military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) (12/27/89)
From: military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) Thursday, 28 December, 1939 The Soviet High Command orders plans laid for a coordinated assault on the Mannerheim line. General Gregory M. Stern has reportedly been placed in charge of the Leningrad Military District and, therefore, the war. Soviet troops in Suomussalmi attempt to break out to the north, but most are killed in the attempt. Finns begin mopping up the area, and further invest the 44th mechanized division 5 miles to the east. The battleship HMS Barham is torpedoed by the U-30 off the Clyde estuary. Meat rationing begins in Britain. In northwest China, the Japanese air force stages repeated bombing raids on Lanchow, an important Chinese supply center. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Bill Thacker military@cbnews.att.com Send submissions for "50 Years Ago" to military-request@att.att.com "It was a pretty bad advertisement for the Soviet Army... The conclusion was drawn too hastily that the Russian Army had been ruined by the purge, and that the inherent rottenness and degradation of their system of government and society was now proved." - Winston Churchill, _The Second World War_