military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) (12/27/89)
From: military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) Wednesday, 27 December, 1939 A major earthquake rocks Eastern and Northern Anatolia, Turkey. Estimates in the Erzingan province are that 70% of its 135,000 inhabitants are dead or injured, and that not a single building escaped damage. The Finnish 9th division launches attacks from all directions into Suomussalmi, held by the beleaguered Soviet 163rd division. Finnish forces are also reported to have crossed the Soviet border east of Salla and Leiksa, threatening the Leningrad-Murmansk railroad. Civilians are evacuated from Viipuri, behind the Mannerheim line. Britain and Sweden sign a war trade pact, in which Britain undertakes to lessen the delays imposed on Swedish shipping during contraband searches. Italian newspapers report 700,000 Soviet troops massed on the Afghanistan border, and that British forces are prepared to defend the Khyber pass. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Bill Thacker military@cbnews.att.com Send submissions for "50 Years Ago" to military-request@att.att.com "Finnish officers and men... regard the Soviet tanks as a joke and take fierce delight in coming to grips with these monsters." - Harold Denney, NY Times correspondent.