military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) (10/16/89)
From: military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) Tuesday, 17 October, 1939 A second Ju-88 raid strikes at Scapa Flow, where the WWI-era battleship Iron Duke, now relegated as a training ship, is crippled. Britain reports 4 attacking aircraft shot down. At night, German destroyers lay mines off the Humber estuary. Russian-Turkish negotiations bog down, and both sides partially mobilize troops on their border. The Soviet Union has demanded that Turkey recognize the partition of Poland, cooperate in a Soviet-dominated "Balkan Bloc", and support the annexation of eastern Rumania by the USSR. A Nazi-backed putsch by the outlawed Hungarian "Death Legion" is foiled by that nation's police force; some 140 members are arrested. It is reported that their plans included the assassination of 17 members of Hungary's parliament. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Bill Thacker military@cbnews.att.com Send submissions for "50 Years Ago" to military-request@att.att.com "What Mr. Chamberlain has got to declare now is whether he is going to bomb Berlin or not. If he does, the consequences will go far beyond our maddest intentions and will be quite different from anything either we or Herr Hitler comtemplate." - George Bernard Shaw