740.0011 European War 1939/2755: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 10—7:19 a.m.]
601. I managed to get a telephone connection with Ambassador Cudahy in Brussels at 8:45 this morning. He said that without presenting any note, without giving any warning, a large fleet of German bombers bombed Brussels at 5:15 this morning. One of the bombs had dropped 300 feet from the American Embassy which is in the residential quarter of the city. Ambassador Cudahy said that he had called on the Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs at 6 o’clock this morning. The Minister had told him that Belgium had received no ultimatum of any kind from Germany and no warning whatsoever that an attack was to be made by Germany.
The German Ambassador in Brussels had not yet called on the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Ambassador Cudahy said that he had been talking with Luxemburg at 2 o’clock this morning and had been informed that the Germans had fired across the Luxemburg frontier and that the Luxemburg Government expected a German invasion at any minute. His telephone connection had been cut off and he had been unable to reestablish communications with Luxemburg.
The Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs had informed him that the Germans had invaded the Netherlands without warning at 4 o’clock this morning.
He has been informed, although not officially, that heavy fighting was in progress on the Meuse and the Canal Albert.
I promised to call Ambassador Cudahy again at 11 o’clock this morning. He asked me to telephone the foregoing immediately to the White House.