military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) (12/07/89)
From: military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) Thursday, 7 December, 1939 7-December-1939 In the area north of Ladoga the Finnish positions at Kollaa are attacked. Further north Soviet troops enter Suomussalmi on the east side of Lake Kianta after it has been evacuated by the Finns. The USSR announces a naval blockade of Finland. Denmark, Sweden, and Norway confirm their neutrality in the Russo-Finnish war. Italy, meanwhile, reaffirms the Rome-Berlin Axis, and warns that an intrusion into the Danube basin or the Balkans would lead to Italian involvement. Italy also announces that she will protect her maritime shipping in the face of the Allied blockade of Germany. Turkish press accuses the German Ambassador of attempting to embroil Turkey in a war with Russia, and demands his recall to Germany. On the Western Front, over eighty German raids are reported. France completes extensions of the Maginot line in the north, and on the Swiss border. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Bill Thacker military@cbnews.att.com Send submissions for "50 Years Ago" to military-request@att.att.com "From the first of this month our new line of fortifications seems to have removed any hope the enemy may have entertained either of crossing or flanking the Magino Line." - French Army commentary The pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee sinks her ninth victim, the SS Streonshalh, south of Trinidad. Reporter: waisnor_r@apollo.com