military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) (08/14/90)
From: military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) Wednesday, 14 August, 1940 Poor weather limits air activity over Britain to scattered attacks on RAF airfields and railways. Losses favor Britain, 19 to 4. Britain begins to evacuate Berbera, Somaliland. 5700 troops and 1500 civilians are evacuated under covering fire from the Royal Navy. Sir Henry Tizard leads a British scientific mission to the United States. With him come notes on the latest British findings in the fields of explosives, jet engines, gun turrets, and the cavity magnetron, the key to the newest types of radar. Berlin re-issues a ban on dancing throughout the Reich. Dancing had been prohibited during the Battle of France, but was permitted for two nights a week after the Armistice. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Bill Thacker military@att.att.com Send submissions for "50 Years Ago" to military-request@att.att.com "All the other new and surprise weapons of the World War - the tank, the heavy and prolonged artillery barrage, and the airplane - have been employed in magnitude during the present European conflict. Since last September, millions of the combatants and civilians of the belligerent countries have been carrying gas masks, evidence that the High Commands of both sides anticipate the employment of chemical warfare." - Maj. Gen. Stephen O. Fuqua, U.S.A., Ret.