military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) (11/19/90)
From: military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) Monday, 18 November, 1940 Italian forces invading Greece have now been pushed north of the River Kalamas. The Italian base at Koritza is subjected to artillery bombardment and growing pressure from Greek infantry. Hitler meets with the Italian and Spanish foreign ministers at Berchtesgaden. He berates Count Ciano of Italy over the failure of the Italian campaign in Greece, and warns that the establishment of British air bases in Greece will threaten the Ploesti oilfields. He stresses the need to draw Yugoslavia closer into the Axis, and promises German intervention in Greece in March, 1941. A Short Sunderland flying boat carrying a ASV1 Air to Surface Vessel radar set detects a surfaced U-boat closing on an Atlantic convoy. This is the first operational success of the new radar. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Bill Thacker military@att.att.com Send submissions for "50 Years Ago" to military-request@att.att.com "...the British forces... began endeavors to establish plants in this country for the quick fabrication of ships of about 10,000 tons. A strategy of this sort is quite feasible. We did it in the last war, and when the tonnage built exceeded that sunk, as it did in time, we knew the submarine campaign was whipped." - Admiral William V. Pratt, USN, Ret.