military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) (12/15/90)
From: military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) Monday, 16 December, 1940 The RAF launches its first "area bombing" attack, striking at Mannheim by night. Speyer-am-Rhein and Heilbronn are also hit, but stray bombers accidentally attack Basle, Switzerland as well, kill four Swiss civilians. General O'Connor's troops in North Africa capture the Italian forts at Sollum, Egypt and Capuzzo, Libya. Rain in the area has slowed the attack somewhat. Otto Abetz, the German High Commissioner for Occupied France, visits Vichy and speaks with Foreign Minister Flandin. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Bill Thacker military@att.att.com Send submissions for "50 Years Ago" to military-request@att.att.com "Hitler is clearing up the unemployment problem in this country. Factories are going at full capacity, people are being taken off relief rolls, pay checks are getting larger and larger -- all because of the defense program. You may not agree with his policies, but he is putting this country on its feet and making us a strong nation. " - R.C. Standish, in a letter to the New York Times