military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) (08/03/90)
From: military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) Saturday, 3 August, 1940 Italian forces invade British Somaliland, advancing against the delaying tactics of the British colonial Camel Corps. Britain can muster some 25000 men in East Africa, and only 4 battalions in Somaliland; the Italian army has many times that number, about 70% of whom are natives. The overall commander of the Italian troops is General Nasi. In the past month, 5 British submarines have been lost off Norway. In the face of these heavy losses, the Admiralty calls a temporary halt to submarine patrols in this region. German officials conduct a guided tour of Hamburg for foreign correspondents; the reporters find no evidence of the great damage to this port claimed by the RAF. Japan files formal protests over the US embargo of aviation fuel and recent arrests of Japanese nationals in Britain. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Bill Thacker military@att.att.com Send submissions for "50 Years Ago" to military-request@att.att.com "German must replace its present Messerschmitts, which are inferior to the British Spitfires and Hurricanes, with pursuits of greater speeds, longer range and more efficient armament... True, we have heard rumors of a new Fokker-Wulf (sic) pursuit airplane similar to our own Bell Airacobra. But as nearly as we can judge, that model has only just been put into production and presumably cannot be made available in large enough numbers for the purposes of an immediate invasion." - Alexander P. de Seversky, in an editorial for the New York Times