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N0KFQ > TODAY 17.06.13 17:36l 42 Lines 1848 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 398_KB0WSA
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Subj: Today in History - Jun 17
Path: IZ3LSV<F1OYP<VE2PKT<ZL2BAU<N0KFQ<KB0WSA
Sent: 130617/1517Z 398@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.55
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Jun 17, 1940:
British and Allied troops continue the evacuation of France, as
Churchill reassures his countrymen
On this day in 1940, British troops evacuate France in Operation
Ariel, an exodus almost on the order of Dunkirk. Meanwhile,
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill offers words of
encouragement in a broadcast to the nation: "Whatever has
happened in France... [w]e shall defend our island home, and with
the British Empire we shall fight on unconquerable until the
curse of Hitler is lifted."
With two-thirds of France now occupied by German troops, those
British and Allied troops that had not participated in Operation
Dynamo, the evacuation of Dunkirk, were shipped home. From
Cherbourg and St. Malo, from Brest and Nantes, Brits, Poles, and
Canadian troops were rescued from occupied territory by boats
sent from Britain. While these men were not under the immediate
threat of assault, as at Dunkirk, they were by no means safe, as
5,000 soldiers and French civilians learned once on board the
ocean liner Lancastria, which had picked them up at St. Nazaire.
Germans bombers sunk the liner; 3,000 passengers drowned.
Churchill ordered that news of the Lancastria not be broadcast in
Britain, fearing the effect it would have on public morale, since
everyone was already on heightened alert, fearing an imminent
invasion from the Germans now that only a channel separated them.
The British public would eventually find out_but not for another
six weeks_when the news finally broke in the United States. They
would also enjoy a breather of another kind: Hitler had no
immediate plans for an invasion of the British isle, "being well
aware of the difficulties involved in such an operation,"
reported the German High Command.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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