military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) (06/02/90)
Wednesday, 22 May, 1940 Tanks under Guderian's command push north from Abbeville, attacking toward Boulogne. French destroyers assist the defenders by shelling the advancing Germans. Britain's Parliament passes the Emergency Powers Defence Act, which gives the government complete control over British subjects and property, essentially creating a dictatorship in Britain. The Luftwaffe "Enigma" code for 20 May is broken by the British Code and Cipher School. This accomplished, it is now possible to read Luftwaffe coded transmissions on a daily basis. General Weygand proposes a plan for combined attacks from the north and south against the German cordon, while the Belgian army holds the Iser river line. The armies in northern France, however, are in no position to launch such an attack. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Bill Thacker military@cbnews.att.com Send submissions for "50 Years Ago" to military-request@att.att.com "The great difference, however, between the British and other totalitarian systems is that the British people adopted theirs of their own free will - and paradoxically, as a last ditch fight for their democracy." - Newsweek magazine