military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) (12/11/90)
From: military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) Tuesday, 10 December, 1940 Operation Compass continues to succeed, and Sidi Barrani is captured. Further, the 7th Royal Tank Regiment cuts the coast road at Buq Buq. In the first two days of the attack, nearly 20,000 Italian prisoners have been taken, together with large quantities of equipment. British casualties number only a few hundred. The Luftwaffe transfers Fliegerkorps X to southern Italy, to assist in the war against Greece and interdict British efforts in the Mediterranean. President Roosevelt expands the export licensing system, bringing most iron and steel manufacture under its control. The effect is to further cement the ban on sale of war materiels to Japan. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Bill Thacker military@att.att.com Send submissions for "50 Years Ago" to military-request@att.att.com "I do not believe that the country will compromise one iota on the proposition, that having subjected its young manhood to the possibilities of compulsory military service, having voted these billions of dollars, that it will be tolerated for one split second, that anybody can paralyze the operation of these plants upon which the safety of this nation may depend." - Representative Sumners of Texas, commenting on defense plant employee strikes