February 29th, 1940 (THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Minesweepers HMS Bridlington and Bridport launched.
FRANCE:
Faced with a serious drop in industrial production, continual class conflict and war apathy, Paul Reynaud, the finance minister, has ordered a price freeze and petrol and food rationing. The aim is to create some sort of national unity and to win the support of the working class for the war by halting inflation and ensuring fair shares for all. But the Communists remain anti-war and the non-Communist Left remains unenthusiastic - almost as unenthusiastic as the Right, which fears the Left more than Hitler.
GERMANY:
From the edict of the SS-Reichsfuhrer and Chief of the German Police [Heinrich Himmler] in
the Reich Ministry of the Interior.
Re:- Discovered enemy air leaflets and spreading devices.
Various confusions that have arisen in the treatment of discovered enemy air leaflets,
balloons and other spreading and drop devices, have caused me to decree the following: The
local police authority is to govern the search action. They are to approach the
appropriate local [National Socialist] Party authorities for assistance in collecting
leaflets. The police authority is to take the collected leaflets into custody and to
notify the state police immediately. The latter will have the final disposition of the
material brought into safekeeping, in this manner: For archival purposes, 30 copies of
each leaflet will be sent here to Office IV (II A 1) - in a single batch. Once
high-ranking Party departments, and other authorities who cite a well-founded and
justifiable interest in the material, have received their desired number if copies, the
rest are to be reliably disposed of by an appropriate method. The purpose of the search
action is the seizure of all the disseminated leaflets, leaving if possible none is
circulation.
Good housekeeping with what is available is the message from the Reich ministry of food
and agriculture to the German consumer. The Nazis are keen to avoid the food shortages of
the last war; since the introduction of rationing in August 1939 propaganda has focused on
self-sufficiency, with farmers told to make the best use of land and livestock, and
householders urged to plant vegetables rather than flowers. Rations (about 16 ounces of
meat and ten ounces of fat a week per person) have led to black marketeering, for which
stiff penalties were introduced last September.
FINLAND: The Finnish Government delays sending a note to the Soviets because of the reaction by the British and especially the French governments to their decision to accept the Soviet demands.
The French push the British to offer promises of aid that they can't possibly keep.
Red Army reaches the third and last Finnish line of defence in Karelian Isthmus at Äyräpää. In northern Karelia Finnish troops finally destroy the so-called 'General-motti', so named because it's rumoured that a general or two was among the Red Army troops encircled (there were, but they were rescued by plane shortly before the motti was destroyed). A large amount of equipment is captured.
Soviet parachutists make landings in small groups near Petsamo to cut lines of communications. (Gordon Rottmann)
JAPAN: Britain hands back to Japan nine of the 21 Germans taken off the 'Asama Maru' on 21 January after the Japanese government agrees not to transport German military reservists attempting to return home.
U.S.A.: The 1939 Academy Awards are presented at the Cocoanut Grove in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California. The host is Bob Hope. "Gone With The Wind" is awarded seven Oscars including Best Picture, Best Actress (Vivien Leigh), Best Supporting Actress (Hattie McDaniel) and Best Director (Victor Fleming). The Best Actor award goes to Robert Donat for "Goodbye Mr. Chips" and the Best Supporting Actor award goes to Thomas Mitchell for "Stagecoach."
The motion picture "The House of the Seven Gables" is released in the U.S. Directed by Joe May and starring George Sanders, Margaret Lindsay and Vincent Price, this adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's murder novel set in 19th-century New England is nominated for one Academy Award.
The First National Bank of Chicago tries to force a sale of
the Chicago White Sox baseball team by the heirs of the late Louis Comiskey. A
local judge denies the effort of the club's principal lender, saying that Mrs.
Grace Comiskey can keep the club for their 14-year-old son, Charles II, until he
is 35.
CARIBBEAN SEA: The light cruiser HMS Despatch intercepts the German merchant ship 'Troja' off Aruba; she is
scuttled by her German crew.
URUGUAY:
The wreck of the Admiral Graf Spee is sold to a local company for scrap.
Brooks Rowlett adds: What only becomes known later is that the local company is
a front for the British Embassy, which uses these rights to get personnel aboard the wreck for intelligence
purposes, especially an evaluation of the German radar. An expert was later flown
in from Britain specifically to examine the radar.
BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC:
Losses. 17 ships of 75,000 tons.
2 U-boats.
MERCHANT SHIPPING WAR:
Losses. 46 ships of 152,000 tons.
At 2232, SS Maria Rosa was hit by one torpedo from
U-20 and sank by the bow.