Wednesday, June 11, 1941. The RAF at night, Hess' outside interests?, the US and Portugal

The RAF bombed the Ruhr and Rhineland in a nighttime raid. They would do so for the following nineteen nights in a row.

The RAF had determined as early as 1940 that daylight raids were too costly to be undertaken, something the Germans had also concluded during the Battle of Britain.  It would not be until the American entry of the war that any major belligerent would reengage in daylight strategic bombing over Europe.

The first RAF raid had been a reprisal for a German raid on an urban target which the Luftwaffe actually hit by accident at night, a frequent problem in night bombing.  What it rapidly demonstrated, however, is that pre war RAF planning, which was similar to that of the United States Army Air Corps, had resulted in a fleet of heavy strategic bombers, something the Germans lacked. The Luftwaffe, having more limited resources, had developed all tactical aircraft for the most part which were largely unsuitable for industrial and strategic targets.

On the same day the German Government arrested Christian Scientists, astrologists, fortune tellers and faith healers due to their ostensible influence on Rudolph Hess.

Today in World War II History—June 11, 1941

None of which I was aware of but for the entry linked in above.

Hess was an oddball, to be sure, but did all these varied groups really have an influence on him?  I have no idea. And what on earth would Christian Scientists have to do with some of these categories?

The United States sent a diplomatic note to Portugal that if the Azores or Cape Verde Islands, both Portuguese territories, were threated by a "belligerent" power, the US would reserve the right to occupy them first.  What the US really meant is that if the Germans went to occupy them that the US would strike first and occupy them instead.

Portugal held a very peculiar status in the war at this time.  It's status would actually change late war, but it would still remain odd.  The country was governed by the Salazar dictatorship, an arch conservative non democratic government that was nearly personal to Salazar himself, but it had no sympathy with Germany and it feared Francoist Spain.  Early in the war it reaffirmed an alliance it held with the United Kingdom publicly, which it had held since Napoleonic times, but noted that as the British had not invoked the treaty, it had no obligation to do anything.  The British moreover wisely abstained from invoking it as it could not realistically defend Portugal and having done so would have merely invited a German, or perhaps Spanish, invasion.  The country greatly feared that Germany would unilaterally act to take the Azores or the Canary Islands as it was.

During the war the country became a legendary port of passage out of Nazi occupied Europe and a central location for intelligence operations of both sides.

Portugal is really notable in the war for its nearly complete lack of sympathy for the other authoritarian European regimes.  Portugal had contributed a division strength number of volunteers to the nationalist during the Spanish Civil War, but only about 150 Portuguese citizens volunteered for German service, serving in the Spanish Blue Division during the war.