military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) (12/19/89)
From: military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) Tuesday, 19 December, 1939 Captain Hans Langersdorff of the Admiral Graf Spee commits suicide. The German liner Columbus, which left Vera Cruz on the 14th, is scuttled by her crew to prevent capture by the British destroyer Hyperion. The liner had been shadowed by an American cruiser on Neutrality Patrol. Another German ship, the freighter Arauca, retreats to Fort Lauderdale to avoid the British cruiser Orion. Both incidents take place within the Pan-American Neutrality zone, raising further concern by American nations as to the difficulties of enforcing their neutrality. Five merchant ships are lost to German mines and torpedoes, and two more to the Luftwaffe. Soviet aircraft continue to raid Finnish cities; today's targets include Helsinki, Viborg, Hangoe, and Borga. Combat continues unabated in southern and central Finland, while a pause is seen on the Arctic front, as advancing Soviet troops consolidate their positions. The US State Department vigorously condemns the Soviet invasion of Finland, while ridiculing Molotoff's claim that Cuba was not independent of the USA. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Bill Thacker military@cbnews.att.com Send submissions for "50 Years Ago" to military-request@att.att.com "Certainly, the policy of the Unites States toward her neighbor Cuba, in order to insure the freedom and political independence of the latter, has not been a policy which has manifested itself in ruthless military invasion of that neighbor, nor in the slaughter of helpless civilians through bombardment from the air." - Under-Secretary of State Sumner Welles