military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) (07/24/90)
From: military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) Tuesday, 23 July, 1940 The British Local Defence Volunteers, numbering over 1.3 million, are renamed the Home Guard, and further recruiting is halted. A new British war budget is passed, the third so far, raising taxes to 8 shillings, six pence on the pound. The British Purchasing Mission to the USA gains permission to by up to 40% of US aircraft production. Pro-Nazi demonstrations take place in Budapest, Hungary, and a provisional Czech government headed by President Benes. General Legentilhomme, commander of French forces in Somaliland, is replaced by pro-Vichy General Germain, who orders the strategic Jiffe pass abandoned. This opens the way for an Italian invasion of British Somaliland. The United States strongly protests the Soviet annexation of the Baltic States. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Bill Thacker military@att.att.com Send submissions for "50 Years Ago" to military-request@att.att.com "During these past few days the devious processes whereunder the political independence and territorial integrity of the three small Baltic republics - Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania - were to be deliberately annihilated by one of their more powerful neighbors have been rapidly drawing to their conclusion." - Beginning of Sumner Welles's statement on the Baltic annexation.