three chosen destroyers (Burza, Grom and Blyskawica) safely made the journey through the Baltic – indeed German sailors aboard the light cruiser force sent to intercept them had the ships in their sights at one point but had to frustratingly watch them sail into the distance as the war had not then begun. Many Polish merchant vessels made it to the United Kingdom too. In addition, two of the five Polish submarines – Wilk and Orzel – also made it to there eventually, the latter via brief internment - and escape - from Estonia.

The Kriegsmarine can claim to have fired the first shots of the war when, at around 0400hrs the old pre-dreadnought battleship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire on the Polish garrison at Westerplatte, near Danzig. She had sailed into Danzig a few days earlier under the cover of a ceremonial visit, but then slipped her moorings to begin the bombardment as a prelude to the invasion proper at 04:45hrs. The pre-WWI vintage battleship would remain on bombardment duty for much of the Polish Campaign, until the Polish resistance in the corridor was finally put to an end.

To defend against the attack the Polish Navy, commanded by Rear-Admiral Josef Unrug, could call upon the destroyer Wicher, the minelayer Gryf and a handful of smaller craft in addition to the five submarines. These vessels were ordered to sea as part of a minelaying operation to protect the coastline from possible German landings.

Luftwaffe aircraft cause serious damage to much of the Polish flotilla on that first day; Gryf returned to Hel where she was sunk in shallow water and used as an artillery battery.

2nd September 1939

The submarine Wilk was damaged in a depth charge attack by German minesweepers but she laid her mines as per the plan and safely arrived in the UK on the 20th September. As mentioned above, she would be joined by Orzel, but the remaining three Polish boats – Sep, Zbik and Rys - sailed for Sweden and were interned for the rest of the war.

3rd September 1939

The first signs of problems to come… The U-14 attacks the Polish submarine Zbik in the Baltic. The Germans believed the enemy boat sunk – but instead the magnetic pistol failed to work. This failure would prove a major problem for Admiral Donitz and his U-boat fleet in the months and years to come.

Two German destroyers – Lebrecht Maass and Wolfgang Zenker – were ordered to the Hel Peninsula to attack the Wicher and the Gryf which were sheltering under the protection of the Polish shore batteries there. The four ships traded blows and the Lebrecht Maass was damaged. Both Germans ships withdrew and it was left to the Luftwaffe to finish off the Polish ships later that day.

Well done, W1!

I'm an avid follower from here on.

Thanks,
Nate

ORIGINAL: Capt. Harlock

Since the first shots of WWII were a naval bombardment, it certainly has promise. Would you be covering both Atlantic and Pacific?

warspite1

That is the plan yes [:)]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

1st - 3rd September 1939 (Poland and the Baltic)

1st September 1939

The conflict that was to become World War II began with the German invasion of Poland in the early hours of 1st September.

Only a few days prior to the attack, the British and Polish had agreed a plan – Operation Peking - that would see three of Poland’s four destroyers sail for the United Kingdom to serve alongside the Royal Navy. It was realised that these ships would be unlikely to survive any German attack for very long – either falling victim to the much larger Kriegsmarine or the Luftwaffe. All three chosen destroyers (Burza, Grom and Blyskawica) safely made the journey through the Baltic – indeed German sailors aboard the light cruiser force sent to intercept them had the ships in their sights at one point but had to frustratingly watch them sail into the distance as the war had not then begun. Many Polish merchant vessels made it to the United Kingdom too. In addition, two of the five Polish submarines – Wilk and Orzel – also made it to there eventually, the latter via brief internment - and escape - from Estonia.

The Kriegsmarine can claim to have fired the first shots of the war when, at around 0400hrs the old pre-dreadnought battleship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire on the Polish garrison at Westerplatte, near Danzig. She had sailed into Danzig a few days earlier under the cover of a ceremonial visit, but then slipped her moorings to begin the bombardment as a prelude to the invasion proper at 04:45hrs. The pre-WWI vintage battleship would remain on bombardment duty for much of the Polish Campaign, until the Polish resistance in the corridor was finally put to an end.


The Schleswig-Holstein bombards the defenders of the Westerplatte on the opening day of the war.



To defend against the attack the Polish Navy, commanded by Rear-Admiral Josef Unrug, could call upon the destroyer Wicher, the minelayer Gryf and a handful of smaller craft in addition to the five submarines. These vessels were ordered to sea as part of a minelaying operation to protect the coastline from possible German landings.

Luftwaffe aircraft cause serious damage to much of the Polish flotilla on that first day; Gryf returned to Hel where she was sunk in shallow water and used as an artillery battery.

2nd September 1939

The submarine Wilk was damaged in a depth charge attack by German minesweepers but she laid her mines as per the plan and safely arrived in the UK on the 20th September. As mentioned above, she would be joined by Orzel, but the remaining three Polish boats – Sep, Zbik and Rys - sailed for Sweden and were interned for the rest of the war.

3rd September 1939

The first signs of problems to come… The U-14 attacks the Polish submarine Zbik in the Baltic. The Germans believed the enemy boat sunk – but instead the magnetic pistol failed to work. This failure would prove a major problem for Admiral Donitz and his U-boat fleet in the months and years to come.

Two German destroyers – Lebrecht Maass and Wolfgang Zenker – were ordered to the Hel Peninsula to attack the Wicher and the Gryf which were sheltering under the protection of the Polish shore batteries there. The four ships traded blows and the Lebrecht Maass was damaged. Both Germans ships withdrew and it was left to the Luftwaffe to finish off the Polish ships later that day.


The modern destroyer Grom successfully reached the UK with two other destroyers as part of Operation Peking.



The Wicher was chosen to stay and fight. She didn't last long......

Great start.

3rd September 1939 (North Atlantic – the U-boat war)

With their ultimatum ordering Hitler to withdraw from Poland ignored, the British and French Empires declared war on Germany on the 3rd September. The Dominions of the Commonwealth agreed to stand shoulder to shoulder with the mother country.

The war in the west very quickly turned into a “Phoney War” but that was not the case for the navy men – the merchant marine included. For these men the war was all too real from day one and would remain so for the next six years…..

The main threat to the United Kingdom at this time came from the German U-boat fleet. The British had paid insufficient attention to submarine warfare during the inter-war years, they had put too much faith in ASDIC for detecting enemy U-boats, not to mention they had hoped to get the submarine banned! Furthermore money was scarce and what was available was spent trying to update World War I vintage vessels….

Fortunately for the British, the Germans started the war with only 57 submarines and of these, only 27 were of the ocean-going type – and 7 of these were experimental Type 1’s or Type VII or IX that were not combat ready. Because of the time taken to get to and from patrol lines, it meant that the number of U-boats that could patrol the Atlantic at any one time were very few.

The U-boat war against the merchant marine started with Prize Regulations in place. These rules complicated life for the submariner in that merchant ships could not be sunk without warning (subject to some exceptions e.g. troopships or vessels in convoy) which increased considerably the dangers to the submarine of being found on the surface. To add to Donitz’s woes, Hitler, in a bid to not alienate France, ordered that initially no attacks were allowed against French merchant ships. But, on this first day of hostilities between Germany and the Western Allies, the situation was about to get even more complicated.

If Hitler wanted to avoid antagonising the French, he was desperate to avoid unpleasantness with the US – memories of the Lusitania and the possibility of the Americans coming in against Germany were at the forefront of Hitler’s thinking. But in the early evening of the 3rd September, one of Donitz’s U-boat commanders, Fritz-Julius Lemp, in U-30 made a major blunder.

The SS Athenia was a 13,500 GRT liner that plied her trade between the UK and Canada for the Donaldson Atlantic Line. On the 1st September she had sailed from Glasgow, Scotland bound for Montreal, Canada carrying just over 1,100 passengers and 315 crew. More than 300 passengers were US citizens, 500 were Jewish refugees, and the remainder were Canadian or British.

Two days later Athenia was 200 miles northwest of Ireland when her silhouette appeared in Lemp’s periscope. Lemp tracked Athenia for some three hours and then, believing her to be an armed merchant cruiser or troopship, fired a couple of torpedoes at the unsuspecting vessel. Athenia sank – mercifully slowly – but 117 people died, of which 28 were American.

The SS Athenia sinking. She took 14 hours to sink



Fritz-Julius Lemp



The sinking could have been a major problem for the Germans. Hitler decided that Lemp had made an understandable mistake but ordered that the log book of U-30 be altered. The Germans attempted to pin the blame on the British and simply denied any U-boat was in the vicinity. But the sinking meant a further restriction was imposed on Donitz and his men. From now on no passenger ship – even if in convoy – could be sunk.

Lemp was a lucky man and was not court-martialled for his action. He was to cause further problems for Donitz later in the war……

3rd September 1939 (North Atlantic)

The first of many German blockade runners to be captured was the 2,372 GRT Hannah Boge. She was stopped 350 miles south of Iceland and taken as a prize by the destroyer HMS Somali. She was later re-named Crown Arun and put into service by the British. She was to be sunk just over a year later by the U-boat ace Otto Kretschmer in U-99.

Hunter and the hunted - Hannah Boge (top) and the Tribal-class destroyer HMS Somali (Bottom)