military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) (06/02/90)
Thursday, 23 May, 1940 German tanks advance against Allied resistance, and now threaten Calais as well as Boulogne; in the latter city, combat is now taking place. The BEF in Belgium is placed on half rations. Six British destroyers remove 4400 of the troops defending Boulogne, despite heavy fire; the French DD's Jaguar and Orage are sunk. France releases a communique' estimating some 600,000 German casualties so far in the campaign; German sources admit to only 13,000 killed or wounded. Following yesterday's passage of the Emergency Powers Defence Act, 76 IRA members are arrested in Northern Ireland, as are the heads of the British Union of Fascists and the Right Club. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Bill Thacker military@cbnews.att.com Send submissions for "50 Years Ago" to military-request@att.att.com "The attack [on Boulogne] assumed a curious form, since for some time neither our tanks nor our guns managed to penetrate the old town walls." - General Heinz Guderian, _Panzer Leader_