Tiago Osório WWII

WORLD WAR II
EVENTS
BY TIAGO OSÓRIO
INDEX
 OPERATION FELIX
 OPERATION PLANNING AND BRITISH COUNTERMEASURES
 PROPOSED GERMAN ORDER OF BATTLE
 BRITISH COUNTERMEASURES
 BLUE DIVISION
 THE START
 21 MAJOR BATTLES
 JAPANESE OCCUPATION DURING WORLD WAR II
 EXPLORATION OF THE WOLFRAM MINES

 WOLFRAM IN PORTUGAL
 PORTUGUESE MINES
 THE LAJES FIELD
 LAJES AIR BASE
 THE COVETED AZORES GAP
OPERATIO
N FELIX
OPERATION FELIX
 Operation Felix was the codename for a

proposed German seizure
of Gibraltar during World War II, subject
to the co-operation of
Spanish caudillo Francisco Franco. It did
not happen, chiefly because of Franco's
reluctance to enter the war. Hitler was
unaware that his own envoy,
Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of
the Abwehr (intelligence service), was
running a secret resistance movement and
liaising closely with Franco by specifying
particular terms that Hitler was certain to
refuse. This ensured that the negotiations
would fail
OPERATION BRITISH COUN
PLANNING TERMEASURES
 German military leaders proceeded to prepare  The British were well aware of Gibraltar's strate
for a large-scale operation against Gibraltar. gic value and its vulnerability to attack from the
Codenamed Operation Felix, the plan called for Spanish mainland. On the outbreaks of war wit
two German army corps to enter Spain across h Italy, most of the civilian population were eva
the Pyrenees. One corps, under cuated to the United Kingdom and other parts of
General Ludwig Kübler, was to cross Spain the Empire, except for those in vital
and assault Gibraltar, while the other, jobs in the dockyard, or who were members of t
commanded by General Rudolf Schmidt, was he Gibraltar Defence Force. The garrison was m
to secure its flanks. Air support would need one ore than doubled and the anti-
fighter and two dive-bomber wings aircraft defences were greatly improved.
PROPOSED GERMAN
ORDER OF BATTLE
Expeditionary Corps (forming the 16th Motorized Infantry

covering force); General Rudolf Division (to concentrate 16th Panzer Division (Cáceres)
Schmidt at Valladolid)
49 Gebirgsarmeekorps or Army
Mountain Corps (forming the Grossdeutschland Infantry
SS Division Totenkopf (Seville)
assault force); General Ludwig Regiment
Kübler
98th Regiment of the 1st 26 medium and heavy artillery

3 observation battalions
Mountain Division battalions
3 engineer battalions, which

would use up to 150 "Goliath" Regiment
2 Nebelwerfer battalions
remotely controlled mine clearing Brandenburg (detachment of 150)
vehicles
BRITISH COUNTERMEASURES
The British garrison: 2nd Battalion, The King's 2nd Battalion, Somerset 4th Battalion, The Black
Spring 1941 Regiment Light Infantry Watch
4th Battalion, Devonshire 3rd Heavy 10th Anti Aircraft 82nd Heavy AA

Regiment Regiment, Royal Artillery Regiment, Royal Artillery Regiment, Royal Artillery,
"Special Detachment" of
No. 2 Tunnelling Royal Engineers, Royal
3rd Searchlight Battery, No. 1 Tunnelling
Company, Royal Signals and supporting
Royal Artillery. Company, Royal
Canadian Engineers arms.
Canadian Engineers
BLUE
DIVISION
The Blue Division , officially designated as División
Española de Voluntarios by the Spanish Army and as 250.
Infanterie-Division in the German Army, was a unit
of Spanish volunteers and conscripts who served (1941-1944)
in the German Army on the Eastern Front during the Second
World War.
BLUE The Blue Division was the only component of the German
Army to be awarded a medal of their own, commissioned by
DIVISION Hitler in January 1944 after the Division had demonstrated its
effectiveness in impeding the advance of the Red Army.
Blue Division casualties throughout the Soviet-German

conflict totaled 22,700 (3,934 battle deaths, 570 disease
deaths, 326 missing or captured, 8,466 wounded, 7,800 sick,
and 1,600 frostbitten). In action against the Blue Division,
the Red Army suffered 49,300 casualties.
THE START
The announcement on June 28, 1941, by the regime of Caudillo
Francisco Franco that a division of volunteers would be
recruited to join Hitler’s six-day-old invasion of Russia set off a
wave of virtual hysteria across Spain. While some mobs stoned
the British embassy, others stampeded recruiting offices in such
numbers that many met their quota in a day and within in the
week they had signed up enough to form several divisions.
The entire cadet corps of Spain’s equivalent of West Point

volunteered, as did 3,000 students from the University of
Madrid. While the senior command was unenthusiastic, many
officers offered to be demoted or even enlist as privates. Of the
first 18,694 who entrained for Germany on July 17, 1941, 70
percent, including every officer from captain on up, were from
the regular army, and most of the rest were Spanish Civil War
veterans.
21 MAJOR
BATTLES
 The Spaniards were shocked by the horrors of war in the
East. One soldier of the Blue Division saw a comrade
impaled to the ground by an incoming Russian shell.
Spaniards who retook positions previously abandoned to the
Germans found wounded they had left behind with their
chests torn open with picks. In turn, volunteers from Spain’s
vicious version of the French Foreign Legion sliced off the
ears, noses and fingers of Russian prisoners, then sent them
stumbling back to their lines.
 Of its 21 major battles and hundreds of smaller
engagements, three actions of the Spanish Blue Division
would epitomize the savagery of the Russian Front in World
War II and become legendary. These include the endurance
trek of its ski company from January 10-21, 1942, the stand
of the El Segunda Battalion at Poselok, January 22-28,
1943, and the desperate battle at Krasny Bor on February
10, 1943.
JAPANESE OCCUPATION DURING
WORLD WAR II
JAPANESE
OCCUPATION DURING
WORLD WAR II
 During the Second World War, Portugal declared a policy of
neutrality. Dutch and Australian troops nonetheless disembarked
at East Timor in disrespect of Portuguese sovereignty. But the real
menace came with the Japanese invasion, three months later, in
February of 1942. The island became a stage of war between
Japanese and the allieds.
 In spite of Portugal's policy of neutrality, the Australian and
Dutch troops entered in Timor. It was the first of two foreigner
military invasions. In Lisbon, Oliveira de Salazar denounced the
allied disembark as an invasion of a neutral territory. Shortly after
arrived the Japanese. When the allied forces arrived at Díli in
December the 17th of 1941, he says that governor Ferreira de
Carvalho, without means to retaliate by arms ordered the national
flag to be hoisted in all public partitions and buildings of the
colony.
 What happened instead was the Japanese invasion of Díli, in
February of 1942. During January they had managed to occupy
Malaysia , the Philippines , Borneo and the Celebes, Birmania,
New Guinea and the Salmon islands. Following general L. M.
Chassin, cited by Carvalho, In the middle of February they
invaded Sumatra occupying Palembang, soon after Singapore
is attacked and many Englishmen are made prisoners. Java was
surrounded and on the 20th, Bali and Timor were taken. After a
weak resistance , the Dutch troops abandoned by the Javanese
soldiers -- which were in majority , escaped to the interior
leaving behind armament. Díli was then violently sacked by
the Japanese, who found the city almost uninhabited .
EXPLORATIO
N OF THE
WOLFRAM
MINES
WOLFRAM IN
PORTUGAL
In Portugal, on the 40s, Arouca was used for wolfram extraction. This
ore was used tto make army blindage and ammunition in the World
War II. The wolfram trade was a delicate issue. Following the invasion
of the Soviet Union, Germany became dependent on Portugal and
Spain for its wolfram supplies. To maintain its neutrality, Portugal set
up a strict export quota system in1942.
But in January 1944, the Allies began to pressure Salazar to embargo

all wolfram sales to Germany. Portugal resisted, defending its right as a
neutral to sell to anyone and fearing that any reduction in its exports
would prompt Germany to attack Portuguese shipping.
PORTUGUESE
MINES
Aroucas was the only place where english and
german people worked together peacefully.
The germans explored wolfram in Rio de Frades;
the english did the same in Regoufe. Separated by
5km, the mines were simbolic, not by its greatnesss
of their explorations but because for five years
straight the workers could manage to work in peace.
At that time, wolfram was very expensive and
sometimes it could reach a thousand escudos
per kilo, what, in that time was a fortune.
THE
LAJES
FIELD
LAJES AIR BASE
During World War II, the

The military activities in the
designation of the airfield was Lajes Field was one of the two
Azores grew in 1942, as the
changed to Air Base No.4 and stopover and refueling bases
Gladiators began to be used
the Portuguese government for the first transatlantic
to support allied convoys, in
expanded the runway, sending crossing of non-rigid airships
reconnaissance missions and
troops and equipment to in 1944.
on meteorological flights.
Terceira.
THE COVETED
AZORES GAP
Both the Axis and the Allies wanted to get to Azores first, and each had
their own ideas on how to do it. Operation Alacrity was Churchill’s;
Roosevelt had Task Force Gray and Operation Lifebelt, and Operation
Felix/Projekt Amerika was Hitler’s.
Each side probably knew of the other’s plans, and each had the same goal
in mind: to occupy the strategically located Azores archipelago by fair
means or foul, by diplomacy, intimidation, or outright armed invasion.
Controlling the islands with their strategic position in the middle of the
Atlantic Ocean meant for the Allies protecting the important convoy routes
of the central Atlantic.
WEBGRAPHY
 https://www.wikipedia.org/
 https://ensina.rtp.pt/artigo/a-invasao-japonesa-de-timor/
END

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WORLD WAR II

 JAPANESE OCCUPATION DURING WORLD WAR II

 EXPLORATION OF THE WOLFRAM MINES

 Operation Felix was the codename for a

Expeditionary Corps (forming the 16th Motorized Infantry

98th Regiment of the 1st 26 medium and heavy artillery

3 engineer battalions, which

4th Battalion, Devonshire 3rd Heavy 10th Anti Aircraft 82nd Heavy AA

Blue Division casualties throughout the Soviet-German

The entire cadet corps of Spain’s equivalent of West Point

But in January 1944, the Allies began to pressure Salazar to embargo

During World War II, the

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