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August 20th, 1939 (SUNDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM:
Lord Halifax telegrams Kennard in Warsaw, requesting him to urgently try once more to gain Polish permission for Russian forces to enter their country.

FRANCE: Normandy: Churchill, resting at the St. Georges-Motel, the château of Consuelo Balsan, ex-Duchess of Marlborough, paints a picture of the building and remarks to his companion painter, the Anglo-French artist Paul Maze "This is the last picture we shall paint in peace for a very long time." (178 and 179 V Part 3, p. 1591)

GERMANY: Hitler writes to Stalin:
    The tension between Germany and Poland has become intolerable ...
A crisis may arise any day. Germany is at any rate determined from now on to look after the interests of the Reich with all the means at her disposal.

U.S.S.R.: In the early hours of the morning an agreement in signed between Germany and the Soviet Union. Hitler suspecting Molotov might cause delays in its ratification sends a personal message to Stalin urging all speed.

Khalkin-Gol: 5:45AM, 150 bombers carry out a massive raid on the forward edge of the Japanese defences, their close-in reserves and artillery positions.
The Soviets then assault along the entire front. Forces in the south gain the most ground, northern forces occupy the forward enemy positions reaching the fortified top of Palets Heights but are beaten back after a fierce fight.

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