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1933   (SUNDAY)

LUXEMBOURG: Radio Luxembourg inaugurates daily English-language transmissions beginning at 1530 hours, funded by advertising and sponsorship.

 

1936   (THURSDAY) 

CHINA: Following a labor dispute in the Chinese port of Tsingtao, Japanese naval infantry occupy the city.

1937   (FRIDAY) 

CHINA: The German Ambassador to China offers to be the Japanese peace intermediary because German economic interests are threatened.

December 3rd, 1939 (SUNDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: The second prototype of the Short Model S.29 Stirling four-engined bomber, RAF serial number L7605 makes its first flight. The first prototype flew on 14 May 1939 but crashed and was totally destroyed. This aircraft lands safely and development work proceeds.

GERMANY: RAF Wellingtons today dropped the first Allied bomb on German soil - by accident. Twenty four aircraft, flying in sections of three at 10,000 feet, attacked German shipping and scored, according to the RAF, a hit on a cruiser. However, one Wellington of 115 Squadron suffered a "hang up" when one of it's bombs failed to drop. It later fell off on the island of Heligoland, the first RAF bomb of the war to land on Germany [ Polish P-23 Karas' having already bombed rail installations at Neidenburg, East Prussia on 2 September.] The planes were engaged by anti-aircraft fire and Bf109 and Me-110 fighters. One Bf109 may have been shot down; all the Wellingtons got home safely.

FINLAND: The Finnish General Headquarters transfers from Helsinki to Mikkeli, east-central Finland. Mannerheim visits the HQ of Karelian Army at Imatra, and accuses its commander, Lt. Gen. Hugo Österman of retreating too rapidly. Mannerheim thinks that the troops in the Karelian Isthmus had been too passive.

Finland appeals to the League of Nations regarding the Soviet invasion of the country.

REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA: The Royal Navy battlecruiser HMS Renown and aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal arrive at Cape Town.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: German armored ship Admiral GRAF SPEE stops British refrigerator freighter SS Tairoa (7,983 BRT); the warship then sinks the merchantman about 598 nautical miles (1 108 kilometers) southeast of St. Helena Island in position 21.30S, 03.00E. Ironically, the same day British Commodore Commanding South Atlantic Station, Commodore Henry H. Harwood, orders British heavy cruiser HMS Exeter (68), light cruiser HMS Ajax (22), and New Zealand light cruiser HMNZS Achilles (70) to concentrate off the River Plate estuary in Argentina on 12 December. (Jack McKillop & NavyNews)

U-31 sank SS Ove Toft.

 

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