[soc.misc] 50 Years Ago: Sunday, 5 November, 1939

military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) (11/04/89)

Sunday, 5 November, 1939

Hitler sets the date for A-Day (the invasion of France):
7:15 A.M. on November 12.  The Luftwaffe needs five consecutive days of 
good weather to destroy the French air force. The meteorological report 
is so bad that on Tuesday Nov. 7 the invasion is postponed, the first of 
many postponements.  (1)

The "Zossen Conspiracy" in Germany, headed by Generals Halder, Beck, and
von Brauschitsch falls apart when von Brauschitsch loses his nerve and
fails to arrest Hitler in Berlin.  Col. Hans Olster of the conspiracy
warns the Dutch attache' in Berlin of the planned invasion of the Low
Countries.

Italian Premier Mussolini orders an increase in the number of effectives
in the Italian army.

Reporter: Tom Tedrick (tedrick@ernie.Berkeley.EDU)


(1) "Adolf Hitler", by John Toland (pp. 806-807)

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Bill Thacker			            military@cbnews.att.com
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"We had a lot of stuff consigned to Switzerland sitting in the freight
station at Mulhouse,, so I thought I might as well bring it along."
- unknown engineer of a freight train which arrived in Basle, 
Switzerland... after driving through the no-man's land between the
Maginot Line and the Westwall.