Posted on 10/28/2009 5:05:02 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Incidents in European Conflict – 1
Final Vote Swift – 1-4
Crucial Senate Votes in Detail – 2
The Day in Washington – 3
Air Torpedo Guided by Television And ‘Detonator Ray’ Offered Army – 4
People of Allied Capitals Rejoice In the Passage of Neutrality Bill – 5-6
Pope Condemns Dictators, Treaty Violators, Racism; Urges Restoring of Poland – 7-9
Thanksgiving Holidays For Schools Advanced – 9
Britain Confirms ‘Pocket’ Ship Raids – 10-11
The Senate Vote (Editorials) – 12-13
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1939/oct39/f28oct39.htm
First German plane shot down over Britain
Saturday, October 28, 1939 www.onwar.com
In Britain... A German He111 bomber was shot down by RAF fighters east of Dalkeith in southeastern Scotland — it is the first German airplane shot down over the British Isles. Tow of the 4-man crew survived. The aircraft is part of Luftflotte 2 which is based in the extreme north of Germany and is engaged in attacking shipping off the northern and eastern coasts of Scotland.
In France... The British Expeditionary Force is reported to have enough food to feed its nearly 200,000 troops for 46 days.
In Berlin... Himmler issues his Lebensborn decree, urging single German women to dispense with the “bourgeois custom” of marriage to bear racially pure children.
In Occupied Czechoslovakia... German police fire on student demonstrators in Prague marking the 20th anniversary of the former Czechoslovakian independence. Street fighting later breaks out in the city center with ethnic Germans clashing with Czech nationalists. One student is killed and a total of 16 casualties are reported. Some 3500 people are arrested.
In Bratislava... Joseph Tiso becomes the first president of independent Slovakia (formerly part of Czechoslovakia).
In Moscow... Molotov — in a speech before the Supreme Soviet — asserts the that USSR has a right and duty to adopt strong measures to insure security and publicly demands territorial concessions from Finland.
Interesting to note that Senator Taft, often thought of as isolationist, voted to lift the embargo.
My own observation of this day’s headlines limits itself to the encyclical issued by Pope Pius XII, so heavily maligned in these troubled days. It is worth noting how emphatically he condemns (not just rebukes) Nazi Germany and how quickly the encyclical came out. If there was any hesitation at all, the NYT editorial memorably points it out: the Pope had to make sure that what he wrote took account of all that was happening, so much of it then novel and horribly remarkable.
Equally important is how supportive the NYT was to the Pope’s proclamation. This, it must be remembered, was during the period when our official stance was neutral and many very important people were fully against any participation in the war. Evidently, the NYT then saw with clearer eyes than their descendants can now rely upon.
Mohr’s solar refrigerator was actually covered in a 1935 edition of Modern Mechanix. Basically this is solar in its most primitive but still useful form. A spherical mirror concentrates the energy to heat items or in the case of the frig the heat is transferred to the ammonia that is used for the cooling.
Frankly, I think Mr. Mohr spend a lot of time burning ants with a magnifying glass as a kid.
That story about the “Nobel Prize Dilemma” was interesting. Apparently the Germans established “a Nazi party prize which could be won only by Germans of flawless ancestry”. Ironically, this Nobel prize was awarded to a German who developed a chemical-based medicine and opened the door to a new kind of research, away from vaccines and serums. ...And he did it while working for industry rather than in an academic environment! (Exclamation mark implied by NY Times.)
It's easy to criticize these decisions because we know how it all worked out. It's much harder to try to imagine what you'd do if you knew only what they knew at the time.
“Frankly, I think Mr. Mohr spend a lot of time burning ants with a magnifying glass as a kid.”
HAHAHA!
Who knew the Berkley crazies traced their roots back that far?
That would be Sen. Taft of Ohio? A midwest state with a lot of heavy industry (Cleveland) and lots of smaller industrial towns? Remember, the repeal of the Neutrality Act only made possible “cash and carry” purchases. It’s still the Depression. Pounds sterling and francs for war material will go along way toward helping Ohio’s economy.
Much has been written in the pope's favor in recent years, and some of those previously most critical -- i.e., John Cornwell, "Hitler's Pope" -- have more or less recanted, saying in effect: Pius XII did as best he could under the circumstances.
What's certain is that, as of this point in time -- October 1939 -- the pope clearly described and condemned the evils he saw in Nazi racist, expansionist totalitarianism.
Later, as those evils grew to unimaginable levels, the pope's voice became more muted and unfocused. He could not ever, for example, bring himself to publicly describe and condemn the actual Holocaust -- even though repeatedly requested by many different authorities to do so.
The pope's defenders today say, well, there were good reasons for his silence. And no doubt, there were good reasons. But note that "today" -- October 1939 -- we celebrate the pope's clear and strong condemnation of Nazi ideals. Do we then equally celebrate his later failure to describe & condemn the Nazis' most brutal atrocities?
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